I woke up early to try and hire a motorcycle for the day. The guesthouse was quoting 10 USD, but I knew I could get a better price. So I ventured out, and asked the driver of a random motorbike taxi. He asked for an outrageous 1 million Dong (which works out to around 52 USD). I didn’t even attempt to negotiate, but just walked on ahead and asked a different motorbike taxi driver. This one seemed to be offering a good deal but because of the large communication gap between us, we couldn’t reach an agreement. So I took him back to my hostel and requested the guy at the reception to act as a translator. In the end, I was really glad I did so, because this dude wanted 16 USD for letting me ride his motorcycle for 3 hours with him sitting behind me all the time… yeah right!

Beautiful church near my hostel

So I gave up asking the motorbike taxi guys and instead walked to a street called Ta Hien where I’d been told that one could rent motorbikes for cheap. Here I got an excellent one for just 4 USD. The pillion seat looked very uncomfortable, and that was a worry; but later we learnt that it was actually not bad at all.

As planned the previous evening, Pavi and I met up in the old quarter of Hanoi, and went in search of a place to have a traditional Vietnamese breakfast. Unfortunately, it was not at all easy to find. Everywhere we looked, we only found western touristy breakfast items on the menu, and without any way to reliably convey what exactly we were looking for, we had to finally settle for a not-so-great semi-traditional Vietnamese lunch.

Then like ideal tourists, we visited a few well known pagodas, including the famous one on Hoan Kiem lake. There is a mythical story associated with the lake about a large turtle returning a King’s sword to the bottom where it rightfully belonged or something along those lines. The turtle apparently shows itself on rare occasions and people who spot it will have a lot of good fortune. We tried to better our fortune for a long time, but unfortunately the turtle wasn’t willing.

The one-pillar pagoda

Perfect place to chill with a book and a coffee

We rode around the streets of the old quarter looking for the culture shock that westerners write so much about. But being used to much more crowded, much noisier and way more colourful markets in India, we found it rather disappointing.

Pavi bai kelewaali

For coffee and an early dinner we went to the City View cafe next to Hoan Kiem lake. It was among the more expensive places in town, but one could get a nice view of the lake from up there, and enjoy a pleasant breeze.

City view cafe also had a decent road view

Lake view later in the evening

After Pavi left for home, I returned the motorbike and walked back to the hostel. Just as I was entering the building, there was a small commotion outside. A drunken man was beating the living daylights out of another dude. There was a fallen motorcycle nearby, and someone who tried to intervene also got a few pastings. There were some casual onlookers in nearby shops, but nobody seemed to care much. I don’t say this with pride, but I also did not have the courage to do something and preferred to watch from the sidelines. I was later told that in Vietnam, hardly anyone approaches the police to settle differences. Instead, depending on the situation, matters are resolved either with verbal abuses or with fists, in a not-so-nice survival of the fittest manner.

Later at night I ran into Jamie & Johnny, two young guys from the UK, who I had first met on the bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh city. They were staying at the same hostel that I was staying in, and like me, were booking tickets for a trip to Halong Bay.