James and Jo’s south east Asia adventure

Opted for the hotel breakfast for the first time. Whilst the full English wasn’t what we were used to there were plenty of tastier options, some of which I hadn’t seen available at any other breakfast. Jo had congee with pork floss and century egg whilst my highlight was a freshly made banh mi.

Our intention was to visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum to see the embalmed body of one of the most important figures of the 20th century. However we arrived after the closing time of 10.30am so had to satisfy ourselves with touring the museum dedicated to his life. As it happens we arrived 10 minutes before this closed for a two hour lunch break, so had a quick look in before finding a couple of hours to kill before we could have a proper look. We spent most of the time at a nearby juice bar that was all but empty, I opted for a ‘purple’ juice that I assumed was some sort of berry mix. It turned out to be beetroot juice… it was just about drinkable.

After a guided tour of the museum we decided we’d get a taxi back to the hotel. We were going to use the ‘Grab’ app, their equivalent of Uber, but as there was a taxi outside already we decided it would be quicker to just jump in as it would only be 7 or 8 minutes by car. We’d asked how much and he gestured to the meter. The meter started off at an acceptable rate for the first couple of minutes but then started to increase exponentially so I got him to pull over. The meter had climbed to almost 300K VND, for context the half an hour drive to the airport the next day booked via the app came to less than this. I gave the driver a 500K note and he attempted to give me back 20K in change. I got the correct change in the end but his scam was still half successful, so it was a lesson to always book via an app if possible – the signage on the taxi had indicated that he was also associated with the app, so we didn’t just get in a random car!

We had a couple of drinks at the mostly empty hotel sky bar where the chatty barman used the opportunity to improve his already very good English. We were thinking of going to a decent restaurant for our last night in Hanoi but after chatting to the barman ended up going to a street food place not far from the hotel, and opposite train street. This turned out to be a good decision as the food and drink was very cheap and very tasty. Chunks of tender catfish along with greens and noodles that we fried ourselves at the table.

Any money saved was splashed on massages; Jo will have to curb her two a day massage habit when we go to a city with a higher cost of living.

Whilst walking through one of the narrow streets in the old quarter one of Jo’s flip flops broke mid-stride and she stumbled and fell, grazing her knee. I didn’t fancy giving Jo a piggyback all the way back to the hotel but fortunately just 20 metres away there was a clothes shop still open and the young lady who worked there kindly gave Jo a pair of sliders and refused to take any money for them.

Although Hanoi is a relatively poor city despite the strong growth of the economy it was notable that we didn’t encounter a single beggar, if there is any sort of homeless problem it is well hidden and puts the UK to shame.