Backdate: Hanoi trip Day 6 & 7

11/4/16 Mon: We had breakfast at Mint cafe opp our hotel. Look at the egg's pic in the menu...

But hey, what's with mine!? Anyw, we have the whole day to explore Hanoi ourselves, and so we walked on, and took a photo of the famous St Joseph's Cathedral, which was 3mins' away from whr we stay.

Visited the Hoa Lo prison (entrance VND 30,000) to learn more about the history of war in Vietnam. First part was how Vietnamese were caught and help in captive by the Americans. The one below is the original main gate to the prison.

It was dark and living conditions were very poor. This is not the original prison by the way cos the govt did not keep 100% of it. And in attempts to escape, which they did successfully through a very small tunnel...

I felt all gloomy inside. The museum also showed how American soldiers were much better treated the nex time they were caught instead, in contrast to the Viet prisoners.
Aft the visit, we went to Cafe Giang to have Vietnam speciality: egg coffee. Recommended by YB's dad. There were even cacao with eggs, rum cocktail with eggs, eggs with green beans, beer with eggs etc on the menu...

I had the iced egg coffee for VND 20,000, and it tasted like creme brulee to me lol! Next, we went for sticky rice for lunch juz next to it. We sat in a small corner on the second flr, and I must say I liked their sticky rice with crispy dry onions! Very fulfilling too. Chicken meat was delicious, and the billed worked out to only VND 31,000 each.

Had to find our way on foot to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Otw, bought myself a pair of blue sports shoes (rejected ones) for VND 300,000 at Hang Dau street. *Jess shld feel like stabbing herself for not buying the rejected Nike shoes back then haha...*

Bought the tickets for VND100,000 for the 4pm show, and we were seated pretty near to the front. It depicts the daily life of Vietnamese in the past, them fishing, and the legend of Hoan Kiem lake as well. Quite entertaining, and up till today, I'm wondering how the actors actually hold their puppets in the waters neh?

We randomly explored the streets nearby, and chanced upon this stamp maker. I bought three (VND 300,000) and Jess actually bought 6! I rmbed we went to some pharmacy to look for some medicine too. Dinner was at Gecko restaurant, we tot it looked cosy and jus went in.

My shrimps with garlic pasta (VND 85,000) was so-so, but filling. Oh and I rmb-ed the waitress praising Jess's smile, and I joked "too bad not waitER" LOL! Walked back to our hotel, and YB's dad sent us each a box of green tea cakes, and some stuff for me to help carry back to SG. I wanted to get some coffee for mum to try, so we went out and I managed to buy 2 packets of 250g Arabica coffee powder for VND 470,000. The owners grinded the beans to powder for me on the spot. *But sadly, I dun think my parents finished it lor! Still sitting at hm now leh lol!*

Craved for supper and we saw this eatery selling korean food, so we took away korean rice cakes and bimbap back to our rms to eat!

12/4/16 Tues: 6+am and we had breakfast by the roadside before getting on the cab (VND 250,000) to Noi Bai airport for our 3hrs and 10mins-flight VA661 at 10.40am. I liked the soup, bee hoon and tau pok in the crab vermicelli, but there wasn't much crab meat la.

Only got to try the famous Vietnam stuffed loaf at the airport lor. USD5 but tastier than Subway imo. *And this concludes our trip to Hanoi, an amazing place!*