Adventure in Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa

Went for a holiday to Vietnam, Hanoi for a week. Xiaobao and I departed on 15oct2006 taking the afternoon flight, flying with tigerairways.



Day 1
Reached Hanoi at about 6.30pm their time. Saw someone holding a card with my name. The hostel we are going to stay with for the first night helped to arranged our airport pickup.

We reached the hostel, Lake View Guesthouse about one hour later at Hanoi old Quarter in Hang Trong Street.



The room was clean and nice because it is newly opened sometime this year. We found it very worthwhile to stay there at 18USD per night (the biggest draw is the free pickup as stated on my confirmation slip, the transfer itself cost ard 10USD usually) and we were so pleased initially*, we even comtemplated to stay there for another night when we are back from our Halong Bay trip although we have already booked a night with Phan Thai, Camellia 4 Hotel.

After depositing our bags in the room, we went out to explore the streets, the shops are opened until quite late around 10.00pm. I was quite hungry so we decided to head into a cafe, Starmexx for dinner. Dinner is okay, Xiaobao tried their fried rice noodle which i find quite special ...Dinner cost about 7SGD per person .. it is average by singapore standard but we find it a bit steep by vietnam standard .. so we decided to refrain from dining in cafes as we prefer to spend on shopping :)

Day 2

Time for Halong Bay. So we checked out of our hostel, the hostel people did not seem very pleased as we only stayed with them for a night and did not book any tours with them. And I was shocked when they asked us to pay 12USD for the airport pickup which they arranged. It was stated to be free in my confirmation slip so I argued with them for a while and the receptionist girl called her boss to check. The boss was rude .... he even told me "dun make me angry", implying I should just pay up. Well, I did not want any trouble so we paid 12USD as they are holding on to our passports. What an unpleasant encounter! Spoilt my good impression for the hostel. Later, a lady, Ms Hue from Camellia hotel group came to collect the payment for our Halong Bay trip with ODC. Cost us 39USD per pax.



And we rushed to have our breakfast as ODC is coming to pick us up anytime. However, before we can have the food, the van came and we have to go without having breakfast. All thanks to the dispute over the taxi fare. Was very irritated. Have to eat Marie biscuit for breakfast!!









Lunch on the ODC boat - Bay Explorer was not bad ... although their seafood lunch meant one prawn per person and a fried fish .. luckily there were other dishes to compensate and we were usually too full to finish our meals. We shared table with a french family of three and a young japanese lady, Makiko. The french guy, Eric was actually working in singapore .. What a coincidence.

There is another lone traveller, a german guy and 2 Irish couple. Did not communicate with the Irish couples. The german guy had been travelling for the past 6 months and has plans to stop by singapore. So we passed him our contact, trying our best to be friendly Singaporeans .. Haha

We went limestone cave visiting (Amazing cave - a name given from the tourist.. the official name should be Sung Sot cave). Our tour guide, Bien was pretty long winded and he explained to us the stories of the caves many many times.. Nice chap though..





Reminded me of the cave I went to at Perak ... a lot of formation can be imagined as many things .. elephants, fingers pointing to the sky... turtle, frogs ..


Later we went tiptop beach which is named after a pilot. We climbed up a hill where there is this shelter at the top of the hill to enjoy the breathtaking scenery. It was quite a tedious climb haa .. and Makiko had a beer after we came down as a treat to herself for making it to the top :)




Then is kayaking time .. it was a tiring ride. It was getting dark and we are unable to find our way back to our boat. Luckily, someone called out to us and we headed back to the right boat :)

Overnight on boat .. not too bad although aircon wasn't on.

Day 3







Breakfast and swimming ... attempted to snorkel but .. nothing is visible through the googles .. Another group joined us to go back to Hanoi and the rest of our original group headed to Cat Ba Island as they are doing the 3D2N...

Xiaobao did a survey for the guide regarding the trip .. one interesting thing is that the guide actually read the survey and asked xiaobao to change one of the item from acceptable to good. Think the survey result is linked to their pay system.

Reached Hanoi about 5pm and we checked into Phan Thai, Camellia 4 hotel... not bad a hotel too.. although they are not flexible enough to grant us a late check out, they allowed us to make use of their free baggage storage and there is free laundry for our deluxe room .. they also allowed us to use their internet after we have checked out on Day 4 .. Conclusion, it is a highly recommended budget hotel at 26USD per night for the deluxe room.. think their standard rooms are cheaper.

Went out in search of a tour agency for our SAPA trip. Was debating to go ODC or ET-pumpkin .. Decided to take ET-pumpkin because it is 12USD cheaper (78USD for 2 overnight stay in Sapa, one night in homestay and one night in hotel). However, their Hanoi office looks a bit dubious and the co-ordinator's english is quite bad, so I was keeping my finger crossed that the whole trip will turn out well.

Orienteering hasn't been my forte so map reading is a challenge for me .. :) But it is good practice for me .. with more practise i will get better.. Anyway, luckily xiaobao's sense is better than mine lar haa

Had dinner at a small restuarant beside our hotel ... Tried the Hanoi beer, it taste light .. pretty good.

Day 4
Breakfast at Camellia 4 is quite good, buffet style, at least their noodle taste good. After breakfast we went to our shopping trip ... visiting the tailors and all.




Walked to Dong Xuan Market.. a wholesale market for clothes, shoes and bags. Was disappointed with what we saw. Sellers there do not quite entertain small time buyers like us and the price is not cheap. Think Bangkok's chatuchap weekend market is much much better place to shop. No more markets for us. After which, we took a cyclo to St. Joseph cathedral and had lunch near the more atas area in a cafe .. does not seem to be able to find pho ga/bo in their menu which is weird.







Almost lost dunlin's lonely planet .. left it at the cathedral .. later xiaobao went to retrieve it .

More shopping for us in the Hang Gai area after we checked out of Phan Thai depositing our bags in their storage room. I bought a silk dress for Cynthia's wedding .. At least one mission accomplished.

Back to the hotel and we had dinner in a small local restuarant near our hotel .. think I had pork rice noodle. Cheap and good food. :)

Waited for ET-pumpkin to come and fetch us. They did, on time.. so off we go to the railway station ... The co-ordinator passed us the train tickets and bus tickets from Lao cai to Sapa, as well as the dinner voucher in Sapa. He did not explain the procedure to us properly, so we were quite lost throughout the trip. He kept asking us to wait for him for 5 minutes or 10 minutes and he will disappear for sometime before coming back.

But at least he brought us to the waiting platform for the train and we got on to the correct carriage and beds .. We were lucky, we share the train compartment with a very pleasant Malaysian couple, Bob and Dee. Bob was an australian and Dee used to be a Singaporean. They stayed with central stars hotel and booked their tours through them. They will be going on to the Dragon Pearl for their Halong bay trip !... what a luxurius trip for them.







Dee had bad knee and Bob was too tall to sleep at the top compartment so .. we offered to exchange our lower bunk beds and slept on the top bunk instead .. In fact, i would prefer to sleep on the top bunk haa.. It was xiaobao's first time sleeping on top bunk .. so it should be quite an experience for her .. I can sleep anywhere so the 8 hrs train ride is a breeze to me... we reached Lao cai in no time.



Day 5

I was expecting the guide to be waiting outside the train station for us... there are a lot of touts who insisted that we board their bus ... but we are afraid that we have to fork out extra money so we refused. And finally one of them called et-pumpkin and the person on the other line managed to tell me my name so we boarded the mini van in peace. Met 2 fellow singaporeans on the mini van .. the ride was quite squeezy but managable.



Finally we arrived at Auberge hotel. Washed up and had breakfast.. omelette and bread .. yummy. Finally the tour guide came and we depart for our trek with a jap lady, junko and her son utah ... the very impressive eight year old had trek up to mount fansipan 3143m ! They stayed in Ho-chi Minh for 5 years as her husband is working there. The boy attended international school thus his english is very good. Their classes are classified by countries .. very interesting :)


Not really too sure where we started our trek and where we trekked past as our guide was very quiet. He will not speak unless spoken to.. He did not explain the route we will be taking in the beginning .. and we just followed.Roughly know that we trekked past Ta Van, Nam Trung , and there is a bamboo forest.. One whole bunch of local (the black H'mong) followed and talked to us. They were friendly and helped us by holding on to our hands ensuring we do not slip. Nice people with intention of course .. haa they are sellers after all. But we do not mind buying stuffs from them as a token of appreciation for their help. There is this twelve year old gal by the name of LA.. her english is quite good and she attended school in the village.. learnt from the guide that the locals used the entrance fee to Sapa to built up the facilities like the schools, for bridges etc. I bought a braclet and a pouch from her and another braclet from another lady. Xiaobao found out that ladies who wore a comb on their hair actually signify that they are married.









My sandals disintegrated along the way .. at first the soles came off then the strap broke .. so i have to change to my Teva slipper... It is good .. it survived the trek !

Lunch was a disappointing bread with omelette .. Xiaobao was highly disappointed as she was hoping to have a bowl of pipping hot noodles. We saw another group having noodles. I asked the guide if we can have a bowl of noodles and he told me that the place does not sell noodles ... and the noodles the group was having was from their hotel ?!???!!! Hmmmmmm weird . Tell me a better lie please.





And so we trekked and we trekked and we trekked ... Utah is very energertic and he told me about Super Mario , his classmates etc .. very cute boy. Finally we reached the Zay family we are going to spent the night with in Ban Ho!









Junko was well prepared, they came to sapa before .. think 5-6 times already ... she had this plastic bag of little gifts like pencil and badges and biscuits to give to the local children. A very kind hearted lady.





What a relief ... after the long trek. After bathing, very cold water ... we had dinner .. very good dinner and we tried the rice wine. There is another belgium group of eight staying with us.Pleasant group of people .. and they did the advance trek for days... and three of them were stung by bees .. the eyes of one guy was swollen. The sapa nurse gave them medicine and they ate with rice wine .. cool huh?!? Luckily, they are still alright the next morning haa.

Witness something very interesting .. there is this lady local guide with them ... Cissy .. find her to be like a vietnamese version of SPG .. :) we were observing her with great interest. She was very friendly with one of the belgium guys in the group. And I saw them hugging in the kitchen after I came out of the toilet.. but my presence was ignored .. guess my lightbulb is not strong enough... the next morning we saw them holding hands with their mattress laid side by side. So lovely dovey ... And it was valentine's day ... they call it women's day.

The guide also told us that there is a Love Market on Saturdays for the singles to flirt.. Interesting huh? Too bad we do not have the chance to go. :)

Well, there are more reasons to dislike Cissy ... Utah brought fireworks to play that night and she played the most without asking for permission ... Aiyoh ..she asked the belgium guy to join her and after there is no more left, she just said, "Chris, let's go there is no more.." And the jap lady was there trying to clear away the metal sticks that are burnt so as not to leave any litter around.

Okay .. enough of gossips :)


Day 6

Had hot chocolate which i brought along for breakfast... heavenly.
Time to trek down to the waterfall, La Vie for a swim .. after a long trek down and visiting some local families, we reached the river and trekked the more slippery route along the rocks ... the waterfall was a small one ... think bekelah waterfall is more fun.. I went for a swim .. the water is terribly cold.











On the way, we went to homes of the locals to have a look. Their homes are simple and rundown. Funiture is a few chairs which they offered to us. Most of them brew rice wine in their house.Had a taste of the rice wine at the homestay. Quite strong.





We went back to the homestay to get our bags and trekked back... All the way uphill !.. Utah is getting tired and refused to move at times. His mother encouraged him all the way and finally we reached our lunch destination. Yippeee ! We saw the van waiting for us .. No more trekking! .. Can see Utah's eyes sparkling when he knew that we do not need to trek anymore.

Lunch was good... Pipping hot instant noodles with egg ! ... Lovely.

The rooms in Auberge is nice and clean .. we had a shower and rested well .. we went to internet cafe and went online.. 6000VND per hr .. cheap .. but heard some hotels offered free internet access. We had dinner at Auberge .. 3 dishes with rice .. nice and simple fare .. Popiah without fail. haa





We slept early that night.

Day 7

Went to Sapa market .. the only thing that we can do in the small little town. We regretted opting for the hotel stay .. because they is not much things to do and we spent most of our time waiting. We went to internet cafe to surf net twice for 2 hrs just to waste away some time.









If I were to go Sapa again, I will not opt for the hotel stay. I would rather spend one more day in Hanoi and do the city tour to the different attraction sites like the temple of literature and the museums.. or mabbe more trekking and another night of homestay will be better. Although .. having a good bath in hotel is highly enjoyable but having too much waiting time is not.

Finally, the bus back to Lao Cai arrived at 4.30pm and we boarded the bus... On the bus we saw Cissy and the belgium guy "partor-ing" on the streets. Haha ..

Off we go to Lao Cai ... the food at the restuarant in Lao Cai was very blend but at least it fills the stomach. Sat beside a Singaporean group of three, Zaoqing and her brother, Ren ci and their father.. Very nice group of people...enjoyed talking to them and we talked about our trip and compare on who had been a bigger "carrot" for the vietnamese people to "chop" as they jacked up the prices for tourists. We were thinking maybe we can travel together as our train will arrive in hanoi very early at 5am. They were taking a later train... ours was the earlier train so no such luck.

At the restuarant, a cheat approached us, told us he was from et-pumpkin and he needed to exchange our train tickets as he wanted to upgrade us to a better carriage. Think we are stupid ! But one thing I must thank him is that he reminded me that our train was departing at 8.35pm. My blur head thought it was 10.35pm .. So thank you Mr Cheat!

We were pleasantly surprised that we get the share our train compartment with the Malaysian couple Bob and Dee again. They treated us with red wine from Sapa. :)


Day 8

Arrived in Hanoi at 5.00am in the morning but there were a lot of people around so it is alright. We wanted to wait until at least 5.45am before heading to Thu Giang Guesthouse which we read from the lonely planet is good and cheap and friendly. I called them the night before at Lao Cai and they say they opened at 5.30am.

We had a seat at the roadside stall while waiting ... and bought a drink from them although we dun feel like having any drinks so early in the morning. Xiaobao said she was attacked by the mosquitoes while waiting.. Haa.. I havd so many mosquitoes bites on my legs that I think I have to wear pants to hide my disfigured legs for the time being.

We saw the belgium group again for afar and they boarded the taxi .. Finally, its 5.45am and it is all bright already. We boarded the taxi .. which took us for a long ride around the lake .. haa .. Must beware of the taxi people .. but is alright lar ..as long as they take us the the destination safely in the end.

Walked to Thu Giang but the staff was still sleeping .. I knocked and woke one of them up and they said no rooms will be available until 10am so we went to the guesthouse beside them .. No. 2 North hostel ... the lady boss was very friendly so we deicided to rent the room for half day from them. USD 6 dollars for a hot shower and a place to put our baggage. Worth it.

After shower, we went out to have breakfast, porridge by the roadside for 2000 dong .. 20 cents SGD ... wah ... very nice porridge with "you tiao" .. the consistency of the porridge is not that the ones in singapore .. is more like a paste .. very thick rice paste. Finally we tried the roadside food.



Visited the Hanoi Hilton, Hoa Lo Prison. The place is okay .. got to know more about the political prisoners captured during the times of unrest.





Later we went to Cha Ca to have the highly recommended and famous fried fish.. it is stated to be one of the 100 things one must do before we die .. Alamak .. it is just normal fried fish ... over stated and over priced... 5USD per person.

Went back to Camellia 4 to get our baggage and took a cyclo back to No. 2 North hotel to deposit and off we go to get the tailored clothes along Hang Gai and get our souvenir and the Fernando Botero's imitated painting ... There are a lot of art galleries in Hanoi ... with painters that duplicates paintings .. their skills is good. I bought one Mona Lisa version of Botero's painting.. Cute .. Have no idea who he is and his work before this... got to know about him from Xiaobao..




All mission completed, bought souvenirs, collected the tailored clothes, bought coffee ... phew .. and back to hotel to pack our bags.

The taxi came to pick us up at 4.30pm and off we go to the airport... the check-in service for the luggage is slow.. we waited and waited before it is our turn to check-in. Luckily, they allowed us the hand-carry our paintings. Xiaobao has to check in her lamp though. I bought one small one ... I wonder when my Project lampshade will be completed haa.

Reached Singapore at 11.30pm .. Very happy that it is holiday in lieu on monday and a public holiday on tuesday .. Had a wednesday blue though ... haa

End of trip - Happy ending ..

Looking forward to a trip to Ho Chi Minh, Hue and Hoi An and perhaps Cambodia Ang Kor Wat ..