vietnam final post!

we reached hanoi railway station at 430 am on saturday morning. 

the itinerary was to chill at hoan kiem lake and see the sunrise, and then go to joma bakery for breakfast. after that we will go to jw marriott hanoi to check in and have a good shower. 

there was really alot of people there doing their morning stroll/run. 

breakfast! joma bakery was quite a nice place to chill, with free wifi! 

we got scammed when taking taxi to marriott. as we are reaching the hotel, i took a look at the meter and the price was 125,000 dong. the moment we reached the hotel, the driver switched off the engine and the meter also got switched off in the process, and said the price was 200,000 dong. damn pissed!!!  

we are not going to let that bugger spoil our vietnam experience so we just let it go and went to check in. 

so glad to be at a five star hotel, after the disgusting home stay experience. hahahahahahaha. 

and we tried their room service! pho FTW!

and right after eating the pho i had diarrhoea. zzz. i also dunno whether there's something wrong with the pho, or with the condiments, or the butter, or the bread. luckily it was diarrhoea on the second last day. 

i still had diarrhoea on the last day and hence i could not really enjoy the hotel buffet breakfast. what a pity... :(

overall is still a good trip and i am glad to escape singapore for a short while! 

tomorrow is the start of sem 2! sem 2 will pass by really fast, and i will get married in dec with darling, and off we go for our honeymoon to japan! 

happy birthday to mum and sis!

birthday dinner was originally at goshin sushi suntec city, but because of road closures due to ndp rehearsal, we changed to pu tien tampines mall. the dinner was good! had the drunken cockles (appetiser dish), oyster omelette and braised beancurd with chinese cabbage soup the first time, and they tasted great. shall order this 3 dishes next time if i am dining at pu tien.

here are all the dishes that we ordered! (pictures taken from pu tien website)

after dinner we went to the sis's condo to cut cake! i mean cut tarts. tarts are from Tart Blanc at millenia walk!

they look beautiful don't they~

the sis is very proud of the yellow and white background. hahahahaha. 

Splendid Sapa!

we reached lao cai station at 530 am. 

i arranged a pick up for us at lao cai station. the pick up cost 6 usd per person, that includes a bus ride to sapa (takes about one hour) and breakfast at graceful hotel. 

so after our breakfast and a quick wash up, we wait for our guide to come to graceful hotel to pick us up. our sapa trekking tour is arranged with Sapa Sisters. you can google sapa sisters and they have their own website. i requested for Little Chi to be our guide because chio outdoor enthusiast recommended her. 

you can choose what kind of trek you want to do. the difficult one or the easy one. so we went for the difficult one first. and it was really difficult. super siong. if i can sum up the trek in eight chinese words, it will be: 翻山越岭 跋山涉水

yes it was that siong. and because it rained the day before so the tracks were very muddy and slippery. and both of us slipped and fell a few times. 

what made the trekking better was the magnificient scenery that beholds us. 

and it was really so siong that we told little chi that we will go for the easy trek after lunch. hahahahaha. and then we also realised that she was 5 months pregnant. #OMG

we had a home stay at one of the houses in Gaia Village. the home stay provides basic necessities such as slippers, blankets, towels. dinner and breakfast was included too. it was a very simple home, with a lot of beds for the numerous tourists, but thank goodness there were only two other tourists. mr tsg said that the home stay reminds him of a military camp in thailand. hahahahaha. 

ta da! that's our home stay. i think it looks more like massage parlour. hahahahaha. 

the awesome view from the balcony. 

sapa is quite cooling. in the day is about 25 to 28 degree celsius. at night is about 20 to 22. 

and we are reaching the conclusion of the vietnam trip! 

fanxipan express

the most common way to get to sapa is to take the overnight train. 

we chose the fanxipan express. 

do take note of the following:

1) one cabin have 4 beds. each bed cost USD40. so if you are travelling in a group of 4, not an issue. if you are travelling in a pair, and want to have some privacy, you can buy all the 4 beds so that you can have one cabin for yourself, which means each person must pay USD80. if you are a solo traveller, then you #GG, because you either share the cabin with 3 strangers, or you pay USD160 for the whole cabin. if i am the solo traveller i will choose the former. 

2) the train station is in a mess, with no proper signs guiding you to the correct train. so it will be better if you have a local to bring you personally to your own cabin. normally the agency that you buy tickets from will help to arrange a guy to do that. if you are totally on your own, then please be careful because you may get scammed. i have a friend who passed her ticket receipt to a local, then the local ran off with the receipt and arrived with her train tickets, but asked for 200,000 dong (about 13 sing dollars) then he will hand over the train tickets. 

3) make yourself as tired as possible before going into the train. for example don't take nap, don't drink coffee, go drink a few cups of rice wine, etc. so that you can sleep soundly on the train even if the train was a bit rocky and noisy. i slept very well from hanoi to sapa, but did not sleep that well from sapa to hanoi. 

ok that's about it, presenting to you the pics of the train! 

ta da! this is how the train cabin looks like. each person is provided with a pillow, a blanket, a pair of slippers, a small bag of crackers, a bottle of mineral water and a toothbrush with toothpaste. hot drinks such as tea and coffee are also complimentary, and you can get these hot beverages from the fanxipan staff in your carriage. 

the train exterior

here's us inside our cabin! we do not want to share the cabin with 2 strangers so we paid extra 40 usd each. 

天眼

finished another hk drama! i finished 15 episodes in vietnam and the last 5 episodes in sg! 

#feelingawesome

halong bay

halong bay is a UNESCO world heritage site, and is a four hour bus ride from hanoi. 

most tourists will choose to explore halong bay on board a cruise for 2D1N, and that's exactly what i did. the cruise that i chose is Fantasea, because my colleague went to halong bay in jan recommended this cruise to me. 

Fantasea will pick tourists up from their hotel, if the hotel is located within hanoi old quarter. jw marriott is not within hanoi old quarter, so we had to check out early from marriott and take a cab to Puku Cafe, that is open 24 hours, and is located within hanoi old quarter. 

puku cafe! quite a laid back place. 

fried rice for breakfast. must eat full full so that i do not get hungry during the 4 hour bus journey. but this fried rice not that nice. mr tsg's eggs benedict is nicer. 

the pick up at various hotels will take place within 745 am to 815 am, depending on the number of tourists. we finished picking up 19 tourists and we embark on our 4 hour journey! halfway through the journey we will have a 30 min stopover for us to use the washrooms, buy snacks and drinks, buy vietnamese products. as we are approaching halong bay, we are being brought to this pearl centre to see how the vietnamese people extract the pearls, and after that to their pearl jewellery shop, which i think is totally unnecessary and a total waste of time, and i included that feedback in their survey form at the end of the halong bay cruise. 

and finally we reach halong city at about 1240 pm. we have to take a small bump boat from the harbour to our cruise (the small bump boat is like those kind at pulau ubin or hatyai). finally checked in our rooms and then we had lunch on the cruise! food on the cruise was not bad. will have vegetables, seafood, pork, chicken and fruits. however drinks are not included on this cruise so you have to pay extra money to purchase drinks. 

check out our room! hee hee. not too bad! each person is 105 usd, including the cruise, 2 lunch 1 dinner 1 breakfast, the tour guide, entrance fees to sung sot cave and tip top island, and kayaking. 

the cruise has 3 levels: 1st level is the bedrooms, 2nd level is the dining room, and 3rd level is the deck where we can chill, drink halong beer, 晒衣服, and view the magnificient scenery of halong bay. 

after lunch our first destination is sung sot cave!

the cave was really amazing. pictures dun do justice to it. you must go there and see for yourself!

after sung sot cave was kayaking. and after kayaking it was our free time to do whatever we want. so of course i went to take photos on the deck. hahaha.

the cruise will be parked stationary in the middle of halong bay, so that tourists can sleep well. i slept very well indeed and woke up the next morning to admire the magnificient halong bay scenery once again!

and so basically that sums up halong bay. if you like to have a 3D2N tour, the second night will be at a hotel at cat ba island. if i am not wrong, the chio outdoor enthusiast did the 3D2N halong bay tour. 

halong bay done, sapa next! 

POTD

i wanna share some pics with my readers. these works are done by Nguyen Quang Huy, a freelance artist from Vietnam (coincidentally i just came back from there!), whereby he combined daily objects (such as matchbox, paper clip, vegetables, 风油, etc) together with drawings of superheroes. 

the final outcome was amazing!