Fruit, walking and more walking. Those words is how you sum up today in a nut shell in the best way possible.
Bright and early Bevan and I got up and went straight down stairs for our free breakfast, we had an omelet and pho between us but also grabbed some fruit, curry and crossents on the side. Breakfast was just a nice half hour to catch our breath honestly, it was good to sit and eat and not have to worry about anything else for a little while.
Around 11:15am we set out with our walking guide Lucy who showed us around the old quarter even though Bevan and I had explored a whole lot of it yesterday. It was fascinating learning about all the history though, we learnt a lot more then what I thought we would plus we got to try some yummy and gross fruits. We tried a dragon fruit, water apple, mango, huge grapes plus grapefruit though I only liked a hand full I was purely there for the food (the experience too of course) after trying all the fruit we went a block over to a market mall for a little bit of shopping. After all the shopping our guide Lucy made us try 2 cha drinks, a red bean one and a coconut milk and pomelo one. Slimy and not my type of thing they were basically boba tea.
For lunch we went to a stunning restaurant with painted walls of Ha noi, it was just breath taking. Bevan and I got some meal deal, spring rolls, rice, beef pho and sauty chicken. Safe to say it was all consumed very quickly Bevan was starving by this point in the afternoon. We sat at the table with just ourselves and one of our leaders Annelise. We think she feels bad for us since nobody really says a word to us... but that's fine, we are still enjoying the trip non the less.
Have your ever ridden of a rickshaw? Well neither of us had until today, after lunch we went on a rickshaw ride around the lake in the old quarter. It was about 45 minutes to an hour long and it was mediocre, it wasn't my thing but Bevan really enjoyed himself. It would of absolutely been faster to walk but hey its all about the experiences on this trip.
We ended the rickshaw ride with a short walk to a Cafe that had really amazing egg coffee but Bevan and I sat this one out, I'm not a big coffee drinker especially when it's egg. I don't know, just doesn't sound right to me. Anyway we sat away from the group so we were able to just sneak off and come back to the hotel for a nap before going to another expensive dinner.
Dinner was good but we were banished to the end of the table but we were speaking to the best man at the table of the night Vitor and we got to know a little bit more about Dianne. It was lovely, not 500,000 dong lovely but yeah it was still lovely.
Our walk back from the restaurant was wet but to me at least, the rain on the lanterns that time of night is just amazing. Can't wait for tomorrow!
