Wonderful Hanoi Old Quarter, Train St and a night market

17.2.23

We made our way to Hanoi Old Quarter for a wander.
Just as fabulous as we remember, mad crazy atmosphere, impossible to walk on pavements because of scooters and my head was on a constant swivel avoiding cars, scooters, sellers and people who just walk into you.

John had a scooter that was pulling over to park run over his foot and I had mine run over by one reversing from a parking space. Luckily we’re not wearing flip flops.

John wanted new running shoes and decided to save the middle man exporting them to Turkey.
However Vietnamese genuine running shoes are cheaper in Turkey!

We bought our minibus ticket, or limo as they call them, for our journey to Ninh Binh on 24th Feb.
It’ll be with people on a tour, but they’ll pick us up from our Hanoi hotel and drop us to our hotel in Tam Coc, which saves us a separate taxi and / or getting lost.

We also checked out where we need to get our Sapa bus from on Sunday. Just as well we checked because instead of Hanoi SSB being the huge bus depot I visualised when I booked online, it’s just a travel agency type office and we’d have been in a panic. They want us there at 6.30am for the 7am bus. 😳

We opted for Bahn Mi for brunch : Crusty French style rolls with pate, pork slices, pork mince, sauce, and greenery is the traditional type.
We went upstairs in the cafe to watch the madness from the window, but the bar type stools were so creaky that we sat at a normal table.
It was funny watching everyone else do the same.
There was a letcherous middle aged man in the corner who kept peering at me round the pillar. I caught him staring a couple of times, our eyes met. I hope he didn’t think I fancied him.
An American girl came in and he soon diverted his attention to this more attractive younger model and even took a sneaky photo of her!

In Sydney with Lauren we had banh mi rolls, they were fabulous, these weren’t anywhere near as good. But the coffee made up for it.

In Malaysia many years ago I bought an electric element for making coffee.
I brought it with me but of course it doesn’t work here as they don’t have 3 round pin plugs.
I was going to bin it but John suggested getting the plug changed.
I’m not sure this guy had changed a plug before, after cutting away the green wire, and using some glue it was ready after attempt number 3.

We found ourselves really close to train street, we knew there no trains in the afternoons on week days, but we were ready for drinks. We’ll come back tomorrow to see a train.

I didn’t recognise it, we have been before according to John, but we definitely never saw a train come through. So actually we are both right.

More wanderings and atmosphere soaking upping and John mentioned there is a Decathlon somewhere and he had been thinking of ordering their running shoes.
How far?
5km.
Ok lets do it I said.
1 hour 7 minute walk.

After an eternity Google maps said we still had an hours walk.
We hadn’t gone the wrong way, it just doesn’t account for time to dodge round pavements and people.
After the never ending noisy journey we saw the Decathlon sign.
Next challenge was finding our way inside, no way we were walking all this way and not finding the entrance.
It was part of a huge mall with a very fancy entrance.

John was warned that there would be a war if he didn’t buy anything.
I found a bench seat and enjoyed the sensation of the burning in my feet subsiding.
The running shoes he wanted were very uncomfortable but he really liked some trainers, so much so that he bought 2 pairs the same and 3 pairs of his favourite shorts with zipped pockets. They’ve been discontinued in Turkey. 2 black pairs and a navy pair.

When I first met him John had a few pairs of blue jeans and a few white t shirts. Not too much has changed.

I was feeling light headed and hungry by now.
My blood sugar must be low.
We shared a custard doughnut, a blueberry custard bun and a custard tart.
I am to cakes as John is to clothes.

When we came out of the mall it was dark and walking home didn’t feel like a good option.
Google told John to get bus 01 which would take us to near our hotel.
First challenge was getting across the road.

Luckily there was a bridge and a great photo opportunity.

Finding the bus stop was the next task, despite 2 people pointing vaguely to the left we still asked a 3rd person.
It was to the left.

While scrabbling around for the right money a nice lady paid an extra 1k.
After a while she asked where we were going.
No… Not E01….. 01.
Buggar. Get a 24 or an 08a they all said.
Got off at next stop, 08a came shortly after.

Instead of going back to our room, resting our feet and going out again later we decided to visit the night market, have something to eat and then go back and collapse.

I quite fancied getting some white trainers at the night market.

I tried a pair on, they were comfy but not the prettiest.
She wanted 650k almost £23.
No way.
Then 400k.
I walked away promising to think about it.
Ok 200k
£7
Ohh, ok.
For that price they’re ok.

Next we bought 2 long usb cables for our phones then went and found food.
I was determined to give the bun cha another go. It tasted just like the one the previous night.
I’m wondering now if it was actually bun cha that I had 9 years ago!
John opted for thick noodle soup with seafood.
It needed renaming to thick noodle soup with quails eggs and a prawn.
Vietnamese coffee made everything ok.

Dirty stop outs until 10.30pm. 12km walked, although it felt like 120km.
Too tired even for creme brulee ‘Baileys’.

Nighty night.