Twenty-first Day - Dad's First Day in Hanoi/Vietnam 11/22/2010 3:00 PM

Hannah

So, today was dad’s first day in Vietnam. But thank goodness he made it to Hanoi safe and sound. This morning we decided to do a walking tour around the old quarter in Hanoi. (Without the crowds, Sumner was our guide.) We started at Yen Thai. ( That is where our hotel is, 3 Yen Thai.) and ended at the Ngoc Son Temple. (In the middle of a BIG lake. During the tour around Hanoi, We stopped for lunch at a place called Quan An Ngon. It is a place featuring various traditional Vietnamese food. Me and mom ordered some Vegetarian Dumplings, but they turned out to be basically hot steaming rolls. They were good though. Dad ordered Shrimp with Lemongrass and Chilies. He was I guess expecting the nice small shrimp that we Westerners eat. But instead, they were HUMUNGOUSLY large shrimp, and they still had their skin,and feet, and so forth. After lunch we went to the lake. WE were going to have a cyclo ride. (That is were you go in basically a cart where the oldish men drive you by peddling their bicycles.) But we never got to it. We are resting now in our hotel room, waiting for the time that we will get dinner. (Well at least me.) Sumner and I were going to really go right around the corner to go pick up the stamps that we had ordered. But dad will not let us. Now since dad is here, we have to be more cautious.  I just finished packing for the 2 day boat trip at Halong Bay. I am excited because we get to go kayaking. For the first time!!!
Boo Hoo, We only have basicly one more day in Hanoi! AND Sumner, Mom, and I have been here for 3 weeks! (half of our trip!) I think I have gotten too used to Hanoi. I have also met some really nice people here, so I wish I could live here. (For a little time.)
 We just finished a scrumptiously yummy dinner. We all did not have anything special, so I don’t need to tell you what we had for dinner. Dad made it through the day without taking a nap.

              ** **
**             SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR     AFTER WHILE  CROCODIL**E!!!

Sumner

OK well are you blinded by the color yet? Well that’s just to bad becaquse if you did get blinded by the letters you can’t read my post.

What? You didn’t get blinded? Thank goodness!!! You can read my post. (Panic over.)

Well, toaday was dad’s first day in Vietnam. We went down to have breakfast and the staff greted mom, Hannah, and me in Vietnamese but greted dad by saying “Hello.” I guess he should have done the language class with us! We had to explain the fact that when you order a pancake with bacon and egg you may get the pancake on one plate and the egg on another and the bacon on yet another! Oh well, you get you food even if it takes ten plates to do it! Well after breakfast we went back upstairs to figure out what to do for the day. We had been wanting to do a walking tour of Hanoi guided by one of mom’s books. So we dicided that it would be a good idea to do it with dad so he could get a taste of the Hanoi old quarter. The tour took you to parts of the old quarter that we had never gone to before the tour with dad. It up furter towards the nothern extents of the old quarter that we had gone to. At various different streets and buildings the guide book had a paragraph or two about the sight. We went to some places that we would have never gone to without the book. One of these ocorances was going to a Chinese communal house tucked away in a little alley. It was converted into a pagoda sometime in the past (I don’t remember exatctly when). Another time that it was nice to have the book to guide us, was when we went on a street that the main thing that they sold was bamboo things. They pointed out the big bamboo pipes that, when the smoker breathes out, you can die from the smoke! (OK I exagerated, but it still is allot of smoke!) It also pointed out some bamboo poles that were two stories tall! Well at about the furthest place from the hotel on the tour Hannah said that she had to go to the bathroom. So, we didn’t finish the tour and we rushed back to the hotel to let Hannah use the bathroom. After Hannah’s emergency we tried to decided to go have lunch. We were debating where to go because before dad came we had eaten so much good food! The restraunts that we decided were the best ones to take dad to were: the skewer lady (the street stall that we went to with Mrs. Joy). Quon An Ngon one of the few restraunts that were repeatedly recomended but we hadn’t gone to. Another one of the choices was that bun cha place that we went to with Tan our first week in Vietnam. We rulled out the skewer lady because we thought that she only served dinner and then sold hats durring the day. Then we rulled out the bun cha place because dad didn’t really want to do the street food his first day. So by default we went to Quon An Ngon. It was a ways away but it was a chance to sight see. When we got there it was packed to the brim with people. Vietnamese and westeners were eating there. The place was composed of a huge courtyard and a big building maybe two stories tall. All around the courtyard were “street stalls” that made a sertain Vietnamese/Hanoi specialty. All of the middle was filled with long tables which could seat many different groups of people. We were directed to sit down at a long table and given menus. The way it was done was that you ordered off the menu and then the waiter went to the street stall that sold that specialty and got the food. Then the waiter would bring the food for you at the table. Though noisy it was a really neat environment to eat in. There were big trees overhanging the eating area witch made the atmosphere nice. The fact that the food was made like street food was really neat. After lunch we walked back to the hotel. We were going to do a cicilo ride but dad deceded not to because he was tired and was worried that he wouldn’t enjoy it to it’s fullest extent. Then we decided to go get the stamps we ordered. Hannah and I were going to go alone but dad was worried that something might happen to us. It was rather silly because, as mom pointed out, six year olds run around in the streets. Nevertheless, we didn’t go get the stamps until mom was free to. After getting the stamps we hung out at the hotel for a while. Dad hadn’t ever seen the hotel mom and I stayed in when she came to get me so we decided to go do that and then get dinner. We went downstairs and asked the manager for some recomendations on where to go eat. The recomended Quon An Ngon, we said that we ate there for lunch so he recomended KOTO. We had gone there also. He was supprised and mom said “Remember, we’ve been here a long time.” he recomended some restraunts that were in the directionn of the Caludia (that’s were mom and I stayed) so we decided to go to the Claudia and then do something over in that direction for dinner. We went over to the Claudia (it’s now a dress shop) and hoped that Mrs. Thuy would be there. We went in and asked if she was there but unfourtunantly she wasn’t but wasn’t. The lady that was there called Mrs. Thuy and then gave the phone to mom. The had a short conversation in which Mrs. Thuy said that she was sad that she couldn’t meet dad but was glad that we had gotten to see her when we did. After that we took a couple of photos and then tried to figgure out where to go for dinner. We ended up not going to one of the recomended restraunts but to one that mom and I had gone to when she came to get me. It was called Mama Rosa’s. It was and Italian restraunt and the food was pretty good. We took a couple of photos and then went back to the hotel and went to bed.