The morning fog wrapping around natural stone monuments in the sea is definitely one of the prettier sights to wake up to. As pretty as the fog can be, it does mean that I don’t get watch the sunrise from the top deck of the boat. Since we were up early, we went to grab some food and a coffee at the early breakfast buffet.
Vietnan has a lot of really good fruit that is pretty commonly served for breakfast or with desserts. Some of the common ones include dragon fruit, passion fruit, bananas, pineapples, melons and mango, all of which hae been juicy and ripe anytime I’ve had them. After a coffee and fruit, we go back to our room and pack our stuff up.
Afterwards, we went for the main breakfast, which included yogurt, eggs, stir fry, amongst some other options. An announcement regarding checkout is made and we head down to the lobby to pay and catch the first boat off. In the time it took to eat breakfast, the weather went from cloudy to raining, which made the ride back more damp, but no less fun. Since we took the first boat back, we had to wait a little for the other people our van driver was dropping off to return to the dock, so in the meantime I do one of the least regrettable things I’ve done and ordered an iced chocolate milk while we sit around.
The last two people arrive from the rainy speedboat taxi which means we’re back on the road, hopefully avoiding the traffic we had on the way here. Miraculously, in just over half the time it took the first time, we arrived back at L’hotel Du Lac to check in for our last night in Vietnam.
Though before that, we still have the full afternoon, so we head out to see Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi, often times referred to as the Hanoi Hilton. You can do tours of the inside of the building, but we just wanted to check out the location before grabbing a Vietnamese Egg Coffee. The coffee had a thick layer of sweet flavorful foam on top from the eggs and was a good energy boost to walk around some more. Next stop was one of the most famous Vietnamese dishes at the most famous shop for it in Hanoi, Banh Mi 25.
Banh Mi is similar to a sub and is one of the best lunches you can get. There was already a long line when we got there, but by the time we got up to order, it was ging down the street. My dad orders a pork belly Banh Mi and I get a beef and cheese. The restaraunt lives up to it’s reputation, as the vegetables added a fresh crunch, the meat tender, and the bread was light. Overall, a very good sandwhich.
At this point I’m pretty full, and my sore throat and fatigue are catching up to me, so I head back to the room to lie down and make some more notes while my dad goes out to some small shops. For dinner, we asked the reception for some local recommendations, and one of the places they said was only about a 12 minute walk, so we set out.
The places name is also the dish it specializes in, being Bun Bo Nam Bo, or beef noodle salad. The place is busy and the first thing you pass when you walk in is the kitchen counter, where they have 20+ bowls od beef noodle salad being prepared at once. We sit down, order a bowl, and within 5 minutes or so, they come by with a bowl ready.
The dish itself is a combination of a beef noodle dish overtop of a salad with a very good dressing that makes it a refreshing and filling dish, and at only 70k Vietnamese Dong (or around $3 CDN), it’s probably the best tasting dish for its cost we’ve had here. After we finish up, we decide to wrap up the evening with a fancier cocktail.
Hanoi has a lot of bars scattered throughout its streets, and the one we settled on was called The Alchemist, which had a cool dark inside with several hundred different alcohols and spirits on a large shelf behind the bar. We order two or their signature cocktails and after enjoying them, I navigated back to the hotel while my dad did a little bit more last minute shopping, finally wrapping up the night at about 11pm.
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