Armed with our Hanoi street map we negotiated the tight streets of the Old Quarter, getting to grips quickly on the smaller roads at learning to cross them - without being wiped out.
After walking down what can only be described as the street of a hundred motorbike repair shops, we hung a left and were there.
This French Colonial property, once the Spanish embassy is the second project of French chef Didier Corlou, who has managed to fuse Vietnamese and French food seamlessly, sadly it was fully booked when we arrived. We were advised to give them thirty minutes so we ventured out with my eyes glued to the street map. To be honest, the old part of town is easy to navigate. We completed a small recce of things to do the next day and headed back.
The wait for the food was worth it, my highlight being the duck in orange, it fell off the bone and melted in the mouth and at just under £30 for two with wine, beer and coffee; a great value three course set lunch, just a pity we couldn't sit in the courtyard due to the rain. Now for a siesta before tackling the streets at night.
Our tour guide, Mr Son had gone off duty when we came down to reception. I was hankering for some premier league footie, it being Saturday and all that. His stand in tried but failed to find us a bar that may have been showing some but pointed us in the general direction of some other places.
After negotiating some almost sacrificial junctions we came across a lively area of town just off the night market. Little shop fronts bars were doing a great trade with locals and tourists all sat outside on little stools drinking and eating. We found a bar called the Green Pepper where you could get a beer for just under 80p. It wasn't a traditional Bia Hoi hangout but it did have Everton v Arsenal showing, followed by Palace v Leicester - what a result. The atmosphere amongst locals (who were going through shelled peanuts like they were going out of fashion) and tourists was electric with never an ounce of trouble, why can't Britain be like that on a Saturday night?
We eventually finished off in The Long Bar, near to our hotel and looking out onto the Hanoi version of Picadilly Circus. Two drinks and free entertainment finished off the evening - well, watching a balloon seller standing in the middle of maniacle traffic was entertaining to us!
The following morning we made tracks to the Army museum where we learnt how cruel the French had been to the Vietnamese and that they managed to capture lots of kit and equipment from the Americans.
After a long lunch in a small bistro just off Hoan Kiem lake we made our way to the Maison Centrale or, The Hanoi Hilton as captured American airmen nicknamed it. A notorious prison, built by the French, we learned of their inhumanity towards the Vietnamese they incarcerated there during their occupation of the country. It was interesting the way they portrayed their own capture and imprisonment of American service personnel. Were the photos of detainees celebrating Christmas and playing basketball staged or real? I think the visit throws up more questions than answers.
That evening we just ventured as far as a corner eatery called Little Hanoi, just a stride down Hang Bong. Baguettes and fries were the order of the day before retiring early. The next morning we were off to Ha Long Bay.
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