Day 15. Vietnam Diary – Hanoi

Whisky barrel coffee, brain freeze, too many avocadoes

Day 15. Saturday 1 June 2024

I’m in the air conditioning of Sonder Coffee Bar, awaiting a V60 whisky barrel Vietnamese coffee (60k vnd). They didn’t appear to do phin coffee. Gah, not had my hot condensed milk coffee fix in days.

It occurred to me yesterday that it’s not as hot here as it was in Saigon, or Hue. But it’s very hot. And humid. I know it’s hotter in the south/Saigon but it’s just a difference in degrees of hotness and how much more respite/cooling-off I needed in Saigon than here.

I had a lazy morning, reading. Holiday and away-from-home time is a different pace. I’m sleeping better here, though seem to wake early, around 03:40, and doze.

My whisky barrel coffee actually has a hint of whisky. It’s a really good coffee. The cinnamon croissant was also good.

I headed out to a Thai restaurant a mere block away last night. As soon as I got there, I recognised it from Google but it seemed a bit too big-tables/sociable. I asked for a table. The host seemed perturbed. There were a lot of seats free but a stream of groups of mainly young women were coming in and taking up their reserved tables. The host did Google Translate and asked “Do you mind being vegetarian?”. I don’t really know what it meant but I shook my head. Then, as more groups piled through, another man came over and said what I took to mean no tables available. It did seem like there was an event, so much so that I Googled Thai new year (April; been and gone). I actually felt relieved to be moving on. I went to the Thai restaurant I’d scoped out the other day, where I felt comfortable. Something did seem to have been going on at that first restaurant.

I had the prawn pad Thai and beer that I’d been craving. It came to 170k. I keep forgetting there’s usually a 2k vnd charge for the packaged “refreshing wipes”. The meal wasn’t exceptional but was exactly what I fancied. I tried to order the 99k fried banana balls with coconut ice cream but no banana balls that day. How very disappointing. I have fond memories of my mum making deep fried banana dessert with a scoop of ice cream when I was a child.

I paid, left and headed for Marou Chocolate, the luxury Vietnamese chocolate brand I’d first come across in Hue. Their chocolate is made from Vietnamese cocoa, which I have never knowingly tried before. I say that like I might know something about cocoa. I don’t. I just like some chocolate more than other chocolate. I’m not a huge chocolate fan, but when you fancy it, you gotta have it.

Somehow, I spent 771k vnd. Why is good chocolate so expensive? I bought some bars as gifts and a banana chocolate cookie for me and, while there, I ate a delicious cup of chocolate ice cream (55k vnd) with very tasty granola-like crunchy bits and shards of chocolate on top. Rich, chocolatey deliciousness.

I’ve been wondering what I want to do and eat and drink for my last couple of days here. I’d like to buy some lanterns (depending on if they flatten), I definitely need more phin coffee. I will eat at least two more avocados (I have two almost ripe and ready to eat in the flat). Food-wise, I’m not too bothered, but Vietnamese food.

Yesterday, on my way back after the train viewing, I paid 50k vnd to go into Hỏa Lò Prison Relic. Relic isn’t my choice of word, I think it refers to a museum that is also something original, in this case an old French colonial prison. It was about 16:15 (they closed at 17:00 but I was probably there until about 17:15, longer than I expected). It was also busier than I expected and quite a lot of overseas tourists. I’d walked past it before and been interested. I suspect a lot of the other western visitors also were interested more in the Vietnam War/”Hanoi Hilton” element than the late 1800s until 1940s (very ish), the start of that time period being under the French “influence”. There was no mention of the US prisoners until a display outside later on. Overall, the museum wasn’t worth a visit. I don’t really know why but I didn’t connect with it, and I did read most of the signs. It also felt a bit heavy on the rose-tinting where all Vietnamese/Communist prisoners were concerned as they all seemed to have done nothing wrong. Maybe their “crimes” often were “just” protesting, but it felt like a very one-sided portrayal of good v bad, the prison conditions and French colonialists being bad, the prisoners good … I could go round and round in circles with this. Prisoners were clearly treated horrifically. It was all bad. What do I know? It also sounded like an all-round jolly for the US Marines and Air Force captured and held there. Hmm.

I don’t often go to the same places twice while on holiday but I’m back at my favourite Hanoi coffee shop, Loading T, that’s in an old French villa and plays Edith Piaff and Françoise Hardy. I love their cinnamon coffee. This time, I have at least varied my order; an iced coconut coffee is being made. It turns out I bloody love coconut coffee.

I’ve bought some lanterns, which I have decided will be for the cabin I need to get on with building.

I walked to a Refined phin coffee bar about 30 minutes from “home”, across from the Literary Pagoda, which I could see from across the road, over the wall; there are some interesting buildings in the complex. I wasn’t in the mood for going into the temple complex and having a tourist experience, but I was definitely in the mood for a coffee experience. It turns out there are two other Refined phin coffee bars, at least one being closer to where I’m staying, but I’m glad I went somewhere new. Plus, I had a lovely chat with the barista.

Oh gawd, that coconutty coffee. It’s huge and I have no idea how it’s made but there’s ice cream, sort of, and general OMGness. This is probably the best one so far.

Coconut iced coffee BRAIN FREEZE!

The cool barista in Refined spoke very good English and we chatted for a while. He offered me a food recommendation based on the food I’d told him that I’d particularly enjoyed. He suggested Bún Mọc Thủy at 10 Ng. Đào Duy Từ, which is the beer area, a few doors down the alleyway from Hair Salon Canh Leonardo, the one I’d previously scoped out and planned to visit. He told me they served rice noodle soup with really good meatballs. It was busy and I couldn’t at first see a spare (low) stool. Maybe 40 or so seats. A man who seemed to be in charge of seating found me a spot and I sat at the table. There was no menu, though I saw a list of drinks in Vietnamese. The people next to me had soup with, as the barista had said, meatballs. I sat for a few minutes, feeling oversized on a miniscule low stool and table. Then out came a bowl of hot soup. Seriously, destination noodle and pork (probably) meatball soup. I absolutely loved it. I didn’t even have to make confused menu choices. That bowl of happy memories cost 40k vnd (32k = £1). I’ve just Googled and it seems to be a mushroom and pork broth with pork meatballs, fresh herbs and bamboo shoots. That all sounds right for how it tasted and looked. Amazing.

I’ve bought a few gifts in Vietnam. It’s making me wonder what visitors to the UK would buy that are traditionally British. It wouldn’t be a given that they’d be things hand crafted in the UK, but I always see tourists carrying Lego and M&Ms bags around Leicester Square, neither being British brands.

I’m going to head home now and pick up some bottled water. I’m going to eat salad and avocado for dinner. Very happily. I also have my fancy banana chocolate cookie.

It’s almost bed time. I had dinner at “home”. It would appear that two large avocados in one meal was enough to draw a line under my avocado obsession for a while. In view of my going home in two days, it’s good timing. They were very tasty avocados though, but I have definitely proven to myself that you can love something too much, or have too much of a good thing.

I tried a new fruit today, amarilla. The helpful man at the juice bar said that whatever variation I’d asked for was sour – I’d asked if it would be sweet. Sour is a fairly big no for me. Unless it’s sour jelly sweets. He suggested amarilla and pineapple. Nice. 35k vnd well spent. And it was green, so surely super duper healthy?!