While Hong Kong is in constant motion, a constant buzz of business and human movement, Hanoi is frantic in a more personal way, which I found to be more pleasant, but not inviting.
I was staying at Hanoi Backpackers and Rooftop Bar, a new, purpose-renovated building. It was large, well-designed and completely impersonal and lacking in character. I was staying in a dorm, Hong Kong having depleted my savings much earlier into my trip than I would have liked.
The first morning some beautiful backpackers and I became refugees from the walking tour. After multiple attempts to phone the guide and to catch up with the group, my suggestion to just find a cafe and try the egg coffee was actioned in the absence of better ideas. After a perilous road crossing, we made our way through a dark corridor, up some rickety stairs and to the cafe, where we sat at a counter on the balcony overlooking the road we just risked our lives crossing. I and the three ladies ordered egg coffees, while the only other male, a Dutchman, ordered a black coffee.
A Hanoi specialty, the egg coffee is a result borne from a need for a dairy option in coffee where getting dairy products transported and kept from spoiling was an extreme difficulty. Egg coffee is made by topping up Robusta coffee with a cream made from egg yolk, sugar and condensed milk. It sounds bizarre to anone who has not tried it, but to me is delicious, and more of an after dinner dessert coffee rather than a morning caffeine hit.
After we finished our coffees and a pat with the cafe cat, we walked around Ho Houn Kien Lake.
Plans were discussed for a swim in one of the hostel pools, but I choose to leave them to enjoy that while I hunted out lunch and some more walking.
Adrian's Got The Moose 