After the call I finished the previous day's blog andpacked stuff up since we were checking out today. Alex was supposed to get back around 8:30, but the class didn't get out until like 9:45. I tried to keep calm but there was no way for us to communicate! Scary stuff, but she showed up and all was well.
We headed out on our day towards a recommended coffee place from our homie Mark (the guide from yesterday's street food tour). He hooked us up with food places and things to do for the rest of our time in Vietnam. Anyways, it was a tough place to find, but we found it through an alleyway that was located between two knock-off north face street shops.
At the end of the alley we turned right, went up a couple flights of stairs, and found ourselves in a really cool little cafe. Alex got the famous cafe trung - coffee with sweetened egg white. I had a taste and it was unreal. It was more of a creamy pudding dessert than a coffee drink. Apparently Vietnam knows what's up in the coffee world (Alex's words).
We walked over to Westlake area to grab some bikes, but stopped to grab lunch beforehand (another recommendation from Mark). We both had a small breakfast and didn't want to start our afternoon hungry, especially considering we were planning on biking around the lake.
We were told to get the rice log (fried in pork fat) and the rice wine. We got both of those, some pork ribs, and some buffalo wrapped in grape leaf. First, the rice wine (the only wine booze on the menu) ended up being liquor...40% by content and you get the entire bottle. We drank one small shot worth of it and kept the rest. It tastes good, but it's definitely booze.
Second, were pretty sure we ate the buffalo wrapped in grape leaf wrong. It was wrapped in a really thick and tough leaf to cook in, but we ate that too. We figured it out with about four left (of twelve) when it fell out of the tough leaf. It didn't taste bad, but it was hard to chew.
But whatever, you live you learn. We'll never eat buffalo wrapped in grape leaf wrong again, but I'm sure it's not the first or the last time we'll eat something the wrong way. After getting boozed up (not actually) we walked over to West Lake. We didn't find any bikes so we just meandered around for awhile on some of the slower streets. Fun fact about West Lake - it's where all the fish we see (and eat) apparently comes from. Read a little bit about it on Mark's blog (links in my last blog post).. Makes Green Lake or the Mississippi seem real clean.
I thought it was really nice to get out of the business of the Old Quarter. It was much less stressful for me without feeling like I had to have my head constantly in a swivel. After walking around the lake for a bit and smelling the nasty smells it produced we headed to the B52 monument.
This was an awesome walk because it forced us to walk in the side streets. And by side streets I mean those tiny alleyways that we're not sure go all the way through.
Luckily we have this amazing app called Galileo Pro. Honestly I recommend it anywhere you go that you don't have a data plan in. They aren't paying me to say this (yet), but it's allowed me to be confident in just walking around and comfortable knowing where I am at all times. The free version allows you to download the maps, the $5 version allows you to put down pins and label them. Wouldn't know where we would be without it.
Anyways, the app showed us the way through the alleys and to the monument. They're very proud of all the B-52 bomber planes that they shot down during the war, it was one of the things that kept them going. The monument is both a man made monument, but also the remnants of an actual B-52 airplane.
It blows my mind that there were bombers being shot down in this area, but also that it's still there! Pretty instense stuff. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be a resident at that time, or a fighter pilot for that matter.
It was a cool spot because it wasn't very touristy either. We were literally the only people there that weren't locals. After that we made our way out and ran into some people from Miami that were filming a documentary on hip hop. They've gone to a couple different countries, including Cuba, and talk about how hip hop is a part of other culture. They had two well known graffiti artists paint each other on this giant wall.
There is very little graffiti in this city, but we noticed a lot just in this area.
We had a bit of a walk back towards the puppet show we wanted to see to we headed back in that direction. We got there an hour early and bought our tickets. Since we had a bunch of time we decided to get a quick beer and spring roll on the street side again.
The actual water puppet show was exactly what I expected, and exactly what Mark told us it was: too long. It's kind of like the Ballet, but without the fun of getting dressed up and feeling like a fancy adult. There were parts that were entertaining and funny, but overall it was just a thing to do. It's also cool to know that this was a big part of their culture in the past.
After sitting through the puppets we headed for some street food and back to our hostel. We're so cool now that we can eat street food and not get food poisoning (knock on wood). We had a chicken pho dish and it was way better than the pho in Seattle. Or at least I think it is because it came from here. But honestly, Pho in Seattle isn't anything special in my opinion, I don't get the hype. It tastes so different here!
We headed to the hostel and grabbed our things and we're off to the train station. We got there way too early and our train wasn't ready for us so we waited in the hot waiting area. We thought that since we were able to get on the train early in Bangkok we could here, but ya live and ya learn.
We're off to Sapa overnight tonight and will be there tomorrow at 5am! If I understand correctly, it will be a small town with lots of outdoors stuff to do and rice fields to look at. We'll see and I'll keep you posted!
"Never did the world make a queen of a girl who hides in houses and dreams without traveling."
- Roman Payne
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