2/8–Hanoi day 1–afternoon

In planning out our Hanoi adventures, I had stumbled upon a restaurant called Bar Betta that looked totally cool, but knew it was too far from the hotel to be practical for dinner.  As it so happened, though, Bar Betta is about 1/2 a block from the Fine Arts Museum, so I had a plan.  And a good plan it turned out to be!  Bar Betta is a funky little cafe that is reached by climbing up a huge steep set of stairs.

There is a cute little downstairs with different seating areas…

…then a lovely, large balcony patio on the third floor.

Being that it was such a great day, we chose the balcony patio and made ourselves at home in the sun.  We were the only people there, save for an employee or two eating their lunch in the back.  The menus alone were worth coming here.  Printed on old vinyl records, we had a blast reading them…including the obligatory typos…We think we’re passing on the Bar Betta Buger. 

Actually, the place specializes in barbeque, and there is so much to choose from, we can’t really decide what we want. The adorable waitress suggests we have the Ha Noi special spring rolls – she was quite aghast that we’d not had them before and said they were only available in Hanoi and a must try.  Ok, we’re good with that!  Ed ordered the BBQ duck, and I ordered something else (that I can’t remember now – but as it turns out there was so much food – I cancelled it!). 

As we munched through our meal – all excellent and perfectly prepared – one of the guys came upstairs and moved the big BBQ oil drum to the side of the patio.  Our waitress explained he was going to burn offerings in the pre-Tet tradition and asked if we minded.  Which of course we didn’t, so we spent the time finishing our drinks and watching the cremation of fake paper money, paper wrapping and whatever is in those bunny-looking packages our waitress shyly held up for us to take a picture. 

When the ashes got to be a bit much and our drinks were finished, we made our way downstairs, past the funky bathroom with the star/famous rebel portrait covered doors that didn’t really shut (going to the bathroom while Che stares down on you isn’t all that comfortable!) and the roof that didn’t fully cover the area, down the curved staircase with more old movie star photos….

…and down to the main floor to pay. Back out into the cacophony of the streets, we retrace our steps to the main road, passing a sidewalk barber – oh – Ed should have waited!…

…and stroll the 2 miles back to the hotel, passing the ubiquitous bicycle vendors toting impossibly huge quantities of wares on the bikes or just hauling everything in their bamboo baskets…

stopping once again at Viettel to get the SIM card fixed because it wasn’t accessing the network.  Once that’s accomplished, we relax at the hotel for a bit, then make the trek up to the wine store for supplies (not so crazy prices, and at least it appears to be good wine), passing one of the many scooter parking areas…

… then watching the sunset from the patio while we get ready to go to Bia Hoi corner and then dinner.