Asia 2008 – Day Nine
November 9th, 2008 - 10:05pm - No Comments »
Day Nine – Nov 9th 2008
Ha Noi
22:05 – The Ritz Hotel, room 502
At long last, a sleep in! We woke just after eight and grabbed some breakfast.
As we wanted to go on the walking tour of the local villages I asked the young girl, Thao, sitting at the front desk when it left. She told me she would get changed and we would go.
A couple of minutes later Justine joined us and we walked into the village. At one of the stilt houses, Thao stopped and explained she’d lived there for a few years as her parents were off on business. She then asked up to come inside, which we did.
The main floor of the stilt house is one large open room, which has thin bamboo flooring over slats close together. Justine mentioned she thought she’d fall through.
The house’s owner gave us some tea—I drank it, Justine and Thao did not—which was a little cold and quite bitter. We chatted for a while and the women gossiped in Vietnamese for a bit.
Eventually we left. Like all the villagers, they had local handicrafts on display so we bought Justine a cheap scarf. Wandering through the village and back to the hotel we were surprised at the lack of other tourists.
After checking out and eating lunch, which was nice though the meat overcooked, we both wandered through the village again. Lots of rice being dried, a lot of small puppies and chickens but few cats. On our way back to the hotel we spotted dozens of tiny crickets.
Our bus was a lot larger than the previous day, as a yoga retreat from Ha Noi just finished. Back to the city took 4 and a half hours and because the bus took such a strange route it was another hour until we were back at the hotel.
We wandered the city a bit and bought a couple of souvenirs. Dinner was at “Little Hanoi Cafe” and it was terrible.
Close to our hotel we decided to take a “cyclo”. He wanted 50,000 dong! I suggested 10,000. He declined so we started walking. A few metres later he agreed to take 10,000. I gave him 15,000 because, I don’t know, I felt like it.
Off to Beijing tomorrow.
Photos taken today: 101
Photos taken to date: 2714
