Day 8 - Hanoi, Vietnam

What a day today. Much more news than yesterday. Up bright and early although not too much brightness from us. All pretty knackered but due to our shortened time in Hanoi we only have one day here now so lots to do and see. 

Got up and head around the corner to breakfast at our actual hotel whilst they brought our cases around for us and kindly upgraded us for our trouble. Staying in the Hanoi Pearl hotel which is actually really nice, great value and great location. 

http://hanoipearlhotel.com

Plan for today was to do a street food tour which we were booked onto at 11.30 so we decided to head to the Hao Lo Prison to start with via St Joseph's Catherdeal enroute. 

Hanoi is a pretty lively and lovely city. It's got a real buzz to the place, more bars and restaurants (bit like soho) but a lot more traditional than HCMC. Every street is lined with the most beautiful trees but also a ridiculous amount of cables running above the streets (Yiannis would love to get his hands on this!)

The picture above is actually quite unique in that it has a BMW in it. Apparent the tax on importing any car from the US or Europe is around 300% making them very expensive to buy. Explains the millions of mopeds in the city. 

The Hao Lo prison or the "Hanoi Hilton" as it is nicknamed is a prison (how did you guess!) built by the French for patriotic and revolutionary fighters in the first half of the 20th century. Post 1954 when North Vietnam was liberalised it was then used for general criminals. During the Vietnam war between 1964-73 it was also used for American pilots who were shot down and captured in North Vietnam. As we found in HCMC the Vietnamese don't mess around with prisons. God knows how people stayed alive in here for more than a few weeks!

Good representation of how prisoners were kept. 

Then it was time to head to the hotel to meet our wonderful tour guide Johnny (named after Johnny Walker apparently) to begin our tour. 

Now apologies for the bombardment of food pics but we have to share them as we had some phenomenal food from places you would never dream of going into without being taken by a local. The experience has definitely broadened even my horizons of what and where I am prepared eat which is good. Although should probably reserve judgement until the morning!!!

To start with we went to the top floor of an old run down building for 'bun cha' which is a Hanoi speciality (pork, noodles, crab spring roles, Vietnamese herbs, papaia etc). All these places serve one thing only and most have their own special dish which makes getting served really quick. You just sit down and they bring you the food. Kind of like Chicken Shop in Kentish Town with even less choice and just as great. Every bit of food also came with its unique sauce which complemented everything we ate wonderfully. 

Where the food was cooked...

We then just wondered around the old quarter where Johnny seemed to know everyone. Next up was the gorgeous custard fruit (bottom right above the eggs) and persimmon. 

Next up was eel which was delicious. Nowhere near as rubbery as we were expecting. 

Then fried rice cake, rice paper and shrimp pancakes and fresh sugar cane water followed by banana with a twist, banana dipped in sticky rice. 

Can't remember what this was called but tasted like banana too. Yum!

Next up was a bit more adventurous; Dog. Johnny assured us it is only the stupid, slow dogs that they eat. The dog was surprisingly delicious apart from the skin which was ridiculously chewy. The dog sausage was very tasty though. 

Grooming the dog...

Taking it for a walk...

Play time...

Next up was even tougher. Definitely 'bush tucker trial' territory now. Sea worm which look exactly like normal earth worms. Here are the little fellas still alive (at this point) and just to rub it in their new home's next door on the tray. 

Again surprisingly tasty. They make them into spring roles and ended up looking and tasting a bit like crab. Caroline not so sure!

Final bit of food was duck. Now this was amazing. Massive bits of meat - damn tasty. Hats off to the chef...

Last but not least we went for egg beer which again was gorgeous. The egg tastes like vanilla angel delight which when topped up with beer was just like a milk shake. Last pic of me promise!!

We drew the line at rattle snake juice though!!

Farewell to Johnny. He was great. 

After we went back to the hotel for an hours sleep then went out around the hotel this evening. It was a series of roof top bars as the fog started to roll back in. We ate at a roof top restaurant called Maralyn, overlooking St Joseph's. We opted for the less adventurous pizza this evening. A bit noodled out. 

Night cap near the hotel and bed for midnight. 7am start tomorrow for our trip to Halong Bay.