vietnam log
Day 3:
-travel to the pier
-get on the boat
-chillaxing along ha long bay
-kayak
-jump from boat
day 3 was an exciting day. The bus ride to the pier was quite long though, about 4 hours on the bumpy, noisy and dusty road. With so many bumps on the road, we didn't know which were actual purposeful humps or which were just bumps from uneven roads. We got onto our cruise boat (which could quite comfortably fit our group of 6 and about 6 others). We met quite a few other tourists. There was this ABJ, who was really friendly, and she told us about the cha ca (grilled fish) and she told us that she would see chocopies being offered in temples! Haha, so we gave her one to try. We also met some South Americans and a few Europeans.
For lunch, we had crabs, prawns and wingyee's favourite : seabass.
We navigated through ha long bag to the kayaking area. I think we reached the kayaking place a bit too late, so the tide was receding. Then the water was getting shallower and shallower. There was this really shallow place that we all had to go through. Every boat got grounded. We were able to just use our paddles to push ourselves and the kayak off the rocks. But I think twin's and neighbour's boat was stuck quite badly, so neighbour went down to push it. When they got through, the guide said, it was too shallow, can't go through that route anymore. We had to take another route. So we headed out again. Then at another place, twin and neighbour got stuck again. This time it was in a place where one side was shallow, the other side was deep. they were quite firmly stuck, so melo got down to push the boat, but then her slipper came off, and I think she slipped, and she also cut her feet =/ she ended up in the water. Some Vietnamese fisherman came to save her and she got back onto the kayak. I think no one knew how to help, so all the angmohs and ourselves were laughing >.< we carried on our expedition around a safe, confirm-can-go-through hole in the rocks (unlike the previous 2), formed up a 4 boat raft =))) we just stayed there for a while, look at the landscape of the huge rocks in the nice green water, then headed back to the boat.
We slacked around and bandaged melo's feet up until we reached the rest point for the boat. And then it was time to jump! twin couldn't jump because of her injury =((((( and I wouldn't want it to get infected with the disgusting tourist polluted water either. the water looked quite clean (can't see through), but it was a nice green, and at where we were, we didn't see any obvious floating pieces of trash. so mike jumped, then ray, then yukit, then mike, then wing, then yk and me together. haha I only jumped once. we all jumped from the 3rd deck of the boat, it was about 3metres high [?]. neighbour kept telling me to 'remember to close your nose super tight!' so I did.
I took a deep breath, held my breath, pinched my nose and jumped. I closed my eyes as well, so I wasn't sure when I was going to hit the water. It was longer than I expected it to. haha. When I entered the water, I still held my nose super tightly, but I realised I forgot to close my mouth (as tightly) -.- so I had a whole mouthful of ha long bay. The taste was really bad, I kept coughing and coughing, cos I think some got into my asthmatic lungs and there was this weird sore-throat-ish feeling at the bad of my throat.
after that we cleaned up, had another fantastic dinner and talked on the top deck. we were hoping to have a clear view of the stars, but then it was spring and it was too cloudy, so all we could see was occasional glimpses of the moon. oh, regarding the cloudy weather, for the next 3 days we were not able to view the sunrise or sunset because there were just too many clouds =( but at least we could experience the brightening and darkening of the sky =)
there was also this mist in the bay because of spring, it gave this mysterious foggy, Chinese-painting feeling. it was very scenic and slightly haunting at the same time. And then every now and then, there would be a bird or two flying across the sky, just adding the final touch to the perfect Chinese painting picture.
Day 4:
-reach our private island
-took many photos
-played volleyball (fail)
-dinner + drinks
we headed the direction of our private island. But to get there we had to transfer to a smaller boat and go to the open sea. The ride was longer than usual, thank goodness most of us were not easily nauseated. We reached our island! There was no one else there but us for about 6-7 hours, before a group of Americans came. So within those 6 hours, we took many many photos, jumpshots and drew on the beach. Mike and ray were kicking the volleyball around and a dog decided to join and play with them. Haha, unfortunately, it seemed like the doggie didn't like ray very much, it ran into his legs as ray got the ball and made him tumble. I think the poor doggie got injured, it didn't want to play anymore after that. Oh well. We played a bit of volleyball, but we were all terrible at it. Walked around the beach a bit and took a bit more photos and it was time for dinner!
A lot of time was just spent doing nothing and enjoy the feeling of chillaxing =)
before dinner, we all ordered drinks since it was happy hour. Haha, most of us had a Royal (baileys, kahlua, contreau and fresh milk). Later on we had a gin sling too :D hahaha. K, typing this makes me feel happy already. Anyway, during dinner, we realised that the earnest looking dog (with the floppy ears) was actually the greediest and mean dog. Steal food from the other doggies.
After all the food, I think I helped everyone finish their gin slings, because it was too potent for them to take. Neighbour felt like she was floating and ray was really red!
At night, we played our favourite old maid, Indian poker and snap dragon card games.
Day 5:
-travel back to Hanoi
-admire the geography of ha long bay
-had dinner at the best pho place
-cha ca ....
-shop
when I got up, I couldn't find one side of my slippers!! I found it all the way under melo's bed!!! I thought' hmmmm okay... this is odd.' then on the floor I saw shreds of plastic bags! Scary hur! There were holes in my backpack and my sling bag!!!! =(((( the rats bit through them!!! =( and the holes were really big. it's like 3 cm in diameter, sigh. ah well, twin had this hypothesis that my sling bag looked like a potato sack, and it absorbs a lot of things or smelled really nice to the rat =( oh well =( at least it was an excuse to get a new bag later back in Hanoi!
We got back on the small boat to brave all the waves of the open sea again (another 2 hours). This time, the waves were even bigger! And the wind was stronger! Just up and down and up and down! hahaha fun! It was really pretty to admire the rocks and cliffs again. This time you could see natural processes occurring before your very eyes! It’s really amazing. You see the waves carving out the rock, making caves over millions of years. And then you can see it form an arch! And then it collapses! And then it forms a stack, and with weathering and erosion, it forms a stump! Its geography come alive! The types of rock and the rock patterns are really pretty too. Makes me feel like getting a better camera so that I can take nicer photos of all the scenery I see during holidays. being on the boat, looking at the rocks, hearing the waves, I think it's all very therapeutic, makes me feel very zen =) I also saw and heard a blowhole! It’s a really tiny one though. I didn't manage to see the famous kiama blowhole when we were in Australia last year, so this time it was quite a surprise to come across a mini one along ha long bay.
We got back onto the big ship and headed back to shore. In the meanwhile, we played games again.
We got back to Hanoi city. We initially wanted to watch the water puppets show, but the tickets were sold out, so we just went shopping, I got a new bag! it's a backpack, to replace my rat-bitten orange ncc backpack that I had since 2001 (it still looked like it was in good condition though =( ). that bag had a lot of sentimental value, it has been on so many overseas trips, trainings camps and other camps and stayovers. oh well =(((( I guess 9 years is quite long for a bag to last. I didn't get a bag to replace my sling bag though. GAHHH okay, no regrets in not buying more stuff >.< =( .
Mike bought a helmet, wing and I bought some caps, and other small knickknacks. We had the famous pho for dinner! It was a street side stall. which looked like it didn't have much hygiene... the beef was just hanging there ahahhaha, if you look at the photos, it'll look quite gross.. We started making a lot of puns with 'pho'. like "let's take a pho-to", "like each pho (pronounced fur), first". This punning complemented all the puns about ray's hair,'hair ray-sing experience' etc.
Then we went to the cha ca place. Cha ca is this pan of deep fried fish which is still frying over a charcoal stove. In the pan, the fish was fried in 2cm depth of oil, which was yellow! Quite scary. Then we just added in all the veges and fry fry fry. We ate it with thick beehoon. It was okay.... just really quite oily, it became disgusting in a while. I felt terribly grossed by it, you know the I-feel-so-fat-and-unhealthy kind of feeling.
We walked on and did a bit of shopping. Had ice cream again. And oh yes! Ray almost stepped on a little kitten. It was TINY! Like the size of a hand! It was so small. Thankfully melody commanded ray to stop and helped to save a little cat.
Day 6:
-spontaneous shopping
-green tangerine French lunch
-water puppets
-a bit more spontaneous shopping
-off to the airport
-trying to pay the last 2000 dong for our dinner.
We went shopping (again), but I didn't buy much. Just bought a few little coin pouches for some friends. oh man, now I wish I bought another bag to replace my bitten sling bag =(. okokok no regrets. we had lunch at this recommended French restaurant called green tangerine, the place was very nicely decorated, the music and even the smell of the place was very nice. there was a main and dessert, costed about s$13, which is quite costly in Vietnamese standards (1 bowl of pho is S$1.20 around there)
We went to a supermarket to buy coffee. neighbour bought SO MUCH!!! it's quite scary. haha. and then I didn't have enough dong to pay for her, so she asked it to be converted to USD (in Vietnam, USD is accepted, the standard conversion is 1 usd : 19000 dong). Neighbour got cheated!!!!! The supermarket standard conversion was 1usd : 16000 dong. And she bought like 350,000 dong worth of coffee!!! Of all places to get cheated -.- at a supermarket.
We watched the water puppets show. It was quite interesting at the start. But I think the music made it really sleep inducing, there was a point of time I was almost nodding off to sleep. I looked around and I saw 4 of us closing their eyes and with their heads down. Haha. Ray was an unfortunate victim of an accident. Someone 2 steps above in the theatre spilled coffee and it flowed down 2 levels and it was stopped by ray's bag unintentionally. It gave him an excuse to buy another bag too! It was quite nice though. Among the 6 of us, we bought 7 bags in total!!
Oh, before the show started there was a group of Caucasian ladies who came to adopt children. Gosh. I didn't realize that they went to Vietnam just to adopt children. The babies were quite small. Like 1 month plus. And they kept crying and crying. Makes me wonder what kind of life they will lead and the gradual psychological trauma when they know that they are adopted and they live in a country where everyone is a different colour and knows that they are adopted by their parents. But I guess overall, they will have their basics needs of food, water, housing all secured.
It was already the end of our trip and I managed to use up almost all of the dong. At dinner, our bill was 181,000 dong, on us, we only had 179,000 dong. Just 2,000 short of using all our dong!!! >.< 2,000 is like 15 cents sing. We kind of got desperate and tried to rip out the money (500Dong) from the laminated card that the perfume pagoda pple gave us. Mike successfully peeled off the lamination of the 500 dong souvenir. Though we managed to rip out one, we needed 3 more. But in the end we just gave a US$1 instead, because it looked like we were giving them fake money (it was real though).and we were afraid of getting bashed up. Haha.
Ok, I think that was the end of our trip. I realised throughout the trip, we didn't take a single taxi ride! I think I’ll miss the traffic there. And of course ha long bay. And all the pho and the cost of food and stuff there. Travelling really opens one's perspective. Please go to Vietnam before it loses its charm through development and go to ha long bay before it gets polluted and adulterated by tourism! Overall, it was a very good holiday, I feel extremely refreshed and zen now =)
-travel to the pier
-get on the boat
-chillaxing along ha long bay
-kayak
-jump from boat
day 3 was an exciting day. The bus ride to the pier was quite long though, about 4 hours on the bumpy, noisy and dusty road. With so many bumps on the road, we didn't know which were actual purposeful humps or which were just bumps from uneven roads. We got onto our cruise boat (which could quite comfortably fit our group of 6 and about 6 others). We met quite a few other tourists. There was this ABJ, who was really friendly, and she told us about the cha ca (grilled fish) and she told us that she would see chocopies being offered in temples! Haha, so we gave her one to try. We also met some South Americans and a few Europeans.
For lunch, we had crabs, prawns and wingyee's favourite : seabass.
We navigated through ha long bag to the kayaking area. I think we reached the kayaking place a bit too late, so the tide was receding. Then the water was getting shallower and shallower. There was this really shallow place that we all had to go through. Every boat got grounded. We were able to just use our paddles to push ourselves and the kayak off the rocks. But I think twin's and neighbour's boat was stuck quite badly, so neighbour went down to push it. When they got through, the guide said, it was too shallow, can't go through that route anymore. We had to take another route. So we headed out again. Then at another place, twin and neighbour got stuck again. This time it was in a place where one side was shallow, the other side was deep. they were quite firmly stuck, so melo got down to push the boat, but then her slipper came off, and I think she slipped, and she also cut her feet =/ she ended up in the water. Some Vietnamese fisherman came to save her and she got back onto the kayak. I think no one knew how to help, so all the angmohs and ourselves were laughing >.< we carried on our expedition around a safe, confirm-can-go-through hole in the rocks (unlike the previous 2), formed up a 4 boat raft =))) we just stayed there for a while, look at the landscape of the huge rocks in the nice green water, then headed back to the boat.
We slacked around and bandaged melo's feet up until we reached the rest point for the boat. And then it was time to jump! twin couldn't jump because of her injury =((((( and I wouldn't want it to get infected with the disgusting tourist polluted water either. the water looked quite clean (can't see through), but it was a nice green, and at where we were, we didn't see any obvious floating pieces of trash. so mike jumped, then ray, then yukit, then mike, then wing, then yk and me together. haha I only jumped once. we all jumped from the 3rd deck of the boat, it was about 3metres high [?]. neighbour kept telling me to 'remember to close your nose super tight!' so I did.
I took a deep breath, held my breath, pinched my nose and jumped. I closed my eyes as well, so I wasn't sure when I was going to hit the water. It was longer than I expected it to. haha. When I entered the water, I still held my nose super tightly, but I realised I forgot to close my mouth (as tightly) -.- so I had a whole mouthful of ha long bay. The taste was really bad, I kept coughing and coughing, cos I think some got into my asthmatic lungs and there was this weird sore-throat-ish feeling at the bad of my throat.
after that we cleaned up, had another fantastic dinner and talked on the top deck. we were hoping to have a clear view of the stars, but then it was spring and it was too cloudy, so all we could see was occasional glimpses of the moon. oh, regarding the cloudy weather, for the next 3 days we were not able to view the sunrise or sunset because there were just too many clouds =( but at least we could experience the brightening and darkening of the sky =)
there was also this mist in the bay because of spring, it gave this mysterious foggy, Chinese-painting feeling. it was very scenic and slightly haunting at the same time. And then every now and then, there would be a bird or two flying across the sky, just adding the final touch to the perfect Chinese painting picture.
Day 4:
-reach our private island
-took many photos
-played volleyball (fail)
-dinner + drinks
we headed the direction of our private island. But to get there we had to transfer to a smaller boat and go to the open sea. The ride was longer than usual, thank goodness most of us were not easily nauseated. We reached our island! There was no one else there but us for about 6-7 hours, before a group of Americans came. So within those 6 hours, we took many many photos, jumpshots and drew on the beach. Mike and ray were kicking the volleyball around and a dog decided to join and play with them. Haha, unfortunately, it seemed like the doggie didn't like ray very much, it ran into his legs as ray got the ball and made him tumble. I think the poor doggie got injured, it didn't want to play anymore after that. Oh well. We played a bit of volleyball, but we were all terrible at it. Walked around the beach a bit and took a bit more photos and it was time for dinner!
A lot of time was just spent doing nothing and enjoy the feeling of chillaxing =)
before dinner, we all ordered drinks since it was happy hour. Haha, most of us had a Royal (baileys, kahlua, contreau and fresh milk). Later on we had a gin sling too :D hahaha. K, typing this makes me feel happy already. Anyway, during dinner, we realised that the earnest looking dog (with the floppy ears) was actually the greediest and mean dog. Steal food from the other doggies.
After all the food, I think I helped everyone finish their gin slings, because it was too potent for them to take. Neighbour felt like she was floating and ray was really red!
At night, we played our favourite old maid, Indian poker and snap dragon card games.
Day 5:
-travel back to Hanoi
-admire the geography of ha long bay
-had dinner at the best pho place
-cha ca ....
-shop
when I got up, I couldn't find one side of my slippers!! I found it all the way under melo's bed!!! I thought' hmmmm okay... this is odd.' then on the floor I saw shreds of plastic bags! Scary hur! There were holes in my backpack and my sling bag!!!! =(((( the rats bit through them!!! =( and the holes were really big. it's like 3 cm in diameter, sigh. ah well, twin had this hypothesis that my sling bag looked like a potato sack, and it absorbs a lot of things or smelled really nice to the rat =( oh well =( at least it was an excuse to get a new bag later back in Hanoi!
We got back on the small boat to brave all the waves of the open sea again (another 2 hours). This time, the waves were even bigger! And the wind was stronger! Just up and down and up and down! hahaha fun! It was really pretty to admire the rocks and cliffs again. This time you could see natural processes occurring before your very eyes! It’s really amazing. You see the waves carving out the rock, making caves over millions of years. And then you can see it form an arch! And then it collapses! And then it forms a stack, and with weathering and erosion, it forms a stump! Its geography come alive! The types of rock and the rock patterns are really pretty too. Makes me feel like getting a better camera so that I can take nicer photos of all the scenery I see during holidays. being on the boat, looking at the rocks, hearing the waves, I think it's all very therapeutic, makes me feel very zen =) I also saw and heard a blowhole! It’s a really tiny one though. I didn't manage to see the famous kiama blowhole when we were in Australia last year, so this time it was quite a surprise to come across a mini one along ha long bay.
We got back onto the big ship and headed back to shore. In the meanwhile, we played games again.
We got back to Hanoi city. We initially wanted to watch the water puppets show, but the tickets were sold out, so we just went shopping, I got a new bag! it's a backpack, to replace my rat-bitten orange ncc backpack that I had since 2001 (it still looked like it was in good condition though =( ). that bag had a lot of sentimental value, it has been on so many overseas trips, trainings camps and other camps and stayovers. oh well =(((( I guess 9 years is quite long for a bag to last. I didn't get a bag to replace my sling bag though. GAHHH okay, no regrets in not buying more stuff >.< =( .
Mike bought a helmet, wing and I bought some caps, and other small knickknacks. We had the famous pho for dinner! It was a street side stall. which looked like it didn't have much hygiene... the beef was just hanging there ahahhaha, if you look at the photos, it'll look quite gross.. We started making a lot of puns with 'pho'. like "let's take a pho-to", "like each pho (pronounced fur), first". This punning complemented all the puns about ray's hair,'hair ray-sing experience' etc.
Then we went to the cha ca place. Cha ca is this pan of deep fried fish which is still frying over a charcoal stove. In the pan, the fish was fried in 2cm depth of oil, which was yellow! Quite scary. Then we just added in all the veges and fry fry fry. We ate it with thick beehoon. It was okay.... just really quite oily, it became disgusting in a while. I felt terribly grossed by it, you know the I-feel-so-fat-and-unhealthy kind of feeling.
We walked on and did a bit of shopping. Had ice cream again. And oh yes! Ray almost stepped on a little kitten. It was TINY! Like the size of a hand! It was so small. Thankfully melody commanded ray to stop and helped to save a little cat.
Day 6:
-spontaneous shopping
-green tangerine French lunch
-water puppets
-a bit more spontaneous shopping
-off to the airport
-trying to pay the last 2000 dong for our dinner.
We went shopping (again), but I didn't buy much. Just bought a few little coin pouches for some friends. oh man, now I wish I bought another bag to replace my bitten sling bag =(. okokok no regrets. we had lunch at this recommended French restaurant called green tangerine, the place was very nicely decorated, the music and even the smell of the place was very nice. there was a main and dessert, costed about s$13, which is quite costly in Vietnamese standards (1 bowl of pho is S$1.20 around there)
We went to a supermarket to buy coffee. neighbour bought SO MUCH!!! it's quite scary. haha. and then I didn't have enough dong to pay for her, so she asked it to be converted to USD (in Vietnam, USD is accepted, the standard conversion is 1 usd : 19000 dong). Neighbour got cheated!!!!! The supermarket standard conversion was 1usd : 16000 dong. And she bought like 350,000 dong worth of coffee!!! Of all places to get cheated -.- at a supermarket.
We watched the water puppets show. It was quite interesting at the start. But I think the music made it really sleep inducing, there was a point of time I was almost nodding off to sleep. I looked around and I saw 4 of us closing their eyes and with their heads down. Haha. Ray was an unfortunate victim of an accident. Someone 2 steps above in the theatre spilled coffee and it flowed down 2 levels and it was stopped by ray's bag unintentionally. It gave him an excuse to buy another bag too! It was quite nice though. Among the 6 of us, we bought 7 bags in total!!
Oh, before the show started there was a group of Caucasian ladies who came to adopt children. Gosh. I didn't realize that they went to Vietnam just to adopt children. The babies were quite small. Like 1 month plus. And they kept crying and crying. Makes me wonder what kind of life they will lead and the gradual psychological trauma when they know that they are adopted and they live in a country where everyone is a different colour and knows that they are adopted by their parents. But I guess overall, they will have their basics needs of food, water, housing all secured.
It was already the end of our trip and I managed to use up almost all of the dong. At dinner, our bill was 181,000 dong, on us, we only had 179,000 dong. Just 2,000 short of using all our dong!!! >.< 2,000 is like 15 cents sing. We kind of got desperate and tried to rip out the money (500Dong) from the laminated card that the perfume pagoda pple gave us. Mike successfully peeled off the lamination of the 500 dong souvenir. Though we managed to rip out one, we needed 3 more. But in the end we just gave a US$1 instead, because it looked like we were giving them fake money (it was real though).and we were afraid of getting bashed up. Haha.
Ok, I think that was the end of our trip. I realised throughout the trip, we didn't take a single taxi ride! I think I’ll miss the traffic there. And of course ha long bay. And all the pho and the cost of food and stuff there. Travelling really opens one's perspective. Please go to Vietnam before it loses its charm through development and go to ha long bay before it gets polluted and adulterated by tourism! Overall, it was a very good holiday, I feel extremely refreshed and zen now =)