Hookah + Funky Balls

We spent a couple of lovely days wandering around Hanoi and saying goodbye to Vietnam.

We ate at some delicious restaurants, which was a delight after the tourist crap in Cat Ba. Highlights included Cha Ca Thang Long (which only had one thing on the menu: Cha Ca, a fish dish served in a sautee pan at your table), a delicious Bun Cha joint, and Chim Sao (where we tried cured sausages made by the Northern ethnic groups and a great banana flower salad).

We went to a very bizarre "water puppet" show,  which involved elaborately decorated puppets dancing over the water to live music.  

We stopped by Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and saw a changing of the guards.

We managed to sell our motorbikes, albeit at a terrible price. As if I needed confirmation, my bike was a total piece of shit so we effectively had to give the buyer a "buy one get one free" discount on the pair.

A very nice Korean tourist caught a candid picture of me doing a little work by the lake. Proof that I'm still working while traveling!

Finally, we decided to say farewell to Vietnam with a fancy dinner at the famous Press Club, followed up with a stop at one of the many cafes we passed where young Vietnamese were smoking hookah and enjoying "Funky Balls" (aka, balloons filled with nitrous). As they say, "when in Rome"...