City Walk @ Old Quarters

It's Day 2 and after our excursion to Perfume Pagoda yesterday, Pixie and I agreed NOT to go for the Hoa Lu/Tam Coc trip which also takes about the same travelling hours (especially on the same steel plated boats)...seriously, I could not take another day of suffering from possible heat stroke.

Elaine, LengSim, LiLi and HanSan showed us nice pix after their trip BUT I kinda enjoyed a slower paced day with Pixie. HPH informed that it was too late to cancel our booking and would treat us to a Vietnamese meal in return. Well, it's better than getting nothing in return for the USD19/person that we've paid...

Wanna know what Pixie and I did? We went shopping and exploring around the Old Quarters. We also managed to visit Trixy at her work place, which was a deadly, that took approximately 30minutes walk in hot and humid weather...then we returned back to HPH approx. 6pm to have dinner with the rest before going for the water puppet show. That's another one of a kind experience...

First, shall attach a few photos on how our day was spent....

Once out of HPH, we turned right along Hang Non Rd and some how found our way to a paralel Yen Thai Street market in the morning. Walking amidst the hustle and bustle along the street market was unique as everything was done in the open and almost ground level, where vehicles passing by may kick up clouds of dust to the wares. The height that I'm used to would be about 3 feet above ground where it is a bit more sanitary visually.

Pixie and I returned to HPH after walking along Hang Manh (pronounced as Hung Mike), Hang Bong, Hang Gai and Hang Hom. Managed to get some silk embroidered purses, fridge magnets, etc. before lunch time at approximately 12:30pm. It was HPH's kind gesture, however unfortunately we were served bun cha. I do not relish the taste of sweet BBQ meat as I prefer savoury (salty) food instead.

I think between the both of us, we managed only to finish the fried spring roll and radish in the sweet soup. The greens and bun (rice vermicelli) were just too much...

After lunch we left HPH to head towards Hoan Kiem Lake for sight seeing. Took some photos, crossed opposite to view the Monument of King Le Thai To. As you can see from the sweat on my shoulders from my bag's shoulder straps, I was not fooling you when I said the weather was extremely hot and humid in Hanoi's summertime. Nonetheless we decided to take a walk to visit Trixy which we found out was a long, long walk!!!

We passed the following places, Fanny's French Ice-Cream parlour, Hanoi Tourism Office (above Bobby Chin's Restaurant-Discovery Travel & Living's celebrity chef) along Hang Khay, Vietname's Ministry of Finance. The other 2 pics were one of the many restaurants and street stalls along the way. It was such a relief finally seeing the swan logo of Sunway Hotel!!!