Today, Leon did not place his phone directly next to the bed again, which led him to wake up with the first alarm.
Malte, on the other hand, could not fall asleep again and spent the night on the sofa. There he was found by a well-rested Leon, as Malte simply could not find any restorative sleep that night. While Leon sat at the computer and expanded the blog with new features, Malte dozed on the sofa a bit longer into the morning. Nevertheless, we managed to get out of the house again today, where a morning challenge awaited us. Our neighbors from the “Moon Café” had been busy renovating all night and had “blessed” us with a door hanging directly in front of our back exit.
You cannot just park your scooter on the street in Hanoi; you need a garage or a space in the house to store it. Our house has a back entrance that ends in a tiny niche, which leads to a small alley. Towards the street, we have another neighbor, the “Moon Café,” whose back entrance we have to pass to reach the street. Therefore, we push our scooter past their place through the little niche to the back entrance of our house – or rather, we would like to do that. The owners of the Moon Café have the annoying habit of placing all sorts of junk, trash, tables, refrigerators, and even their scooters in a way that truly prevents anyone from passing through the niche, let alone reaching the street. We are not the only ones suffering from this.
While pushing the scooter out, Malte bumped his leg against the hanging door, resulting in a minor scrape. Nothing earth-shattering, but the good mood and neighborly love were gone. Just like on previous days, we sought a somewhat friendly conversation with the operators of the Moon Café, who always seemed very understanding. However, the story strongly reminds us of Malte’s last visit to Vietnam, where no change occurred despite complaints, which is why our hopes for improvement are low. While in Germany, neighbors can threaten each other with lawsuits over a hedge that’s too tall, in Vietnam, people try to settle everything without involving the authorities. Because without the police, it remains cheaper for both parties.
With a quick ride to the café, we tried to forget the annoyance and headed to our favorite local spot. Malte, still a bit wild from the confrontation, opted for a salted coffee. Leon took the safer route with a coconut coffee and a lemonade. So we sat there, watching the activities on the street again, and contemplated what we still wanted to experience in the coming weeks. In the first week, we had already seen a lot of Hanoi and booked a “Free Walking Tour” for the next day to discover even more. However, we also wanted to explore Vietnam outside of Hanoi. Our ideas ranged from night bus trips and sending scooters across the country to buying two old scooters. After weighing fun, costs, effort, and time, we settled on our plan: We would travel to Da Nang and take a round trip by scooter to Ho Chi Minh City. Laos and Cambodia were also on the list, but despite our now-acquired expertise in visa matters, there were still some open questions. Online, there were conflicting reports depending on which embassy one consulted. The reports from other travelers did not make things any easier.
Oh, and by the way: The people at the neighboring café are still striking, but maybe it’s just a place for strange characters. We are slowly doubting our theory about it being an opium den.
Next, we went to the eyewear store to have Leon’s incorrectly adjusted glasses repaired. While Leon was busy, Malte found a Bun Cha shop nearby, which practically invited him for breakfast. Malte finished eating Bun Cha just as Leon emerged from the store with his repaired glasses.
Since one coffee today was not enough for us, we headed towards West Lake to the “CONG Café” to treat ourselves to a salt coffee and a Bac Xiu. The café is designed in the style of Vietnamese war tunnels, with camouflage decor and baristas in camouflage uniforms. We were still not sure how we wanted to travel to Da Nang, but ultimately the 1.5-hour flight time won out over a 20-hour bus ride.
After the unsuccessful pants shopping of the day before, Malte had found a store for larger sizes. So we made another attempt and visited the shop called “Old Sailor.” Although they had pants with a larger waist size, they were all too short. Thus, the topic of “pants shopping in Vietnam” was temporarily closed for Malte.
Since we had already gathered information on our planned scooter route, we wanted to inquire at the embassies of Laos and Cambodia about the entry requirements to avoid a second nasty surprise like the Indian visa. We are adaptable! Our digital passport copies were enough to gain access to the embassies – we had simply left the originals “for safety” at home. Even a transit visa cost about 40 euros, which seemed too expensive for a short stay of two to four days. There were also no clear statements regarding entry with our own scooters, but rather vague ones. There seemed to be particular difficulties for rental scooters without proof of ownership. Since we had decided to rent the scooters in Da Nang, there could potentially be issues here. As a solution, we had the option of “Visa on Arrival” at the large border crossings near Ho Chi Minh City. If we fail there – which we expect – we already have a plan B for an alternative return route through the inner parts of Vietnam.
After the embassy visit, we could not skip a sweet dessert. Malte showed Leon “Kem Trung” – a foam made from whipped egg, served with a white bun for dipping. This time, we had our third coffee of the day. This one was an Egg Coffee, a sweet-salty, creamy coffee specialty with egg. Slowly, the theory that there could be a connection between coffee consumption and lack of sleep is forming. A vicious cycle.
On the way back through the rush hour of Hanoi, we managed the traffic and arrived home safely. At home, we rested a bit and then spontaneously decided to go to the cinema. We chose a modern cinema in the new “Lotte Mall”. We would have preferred to see a local production, but since our Vietnamese was not sufficient for that, we opted for an American blockbuster: “Venom.” American productions are shown in Vietnam in their original language with subtitles. On the way, we also had “Bun Rieu” – a rice noodle soup in a tomato broth. Leon chose the variant with crab and beef, while Malte opted for the one with tofu and crab meat.
At the cinema, we purchased two tickets for the hall, snacks, two large lychee teas, and popcorn in two flavors for a total of 10.44 euros. The film was exciting, and we enjoyed the experience. On the way back, we had a video call with friends from Dresden and showed them our ride through the nighttime Hanoi. Once home, we treated ourselves to freshly squeezed juice, relaxed with a game of chess, and worked on blog posts before grabbing another juice around 2 AM.
Around three o’clock, we finally managed to get to bed.
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