Vietnam Pages -- Day 4

The day was spent discovering Hanoi. First thing we did as usual was breakfast. We went to a nearby coffee shop (next to where we went for dinner the previous night) which served freshly baked bread, the most amazing fresh butter and homemade jam. Nothing like having a full tummy to start off a very busy day.

First stop was Ho Chi Minh Palace. We din bother going inside as it was raining and we din want to go inside an air con place. So we just walked around trying to find the 'one pillar pagoda'. We were expecting to see a huge monument. Moreover, they suddenly stopped us from going further as it was lunch time for the guards so the palace was closing. We decided to head down to the Temple of Literature instead.

Temple of Literature or Van Mieu (in Vietnamese) is dedicated to Confucius. It was founded in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong. In 1076, Vietnam's first university was established here to educate Vietnam's administrative and warriors class. There are different gates for students and royalties. Students have different courtyards for studying and leisure. The entire "temple" was quite a small compound, not nearly the size of modern school campus let alone universities. All the walking made us very hungry girls, so we headed towards Kyoto restaurant.

"Kyoto" is a popular restaurant, visited by many foreigners, not only because the food is excellent and the service is personal, but because it is run by a charitable organisation in aid of students who come from low income family. These students work in the restaurants while training in Hotel Management. Vietnamese are already very polite and gracious hosts, added to that these students really made us feel very welcome.

We headed back to see the "One Pillar Pagoda", which turned out to be such a dissappointment as it was a really small monument, kinda something you would see outside someone's house. We headed back to the hotel to relax for a while, but went shopping instead. We found some good really cheap clothes, but overall Hanoi was far more expensive than HCMC.

After all the shopping, we were really beat, so we went to a near by massage salon to get foot massage.Ohhhh.... we felt so pampered, these people had a knack with their fingers, their really eased all the sore spots and all for jus $4! Wish Singapore had such places.

Now that we were back on our feet, we decided to explore for dinner. Whilst doing that, we came across the famous Water Puppet show theatre. At first we were told all the tickets were sold out. But after telling her that this was our last night in Hanoi, and how much we would love to see it, she 'arranged' for 4 tickets for us, and told us not to tell any one she had. We found out why when we went inside. They had put additional chairs in each aisle to add more people. Who cared! We really enjoyed ourselves.

Vietnam Pages -- Day 3 (amended)

* due to slight lapse in memory, I have to rewrite some of this.*

Today was supposed to be exciting, cos we were moving from HCMC to Hanoi. Unfortunately, for some reason it was the exact opposite. My friend V fell sick. It was raining and the flight was horrible! It was not even a budget airlines yet it was bad. The flight had a stench which jus made all of us nauseous and he seats were rickety and uncomfortable. We were kicking ourselves for not taking Vietnam Airlines. V was hurling non stop. To make things worse, the lady in front of us had removed the diapers off her baby and when the baby needed to pee, she jus held him up on the passageway!! She din even bother to get off her seat. Well, all this made V's condition v bad.

Post flight was not any better. The bus we took was so bumpy that V couldnt take it anymore. Moreover, we had to change buses midway and wait for the next one. We decided it was enuf and jus took a cab to Hang Bac (the backpacker area in Hanoi and definitely the place to stay in). We went straight to Tamarind Cafe. We had already planned that if possible, we would take the train out that very night to go to Sapa.

Tamarind Cafe..probably the best hang out place I have been to. Just being there made everyone feel so much better, esp V. P went to enquire about train tickets and also for our trip to HaLong while me n V's sis went to nearby travel agents to find out if they have anything available. Well we couldnt get what we wanted, but we got what seemed to us as much better deals if we swapped our days little. Hey who cares!

So the plans changed. We were gonna be in Hanoi for the night and the next day. Following which we would leave for Ha Long, come back and then leave for Sapa. We booked into a nearby hotel, showered and unpacked, then headed out for some shopping and dinner. Everyone's mood seemed to have improved now.

Hanoi in general seemed more expensive than HCMC. Shop keepers seemed more difficult to bargain with. I remember we headed out to a showroom to look for nice audais. We all fell in love with the same audai (its the traditional Vietnamese dress...v similar to Salwar Kameez...except it is a lot more figure hugging). So we all placed order for the same audai! [Its bronze and golden :) and hanging in my closet still.] End of the day we headed to a small restaurant few streets away from our hotel for dinner.

Vietnam Pages -- Day 2

First stop for the day was an handicraft factory. This factory offers employment to handicapped individuals and they made such beautiful crafts. We din stay for long cos we cudnt afford anything. But I did mentally pick a few to put if I ever bought a big multi storeyed bunglow...

We went to the GuChi tunnels today. It was so amazing to see how the people had improvised with what they had and dug nearly 200 km of tunnels running across two countries! These tunnels are very tiny and claustrophic, perfect size for a vietnamese person to go through but if anyone else tries, you will be stuck in there. We walked...crawled.. thru 100 m of the tunnel but it felt like 100km. We were hot and short of oxygen, and within seconds became totally restless. How the vietnam people lived there for such a long time, is jus beyond me! We even got a taste of the food they ate, steamed tapioca dipped in crushed peanuts.

After the tunnels, we headed back around post lunch, took a nice nap and then headed out to party (so to speak). We went to the "downtown" area of HCMC where the five star hotels and the fancy restaurants were. Dined at an italian place called Pomodoro. It was cosy and the food was goooood. After that we hit a few bars, found them too boring and hated the music, so we headed back towards a bar near our hotel itself.

Funny Story to tell: After a few more drinks, we decided it was best to sleep soon as we had an early mornig flight to catch the next day. As we were walkin, a few German guys called out to us, asking for some directions. We told them what we knew and as we moved out, they persisted, askin where we were from and if we would like to join them. Honestly, I was a little clueless cos I had no idea wat was happening,naively chattin with one of them about ou backgrounds. V's sister on the other hand was very vehemently against the whole idea of even being there and rudely looking away. P wanted to sleep. I was not planning to go anywhere without her. V, on the other hand, was happily high from the drinks. After repeating that we are all v tired and leaving. V's sister and P reprimanded the both of us for not having seen the intentions of the guys! I was very perplexed, having no experience in such things.

V's sister then told us what had happened 'behind the scenes' at the bar. She had noticed these guys looking at our group and planning on how to come over for a while. While the rest of us had our backs faced to this group and were chatting w the waiters who were aspiring to study in Singapore, she had been watching these people.

Anyways, like I said, funny story.

Vietnam Pages -- Day 1 continued

Following the Lonely Planet guide closely, we decided that first stop in HCMC should be the 'Reunification Palace' or Palace of Independence. It started raining as we waited outside to get tickets to enter. Lucikly when you travel with 3 girls, someone is bound to carry an umbrella.

A lot of thought had been put into the architecture of the palace. Each room is decorated in a different manner with a different colour scheme. We were told a lot about the history of its various names and the main events which took place.

Well by the time we came out the rain had stopped so we decided to do what came naturally to most women, Shopping!! ( I say most, cos I am not a fan of shopping). In any case, we went to a local market which I was told abt by many people as having the best bargain in HCMC. Anyways many handbags were purchased and accesories were bought. It being the first day not sure how good an idea it was! Point to be noted, you need to have great bargaining skills in order to get good deals. Prices can be brought down to abour 1/8 of the quoted price.

After a good shopping exercise, dinner was at a quiet vietnamese place, where we excitedly planned the forthcoming days of our trip.