Josh's first day and the forgotten Sunday Road Trip

My nephew Josh arrived late Friday night, so yesterday was his first full day in Hanoi.  Unfortunately, between meetings with our chairman, Mr Viet, and mechanical issues, I ended up working a good portion of Saturday.  The good news is that Chi, as usual, came to the rescue.  The bad news: since I wasn't there, not many pictures to record the day's events.

For Josh, though, it meant that he was in exceptional hands with my adopted Vietnamese little sister!  For lunch, Chi and Thanh took him next door to Bun Bo Nam Bo where he had his first plate of My Xau and a Hanoi Beer.  Josh said it was great and, of course, I'm sure my friends took great care of him.

Afterward, he and Chi headed downtown to look around.  They spent some time walking around Hoan Kiem Lake, sampling green tea ice cream and walking a bit through the Old Quarter.  I was finally able to join them around 3pm, so we met for Tra Chanh near the Cathedral.  It was a nice afternoon, so the street was jammed with tons of people all enjoying their iced tea and sunflower seeds on small stools.  Josh loved it!

We decided to do a little shopping of our own and Chi treated us to an afternoon snack, the name of which I never did hear.  It was essentially a sticky glutinous rice sandwich.  The "bread", two blobs of glutinous rice so sticky that they were wedged into a banana leaf to accommodate the actual eating process (otherwise they'd just stick to your fingers), sandwiched a pork sausage of some kind. 

The pork was pretty nice.  Josh and I are still trying to decide what the rice blobs were for.  They were neither tasty nor did they contribute to the "convenience of eating" process.  Next time we'll order our pork sandwich without the "bread".

Since it was rush hour, Chi thought it best she should drive (after allowing Josh to drive her from Tay Ho to town earlier in the day.  Yikes!).  How Chi managed to navigate the harried streets of Hanoi with a guy twice her size is a tribute to her scooter-driving acumen!

Later we joined friends at a Japanese Hot Pot Restaurant.  The seven of us enjoyed way more food than we all could eat before finally heading to a shisha bar (in the US: hooka) which Josh loved as well.

It was a great first day for Josh.  Vietnam is nothing like he expected.  And I think he loves it so far!  :o)

Meanwhile, I realized this morning that I never posted pics of the Sunday road trip Thanh, Van and I took two weeks ago. 


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It was a short, half day trip East of Hanoi to Chua But Thap Temple. 

Man walking down the street selling bread out of a styrofoam box on his head.

Our stop for breakfast pho.

Crossing the Long Bien bridge (for scooters only)

The Red River

Along the main road, there was one lady after another selling the same fresh bread.

Farmers along the dyke on which we travelled

Chua But Thap Temple is a Buddhist temple located near the dyke of the Duong River, Thuan Thanh District. The temple is also popularly called Nhan Thap Temple and houses the biggest Avalokiteśvara statue with one thousand eyes and one thousand arms. Or something like that.

I loved this: You can't see it too well, but the box on the right is a donation box.
On it, in yellow print it says "Box for Kindness".

Wide load ahead!