We had Dong (our home stay hostess) book us a tour to the Perfume Pagoda. We took a 90 minute bus ride and an hour boat ride to get there. You can walk up to the pagoda or you can ride the cable car. We had heard the walk is brutal so we opted for the cable car. We still ended up having to walk a billion stairs to get TO the cable car which at one point became very slippery in the pouring rain. The Pagoda itself is in a cave and it was cool but small and we still have not decided if it was worth the time and effort. But the boat ride back was peaceful, calming, and beautiful. We met a lot of nice people on the tour. We ended up sharing a cable car and several sign language “conversations” with a Korean man. He was very sweet but spoke not a word of English and we don’t speak Korean so the conversation was limited.

When we got back to Hanoi, we opted to have dinner at a new “restaurant” right down the alley from our home stay. It was a hot pot restaurant and we decided we needed to experience one. We didn’t know which one to order so we left it up the owner and he ended up giving us 2 hotpots: one Thai and one beef. There was so much food!! Two eggs came on the beef one and I said to Buzz “I am afraid that there is little chickens in those.”  We had 3 or 4 people helping us out and they said to put the eggs in so Buzz dropped in an egg and the one guy came running over and scooped it back out. He gently broke the eggs, and sure enough, chicken embryos!! (I can hear your screams now, Lynnette and Jackie!!) So we didn’t look at them and didn’t eat them and I am sure they thought that we left the best part but we just couldn’t. But the rest was great. You get pork, and beef, tofu, and squid, and clams and little sausages (which I later found out were pig intestines and blood sausages and they were actually really good) and greens (morning glory)  and mushrooms and pieces of Ramen noodles that you put in at the very end to eat with the broth. We ate and ate and ate and did not come close to finishing the food. Some Vietnamese cut their chicken and pork the same as India and each piece had a bone or some weird shit in it so I tend to stay away from it. And overall the beef is very tough but we discovered if we left it in the broth long enough, it became edible. It was a very fun experience. And all this food, 2 beers, and a green tea cost $16.

Ho Chi Minh Mauseleum was a disappointment. “Uncle Ho” was out getting a face lift and was not in the tomb so it is closed for 3 months. The Presidential Palace, on the grounds, is closed to the public so not sure what we paid the entrance fee for but it was only $2 so whatever.

The photo in the middle was HCM’s house and the one Pillar Pagoda on the left is where you go to pray for a son. Baby daughter’s are still underappreciated here.

Next was the Temple of Literature and that was a very cool place. It is from over 1100 years ago and between the 11^th and 18^th century was the only school of any level in Vietnam. There are stone stellae for over 1200 men who made it to the Doctorate level. It apparently was graduation picture time and there were bunches of students getting their photos taken. Speaking of, Vietnam is the photo capital of the world. Between selfies and photo shoots, there are uncountable instances of both, especially the selfies: they take a lot of time in posing just right and then taking a dozen photo, each with a different pose. Craziness!

The Korean man we met at the Perfume Pagoda…we saw him again at Ho CHi Minh Mausoleum and then again at the Temple of Literature!

Lunch at Koto (Know One, Teach one) is a restaurant trade school for street kids that was started by an Australian. Chicken wings with fish sauce and a Green Papaya salad with beef were delicious. An afternoon break in our air conditioned room was required because of the intense heat and humidity today so we can gear up for our Hanoi food tour tonight.

The food tour was fantastic. There was a couple from Australia on the tour with us. We ate Pho Bo, Bun Bo Hue (which is kind of like Pho but it has a more sour broth because it is made with pineapple and lemon grass), Bun Cha (which is what President Obama ate when he was here in May and is now known as the Obama meal: I did not care for it that much), street BBQ pork on skewers (fantastic!) Mango salad with seafood and Banh xeo (this is like make your own spring rolls on steroids….so fantastic!). Dessert was sticky rice with ice cream for Buzz and Jack fruit with yogurt for me, finished off with an Egg Cream coffee…great, another fattening thing I love!!!! The very strong Vietnamese coffee has a layer of whipped egg, sugar, and vanilla!  Wowzers!!! Our guide, Bob (!), was a business law student and spoke English perfectly and was an extremely interesting and genuinely nice young man. Well, we reached 200% of our walking goal today….good night!