Green Tangerine, Hanoi nights

Today's posting will be brief, firstly because I'm a dufus(sp) and forgot to bring camera on our trip to the countryside and Michele (who did take pictures) forgot her cable to connect camera to computer so these will have to be shared when we return. It was an interesting journey mostly spent in the car traveling 150km and back. We stopped at an amazing outdoor market completed with wierd tropical fruits

Can't remeber the name of the porcupine looking fruit in the background but very similar to lichee nut, and the yellow fruit is called Jackfruit-strong tropical odor, fleshy and mildly sweet but easy to dance to.

There were plenty of vegetables (you'll have to take my work for it ) and even dog (yes cooked) as Du told us they eat every thing in Vietnam with legs except tables. (We were at the Hanoi Hilton-prison at the time and he mentioned the attributes of cooked rat (prison delicacy). As we drove further west from Hanoi we passed through suburbs and reached (almost ) the agrarian utopia. We actually went to a "white Thai " village (2nd largest ethnicity after Viet) which was apparently a collective farm but now also takes in tourists and has converted into a tourist trap. The homes are authentic -we had a delicious lunch there with spring rolls (much smaller than in US), chicken-chopped into forms that are not similar to drumstick and wing but tasty nonetheless , delicious green beans , rice and a cooked cabbage( are you noticing the decided emphasis of food in this blog?) After a short shopping spree we walked to our van and observed members of the village in the rice paddies (barefoot in 50degree weather) and others working together to build water treatment plant(sewer system) for village , everyone contributes, two women were shoveling stones and trying to separate out smaller ones to make concrete. After a long trip back we had dinner at Green Tangerine (french cooking with vietnamese accent)

Pictures: Bella with wine; I forget; Ravioli-vegetable with variety of sauces and Duck Magret (sp). The food was very good but presentation won out.

Dessert was chocolate truffles shaped like beets- you picked up by stem, ate body first then stem all of chocolate (we shared one). Apologize for omitting appetizers but we ate before I remembered to photograph.

Walked back to hotel past lake which is surrounded by lights. Probably won't post tomorrow going to Halong bay on a Junk overnight and probably won't have internet. Should have some good photos if I remember camera. (That was brief?)   Mark