The wonderful world of Layla: Day Eight and Nine

After breakfast, it was off to the much talked about Old Quarters. I heard Old Quarters, but for some reason I was thinking French Quarters. I was expecting this fantastic architecture and what I got at first was the Farmers’ Market. A gigantic Farmers’ Market, complete with live fish swimming around, clams, and other assorted living water based creatures; except for that one fish which was floating on its side; and chickens with heads and feet or if I wanted, just some feet. And the Market wouldn’t be complete without narrow aisles that scooters could drive down while you press yourself against the table where the woman is chopping up steaks in order to avoid getting runover.

Avoiding the scooters and all the interesting smells of the Farmers’ Market was a pleasant way to pass the time and watch in amazement as these women walked by with what looked like a long piece of wood on their shoulders with a woven basket full of fruit hanging from each end. Most of the women I saw were selling pineapple. The wood, the basket, the fruit, it all just looked so heavy.

With the Market behind us, off we went to the area selling clothes and everything else under the sun. It was as if I had walked into a humungous garment district. Downtown LA dreams of being this big…..Store after store after store selling Western clothes. Prada leather jacket? Check. Name brand jeans? Check.

My mom suggested this year’s Christmas picture should be taken in traditional Vietnamese outfits, except of course I can’t find one store that sells them. We passed two blocks of shoe stores, one store that sold only boots, but no stores with Vietnamese clothes. Okay, we found one store but she wanted $14 when Nancy got hers for $6 in Saigon. So the search continued. But really two blocks of shoes?!?

I finally gave up and thought I’ll email another family who is traveling to Saigon and ask them to buy some for me. As a reward for dealing with the smog, did I mention it was especially noticeable in Hanoi, the Farmers’ Market, and the garment district, we went to KFC. Finger lickin’ good is what the plates read. And they were advertising for their new New Orleans chicken. Do people know what that is here? Is New Orleans known worldwide?

This KFC had mashed potatoes and cole slaw and they tasted pretty similar to their US counterparts. Though the KFC, which was two or three stories, had an American Idol theme going on. Carrie Underwood video was playing. Jordin Sparks was playing on the radio. Very odd.

After our scrumptious meal, we headed over to the Hanoi version of Starbucks called Gloria Jean and found an information desk inside, where we found a nice book of places to go and see in Hanoi and a great map of the city, which comes in handy when taking a taxi back to the hotel.

And so ends the first day and a half in Hanoi. I miss Saigon….Oh look at that and I wasn’t even trying…Miss Saigon. Maybe I should see it now that I’ve been to Saigon.