Vietnam Part 2: Hanoi

Once I landed in Hanoi, I made my way out to the pick-up area.  I immediately saw David, which made me really really excited, and not too far off, I saw Sommer, hanging out with her back against a column.  She said she thought David was in fact David, but didn't want to make a fool of herself.

Once we got out to the taxi pick-up area, my brother had an acquaintance come get him.  This guy drove a mazda 6.  I was basically in a nicer version of my car in Vietnam.  Weird.  Like, that's weird, right?!

It was interesting to see what the city looked like.  I guess I'd never really put much thought into what the outskirts of the city looked like.  David likened it to Mexico, I guess I could see that.  Finally, after maybe a 30-35 minute drive, we got to his apartment, which was a really cool 3 (4?) story apartment.

The location of David's apartment, not too far from Nha Tho Lon (St. Joseph's Cathedral)

Me laying in bed before napping in my room at David's apartment.

As boring as it sounds, once we got settled into the apartment, I think we just slept.  We slept all night.  Well, I take that back.  I slept until about 2 am when I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep without watching a little bit of Daria. :)

DAY 1:  

David took Sommer and me to Joma, a bakery that specialized in yummy western foodness.

We went to pull out some money.  This here would be 1,000,000 dong, equivalent to $50 USD

Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake

Sommer admiring the beauty of the giant mummified turtle.

Sommer and her first bowl of pho!

Our lovely hosts, Zoe & David

They took us out to get some Bia Hoi (25 cent beers, yo!)

The entrance to the alley to David's apartment.

DAY 2:

St. Joseph's Cathedral from just across the street in our restaurant we stopped in for lunch

My first taste of Bun Cha.  Pretty good!  Salty!

Sommer and I hit up the Museum of Ethnology.  Learned there were 54 ethnic groups that live in Vietnam.  Pretty cool, huh?

I did NOT want to climb up those steps.  THey are unnecessarily narrow!  UNSAFE!  COME ON PEOPLE!

We eventually made it up.  We hung out in the house.  We drank out water.  We had a random girl come up and ask us if she could drink Sommer's water.  She totally drank all of Sommer's water.  It was amazing.

Water Puppet Show.  It lasted quite awhile, we... really only needed to see about 5 minutes of it.  In the background, you can see the top of the house we were just in far in the distance.

We went into one house... and found what looked like 3 generations of men fast asleep on the floor.

We decided to try it ourselves!

We stopped into Hoa Lo Prison (aka Hanoi Hilton) to take a look around.  Kind of creepy, and sad.

Went to Quan An Ngon with David and Zoe that night.  Sommer had her first taste of her favorite dish, Banh Xeo.

DAY 3:

Pit stop into Joma before going to see Miss Ly, our travel agent in Vietnam who was AWESOME.  I think Sommer got a pic of her, I don't know how I didn't.

Went to Kem Fanny 51, one of Zoe's favorite dessert places!

I'm not 100% sure what I got, but it was yummy!

Went to the Vietnamese Women's museum.  

Pretty, isn't it?

I don't like taking selfies, but I just HAD to document what the heat in Vietnam was doing to me.  Also, it did something funky to my eyeliner!