Hanoi adventures
With our sleep clocks completely catawampus we awoke at 2:30 a.m. after completely crashing at 6 p.m.
But at my urging we enjoyed the continental breakfast (ham-cheese omelet, vietnamese coffee, and passion fruit), before hiking up to the Old Quarter. The night prior we'd done a similar trek, noting the blocked-celebratory streets, the tween-Eagles cover band playing instrumentals of "Hotel California", before we landed at "New Day" – a noted backpacker-favorite for traditional Vietnamese food, right in the heart of the Old Quarter.
Enjoying cups (yes I said cups) of Bia Hoi at Bia Hoi Corner, chatting it up with a couple German guys who were in town, again, to install solar panels for their Berlin-based firm. "Marble Mountain," the one gent kept saying. "When you go South, you must go to Marble Mountain."
That very thing is what makes adventuring in foreign lands the most inspiring. Winging your paths, bumping into people from all over (both, in the looking-scared-and-overwhelmed pasty British-group version, or the young-travelust-laden backpacker-type); The suggestions of strangers, that create a whimsical path that piece together the stories you'll remember for years following.
Following our breakfast, we trudged up to the Old Quarter first in search of the famous St. Joseph Cathedral, where on the way we discovered my favorite street yet: Ly Quoc Sur. Full of Vietnamese coffee, bia hoi joints, and one of the most noted Pho places in all of Vietnam, Ly Quoc Sur, that changes to Nha Chung at Nha Tho, is not to be outdone, or missed.
As mass ended at the cathedral, I noted the amount of children for the first time. Later, while enjoying a few glasses of Bia Hoi (and fried pork ribs, dosed with lime and chile flakes) at a corner stand on Nguyen Thien Thuat, I noted a child resting on his father reclined on their motorbike (a common site). And, while dining at the famed (est. 1871) Cha Ca La Vong (which serves only one dish: fried monk fish, delivered with fresh lemon grass, dill, green onions, peanuts and cilantro) one little guy, peering from behind his mother, and the hostess, played hide and seek with me, while we finished to pay for our memorable lunch. Nearly half the population of Vietnam is under 30, and while you can note the elders who sit outside their food, or souvenir stalls, this is clearly a country of the young. Most people who live in Vietnam remember the "american war" alongside the other conflicts of antiquity in Vietnam. A country characterized by much of the Western world as war-torn, shows more signs of peace, and devotion to harmony than most places I've seen.
Following lunch, the mid-day heat became stifling, and I wondered constantly why I'd not put on my new REI shorts. We made our way to the famed Thang Long Water Puppet where, again, the children were very present as the fig-wood puppets acted out Vietnamese legendary stories, and re-created acts of agricultural work – hearkening to days not so long past, in villages just miles from the city center. The traditional Vietnamese music paired to the show impressed as we enjoyed the air conditioning, and an old man smoked behind us inside the theatre.
Making our way around the lake, and back to the cathedral we enjoyed a glass of free beer while watching the sun fall over the majestic church, and city-scape back drop. As a light breeze picked up, we descended to the street where we again joined the crazed, and beeping motorbikes, the occasional traditional produce bicycle vendor, before a stop for post cards. Arriving after dark to our hotel having passed young American tourists on stools eating pho, flanked by shoe-less locals smoking cigarettes; laughing filled the thick air with the smoke, smell of fish sauce, and the constant high pitched motorbike beeping.
