We started our day with another city wide blast of music and news at 7:30 am. The song is always the same but we aren’t sure of its meaning. Apparently the talking that follows is the morning announcements and news.

Our first focus was a walk to the area where Dale worked during his trips here almost 9 years ago. He worked on the top floor of a tower surrounded by embassies and a cute park.

We then strolled to the National Fine Arts Museum. It was a long walk but took us through some interesting neighborhoods. We had a quick lunch at the museum cafe before venturing into the 4 story historical building. The museum was structured according to era and art form. It was an interesting stroll through some fascinating art.

We left the museum to head over to Beer Street. What an experience! We chose to sit on a balcony overlooking our street level seats yesterday. While we enjoyed our beverages the police showed up and cleared all the seats in the square. Apparently the seats the beer bars put out for their patrons are illegal and the police show up a few times a day to get them to remove them. There was a huge amount of scurrying as the bar staff gathered up as many chairs as possible while at the same time, the police confiscated some of the furniture. As we were asking our waitress about the process and how long it takes to get the chairs back out, she simply pointed to the fact that they were already out again within a few minutes.

We enjoyed the conversations we had with our waitresses and decided that adding food to our day was a good idea. We ended us at an Indian restaurant just down from our residence before calling it a night. Simply walking in Hanoi has been interesting. There is always something going on. We have now become relatively fearless at crossing the streets and have lived to tell these tales.