Hotpot in Hanoi

Hot Pot, Money Pot....

After our cooking class we left for Hanoi by plane. However, when we stepped off the plane in our shorts and tank tops in Hanoi we were immediately chilled. The temperature here was about 20 degrees cooler than what it was in Hoi An! We weren't planning on it being this cold. But luckily the hotel that we booked had free airport service transportation, so we were taken right to our hotel.

Hanoi was like being back in a big city with full of traffic and motorbikes. We could barely walk on the sidewalk because the motorbikes were all parked there and people would just be hanging out in the street. We decided to go out for a "cheap" dinner because we had spent the extra money on the flight, so we headed out to look for a place. We looked at a variety of places and most of the restaurants were priced higher than many of the previous cities we had been in. We stumbled across a street vendor serving Hot Pot and we figured since it was a street restaurant that it would be cheap -- boy, were we wrong! It ended up being the most expensive meal we've had in Vietnam yet at 230,000 VD (about $13 USD); so much for our cheap meal idea...

Sunday, Jan. 24

The next morning we headed out to explore Hanoi. We walked around the park in the middle of the Old Quarter of the city and then headed out to the Museum of Ethnology. In Northern Vietnam there are various different ethnic groups that live in the hills and so the museum showcased their lifestyles and customs. In the back they even had real-life replicas of the different houses that the different minority groups reside.

As we were walking back from the museum we went by a park and outside there were several barbers. They would just sit up their chair and utensils and have their patrons stop in for their shave and cut right near the park on the sidewalk. Talk about convenience....

In the afternoon we went to a water puppet show. This is a traditional Vietnamese performance where they have music and dialogue and then puppeteers behind a curtain manipulating the puppets. However, the difference is that the puppeteers are totally immersed in the water and use sticks to move the puppets around on the other side of the curtain to show their movement and tell their story. They acted out planting rice and harvesting it, etc.

We enjoyed the time in Hanoi but we were ready to move on. We also started contemplating our next trip plans. We originally thought we would move from northern Vietnam to Laos, but then the more we started researching that we found out that the only way between Hanoi and Laos was a 24+ hour bus ride that many reported as being the "nightmare bus ride." Plus the temperatures were pretty cool up north, only getting into the 50s or 60s for a high during the day, which we didn't bring enough clothes for. Based on the weather and the fact that we are not as young and daring as we used to be, we decided to book a relatively cheap flight south to Singapore for about 100 USD instead of the uncomfortable bus ride.