Xin Ciao Hanoi .

Hi , I know it's long overdue . By that I mean , it's 4 months into passing it's magic moment . Maybe not , once I actually go through the series of photos . Hopefully I will manage to upload into the laptop . I have been shit , doing so . Anyhoo , many things have had happened and in between we have also been to many places . I will be uploading the time in Hanoi first before I do the one , where my manager and I were in Yogjakarta . Right at this moment , I m enjoying my day off although it's already 8:30pm . Also might I recommend you follow ;       Majestic Casual . For a chill day music .

Anyway , here's some pieces of my trip that I m able to share on .  Finger's crossed I dont mess it up .

 

So here we have a cliche af plane photo . 

Moving on .

It's really hot but windy  , which is surprisingly an okay combo . Sunglasses or a hat or both is recommended . We booked a tour guide , to make our lives easier as we are a group of 6 . Touched down Hanoi , MIGHT I SAY , THEIR TOILETS ARE SO CLEAN , SO CLEAN I CAN SIT ON THE TOILET FLOOR AND I WOULD BE FINE , CLEAN . Yeah I have an obsession with clean and dry toilets . HA ha . Anyway , we went to drop off our luggage at the hotel and we went straight to one of the attractions . Which is the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum , which unfortunately is closed on a Monday . So we only got the see the change of guards , which was pretty cool . As per crazy group , we smiled and waved at the guards which I think they were pretty happy . 

Allow me to present the group starting from the left is ; Ken , Alister , Me , Joanne , Keith and Sherman. 

After this we were super hungry so we left for lunch . 

Oh I forgot , we also went to the Temple of Literature dedicated to Confucius . There was a lot of student's who just graduated taking photos around the temple . I being ocd about there being a lot of pictures in my phone , I deleted most of them cause it's not as great . Photos here of me are mainly taken by other people . Thanks friends who upped your photo taking skills. 

We went to a cafe after watching the water puppet show , and our tour guide whose name I think is Jerry . I m so sorry if it's not . Brought us to another temple which is in the main lake that the city surrounds . Where there was a giant turtle living in , and where the kings who brought the sword to the turtle or the other way around so they could win the war . Clearly I failed in history , and I might have fucked up the whole story it's roughly around there , I m sure of it . 

The cafe in said pictures we went to have egg coffee , but this place isn't as good , I had the egg cacao which tasted like Marble cake consistency is like cake batter too . Almost . So I won't bother about going into where this place is . 

Most of the time we are travelling in the van , so I think this is when we were going to Ha Long Bay cause it wont be a trip to Hanoi without going there . Insisting to go there with your friends is a must , you won't regret it . Sleeping during your holidays is also a requirement . 

 

Staying on a cruise for a night is also the best decision we made , cause pft , we slept on the best beds . If there was one thing I could bring home from this trip is the bed on the " La Vela Cruise ". Their crew on board is nice and friendly , service is great . Also there's happy hour on board . We also went kayaking in Ha Long Bay , just be sure not to fall in cause apparently there are jellyfish in the waters . Not too sure , cause I have seen people jumping into the waters or maybe it's the place we were at that has jellyfish ? When night came and before dinner was ready , we stepped out of the cruise and onto a small boat or a speed boat where we catch squids , I CAUGHT ONE OR TWO . It was fun , I hope that the authorities and the people there will continue to keep the waters clean and make them cleaner. It was a really good experience . 

Cracked of dawn next morning , woke up , had breakfast and we went to TiTop Island , where we had to climb about 500 steps which I almost died . Trying to reach the top . The view though is fantastic once you're there , and it's also filled with tourist from China . Make sure the aunties and uncles don't push you off the cliff . Then we went to play in the water , not clear but good enough . After two good hours we headed to another small island or limestone cave , as actually all these are actually Giant Limestone . 

I will only show you this picture we took at the jetty , cause we all look like we are ghost or either possessed with the cave's multi colored lighting . The place is really beautiful , I just couldnt capture it on camera . At least my phone's camera  .  After that , we left and back to main land we go .

We walked around after dinner , once we got back to the city . Why were we sitting on the side walks ? I was googling which cafe's are still open then , and we went to cafe giang . 

This I recommend . It's packed with their locals , you know its good .

There are actually many other things that we saw and did , like sitting by the road side , drinking juices from one of their fruit stores , they make the best mango smoothies as well . If you are into eating dried squid they have that by the roads as well , Sitting on tiny stools and chatting the night away with the cool night breeze . Also we find that a lot of Vietnamese will go out for an evening walk after dinner around the lake , it's really happening , till it's 12 am cause there is a curfew . 

On our last night in Hanoi , we stumbled across the night district . We were wondering around the few nights and couldnt find it , until we walked far enough and upon this we found the bustling nightlife of Hanoi. A couple of drinks after , people were chased by the police . It was the first time any of us were in that kind of environment . And people getting high on laughing gas . We tried some , but there wasnt any effect ? Maybe we just didnt inhaled enough . hahaha . After awhile we decided to go back . We got lost on the way back , and getting lost wouldnt be getting lost until you walked passed the row of shops that sells coffins and other stuffs for the deceased . 

Oh I forgot to mention, we went around and ate a lot of Pho . My apologies , this post doesn't have a proper sequence . I didn't take any photos , cause we were too busy downing them . I also didn't take any dinner photos or photos about the food we ate , cause they were the kind of meals that you will eat when you are with the tour . So you can basically picture , rice/noodles , vege ,fish and meat . We were stuffed . 

I would recommend if you ever visit any country , to visit their local supermarket or hypermarket . They have some pretty good things , for Hanoi , besides their coffee , you should check out their cashew nuts ( buy the kinds that still have their brown layers on them ) , marie biscuits , and their instant noodles . Mind you were all in our 20's if not late 20's we enjoy the supermarkets like the old aunty's and uncles . 

Before we left we went to Tam Coc , to ride the Sampan or little boat as well . It was hot af , please remember to apply loads of sunblock . I took pictures , but it didnt upload on dropbox . So I will just save it for the next round of unusual uploads . 

Thank you to the lovely group , who decided we can go travelling . It wasn't easy but none the less it was fun . I would summarise this as a historical and fun trip . If you only enjoy shopping and air condition places then maybe this is not for you ? Or if you decided to step out of your comfort zone , I think Hanoi would be a nice place to be . Hopefully the next trip there will be up the mountains of Sapa . Cause I saw really nice pictures of that place, and maybe we could extend our stay there as well.  I m pretty sure I left something or a lot of things out of this trip , I have really bad memory . 

I swear I can't even remember what I ate for yesterday's lunch . 

So here you go , a mixed up submission of a blog post . That if you stumbled upon . I hope you enjoy reading my jumbled up mind . 

Till the next travels ;

x.