It’s our last full day in Hanoi, so we are going to do all the art museums we can handle.
We got a morning pho near “beer street,” which is much quieter in the early hours than late at night. The hot and pungent broth makes a great breakfast.
A quick car ride took us to the Batrang pottery village, which has an excellent modern museum and community center, and several older factories where they make large scale ceramics. Ruth got some glaze ideas, and I enjoyed the architecture and the shade.
We got lunch at Tam Vi, the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world. It had exceptional food, and we ordered a ton of food for $40: banana leaf salad, 5-spice pork belly, fried goby fish, garlicky greens, snail bun cha, watermelon desert. The quality was exceptional, but I did feel like the other diners were marveling at the price instead of the food itself.
We were near the Temple of Literature, which is featured on the back of the 100,000 dong note. It’s where scholars had their final exam with the king, and current doctors are still hooded. The shaded courtyard has lots of stelae featuring turtles, an apparently auspicious animal.
Across a busy street was the National Fine Arts Museum, which had great examples of ancient sculpture, impressive lacquer, and more modern paintings. The building is also a fantastic example of colonial architecture, now repurposed for national preservation.
After a short car ride via Grab and a long nap, we took a quick outing around lake Hoan Kiem for dinner. I got a delicious skewer of meat on a stick and a walking beer. The streets are full of people, and there’s a great light show on temple. We’ll be back here for New Year’s, but the crowds are already pretty dense.
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