Playing Frogger

Nothing refreshes you like a solid sleep in a plane seat. Ok, I couldn’t type that with a straight face. Both of us are still. If you get a chance to watch a movie called Fat Choi Spirit, do it. I haven’t laughed that hard at a movie in a long time. Even better, we got to enjoy Thanksgiving at 38,000 feet.

We both had the turkey and mushroom stew. Breakfast did not leave me in as festive of a mood, the stir-fry noodles being quite greasy. And I wish those awful non-fat berry yogurts would go away, I couldn’t stomach it this time.

Seeing the airport in Hong Kong at 0600 is a unique sight, given my prior visits involved swimming through the midday bustle. Our flight to Hanoi had surprise food, wasn’t expecting a meal on the hour-and-a-half flight. Definitely an improvement on the earlier noodle dish.

It’s a decent distance of a drive from the airport to our hotel, but it’s a good introduction to the world of “you’re not driving at home anymore,” which our driver handled with ease. Traffic lights are a suggestion depending where you are, and crossing the street you learn is a one-way ballet you learn the steps to as you go. You may not know the moves yet, but whatever you do, don’t hesitate.

Our hotel room at Serenity Villa was very nice. Major props to their staff who gave us plenty of tips on what to hit up in the area.

Our first stop was the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. For the admission price of 33000VND (~$1.45 USD), we got a fairly in-depth, five floor walk through of wedding customs of various regions, fashion, women in the revolution, the Mother Goddess, and more. Definitely worth a visit. (Pictured: Statue in entrance lobby of museum, hat art, costumes of the Mother Goddess ritual outfits, Mother Goddess altar)

We had some time to kill, so we decided to walk around Hoàn Kiếm Lake. Found a cafe, Hanoi Time Coffee, with a view of the lake and had egg coffee, which piqued my interest. For as unusual as it may sound, it hit the spot. Good place to kill some time before the night market opened.

Wandering the night market yielded this pho stand that was quite the busy spot. Pulled up stools, and promptly devoured once we got our steaming bowls of kidney, chicken, and noodles!

And that concludes our first day. Off to Bai Tu Long bay early in the morning.