We had our standard breakfast at the Victoria Hotel. It was so cute, the woman who makes the breakfast remembered us and made poached eggs for us, and she even made sure to give me a glass of water for my vitamin drink! I don’t know if we described this hotel before or not, but it has a very narrow, long lobby. In the front there is the reception desk, and a lower desk to sit at to book tours and such. Then on the left wall there are two computers with the internet. Usually the friends of the employees that are working are hanging out in this area. Then towards the back there are two long tables to have breakfast and a cute little kitchen that is out in the open. This hotel has two staircases; I have only been up the back one so I am not sure what it is like up the first stairs. This hotel has a nice feeling to it, very laid back.
So after breakfast, actually Kyle only ate, I didn’t think we should have breakfast since technically we didn’t pay for the night before. So we just hung out in our room for a while and then went for lunch. We were kind of bums since we had already been in Hanoi for two days before we left for Sapa. In the LP it mentioned a small street, almost like an alley that has very good street food. So I thought we should give it a shot. It was after the lunch rush, it was around 1pm. We found a little place with a table that was basically on the street. The kitchen is practically on the street as well, all this huge pots and grills and stoves and things just to the right of the tables. I ordered the chicken and rice since our favorite employee at the hotel had mentioned it being good. Kyle ordered the sweet and sour chicken; he must be in a sweet and sour mood, since he ordered it yesterday too! The food was really good, and very fresh. As we ate, a woman who works at this little restaurant was sitting a few chairs down pulling pork. It is so fun to see how all the people just live on the street! Not that they are homeless, but they just live out their daily lives on the sidewalks and streets!
Ever since we got to Hanoi I had been eyeing this clothing shop across the street from our hotel. So I convinced Kyle that I NEEDED some new clothes. Well everything was made in Vietnam, so it was cheaper than back home. I tried on many, many things. The sales girl was so helpful. She picked out perfect things for me. There was a pair of shorts that I wanted and they didn’t have my size in the color I wanted, so she asked me to wait about five minutes. And sure enough, the perfect pair materialized shortly there after. They had some guy bring it on a moto from one of their other stores! Just think if you were at Macy’s and instead of them just calling another store to see if they had your size, they just ran one right over to you! Wonderful! If you will recall, Kyle and I were in search of matching t-shirts ever since we were in Korea. And this wonderful store actually had a matching t-shirt that was perfect for Kyle and I. It has Feb 14th on it and it says "to my love" on it! (Feb 14th our anniversary) We both got really excited and they were on sale!!
We brought all of my wonderful purchases back to the hotel, and I changed into a new outfit! Then we decided to check out the water puppet show. We had seen a brochure that said it you haven’t seen the water puppet show than you haven’t seen Vietnam. So we thought we better see it! It was sold out for that night so we bought tickets for the next night. We walked around for a bit, and then went to find dinner. We had heard about these Bia Hoi places that serve really cheap beer. It is brewed locally and doesn’t have any preservatives so it is made to drink right away. We found one of the larger ones, and ordered beer, fried rice, fried pork, and French fries with garlic. I guess we needed some grease! The beer was light and very easy to drink. The pork, which was recommended to us by our waitress, was very tasty, like chicken strips but pork! I think we had 10 beers total. Then it was down pouring outside and I, of course, didn’t bring my umbrella! So we waited out the rain, and then went back to the hotel. I sat in bed and read, and Kyle bummed around on the internet downstairs for a while. Not a very exciting day, but I am starting to get the real feel of the city. I think in total Hanoi is one of the cities out of the whole trip that we have spent the most amount of time in. Definitely the one we travelled to and from the most, by plane, by train, and by mini-bus!
