Sorry for the delay in a new update! Who new Montazuma had a place in Vietnam also? Well, it has laid me up for most of the day Tuesday. Since I slept a good chunk of the day away, I am now up at 4:45 am on Wednesday. Feeling better and looking froward to shooting a lot today, if it will stop raining...
Let me backtrack to Monday. It was my last day in Hanoi, and Zoom and I had some traditional pho for breakfast. Really good. Maybe the single dish that made me want to come to Vietnam. A great little open storefront of a place and crowded, always a good sign. I did get a couple pictures up from that breakfast. From there we went a little out of town to the silk market. A very interesting ride through very busy roads on the back of a motorbike. The shops of silk were very nice but I was drawn to the food stalls behind the market, surprise, surprise! I met and photographed egg vendors, fish vendors, pork vendors and more. A very real market catering to only the locals. This was not a tourist area at all. I loved it.
From there we headed back into Hanoi and stopped on food street, famous for black chicken. I'm not sure of the history of black chicken yet but it is considered a local favorite. Zoom and I had some regular chicken in the same Chinese herbal broth as the black chicken. The broth was unlike anything I have ever had. Very dark, herbal, bitter and supposedly very good for you. It was not my favorite and I suspect the cause of my being laid up for a bit. The street and that shop were very picturesque though and the kids working there were great about letting me take pictures. When we left, those kids all wanted their picture with me. Very funny. We walked the rest of food street and finished with some coffee at a very western expat coffee shop. An interesting contrast to the other places I have been so far.
A quick ride around West Lake and then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Dinner was great even though Zoom found it hard to believe, because we went to Zoom's house for dinner with her parents. A real traditional family dinner. Fried spring rolls (I could have eaten 50 of them), sauteed water spinach and taro root. With beer and green tea. I really enjoyed myself. After a quick chat after dinner about filmmaking (Zoom's dad is a documentary filmmaker for the government) and travel in Vietnam with while Zoom translated, it was back to the hotel to sleep.
Up at 4am Tuesday to head to the airport to fly to Hue. Hue is in Central Vietnam and was home to the Emperors for centuries. There is a great ancient walled city here and people still live in certain parts of it.
After arriving we checked into our hotel and I needed a nap. All my energy had been sucked out and my stomach was a mess. This in addition to pouring rain made that decision to spend the day recovering easy. I did manage to get out for lunch for some local specialties of rice cakes with different fillings. Thankfully for my stomach they were pretty bland. Since it was still raining we went for some coffee and after coffee were headed back to the hotel when the rain let up and we decided to go ride around the walled city to get our bearings for tomorrow. As we slowed down to make a turn, BOOM! Another motorbike plowed right into us. I got hit pretty good but was okay but the other biker face planted into the pavement and we helped him up and took him to pharmacy to get some stuff to clean up his face and hand. Total cost? 170,000 dong, or about $7.50. He was on his way and we had to get our bike fixed as the tailpipe had been push way out. As luck would have it, there was a repair shop a few houses away. We pulled into his garage, which was a tarp over the front door to his house. He kicked it back in and off we went. He wouldn't take any money. The Vietnamese are so gracious and kind.
We headed back to the hotel from there and I crawled in bed at 4 pm and woke up about 4:30 this morning. Feeling better and looking forward to a good photo day, even with the rain. I hope you didn't find this one too boring. Thanks for the comments and emails. More soon.
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