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Well.we left you in a cafe in our last blog and we are currently sitting in another cafe in this one..(mostly to prove that we have moved). No we have spent the last couple of days in a ghost town version of Hanoi which, although at first a little daunting, has actually become quite fun primarily because of how ridiculous this situation is and secondly because we have found the best bakery in the world. This cafe/bakery (called Joma Bakery Cafe funnily enough) just has the most heavenly food in the world. I have greatly enjoyed smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels with a large pile of actual lettuce topped off with a beautiful slice of lemon bar (a smooth blend of shortbread, lemon cheesecake and lemon icing). Heaven. Tess has her cinnamon bagel, watermelon smoothie and a piece of sickeningly sweet Nanaimo bar (shortbread butter icing and melted chocolate). We need one in England. Hardly typical Vietnamese cuisine but that has been reserved for supper times. We've also discovered that there's one in Luang Prabang so we know where we'll be spending the next week..!
Our little routine has developed quite nicely as we rise at 10 for a walk around our empty city and frequent the few little souveniry shops that are open. This morning we were delighted to discover that the Hanoi Hilton (prison) had opened again and we really enjoyed being a little more cultural and reading up on a bit of history! What we find so odd though is the level of bias in the museum information and descriptions. It all goes rather over the top describing what a wonderful and pleasurable place the prison was to be kept, with lots of photos of smiling Americans free from shackles, playing cards and smoking..all rather suspicious.! Propaganda of how wonderful all the communists were to their prisoners and how benevolent their comrade's were was everywhere - very interesting for the historian in me! Tess also found the political aspect very enlightening too (how geeky are we!?)
Anyway, we then go for lunch (at Joma) and spend a pleasurable hour or so on comfy sofas with our scrummy food and wifi. We then leave our little cafe to go on another 2 hour walk around the lake and backpackers quarter whilst finding every 'Gecko' restaurant in Hanoi (there are loads so its become a bit of a habit). We have also found a really great restaurant that's open and does delicious food for the evenings. Last night I had the rice noodles with beansprouts, peanuts, chicken and some nice crunchy stuff and Tess had some yummy soy rice with crunchy beans, carrots and mushrooms. Food has sort of been keeping us going hence the recurring reference to it in this blog!!
We're still putting up with our bonkers hotel which is soo noisy at all times of the night, has no windows and has a wailing receptionist who speaks no English :) we are enjoying the downtime though and are constantly revelling in the hilarity of our situation. (I do apologise for the strange grammatical phrases in this blog but I panicked last night that I would never be able to write a history essay again so this is testing the old brain cells)!
Off to Laos tomorrow and the prospect of sun! Woop! Have absolutely LOVED Vietnam though and are both sure we'll be back at one point or another!
Sending love back home,
Flo and Tess x x x
- comments
Caroline Baldwin Having read your blog I am starving!! Only had breakfast an hour or so ago!! Sounds as if you are really enjoying your time there. Take care and enjoy the sunshine not much here though just snow/sleet and rain!! X
Joanna All this talk about food is funny and hunger panging and from someone who endured food poisoning! Happy safe travels xxx
YKW Oh please, all this talk of food...