Hanoi Trip (Day 2)

Erm... It was not supposed to be a long pause between Day 1 and the next... but this is just me.Total procrastinator. :P

Okay. See if my memory still works... Day 2 was the day for Ha Long Bay trip... Yey!!So when morning came, we ate Pho for breakfast at the hotel and minutes later the tour guide showed up to pick us up for the trip. His name was Ngoc. Pronounce as "ngok"... Hehe

He's nice and his English was much better , can understand la. Our bus was cute, the small type. A bit bigger than a mini van. And it's pink in colour! However when we got in all the twin seats were already taken so Husband and I have to take the single seat each. Window seats though so I can snap pictures like mad.

Anyways it was almost 4 hours before we reach the port... and during the whole bus ride we saw donkeys, buffalos, cows, ponies dogs, birds, cats, ducks, geese and people... ok ok moving on...
When we reach the port, then it was like waaaa... so many cruise boats... very nice...And the place was crowded. It was a public holiday in Vietnam that day so the number of local tourists add up to the crowd...
So we got on to our boat... and it was a very nice imperial junk cruise boat. We got to our room and this was it...

We were pooled together with a Korean family, several couples from Taiwan (I think about 3-4 couples), a Vietnamese family and 1 single Vietnamese lawyer.
The view was superb... here are some pics...

Then we stopped at one of the famous cave...

The one floating village...

Then swim time...We didn't though coz it's open sea and we were scared.. haha. This by the way was our tour guide, he's about to do the single somersault thing...

And while he did that, we sipped our margaritas. Bliss...

At night after a nice dinner, oh and I almost got drunk from the bottle of white that we ordered... we had a karaoke session... but not before I tried my luck in squid fishing... It was a lovely experience although I didn't catch any.. husband got pretty drunk from all the cocktails and wine and sang his heart out during the k-oke session.. :D And we were rocked to sleep by the sea... :)

Hanoi Trip (Day 1)

Yey... Finally, my long awaited holiday..
Currently, I'm typing this post in my hotel room.. specifically at Golden Plaza Hotel, Hanoi... Yes, Vietnam! I'm writing this now, coz husband is fast asleep and I feel like updating!


I'm just happy to be here.. and glad that we can make the trip happened at last. Long story.


29/4/2010
Arrived at Noi Bai Airport. Picked up by the nice hotel person. First time seeing paper with my name on it being waved at the airport. Keke. The airport seems dull and a bit stuffy, and the officers over there were fiercely looking. And they were strict too. Husband said that's becoz this country is a communist country. Was a bit scary then. Anyways, airport transfer to hotel was uneventful until our car actually knocked down a motorist, a lady. Poor lady. Traffic was crazy!!! We were stunned on the first day coz everybody was honking everybody! All the time! Oh, the lady was unhurt, I think. Coz after several shouting between our driver, the lady and another motorist, she simply got up and took her bike/ scooter to the road side.
When we arrived at this hotel at around 3pm something, everything was nice. Our room has 2 beds though. I asked for VIP room with double bed, but we got an extra bed in this room. This room is more like a family room. But it is still nice. The extra bed officially became our dumping / lepak area. We have a jacuzzi (small) and internet in the room (with PC), so it's nice. Per night is at 40USD.

We tried to venture out of the hotel after we settled our stuff in our room... but immediately went back to the hotel coz everything was so unrecognisable (streets' name are so confusing). Hehe. So we asked further directions from the hotel staff, who's very helpful. However, we ended up in good hands for dinner coz my ex-colleagues brought us out for a very nice Vietnamese buffet that night. The buffet costs around 150,000 VND. It was nice to see Dr Mai & Dr Bui after so long... I have now fulfilled my promise to meet them in Hanoi. :) They were so nice that even though they have to work till midnight on that day (month end closing, underwriters u know this) and 30th of April was a National Holiday for Vietnam, it's their day to commemorate the merging of north and south of Vietnam, they still took time to get a taxi and fetch us at our hotel to go for the dinner. The buffet place was nice. Great foods with great friends!
After dinner, we went straight back to the hotel and went out to a nearby shop to buy beer, Tiger beer only costs at RM2.60 here. Husband is happy. We slept early coz we need to wake up early for Day 2.
TBC...