22 Jun 2019
We recently hired Thanh to take our family of 5 on what she billed as
her Secret Coffee tour. We had asked if she could include some food
stops at her favorite eateries .... what we got was so much more than
we could have hoped for! After picking us up at our hotel, Thanh
walked us through the local markets and up and down streets buzzing
with shops and activity. We stopped at numerous places along the way -
one for banh mi, one for egg coffee, another for traditional
Vietnamese coffee (which uses sweetened condensed milk). She
intentionally took us to places where we wouldn't get 'tourist funny
tummy'! All the while Thanh told us about Vietnamese culture and
answered our endless questions about what we were seeing. Her english
was excellent, she had a great sense of humor, and was incredibly
knowledgeable. The highlight was the last food stop, which was the
restaurant where Obama and Anthony Bourdain had dinner. She had
arranged ahead of time for us to have a table on the same floor they
ate, so we walked right past the line of people waiting for a table.
Later, when we looked at our lists of all the places guide books
recommended to visit in Hanoi, we realized that on our 5 hour walking
tour, Thanh had taken us to almost all of them! After she dropped us
back at the hotel, she even followed up with a list of her favorite
restaurants and places to get massages. Hiring Thanh was the smartest
thing we did during our stay in Hanoi!!