Backpacking in SEA for 15 days: 19th Dec 2008

Today we also wake up exceptionally early! why u may be asking... becoz, we've got lots of sights to see in Hanoi before heading to our next destination: Luang Prabang.

So this morning, we waked up very early to head to Ho Chin Min Mausoleum. hahaha.... yeah, we're going there to pay our respects to 'Uncle Ho' as how the Vietnamese pple address him. today is exceptionally cold. When the wind blows, even with our jackets on, we're still shivering.... and my frens juz kept commenting 'samui! samui!' (tat's cold in jap)... hahaha... but we got no choice.... and we were so kiasu (don't want to loose to others), that we were there before the gates were open to allow visitors!

becoz cameras and bags were not allow to be carried into the mausoleum, therefore we are not able to take any pictures of Uncle Ho. Hmmm... even when u stand too long at a position looking at him in his glass coffin is not allowed, the soldiers will be grabbing u tightly on ur arm urging u on... and also we're not allowed to speak in the mausoleum.... talk abt respecting the dead... this is really respecting the dead....

after tat we went to a coffee shop juz across the street and tasted vietnamese tea & coffee!!! hahaha... yeah this is something tat all of us agreed upon that we must try everything from that country! after our tete a tete, we walked around a market nearby and looked at things and purchase things... hahhaha... and even ate at a roadside stall admist the houseflies and garbage tat was juz next to the stall.... all of us ordered some pork soup with noddles in it.... despite the sort of dirty environment, the food was really gd!!!
hahaha.... this is really immersing ourselves with the locals.... we also tried a sort of rice pudding with some meat inside it... tasted pretty nice and we also talked (as in super broken english) with the locals sitting on the low stools looking at the woman who prepared the rice pudding...
after all these interesting episodes, we went to the Temple of Literature... yeah... this is the 1st university in Vietnam. why is it called a temple, because, the scholars who studied there in the past, prayed to confucious so that they are able to do very well in their examinations. and why literature, because, its the only place where scholars are able to get their Phd!! =D

walking along the streets of Hanoi will allow one to see many many ineteresting things... hmmm... perhaps to me... coz there was 1 street whereby i saw many huge oblong objects that were hanged on the wall... it took me a while to register what are those objects on the wall... take a look at it and guess....
Yeah! they are the seats of the motorcycles or scooters!! hahaha... interesting isn't it??

and also another very interesting sight and also a very common sight is, the buildings in Hanoi are all very tall and thin and along on the sides... hahaha... very interesting... u only get to see these sort of building in Hanoi and no where else...
then another very interesting thing about the building that was next to my guesthouse is, everyday we smell a sort of spicy smell in our room...took us a bit of time to figure out wat that smell was... and guess wat? hahaha... it was the smell of incense sticks!

yup! not joking...coz it was on the 2nd day of the morning, we heard some noise coming from the roof top of the next building, then we was a lady laying out lots of joss sticks on the roof top to sun! and that's when the smell started to get really strong! hahaha.... so we managed to solve our mystery of the spicy scent in our room.....
another thing tat we crazy gals wanted to try in each country was their local beer... hahaha... yeah tat's wat we did on our last night in Hanoi, despite the packing of our bags.... and my frens are reallygd drinkers... hahaha... wat can u expect?? coz all of them are japanese... so naturally, they shld be pretty gd drinkers... and harumi and I are the only ones who will turn lobster red once we consume alcohol....
hahaha... this tells us tat we can't really bluff our way through in our lies in not consuming any alcohol huh... =D

Backpacking in SEA for 15 days: 17th Dec

we reached Hanoi at around 8.30am. having gotten all our luggage at the airport, we had to try looking for the taxi driver who was being sent by the guesthouse to the airport to pick us up. finally we found the taxi driver and all of us piled into the car and we were very surprised that it was a MPV that came to pick us up (and in the vietnamese pple's context, this is the big taxi).

as we were being driven along the streets to the city of Hanoi (it takes about 30 - 45min to reach the city from airport), 1 major thing i realised was, the weather was superbly blurr, meaning that it was terribly foggy. it was only much later when i talked to some other locals then know that at this time of the year, the weather is like this and its pretty cold. temp are ard 15 degrees celcius.

anyway when we finally reached our guesthouse (Thu Giang guesthouse), we only need to pay USD 13 for the taxi that was so much cheaper as compared to the USD 20 that the owner told me over the exchanges of emails ealier on. then we were showed to our room. goodness! the room was at the top of the building and we've got lots of stairs to climb. (anyway our room was at the 4th level, but the stairs can really kill you) and the room has a weird smell, like some sort of spice smell.... and anyway, 2 of us have to sleep on the floor, coz there were only 2 beds (1 big bed & 1 single bed). so me and keiko chose to sleep on the floor using our sleeping bags as 'sheild', coz  the matress that were given to us were a little damp... perhaps is due to the weather.... anyway its not gd to sleep on damp sheets as this will cause ur body to ache... and our daily schedule is packed to the brim, so we cannot afford to be sick... hahahaha.....

so after haggling the price of the room, we finally settled with USD 23 per night for the room, that $2 lesser than the initial price. after that, we went around the city and the 1st thing on our list was to book our day tour to Ha Long Bay and also our air tickets to Luang Prabang. so we searched for the 'Sinh Cafe' which will charge us for the cheapest..... and we managed to find it!!

so we inquired about the Ha Long Bay tour (1 day) and the price of bus ticket & the no. of hours on road and the plane ticket price. wah lao, if we were to choose the bus, think i'll not be back in s'pore lor... coz the entire bus hours from hanoi to luang prabang is 46hrs!!! crazy right??? but price is cheap lah... coz it cost USD 45 for the bus, but if its the plane, that will be USD 150. but plane only takes 1hr to reach there and we'll be flying on vietnam airlines. So we chose the plane instead..... and our ha long ba tour it only cost us USD 16!!! that really ver cheap as compared to some of the cut-throat prices that others offer us!!!
after settling our important things, then we went and do some shopping, look around the city and also book our water puppet tickets. oh yeah... and also eat the local food!!! hahaha... yeah we ate quite a bit of interesting and delicious food there!! being pretty adventurous!! and the 1st bowl of noddle that we ate was called Bun Bo (pho with lots of beef slices & salad)

then at night we had cha cha la vong for dinner. that grilled fish soaked in lots of oil and herbs! very very nice but a little pricy for us.... but its really gd and its also recommended by lonely planet!

If you are interested to try out the dish u can head down to 14 Cha Ca Street & 107 Nguyen Truong To Street. You will definitely not be disappointed with the food! =D

becoz we walked a lot tat night, so when we went to watch the water puppet, hahaha.... most of us doze off...coz the environment was very good to sleep. nice music, a little dark... hahaha... yeah quite wasteful with my $$$.... but can't really help it, coz i was really too tired... only had a couple of hrs of sleep at the KL airport... hahaha... anyway after tat we went back to our guesthouse to knock off... so tat we can go for our Ha Long Bay trip the next morn! 

                                                                                 Picture of Hoan Kiem lake