HANOI

Over the past 3 days we’ve walked the old quarter flat,......came across this beautiful Buddhist temple and some amazing street food en route.

Last night we stopped in at just such a place frequented by mainly locals and clearly a local favourite.

The three of us had the most delicious full on meal comprising mainly deep fried prawns 🍤 in a batter,....perk mince mixed with various herbs 🌿,onion etc.,accompanied by the huge plate of green “leaves” which appears to be a staple when sitting down at any restaurant here (kinda takes the place of the huge plate of bread on every table in europe).

The full meal for 3 ,including 3 beers (John an Aussie we’d met over a beer or 6) came to 137000 Vietnamese dong,......R85🤪

These people appear to be incredibly industrious and disciplined.

Despite the thousands of locals constantly utilizing the lake perimeter,....no litter,no vagrants,no beggars,.....in fact no hassling us as tourists as would be the case virtually anywhere else.

And they’re certainly don’t appear to be unhappy with their lot.

Everyone has a smile on their face and turns their hand to something to make a buck.And everyone manages ,and certainly no one seems to be malnourished.

I wonder if this would be the case if half the country relied on grants as is the case in other places on the planet ( no prizes for guessing where I’m referring to)??

Today we took a stroll along “train street”,a district around 1km long ,lined with residential,commercial,retail occupants literally 3 metres away in either side.

Coffee shops,restaurants,chickens,toddlers operating just metres from a working railway line.

We’re off early tomorrow morning on a train to Ninh Binh, just 3 hours south of here.

Enjoyed Hanoi tremendously but looking forward now to a more rural area where we’ll be doing a bit of biking and exploring,....sounds like an awesome place!