Hanoi with the Rentals

Ahhhh, it is SO good to see these two lovely smiley faces! We had a fab few days in Hanoi. This is Mum and Dad’s first visit to SE Asia (they are spending a week with us, then travelling to Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat and then Hong Kong), so everything is a new experience for them. Every new city is exciting for us too, but it’s fun seeing SE Asia through new eyes, and everything is an adventure….crossing the road with the millions of mopeds zooming around, ordering a beer, wondering through a market, tasting new fruits….We’ve been so excited to show them everything and share part of our experience with them.

We had 3 days in Hanoi in which we did a lot of exploring, a lot of drinking coffee, a bit of sight-seeing and a lot of drinking wine in nice places. Our hotel was spectacular and was a real indulgence (thank you ma and pa))-we had ridiculously long showers, drank cocktails on the roof, gorged ourselves on the incredible buffet breakfast (who new dumplings, sausages, sushi, fruit, and pain au chocolate oozing with chocolate sauce would make a good combo?!) and swam in the rooftop pool…heavenly!

Mum's having Chish and Fips!

Perhaps the funniest part of our time in Hanoi was when we went to a matinee performance of the Hanoi Water Puppets…We were tickled from the outset as Dad sat on the fold-up chair, and promptly fell straight through it as the entire seat had fallen off, much to the amusement of the rest of the auditorium (but mostly us!). After getting that fixed, we were treated to an extraordinary feast of puppetry, whereby we spent a (thankfully short) 45 minute water-puppet, come school-project extravaganza where peeling wooden puppets were thrown about in what was essentially a large bucket of water by some people standing behind a curtain. But hey, at 100 dong (about £3) per ticket you can’t complain and it was definitely worth it for the laugh!