Our couchsurfing host Marcus in New Zealand was kind enough to give Theo training chopsticks that his kids had outgrown. With our upcoming three months in Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan, I think they’ll be well used.
Yogurt Coffee
We have only just begun our exploration of the apparently vast world that is Vietnamese coffee. This is yogurt coffee!
(Also, after 35 years of shunning it, Brian is drinking coffee now. Crazy, right?)
Death, Ice Cream, and New Coats: Exploring Hanoi
We’re staying in Ecopark, a little outside of Hanoi. We’ve been feeling a little removed from the reality of the city, so we made it a priority to begin to explore central Hanoi this past weekend.
We were paired with a set of guides from Hanoi Free Walking Tours, who will match you up with a college student (or two, in our case) willing to show you around Hanoi in exchange for the opportunity to practice English. We registered for the Old Quarter Walking Tour, but between our rambunctious three-year-old and our lack of preparation for the freezing weather, we ended up less seeing sites and more wandering around trying to stay warm, fed, and sane. With the help of our very adaptable guides, we accomplished all three of these – along with a wee bit of sightseeing!
Continue reading “Death, Ice Cream, and New Coats: Exploring Hanoi”
Watch Your Step!
(Seriously!)
Crossing the Street in Hanoi
In Delhi, I didn’t really see many pedestrian crosswalks, which made traversing the road feel like a dangerous game of frogger.
There are crosswalks here in Hanoi. However, the cars seem to keep going to at least 5 seconds after the light changes. After that, turning traffic pours through the intersection, completely ignoring the crosswalk. All of this is probably makes crossing more dangerous than in Delhi, since I get lulled into a false sense of security by the familiarity of a crosswalk… that is actually ignored by the vehicles.
Shoe-free Playground
The nearest playground is two minutes walk from our apartment building’s front door. During dry weather, it buzzes with children from about 5 pm to 6 pm, as they burn off post-school energy. In wet weather, it’s almost empty.
It’s the first playground we’ve found where we’ve needed to remove our shoes before entering – presumably to keep the fake grass clean!
Chợ Tết
Vietnamese New Year (Tết) is approaching, and last weekend we visited a holiday market near our home.
Theo most enjoyed the faux fishing and the faux sandbox. (Instead of sand, it was some kind of grain, I think. It was better than real sand in that it didn’t stick to everything). Brian and I enjoyed the music and the opportunity to buy inexpensive, tasty local port that was funneled into a plastic water bottle for us to take home.
Egg Coffee
While Hanoi has many interesting coffee options, egg coffee is what I’ve heard about the most.
The first egg coffee I tried was just a little foamy syrup inside of some pretty typical coffee. Not bad, but not anything exciting either. However, the egg coffee pictured below, at The Hanoi Social Club, was excellent: rich, creamy, and slightly sweet on the top with strong coffee on the bottom.
Sunny Day Tet Preparations
On Tuesday, I spotted the sun for the first time since we arrived in Hanoi almost two weeks ago. It was pretty glorious, even if it was still warm coat temperatures.
Hanoi City was bustling with people preparing for Tet, which marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year on Monday.
Traffic Jams
On one of my wandering-explorations of Hanoi, I found myself in a narrow walk-way with stalls selling clothing on either side. There was barely enough room for shoppers to navigate… which apparently meant that there was plenty of room for motorbikes to go through, attempting to pass each other in both directions. (With lots of honking when they inevitably found themselves stuck and waiting.)
When the roads get crowded (and they often do), I see motorbikes zoom through markets, over sidewalks, or down the wrong side of the road.
