Cut vegetables in the food market.
Last night we found the night markets (pretty much accidentally, we were wandering around looking for the Barbie shop that Mark had found earlier in the day) and we saw a few signs that had the word “chay” on them. Chay with an accent over the a sloping in the right direction means vegetarian, sloping the other way means fish. We think. After my second fruitless attempt to get a decent veg pho, this was very promising, and we’re seriously debating wether to go here for our last meal in Hanoi (between returning from Ha Long Bay on Thursday afternoon, and catching the train to Hue at 11pm), or going to KOTO, the restaurant run by an Aussie to teach hospitality skills to Vietnamese streetkids.
Mark is snoring gently, and my body clock is stubbornly refusing to switch from Sydney time.I can hear the city starting to come to life, but it is still dark outside. We are being picked up at the hotel at 8am for our 3 day trip to Ha Long Bay. The tour company is “ET-Pumpkin“. I would have picked it just for the whacky name, but Mark did some research and found that other travelers have been very happy with the company. We are doing this trip, and apparently they cater for vegetarians. Still tossing up whether or not to sneak out of the hotel for a quick pho before Mark wakes up.
I should also mention that The Sunny Hotel has wireless in the room – not fast, but it’s an amazing luxury to be able to blog from bed in a city with open sewers.
Woman selling flowers – there are fresh roses everywhere, and yesterday I saw some stems with each rose individually wrapped in damp newspaper to preserve them.
Tourist shot of my darling at Hoan Kiem Lake.
Incense burner outside the temple on the lake.
Tourists at the temple.
Marble gravestones.
Made with an angle grinder on the footpath/workshop/restaurant/motocross track.
Disco Knitter 