Back to Ha Noi

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I guess the antibiotics are working. I slept through the night with no coughing fits. Very quiet, much like home. A western breakfast at the resort and we were on our way under a fine drizzle. The trip was to last two and a half hours, but as anyone who has travelled with a guide knows, they exaggerate. After the allotted time, my butt was getting sore. I asked that we stop for a few minutes to stretch. Ten minutes later we had not stopped yet. Claudette reminded the guide. We turned around and backtracked a few klics to a restaurant. Lunch time he says. It was 11 am. He had said we were going to stop for lunch at the AutoRoute. Now the story was that this was a better place to eat.

We continued to follow the Red River, which originates in China. Lots of rice is grown in this area. There are cemeteries or a couple of tombs in most rice fields. These are family plots as it costs nothing to bury your relatives this way rather than in the rare public cemeteries.
We arrive back in Ha Noir and the driver stops before reaching the city centre. He doesn’t know his way around. The guide hails a cab and we are squeezed into the tiny car. The driver isn’t sure herself and is guided by someone on the other end of her cellphone. I recognize a landmark and indicate we are going in the wrong direction. After winding down some one-way lanes, we are delivered to the entrance to our lane.

The staff at the hotel recognize Santa Claus and we are transferred to our room without the usual formalities of passport checks and form filling. After settling in we go shopping for family T-shirts. We get no further than the end of the lane and check out the first shop. I am usually XXL, occasionally XXXL to get the length right. Here I am 5X. She had to dig deep into her shop to find some for me. Five t-shirts was a bit steep so I set Claudette to bargaining. She does not do it well but I keep prompting. I stand firm on my last offer and her counter-offer is to add another large shirt. I told Claudette that she should have been more aggressive as we would have got what we wanted. Now I have another T-shirt that will probably shrink and lose the stencil after a few washes.

Next quest is batteries. By holding one up, we are directed down congested narrow streets in the building rush-hour traffic. It is at this time that the cops begin a sweep for illegal vendors or parked scooters. This just added to the general confusion. Mission accomplished and still too early for supper, we opt for a beer at the Funky Buddha. It had soft indoor seating and good music. We were the only customers. People, as observed at nearby bars, seemed to prefer sitting outside in the mayhem.

We had noticed earlier an Indian restaurant, cheap, and an interesting menu. We retraced our steps and entered, ordered and sat back to await our meal. It was a bit of a wait as each dish was made from scratch. We were the only diners in the somewhat cramped 10 table space. The wait was well worth it. The butter nan bread was fluffy fresh and chewy, just like I prefer. The black bean dahl dish had a nice thick, flavourful sauce. The curry leaf chicken was tender with just enough hot to let the other spices come through. All this for $16. Overall, an amazing Indian restaurant with the unlikely name of Foodstop 45.

Back to our hotel to sort our clean laundry and do a little research in preparation for tomorrow’s river trip.

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