A Day in Hanoi

The kids did not want to leave the aircraft carrier and all the jetfighters yesterday but I was able to convince them somehow to come for a little visit to Hanoi. The day before, we stayed "home" mostly, just playing, catching up on "admin", doing laundry etc. We did go for a walk to the Donkey Doughnut, a cafe owned by our hostess, Luyen, for lunch.

But a short visit out to see such a beautiful city was in order. Hanoi is one of Bella's favourite cities so I wanted to explore it a bit. A tiny white taxi picked us up and took us to the Puppet Theatre where most performances were sold out. The kids said it looked too scarey and they did not want to go anyway so we took a brief look into the old quarter and bought a few backpacks that the kids find comfortable to wear. They looked like little troupers and it was so funny watching Frunty and Pit scoot around parked motorbikes and other items for sale on the sidewalks for the rest of the day.

We went over a red bridge to the Temple of Literature which was Vietnam's first university. It was lovely and the kids were enthralled about the story of the legendary, giant lake turtle and the sword. Afterwards we walked around the lake to try to find a restaurant called Koto. At one point, a persistent cyclist with carriage finally got our business and said he knew where Koto was. He did not. He cycled us all around Hanoi...I am sure we saw just about every neighbourhood and asked dozens of people the way. Finally I suggested asking a taxi driver but the cyclist did not understand, as per the entire trip, and thought we wanted to get into the taxi.

Luckily the taxi driver spoke English and I explained the story and showed the address and he told our cycle driver the way. I think the other people were just waving their arms around and did not really know where the restaurant was! Anyway, I guess the 5 min. trip actually took more than an hour and we were finally seated in a lovely restaurant called Koto which employs street children and teenagers. We had a delicious meal and then tried to walk around the area to find a bookshop called, Bookworm.

When we finally found it, after more waving of arms by locals who really did not know where the shop was...but guess what, it had moved! A lady with a food stall nearby handed us a bookmark with the new address on it so we jumped in a taxi and when we got to the new, and improved, Bookworm, we were pretty relieved. We spent many hours reading childrens' books and having a coffee and mango juices in the quiet, green courtyard. With the sun shining, it was a nice escape from the chaotic and dusty but very interesting city streets of Hanoi. I really like it here, Bella.

And best of all, Frunty and Pit said they had a great day. I was happy to hear that because this trip is for them too!