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After a good few hours of paying for last nights alcohol consumption I finally built up the energy to go wander around Hanoi. Whenever I travel I always love to walk out the doors of my hostel and wander, without a plan, just to see the streets, the people, the buildings and really get a feel for the city I am in.
There are so many people on motorbikes (but nowhere near as bad as India) and bicycles too, but hardly any actual cars. The locals here really do wear those big hats and everyone smiles at you as you pass them. That is one of the things I love the most aboutAsia - the people are just so friendly.
I walked towards the lake and stopped at a small Vietnamese "restaurant" on the way down a small side street filled with great street food joints. The one I chose had only Vietnamese people dining in and a few women along with a couple of men were sat on mats on the floor preparing the food! I had a Pho - chicken rice noodle soup which was delicious. Vietnamese cuisine boasts a simple but effective approach to cooking, flavouring mainly with salt and pepper, and serving everything with chilli and lime for you to add to your liking. This makes a huge different to India where there were so many flavours in one meal! I can't wait to try some more of these dishes! After an enjoyable walk around the old quarter of Hanoi I returned to the hostel and had a chilled out afternoon, sitting and chatting to other backpackers and planning my trip to Halong Bay.
Tonight was ladies night at the hostel - that meant 2-4-1 drinks for girls or any guy who dressed as a girl - so funny! This hostel is so great as once it becomes around 8-9 pm the whole ground floor turns into a bar/club type thing! Every now and again free shots are given to everyone and it ends up packed with young people! These nutty arrogant Australian bogans started dancing shirtless on the tables - which actually started off a trend of almost everybody dancing on the tables or benches and singing which was so much fun! We played so many drinking games and I met so many lovely new people. Like the night before we all headed out as a hostel to a bar - this one was called heir of the dog - and continued the night. Once that drew to a close we walked to the underground club again and I was up on the podiums having a blast! Another really great night.
- comments
Dad All sounds good. Do the locals speak English? Did you wonder around on your own?
emmadiamond Yes I did. I always like to do a tour by myself first - get to know the town so i know where I'm going and am less likely to get lost!