On our 104th day in Hanoi, we started with the intention of going up to the top of the Lotte Tower, the second tallest building in Hanoi. Because it was a beautiful, sunny, 60 degree winter day, we decided to walk the 3.5 km (2 miles) over there.
And what could we do? One of our favorite bakeries in Diagon Alley was along the route.
This was a construction site along the way. Very typical in Vietnam -- the scaffolding holding up the floors is all wood.
You can see a new skyway in the distance being built over a very congested traffic intersection around Cau Giay Bridge. These skyways are becoming more common and is one of the strategies being implemented to help with the traffic.
As we approached the Lotte Tower, we walked through a little Japaense section of town with small restaurants and bakeries. The bottle below is a Japanese whiskey sold in the bakery we went into. Cool bottle; strange to find it in a bakery -- bakeries in the US do not sell liquor as a rule, although that isn't uncommon here.
A hand-painted sign on Kim Ma. I have a feeling signs like this will become more prevalent in Vietnam in the next ten years. The Vietnamese road system is not built to handle a lot of cars. Most roads in alleys are wide enough only to accommodate bicycles -- even motorbikes make them crowded.
Our destination is on the right. The building on the left is the Daewoo Hotel, which was the tallest buidling in Hanoi up until about 20 years ago. Now it is only the third tallest building in this picture:
The Lotte Building is huge and has many components to it: apartments, office space, a hotel, and lots of shopping. Originally we were planning to go to the top of the building and look out over Hanoi (and look down through a glass ceiling), but the cost to go up is prohibitive during the day, so we decided to wait for an evening trip and grab some dessert instead.
Our friend Viet joined us at this point. Desserts are a little different in Vietnam -- the Vietnamese palette does not desire things so sweet. We've noticed this in some of the cakes and pastries we've ordered here. So while Finn had snow ice cream covered in chocolate and oreos, Viet (who is Vietnamese-American) ordered ice cream with red beans and slivered almonds on top. Definitely unusual, but still pretty good.
This picture does not really represent what is happening here. Noah always wants to try out the massage chairs that are in shopping centers and malls. While he didn't sit in this chair pictured, he did jump on the boogie board-type contraption that was right next to them. Noah's legs are actually shaking here and he's trying to stay on it:
Christmas decorations and signs were everywhere at Lotte:
The curse of Carter and Finn -- while walking outside this group of students wanted to take a picture with them. As cute Caucasian blond boys, this happens a lot:
On the walk home from Lotte, we went through the zoo so Finn could show Carter how the water balls worked. 15 minutes in there was a pretty good workout for both of them.
We saw a few more friends on our walk home. Here was a security guard that was playfully giving Carter a hard time:
Ellie and Viet both trying on new pairs of glasses (Ellie was "borrowing" hers from Noah):
Here's an image I will never ever see in the States: while walking through Diagon Alley, one of the meat sellers was butchering a hog right off the motorbike. Only in Vietnam:
Here's our friend Huong (aka Diagon Alley Suit Guy) meeting Viet for the first time. It was strange hearing him talk in anything other than broken English. Such a good guy and a friend for us these last few months:
Ellie and I were hungry, so we had a quick "pork on a stick" (25 cents each) while the rest of our group walked on:
Here we are talking to the recycling lady and her co-workers. Viet translated for us that this woman wanted to know how much we would charge to teach this little guy English. We get asked this fairly regularly:
Finally made it home, only to look out our window and sadly see them dismantling some of the living spaces right under our window. There are definitely some big changes coming here, we just can't figure out what -- and no one really wants to talk about it. The most Viet was able to figure out from asking people is that the government owns the land and needs it now, but she said people were talking in hushed tones and she felt she was asking something she wasn't supposed to ask.
Other changes outside our window: more Christmas tree construction for institutions, and a somewhat booming car wash and parking business:
Meanwhile, Libby and Viet engaged in some holiday decorating, while Noah and Ellie tackled their heavy homework load:
And finally, to end the long day, Noah took part in his weekly soccer game with older guys, including Libby's advisor Sac:
Every day we've been in Hanoi we've tried to do something different, something interesting, something we haven't done before. We try to always say yes when an opportunity presents itself, and it is pretty rare that we take a day off and just relax in our apartment -- in fact, I can't think of a day we've done that since we've been here. So Day 104 has been a pretty typical day for us. I'm hoping that we take that same philosophy back to the States.
Great blog today...loved it
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