We discussed our action plan for our second day in Hanoi over breakfast at the hotel – we decided to fill our day with site seeing and 23,000 steps.

But first, coffee! We visited Lounge 16 Cafè in Lý Thái Tổ for traditional Vietnamese coffee – “normal” coffee for me this time, and a cocoa egg coffee for Pat (he has now upgraded his score to a 7.4/10 for the egg coffee).

After coffee (which was served with green tea and sunflower seeds), we walked 40 minutes to Văn Miếu – Quốc Tử Giám (The Temple of Literature) in Hanoi. We explored the Temple which was established by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong in 1070 to worship Confucius, the most prominent Chinese philosopher. The Temple hosted the Imperial Academy, or the first university in Vietnam, which was responsible for educating hundreds of significant scholars and mandarins over 700 years. Anyway, we learnt a lot and it was very cool.

After the Temple, we walked 20 minutes to St. Joseph’s Cathedral on Nhà Chung Street (literally translates to Church Street). An interesting feature of Hanoi streets is the direct translation of its street names – you will find silver on “Silver Street” (Hàng Bạc), shoes on “Shoe Street” (Hàng Giày), and bamboo on “Bamboo Street” (Hang Tre) etc. While it seems like this would make it easy to find what you’re looking for, we spent 2 hours looking for your Nike Dunks, Jake! Don’t worry – we got them.

We then bought a ticket to walk over Cầu Thê Húc (Thê Húc Bridge) which connects the main land to Jade Island over the “Lake of the Returned Sword”. Like its name, the Lake is very majestic.

After being full-time tourists for most of the day, I enjoyed my first ever Bánh mì. Pat confirmed that Bánh mì is only Bánh mì in Vietnam – nowhere else.

We then shopped until we dropped and I have no idea how I am going to fit 5 additional pairs of shoes in my luggage (only after our first destination). Jessica, your The North Face puffer was by far the best purchase, and now I want one.

This didn’t leave us with much time before our food tour, which was guided by Daniel, born and raised in Hanoi (and is also 22). Daniel walked with us around the streets of Hanoi for almost 4 hours, telling us stories and explaining the history of the country, whilst we ate traditional Vietnamese salad, bánh mi, pho, soup, bun cha, rice paper rolls, pillow puffs and sticky rice pudding. Our photos just don’t do it justice.

Thanks, Daniel! Best. Night. Ever.

Although we were SO full, we didn’t have any steam left. It was bed time for our Day 3 trip to Ninh Bình.

Chào!