Vietnam Day 2 & 3

We woke up bright and early to head out for our Halong Bay tour. We ate a hearty breakfast at the guesthouse as it was a long journey ahead.


The view from the dining area


It was a 3 hour journey. The tour company maximised the minibus capacity. The side aisle had foldable seats which was fully occupied. Basically the people at the back of the bus (like us) cannot descend from the bus unless the people in front do so first. I dare not imagine what would happen to us if our bus had met an accident.


After 3 weary hours, we finally arrived. One of the junk boats is ours. Definitely not star cruise standard but it was still pretty comfortable.


The room. Its a little small, but hey, many people in hong kong live in rooms of this size all their lives. (More updates on my Hong Kong trip soon =))




Halong Bay was breathtaking. The bay was filled with rock formations at every corner. It was as if a giant took some rocks and just randomly threw them across the bay.




Floating houses


We visited a cave. It was not as huge and beautiful as the Mulu caves but it was still pretty exciting.


The tour guide pointed to that glowing red stalamite and said, "this is why our Vietnamese population is so huge"




Our two new friends - Luca and Alvaro


We went kayaking as well.


Out of the blue, this local guy decided to challenge Foong to a friendly arm wrestling match. Heh, that was pretty random


I fished from the deck.


We caught a huge fish! Kidding, we didnt. I think the fish didnt like my bait. I tried fishing the entire night. THe next morning, I pulled up my line and the bait was still hooked on.


We spent most of our time lazing on the deck. Blissfully happy.




THat night, we lay on the deck chairs talking. The night was calm with a single star in the sky. Our two new friends were there as well. I always love talking to new people because people outside your circle always shade new perspective on life. Our topics ranged from philosophy to religion to love to life principles. They told me about their respective cultures, his partner whom he dated for 8 years, the woman he loves but cannot have, their Roman Catholic upbringing etc. I finally fell asleep on the deck, zipped up in my down feather sleeping bag.

The next day, we headed back to Hanoi. We arrived at 5 pm, took a quick shower in the bathroom located at the hotel lobby. Freshening up in the hotel lobby in front of passerbys is a new experience for me.


We then quickly scouted the Old Quarter streets for food before catching our night train to Sapa.





They even serve chinese donuts. Except that its not with congee or bak kut teh.

Short update

Back from Hong Kong and Macau. It was a pretty good trip. Lots of eating, some shopping, etc.

For now, I'm just glad to be back in KL. I miss my nasi lemak dearly =( Havent had it for a week now~!

5 countries in 3 weeks. I need some rest =) Its a good ending to 2007. I'm happy to be spending new years eve in KL. I havent had the privilege to do so the last 3 years.

A belated merry christmas and a happy new year to everybody =)

More pictures up soon.

Vietnam Day 1 - Land of pho and springrolls

Our flight to Hanoi was at 6.30 am. Needless to say, we had to be at the LCCT airport at an ungodly hour. Nonetheless the Airasia airport was still packed out~!

The start of the trip was an adventure by itself. I almost missed the flight - I arrived 8 minutes before the check-in counter closed :P

Streets of Hanoi - Every road crossing episode was like a life or death situation. It was crazy. The streets were buzzling with motorcyclists that just love to honk for no apparent reason~! Some even installed musical honks. The road system was atrocious. Unlike our usual one-way or two-way traffic, they had like a ten-way traffic. We were frantically looking left, right,left,right...every 2 steps we took. Miraculously however, the motorcyclists always seem to nearly miss us by inches. If you can drive in Hanoi, you can drive anywhere in the world~! That being said, if you can cross the roads in Hanoi, you can cross any road in the world! haha.


The motorcylists in Hanoi carry anything on their motorcycles - from cartons of beer to televisions.


The Vietnamese people also sell anything on the streets. Some even literally walk around with just a bag of rice or a few bunches of vegetables.



A business with merely two magazine stands


First stop - food~!

But before that, Ann got scammed by this banana seller. Her first real taste of Vietnam. The banana seller literally walked up to Ann, placed the hat on her head and the banana pole on her shoulder before Ann could even protest. Ann happily took pictures but all smiles quickly disappeared when she asked for 50 000 dong ($3 US) for a bunch of bananas. We said no and negotiated the price but she was very stubborn about it, grabbed Ann's 50 000 dong note before we could protest any further. We had no choice but to let her go because we didnt have any smaller change on us.



Finally, food~! We asked the guesthouse receptionist on places to eat. She told us that theres a good place for $5 USD. We exclaimed that it was too expensive and we wanted to eat what the locals eat - that means nothing more than 70 cents USD for a bowl of noodles. When in Rome, do what the Romans do.

Spring rolls! Look at how black the oil is =D But the spring rolls were yummy!! The best Vietnamese spring rolls I ever tasted. Unlike the spring rolls in Melbourne, the skin is soft and crispy. It was also definitely more pepperish. I like.


We also had bbq pork with pickled veges on noodles. Although we had the streetfood, we were smart about it. We wouldnt touch any salads or economy rice. We only ate stuff that was being cooked right before our eyes.




Btw, thats our view from our hotel room.


After lunch, we headed to NgocSon Temple. The temple is located on an island in the northern part of Hoan Kiem Lake. The temple is dedicated to the scholar Van Xuong, General Tran Hung Dao, who defeated the Mongols in the 13th century and La To, the patron saint of physicians (taken from lonely planet guidebook)




Next stop - Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Unfortunately, the mausoleum was closed at the time we were there. Ho Chi Minh's embalmed corpse was taken to Russia for maintenance. Nonetheless, it didnt stop us from taking pics!

Boys doing a star jump


Army museum - US army airplane during the Vietnam war.




That night, we tried out the famous Bobby Chin restaurant. It supposedly a MUST try-out restaurant. Its cuisine is a fussion between Vietnamese and Western. We love the ambience there.



Magnifying glass with a lightbulb to study the menu


Bobby Chin is funny.


The girls


However, in my humble opinion, the food isnt all its hyped up to be. The standard of the cuisine is like any normal high-end restaurant in Melbourne. Basically, nothing to shout about. Okay, the generosity of the truffle oil was to my liking. However, the fish was slightly overcooked. In summary, the experience was good but not mind-blowing.

After dinner, we headed to the night market. Once again, crossing the dangerous roads of Hanoi.


Night market - a typical Vietnamese outing on a Saturday night.




Dragonfly balancing on its tip.


Foong, his two friends and I had coffee after at Highlands Coffee. There's no starbucks at Hanoi. This is the closest substitute for the locals.




From above - motorcycle taxis wait by the round-a-bout to pick up passengers. The truck in the photo is a police truck shooing the motorcycle taxis away as they were obstructing traffic. But all was in vain, within 5 minutes, the flock of them will re-congregate.


Everyone in Hanoi owns a motorcycle. The day we arrived, the new legislation was implemented. It became compulsory for all motorcyclists to wear helmets. Foong's friends wore their new helmets too!


Finally, we bid the world goodnight. I havent slept for 36 hours and was starting to feel nauseous.

p/s: The photos are a compilation of mine, Ann's and Foong's.