Day 7: Walking Tour of Hanoi or Death by Motorbike

I know we keep talking about food, but it really is so much better than the crap we put in our bodies back home! The day started with fresh fruit and french toast while we watched some music videos in the hotel restaurant. Apparently Ne-Yo is a BFD here...who knew? We keep seeing his face everywhere.

Apparently all tourists here bought the Lonely Planet Vietnam guide, so we saw many "others" taking the same walking tour suggested by the book. On Hoan Kiem Lake, we visited the Ngoc Son Temple, where there is the remains of a giant (magic? good luck?) tortoise, which is 160 kilos and 2m long! No one is sure if there are other tortoises in this urban lake, and if so, how they survive in such an urban setting. But if you see one, good luck should come to you!



After a lukewarm beer at Cafe Les Arts, we hit up the famous little spot for some Cha ca, or fish grilled with veggies and served with rice noodles and a sweet sauce. Not to be missed!



There we waited out the afternoon rain showers before heading to our hotel to arrange for tickets to an evening performance of the water puppet show. This tradition is over 1,000 years old and uses a live Vietnamese musical ensemble, call-and-response, and marionettes floating on waist-deep water to tell pastoral legends and fables about the land. It was really entertaining.

For dinner, I had the BEST.FRIED.RICE.EVER and Wisam decimated her bun cha. After a mere 3 Heinekens, this jetlagged chica passed out in the middle of flossing, woke up long enough to finsh Twilight Book 3 (still awful writing) and drift off to sleep.

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