Saturday in Hanoi

Last day before heading home. We had an adventure  this morning as we had decided to look at a store that sold and /made cheong sams, which is the Chinese equivalent of this Vietnamese garment. There were two cabs and none of us in our cab knew where we were going.  However, we drove around in circles for 30 minutes, not knowing what to do, or where to go.  It seemed apparent that our cab driver didn't know where to go either. I was sitting in the middle in the back seat, a truly scary place to be, as I could see all the mayhem in front of us.  It was a sea of scooters, many with three or four on them and often children, in between two parents or at the back or front of one or other parent.  It was dreadful as the streets lights seem to have any bearing of traffic. One just goes...we finally came to a stop and the driver told us to get out..we fortunately had the phone number of our guide Hong Anh and she said stay where we were and she would come and get us.  Turns out, our cab couldn't go down the street because of traffic restrictions and the store was a couple of long blocks away.  Our guide came and took us to the store, which was quite a lovely one indeed but the prices were very high and no one bought anything. I saw a nice beaded purse for $280.00.  USD. I didn't buy. I felt badly for our little guide who went to so much trouble to find this nice spot for us, although we were more like bargain hunters.  We took a taxi back to our hotel and then went to the corner for lunch and we had a nice soup and egg rolls.  Then, went to a store across from our hotel which sold lovely silk things, too, and more to our budget!
The others went off adventuring and I back to the hotel for R n R.  The others are having a massage for $20 and they look forward to that...I don't care for them, so will not bother with that. Good to rest up today after such a busy time!