The many hours of sleep during the two flights apparently had not been enough for the both us to be fully rested. Although we had set the alarm at 10:00 to make sure we wouldn’t wake up in the afternoon we found it difficult to battle the jet lag and took us another four hours before we sat down for a coffee besides the Hoan Kiem Lake. Overlooking the lake and all tourist activities we decide our main mission for today is buying some extra sweaters as the forecast for Sa Pa is near to snow and icy conditions.
We soon find out that The North Face must have a huge market share in Vietnam without being reflected in their revenue. A three layered Gore Tex jacket sets us back a whopping 300.000 Dong, the two Starbucks coffee at Schiphol were more expensive.
After a lazy lunch we continue our crash course “crossing Vietnamese streets”, the endless streams of scooters, bike taxis and cars is best crossed by walking in a straight line without stopping and looking straight ahead. (Voor je kijken doorlopen, wie denk je wel niet dat je bent, tadadatatada. #jeugdvantegenwoordig).
Passing the clothing-street, metalworkers-street and many other trade-streets we sit down for a beer at a bar on the first floor overlooking a busy square and watch the sun set over Hanoi.
As the evening passes we have a semi fancy and very tasteful meal and after a short stop at a public open air concert of the Vietnamese Justin Bieber we call it a night. Tomorrow we get up before sunrise to head north to Sa Pa.