I had another late morning start. I really should change my bedtime from 1 am to 12 am, so I can wake up earlier than 10 am.
As I walked around looking for a good coffee shop to work from this morning, I unfortunately walked past a shop selling roasted dogs. That sight will be hard to erase from my memory anytime soon. I ended up at a popular touristy coffee shop called The Note. It has several floors with everything covered in post-it notes written by visitors from around the world. The iced coffee was meh, but I got a good seat by the window overlooking the lake. The place felt slightly uncomfortable to work from as it was packed with tourists, so I left a note referencing a Nirvana lyric and headed for my next cafe.
Even though I was seeking out a coworking space, I ended up at a cool cafe slightly hidden away on the 4th floor of a building. The place had two adorable, fluffy cats lazing around. I got in about an hour of development work on Eavesdrop.
Lunch consisted of my first banh mi since arriving in Hanoi. I found a place near the cafe and ate 2 delicious banh mis. I'd rank the banh mi top 1 or 2 for my entire trip. The panini press was a nice touch not often seen here.
I then seeked out a swimsuit at a nearby Uniqlo. Alas, this place didn't carry any swimsuits, but at least the air-conditioning was pleasant.
I visited the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum before it closed in the afternoon for my site-seeing for the day. It's an impressive structure and the surrounding area is expansive and clear of traffic creating a sense of calm amongst the chaos. Apparently, the body of Ho Chi Minh is housed in this masoluem, even though Ho Chi Minh desired to be cremated and spread across Vietnam.
In the evening, I found a Highlands Coffee shop with a great location overlooking the lake. It literally sits on the water like a house boat. This might be my goto workplace here in Hanoi. It's hard to find coffee shops with large tables and chairs of normal height here in Hanoi like at Highlands.
Tired of searching for restaurants, I ordered bun cha through the Grab app. Considering it was delivered, it was still a solid dinner. After dinner, I felt obligated to check out Hanoi train street since I'm staying so close to it. I drank a Hanoi beer at one of the shops along the tracks and watched the train roll through around 10 pm. It was a suprisingly girthy train. Unsurprisingly, there have been tourists hit by the train on train street.
I've got one more night in Hanoi, but I might add another night so I can do a day trip to Ha Long bay.