Monday, June 23, 2008

Day Ten: Hanoi

No.1 Cafe

Started the day with a fantastic foot scrub and massage along Hang Buom, a street named after rattan baskets and other crafts and a cup of strong cafe da (iced black coffee) at No.1 cafe. The place is run by a pair of gorgeous Vietnamese ladies. The sisters (or cousins?), are in their fourties of fifties but have the beautiful skin, large soulful eyes and faded glamour of Shanghai opera singers or movie starlets. A little chihuahua runs amok and under the legs of tables and customers, yapping shrilly and fearlessly at the laden scooters that zip past, or the vegetable and fruit vendors that ply the street. The pup is no bigger than my foot (a size 5) but is a feisty 'un. I ask the sisters to wake the little fella up today to take a photo. He was non too happy about it as you can tell.

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Water Puppets

Even if the theatre is not for you, it's a must to catch the water puppet show (the theatre is near the lake, next to the giant Harpo's). It's all in Vietnamese, but the ingenuous maneouverings of the water borne puppets tell the tales well enough.

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Random Street Eats

A random wandering helped in part by some research from the Luxe Guide and Wikitravel, we had some great eats in the evening.

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Learning about coffee at Vi Lan Cafe (24 Hang Gay)

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Fresh Chee Cheong Fun

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A delicious mystery meat sausage

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Bun Bo Nam Bo (67 Hang Dieu)



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