.:I Can Change My Life:.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

I was in Hanoi, Vietnam with my family last week, from 10/12 to 15/12.
It was the best yet worst trip..
We were supposed to return to Singapore at 1am on Saturday but due to some technical problem, the flight was delayed for more than 12 hours! I will tell you more later in the post..
But anyway, I still like coming to Hanoi.. :)) It's a wonderful place..probably better then Bangkok, except for the airport part..
Ok, this is gonna be a very long post as I'm going to type out the itinerary for the past five days.
*ST - Singapore time

Sunday 10/12/06 :
We(my family and uncle) arrived at the Hanoi Airport at 9.15pm(ST). We waited for about 50 minutes at the customs before we were out. A driver from tour hostel(Little Hanoi) drove us to the hostel. The roads of Hanoi are so dangerous. One motorcycle just cut across the expressway and it shocked us all! The drive from the airport to the city took about an hour's time. When we reached our hostel, we had some problems checking in. They did not have enough rooms for us to stay so we were told to go to another hostel, which I supposed was one of their branches. By the time we unpacked all our stuff, it was about 11pm+(ST). We hadn't had our dinner yet, so we headed out to look for a place to have our dinner.
The weather's so damn cold! 15ºC I didn't bring thick clothes to wear!! Bbrrr!! As it was cold, we decided to have hotpot(or steamboat) for dinner! Their hotpot is quite different from us..they cook noodles in the pot as well while we don't do that. We had the mixed hotpot and they gave us stuff that we don't usually eat..Their fish is so 'boney' that I daren't eat a piece of it for fear of choking the bone..
There's like prawns(one for each person), yam, tofu, meat, squid and quite a few kinds of vegetables. We didn't know how to eat(as in cooking the stuff), then the 'boss' came and help us with it..she stood there for quite some time and we chatted while waiting for our food. I like their prawns and squid! The prawns are so juicy and sweet! While the squid is so 'chewy'?? I don't know what's the word for it..But anyway, these foods are the best of all. By the time we finished our dinner, it was already 12am+! We paid for the food and quickly returned to our hostel.
The water in the hostel tasted like rotten seawater..and we're supposed to drink it?! Just can't stand the stinking odour!

Monday 11/12/06 :
Woke up at about 7am(ST). We had breakfast provided by the hostel - a bread with jam and butter and a cup of coffee or tea. It's nice though simple. After breakfast, we tried checking into the hostel that we're supposed to be staying in but the guests seemed to leaving only in the afternoon. So in the end, we went out to shop while they tried to reserve 2 rooms for us. The temperature is sure low! About 17-18ºC in the morning. We could stand the cold no longer and we went to buy winter coats from the shops nearby. I bought a windbreaker that cost 200 000VND(S$20) and it sure has given me some warmth..
Then we continued shopping around for more clothes and other stuff like gloves and hats. As it was about lunch time then, we had our lunch at 'Ocean Tours' restaurant. The food is nice..we had pizza, rice, vegetable, meat and spring roll(nem). The nem is delicious! It has a crispy 'skin'! Yum! We spent a total of 219 000VND on this meal. Then we visited the Hoan Kiem lake and took some photos. We're starting to feel cold again and we went to have a drink at the coffee bar. The vietnamese coffee is so special! They let the coffee drip from the metal thingy instead of just giving you a cup of ready-made coffee. When we came out of the bar, we saw a few people buying ice-cream?! People eating ice-cream on such a cold day?! That's just so crazy!
After that, we went to book tickets for the water puppet show which was just around the corner. We're going to watch the show on Thursday night! Later on, we shopped a little while longer before returning to our hostel. The rooms now are much larger than the previous ones and it's not as cold. We rested for a while before going out for dinner.
We took a taxi to 'Brother's Cafe' and it costed us 16 000VND. 'Brother's Cafe' is quite a high class restaurant. Adults cost US$12 while children cost US$6 per person. We had lots of barbequed seafood - prawns, clams, squid and fish. We were enjoying our dinner when suddenly someone from behind us vomitted. Yuck! That was a disgusting sight! He must have had too much wine..At about 10pm(ST), we finally left the restaurant. We were the second last to leave the restaurant. We took a taxi back to the hostel. This time, the taxi fare costs 44 000VND! What a big difference between the two taxi fares! Something must have been done to the taxi meter for it went too fast!
We'll be going to Halong Bay tomorrow and are spending the night on board the boat. =)
And how on earth did that '好朋友' come?!! :((

Tuesday 12/12/06 :
Woke up at around 7.30am. Took a bath and packed the bags that we’re taking to Halong Bay. After that, we checked out of the hostel and had breakfast provided. When the minibus that is taking us to the bay arrived, we loaded our bags and boarded the bus and we left for Halong Bay. The bus trip lasted for about 3 ½ hours. I was sleeping throughout the trip. During the trip, we stopped for a short break at a factory. It sells hand-made items like embroidery, handbags, pouches etc. A while later, we finally reached the harbour! We got the boat tickets and boarded the boat. We’re staying on board for a night before returning to Hanoi city. We had our first meal, lunch, on board. Our lunch included tofu, omelette, fish, cabbage and rice. Then we were given a small cabin to sleep in. The cabin is quite small, just big enough to place a queen size bed or two single beds, a small drawer and a toilet.
In the afternoon, we visited a cave in one of the many islands there. This cave is specially made for tourists to visit. It’s very big and quite dark inside. Our tour guide gave us a tour around the cave. Some rocks looked like animals or some parts of a body..it’s quite interesting actually. We finally came to the end of our tour around the cave, and we’re standing high above the ground! We bought ice-creams and later climbed down the cave and boarded the boat. Later on, we came to a place where people are allowed to kayak into caves and their surroundings. I wanted to kayak, but due to some constraints, I didn’t kayak after all. L Some people changed into their swimsuits and dived into the sea.. OMG! The water is so cold and they dared to swim in it?!! We stayed there for about an hour or so..Those who didn’t kayak or swim, like us, stayed on the top deck to ‘sun tan’.
Then it was dinner time! We had fish, chicken, French fries, vegetables, soup and nem. When we were finished with the main course, they served us fruits – orange. After dinner, I went to the top deck to view the night sky. It was so beautiful.. It’s cloudless, so many stars could be seen shining brightly in the sky. I was feeling cold by then and went into our cabin. As I was feeling quite tired, I fell asleep immediately.

Wednesday 13/12/06 :
Breakfast is served at 8.30am (ST), so we had to get up about an hour before that. It is very cool, but not as cold as it was in the city. For breakfast, we had bread(sliced), jam, butter, egg and ham. It tasted quite okay, but the caucasians do not seem to like it because they did not eat much. There are quite a few pieces of bread, all the ham left when they left the dining room. Maybe the food is not as good as food from their hometown..
After breakfast, we are told to check out as we are going back to the harbour. On the way to the harbour, the boat stopped for a while at a small island to pick up a few people there. The island is like a resort where people can stay there and do things that they like. After a few people boarded the boat, we left the island and headed for the harbour. At about 11.30am, we reached the harbour. We had lunch there at a restaurant. They served us many dishes - fish, nem, vegetables, soup, fried noodles and rice.
After lunch, we set off for the city. Before that, the driver drove us to another island, it's something like Sentosa, to pick up someone. The island is quite bare. Very few trees and buildings there. The bus trip back to the city was a little longer than before as we travelled slower and when we reached our hostel, it was about 5pm+. We bathed before going out for dinner. We had hotpot for dinner again. It was at the same place but in a different stall. The hotpot stalls are only opened at night and it's located outside the wholesale market. This time, we had seafood. The prawns are live prawns, not frozen ones. They put the prawns inside the pot when it's about to boil, then the prawns are like jumping about the pot. It's quite funny seeing the prawns 'jump'. My dad and uncle are so hungry that they finished 4 packets of maggie noodles and mee hoon and the brown noodles. We didn't know how to eat the vegetables they gave us so we sort of exchanged the vegetables with maggie noodles. And they gave us 4 packets of it. I thought we wouldn't be able to finish them all but we did. It's unbelievable. We had to refill the soup twice!
In Hanoi, it seemed that beer is cheaper than soft drinks! One small glass bottle of Halida beer costs the same as a can of 330ml of Coke or 7-up. But in restaurants, the soft drinks are a little more expensive than beer. It's quite the opposite here right?
Then after dinner, we walked around the area and returned to our hostel. It was about 11pm then.

Thursday 14/12/06 :
We signed up for the city tour today and it costs US$18 per person. It started at 8.15am. First, we went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. The security is so tight there that you could only bring your valuables like money and jewellery in. If you have cameras, they will keep it with them until you come out of the mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh's dead body is placed in a display case-like coffin in the middle of a room. I can't really see properly as it was quite smoky in the room and it's quite dark inside. It looked like a fake one as it was plastered to prevent decaying or something like that. The tour guide told us that every three years, during November, the body of Ho Chi Minh will be taken to Russia for restoration, so the mausoleum would not be opened to tourists.
When we came out of the room, we were given a tour around the garden behind. It's very big! There are rooms there to show where Ho Chi Minh worked, slept and there's a car exhibition showing which cars he had used. There quite a few pagodas there, like the one-pillar pagoda.
After that, we visited a temple which shows us the history of Hanoi. It is a big temple! There are Confucians teachings, historical recordings of special events like royal examinations etc. We took quite a while to view all the exhibits.
Later on, we visited the 'Vietnam Museum of Ethnology'. Here, we learnt the different minority groups or tribes living in Vietnam, what they do, how they lived etc. There are many artefacts left there by the different minority groups. We can also see exhibitions on the 'subsidy period' where people still used coupons to purchase items like rice, fish, meat, fabrics etc. The 'subsidy period' lasted till 1991! We were already quite advanced then.
Then we proceeded with the outdoor exhibitions. There are four different houses built by five minority groups - Tay, Bahnar, Giarai, Ede and Viet. We climbed up the Bahnar house which was built in 2003 by 42 villagers from the Kon Rbang village. It is 19 meters tall! According to the Bahnar, the communal house is the symbol of male power. Then we went into the Ede longhouse. It is over 40 meters long and would have accomodated the families of daughters and granddaughters of an extended matrilineal family. The Giarai tomb is very obscence! It had large wooden figures encircling the tomb. "Sexually carvings and those of pregnant women are symbols or fertility". Eww!
After that, we had lunch at a small restaurant. It was already 3pm(ST) when we sat down to have our lunch. We were served pumpkin soup(yucks!), chicken, pork, nem and fruits. After lunch, we walked on to our last destination - the pagoda at the lake. It is built in memorial for the turtle that lived in the lake which helped the Vietnamese army win the war against the Mongolian army. There are a few people there praying and there is a cast of the turtle in the pagoda.
After the city tour, we returned to the hostel. A little while later, we walked to 'Ocean Tours' restaurant for dinner. We had quite a lot of food. We had pizza, spaghetti, noodles, french fries, steak and rice. Later on, we walked around the Hoan Kiem lake to search for ice-cream! We came to an ice-cream cafe. We ordered 7 scoops of ice-cream - chocolate, coconut, rum with raisins, strawberry, durian, chocolate chip and vanilla. It's not as good as Hagen Daaz or Ben and Jerry's :)
We then walked to the water puppet theatre. It's at the end of the lake, so we took quite some time walking there. (The lake is very big!) When the doors are opened for the show, people rushed in to watch. Some people sat at other people's seat so there are staff going around to check where you should be seating. (40 000VND for the front/best seats while 20 000VND for the back seats) Finally the show started. First they would play some musical for us to listen before starting the performance. I didn't really enjoy it and was half-asleep throughout the whole show. =P It's also stuffy and smokey there. I can't stand the smell of the smoke and I had running nose. OMG! The performance lasted for about 45 mintues. After the show, we returned to the hostel as it was quite late then.

Friday 15/12/06 :
Today's the last day at Hanoi. I'm feeling quite sad though.. We didn't do much as we had to leave for the airport at 6pm. I woke up a little later than usual. In the morning, we walked around Hanoi Old Quarters which is where our hostel is located. As it was nearing lunch time, we walked to Nikko Hotel for the Japanese buffet. The hotel is very far from where we stay. We took about an hour walking to the hotel and by the time we reached there, we were sweating and are feeling hungry. The weather now is not so cold.. We immediately went into the restaurant. There are not many kinds of food there, but it's delicious! I love the beef in the French sauce and potato tossed with herbs. I ate quite a lot of food..beef, potato, soup, sashimi, rice, bread, biscuits and DESSERTS!! The desserts are the most delicious food there. There are many colourfu, carefully decorated desserts! I took a cup of chocolate mousse, chocolate custard puff, mini cakes, fruit cocktail, fruit tarts and ice-cream! Yum! It's so delicious! After lunch, we took a taxi back to our hostel(48 Hang Ga).
We bathed, packed all our stuff and waited for a taxi to fetch us to the airport. The taxi arrived a little later than planned and we're afraid we might miss the flight. But we got there on time. Our plane was supposed to leave Hanoi at 9pm+ but we told that the plane encoutered mechanical faults so the flight was delayed. We thought the delay would only be a few hours long..but who knows..we waited for about 15 hours before leaving Hanoi. This was my first time encountering a flight delay. We waited in the departure hall till 4am in the morning, then the airport staff told us to leave the hall and wait somewhere else. We got back our luggage and slept in a bar outside the arrival hall. It's so cold that I couldn't sleep. I was there shivering.. 2 hours later, I woke up. The bar is now opened for business. We ordered noodles and hot drinks. As more people are coming into the bar for breakfast, we left the bar and sat down somewhere else. I began to feel sleepy and fell asleep on the chairs.. Later, we had another meal at another bar. Then someone told us the new boarding time would be 12.30pm. So we checked in at about 11pm and waited to board the plane. Finally, after 15 hours of waiting, we finally are able to board the plane and leave Hanoi. I was so afraid that we may be stuck in the airport for another day or maybe we have to stay in Hanoi for another week because there are only 2 flights a week.
At 5pm, we finally reached Singapore.. When we came down the plane, two people gave letters to us, saying that Tiger Airways is sorry for the long flight delay..
"Tiger Airways is extremely sorry about the disruption caused to your travel plans by the delay o flight TR309 to Singapore. The aircraft requires maintenance action and certification after it was struck by a bird during approach to Hanoi last evening. This work is currently underway and we expect the aircraft to be available around midday. In recognition of the disruption caused Tiger Airways would like to refund the cost of your flight and we request that you write to our Commercial Services Department stating that you were affected by this delay..."
Oh anyway, I don't mind about the refund. As long as we get back to Singapore in one piece, I'm happy alright. Ha..and I've missed my tuition..
Well, this trip to Hanoi was really the best and the worst trip ever!
But, if I have the chance to visit Hanoi again, I would want to go there again..maybe for the Sapa trekking trip.. and maybe we shall take another plane..haha :))

We didn't have any food since 11 o'clock in the morning, so we quickly left our stuff at home and went downstairs for dinner. After dinner, we went home to unpack all the stuff, sweep the floor and wash all the dirty clothes. Then it's time to sleep!

~ Ano sora hoete yukeru kana?..;
x Saturday, December 16, 2006