Today we were awaken again at 5am by the sound of St Joseph's ringing bells ..... Never mind. We are to check out of Splendid Star after B/F and to move our luggage back to MAI before leaving for the Hanoi train station for our journey by train to Lao Cai tonight. On our return from Lao Cai in 3 days' time we will stay one more night at MAI (she is very much like our home in Hanoi by now) before leaving for KL.
We take a cab to another market in the morning - Cho Hom, to have a look see. At this market we buy some chikus at 10k dong each. They are huge, very sweet and fragrant. Unfortunately Cho Hom does not have much to offer us compared to Dong Xuan apart from the fruits.
After Cho Hom and having dropped our luggage at MAI we have lunch at Cha Ca Kinh Ky on Duong Thanh. Cha Ca is actually a snake head fish and vegetable/herb dish that has been handed down from
generation to generation. The preparation is done by the chef
and a waiter brings the fried fish to our table and cooks it in a hot pan with fresh herbs and vegetables over a stove. He shows us how it's done before we attempt to
do it ourselves. Mind you that there is only one dish and this is it.
The dish tastes great. The fish is fresh - tastes a little earthy as in a typical river fish.
Voila!
弟弟 says this is his best food so far
Before we leave for Lao Cai, Dinh, the owner of MAI, invites me for a glass of bia hoi. Bia hơi, (usually translated "fresh beer"), is a type of draft beer popular in Vietnam.
At the Hanoi train station - catching our train from Hanoi to Lao Cai (280km). From Lao Cai to Sapa we will be transported in a van and it is only about 30km up the mountains.
We will sleep in this cabin which has 4 soft sleepers for our journey to Lao Cai.
Throughout the day I have been on flu medication and drinking lots of fluids. I am not feeling top of the world and barely keeps up with the heat and humidity of Hanoi.....
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