I think it's about time I get on the ball and share with you our trip to northern Vietnam. (Especially considering that our trip was at the beginning of October and it's now almost Halloween. Whoops!)
…side note: Oh, how cute. I'm listening to our Ayi hum a song while she's vacuuming. …
Oh, right….back to our trip. Apparently I easily get side-tracked!
26 September 2015 – we flew from Tianjin to Hanoi via a stop-over in Seoul. Have we ever mentioned how much we like this airport???
Want to try your hand at smashing some sticky rice stuff using a giant wooden mallet??? Feels pretty good to let out your anger!
I'm going to try:
Now it's Mark's turn:
Go Mark, go!
Ava is making a mirror:
Now making spice satchels at another station:
Ava's spice satchel:
Annika's spice satchel:
Hello, Hanoi!
We arrived late at night. Since we're American passport holders we were able to get visas on arrival- which only took about thirty minutes and $40 per passport. Pretty snappy!
Yeah, this city doesn't look like it sleeps at night! Check out those balloons!!!
Our hotel tucked into the Old Quarter in Hanoi…the Essence Hotel.
Sweet bed…oh so sweet. I'm so ready to go to sleep!
Hi, girls!
The hotel gave us a small sampling of Vietnamese moon cakes. Very similar to Chinese ones we've tried in the past …and just as tasty! Annika cut them into quarters so that we could all try a small sampling of each one.
Time for bed…we have to get up EARLY to head to Halong Bay for an overnight cruise. Good night.
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Lucky for us the hotel had breakfast ready for us so early in the morning:
Homemade yogurt! My favorite!
Have you ever tried Vietnamese drip coffee? Ground coffee (and maybe chicory??) in a small aluminum filter that is placed on top of a cup and allowed to slowly drip. Then add some sweetened condensed milk and you've got a yummy drink.
You just had to wait patiently for that sweet nectar of life:
Pho!!!! I'm sure you've heard about pho, right? Probably one of the best soups on Earth! (Yes, perhaps one of my favorite soups.)
All right…time to leave Hanoi! We're moving on to our next adventure!