Hitting Hanoi

My final day in Vientiane started slowly while I packed and did a few last minute things.  Deejai went off to his new temporary home and we tuktuk-ed, suitcases and all into town.  Lunch at Khop Chai Deu gave me the chance to try some deep fried crickets which were tastier than I expected and the flavour of the crickets was camouflaged in the kaffir lime leaves that they were fried with.  While they were still hot they were really crunchy but as they cooled down the crunchiness disappeared and weren't so nice.  Still I have proof.  I have eaten crickets and I 

am still alive.

                               

                               

Our flight to Hanoi was uneventful and the nearly one hour taxi ride into the Old Quarter more than made up for it.  The term insane comes to mind and a good way to describe the traffic, the constant horn tooting, arm waving and total indifference from the motorbikes sharing the road with the cars.  Like HCMC the tall skinny buildings were gorgeous but we couldnt see too much of the city because of the mist/smog/smoke or whatever it was.  I am hoping it was mist as i dont really want to be spending too much time in it if it was smog or amoke.  Oh well.

We arrive at the Hanoi Legacy hotel.  A nice but unremarkable, bland and devoid of characterr mass tourist type place but superbly placed in the centre of the Old Quarter.  Sadly and perhaps most importantlynoffering a free wifi service that cannot really be described as wifi or service in that it is useless.  Oh well, there must be cafes about that I can use.  

With the Xmas break coming up I wasnt sure what would be open over the next few days so I shot off to find the glasses street to get myself some new glasses since the ones I have are causing me a bit of grief.  Yay an easy find and close to the hotel.  About 20 shops in a row and most with very old fashioned glasses but I am not after anything flash so soon find a shop that has three frames I like which with prescription lenses will cost me $120 and that included the eye check and the chance to try the new lenses. Ready tomorrow avo.  Done.

Dinner was at a lovely place called the Green Mango, with Michael's Mom, Dad, sister and her family, where we got to take over the entire upstairs room.  Sadly there was very limited choice of Vietnamese food but of the four choices the two I chose, the duck Pho and the Bung Bo, they were both superb even if it did cost me more than my entire food budget for the Vietnam part of my trip.

Dinner over we met up with Amy and Matt, which was awesome and together we finished off the night at Caphe Cool, in one of the tall skinny buildings whicj had about four levels of seating, each holding about 10 or so people.  Really cool and definitely Asian.  Now I felt as though I had arrived in Asia.