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Name: Josephine
Home: Segamat, Johore, Malaysia
About Me: One word... WEIRD!
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| Noise, Dust, and HANOI - Part I |
| Monday, May 05, 2008 |
Day 1 - Hanoi
Have you ever seen the sunrise from atop the clouds? The array of colours and burst of sunlight was just... breathtaking!
 Beautiful! And this is just a picture! The real thing was.. wow!
We reached Hanoi at about 10AM local time and hence, our 5-day journey began~! The first culture shock we got when we reached was the fact that Vietnamese drive on the right side of the road! Well, that culture shock didn't last long coz it was replaced at once by how they drive on the roads! In three simple words; DANGEROUS, RECKLESS, LAWLESS!
 From left: Magdalene, yours truly, Cathy, Jennifer, Qi Yun, Cindy Millions of motorcyclist in Hanoi itself! And seriously, nobody knew how to keep to their own lanes nor followed the traffic rules e.g. everyone still moves although the light is red so traffic would be coming from all four sides!
The next culture shock we got was how narrow and small yet tall their houses were.. We later got to know that it costs USD 40,000 per square foot in Hanoi and that's why people build their houses that way!
 Their stairways were narrow as well.. and windy too! BTW, notice that the motorcyclist is using a face mask? It's not only because of exhaust, but also because Hanoi is a really dusty (and dirty) place!
 It might be dangerous for Vietnamese to speak Viet when around Chinese people.. Can you see why? *Grins*
We checked in to Hanoi Guesthouse and were happily greeted by the manager Ms. Thien and another guy in charge, Ha. After asking them for a map of Hanoi, we walked blindly towards Ho Kiem lake where the famous water puppet theater was situated. From there, a really friendly Vietnamese woman told us where we could eat good food.. and she was right!
 Hanoi Guesthouse! Cathy found this place online! Three cheers for Cathy!!!
 Three people to one small room.. BTW, the toilet was so small, it was almost impossible to move around while showering! We literally had to stand straight while taking a bath!
 First place we went for food! Most of the food stalls in Hanoi are like that and that's considered pretty good! Most food stalls aren't stalls at all! Well, you'll see what I mean later..
 BBQ non-halal meat with Vietnam rice.. Yummy~!! They also had spring rolls.. Really good!
 Me enjoying my food~!!
After lunch, we went around to look for more food! Hey, new place means new food! Wasted no time there! Walking around blindly some more, we came across a couple of interesting sights which you would definately miss if you weren't on foot!
 The next food thing we tried.. Some kinda glutinous rice with lotus seed paste and meat or something like that.. Seriously, we were never really sure of what we were putting into our mouths! LOLS!
 Lo and behold! An ATM machine out of nowhere! Haha! BTW, we became instant millionaires in Vietnam.. That's how small their currency is! And any shops that sold anything above RM10 would have a security guard! Seriously, we even saw one in Gloria Jean's!!
 Some part of Hanoi.. Check out the electric/telephone wires! It's like that all around Hanoi city! And that one is considered okay and neat!
 Every row of shops specialise in one thing. For instance, if you wanna get cheap bras, then you go to the row of shops on your left.. If you wanna get cheap silk, you go to the row of shops on your right.. All the shops sell the same stuff but the stuff differs from one row to another..
When we were worn out from walking so much (plus our tiring 3 hour flight), we went back to the guesthouse to rest and recuperate before going out later in the evening for dinner and for our water puppet show! We then went to the night market and later headed back to our guesthouse to rest before our early departure to Ha Long bay early the next morning~!!
 Through thorough online research, Cindy found this stall! Yay, Cindy!
 Some organ thingy cooked mashed up and mixed with mushrooms..
 Eel glass noodles! Wonderful!!
 I truly enjoyed the eel soup! *Sluuurrp*
 Walking somemore, we found this stall selling fruits with coconut milk! What caught our eyes was the number of people eating there!
 You see, they use taller stools as tables, and shorter ones as chairs.. I didn't know this.. So I sat on a table until the guy comes and tells me that it was a table and not a chair.. LOLS!
 Inside the water puppet theater..
 Too bad we couldn't understand a thing coz they were speaking in Viet! (And to think they're suppose to cater to tourist)
 At the night market.. All of us were half dead by then LOLS!
And next, Day 2 of my Hanoi trip~!! "Stay tuned!!" *Grins*Labels: Travel |
posted by Josephine @ 7:52 pm  |
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| 4 Comments: |
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wahhhh
the pictures you took make vietnam looks like a haven of food
The mouth watering fruits in coconut milk is tempting!!
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lols we were lucky we found a few good ones.. most of them were yucky
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Walao!!! a totally new experience!!!
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wahhhh
the pictures you took make vietnam looks like a haven of food
The mouth watering fruits in coconut milk is tempting!!