Day by myself in Hanoi

With Dee traveling to Halong Bay, I had the day by myself in Hanoi. I was woken up by sunlight streaming in my window at some ungodly hour of the morning! About 7am, the loudspeaker down the round started spewing our socialist propaganda for an hour or so. By this stage I was well awake and so headed downstairs to breakfast. While I had my breakfast, I looked through my two travel guides to work out what I was going to do with my day.

First thing I did was walk out of the hotel and across the road to Mocha, a coffee shop, for my cappuccino fix! After this I walked around the local area checking out the small boutiques around the hotel. After a couple of hours, I was hot and sweaty again and so I headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours to cool off and relax.

About 1, I walked up to the lake to find another branch of the Pho 24 noodle chain and had my second bowl of Pho noodles (with a beer of course) overlooking the lake. After lunch, I decided to try and find my way back to the Old Quarter where Dee and I had been last night. I walked around the lake and into the area where I thought the shops were but got completely lost for about two hours. I did get a chance to look around a bunch of small shops however. The photo was taken as I was wandering. I was too stubborn to get out my travel guide or to take a cyclo to the area I was looking for but eventually I did find my way to Le Pub where Dee and I had had a drink last night.

I wandered around a bit longer but was pretty exhausted by this stage so I headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours to lie down and cool off. On the way home, I bought a couple of things, a dress, some stone bowls with b rass around them, a tea set, and some purses.

After a relaxing afternoon, I showered, and headed back out into the streets for more shopping and also to find a place for dinner. I bought another little dress at an Australian designer's boutique and also found a cute little tea light holder shaped like a traditional Vietnamese person carrying two baskets on their shoulders.

Not far from the hotel and near the boutiques, I went to La Restaurant for dinner. I had an amazing Vietnamese fish curry as well as some fresh spring rolls with a lovely glass of wine. A great meal!

From there I walked up to the lake, headed to Fanny's Icecream and picked up a passionfruit icecream cone and then did a lap around the lake to observe the locals. It seemed like everyone was out and about. Some people were doing aerobics classes (despite the heat!), one lady was doing a hula-hoop kind of thing with a huge string of coconuts. A lot of parents were out with their kids and every bench seemed to be filled with young couples soaking up the moonlight by the lake. It was a great walk and by the time I got back to the hotel I was completely exhausted after a great day so I headed straight to bed.