Hanoi, Hanoi ..

Recently, I visited Vietnam again, and while I didn't have any time to take in the sights in Ho Chi Minh City, I did rekindle my liking for Hanoi ... I've visited Hanoi previously in December 2006 on holiday, and a few times since on business.

I really didn't have any time to do any touristy thing, this being a business trip, but I did find a couple of hours of time to stretch the legs a little bit, walking around the spiritual heart of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarters.

As usual, I'm letting the photos do the talking ...

The beautiful Turtle Tower is situated on a small island in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake. In the mornings and the evenings, you'll see masses of Hanoi residents congregating around the lake, either relaxing, or doing workouts.

When in Hanoi, you must Hang Gai (Jalan Jalan in Cantonese). In the Old Quarters, streets are named after the merchandise sold on that street in the past. Hang Gai now is the main touristy thoroughfare selling silk and souvenirs, and home to many a tailors, but in the past, it sold Hemp (Gai). So, Hang Gai means Hemp Goods.

Relaxing at Hoan Kiem after work ...

The hauntingly beautiful Opera House, conveniently situated next to my hotel =)

My verdict for Hanoi is clear ... =) ... if you sit near the front of the plane, look out the window before takeoff ... the ground crew has to remove some pin from the aircraft, and give the all clear signal ... which is what I've photographed ..

Just end my misery ...

More travel to Vietnam.

More misery.

I am developing a strong dislike for this particular case I'm working on. God bless, I love my job, but this case, well ... let's just say I won't be sorry if I have nothing to do with it anymore.

On the other hand, travelling to Hanoi means: Pho !!!! Hot soup, rice noodles with herb garnishing and beef / chicken. How can anyone say no to Pho ? Or Baguette? Or Vietnamese Coffee?

Travel bits

Now that there's some break from work, I can update a little on my travels to Hanoi last week.

I stayed at the Hanoi Opera Hilton for the first time ! The hotel rawks ! The hotel manager rawks !


I really went there on work, on a really tough assignment. Odds are I won't come out ofo the meeting smelling like roses. Still, work is work - I'm paid to do the good part and the not so good part.

So, it perked my day up upon seeing this on my way to Hanoi. Rainbows to me is a good omen. Seeing this, I believed I can make something good out of my Hanoi assignment.


It was the hardest trip to Hanoi, in both literal and actual sense. There wasn't any direct flight available by the time I needed to fly, so I had to make a transit in Ho Chih Minh City on the way to Hanoi. That made a 3 hour 20 minute flight turn into a 6 hour+ journey. Still, the food served on board managed to serve some funnies:



The meeting didn't turn out as bad, although I was badly dehydrated by the time I was done - the meeting room was hot because AC wasn't firing on all cylinders, and I did most of the talking all of the 4 hours, sweating, and without drinks served.

So, to make up for that, that night, me and Jon, a colleague from Thailand, we went to chill out in the Old Quarters. I took the chance to get my sunshine a purple lantern. Glad you love it, dear.



And on my way back, a tantalising glimpse of the gems of the East Coast, the Redang archipelago. Click on this and other pictures to see a bigger version.


Makes me look forward to my holiday !

Hanoi - Day Nam: Farewell

5 days in Hanoi to a Malaysian is a lot of days. However, truth is, we met a lot of people who are on weeks-long, month-long; I met these two French people who've been away from home for 6 months, and have no idea when their holiday will end. 5 days is too short a vacation.


On the final day in Hanoi, there were just 2 objectives: One Pillar Pagoda, and Temple of Literature.

Both are a bit farther away from Old Quarters, and in the interest of time, we took a taxi (costing around 22,000 dong) from the hotel to the Temple of Literature.

Those who have visited Thailand would have no doubt heard that Wat Po is the first university in Thailand. Wat Po is only about 300 years old.


The Temple of Literature, "Van Mieu", is Vietnam's first university, and it's history is about 1000 years old. It is one of the few temples or structures not destroyed or altered or significantly reduced to rubble by the French invaders of Vietnam.


The present site of the Hanoi Opera House, for example, used to be where the oldest temple in Vietnam was. It's a bit like our A Famosa, the Temple of Literature.


It's a B E A U T I F U L temple - landscaped gardens in 5 separate courtyards. Actually, it is a complex of 5 separate compounds (called courtyards), each reflecting a Confucian principle. The last courtyard houses the inner sanctum that was once even off limits to the Vietnamese emporers. Now it houses a temple and a museum.


Next, we walked from the temple to the One Pillar Pagoda. The guidebook says its 250 meters or so away. Guess what? It's much more than that ... and we got very, very, lost. Thank goodness we found it tucked in one corner near the Ho Chi Minh Museum just before we gave up looking ...

Allegedly shaped like a lotus, and also very effective for those wanting a son, the One Pillar Pagoda is one of the symbols of Hanoi. The Temple Of Literature and the Turtle Pagoda are the others. I found it a bit of a letdown, really. Maybe if I'm desperate for a son I'll visit again.

I think you should stop by here as part of a visit to the larger complex - Ho Chi Minh's house, Ho Chi Minh museum and Ho Chi Minh's Maoseleum are all within the general area.


We headed back to check out of the hotel, then took one last walk around the Old Quarters. It's my favorite place in Hanoi. I really can see myself there again. And again. And again. And again.

What's so good about Old Quarters? Besides what I wrote here, what else is good? Hmm ....

I got lost there a lot. It's always good to be discovering and constantly getting lost, and yet happy to be lost, IMHO.


And there's a lot of architecture - like the world's narrowest houses. Viets used to get taxed based on how wide the house is .... so houses only 10 feet wide is quite common.


It's got a lot of cafes and nice restaurants ...


We made it to the Noi Ba International Airport with plenty of time to spare. It's a small, comfortable airport, much better than the LCCT, that much I'll say.


Hanoi ... I heart you ...

Hanoi - Day Bon: Perfume Pagoda

*You should know the drill by now. There are so many pictures in this post, it's insane. If not on broadband, be patient. My lawyer's really good, won't do any good suing me*

After a good night's rest - the next day, day 4 in our Vietnamese holiday, we headed out on a small tour to the Perfume Pagoda.

Some 60kms southwest of Hanoi, the limestone mountains suddenly appear again - in the province of Ha Tay. Here, in the poetically named Mountains of Perfumed Terraces, the countryside is dotted with about 30 buddhist temples (also called pagodas), making this the center of Vietnamese buddhism.

We didn't come here as pilgrims. But if you come during the 1st - 3rd lunar month, the whole place will be swarming with Vietnamese undertaking pilgrimage.

The day starts again at 7.30am, and after picking up all 11 people in the tour, we headed out of Hanoi, for a 2 hour ride. The scenery today was more rural compared to yesterday's, but the ride was just as comfy. Just an annoying Spanish woman to spoil the day a bit. =(


2 hours later, we found ourselves reaching the Yen River, where we drop off the van, and splitted into groups of 4-5, each group getting into metal sampans.


The 1 hour, 3 km boat ride was by far the best thing that happened to me in the whole trip. The river was so peaceful, the air was fresh, no motors means quiet and the scenery was to die for ...

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves ...


At our drop off point, after a 10 minute hike, you can decide to either walk all the way up to the pagoda (1 hour, rocky trail, dangerous in the rainy season) or pay extra VND 30,000 for a cable car ride (15 minutes, beautiful view). Me & Taiko chose to take the cable cars both ways. Some more adventurous souls walked up and down. Some walked up, and took the cable car down. Truth being said - the walk up is not much, because it's all jungle only, says the guide book, tour guide, and some of the people in our group.


The perfume pagoda is really a cave, with a temple inside. Chinese would know it as 南天洞, and Viets call it Chua Huong. A bit anti climatic, but atmospheric, and it's set in great natural settings. And it happens to be the most important pagoda in the whole of Vietnam. During the months following the Vietnamese new year, this place gets thousands of pilgrims every day, some even overnighting in the cave itself !!!


Back from the trip, at the foot of the cable car station, is the beautiful and ancient Tien Chu pagoda, Chua Tien Chu. Truly atmospheric, in a great natural setting, it's worth the time to visit and just soak in the atmosphere. It was under a little bit of restoration work when we visited, but still very much a great temple. The guide told us this temple is more than 500 years old.


Truly a great trip !!! Costs us USD 18, includes the transportation from hotel both ways, the boat trip, lunch and includes 2 tour guides. Of course, you visit the two pagodas, get good commentary from the guides, and generally have a good time !

Hehe ... but the boat ladies will hassle you for tip. Pay around VND 2,000 - VND 4,000 per person. Don't spoil the market ... one of the groups actually paid USD 10!!! I think that lucky boatwoman would be having a good meal that night !!! And she might just wash that meal down with some snake wine ...

Hanoi - Day Ba: Halong Bay

*Ridiculous amount of pictures. Dial up users should upgrade to broadband. Broadband subscribers should be patient. Patient readers will be rewarded*

Hanoi is not a huge city. Even on foot, and at a leisurely pace, around 2-3 days will be sufficient to cover all its attractions. So, we headed out to Halong Bay for a day cruise on Day 3.


For around USD 20, you can take a day tour from Hanoi to Halong Bay. We had a small group of around 12 people in our van departing from Hanoi, and in the boat, we had around 16 people only. It's very important to make sure your Halong Bay tour is (a) small - 16 people max (b) refundable (in part - since you still pay for the van journey) if you can't cruise because of inclement weather (c) air conditioned if you go in summer.


The day starts early, at around 7.30 am - Halong Bay is 180 kms and a rather comfortable and uneventful 3 - 3.5 hours away from Hanoi by car. The scenery is quite monotonous until around the halfway stop - lots of farm lands, and factories.

As you get closer to Halong Bay, you start to see the limestone mountains Halong Bay is famous for ...


Halong means "Descending Dragon", and is famous for the large numbers of limestone mountains (also called karst) that poke out from the sea. In fact, these are the same limestone mountains that extend from Guilin in China, into north Vietnam. It's featured in Tomorrow Never Dies - the Bond movie featuring Michelle Yeoh.

Once in Halong Bay, the boat cruise itself is around 4 hours. It'll cruise around the islands nearer to the shore, and stop to visit one cave (Thien Cung). I have mistakenly watermarked my pictures with the words Trien Tru Cave ... I lazy to correct. It's Thien Cung cave, ok ?


It also stops at some Floating Fishing Village, where you can pick some of the seafood to add to lunch. Lunch is included in the tour, but if you want additional seafood from fishing village, it's extra. At additional USD2, you can also tour 2 sea caves on a motorboat - it'll take you into caves in 2 islands, both leading into a sea lake - (imagine the island in The Beach).


Of course, there's a lot of things to see. The rock formations here are quite interesting ...


And there's the floating vendors as well. I'll just call them floating markets =).


There is an option to do a 2D/1N stay in a boat in Halong Bay, and we've been told it's more interesting because it'll take us to some very narrow channels that will give us very close look at the mountains, include a trekking option on Titov Island, and also feature a beach visit. (We hear there are some exquisite beaches). These overnight boats are air conditioned, and has full complements of facilities, we heard from other travellers.


This being winter, the whole area is enveloped in a slight mist, which makes the atmosphere quite mysterious. Looks a bit like chinese painting, really.

The boat cruises along very slowly, which is good - you can enjoy the scenery better.

Halong Bay is absolutely lovely. The misty weather meant we didn't get any of the sparkling water or crystal clear views, but it was very good nonetheless, and the mist created an atmosphere that was out of the world.