Hanoi Martini

We’re in Hanoi! Yay! It’s been a long travel day, but we finally made it. We started early this morning in My Tho, south of Ho Chi Minh City. Everything was smooth sailing until the taxi ride to the hotel, when we thought we were going to get rolled. That little episode sure got our attention, but it turned out to be just a misunderstanding, and now it’s all good.

We’re staying at the Hanoi Sheraton Hotel. Our room overlooks West Lake and the bright city lights beyond. It’s a great view. When we arrived, we were treated like royalty. We’re already thinking, “We didn’t plan to stay here long enough.”

The Lay of the Land

For tourists like us, Hanoi has four main areas of interest: the French Quarter, the Ba Dinh district in the French Quarter, the Old Quarter, and the West Lake district. When we were planning the trip, the French Quarter sounded interesting. It’s supposed to be like stepping back into the 1920’s or 30’s — a lot of old French architecture mixed in with everything else.  The Ba Dinh district is nice, too.  Many of the top museums and tourist destinations are there.

But the Old Quarter sounded really neat, too. It’s a VERY old neighborhood surrounding a small lake called Hoan Kiem Lake.

The West Lake district surrounds, appropriately enough, West Lake, which is fairly large. On paper, West Lake seemed to be a nice area, and it’s centrally located. We thought it might be the best place for us to be, so here we are.

Change of Plans

Our plan had been to meet our traveling companions for dinner. They were coming in on a different flight, (and a different airline). They were having a rough day, and would be hours late. That gave us time to relax and to have a look around the hotel grounds.

This hotel probably has three times the number of employees that we’d expect to find at a comparable hotel back home. There was no waiting for anything. Everyone wanted to help us out. Everyone was super-friendly. It was great.

One difference we’ve already noticed between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, (or perhaps North and South), is that there are fewer english speakers here. And as it turns out, some of the hotel staff wanted nothing more than to find someone to practice their budding English skills with. That would be us.

At first we thought, “Wow, people around here sure like to make casual conversation. These are the friendliest people in the world!” It’s true that they were friendly, but part of the reason was that we presented an opportunity for them to work on their english. I had fun talking to a couple of them in particular, and I learned a couple of vietnamese words in the process — I think.

Martini Time!

When our friends finally arrived, it was too late to go out for dinner. They were wiped out, anyway. They’d had a very long day. Instead, we headed for the hotel bar to see what we could find to eat there, and to drink, of course.

It was a Monday night. The bar was dead. There was no one there but us and the guy who was standing in for the regular bartender. (A fact we didn’t know at the time). Because of the long travel day, two of us ordered martinis instead of the usual wine or beer. That proved to be a difficult order.

The poor fellow’s english wasn’t good, and he was no bartender, but he was determined to give it his best shot – he was going to make us those martinis. He had to search all over for everything he needed. There didn’t seem to be any martini glasses. He held up a margarita glass. “OK?”

“Yes! Yes! Close enough!”

It took him a long time to find the various things he was looking for. Finally, he concocted two martinis and poured them into the margarita glasses. He asked if we wanted olives. Someone made the mistake of saying, “Yes,” and upon hearing that, he took off to go find some olives. “Oh no! Wait! That’s OK!”

Too late. He was gone.

A kitchen was attached to the bar area. It was a nice set-up. People in the bar could see into the kitchen if they so desired. We could see him in there, darting here and there, rooting around, looking for olives. He returned with olives, put them on toothpicks, and plopped them into the drinks.  Then he proudly presented us with what were, I’m sure, the first two martinis he had ever made. They looked great – two martinis in classic margarita glasses, each adorned with two black olives — the kind you put on top of a pizza. Too funny!

Did Someone Say “Pizza”?

And speaking of pizza, when we were watching our stand-in bartender rooting around in the kitchen, we thought we saw what looked like one of those dome-shaped, wood-fired pizza ovens inside. That’s what it was. We ordered pizzas, and they were fantastic. The pizza guy working that night was the regular pizza guy, for sure.

It had been a long day, especially for our friends. But we’d all made it. We were in Hanoi. We loved our pizza dinner. The beers were cold, and the martinis were great. Unforgettable, in fact!

To be continued…