18th March: Hanoi, Vietnam

We began our final full day in Vietnam by attempting to try a fancy tea house. As well as anywhere comfy being taken, one look at the menu made us up and leave. One pot of tea was the same amount that we’d normally spend on food for both of us for two days! Thankfully, we found another place just down the street with a lovely courtyard and normal prices. I finally tried egg coffee, which is a speciality of Hanoi. This particular café also added rum to the whipped egg yolk and sugar which sat on top of strong black coffee. Sipping the coffee through the topping provided an unexpectedly fantastic flavour. It was as if someone had made a strong tiramisu and used Advocaat for the alcohol element.

I also enjoyed a sour Arabica espresso, with a generous aftertaste of fruits and whisky, before we continued on through the old streets. We happened upon the old French cathedral, which had an odd grey patterned exterior that made it look like an oversized polystyrene model.

After zig-zagging eastwards, lunch was tofu and mushroom banh mis with a mango, pineapple, and passion fruit smoothie whilst sitting beside Hoan Kiem Lake. Regardless of how hungry I am, I can seemingly always eat an entire banh mi in Vietnam and still want more. The bread is so light compared with the baguettes we get at home.

To the east of the lake is the French quarter. Aside from the post office, where we sent our final postcard, we didn’t find it a particularly interesting area these days. We meandered back through the old city, this time its northern edge. Kaja wanted dinner, so we stopped at a place we’d been to previously with a lovely balcony. She had vegan meatballs and rice with a kumquat and ginger iced tea, whilst I savoured my final southeast Asian watermelon juice.

Walking back west, the streets at rush hour were crazy. We wanted to get a Grab to take us to a supermarket but driver after driver cancelled on us until we gave up. On the pavements, people were adding to the infamously poor air quality by burning (fake) money for good luck.

After letting rush hour subside, we managed to get a taxi at about 8pm. The shopping centre was extremely fancy, akin to some in China. Half a dozen staff let me try coffees brewed from some of the hundreds of ground beans they had, which perhaps wasn’t the best idea at this time of night! We picked up a few goodies to take back with us to share just a taste of Vietnam. I had a snack of bananas and chocolate and an awesome oat yoghurt with mango and jellies from across the road when we got back. It felt crazy that this would be our final night in Asia.

Average spend per person per day for Vietnam: £23.65