Chilling out in North Vietnam

  Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam
Thursday, February 15, 2007

Hanoi Day 1 ~ orientated myself around town & watched water puppet performance

streets of hanoi

hanoi opera house

another cute photographer

sofitel metropole hanoi

some viet new year goodies

arrived at 1am in Hanoi as the flight fm Hue was delayed by 2 hrs. it was a very short flight, about 1hr +. i'm so glad i decided to fly instead of enduring a 16hr train ride and the fare difference is only about S$25 (incl of taxes). flying domestic within Vietnam is really cheap!
the taxi fare fm airport to Hanoi town is US$10 even though the meter only says S$5. well, but i had to pay that amt as it was the agreed-upon px as well as the px recommended in the travel guide.
stayed at a hotel that i had booked in advance since i'll be arriving so late. but hated the room! so far, i've been fine with all the hotel rms i've stayed in Viet until this. what i disliked about the rm was that the light switches are placed in very inaccessible places, the bed was very high (and i've some probs getting up & down since my knees were still hurting), and the blankets and towel din look very clean. 
today was spent doing admin stuff. went to the train station to purchase tix to Lao Cai, the Viet town bordering china, cos my next stop will be Kun Ming in Southern China. also went to intl SOS, as the bruises on my knees were still very large and hard. the Vietnamese doc was really patient and good. but i got a shock at the cashier, the bill came up to a whooping US$168! i certainly hope that i can claim that fm my travel insurance company. also booked 2D1N trip to ha long bay. also went to supermkt to buy toiletries that i'd run out of (esp tissue paper). the supermkt was really crowded with shoppers doing their last-min shopping for Tet, the Viet new year.

water puppet theatre

the highlight of the day for me was watching an evening performance at the thang long water puppetry theatre. see http://www.thanglongwaterpuppet.org/. the stage was water and the
water puppet show was really riveting and special, i loved it! i wouldn't mind watching another show! the puppet show was accompanied by live music played by musicians using traditional musical instruments. which included the yang qin that i used to play in secondary and JC days. one instrument was v special, the 'dun-bo', which has a very haunting and resounding tone. i've never heard anything like that before.

Hanoi Day 2 ~ shopping on Tet new year's eve and caught fireworks at hoan kiem lake
at william's suggestion, i decided to change hotel today. which was a great decision, as the room had satellite tv which will bring me many hrs of enjoyment over the next few days =)

guesthse in hanoi

st joseph's cathedral

walked around the old quarters of hanoi. the souvenir shops all looked rather similar, selling laquerware, silk clothes, embroidery, tees, etc. i managed to buy some silk scarves (S$5 each), silk sleeping bags (also S$5 each & can't wait to use them!), 1 pirated book (S$9, which isnt cheap at all), a red cotton dress which i think i can wear to the office (S$40). and a very lovely handmade teddy bear (US$15). shopping in Viet ain't as cheap as say, China and India.

handmade teddy bear

watched lots of tv in my hotel rm - discovery channel (shows on coffee art, cocktails, and anthony bourdain's food tour of his hometown, new jersey) and Channel News Asia. while waiting for the fireworks which will happen at mid-night. the streets were absolutely crowded when i left the hotel at 11pm. frankly, the fireworks were so-so. so far the best fireworks i've seen are in sydney and sg. enjoyed experiencing the atmosphere. its not unlike in sg, where pple camp out on the pavements to get good viewing points of the fireworks. there were even people climbing onto trees to get a better view.  

fireworks on new year's eve

viet new year's eve

Hanoi Day 3 ~ reading and chilling out
nothing much to do today since all the shops are closed for the new year hols. had wanted to join the hanoi hash house harriers for their weekly run, but decided against it since my knees were stilling hurting.
woke up at 12nn! i slept for 10 hrs, which is very atypical for me! read the pirated bk i bot, the life of pi, at the lake, followed by highlands cafe, which has become a place of refuge for me, whenever i wanted to escape the noise and pollution of Viet streets. 

hoan kiem lake

papaya salad

vietnamese drip coffee

pho

then went back hotel to watch lots more CNA and discovery channel. there was an episode on ian wright's travels to tunisia and other parts of north africa. also watched a feature on this jap female artist who married an indian man and has successfully assimilated to life in new delhi, india.
met Mitsue for dinner at an italian restaurant. Mistue is a very charming lady from Hawaii who's working as a freelance writer cum career planner in Hanoi. had met her earlier at the cafe.  

Hanoi Day 4 ~ chilling out with Mitsue
met Mitsue in the morning, had breakfast and and attended church service at the Hanoi International Fellowship. the last time i went to church was some 5 years ago? with richard and i remembered we kind of fell asleep during the sermon then, haha. church service was nice, but i wasn't particularly touched. i dun really know what i'm looking for, maybe some strong sign to let me know that God is indeed around.

me

mitsue

mitsue & me

west lake

then we went temple hopping around the west lake, as its the customs for vietnamese to visit the temples during the new year hols. i wasn't particularly interested in temples thou, but it was nice to observe the vietnamese. the 2 of us also squeezed (rather uncomfortably) onto a motorbike taxi and toured the entire west lake, which was in the suburbs of Hanoi. thoroughly enjoyed her company and chatting about various things. and also learnt more about living life 'in the moment' from her .

Hanoi Day 5 ~ watched a movie and experienced $$ issues
wanted to go for a massage, but the massage places that i called were still closed for the hols. so ended up watching the movie "the holiday", which was really nice!
then met mitsue for a drink as she wanted me to show her how to choose a bagpack for her hiking trip to Romania later this year. the bagpacks in hanoi are all fake (northface, columbia, deuter etc), and the prices range from US$10 to $40. there's also fake gortex jackets, trekking pants and etc.
starting to run out of money now but hoping not to draw any more $$, cos i've spent about S$1,000 so far for this trip, excluding the air fare. while purchasing a baguette today, i felt my sling bag moving so i turned around and saw a woman very close to me and that the zipper of my sling bag was open. quickly checked that my wallet and hp were intact, otherwise i'd have given chase. but still, it was quite a shocking experience, as i guess i'd starting letting down my guard since it has been safe traveling in Vietnam so far. also today, while waiting for the salesperson to help me top up my local prepaid phone card, i wasn't very sure whether she gave me back my change. there was also another previous occasion when the cashier short-changed me but when i tried to clarify, she insisted that i had given her a smaller amount. well... at the end of the day, the $$ amounts are not large, but i guess no one likes to be conned.

Halong Bay Day 1 & 2

halong bay 1

halong bay 2

halong bay 3

halong bay 4

halong bay 5

halong bay 6

halong bay 7

hawker on boat

limestone caves 1

limestone caves 3

fm Hanoi, i took a 2D1N tour to Halong Bay. the scenery was really awesome! its so much nicer than other cliffs and seas that i've seen (in Thailand, Indonesia, etc). none of my pix can do justice to the beauty of the place, you just got to be there yourself!
took about 3 hrs to reach Halong town by mini-bus. after lunch and clearing the port customs, we boarded the boat to Halong bay, where we'll spend the night on the boat and return next noon-time.
i wished so much that william could be there with me to enjoy the scenery cos its really breathtaking! its the most beautiful place that i've visited in Vietnam. however, this time round, my fellow passengers were not pleasant - there's 2 australian groups (1 family and 1 group of teenagers + parent) and 1 german couple. i guess during your travels, as in life, you'll meet nice and not-so-nice people. for eg, the aussies refused to eat most of the food that was provided as they were concerned abt the cleanliness. they also refused to eat eggs as they were concerned about contracting bird flu. i felt like telling them that i think the chances of them getting bird flu fm eating the eggs was much much lower than the chances of getting getting hit by a motorbike on the streets. but i kept my comments to myself as it was 5 against 1. 

view fm bunk

bunk in boat

seating area on boat

anyhow, so i was really glad for the company of the book "the life of pi" by yann martel. its a really good book! and i finished it during the bus and boat ride. its coincidental that the fictional bk is about the a castaway (indian boy) and how he managed to survived in the pacific ocean for 7 months. and while reading the book, i was on the seas which i think is also the pacific ocean. the book also has a very interesting defence of zoos, as well as the essence of religions. for the book synopsis, go to http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/life_of_pi1.asp
it also helped that the tour guide for this trip was nice and quite cute-looking (in an Asian way). and he asked me twice whether i was attached, haha.

me and the life of pi

luat the tour guide

got back to Hanoi at about 4.30pm the next day. had 4 hours to while away before my train for Lao Cai (Viet border town with China) leaves. went to the internet cafe and bumped into ania, the polish girl. it was an amazing coincidence! as after parting with her at Hoi An, she headed south whereas i headed north. and she'd just got back to Hanoi the previous day. both of us were in need of listening ears! cos she has some personal issues with her Vietnamese boyfren and i didn't talk much during the Halong Bay trip as my fellow passengers were not approachable. had dinner with Ania (thank God she gave me a treat as i had run out of Viet cash and was planning to jus have bread for dinner) and she sent me to the train station. i shall always remember her as one of the lovely people i met during my career-break travels. and i certainly hope to visit her in Poland some day!

Overall, i'm v glad to have chosen to visit Vietnam. its a v special country with its previous French and Chinese heritage as well as war history. its also blessed with beautiful scenery - mountains, rivers and seas. and a very fertile mekong delta.
and i'm really glad that its the only country in the whole world that is meeting/ even exceeding the millenium development goals (see http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) and is the country that is the fastest in getting out of poverty. and of cos, i'll miss the vietnamese drip-type coffee, which i've been drinking everyday. and all the nice fellow travelers that i've met in Vietnam. in a way, i'm also glad to be moving on cos the pollution and noise can be q overwhelming at times. also, i'm getting rather tired of always being charged 'foreigner' prices.
spent S$1,200 (incl intl airfare) for this 3-week trip to Vietnam. original budget was S$1,000 but Vietnam was more expensive than expected.