Saturday was my birthday and we had discussed no presents. We are coming back to NZ in early June and have enough stuff already to repatriate. So it was nice to receive a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses from the night market. Even more special was that Andrew splurged another $3 and bought himself exactly the same sun glasses. So sweet, we have identical glasses – he really is a special snowflake.
A walk around the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum area and the West Lake before retracing our steps and heading all the way over to Koto – the training restaurant for disadvantaged kids. We had been there last trip Koto Restaurant back in 2010, And once again it did not disappoint.
Back into the heat of the day we walked back to the centre of town for some easy times and more liquid intake. I’m sure they didn’t bring more beer into town because we were there and were facing dehydration!
Dinner was at the highly recommended Quan an Ngon. Huge and bustling it is Vietnamese street food in an indoor/outdoor restaurant setting. We arrived early, not long after 6pm, as we had our bags and the next stop was the train station for the overnight train to Sapa, and the place was almost full then. There would have been easily 200 people outside and we were seated inside. There was a good mix of locals and tourists enjoying the extensive menu and cheap prices. The meal was excellent. I’m not sure the local couple seated beside us were overjoyed at us peering at their dishes as they arrived or our fascination with their large omelette- like dish that the waitress cut up for them using scissors.
We got to the station and found our 4 bunk cabin. Our travelling companions were a Vietnamese couple who spoke excellent English and we enjoyed talking to them before we all shut up shop and went to sleep.
