This is a personal website. All views and information presented herein are our own and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Day 4 -- Ho Chi Minh, the Old Quarter, and Highway 4


To start off Day 4, we hiked up to the top of Star Tower to get a view of Hanoi -- 27 stories up made some more queasy than others:



The hotel where the Sweeneys were staying:




Next it was a quick bus ride to Ba Dinh Square and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum:


Noah made a friend on the bus.  This gentleman pulled out a full page sheet in English and asked Noah to read it to him so the man could practice his English:




We ran into the indie rock supergroup called "Wyatt and the Ho Chi Minh Socialites":





 Lunch was fried eel soup and some banh cuon:




Then it was off to the Old Quarter of Hanoi:




Pete used his amazing negotiating skills to get a good price on this North Face winter coat (which has already come in handy on his return to America):



We also wanted to see the Dong Xuan Market, which is a bizarre collection of souvenirs, bubble tea supplies, spices, dried seafood, live seafood, fashion, shoes, etc.


Kristin purchased some Vietnamese cinnamon to take home:


Finn found a bamboo xylophone and is already pretty good at playing it (with the help of Carter and some youtube instructional videos):


After a long day, we hiked up to Highway 4, a traditional Vietnamese restaurant.  They have some pretty unusual menu items -- pigeon, chicken hearts, crickets, grubs -- but we stayed with some safer items and had a delicious meal.  We had two tables on either die of us filled with drinking, singing office workers, which contributed to the environment.




No comments:

Post a Comment