After breakfast we had a much-needed sleep and then did a little bit of planning for the day. We read through the first couple of days of our Explore itinerary in combination with hints received from Sam and Harriet and from our well-travelled friends Pat and Liza. We avoided the places to be included in our tour on Monday and decided to head to the Hoan Kiem lake, cross the scarlet Huc bridge to see the Ngoc Son temple on Jade Island, the Turtle Tower and then walk on to the nearby Ly Thai To garden.
We had been warned that it was a challenge to cross the roads! This was with good reason! As we ventured out into the streets, we were met with a cacophony of sounds from beeping cars, motor bikes, Vespas, buses and Xích Lô (cyclo). The latter are three wheeled bike taxis which can carry two passengers. Pedestrians meanwhile, took their lives in their hands by weaving their way through the rows of traffic. Even on the busiest junctions where pedestrian crossings were available, the motorbike riders generally ignored the red lights. We were surprised how quickly we became accustomed to this and even started to enjoy it! 
On the way to the lake we were mesmerised by the hustle, bustle and amazings sights that we saw as we meandered our way through the city as you can see below.
We walked to the lake and had our first coffee stop. Coffee is big business in Vietnam – it is the second largest producer and exporter of it globally. Dave had iced coffee with condensed milk and I had iced coconut coffee. Both delicious! The coffee shops typically have outdoor seating facing out onto the road so that you can watch the hustle and bustle as you drink.
We then joined the long queue to cross the Huc bridge and it progressed much more quickly than we had expected!! We passed the 28m high Pen Tower with the inscription ‘writing on the blue sky’. This was built to honour literature and Confucionism. We were then able to walk around the four storey Turtle Tower on the island. This is a symbol of peace, history, and the legend of King Le Loi returning a magical sword to the Golden Turtle God. There was evidence of the Tet festival everywhere.
From there we strolled onto the gardens and the planting was so beautiful on the way there alongside the lake that we thought we’d already arrived!!! The focal point of the Ly Thai To garden was a 9.5 metre high bronze statue of King Ly Thai To. The park was jampacked with families taking further photo opportunities amongst the plants.
After all this walking, we headed back to the Flower Garden Hotel for a short rest and then in the evening we went to Truc Bach lake which was very close to our accommodation. We had a cocktail overlooking the lake in Ma Xo bar (recommended in The Lonely Planet guide book) Dave opted for an old-fashioned but I felt like a change so chose a gin based cocktail with kombucha, lime, lemongrass and honey. Delicious! It was still very busy, with barely a space to walk on the pavement due to the number of motorcycles parked there. Lots of bikes were going past with whole families on them. Very few of the children had helmets on but quite a few were wearing face masks. 
From there we navigated our way to Pho Cuon 31 Food (another Lonely Planet idea) and, as you can see from the video below felt that there was a little chance of us getting a table. It was obviously a really popular place and there was a real buzz about it, with bikes weaving in and out between the diners on the street. Dave spotted some tourists who were about to leave and managed to get a table. We had no idea what to order so just asked the waiter to give us his top recommendation and went along with that!!
So, this is what we ate:
Phở Chiên Phồng:
which means “deep-fried, puffed pho noodles” served with stir-fried beef and vegetables.
As well as: Phở Cuốn – “pho rolls” consisting of fresh, uncut rice noodle sheets rolled around sautéed beef and herbs, served with dipping sauce.
There were so many people in the street that the waiters were extremely busy getting the food out. We could not believe the value as both meals came to 200,000 Vietnamese dong. £5.71 in sterling total!! We even saw some fireworks in honour of the holiday weekend!!
We then went to Gat Tàn to round off the evening with our first Hanoi beer. We found a lovely spot by the canal decorated with loads of beautiful plants and lanterns. We got chatting to a very friendly local Vietnamese chap ( a civil engineer) who was there with his two little boys, wife and mother-in-law. He gave us lots of good hints for our ongoing itinerary. He said he really loves living in Vietnam because they have a good work life balance and that if they feel low, they resort to good beer, good food and good friends. A great philosophy which was reiterated on our way back on the door of a local hostel. Cheers to that! 
