Surly They Won't Make It

19/5/25

The night before we’d discussed seeing one of the attractions that Hà Nội had to offer. In the morning it didn’t take long for us to relent. We just didn’t fancy it. It was hard to explain but we will try. 

Every time we thought about walking around outside it made us cringe. The streets were hot and there were no pavements that weren’t blocked by parked scooters. That meant we had to walk everywhere on the road. This required stupid amounts of vigilance and this was extremely stressful of course.

Frankie went out to buy some coffee grounds and also returned with some fresh tofu. The soya based street sellers were such a boon for us. We wished they existed at home. Frankie made us pancakes. A classic we could never be tired of.

Jonathan finally pulled the trigger and bought new rims. We also bought some tyres. It seemed logical to take the opportunity. There were probably other items it would be nice to receive but we focused on the most important so as not to complicate things further.

In the afternoon we braved the streets and went out to visit the markets. Frankie wanted a new t-shirt. Having the same clothes in every picture is frustrating for her. There was a huge, multi levelled complex. An ugly building that resembled an old shopping mall. Inside were hundreds of tightly packed stalls. All had the same kind of low quality clothing. Navigating the tight alleys was frustrating. The sellers just stood in our way. 

We gave up and explored the fruit and nut market, Chợ Đồng Xuân, next door. It was an improvement. The shops had clearly delineated physical structures. Large see-through plastic sacks of cashews and walnuts. There were big woven sacks of dried mushrooms. Every stall had essentially the same thing. We ignored the stalls at the front and went deeper. Finally our hunt paid off. A stall with displayed prices. 

We bought several kilograms of nuts, seeds and dried fruit. Including jujube and dried longan. It was half the price of the UK. We still spent a hefty 600k Dong, £17. There were many fruit stalls on the street. A woman seemed to be a little angry when we didn’t buy her jackfruit.

We walked to Long Bien market. Crossing the road was like dancing with death. There were no traffic lights. We just walked into the traffic with a hand out and weaved through the moving vehicles. We were expecting the market to be expansive. It seemed a little small. We bought a pomelo and some oranges. There wasn’t much else there.

After surviving another road crossing we walked back to the house. It was definitely rush hour and even worse than usual. Frankie bought some herbs from the market outside the house. They were crazy cheap. Eight pence for a large bunch of mint for example. 

For dinner, Jonathan prepared fillings for spring rolls. Then fried the tofu. It was soft and watery. It cracked and popped vigorously in the hot oil. We had a ready cooked sweet potato, that got converted into chips, and a healthy portion of salad too.