Hanoi

We arrived at Changi Airport at about 6am and, with three and a half hours to kill before the connecting flight to Hanoi, we headed pretty much immediately to the place selling pandam waffles and rich, sweet kopi. Then, obviously, we looked in some posh shops and visited the Sunflower Garden before camping out at our Gate. On arrival, finally, at Hanoi, we managed to get the bus unto town without too much difficulty and we were very impressed by how relatively calm everywhere seemed until the receptionist at our hotel pointed out that most of the roads round the Hoan Kiem lake are closed to traffic on the weekends! We were surprisingly energetic in the afternoon – walking to St. Joseph’s Cathedral Square and doing a circuit of Hoan Kiem before strolling over to the Temple of Literature – but we were feeling pretty done in by the time we got back to the Hotel and chose our teatime restaurant mainly by virtue of proximity. The seafood noodles and squid with vegetables and cashew nuts certainly hit the spot though…