More, more, more food!

I know I talk so much about food but how can you not when you're eating so many interesting things?! Below is a picture of the seafood soup I ate here in Hanoi. It consists of shrimp, squid, and who knows what else? Sometimes when I go out they don't know the English name of a food so I don't always know what I'm eating. But this was delicious! I'm going to miss how fresh and awesome the food is here compared to the United States. The donut looking things in the picture below are very hard to eat! Those donuts are okay but don't taste like much compared to American donuts. It's so hard for me to eat the food here...I got worse at chopsticks if that's even possible. But I'm trying to not make a big fool of myself!

Okay, this is another food that a lot of foreigners don't eat when they live or travel overseas. Fertilized egg! I ate a baby chick! I couldn't get over that concept when I was eating these eggs especially when you can see the bird and its feathers. But you know that I had to try it! This is just the small fertilized egg, I still have to try to the bigger one. The eggs were delicious! To eat them you have to peal off the shell to get to the bird. You dip it in the red looking sauce below. I can't describe the texture of what I ate but if are up for it, I would recommend it!

I also ate snails! I ate snails before on the cruise to the Caribbean, but it was not the same here! Snails are very chewy, this is the best way I can describe the texture. You can see a knife in the picture above. You use that to dig the snail out of its shell. You eat only the top part of the snail and not the tail. You also dip it in the red sauce; it was actually pretty good!  I like snails cooked this way the best and not in a soup.

I have also eaten plastic! Just kidding! It's a type of rice that they cut up. This meal consists of strips of dried beef, part of a cooked egg, seafood, and the rice strips. I actually really enjoyed this dish because its so simple. I personally think that a lot of Vietnamese food is heavy, in the sense of how much food they give you in one serving and that a lot of their meals are hot. There aren't many dishes that I have had that are cold and fresh.

We call this next meal runny nose - a name we came up with because of how it looks. You can see below why we call it that! This has peanuts, rice, and something else in it. The one dripping off the spoon is hot and the one below is the cold type of soup. I thought it tasted good and was very interesting to eat.

Getting lost is part of life

I went on a bike ride to the center of the old quarters on Sunday and it was a lot of fun! I'm trying to go out and see as much as possible because my time here is coming to an end. I'm so sad! The main purpose of my adventure was to take some new photos, I hope you enjoy them!

Around the entire West Lake you will find men fishing with a bamboo stick and a roll of fishing line. It's not like a fancy rod you find in America, but it still works! Any time of the day that I go out, there are always men fishing and it's fun to watch them as they continue to swing the line out then back in again. There are many restaurants around the lake where you can eat and people-watch. The men will also swim out into the lake to fish or to grab something which is amazing because the water is very dirty! The fish you can find in the lake are pretty big and they will sell them on the streets sometimes or use in their home. The last picture of fish is of a man who caught a big fish and was pulling it out of the water. I have not seen any women fish at all, it seems to only be a male activity here.

Barber shops are all over this city! You cant go down a main road with out seeing at least five pop-up barber shops. They will have the mirror attached to a fence, tree, or a building. It amazes me that there are so many small businesses here and so many of the same kind.

Around West Lake there a many cruise boats that are mostly very rustic and have never moved since I have been here. They are a used for events and for eating food while cruising.

There are so many old trees when you get closer to the center of the old quarters. They are beautiful and huge! It was amazing to ride under them and to hear all the birds. All the trees here are painted paint on the bottom of the trunk, this is to keep bugs off.

I was sitting at a park enjoying the sunny weather when a young man came up to me and asked if he could talk to me for a little while. Haha I lost count how many times this has happened to me, I know the drill! We sat down and talked in English about him and life here in Vietnam, It was fun and he helped me find my way around the multiple small streets because I was all turned around.

This building is right across Turtle lake and looks just like a cruise ship! Its mostly restaurants and homes through out the building.

I couldn't choose just one photo of the many people below!

The clothes these two people are wearing are hill tribe fabric. I want to say they are tourist but I don't know for sure. I have found it's rare for women to smoke at all but especially in public.

I loved this old man! He was so funny...even though he didn't say one word to me. I was sitting down on the ground next to him and he would keep on looking over at me. But would point at me whenever I dropped my camera cap. And how could you not love his hat!

I was sitting at another park trying to take photos of some barbers when these three men kept of smiling and waving at me. So what does a smart girl do? She goes over and joins them on a little red stool. I really wanted to take photos of them and I had the chance. I sat down with them and they are offering me their drinks and cigarettes. I thought it was so funny! None of them spoke English and I used the limited Vietnamese I know to communicate. Mostly we just used hand gestors to talk to each other, it kind of worked! I was pointing toward one of the guys ring and he tried to give it to me! I was like ohhh no...I don't know what he was trying to say to me. Once he started pointing to his bike and gesturing that we should go for a ride, I decided it was time to leave. But they were a lot of fun! Maybe I will meet them again!