Last Day in Hanoi and Final Thoughts on Vietnam…

I can’t decide how I feel about Vietnam- it reminds me of home, which is a good thing… a lot of the smells are very familiar and so are a lot of the sounds and the hustle and bustle. I feel nostalgic being here- which is good and bad… I think. I love how much this culture loves to eat, everywhere I look, no matter what time, people are eating- good, local, fresh food. No one is over weight- why?? I think the rice noodles are very light and so is the broth and so are all the veggies in it and of course the thinly sliced meats hardly provide a lot of calories. The culture is not into a lot of sweet stuff. There are lots of fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood all around. They are either drinking beer, coffee or tea… I love the abundance of passion fruit everywhere…
My guess is, I will return some day to enjoy the abundant good food… probably in a few years but in the meantime, there is a lot of other places to visit… but in the meantime, here is the rest of the trip…

So, it’s was our last day in Hanoi and it was raining… I started it by getting a collagen facial- yup, every 40 something year old should get one as it helps with wrinkles, etc. Not sure if it really worked but I felt quite good afterwards. We had an early breakfast before the spa services. We then decided to take an electric car tour of the area as it was drizzling. After a while we started to look for a lunch place… I check on tripadvisor and found a roadside pho place (pho thin bo ho)- we found it and it was really off the beaten path. No one spoke English and so by gesturing, we got 3 bowls of beef pho. All the condiments including lime wedges, hot sauce and red chilies were on the single table.

The soup was absolutely delicious- I think we paid $5 for each! After lunch we walked over to a very traditional cafe (Cafe Giang) that served egg coffee, which is made with egg yolks, sugar and condensed milk- kind of like liquid tiramisu! It was delicious- this photo does not do it justice but here it is:

After sitting there for a bit, we walked around some more and went to see a water puppet show…. It is a puppet show performed on water- it was fascinating and a perfect thing to do on a rainy day. After stopping for a drink at a bar we then returned to our hotel to pack and get ready for our last dinner in Hanoi. Tomorrow we go to Hong Kong for one night and soon will be on our way home!
So, before I go, let me tell you about dinner- it was at a sauteed fish place (Cha Ca Thang Long). It is a restaurant that only sells fish sauteed at your table that is marinated in turmeric and then cooked with lots of green onions and dill. Dill is typically not used in Vietnamese cuisine but in this case it is- well, it is delicious. The fish is served with rice noodles on the side a variety of other usual condiments including basil, chilies, fish sauce, etc. OMG, it was absolutely delicious- take a look!

I guess it time for me to sign off… until next time!