A fantastic walking tour with a super friendly girl
It was a nice day today, just a little cold and stopped raining (It was both cold and rainy the day before). I was outside to meet my friends. My leader from my free walking tour called me to guide a tour with a girl in the old quarter. I quickly agreed and move to her hostel by motorbike to pick her up. Today was on weekends, there was some forbidden streets ar

ound the old quarter with vehicles so I was late about 5 minutes. My first impression with her is she’s tall, friendly and has nice smile. We introduced each other. Her name’s Tera, from Canada and she just came to Hanoi in the morning from Hue by bus so she didn’t go anywhere around here. Therefore I made a itinerary for her: Hoan Kiem lake, a Vietnamese traditional house, Hang Ma street, Dong Xuan market, Long Bien bridge. Expecially she could try some traddional foods through our tour. She relly liked my itinerary because she’s interested in trying new foods. Ready for our tour!

Firstly, we walked around  Hoan Kiem Lake – The heart of Hanoi. It includes Ngoc Son temple, The Huc bridge, Turtle Tower, Pen Tower and the green lake. I told her about the legend of the lake, the history of those places. Then on the way to the Vietnamese traditional house, we tried douhua which is made with very solf tofu and mixed with suger syrup, we bought it from a street trader who sell douhua from his bicycle. She liked it. We kept moving to visit the traditional house in Ma May street which was built at the end of the 19th century and is typical of the traditional architecture in the Old Quarter. I wanted to guide her to here to show you how Vietnamese people lived, their lifestyle and the way we express our respect for our ancestors. In this house, the structure elements in a good shape as well as the traditional succession of buildings and courtyards have been preserved. It present the Vietnamese architecture and building techniques (facade, inner house organization). Leave the house, we tried pillow shaped cake which is made from rice flour, have wood ears, pork, soya noodles inside. We ate it with sour and sweet sauce (garlic, chili, sugar, lime juice, water, fish sauce, carrots, kohlrabi) and some kind of herbs: corianders, lettuces, perilla, etc to reduce its oil taste and raise guests’s appetite. After that we went to Hang Ma street – a colourful street. In this street, they sell many things to decorate for Tet (Lunar New Year in Vietnam). It’s like we got lost in a beautiful places and almost of things here are red which is the lucky colour. Next, we went to Long Bien bridge which is a historic cantilever bridge across the Red rivel delta and connects two districts. The sightseeing under the bridge was beautiful. We went down the bridge, saw the banana field, I guided her to the place which locals usually go to swim in the summer after work, saw the large river and told her something about our life. Then we went up and moved to Giang coffee to try egg coffee which are very specific in Hanoi. She tried hot egg coffee and she really liked it. After that, we came back her hostel and tried to find a mobile shop to buy a SD for her. Finally, we said goodbye and gave a warm hug to each other
I admire her because she has traveled to a lot of countries. Just one bad thing is that my foot were painful because the shoes I weared today were not good to walk for a long time and I didn’t have time to come back my room to change another shoes before I did the tour. But I still feel happy because I have a nice tour today and know more a lovely friend.
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