a trip in Hanoi, Vietnam
sorry that i post this late..but ya la ..mission tergendala because of the earthquake in taiwan which affected the telecommunication system in our nation. fyi, i went to Hanoi for 8 days with my uncle’s family.. n yes, my brother is there. i truly enjoyed myself although it was hard for me because i miss my family n friends ALOT, i never missed celebrating Christmas away from home, family, yc n friends n of course, i never been away from home for so long !so..yea la..enjoy reading although its a long post …
Day 1 (
23/10/2006 )
Boarded Airasia plane in LCC Terminal at
3pm to
Hanoi , Vietnam . Arrived at about
6.30pm (
5.30pm :
hanoi ’s time) . the tour bus came to pick the 20 of us ..there were 3 familes ;my uncle’s, Aunt Fiona’s and Aunt Cam’s family. We went straight to the city to have our first Vietnamese dinner ! yippee..i tell you..the food there is totally different and their normal chilli is cili padi!! (according to my bro n uncle who are chilli lovers!)our first dinner consist of fried fish, lotsa raw vege with rice noodles ! the whole thing is cooked right in front of you on d table! Ahhh! I couldn’t forget the taste of it man!On our way back to the bus, we had to cross many busy roads where the traffic is also TOTALLY DIFFERENT from malaysia’s!Our tour guide, Mr.Dao told us that if we ever want to cross the roads of Vietnam, we MUSTN’T LOOK LEFT OR RIGHT to cross it !! believe it or not ! im serious!! No kidding..!but we mustn’t run either..just cross and act as if the road belongs to you !! cars, vans n motorbikes will know how to avoid you..and u don’t have to avoid them ..!therefore, in my own words. “CLOSE YOUR EYES AND CROSS THE ROADS!” ahahaha !it’s our first time getting ourselves lost in the city because the 20 of us were spilt to 10-10..so, I was left in the 2nd half of the group where we had difficulty crossing the road n the next thing we knew,the other group n Mr.Dao was no where to be seen. So, we stood where we were hoping that the rest are aware of our absence n come find us soon..because we don’t wanna be lost on our first day in
Vietnam !!
Next, the bus (only 25seater + driver) took us to the train station for a transfer to
Sa Pa mountain. We were all suppose to sleep in the cabins in the train the whole night ! It’s a 6 hour journey up the mountains !each cabin had 4 beds (crampy but still comfy..)and there were only 1 basin for simple clean-ups and the toilet is locked till morning!!did I mention that the basin was stucked, water cant flow smoothly and there were nearly 30 – 35 ppl waiting to use the basin before they could sleep ? ? yes.. that was the first night of our holidays. I slept with Aunt Karen ( from fga also), my bro n my cousin(Khang Yeon). To make others jealous, Josh( my genius bro) turned on music from his phone n put the volume to the max !seriously, other parent and children were wondering, “Why their cabin got free music wan ?? how come my cabin don’t have wan? ? “ the four of us had a good laugh !! I kinda like my bed.. hehe J
Day 2(
24/12/2006 )
We arrived at
Sa Pa mountain at
5am (6am M’sia) and another bus took us straight to the Love Market to have our breakfast there..i had ( pancake with choc and Vietnamese fried rice). Then, we walked thru the whole market and guess what I saw ? PIGS !! yes..u read that right.. they sold animals there and they way they treat those animals are just so inhumane! They pull its legs n forced open its mouth etc for checking..those pigs were crying man !! they look so sad !!! poor pigs ! btw, those pigs weren’t so big la ..n they don’t stink! n they aren’t pink in colour..they are in black! I even shot their pic! Wanna see ? ? hehe! After that, we went straight to our hotel , Bamboo Sa Pa hotel to wash up. ( FINALLY!!) its because all of us haven’t had a bath for 1 ½ day ! n obviously we all stink !we all had our FIRST shower in Vietnam n the heater isn’t working well because its dependant on burning coal in a small container.but im glad the heater worked well when I was bathing (hehe)..u need special techniques to operate the shower +heater..and only smart ppl like me n my bro can do it ! ahahahah ! no la .. JUST KIDDING!
The whole afternoon was free for leisure and all of us decided to take a long walk around the whole town ( it’s kinda big for a town..but not so high tech like the city wan..).The traffic there were much safer!(Thank God!).did I mention that it was WINTER TIME in
Vietnam now ?? hehe ..lovely winter..but no snow wan.. the temperature there was about 15.8celcius on a daily basis.but up in the mountain,it was 5 – 10 celcius. I didn’t feel really cold la …till night time !oh yes! We had tea time at
Victoria Hotel ..(I had hot choc!perfecto!)..
Night came n all of us had our Christmas eve dinner at
Victoria Hotel because there was a buffet dinner there..Rachel,Josh,Khang Yeon n I had the craziest dinner ever! Why ? because we had at least 3 rounds of food! I took some pic of the food we had..we tried their mushroom soup n it was so diff from our normal
Campbell soup..i prefer
Campbell soup btw(more creamy n thicker). Here’s something to be shocked at:if u ever notice..there are sections of various food during buffet (soup, rice, noodles, desserts, drinks..etc) right ? well, there was this particular section where they had LOTS N LOTS N LOTS of chocolate based desserts!there was this cottage made of chocolate (I hav d pic!) n a big long log-shaped choc cake ! n around that cake was easter-egg-chocs, santa-like-choc n Christmas-tree-choc! N when EVERYONE were looking at me,my bro, Khang Yeon n Rachel…we happily SAPU ALL THOSE CHOC DECORATIONS which weren’t meant to be eaten because it was suppose to be a DECORATION! The chef there was laughing at us man ! ahahahah ! I snapped a pic of the santa-like choc my bro took ..it was about 1 feet tall..hahaha! after dinner, the adults stayed back for Vietnamese coffee and chat…other kids played Uno..i,on the other hand, took a stroll by myself outside the hotel because the feeling of MISSING MY FRIENDS is very strong..seriously, I never felt this homesick before!!i stood at the balcony, had a view overlooking the beautifully decorated Victoria Church, listened to the song “Tonight” and had my first look up in the sky..the stars were beautiful!! It was stupendous….astounding! that whole scenario made me think of my friends more because of the stars which fitted the song “Tonight”.
Walked back to our hotel after realizing that
Victoria Hotel
Day 3, (
25/12/2006 ), Christmas Day !!
Rachel and I shared a room…n we both fell in love with the song ‘Tonight’. We woke up at
5am ( 6am M’sia). The sun is already shinning brightly..had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant..everyone wore back their dirty clothes..that includes me..y ? because we were suppose to be trekking down the mountain, thru the villages,cross a wooden bridge to a waterfall, and back up the mountain to the bus waiting at the end of our trek..yup! that’s what we did the whole morning..we were expected to finish trekking in 2 hours but we finished 30mins earlier..its not simple trekking because there were A LOT OF STAIRS EVERYWHERE …up n down , up n down , up n down !! my leg’s muscle sore a lil.i was getting a lil pening lalat cos there were STAIRS EVERYWHERE ! WINDING STAIRS with cow/pig/buffalo/goat dunk everywhere ! ahaha..had a good time avoiding those stuff..lol! I have a video of the waterfall we stopped at..it was BEAUTIFUL I tell u !! With the sun rays and the rainbow n the waterfall..it was seriously AWESOME…God’s creation is really very good I say .. VERY VERY VERY VERY GOOD! After trekking, the bus took us back near our hotel for lunch..where we had spring rolls n other food la .. the spring rolls in
Vietnam is very famous actually.n their Rice Noodles, pho ( pronounced as fur) is seriously my FAVOURITE !!after lunch, we went back to the hotel to wash up where the 20 of us shared 2 bathrooms! We had to check out before we finish trekking.
Bath time was long (u understand why rite?)..left
Sa Pa mountain at around
5pm (
6pm M’sia) for our train departure down the mountain at
9pm (
10pm M’sia). The journey down the mountain took us 3 hours..we had dinner near the station at Emotion Café where I started feeling drowsy and had motion sickness because of the rocky n unstable winding mud roads for 3 hours..here’s another ‘good’ story I have.. I ordered ‘bbq pork chop with fries and salad’(something diff this time I thought…), n my food came in last ! but nevermind , I don’t mind. However, I didn’t get what I ordered…because they gave me Pork Ribs!where I couldn’t bite the meat because its ribs n mostly had tendon ..(im not a ribs lover btw…) n my braces is as usual giving me problems!..kesimpulannya, my dinner wasn’t really pleasant..!
Day 4, (
26/12/2006 )
-to be continued in the next post-
remember to drop a comment ! thank you peeps ! hugx ! take care !^^ lalalalalalala………
