More about Monday

After the orphanage trip, it was back to the hotel for a quick lunch in the café located at the bottom level of the hotel.

Later, it was time go visit the Temple of Literature. We loved that place during our last visit to Hanoi and wanted Iyla to experience it again. Our second visit certainly did not disappoint- what a beautiful, peaceful place right in the middle of the loud, crowded, and frenetically-paced city of Hanoi.

After the Temple of Literature, we decided to do a little shopping. Unfortunately, just as we were leaving our first store- Coco Silk, the skies opened up and thankfully we were able to quickly duck into a cute, little café. We bought a round of refreshing beverages and tried to wait out the rain.

 It was pouring at this point so, we sipped our drinks and waited. And waited. And waited. The rain was clearly not ending so, we attempted to call for a cab using the popular driving app in VN- Grab. Apparently, the entire city had the same idea so, we were pretty much stuck. We made our way slowly up the street trying to stay dry in this flooding rainstorm. After visiting a couple more stores, we were able to flag down a cab (what a great life skill to teach Iyla- how to hail transportation in a city around the world) and were happily on our way back to the hotel for the evening.