day 232, Hanoi

Slept pretty damn well though due to my early night I got up pretty early. I mosied up to breakfast which was the most impressive hostel breakfast I have seen, more akin to a mid class hotel, with Villeroy and Boch cutlery! I’m still knackered and eat my fill then go and sit in the movie room for a bit with the green Hornet on in the background which is truly awful, reading up on Hanoi, Vietnam in general and Tet, the Vietnamese new year which happens in three days. I go for a wander around Hanoi, with the rough idea of heading off to Lenin park and doing a loop of all the sites and getting myself orientated. As I walk past the big lake and down busy streets I happen upon a lake and sit down, I photographed recommendations of places to eat in Hanoi and start plotting them on the map I have, though it’s drizzling and I’m getting wet, so look it up and find a highly recommended vegetarian restaurant nearby. I find it and walk in, it has one free seat and is full of sharply dressed businessmen and woman. It has a very cool story in the menu about the origins of the restaurant, very similar to the Cinderella fairytale. I order a set menu and it is bloody delicious, they pride themselves on making meat dishes without any meat, and hand on heart I couldn’t tell the difference, I was eating it and couldn’t believe it wasn’t meat. I then walked around a bit more and went to the Hanoi Hilton, the prison where they kept POWs. It was really interesting and sombre, having just finished King Rat which was set in a POW camp I felt more attuned to the surroundings and had to leave the solitude cell pretty quickly, it closed in on me and I didn’t like it. Also I saw a picture of John McCain being treated in the Hanoi Hilton which they were very proud of. From there I made my way back to the Hostel , got a close shave on the way, was exhausted and sat down in the movie room and watched The Town, which was bloody marvellous. I met a bloke called Robbie from North Carolina in my dorm, he went to Southampton on a student exchange programme so we hit it off, and as the vegetarian restaurant was closing for six days I took him there, and again the food was glorious. Walked home in the drizzle seeing the preparations for Tet in full flow, got a smashing tiramisu ice cream and chilled out the rest of the evening watching the Other Guys which was hilarious though went to bed before it finished.