27th March 2009
I’ve got the Air Asia 0 fare ticket to Hanoi sometime ago, it’s a real great deal as my return ticket only cost RM 250+… Unlike going to Europe, this time my packing list is way simpler… a small briefcase full of my daily clothes, toiletries, make up kit… and a bag pack with my laptop for the convenience to on msn with BB at night, maps I prepared earlier
Got up really early in the morning and start to travel to KL Sentral and taking a bus to LCCT…. Sooooo sleepy and slept in bus. Check in and now Air Asia has change its policy of free seating, they’ll allot seats for you when you check in. Me and mum book the ticket separately, so we seat separately. LCCT has done extension for its international departure hall. Unlike the cramped departure hall last time, its now has extended for a larger one with proper duty free shops and a few more shops and unlimited WIFI supply… Waiting for departure is always the hardest to pass your time, especially with hungry stomach….
Our flight departed at 6.30am… I was allotted a window seats with besides me 2 Vietnamese man returning to their homeland after working in Malaysia… Is the no foreign worker policy really force them to go back?? There’s really a lot of them… maybe half the air craft are Vietnamese….. Being extremely tired wake up too early, what’s better than taking a good nap on flight… until its eating time…. An advice, should pre booked your meal if you are taking Air Asia flight as you’ll be drooling seeing other started to eat and you still have to starve yourself waiting for the stewards or stewardess to start from the first row, preparing, chatting, money changing, blah blah blah… until it reach to you!!!
With nothing better to do, i take a shot of the skies just pass dawn
With no one beside to talk to you, and the flight are noisy with returning Vietnamese, uncle aunties going for tour and speak loudly in Hokkien in front of you, people seating beside you goes to lavatory 1000 times in a 3 hrs flight, crew pushing food cart, souvenir cart, collecting rubbish on and off beside you, its impossible to sleep…. And pray that it reach Hanoi faster… When we are about reaching… there is this unforgettable scene, once it touched the ground, and still running fast on the run way… all Vietnamese in the flight remove their seat belt and stand up on the running air craft and cheers in Vietnamese… WHAT HAPPEN HERE???? And they all did a sequence action all together…. They switch on their Malaysia Phone and trying to make call!!!!!! At this point, the plane has not even stop!!!! I was really amazed by this!! And worse still, they rush you off your seat and start to take out their hand carry luggage and pass around…. I was stuck in the middle of the narrow walkway with luggage being pass around on my left and right……
Immigration officers at Noi Bai Airport is surprisingly fierce looking…. When you pass them your passport, they’ll stareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee at you till you feel guilty!!! And they scream at people trying to wait for their friend at the immigration counter.
Just walked out from the arrival hall, me immediately saw my chauffeur to pick us to the hotel. But I requested to change my money first. It’s advised to bring USD to change to Vietnam Dong in Vietnam. $1 is equal to 17,700VND… me suddenly turns to a millionaire…. Hahahahaha
We were led to a Toyota Innova and the non-English speaking chauffeur start to drive to our destination. The first glimpse of Hanoi is of course there are many paddy fields… in unorganized town planning order, beside the highway, beside a shopping mall, beside a global co factory, beside houses… And one thing that could be quite annoying is they honk at everything… At first I really don’t get use to the honking because its very rude to honk people in Malaysia, but here in Hanoi, their honking meaning give ways when you are slow, honk to give you alert, honk to cut into the next lane, honk because of nothing… Just honk because everybody is doing it.
Paddy field along the highways
They still carry this kind of old fashion briefcase
After about 30 mins drive of non stop honking and the dusty road… we turn into the district of old quarters… Hanoi’s houses is so narrow.. Does that explain why no fat people in Hanoi??
Narrow houses in Hanoi
The hotel we pre booked is Hanoi Golden Plaza hotel, its really good deal, I think each person per nite is only RM37 inclusive of breakfast. Though you can always get cheaper rates in other hotel, but I definitely do not want to risk myself running around in foreign town looking for a shelter… And proven my choice for Hanoi Golden Plaza Hotel is not wrong, it’s provide me the friendliest and most helpful staff I ever met even compare to a 5 star class hotel.
We were first great by Peter, the manager. On our arrival, which is before the check in time, we were served a welcome drink, this lime juice is soooo nice… but it does make me feel hungrier…
Our Hotel
My welcome drinks
Peter explained briefly places of interest in Hanoi to us and give us a map. He did not get upset too when we told him we’ve already signed up for tour packages with other tour agency. They even help us to contact the tour agency the next morning when they came late…
We were given a room to store our luggage as the other room is not yet ready… no prob… we just need a place to keep our things cause we are exploring the town soon….
The first thing we wanna do is to EAT!!! We are so hungry!!! There are food every where at every street… So, we had our first Pho at a shop just in front of our hotel.
Our hotel is just located 2 streets away from the biggest landmark in the French quarter.
The St Joseph Cathedral
The gothic St Joseph Cathedral
St Joseph Cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in Hanoi French quarter. The French built it in the nineteenth centuries. It is still running masses and it’s the largest congregation in Hanoi. However, it seems like close for public and I’ve had enough view of this kind of gothic church in Europe… But it really carries similarity like churches I saw in Paris…. During the nighttime, there are tons of people gathering at a shop next to it for bia hoy… more like our mamak stall, but this is a lot more merrier….
We walk pass a very noisy place… have a peek inside, it’s a school…. Their school is sooooooo noisy… and one day evening we pass through it when it’s a finish school time, unlike our Malaysian spoilt babe, parents have to carry their school bags for them, fetch them by luxury cars within the shortest walking distance possible, the kids here mostly goes home walking or cycling by themselves, and nobody give a damn of them… I even saw teacher watching them playing football on the street… (I guess he’s a teacher)
The noisy school
We follow the map I printed from Reid on travel earlier… the map provided by the hotel isn’t something very useful for us cause most of the street name and destinations are in Vietnamese…. Our next destination is to walk to the Hoan Kiem Lake. It wasn’t far… just a 5 minutes walk from St Joseph Cathedral
Hoan Kiem Lake
Tortoise tower in the middle of the lake
Big Tree along the lake
Ngoc Son Temple andHuc Bridge
A creative girl doing this in the after noon, i can't stop taking a photo of her
The contrast red Huc bridge with the greenish Hoan Kiem Lake
Hoan Kiem lake in Vietnamese meaning Lake of the restored sword, I learn from the water puppet show, there’s a legend behind it. The emperor handed a magic sword from the heaven, which bought him to victory in a revolt to the golden turtle god. There’s a tortoise tower in the middle of the lake believe to worship the God of turtle.
The Hoan Kiem Lake is one of the major scenic spot in the city and a favorite focal point for the local for their leisure activity. With the green calm water, big shaggy trees along the side, it’s the best spot for dating with your loves one…
Many F & B owner has chosen to set their business near to the Hoan Kiem Lake selling the idea of fantastic view and fantastic Vietnamese food, like Hapro Café and Restaurant and Bobby Chinn.
We decided to wander around the French quarter first; we first stop at Governor of Tonkin’s residence.
Governor of Tonkin's residence
To the right a block is the gorgeous ultra French neoclassical Metropole Hotel where all the world class branded outlet has been set up here.. it is one of the most high class hotel in Hanoi. Cross over the busiest and messiest junction, is the Opera House. This is where highbrow performances are staged to bejeweled audience.
The Hanoi Metropole Hotel
All branded shops gather at their arcade
The Opera house and the messy traffict with cars and motorbike coming from all directions
We stop by a shops to purchase some mineral water… here they are selling at more expensive price.. 10,000D for a bottle. We bought Vietnam souvenir t-shirt for kids at only 15,000D, which converted to RM3. In Hanoi, the only knowledge you need to know about shopping is to bargain, bargain and bargain…. Always bargain at least 50% of the price quoted and ask to pay in Vietnam Dong, it’ll be cheaper…
There’s also a store selling replica Lonely planet books here… I saw a Lonely Planet for Italy and the seller quote me 150K dong for it… a bit too expensive… I heard in Cambodia you can actually get it at around 5USD with better photocopy quality.
Trang Tien street is the main street in the French quarter with decent restaurant, boutiques, Trang Tien Shopping mall and also another 5 star hotel, the Sofitel Hanoi. We found this award winning ice cream stall where many people queue up for it… though I do not under stand, but with this posters and the crowd… its not hard to guess.. it cost 5000D for this cooling and refreshing coconut flavor ice sticks…
Mummy with the award winning ice cream
We decide to walk back to the northeast side of Hoan Kiem lake, on the way back, we pass by King Ly Thai To Statue. King Ly Thai To is the founder of Ly dynasty and moved the capital of Vietnam to Thang Long, which is the Hanoi city now.
King Ly Thai To statue
The dragon made of leaves and flower
Hoa Phuong is a standalone tower on the east bank of Hoan Kiem Lake. It marks the entrance of the former Bao An Pagoda that was demolished by the French in 1890s.
This is Hoa Phuong
We did not go to the Ngoc Son temple and Huc Bridge cause its in our itinerary for tomorrow’s Hanoi city tour. We walk to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre to buy tickets for tonight’s water puppet show. Exploring the French quarter has cause us to be extremely exhausted… at the Thang Long theatre, we decide to take a cyclo ride for 40,000D to the Dong Xuan Market.I didn’t bargain too much with the cyclo rider as I think its pity for a skinny him to ride both of us to so far distance.
The Hanoi old quarter street at a glance from our cyclo
My skinny cyclo peddler and me
We first go and hunt for food again once we reached the old quarter… there are many street foods here… some is just a mobile seller who set up her stall with only tiny chairs at the roadside… Its so impossible for us to hold a hot steaming bowl of Pho with bare hand to eat… So, we look for a more proper one… as in this one…. This a squatting eateries… We have to fit 4 of us in this tiny table and chairs mean for midget for our whole meal…
We have to squat at tiny table and chair for food
This is how they tapao their food
This is consider a more decent makan corner for the locals
This is the mobile seller stall...
After this filling lunch, we walked to the market nearby… I think it’s at the back part of Dong Xuan Market. Here, there are a lot of stalls selling the same thing, mainly is tidbits and confectioneries, dried seafood products and we stop by at this stall selling grocery… we bargain hard for the famous Trung Ngu Yen coffee here… I bought a packet of 500g Trung Ngu Yen coffee powder and a filter for about RM10, and the sachet of black coffee (15 sachet in a box) for 12,000D (RM2.40) as souvenir… They later commented that the sachet pack is not as good as the filtered coffee.
All kind of preserve fruit and tidbits
XXXL size dried shrimp
All sizes dried shrimp
Poisonous cobra wine
CLOSE UP - got scorpion also
Dong Xuan Market is the largest and oldest indoor market at Hanoi… and air-conditioned. It has a total of 3 levels. The ground floor is selling all kind of goods, clothing, souvenirs, shoes, toys, beauty products etc… The 2nd floor is selling garments… and the 3rd is fabric. One thing about them.. They are selling things in bulk for the locals, and most probably they will not entertain you if you try to bargain… so, for me, this is not a good place for shopping…
Dong Xuan Market
We got a bit lost when trying to walk back to the hotel for a bath, Hanoi is soooo hot and walking in the dusty street has cause our body being coated with a layer of dust… cars here are dirty too… I bet you’ll be bankrupt if you trying to run a car wash center here… no one need it.
Rusa alike car... see how dirty is their car,,,,,,,
We took a short rest and me trying to check if any there’s any reply from BB, still no news yet…
We go out again at 7pm planning to take some light food before our water puppet show.. I bought my Ao Zai (Prounounce as Ao Dai, Vietnamese women costume) at the shop next to Thang Long water puppet theatre. Me after bargaining so hard, at last I got this elegance piece at USD15. Other shops in Hang Gai is selling cheapest at USD 25.
Me in Ao Zai
At 8pm, we go into the Thang Long Water Puppet theatre for our show, Our 1st class ticket cost 60k dong each. First class means seating at the front row. The water puppet show is a must go to complete your trip to Hanoi, though the scripts is all in Vietnamese, but the skills of the puppeteers simply amazed you to bits… Unlike conventional puppets, every each part of this puppets move freely and surreally.
The programme are as follows:
1) Raising of the Festival Flag
2) Chu Teu ot the Narrator
3) Dragon Dance
4) On a buffalo with a flute
5) Agriculture
6) Catching Frogs
7) Rearing duckling and catching foxes
8 ) Fishing
9) Harvest Festival, Returning to the native land after college graduation.
10) Lion Dance
11) Phoenix dance
12) Legend of the restored sword, This resemble the legend of Hoan Kiem Lake
13) Children playing in water
14) Boat racing
15) Unicorn play with ball
16) Fairy dance
17) Dance of four holy animal
The performer will come out to greet the audience at the end of the show.
The show last for one hour and I seriously do not recommend you to get a first class ticket because being sandwiched by big size Caucasian will definitely block yr view for the shows. Especially if you are a small size Asian.
Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre
The stage
Some scene of the shows
The puppeteers will greet you by end of the show
Display water puppets
It was quite late and we decide to walk back to nearby to our hotel to look for food… We only found a road side stall selling grill seafood… walk further and we have no choice but to go for noodle again…. Only me choose the yellow noodle and the rest of them go for chicken porridge.
Were too exhausted after a full day walk in the city… I quickly check email and still no reply from BB…
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