Travelogue - Hanoi

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 - Hanoi

Our trip to Hanoi was organized by Raph (this was my 3rd trip with him). You can count on him to search for budget deals. Again, we took MAS flight to Hanoi (RM 605 return flight, cheaper than AA ) – at 10.45 am. It was a 3.5 hours journey. We were served delicious nasi lemak for breakfast (I liked the environmental friendly meal packaging).

We arrived in Hanoi at 1.10 pm local time (Hanoi is 1 hour behind M’sian time). We were greeted by our guide – Sony (don’t know the spelling, but that’s how we called him) and sent to our hotel – Platinum Hotel at Hanoi’s Old Quarters about 45 minutes from the airport. We passed through the wide Red river and acres of rice fields. Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam from 1954 – 1976. Read more about Hanoi here

Encik Sony

Red river

Rice fields

Platinum hotel

Our little hotel was a cosy little building nestled in between rows of shophouses. Our hotel was in the wedding shops area which sold green glutinous rice cakes as dessert and erm, sort of ‘bunga telur’ (door gifts to wedding guests).

Our cosy little room. Comfy bed

Bunga telur

Green rice cake

After checking in and settling down, we went for a walk to the Hoan Kiem Lake, passing by the Dong Xuan market (and ahem, made a short detour) on the way, just 5 minutes away from our hotel. The market sold all sorts of things – nuts, coffees, clothes, cloth, bags, souvenirs etc. It reminded me of Ben Thant market in Ho Chi Minh, only smaller.


Dong Xuan market facade

Inside Dong Xuan market


Moving bakery

Hanoi roads (as in other cities in Vietnam) are chock full of motorcycles, and they don’t really follow traffic rules, so it was quite challenging to cross the roads. If you want to manouvre your way there, you have to think and act like them. One exception though, the drivers / riders here drive / ride slowly. So they actually did give way to pedestrians. And the amusing thing is, although they don’t follow the traffic lights, the follow the speed limit! On the highway to Halong Bay the next day, our driver only drove at about 80 km/h. Another thing is, because there too many vehicles on the road, the air pollution is also quite bad, so we bought ourselves fancy masks (unlike the H1N1 surgical mask in M’sia) to survive the Hanoi roads.

Fancy Masker

Motorcycles of Hanoi

Took some pictures at the lake, then we turned back to the hotel to catch the water puppet show at 6.30pm There’s a pagoda at the middle of the lake which was connected to a bridge but we didn’t go there as we didn’t have time.

Hoan Kiem lake

The water puppet show consisted of 18 segments, starting with the music prelude (I loved the sound of the traditional monochord stringed instrument of Dan Bau). It tells the story of farmers in their village - harvesting their agricultural produce, insterspered with legends of the Dragon Dance, Lion Dance, Phoenix Dance, Fairy Dance, Unicorns, handing over a magic sword to a giant Golden Turtle (Zairul would love this) and Dance of 4 holy animals. See more here

The puppets are half submerged in water, with the puppeteers controlling their puppets from behind a bamboo screen. Yes, the puppeteers get wet as well, as they stand in waist deep water. The puppet show was accompanied by traditional songs played live by musicians and sung by 2 female vocalists in Vietnamese. Although we didn’t understand a word, we were still entertained. Najmi especially liked the puppets, she tought they were cute. I didn’t take pictures / vids as it was mentioned that we need to buy a sepearate ticket for recording. But then many other people were seen recording anyway.

In the water puppet theatre

Aftrr the show, we went for dinner at Nisa Restaurant – a halal eatery run by a Malaysian originally from Johor. He has stayed in Hanoi for more than 6 years and married a local there (who also served as one of their waitresses). Nisa is the name of one of the owner’s 2 daughters. He was planning to open another restaurant, naming it after second daughter soon.

The food price was quite expensive here, but then again, there was probably only 2 halal restaurants in Hanoi – Nisa and an Indian tandoori restaurant. We didn’t come across the tandoori restaurant though during our stay in Hanoi. I ordered myself the beef rice noodle or pho (pronounced fur) – it’s a bit like kuey teow sup, only the kuey teow is thinner.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest.

Owner of Nisa ~ the bald one

Excellent pho. Very bitter Vietnamese tea. More bitter than its black coffee!

Sat, 27 March 2010 – Hanoi – Halong Bay

After our self prepared breakfast (brought from home) – we only took some bread and boiled eggs from the hotel breakfast buffet, we walked to the An Nour mosque – about 10 minutes walk from our hotel. It was built in 1890 by Indian traders and renovated in 1950. It serves the few Viet Muslims and those from the embassies. We saw a sign in Bahasa at the mosque – must be the works of some Malaysians. The imam is an ustaz from Afghanistan.

Masjid caretaker (in white)

After that we made our way to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum to see the preserved body of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam’s first president under the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), governed by the Vietnamese Communist party after defeating the French Union. Read more here

Cameras are not allowed in the mausoleum though. On the way to the mausoleum, we also passed by Lenin square, Presidency Palace and Ba Dinh square and the Malaysian embassy. Unfortunately, the queue was 2km long ! School children, students as well as tourists were already queueing. The mausoleum opens at 7.30 am, so we should have started out earlier.

School children queuing to HCM mausoleum

We decided to forego Uncle Ho. Some arguing ensued between us and Sony due to our decision, but it was soon settled amicably. Hopefully we could visit it another time, if we had any chance to go to Hanoi again. We went to Hadong silk village instead, about 45 minutes away. The rest of the gang was delighted with the shopping trip. (Malaysians love to shop don’t they?). As usual, we were shown the silk worm and silk embroidering machine. Silk cloth here are sold at USD 3 / meter.

Silk thread

Silk shop galore at Hadong

After the shopping, we went back to Hanoi for lunch at Nisa again. This time we had set lunch of Malaysian food, just OK. We tapau-ed the leftover food for dinner at Halong Bay as there’s no halal place there.

We left for Halong Bay at around 3pm. It was a 4 hour drive to Halong Bay at 80 km/hour. Yes, drivers here follow the speed limit. The scenery along the way was beautiful with the green rice fields, but because we were running late, I figured we would only stop by to take pictures on the way back to Hanoi the next day instead. We did stop by at the mandatory rest area with an (expensive!) souvenir shop that we must pass through in order to go to the restroom.

Rice fields otw to Halong Bay

We arrived at Halong Bay in time for Earth Hour. But the people here didn’t shut off the lights though. We were brought to a pearl shop first before we could check in. The ladies were again delighted and sprang back into action after dozing off in the bus. Some bought pearl cream, ginseng cream and pearl rings, bracelets and necklaces.

Arriving at Blue Sky hotel, we spreaded out our tapau-ed food from Nisa for our dinner – and thankfully, it was enough for everyone. It was a funny sight though – like a group of village people eating their own tapau food at a hotel! We got stares from other hotel patrons though. But of course we asked for permission first to bring in and eat our own food at the café. We had to pay for the 2 tables though, but it was nothing much.
After food and check-in, we went for a 1.5 hour foot massage at funnily named massage parlour – MTV massage, yes complete with the MTV logo. I wonder what MTV has to do with massaging eh? Hmmm…

Massage parlour

Nice welcoming flower at massage parlour

First we had our feet soaked in hot (very hot, I had to ask them to cool it down) water mixed with herbs, not quite sure what herbs, but there was no fragrant smell. No smell actually. We were also given head, back and shoulder massage and they also applied a very cooling cucumber face mask. Not the best massage I have had – I still preferred the one at Krabi – the second massage trip and also body massage at Ho Chi Minh. It was also more expensive than my previous massage sessions – at RM54 or USD15/person.

After the massage, we went straight back to the hotel – no shopping could be done as the shops were already closed. It was already 11.30pm Msian time!

Ready to sleep...

Sun, 28 March 2010 – Halong Bay – Hanoi

We started early today at 7.30 am after (self prepared) breakfast – as usual only took the fruits, boiled eggs and bread. While waiting for our bus, we were swarmed by street peddlers selling pearls. I think the pearls are originals as I did test them – by scratching the pearls onto a mirror – and it left a white powdery stain. If it was a fake, no stain would be left.

Murah! Murah!

We were then brought to Halong Bay to board our traditional boats or junks. They are engine powered, but they also have sails. The sea was calm so no one in our group got sea sick. Our boat drifted off slowly along the limestone outcrops at Halong bay. It was like Krabi, but the sea was calmer. I thought Krabi waters was greener though. Nevertheless, the bay with its natural wonders plus the stalagmites and stalactites of Thien Chung cave is a Unesco World Heritage site. The cave reminded me of the one in Kunming, China but smaller. The lightings in the cave made the scene more breathtaking. We absorbed the serenity and cool air of Halong Bay and wished that it would not end so soon. We also stopped by at a kelong (fish farm) before arriving at the cave. Let the pictures do the talking.

Junks lining up

Beautiful...

Thien Chung cave

After visiting the cave, we went wack to our boat and was served a sumptuous seafood lunch. I loved the dishes sooo much that I had 4 helpings of rice! Loved the sotong goreng tepung (fancy name: fried calamari), steamed fish and spinach. Luckily I am allergic to prawns, or I would have walloped everything on the table! We didn’t even try the appetizer – the spring roll and went straight to the main dish, so we just tapau-ed it.

Then it’s time to head back to Hanoi. I felt it was a bit too short – it would have been nicer to stay 2 nights at Halong. Tourists could also choose to stay onboard the boats and during summer, tourists are allowed to jump into the bay to have a swim. It was a bit cold now though at 18 C, so no one swam.

On the way back to Hanoi, we stopped again at the same rest area, only this time it was on the other side of the road. I also asked to stop by the rice fields to take some pictures here. Saw that some of the farmers here still used traditional methods to flow the water in the canal by scooping.

Scooping water to the canal

At Hanoi, we went to Ba Dinh square to take pictures. Ho Chi Minh mausoleum is situated at the square, but it is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Ba Dinh square is alos off limits when the mausoleum is opened for visit. The mausoleum is guarded by 2 soldiers at the door who had to stand still for an hour before the guard change.

Ho Chi Minh mausoleum

We then checked in back to Platinum hotel and got back the same room on the first night. We had our dinner again at Nisa (we are providing them with brisk business!). After dinner, we were ‘sent’ back to our hotel via a trishaw (or cyclo) ride. The cyclo could only accommodate one person, so our group of 13 went back to hotel on a cyclo each. They took us around the streets of the Hanoi old quarters. Many Hanoians were seen eating dinner on makeshift stools and tables outside the shophouses (while they probably amused themselves by seeing 13 Malaysians on cyclo rides passed them by). We were told by Sony to tip the cyclist (the cyclo ‘driver’) 20,000 dong each (about RM4) as they have already been paid by our tour agent. Some demanded for more so we just dashed up to the hotel.

Cyclo

When the coast was clear, we went down again to go to the night markets (like pasar malam) in front of Dong Xuan market (the main market is closed at night). We bought some souvenirs here, only to find out the next day when we visited Dong Xuan market that the night market selling price is more expensive! So if you are planning to shop, do buy at the Dong Xuan market instead which opens from 7.30am to around 6.30pm
Or, if you plan to shop for Vietnamese stuff, do it at Ho Chi Minh instead – at Ben Thant market. There are more choices, and they are cheaper.

Monday, 29 March 2010 – Hanoi – KL

Our flight back was at 2.10 pm local time and we had to check out at 11am, so we still had time for last minute shopping. We went to Dong Xuan market for the last time and boosted Vietnam’s economy by finishing our dongs there. I managed to finish all my dongs at the market. By 10.30 am, we headed back to our hotel to pack things up and ready to go to the airport by 11am. We had already done our online check in the previous day at Halong Bay, so there was still ample time to check in our bags at the airport. With online check-in, we only need 1 hour prior to flight time. As we would only land in KL almost around maghrib time, we performed our solat at the airport, finding an isolated corner below a staircase. We found an airport staff sleeping there, so we had to politely ask him to move a bit to give space for us, and he obliged, then went back to sleep. That was quite an experience!

Thank you for the sweet memories Hanoi!

LGK Trip cum Izwan's wedding

LGK Trip : 19 – 21 March 2010

Gah! So much happenings in March! Took a bit of time to write on our Langkawi trip.

This time, we were to attend Izwan’s (one of our loyal travel mates) wedding in Langkawi <3 We booked our flight & hotel quite early, in January as it’s the school holidays. Took MAS (RM 168 return flight / person). Quite a bargain! It’s cheaper than AA. Stayed at just OK Langkawi Boutique Hotel Pantai Chenang (RM 153 / night / room), but it’s got a spacious room – 2 queen sized bed which can fit 4 persons comfortably. Our entourage consists of 9 persons – myself, Zu, Mas, Liza, Zairul, Amin, Razeif, Isal & Manto - minus Izwan though – as it’s his special occasion this time around.

Fri, 19 Mar 2010

We arrived LGK in 3 batches – 1st team arrived at 12 noon, 2nd batch at 3pm and the last person – the drama queen hehe – arrived at 8pm

1st team to arrive picked up the Avanza – an 8 seater MPV – but we would need to squeeze a bit as there’s one additional person. Checked in at the hotel (quite slow service – receptionist was a bit blur) – then had lunch at Laman Padi.


Our Avanza

It was scorching hot, but we braved the sun nevertheless to feed our empty stomachs! It was a fusion restaurant – quite fancy with nice food – except for Amin’s pasta– and his came last, oh dear. But he still finished up in no time! Trust him not to waste food ;-)

Back to hotel for a while to freshen up (poor Isal though – he was locked out as the door knob had malfunctioned), then it was time to pick up the 2nd batch. From the airport, we went recce-ing for tonight’s nikah ceremony near Makam Mahsuri, then stopped by to buy Gamat merchandise (borrowing Mas’ words).

Next destination – Kuah – for more shopping! We bought chocolates (yummy!) and mangkuk yang boleh buat masak (borrowing Isal’s words) – aka Vision-lah! (as explained by Zairul ;-p) And oh, Zu bought some nice hats. I managed to nick 2 of them from her heheh .. After all the shopping, it was time for cam-whoring at Dataran Lang (wish you were here Liza!) Of course we took the mandatory jumping shots! The winner of the 1st jumping shot is Mas with her swaying hair!


Lompat!

Then it was time to prepare ourselves for Izwan’s nikah. Ack…but we were so hungry already by then. It’s OK, we could buy burgers first to ease the hunger pangs. Oh, but wait…we also need to get nice white dresses for Zu to wear to the nikah (now who’s getting married here hmm? ). No worries, some of us could go help buy the burgers while some do the shopping. But oh wait again, we also had to fetch Liza at 8pm! And ack…the nikah would be at 9pm… could we make it??

So then it was decided that 3 of us would go fetch Liza, while the rest stayed to buy the dress (in the end we didn’t buy any – they were really nice though) and burgers. Fetched Liza, back to hotel, changed to our baju melayus / kurungs in a storm (trick : tak mandi pun heheh), then made a mad dash to the nikah venue.

But aaack…it was really dark (some parts had no road lights), so it was challenging to read the map. We missed the first turn, and had to turn back. But oh no, the fuel was almost empty! Aaack, we had to fill up petrol first. It was really amusing though to see the way Langkawi folks (at least at this part of LGK) parked their vehicles to fill up their tanks.

Petrol filled up, at last we finally arrived at the surau – only to find out that people were already congratulating Izwan! Aaaack, we missed the ceremony by a few minutes! But it’s OK, because we knew it went well - the groom looked extremely happy – and he was glad to see us finally arrive!

We were then invited to the bride’s house – just next to Makam Mahsuri – for the kenduri and bacaan doa selamat / yaasin recital. We were extremely exhausted by the time everything was done, and went back to the hotel for our much needed rest zzzzzzzzzzz.

After the akad, at bride's house

Sat, 20 Mar 2010

The plan today was to buy the cable car tickets first, then back to hotel to change, next to Izwan’s wedding and then only go for the ride as we were expecting long queues during the school holidays.

It turned out that we have to take the cable car ride immediately after buying the tickets as it was a concern to them that the weather might change and the ride would have to be cancelled, so we would not be refunded. So to feel happy, we ate ice creams instead. Now we were back to shiny happy mood yeay!

Back to the hotel to change, then straight to the bride’s- Nazila’s place. We escorted the groom to the house from the surau. There’s no paluan kompang here though. It was followed by the bersanding (very brief one, no tepung2 tawar) for picture taking.

While the bride and groom had their bersantap, the rest melantak-ed! (literally) The food was reaaaaaaally delicious – traditionally cooked by gotong-royong effort. We put in our best effort also for the food consumption (lol!). I think we ate for almost an hour – the boys had to go entertain themselves at Makam Mahsuri. They even went to the museum! Sorry boys, the food was really delicious – especially the laksa and errm serawa? (I refer to it as pengat) – we almost forgot you guys ;-)

It was a really shiny happy occasion ;-) Even the foreign tourists liked it, they took a picture with the bride and groom during the bersantap ceremony. Tummies happy and full, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and then got ready for the cable car ride.

But 3 of our entourage were knocked out by the sumptiousness of the kenduri food. So only 6 remained to face the challenge of the cable car ride.

When we arrived, surprisingly, there was no queue (perhaps it was 4pm and scorching hot!) Ticket was RM15 only for locals (don’t forget to show your MyKad), RM30 for foreigners. But we braved ourselves again to face the heat. The ride was really thrilling – we screamed loudly as our car started to ascend. Quite scary for those afraid of heights! But we made it safely to the top. The view was absolutely worth it! We saw the unique Machinchang formation (Perdana Menteri Sarawak aka PMS kept on reminiscing about his geological lessons with his favourite lecturer – on sesaran and all! )The crooked bridge was quite an experience too as it was swaying with the wind. Of course we also took some more jumping shots and tarian bersama PMS here ;-)

In the cable car

The crooked brigde

Not enough with nice kenduri food, we were feeling hungry again a short while later. It seemed that Langkawi had made us more prone to hunger. We stopped by the roadside, next to the airport runway (yes! exactly beside it) to have yummy laksa (PMS would have no one share with him!) and cendol pulut. Heavenly! Some more jumping shots after eating- see here proof of why Manto aka PMS won the highest jumper award.

Cendol

Laksa

Winner of 2nd jumping shot - Manto

The other KO-ed entourage were back to life again by this time and texted us to come back and not forget them lol! We suddenly felt like doing the banana boat fun ride at Chenang beach, near our hotel. Not really adrenaline pumping as the boat went slowly and we just had a gentle overturn. For the sake of Liza.

Banana boat

Dinner tonight was at Hj Jelani’s. Steam / 3 rasa fish and sotong goreng tepung was good, but the tom yam was not really nice. Overall it was OK, there could be a better place, but as long as everyone was well stocked up, all is well ;-) Browsed through the shops otw back to the hotel – reminded us a lot of the scene in Krabi, but smaller scale here. We also found an interesting lodging place – The Cabin. Perhaps we could check it out for upcoming trips later.

The Cabin

Sun 21, Mar 2010

Last day. How fast time flew when we were having fun ;-)

We started off with Telaga Tujuh. As it was a hot and dry season, the stream had dried up, so the waterfall was just small scale. We only went to bottom most pool.

Then we went off to Kuah town for lunch at Wan Thai restaurant at Kuah. The lunch was superb, especially the Asam Pedas and the steamed fish. Liza finished them to the last lick. The tom yam was good as well. Also, the dessert – pulut mangga and pulut durian were really good. Highly recommended to give Wan Thai a try.

Delicious kerabu mangga and tom yam

Excellent asam pedas

By the time we finished lunch, it was already 3pm. Time for some last minute shopping, then one last jumping shot session at the Teluk Datai marina. It was then time to check out from the hotel (only extra RM50 per room for late check out at 6pm). Then we headed to the airport, returned the Avanza and waited for the flight home at 7.30 pm

See you again Langkawi!

Last shot at Teluk Datai marina