May 2nd -Hutong tour

After going to the Forbidden City (see below) we decided to take a tour of the Hutongs (alleys) in a pedicab. The guy said he would take us around for 40 minutes down 8 Hutongs. He totally ripped us off. He took us down one and the let us off. He said it would have taken us 40 minutes if we had toured the old Eunuch's residence that he stopped at briefly. I wasn't in the mood to argue (for once).出了故宫，有很多招揽胡同游的人力车，我们决定试试，就是下面照片里的这个烂人，把我们给骗了。他说，胡同游，40分钟，8大胡同。结果他骑着车子把我们拐进了一条小巷，问我们愿不愿意进一个太监住过的四合院看看，门票25一张，我们说不去了，结果他把我们拉出了小巷，说逛完了。我们问他不是说40分钟呢吗，这哪够啊，他说进四合院就够了。。。晕死，还好，这一次逛故宫逛的精疲力尽的Rob没有发作。We decided to walk around on our own. We saw some good Hutongs on foot and found a great Vietnamese restaurant...........我们到处自己走了走，倒是发现了很多不错的胡同和名人故居，还有旧时的文化社团。有一个意外惊喜，就是，找到一个很棒很棒的叫做“西贡在法国”的餐厅。Rob点了小牛肉和来自南非的红酒，我点了西贡烤虾和产自法国的白葡萄酒，（葡萄的种类忘掉了），喜欢越南的汤，加了柠檬草，淡淡的鸡汤喝起来很舒服。dessert 我点的是一种像布丁一样的越南菜，Rob点了樱桃口味的越南咖啡，越南的咖啡总是浓缩的很重的咖啡，然后加很多糖，我啜了一小口，然后决定也要一杯。这顿饭吃得价格不菲，让我想到了安妮宝贝在西贡的生活。 Rob一直说想要去越南小住，这下，我也提起了兴趣。Rob had the beef with a South African Syrah. I ordered grilled shrimp with French white wine. We loved the Vietnamese soup with lemongrass and Chicken. It was light and delicious. For dessert we ordered flan and had vanilla espresso with lots of sugar. We also ordered a cherry espresso...what a great meal! It was a little expensive, but it made me think about Annie Baobei's (a famous writer) life in Xigong. Rob always says he'd like to try teaching in Vietnam for a year, and now I'd like to go too.