Most of the day was used as time to connect, have personal reflection and relax. Life is never easy and there are always speed bumps.
Although we did not buy a lot, we really enjoyed the shopping in Hanoi Old Town. During the day the streets have standard stalls selling specialized things. Some stores were filled with clothing while other were filled with everything from toiletries to kitchen supplies.
Noting how much Tim enjoyed the spice infuser we used at the cooking school, we were in search of one. They range in size from the standard one used for a cup of tea, all the way up to huge pot sized containers that clearly do restaurant sized pots of soup. We were looking for one about the size of a softball and scored one.
The Dong Xuan Market is like many of the massive, local trader markets we have visited around the globe. Among other things, It specializes in hand crafts, fabrics and specialty food items. They had whole ‘potato sacks’ filled with dried shrimp shells.
The turtles didn’t look happy to be waiting to be dinner.
When Obama visited, Anthony Bourdain took the POTUS for bun cha, a sweet soup broth filled with assorted pork products, served with noodles and herbs. I found it very sweet, not the best thing I’ve tried so far. Although pork in not Tim’s favourite, he enjoyed the dish once he added spice.
Needing a little perk up, we decided to check our the local Hanoi specialty, egg coffee. Café Nang is located a couple doors down from the more popular Giang Café, however, One of Tim’s favourite you-tubers (Steve’s Kitchen), recommended this little hole in the wall.
Egg coffee has the typical strong black coffee on the bottom, topped with a whipped sweet egg custard. It was rich and delicious!
The night market was bustling and the deals were very good. Tim bought a shirt and some sunglasses. We both had a hard time finding things that fit. 3XL in Asia is about the same as either a large medium or a small large.
Although neither of us was very hungry, we stopped for a doner kebab.
Yum!
Vietnam won the final game of their series and the city went nuts. People we chanting, blowing horns and burning flares. It was electrifying.
