Waking up in the very lovely Silk Path Hotel we were most impressed with its location: right next to Hang Gai ( Silk Street) and only a couple of blocks to Glasses Street as we call it. Clutching our optometrist prescriptions for our spectacles we were on a mission.
The result was:
-29 pairs of glasses purchased (and collected by the end of the day!). Not a bad effort for 8 of us!
- two credit cards lost in the local ATMs. Interestingly enough the one swallowed by the ANZ bank ATM was very difficult to retrieve, and the one swallowed by a local Bank extremely easy. (I think a few letters might be going to the ANZ complaining about their poor response - heaven help their complaints department!).
We also managed a trip to Koto restaurant for lunch. It's a training program for kids off the streets set up by Vietnamese- born Australian Jimmy Phan. Fabulous food which we really enjoyed.
Then a wander around the Temple of Literature which was decorated with all sorts of garish delights - flags, topiary , flower beds with messages etc to celebrate the Birthday of Confucius. There is a huge statue of him in the Temple and the Temple honours 72 scholars all of whom have their achievements recorded on large marble tablets supported by a turtle. The turtles all have different faces and expressions which I loved.
More wandering the streets of the Old Quarter shopping and trying not to get mown down by the traffic every time we crossed a street. There are more motorbikes and cars and fewer pushbikes than I remember from 4 years ago, and still the compliance with the traffic lights is minimal.
The state of the electricity wires appears to be worse than ever and is now immortalised on a T-shirt with a photo of tangled wires and the words : 'VIETNAM TELECOM'.
We soon faded in the heat and noise as we weren't accustomed to it, and had a quick dinner, followed by some illicit G&Ts and Grand Marnier on ice before bed.
Your be-spectacled correspondent
Dianne
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