Done with our tour, we hail an Uber to take us back to the hotel. While we are waiting, a couple comes in and rents bikes to ride on their own around the lake. Really? Wow, you are way more adventurous than us! We ask them if they are familiar/good with the traffic, and they both sort of shrug. Best of luck to you then. That’s just crazy, especially after what we just went through with a guide. No way we’d do it alone, but hey, there are all different levels of crazy in this world.
We wish them well as we hop in our safe little Uber for the ride to the Old Quarter. On the way, we snap tons of pictures of all the scooters filled with Tet preparations – these are the pictures we would have loved to have shot from the bikes – and more – but….from the car will just have to do.
Here are the scooters with cherry blossom sticks…
And the cherry blossom vendors on the side of the road….
And the kumquat tree vendors….
And a miscellaneous cart full of flowers along with a scooter packed with some sort of urn and packages….
That’s Hanoi road scenes for you. And the traffic isn’t even all that bad right now!
Back at the hotel, we decompress from our bike riding, warming up and watching the traffic beep on by below us. Tonight we are sticking close to home again and going to the Gourmet Corner Restaurant on the 12th floor of our sister hotel 4 doors down, the La Siesta Diamond. The restaurant gets great reviews, and while it’s not our normal cheap eats, it does have a fantastic view and a great menu. We have our gang at the front desk make reservations for us, and pop over at the designated time.
We are greeted in the hotel lobby by a lovely fellow who calls the elevator for us, then has a long discussion about Luang Prabang (our next destination), even looking up the weather on his cell phone (because there is a heat wave going on and he can’t believe it will be so hot there). We can’t say it enough – there is no where else we would ever stay in Hanoi than with the Elegance Hospitality Group. Their service cannot be beat.
Arriving upstairs at the restaurant we are shown to our table, right in the middle of the small dining room looking over the lake. Sarah, our waitress, greeted us, took our drink orders and proceeded to make a memorable meal even more special. She was a joy – talkative, friendly, fun. She explained all of our dishes and pointed out the differences the chefs here make in the preparation. We started out with traditional Hanoi fried spring rolls, but these were wrapped in netted rice paper, which we’d never seen before. It completely changed the texture, making the rolls incredibly crispy, but lighter than normal rice paper. A real treat.
Then we moved on to Cha Ca for me (a Hanoi specialty of grilled fish that you make into rolls with rice paper) …
…and Pho for Ed.
All were totally incredibly prepared, and well worth the extra expense for the food and the view. As we finished off our meal and drinks, we pointed out our balcony to Sarah, in full view from the restaurant, and told her we’d wave to her when we got home. Along with our bill came a comment sheet, which we filled out with high praise for Sarah and for our meal. Two days later, we received an email from the Asst. Restaurant Manager thanking us for the comments, and telling us he was “over the moon” that we found the food and service excellent and that we had complimented Sarah. Customer service – at its finest!
And a great ending to a wonderful day in Hanoi.
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