October 7,

Awoke…. and Good Morning, Vietnam!! We are both glad to be back here and ready to explore Northern Vietnam. We had our Javas. At 0730 we had a loudspeaker of music, maybe the national anthem(?) and then announcements(?). So many questions with this!?! Jeff went out to get SIMS for our phones, as I talked to my sister on WhatsApp. All that completed it was time for some breakfast. We wanted Pho.

The place we are staying at has a little recommendation book of places for food, coffee & tea, attractions, etc. We went to the Pho Thin place they suggested. The 'restaurant'/cafe has been opened since 1955 and it was tucked in the alley – actually had a scooter drive through the cafe while we were eating! The menu has only five things on it and proclaims “serving the best Beef PHO since 1955”. The five items… Standard bowl of Pho; Jumbo bowl of Pho; Extra beef Pho; Egg; and Beer. I'm not kidding! We both had a standard bowl of Pho and also each an added egg. Our Pho bowls (think we had Jumbo bowls, which is fine) came out. Oh man, oh man! It was as great as we remembered! Great clear broth with thin sliced beef; thin, flat rice noodles; and fresh green onion & coriander (cilantro). We doctored it to our taste with choices from pickled garlic, spicy chilli sauce, ground black pepper, fish sauce, and /or limes. Just as we had it how we wanted they brought out our eggs. They were poaching in a bowl of that flavorful broth. I scooped mine out and added it to my Pho. It added a creaminess as the egg mixed in the broth. We both so enjoyed the simple but complex Pho! Umm- umm!! We finished, paid the tab 170,000 Dong ($6.84), and went back to our place.

We talked with Jeff's sister and her husband. Then I blogged some as Jeff read. Before we knew it was time for lunch. We wanted another Vietnamese specialty — Banh Mi. We went to a stand/stall at the end of our street. We ordered two Banh Mi's: one beef with mozzarella cheese and one grilled chicken with onions and garlic. Again, we were not disappointed! Pho is our favorite Vietnamese dish, but a good Banh Mi… well, it's a very close second. The baguette is fluffy inside but crunchy outside with the right amount of stuff filling it. UMM! We sat on the little-kid, plastic chairs in the street and relished. When we finished, Jeff paid the 75,000 Dong ($3.02). Jeff E-hailed a Grab and we went to a supermarket in a shopping mall. We found supper and breakfast stuffs and got another Grab taxi back to our place.

Now we took a relaxing break and cooled down. We are back in some warm weather as is most of SE Asia. It is upper 80's, but so humid and the sun is just, well intense. We made our own supper in our room. We saw some good looking imported ribeye steaks at the store  that we bought, so we pan seared these in butter. Then we had sesame bread with butter and a Saigon Cab Sav. After we finished we went out and walked around.

The lake here is about one block away from us. So we walked around it. It is not as big as Da Lat's, and seems smaller than the one in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is definitely more man made – no banks of grass, only cemented sidewalk edges. But there are beautiful big trees all along the sides. It is less busy than yesterday when we arrived, but most assuredly being used as a promenade. There were even line dancing sessions here and there. One area displayed a “70 year celebration” announcement happening on October 10, marking Hanoi's Independence from France. (We later found out the big day's celebration took place early – yesterday – that was why it was so busy here when we arrived.) Anyway, there was some pictures displayed here of Vietnam – seemed like “propaganda”. Good pictures though. There were also some little electric/remote cars that kids were having a blast with – more good pictures!  😄

In the center of the lake is a Tao temple, called Jade Mountain Temple. It is a very picturesque at night with a red lit up bridge to get out to it. Also in the center is Hanoi Turtle Tower, it was “built in the 1400's for the Emperor's comfort of fishing”. It's good to be King!🤭 Anyway, once we navigated the trek around, we were going back to our place and stopped for an Ice cream-type Blizzard. Back at our place, we cooled down again and got to bed by 2200.   

We love Vietnam and today reinforced it!!!