Up early and down to the breakfast room. I help myself to ham, buns, banana, some other sliced meat and sit at the table and start on it. The cook, a lovely girl whose name means Heart and who was born in the same village as Ho Chi Minh comes up and asks me if I want to order breakfast. I then notice there is a full menu for breakfast which I had overlooked. I felt a bit stupid as I was feeding my face so I said no thanks, I'm OK. Next time. 
I think I have said it before but I will repeat myself anyway, the people in Hanoi are much friendlier than in Saigon . In HCM city it seems like a desperate fight to survive and the street vendors are much more aggressive. Here a simple NO repeated twice is usually enough to deter them. 
 The traffic here is much less than Saigon and crossing the streets is easier. 
I walked down a narrow alleyway on the way back to the hotel and saw a little slice of life here, every second stall was food, all sorts of food and butcher shops with counters full of raw meat of one kind or another. Its drizzling rain here and close to 100% humidity but still about 20 degrees. They seem to think its cold and I see ffrom the news they are worried about the rice crop ripening. Heart told me they eat rice twice a day and it is very important to them. She knew we grew wheat in Oz.
I mentioned TV in an earlier blog and how poor it was in South Vietnam, well up here is a different story. Even an Australian news channel. Much more English programming, some Russian, French and about 4 channels with Soccer. People of South Vietnam, you are getting ripped off!
I am writing this at noon as I wanted to remember it all. Oh and my camera that didn't work, I asked the girl at the front counter, Mai, where to buy batteries and she produced 2 from under the counter, I put them in and my camera worked. Until I tried to take a picture, alas my camera is dead. So it's all phone cam unless I buy another cheap digital.
Montreal Johnnie should arrive this afternoon and we will be out and about again.
One other thing I have noticed worth mentioning is that the people here speak more slowly even presenters on TV . In the south it seemed a stream of words all joined together and it was impossible to seperate which was which, but here the sentences seem to be divided more into discrete words. I tried my best to learn a few words but this is a language that seems impossible to me. Even Lonely Planet guide gets it so wrong with pronunciation. For example a coffee sweetened with condensed milk they say is Car fey sur ur, in fact if you say that it won't be understood but Su la will be. Its funny how the simple word Pho trips us up. I learnt it was just Phhh but no one understood that, then I changed to Pherr and that had some meaning to a few, but a few nights ago a waiter told me it was Phar, so go figure people.
I was recommended a place down the street called New Day but when I got there the Y had fallen off and it had become Newda, it was full of Vietnamese a good sign, so I sat and ordered BBQ pork ribs and rice. While I was waiting a Vietnamese guy sat opposite and got his meal straight away, he must have ordered by phone I guess . A huge fish and bowls of vegetables which he got stuck into. I was a bit jealous that not knowing what to order leaves us in the dark a bit. I got my ribs but felt I was shortchanging myself by not ordering a more Vietnamese style food. I think Hanoi leaves the south for dead in the way of food from what I see in the streets.

 More on street vendors. I have been approached probably 5 or 6 times today and always with a big friendly smile. If you say NO twice and look away they will leave, very different to the south, but I wish they would stop with the Good Morning Vietnam T shirts! I actually bought a T Shirt today 100000, $5 and then the concierge told me I got ripped off. Should have been 50 or 60000, hard to believe you can pay $5 and get ripped off.
A packet of cigarettes here is 24000 dong, about $1 and there is one home grown brand for 12000. A woman in a shop today told me Hanoi celebrated it's 1000th birthday a few years ago, not sure how true that is,the connection being the name of the cigarettes is the same as the 1000th which involved a Dragon. Don't ask. One thing I haven't seen here is the cig vendors with the briefcases full of packets and other drugs, maybe more police here. 

 Need advice here-trying to transfer money from one Commonwealth Bank account to another-easy it seems, but they send and SMS to verify the account holder and I don't receive it. I am on Viettel with data roaming ON. Any smart answers? Have tried with my Aldi card in the phone and that doesn't work.
Dinner at New Da again, this time a bit more adventurous with fried noodles and seafood. The squid was like rubber just like in good old Oz. Only problem with this restaurant is the common tables. I was stuck next to a Dutch guy who was trying to impress a woman with his travel tales and he just didn't shut up. She was laughing nervously and in the end a waitress came over and said "you no eat your food?" Opposite me a was an Indian who was tucking into chicken wings like there was no tomorrow. I noticed the woman paid quickly and scooted out so his tales didn't have the desired effect.