I am not a fan of Vietnam, but Poika is. I figured since our August trip is meant to be his birthday treat, I'll be nice and give in. So Hanoi and Halong Bay it is.
We booked ourselves in
Serenade Hotel in the Old Quarters, that's where all the buzz is. And experienced the beautiful Halong Bay on
Jasmine Cruise. Here's our 4Days 3Nights itinerary. Too bad we didn't get to visit the many museums they are famous for, they are all closed on Fridays and Mondays. Arghhh! But despite that, we both had great fun living the lives of the rich and poor.
Day 1 – HanoiWe explored the Old Quarters on foot most of the day. Saw many of the typical vietnam street sights – families on motorbikes, women in cone hats etc. The weather was painfully hot, I was grouchy as usual but Poika somehow managed to maintain his Mr Cool Cucumber image. *Respect*
For some strange reasons, we did not manage to find any of the restaurants mentioned in our little Lonely Planet guide book and ended up having lunch at a street stall. Coming from Singapore, I'm a little uptight about cleanliness. I thought to myself, what the heck, if it's crap then I might just end up losing some weight by the end of the trip, so whatever it is, it's no loss on my end. The pho we had turned out to be pretty good, all that paranoia and yumminess cost us about SGD$2 each.
After lunch, we walked to the big market and bought 2kg of weasel poop coffee. Got bored seeing the same things over again, then a brilliant idea popped into our heads, "Beer Stop!" So we sat by another street stall, and had Bia Ha Noi for SGD$1.20 a bottle. We had to have it with ice, as the bottle was warm, that made me eeky again, but I came out of it alive. I'd say not the best beer in the world, but pretty awesome at that price.
For dinner, we went to a tourist trap called
Green Tangerine, a French fusion restaurant near the hotel. It was rather disappointing as our $2 lunch was a lot more exciting than this $160 dinner.
After dinner program is, of course, more beer. We went to a bar with a balcony that overlooks the crazy traffic. It was quite interesting to watch how the locals cross the ridiculously busy road with so much confidence, balloon sellers peddling trying to attract kids on bikes...The night ended pretty early as we had to wake up early to catch our oh-so-luxurious cruise on Halong Bay.
Day 2 & 3 - Halong Bay
We got picked up at 7.45am from the hotel, traveled 3 hours in the car to get to Halong city. By the time we got on the Jasmine Cruise, we were pretty knackered. Of course the first thing we did was check out the condition of our room. And oh so pleasantly surprised we were! It looked like the pictures I saw online. The room was not big, but it was clean and pretty. Bathroom was beautiful for a boat, and we even had a little private balcony.
We very promptly ordered a bottle of wine at lunch and stuffed our faces with food. The food was not that fantastic, but relatively decent. We were then taken on an hour tour of the fishing village on a little sampan. It was nice to see how the fishermen live on their little stilt houses, little kids playing in the water, men lazing in hammocks (while the women worked very hard, rowing the sampans we were on!)
Looking local in our borrowed cone hats!
After our tour, we went back to our big boat and had a nice, warm afternoon dip in the sea. We were even encouraged to dive off the 2nd level! Most of the time on the boat was spent eating and lazing. It was a beautiful place to do nothing, and definitely a huge contrast compared to the noisy and crowded city.
We were back in Halong city after breakfast the next day. It would have been better if this boat trip is at the end of the hanoi trip, and if we could stay an extra day.
Day 3 – HanoiThe water puppet was told to me as one of the must-see in Hanoi. It was a short half hour show in a small theatre by the lake. I won't say it's a must-see, but it's worth half hour of your time if you have nothing better to do. Oh and you'll have to get tickets in advance, they sell out pretty fast.
We spend quite a bit of day 3 drinking ridiculously cheap Bia Hoi by the road on tiny plastic stools (40cents a glass). It's a great way to people watch. And we went on 2 cyclos ride, yes, touristy (also paid tourist price) but we were so tired from walking and it was exciting to be so close to the crazy traffic, totally helpless and dependent on the dude who's cycling.
Dinner was at
Cha Ca La Vong. They serve only one dish and that's grilled fish with loads of dill. Crappy service, pretty interesting food (Poika eats dill only with new potatoes, but I like dill) and a place that destroys white tees with splatters of oil! I say a must-try if you're a foodie.
Day 4We decided to do one last touristy thing before we leave, visit the tube house. It's complete shite. Don't bother. The entire place is a souvenir shop!
And it's bye bye Hanoi :)
