Last day in Hanoi and Cat Ba day 1

Yesterday

Yesterday we took the city bus 10km south of Hanoi to a ceramic village.  As we expected, we didn't love the ceramic village that much but it was a fun excursion and less touristy than you might expect.  (The bus we were on was filled with locals also going there to shop.)  It's always fun to ride the local bus and we were sitting by an 8 year old girl who was completely enamored by us and vice versa.  I was dripping sweat to an extent second only to Core Power.  Then we came back into the city and hung out a bia hoi for a while before walking to Lenin park, a very nice park also mostly frequented by locals.  By the end of the day, we were both pretty tired of the city, which was exasperated when we got entirely dissed trying to buy fruit.  Hanoi is seriously the most overwhelming place we have ever been.  With the constant car/motorbike honking, hectic traffic and nonstop commotion, it took a ton of energy to do anything.  So we ended up eating Bun Cha for dinner again.  Normally we are opposed to eating at the same place twice, but it was just sooo good, close to the hotel, and somewhere we knew we'd be welcomed.

Before moving on from Hanoi (on this blog, we've already done so in real life), we wanted to share the many uses of sidewalks there.  We already mentioned they are seldom used for walking, but here are some of the other things we saw them being used for:

• Selling/buying anything and everything
• Eating and drinking

• Sleeping
• Parking your car or motorbike
• Valet parking your motorbike
• Going the wrong way down a one-way street (when there is enough space)
• Getting your motorbike serviced
• Welding
• Fixing fans
• Making signs 
• Raising chickens

• Culling chickens; and
• Setting up a barber shop

Today

This morning we took a 5 hour bus-boat-bus ride to Cat Ba Island, the largest island off the coast of Vietnam.  It's popular with international and local tourists alike.  So far the food hasn't been a fraction as good as the food in Hanoi, but feels really freakin' awesome to be on a beautiful and calm island after the hot, dirty, sticky, busy city.

By the Way

That apparently white pomegranate we bought was indeed a white pomegranate!  It was delicious - not as flavorful as a regular pomegranate but super crisp and refreshing (and pretty!).