Day 3 - Halong Bay / Hanoi

woke up at 6am to a bright and cheery morning. too much beer last night, so no sunrise for us lol. everyone else was still asleep so I decided to go up to the deck to get some fresh air. It was great just enjoying the scenery on the deck, and imagining that I really belonged to Halong Bay haha. Tam had woken up too so he came up to join me. had a nice long chat exchanging bits and pieces of our lives.

indeed, life is tough all around. though he’s a university grad, it’s tough for him as he’s always away from home. it's also hard for him to find his other half, a girl who would be willing to travel with him or wait for him. but i told him not to worry cos he’s very interesting and he’s bound to find a life partner soon haha.

this was my favourite photo of the whole trip! hehe nice ya!

American breakfast was up next, though we were a bit disappointed. but their butter was good lol. we needed the energy for our next activity – kayaking!

there were only 6 kayaks so we had to take turns. had wanted to swim in the sea before our turn, but we changed our minds when we saw a huge jelly fish floating around our boat..it the size of 2 huge soccer balls!

us and our cosy room! I look like charcoal next to van haha.

CGP – communist girls party.

hehehe..

the last time i kayaked was during OBS!!! haha despite it being short-lived, and the fact that none of our life vests were in proper working condition, it was great fun! especially in a beautiful place like Halong Bay, priceless :)

then we took a slow sail back to mainland Hanoi, and of cos more camwhoring after taking a shower!

next up was vietnamese lunch at Thang Long Restaurant, just across the jetty.

the food was good, especially the fish. tho i dunno what's up with fries in vietnam. i thought they're american? lol.

nothing can beat an ice cream in this crazy hot weather.

and cold cucumbers lol...

and snake wines!!!!

it was a 4 hour ride back to Hanoi with a tourist stopover in between. we were also scratching like crazy due to the bed bugs from the boat lol. slept half of the way cos we were shagged! but the weather was great for taking pictures of the city's outskirts. even in the city, things were beautiful.

some lively kids hanging out outside our hotel. haha told you vietnam is safer than JB! anyway i spent 10 mins looking at them trying to understand what they were playing, but failed.

something i wasn't expecting to see - kids playing hand-held games.

we were a bit apprehensive when we got back to Blue Paradise hotel. after all, they didn't have enough rooms for us the first night. but boy we were in for a surprise....

since 4 of us girls were staying together, we got the largest room in the hotel, a suite. this time, our beds were even bigger, there was a computer, a couch, a big bathtub... the room looked FANTASTIC!! and they call this budget haha.

Night life in Hanoi...

next, dinner time! hehe.

found a few small coffeeshops, the first one sold snails too lol. but there wasn't enough space in the first one, so the 4 of us followed Jude next door for pho. though i was looking forward to eat snails, this was better!

for only 20000D (S$1.70) this was the best pho i tasted during my trip in vietnam haha. and what is dinner without some Bia Hanoi!

after dinner we strolled along the streets of Hanoi.

i thought our coffeeshop was dirty. but look at this.
we noticed that all over in vietnam, the locals enjoy sitting on stools eating by the roadsides. it doesn't matter if the food is unhygenic, or the stool is short and uncomfortable, they enjoy it!


and it also doesn't matter if the food falls on the ground, or they chop their veges using the road as chopping boards. everything's edible lol.

and then we found our coffe stall! vietnam is very famous for its coffee, especially weasel coffee which is supposedly only found in indonesia and viet. it's a rare type of coffeebean which is eaten by the weasel, and passed out in its shit, the whole bean of cos.
so essentially, it's weasel shit beans.

coffee sampling was free, so you could order any coffee drink (cold, hot, freeze etc..) - unlimited and for free! but take note that if we don't buy anything, we have to pay for the drinks.

after a lot of coffee tasting, we were intoxicated enough lol.
we decided to buy the best grade weasel coffee (grade 8) at S$15 for 250 grams, definitely pricey, as you can see Jude was already digging his wallet lol. but it was very worth it! there's zero sourness in this coffee and super fragrant. my grandpa loves it haha.

oh and the beans are also weighed, grounded and packaged in right front of you, very fresh indeed.

and now time for some finger lickin' good!!

but of cos we were too full to eat anything, so we just went in this 4 storey KFC building to have a rest lol. this was their grand lucky draw prize - a shiny scooter!

i was amazed by the grandeur of the KFC in vietnam. all of them were well-furnished, multi-storeyed, cheaper and prettier than Singapore's haha. one interesting thing is that there is no McDonalds in vietnam, not a single one! some say this is due to Mcdonalds unable to find a partner in vietnam, and some say it's cos KFC is already dominating the fastfood industry. and in fact, vietnamese don't really go for fastfood anyway haha.


it was getting late, but we decided to take a stroll around the largest lake in Hanoi - Hoan Kiem Lake aka Lake of the Returned Sword. legend has it that when vietnam was fighting against the chinese, the emperor was losing and one day he saw a giant tortoise emerged from the lake with a magic sword. using the sword he defeated the chinese, but during his victory parade, the tortoise emerged again to take the sword back from him, and swam back to the lake again lol. after that, he built a temple on the lake for this tortoise.

ok enough stories for now..back to the hotel!

and look at what we found haha.

i just couldn't believe that these kids were allowed to roam around the deserted streets at 11pm at night. haha they were playful and naughty, very cute and friendly too! the hotel staff detested them though lol.

time to turn in for a good night's rest! :)

Day 2 - Halong Bay

woke up early at 6am to the melodious sound of vehicle honking haha. unfortunately it was raining today, but that didn’t dampen our spirits.

I insisted on a photo with our friendly hotel staff before leaving, cos Vietnamese guys are so cute wahaha! =P

we headed for breakfast at Blue Paradise Hotel. one of the troubles of travelling in a group of 28 is that we had to literally queue for our breakfast, and squeeze together in the small hallway. but it was definitely worth the wait! there was toast, cheese, omelette and my PHO!

The pho looked so harmless and unappetizing initially, but together with viet chilli padi and fresh lime, it was DELICIOUSSS! the chef cooked the pho meticulously bowl by bowl, either beef or chicken. the pho was light and smooth, and the soup was rich and tasty, no after-MSG-thirsty-feeling at all. the pho in Singapore and Melbourne can’t compare at all lol.

after breakfast, we embarked on our 4 hour ride to Halong Bay!

it was nice watching the streets of Hanoi before we left the city. there were scooters and more scooters, I don’t see why we should complain about traffic jams back home. there’s traffic jam here all the time and people just take it easy. though they honk all the time (really non-stop lol) they appear to be doing so for no apparent reason! haha and the roads are always an adventure for pedestrians and drivers - pedestrians can cross anytime and anyhow, while drivers can drive diagonally or even against oncoming traffic!

the houses and buildings are usually all skinny and high-rised (not as high as Singapore lol) and with a balcony on each level haha. they’re very French in décor, probably from the time of French colonialism. apparently each of these houses actually can cost up to USD 2-3 million! these people are rich with property, but instead of choosing to sell it, they just open a small store below selling food and such. I admire the way they’re contented with what they have.


in the midst of the journey, we stopped over at a tourist attraction that sold handicrafts made by handicapped children. too expensive for us tho so we didn’t buy anything. this was also a Ve Sinh (toilet) break for us hehe.

after the 4 hour ride, we finally reached the pier where we boarded our junk boat, Hai Au! sounds like 海鷗 in Chinese haha. it was so un-junkish, more like a mini 3-star hotel. the boat was huge and beautifully designed, with a dining and gathering area as well as an upper deck for sun tanning. there were 3 levels, with 10 rooms, so some of them slept on another junk boat that was going to be “connected” to us at night.


lunch wasn’t sumptuous but it was very delicious. I was in total awe of the fried Vietnamese spring rolls, my virgin try at AUTHENTIC spring rolls! couldn’t stop praising the fish too, fresh and crisp. their rice was also fragrant, strangely in a Japanese way.

our tour guide for the Halong Bay tour was Tam, a handsome young man hahaha. he spoke good English and had a great sense of humour.


our next stop was the fishing village or what we call kellong! the kellong was big but well organized and we had fun balancing along the wooden planks and observing how they handled the fishies. there were even baby sharks circling beneath us! the last time I went to a kellong was in secondary school in Kukup lol, feels great to visit again.

I seriously believe that Vietnamese guys don’t need to go to gyms to earn their 6-packs..check out this guy!! I so wouldn’t mind living in Vietnam kellongs!! wahaha =P

Van shocked, not sure was it cos of the slapping fishies or the hottie hunk LOL.

after waving goodbye to the kellong, i saw something interesting yet heart-wrenching at the same time. kids from the fishing village rowed their boats out towards our boat, shouting out asking for money. later we realized that this was a common sight not only in Hanoi, but HCM as well. It then struck me that most people in Vietnam live in poverty. felt kinda sad as I watched them row away, so independent, so happy, and yet this act of seeking donations is inevitably part of their everyday lives. I believe no parent would want their children to be taught that, but survival leaves them with little choice.

next up, we visited Hang Sung Sot, the Cave of Surprises. supposedly the most beautiful cave of Halong Bay. what’s special about this place is the interior walls of the cave, which seem man-made due to its smoothness. the high ceilings are also nicely cratered, like the surface of the moon, probably due to sea waves in the past. and there are many “surprises” sculptures along the surfaces of the walls! so the Vietnamese named it after the awe-stricken faces of visitors haha.

this pic is damn funny lol!

It felt really cooling inside despite the scorching weather. reminded me of where Xiao Long Nu lives with her ice bed.

one of the surprises – an huge erect penis…
and its awe-stricken admirers.

welcome to Jurassic park!

a penguin!? ok this was just a dustbin haha.

behold..light at the end of the tunnel!

the view from the top of Hang Sung Sot was breathtaking. topped with nice cool ice cream!

Us and Tam, and Hai Au!

bunch of tired girls.

see this little boat? It’s actually a mobile shop selling tidbits and stuff to the tourist boats! at tourist price of cos haha.

group pic before leaving :)

more about Halong Bay...
Halong Bay actually means Bay of the Descending Dragon. It is rumoured that when the forefathers of Vietnam were trying to protect their land from invaders, the gods of heaven sent a family of dragons down to earth to help them. as the dragons descended, they spit out jewels which formed islands around the land that acted as fortresses against their enemies. haha ok for further insights, pls read Wikipedia yourself :P

did alot of camwhoring haha. finally the boat came to a halt in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by beautiful rocks in the centre of Halong Bay. this was where we were going to spend the night! while some went swimming, the rest of us chilled on the upper deck enjoying the sunset.

sumptuos dinner!

at night, we immersed in some Hanoi beer (Bia Hanoi) which cost S$2.00 per can. indeed much cheaper than singapore, but it's not cheap at all! in Hanoi we could buy for 80cents per can. light and refreshing, im really impressed with Hanoi beer!

as we were a little too old for Truth/Dare games, so the 4 of us together with Tam and Jude chit chatted, while getting "drunk" over the Gin Rummy cards lol.

a memorable night onboard :)