The hostel, this time somewhere at the west side of the city center, was not so good. It was more like a hotel. Pretty dirty, no good air-condition. The fun part of the day started with an excellent lunch with one of Quan’s cousins, Tuấn Anh. Thanks a lot mate, for taking us out!
In the evening, we met Quan, his sister Hamy and a friend of Quan. We had a great BBQ at the same place we had been before with Linh, under the train trails. Afterwards, we walked through the main market road and around the lake, having good conversations. We also hast a funny live experience sharing via WhatsApp Video Call with the G-Unit mates at home in Germany.
Soup breakfast in the morning at Pho Gia Truyen on Bat Dan, where we had to queue. Then, some blogging at Tranquil Cafe with airconditioning.
Some more Hanoi cafè impressions:
We went for lunch with some friends. Afterwards, we walked to Tuấn Anh’s family jeans shop. Tuấn Anh’s Mum was also around. I asked Quan if he could ask his aunt my question about happiness. She answered that two things are important to her. First, their kids should follow a reasonable path in their life and should have a good job. And second, the business should feed the family and allow them to have a good and normal life. Quan told me that this is a widely common perception of happiness in Vietnam.
Afterwards, we went to the cinema by Uber to watch Baywatch. Haha.
In the evening, we went out for dinner and a delicious dessert with Linh again. Thanks for taking us out once more, Linh! Awesome experience again. You are always most welcome to visit us in Germany and we will share some “Schweinebraten”. 🙂
The next day, Melli was about to fly out for Singapore. So I moved my stuff back to the Old Quater View Hostel in the very centre of the old town. We had been there before, a very cool place. We went for a coffee in a hidden cafè at the central lake and walked further to one more coffee place to do some writing.
The way up to the café:
Meli had left for Singapore already. For lunch, Hamy, Quan and I met up. We had a delicious local style sandwich and some fried prawn cake. Wow, how tasty is that! We agreed that some beer drinking is a nice way to enjoy the Sunday afternoon. Since all the local pubs were kind of unavailable as of the heat (we suffered from 40 degrees and strong humidity), Quan’s uncle organised some 24 cans of Heineken and some dried squid fish. It’s funny to see how Asian people pretend to be strong beer drinkers. 😉 Quan’s uncle explained, that I will not be welcomed again if we don’t finish the beers. Haha. Nothing more easy than that, for a German. 😉 We hang around, I followed some conversations in Vietnamese. Well, the only thing I could grasp were emotions. Exactly zero content. I would have appreciated to be at least in a Spanish conversation. Quan’s cousins brought some more dried beef and fresh spring rolls. The parents of Quan joined in the late afternoon for some typical dinner on the street. Then, we walked around the lake to increase the performance of our digestion. My stomach was so full. One local ice cream should still be possible. Very delicious.
Quan and I separated from the others to hang out at a bar having some conversations. They had live music. The waitress asked, if I would like to play on stage? Still being quite far away from being sober I said, “Sure, I can do some Lemontree from Fools Garden for you guys!” I had fun with the band on stage … a good guitarist performance looks different though. Haha. I’m glad that no one but Quan knew me in that bar. 😉
I went to bed at 12.30 a.m. to get up at 4.00 a.m. in order to catch the flight to Singapore.
Quan, Hamy, Linh, Tuần, and all my Vietnamese friends: It was amazing spending time with you and sharing these great local experiences! You guys are always welcome to visit in Germany!
Come with us to explore Singapore.