May 31: Hanoi to Chiang Mai

Having only a couple hours + one morning in Hanoi, I wished I'd given myself longer there! 

I started my morning with a (very mediocre) pho breakfast on an alleyway that is actually just a set of train tracks through the city. But cafes, restaurants, and shops have opened all along it and get lots of tourist visitors due to the novelty.

This extremely sweet grandmother who spoke no English gave me candy 🥺

people living their lives on the train tracks

And then, at regular intervals throughout the day, everyone hustles around and clears the path just before the train comes through. I didn't think I'd get to see it happen, but the woman who sold me pho flagged me down just as I was getting up to leave. "Train in five minutes!" she told me. Then she rang a loud bell, people starting clearing the way, and sure enough a giant train came barreling through. It was NOT going slowly. I took a video, but Blogger doesn't like uploading my videos so here's someone else's.

imma go ahead and say this is not enforced

I like seeing the bikes full of fresh produce

Then I visited the Temple of Literature!

If you don't feel like reading all of this... the interesting part is the last paragraph!

Then I walked back to my hotel for a quick coffee + cookie before venturing out again. 

At this point I had only an hour before I needed to leave for my flight to Thailand, so I was speed-walking!

Highlights from my walk:

Weasel coffee is super expensive bc these special weasels are given free range in a coffee farm. They choose only the very best coffee berries to eat, and then some enterprising people gather the weasel poop to make coffee out of the bean (seed) that's left! 

street food is everywhere in Vietnam

I don't like posting photos of strangers on the internet when they didn't get a chance to consent, so I started covering their faces.

Then I went to the airport! I bought a pastry at Starbucks and felt guilty about it, since I'm in Southeast Asia and all, but then I saw these seaweed-flavored cashews and was reminded that even multinational corporations adjust their products to local markets. Which can be interesting in its own right! 

Then I flew to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand! I realized upon arrival that it's Pride Month, and apparently Thailand is celebrating!

After checking in at my homestay, I walked about 20 minutes to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant for my first pad thai in Thailand (the first of MANY). It was actually really bland and unexciting, but that just made me more determined to find the best one in Chiang Mai. 

Needing a little more flavor in my life, I next walked to a more touristy joint and ordered the most beautiful mango sticky rice of my life:

The previous restaurant was cash-only. This one accepted Dogecoin 😆

A great way to end the evening!