Saturday, 15th February 2014
Wakey wakey
I think we woke at 630am. Just in case we oversleep and embarrass ourselves by being late for our Halong Bay pick up (at 815am), I asked the Reception last night to give us a wake up call this morning, on top of my mobile phone alarm.
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| Day view of the hotels opposite our room. |
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| View on the left from our window. Taken at around 8am |
Mobile phone alarm went off, and I got up with no trouble as this has been almost my daily routine this year since the kids started morning school. The reception called us at the time requested - not bad for a 2 or 3 star hotel. And who would have guessed? They have everything to cater to our needs and more, plus the facilities and accommodation is new and clean. They even have TURNDOWN service
la wei! But then, we didn't have a chance to mess up our room to test out their turn down service, because we were out the whole day today, and back very late.
Breakfast
Breakfast was continental buffet - a small table offering only the basics - bread, cheese, ham, yogurt, milk, cereals, buns, juice, fresh fruits and some stirfry noodles on another table.
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| Breakfast. Neat and simple. Don't expect much, but it's sufficient. |
The customer service lady, Anna, who booked us in via email, dropped by our breakfast table to greet us and introduce herself. She also confirmed with us our change of room for tonight, as well as asked us for our plans for the day. Pretty Vietnamese lady who speaks perfect English with a little accent *like*. Her face is even on the hotel website.
We headed upstairs to packed up our luggage so the hotel staff can just move them to our room for that night. Yes, we are downgraded now... haha! Back to reality and no more suite! But oh well, it was a nice surprise, and the hotel did their best - considering their full occupancy for the Valentine weekend.
Our bus transferring us to Halong Bay came a bit earlier than expected. Our tour guide for the day is Mr Loc, and the bus went around picking up a few other tourists from their hotels.
Our tour consist of a mother-daughter from Europe, a Singaporean married couple, a Singaporean man with his Thai wife (this couple is quiet quiet like mouse), a Canadian-African couple who lives in Malaysia, a dating couple from Melbourne (Japanese and Chinese) and ourselves.
We later made friends with the Canadians and the Australians. : )
Along the way, Mr Loc shared with us a facts on the population, the meaning of Vietnam, the reason by the narrow frontage of the house designs, the meaning of the national flag, cultures and superstition of the farmers, simple local language we can use, etc. Since I did not wikipedia before coming to this lovely country, I noted these information down into my iphone.
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| Our tourguide, Mr Loc obliging for a picture |
The 3.5hr journey was pleasant and we passed through the country side of Red River Delta. The ride however was a little too slow for our Malaysian standard. Then again, there was no proper highway and the vehicles were going at their own pace, some faster some slower, and motorcycles and even little trucks were weaving in between. At one point, I noticed a truck coming from the opposite direction ON OUR LANE!
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| Paddy fields along the way |
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| A mansion |
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| Local fruit for sale along the roads |
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| A hotel, probably. |
Like it, Buy it!
We stopped by a souvenir shop - to exercise our legs, go for toilet break as well as help the tour guide earn some commission from our purchases. Since our visit to Hanoi is not long and we are not sure if we'd find anything at the shops tonight, or even be in time to shop, hubby in his wisdom told me the four magic words, "Like it, Buy it!" Don't you just love him?! Hahaha... OK, I love him... for more than that, of course!
So I bought an
ao dai which I have always wanted. A sweet pastel yellow it is, with a little haggling for the satisfaction. Paid in USD, and after conversion it seemed pretty reasonable still. The ao dais for little girls seem so sweet but my girl would not like it. As for the boy and man, the salesman told us there is no traditional wear for male. ; P
We arrived Halong City a little passed noon. Mr Loc passed us each our tickets and later took it back to be kept safely. This is a multi pass ticket. Once lost, you won't be able to join in the other activities and attractions. We walked to our junk, already waiting for us at the pier.
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| Wooden junks |
We sat in groups of four and that's how we got to know our these Australian couple in our group. We were served fresh seafood for lunch in small portions - just enough for four. For example, if it was crabs, it's only 4 crabs.
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| Deep fried Vietnamese springroll in rice paper |
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| No fighting. One each please. |
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| Steam fish. Don't know what fish is this. |
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| Stirfry beef |
There were steamed prawns, clams and a couple more other stuff too. The seafood was fresh, so no complains except that portions could be a lot more.
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| This is the signature, popular symbol of Halong Bay - the Fighting Cocks or Kissing Cocks, whichever way you see it. |
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| Limestones all around |
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| Passing by other wooden junks |
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| We sat on a boat like this, in our little group of four with a local rowing the boat around Ba Hang floating village. Some other groups not in our tour opted for the kayaking - looks like a lot of work and pretty unsafe too, as the boats can get too close to the kayaks |
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| Beautiful creation on the limestone ceilings |
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| Going through a little tunnel |
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| I'd journey with you anywhere, hubby |
Then we headed back to the harbour and walked up some stairs into the Thien Cung or Heaven Palace Grotto to explore huge chambers adorned with
stalagmites and
stalactites.
We arrived back in Hanoi city after a very slow ride home at around half past 8. The night was still young, though so we didn't go straight back to the hotel, but instead hopped off the bus near the shopping area. Bade our new friends farewell and thanked our tour guide for a fantastic day.
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| Double parked motorcycles. What a sight! I didn't see any car parking though. |
Started our night adventure at a shop selling clothings and textile. Couldn't resist another ao dai - this time I chosed a dark purple with 3/4 sleeve. Cost me a little lesser than the earlier one, and naturally felt a little ripped off, but oh well, win some, lose some. Got some decorative mats too then we walked around looking for dinner and saw...
Street food! Since it's our last night... why not?! Feeling hungry and daring here. No regrets.
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| This mama here makes the delish noodle soup! |
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| Don't mind the deep fried fish fillets (not dory, ok?), this dish is so wholesome! Look at all the vege and herbs she added in. Hubby drank up till the last drop and did NOT feel thirsty at all after that. That means, no MSG |
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| Night market. Don't go against the human traffic flow. Lots to see. Traders here don't speak English, so they show you the price by showing you da money. |
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| This old popo here peeling and selling water chestnut. She smiled at me after she realized I took her photo |
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| Second round of street food, just minutes and metres away from the first one. I shared this with hubby. Braised pork, pork cake and fried egg on top of soft steamed Vietnamese rice. |
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| Hubby took this photo of me about to dig into my noodle soup. Whilst eating, he told me someone is taking a pic of me... *perasan me* I looked up and saw a caucasian man smiled and walked off. Eh, he forgotten to pay me?? ; P |
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| A street food seller hard at work. |
And we called it a day after we have gotten our coffee and some souvenirs for the kids. A magnet was a must to add to our collection on the fridge of places we travelled to and visited - checked at Halong Bay.
Weather was getting too cold for hubby who was not in a jacket. So we headed back to our hotel. The next day, we had an early flight departing at 9am.
