Trip to Hanoi, Vietnam

Planning for a trip, as some would say, requires patience. Going for a trip with another person, on the other hand, requires tolerance. That is why I think it is darn important for us to have the right person as your travelling buddy. Someone whom you think could put up with your b*****t, and vice versa.

Thankfully my one year off from work to travel involves mingling and putting up with my travelling buddy, my husband. Yeap, you might say it's a piece of cake considering the fact that he's my other half. But bear in mind, sometimes the person that you love, ends up hurting you the most, hahaha!

Well, so far, my trip with my P (to Phuket and other places) had been awesome. No extreme, major fights occured. But before I can give myself a pat on the back, I might as well also remind myself that those were really short trips, ie. going away for the weekend, etc.

So I guess P has yet to unleash his green eyed monster, and the same goes for me too.

But safe to say, our trip this time around to Hanoi (which, by the way, took 5 days and 4 nights) was a success.

Here are the pictures from the said trip :-

Day 1 ~ KLIA- Hanoi
Date : 11.06.2009

we took off from KL via MAS flight, scheduled at 10.45 am. But it got delayed for about half an hour cos three people who have checked in failed to turn up for the flight, which resulted in the airline having to locate their luggages to be taken out from the plane. Wonder what happened to them.... They might be busy shopping at the duty free shops at the terminal, hehe.

35,000 feet above sea level. Weather was awesome, no turbulence of any kind, pheww!!

It was a nice three hour flight. We reached Hanoi International Airport at approximately 1.30 p.m., local time. Vietnam has a one hour difference in terms of time as compared to Malaysia. Weather was really hot! Later I found out that it is summer right now in Hanoi. Sheeesh....

Took a 'teksi sapu' to our first hotel in Hanoi, located at the Old Quarter. The driver and his co-pilot first said that it'll cost us VietDong 250,000 (RM1 = VietDong 4,800). but later when we got into the car, they said that the whole trip would cost us an additional VietDong 450,000. As predicted, yours truly went into bitch fit mode, and they agreed to settle at VietDong 500,000. For those who plan to go to Vietnam, be very wary of the people there trying their best to cheat you into paying more than what you should. It was our mistake that we took a 'teksi sapu', so by all means, try to get the airport taxi instead.

Reached our hotel, which costs us about RM90.00 per nite. It's a really nice budget hotel located smack middle of Old Quarter, and most of the touristy attractions are within walking distance. After checking in (the room was not bad; there's cable TV, air-cond, hair dryer [weee!!!], clean sheets, and clean bathroom!!) P and I decided that we should take a walk around the Old Quarter for the rest of the day.

P next to our budget hotel (you can't see the hotel cause he's next to it, hehe)


Hanoi is full of motorbikes!! You need to have a heart of steel to cross the roads because the traffic is neverending! Priced at USD400, it's considered the cheapest type of vehicle to own.

Can you spot me in the picture?? hihi

The Vietnam flag!

We reached one of the many lakes in Hanoi. This is, I think, the most famous one. (can't remember the name though). Picture here is some building next to the lake.

Darling P taking a rest after the 10 minute walk

some 'makciks' massaging each other by the lake. it was so funny! Thought of joining in, but I don't think I'll blend now, do I? hehe

In the middle of the lake, is some pagoda.

me and the legendary golden turtle, who took the magic sword from the Emperor after some battle. Forgive me if i'm bad in remembering the name of the place... and event, hehe

Posing in front of a temple entrance located beside the lake

behind me, some fascinating monument.

The famous red bridge.

Thereafter, chilling at a bar nearby drinking Coke...

and eating donuts sold by the roadside... quite tasty.

Flowers... nice huh?

The hustle and bustle of Hanoi at night. During dinnertime, most of them would sit at the stalls located at the side of the road, and have some soupy beef noodles or soup with rice.

We went for the 8.00p.m. Water Puppet show

Overall it was quite impressive. But after all the brouhaha that I heard about the show, I was expecting more.

The band for the show with their traditional musical instruments

Behold, the water puppet show!!!! =)

After the show, we walked back to our hotel. Was a really darn tired tired day. Slept at midnite, and recharging our energy for tomorrow...


Day 2 ~ Trip to Ha Long Bay

Date : 12.06.2009

On our second day, we took a tour to Ha long Bay, said to be the most beautiful place in Vietnam. it consists of 1,900 islands scattered nearby at the bay. The islands are all limestone islands, said to be the body of a dragon that is peacefully sleeping at the moment, and only to be awaken in.... god knows when? hahahaha... See, I'm really bad in remembering all these facts shoved to me. Only bobs and bits.. Oh well..

A tour van came to our hotel at 8.30 p.m. for the trip. The journey took us about 3 hours to get to Ha Long. it was reallly longgggg..... ok! Thank god most of the time me and P were laughing and chit chatting whilst taking pictures.

some random 'makciks' seen here selling baguette by the roadside. Yeap, Vietnamese people does really good baguettes ok! All because of the French influence....

we had a pit stop in the middle of the journey, some tourist trap place where we can purchase souvenirs. But they hiked up the price ridiculously!! seen here is a viet chick making their famous thread painting. the painting involves using threads, and threads only. Pretty impressive......

Me in the junk boat heading to Ha Long Bay. It was really nice as they didn't cramp us up in one boat (seeing that there's loads and loads of junk boat around!). One boat consists of, maybe 14-16 persons......

Vietnamese Junk Boats, all in a row.....

P & I in the junk boat...

taking some shots on the way to the bay. Can you see the islands in the background?

stopping over at a water hut to buy crabs for lunch, haha!!

P enjoying the crabs. Me? Am not really a big fan....

See how he managed to eat 'em all clean? hihihihi

Arrived @ Ha Long Bay and had a stop to venture into a cave...

It was a long climb up leading to the cave...

the scenery from one of the decks leading to the cave. Nice, 'aight??

Once in the cave, P & I went into cam-whore mode, haha!! the cave was awesome, well worth the climb. and it was really breezy too, like they installed a huge air-cond or something in the cave.

P cam-whoring, nyehehehe.....

Now it's my turn!! =)

P's turn! See, we take turns! LOL!!

Lovely.....

ehe! ;)

me all sweaty after the cave excursion...

with my darling P!!

Junk Boats!!

After that, we headed our way back to Hanoi City. Arrived at the hotel about 8.00 p.m. Really darn tired!!!

Day 3 ~ Chillin' at Hanoi City

Date : 13.06.2009

Day 3 saw us just chillin' and walking around the city, and doing some souvenir shopping. Day 3 also was the day we checked in to our 5 star Hotel, woohoo!!!

Me lookin at the shoes being sold! darn loads of shoes ok! but didn't buy any...

P with his future job, haha!!!

Abba cadabra!! Chillin at one of the many coffee houses located in the city

P can't wait to devour the tuna pizza!!

this Vietnamese Chilli sauce is soooo..... delish!!!

Checked in @ Intercontinental Westlake Hanoi Hotel. the room was superb!! P bothering me while i took pictures of the bathroom!!

the toiletry box!

the bed was heaven! and the pillows.... *sigh*.. they even have a pillow menu where you can actually choose the pillow of your choice from heaps of different types of pillows listed...

the rest of the pictures are, well... uhm... me posing for the camera! ;)

Pictures taken after sunset @ Intercontinental...

the only restaurant where we frequented. the food was yummy!

me waiting for the waiter to take our order...

Kangkung fried with garlic. simple yet shedappp!!

fried battered squids...

and grilled tilapia.... yummmm!!!

the deco in front of the restaurant...

picture of an abandoned factory near the hotel....

my favourite pic throughout the trip... nice ayyy???

P & I....

Day 4 ~ Perfume Pagoda Tour

Date : 14.06.2009

Okayyyyy.....

So now I'm a bit too tired to write about our trip to the Perfume Pagoda. Pretty much it's a 1.5 hours drive and another 1.5 hour journey by boat to get to the place (and I'm talking about a one way trip, okay!!).. the journey was interesting.... but couldn't say the same about the destination...hahahaha!

while waiting for our driver to eat his b'fast, we had some Vietnamese coffee at the coffee shop

the trip to the Pagoda by boat... kind of interesting.... for the first 15 minutes!! LOL!

the stairs leading to the Pagoda. And it's a whole lotta steps!!

thankfully halfway through the journey, we took the cable car.. phew!!

tada!! the pagoda... whaAaAaTTt??! i walked that far to see THIS??!

see how excruciating it looks!

Day 5 ~ Hanoi-KLIA

Date : 15.06.2009

Nothing much happening on day 5. Just us going back to KL, and spending the morning at Hanoi airport while waiting to board the plane.

So there you have it.... the whole Hanoi trip, in one entry. It's a really nice place to go just to laze around.. But don't go during the summer, hahaha!!

Pheww! What I need now is a breather from all the typing. ;)