Continued from Hanoi Day 1.
So, I woke up today with intestinal issues, again. I think I’ve been sick more on this trip than my trip to India a few years back. Maybe my age is showing…
Some stomach discomfort isn’t going to keep me from eating a hearty breakfast. By the way, that half cut fruit on my plate is a passion fruit.
Reason why I am fat. When RL doesn’t finish her food, which is every time, I finish it for her.
Out for lunch. Maybe a heavy breakfast isn’t a good idea. I had stomach cramps all morning and had to stay in the room, if you know what I mean. We are looking for lunch at a restaurant not too far from our hotel.
Well, we found it, I think. It was questionable looking, so I didn’t want to take any more chances. Then we decided that we would walk really far to the “most famous” restaurant in Hanoi, according to our front desk.
Pissed off girlfriend/boyfriend?
Found Quan an Ngon! This is the famous restaurant. That was a really really long walk!
There are little kitchens that surrounds the whole center seating area. Each small kitchen specializes only in certain dishes. You order and your server will go to each station to get the dishes that you ordered.
I think this is the best Vietnamese food that I’ve had on this trip. These are all traditional Vietnamese dishes, but just made superbly well. Reminds me of Din Tai Fung in Taiwan, except much cheaper than DTF.
I wonder how telephones and electricity work in this country.
Today’s dinner eating last night’s dinner.
This was a ridiculously long line of tourists getting pushed around by rickshaws. Again, they all looked like really snooty tourists. Don’t do this when you come to Vietnam, I’ll call you a snob.
My stomach still wasn’t feeling 100%, after lunch, we came back to rest some more at the hotel.
Then in the middle of the afternoon, we took a stroll to the water puppet theater. We had bought tickets yesterday to see a Vietnamese water puppet show. I hope it’s not lame.
Got our tickets early, so ended up with pretty awesome seats.
Our seats were also literally right next to the entrance, so everyone kinda cramped us a little right before the show.
It’s pretty popular, apparently.
Traditional Vietnamese music.
The water puppets are all controlled by the puppeteers behind the small curtains behind the puppets. There are rods and wires that go under the water to control movements.
Only 10 total puppeteers for the whole show.
So, how was the show? Well, it ended up being a lot of fun actually. I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but it kept me entertained for much of the hour that the show ran. There are many humorous portions to the show that one could understand even if you spoke no Vietnamese. I would recommend this.
After we got out of the puppet show, it’s the afternoon rush hour. So many scooters!
In search of dinner, but we are having a hard time finding a restaurant that we like.
More lacquer shops.
Finally, it was decided that we would come back to the bar street, where we know there’s a restaurant that our hotel had recommended.
It’s still early, so we are the only customers here.
Too early for the drinking to be hopping.
Won’t stop me from having a drink though. Alcohol settles stomachs, right?
Dinner was alright, but neither of us were in a mood to eat a lot, so we took most of it back with us…if history proves anything, we probably won’t touch the leftovers.
Today was an easy day, and tonight we pack for the long drive out to Halong Bay early tomorrow morning. I am not excited at having to wake up early, but am very excited about Halong Bay.
To be continued at Halong Bay.