Our flight left Manila around 10 pm. It was not our best flight. Late night flights are not for us (unless it’s business class :)) It’s just too hard on the kids. And consequently, on us. Logan was inconsolable for a large portion of the flight, he refused to sleep. And poor Jonathan had been awake for about 32 hours once we arrived. #nightshiftsareofthedevil. Needless to say, we were very happy to get off that plane.
Fortunately, things looked up considerably once we landed. Because we had done our visas ahead of time, we were picking up our baggage about 15 minutes after deplaning. We felt bad for the poor saps that were applying for visas at 3 am…and we were grateful that we hadn’t even known you could do that. We walked out of the airport and immediately noticed how much cooler and dryer the air was. Manila is hot, even in the middle of the night. Have I mentioned that? So, it was heavenly. We got our taxi all loaded up and were on our way in no time. And there was no traffic. None. Even at 3:00 am there is traffic in Manila. We got to the hotel about 3:30, checked in, and passed out in no time. It was glorious.
I was awoken a few hours later by the unexpected sounds of roosters crowing….Wha? We partook of the Fruit Bowl of Welcoming, left for us by the hotel staff, while we got ready to go to breakfast. We got to try a new fruit, the Rambutan. That was fun, especially because it looks like something out of Star Wars #starwarsfruit
After the whole family woke up, we went to breakfast, which is served on the 12th floor. Immediately the staff began fluttering around us, and talking to the kids. They stole Logan and passed him around. I’m thinking they don’t see too many kids or babies here. We had a lovely view of the city and the lake. And it was an awesome breakfast!! Jonathan and I both got Beef Pho. (it’s a broth-based soup with rice noodles and meat). And we also tried many other delightful things at the buffet. Logan started losing his mind during breakfast, and we figured that it was likely because he had gotten 4 hours of sleep. So, we all came back to the room and rested. After we woke up, we decided that it was probably time to get out of the hotel room so we wouldn’t completely go mad.
First, we hit the ATM and got 2 million dong. (The exchange rate is crazy. $1 is equal to about 20,000 dong. So, our 2 million dong was about $100.) And then, we wandered around, just checking things out, and did some shopping. Our hotel is located in the Old Quarter which has lots of old-timey narrow streets that go between buildings. And while there are a lot of tourists there, we were surprised by how many locals were wandering around doing exactly what we were.
We bought some ‘culturally insensitive hats’ as Jonathan calls them. But, man, these things are functional. They don’t make your head sweat and they keep off the sun. Brilliant. We ended up at the Old Propaganda Posters store. Which was amazing. They had all kinds of genres of propaganda. I opted for the more benign (and pretty, I admit it) do-your-part posters encouraging people to not grow opium, and to expand animal breeding programs.
About this time, we were getting hungry (it was 2:30, after all). So, we used trusty old Trip Advisor, and it took us a couple blocks over to a place called Gia Ngu restaurant. It is rated #8 place in Hanoi. And it totally deserved the adulation.
Seriously, that was some of the best food I’ve had in ages. We were in heaven. The noodles… fried the rice…the bamboo beef…the sugar cane chicken…. I want to marry it. Everything was seriously amazing. It was also kinda fun because everything always came with these beautifully carved carrot flowers.
Unfortunately, Logan started losing his mind again. And, for some reason, he will only fall asleep in Jonathan’s arms, not mine. And so, Jonathan went and knocked him out #heissohandsome. And here is the miraculous part, Logan stayed asleep!!!!! When we transferred him to the stroller, he stayed asleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #thatneverhappens. And he slept for the rest of the meal. It was a little slice of heaven. I got to focus 100% on the amazing food before me.
After our large lunch, we strolled around some more, and we found a little stall that was selling fruit. Having the fruit bowl this morning was nice, as it kept Logan happy until we were all ready to head up for breakfast. So, we bought some bananas, and rambutan (star wars fruit), cause it was just so good. And the lady also let us try some other little fruits. They are called Longen, also known as Dragon’s eye. We bought some. Cause they were amazing.
We continued meandering. At one point, I stopped to look at a stall that had some nice art work, and while I was looking, a fella came up and made Jonathan take off his flip flops and started gluing things, and sewing things. And then, he shined the darn things!!
Those stupid flip flops are nearly as old as our marriage, and they were purchased for like $10. But, I suppose he got a pretty sweet loaner shoe to wear in the meantime. It was all quite humorous. And Jonathan asks the guy “how much is this going to cost me?’ “250,000 dong”
Jonathan glanced at the woman that was running the shop where I had just purchased some artwork. She gave a little head shake to indicate that it was way too much to pay. In the end, he got it down to 200,000 dong. (Jonathan here: knowing what I know now, I should have paid him a maximum of 50,000. That’s the tourist tax in action, I suppose)
After Jonathan’s shoes were overhauled, we ended up down by Hoan Kiem lake. the Lake of the Returned Sword. It is such a beautiful area.
There were tons of Vietnamese people there, this was not just a tourist area (though there was plenty of that too). People took our pictures a lot. And took lots of selfies with the kids. This really was almost like a community gathering area. There were all these guys exercising, they had weights, and parallel bars, and all kinds of stuff just off to the side of the walkway. Plus, it was stroller friendly, which we were really grateful for.
After wandering around for a little longer, we decided that sleep was in order. We were still pretty tired from our middle-of-the-night travels. But first, Jonathan went back out and got measured for a custom-made suit. The kids went to bed early and Jonathan and I ordered dessert from room service.
