Being Bicycle Bandits......

Today we decided to hire a push bike each before heading out for breakfast at the market. Bikes are about $1.50 each to hire for the day and it was great to get some exercise. The market was an easy 15 minute ride and we were advised by the lady in our hotel to use the parking lot when we get there and put a lock on our bike so we left our bikes with the parking guy for a massive parking fee of 5000 Dong or $0.50 and ventured into the bustling market place. It is unbelievable the amount of shops in the market and I don't think there is anything they don't sell. There are stalls upon stalls of fresh produce, herbs, vegetables and fruits then salted seafood of all kinds and any cut of meat you can think of from pigs ears to beef fillet. We had no idea where to eat and as we are learning quickly, not many people speak English so it is difficult to ask. We were shuffled into an eating place and the lady there gave us a kind of overview of what we were eating.....I think it was fish cake thingys, fresh frog or pork spring rolls (not sure which one as with a Vietnamese accent it sounds the same same but different) and bbq frog or pork (again it could have been either) skewers with two types of dipping sauce that she just poured on for us so there was no option if we didn't like it. She told us things cost 20,000 Dong each ($1) and she just kept putting things in front of us, I had to firmly say "no more" so she would stop. Then the lady next door to her just put some Che in front of me, which I like but didn't really want but had no choice and for $0.50 I couldn't be bothered arguing. The market was hot, lucky we put sunscreen on and soon enough we decided to push on. We collected our bikes and just wandered into more adventure. We thought we would go into a bank to see if we can withdraw any more than the $2,000,000 Dong ($100) limit at most ATM's. Of course if you work in a bank you must be educated right......wrong, very little English was spoken in the bank and Alvo just came out more frustrated than ever so back to the ATM method we go. After the bank experience we needed to sit at a cafe and chill out, we found a nice one and Alvo had her regular iced coffee and I had mango juice. A bloke rocked up with his girlfriend and parked his scooter out the front and here it doesn't matter if there are no tables left out the front because you can just bring one out of the cafe and put it in the middle of the footpath. He pulled out a long bamboo bong looking thing and started packing something into it, I later found out this would have been either marijuana or opium because.....that is ok here. Time to ride on..... We randomly rode around on that side of town passing the royal dynasty place which is surrounded by a big wall and a moat.....must be important. Negotiating the traffic is becoming a snap and we are fitting right in. It is even ok to go through red lights here, who would have thought. We stopped in to organise our bus trip to Ha Noi, our tour to Ha Long Bay and an extra bus to Sapa. The girl there was easy to communicate with which was a relief. Alvo was leading the way all day and she turned us into some random alley way that was lined with cafes which we thought was cool....until.....we tried to order something. No one spoke English, they didn't even know the word menu so off we rode again passing random things like, chooks, turkeys and even a few cows grazing and wandering on the footpath. We found a place to sit and have a drink and sat just in time for the rain which was great. Food was coming out and we had no idea what it was, so I took a chance that the girl at the next table could speak English and although a little broken we could understand each other. She was eating noodles with mussels, it had pork crackling, peanuts, noodles and little bits of mussels in it with a separate broth to pour in. We gave it a go, can't go wrong for $0.50. It was good....phew. She also urged me to try this little meat roll looking thing that was sitting in a container on the table, we worked out that it was cured buffalo wrapped in some sort of leaf....I know Gran, you said nothing weird but I couldn't say no. It tasted like salami so I was happy with it and...no squitty bum....yay. I am hanging for a curry, this Vietnamese food is not living up to our expectations so we couldn't go past the Indian Restaurant partly for the fact that it is going to cost a fraction of the price it would if we were in Oz. Ahhhhh Chai tea, the best I have ever tasted and curry to die for, finally my tastebuds are having a party. The service was awesome so we took a photo of the staff, boss included, and posted a great review on Trip Advisor. They were very grateful and we will return there for something to eat before we get on the bus tomorrow. The cyclo rider from last night came past and recognised us so I called him over and told him that we would find him later for a ride, it is important to negotiate a price before doing anything here and we sorted that out pretty quickly. After leaving the restaurant he rode up again and brought another cyclo rider with him and still only made us pay the same price.....sweet. We needed to go to the bank so he took us. We chatted along the way about just about anything which made the ride fun. They dropped us off right at our hotel and we took their photo, it kinda feels like they are our mates. They were cool. Tomorrow we will hire a motorbike and ride to the beach but for now it is time to rest. Tanya xxx.