Wrong side of the tracks

Day 63 - Hanoi

No commitments today, so it was a day to catch up on some sleep, acclimatise and make plans for the next few days in Hanoi.

After breakfast we arranged with our hotel for a driver to take us to the Ninh Binh area the next day. Once that was organised we walked down to Hoàn Kiếm Lake only a couple of minutes walk away from our hotel. The area was busy, lots of young women in cream dresses, many other older women in traditional Vietnamese dress, all posing for photos.

From there we headed to the even more touristy Train Street, a narrow street with shops and cafes each side where you can sit at the edge of the train track to watch a train go by. We had no idea of the train timetable but it turns out there was one coming in about 30 minutes, so we sat, ordered a drink, and waited. It was quiet when we arrived, but as train time approached it became very busy, with more women in cream dresses posing for photos (of course). Once the train passed the street cleared very quickly.

We decided to walk along the train tracks towards the French Quarter, but it took us ages to realise that there were no steps down from the elevated train track so the only thing to do was walk all the way back again. Some kind locals told us there was no way down, of course they told us this after we'd worked that out for ourselves!

We enjoyed a traditional Vietnamese dinner, in a restaurant looking just like the ones back home. The food was fine but not as spicy as we'd hoped, and after leaving we finished up at our rooftop bar, fortunately our lift was now fully functional.