January 9th & 10th

On January 9^thwe were given a free day to explore the city on our own. We were able to see many of the tourist attractions on the other days of travelling so we spent much of our day wondering the streets and eating as much local food as we could. Vietnamese food is very unique with many staples like bahn mi, pho, and cha ca to name a few. We went to several different bahn mi places to see if we could find the best one in Hanoi. We also went to a restaurant that only serves one thing, cha ca, which is fish cooked in front of you at the tables mixed with other spices and noodles. It was great! We also went and ordered some traditional egg coffee. After World War II, Vietnam did not have access to large quantities of milk.  With the lack of milk, they created egg coffee, a way to make their coffee creamy without milk.  To make egg coffee you whip the yellow part of an egg and add sugar.  

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and has a little over 7 million people living in the city.  The traffic in Hanoi was something we had never seen before.  The majority of people driving on the roads are driving motor bikes allowing them to have easy mobility on the busy streets.  The streets of Hanoi are very hectic and you need to be very careful when walking along.  As a group we have had a few close calls while walking the streets of Hanoi!  You have to walk directly into moving traffic and hope the drivers do not hit you!  Luckily no one of the trip was injured by any moving vehicles on the trip.    

For dinner we all went as a group to an amazing restaurant. It was a restaurant that served Vietnamese food with more formal atmosphere than the street food we had been eating. Once again the food was great! Our other classmates went out and toured museums, visited the Hoa Lo Prison, shopped and walked around the Hoan Kiem Lake. We are all definitely going to miss Hanoi! 

On January 10^thwe left Vietnam and began our journey to Singapore which is the second country we are visiting on the trip.  We will be staying in Singapore for 6 days.  Everyone on the trip is very excited for Singapore! 

Ashley Zung and Kelsey McEvoy