I know I’m behind on my blogging so these will be mostly “photo blogs” and I’ve captioned all the pics. I’ll still try to write a little summary 😀

Today we had breakfast in the hotel dining room before being picked up by our tour guide and driver to head out of Hanoi to Hoa Lu, which is the ancient captial of Vietnam during the 10th century. Hoa Lu is also known as “Ha Long Bay on land” due to it’s beautiful rock formations.

We first visited the Dinh and Le Dynastic Temples which are not the orignals from the 10th century but I think our tour guide mentioned they were rebuilt in the 15th century, following the same style as the originals. The first temple was for the king and the second temple was for his younger brother.

We then drove to Van Lam Village to have lunch at the local hotel. Lunch was less than $10 per person inclusive of the drinks. The restaurant was clean and had clean bathrooms (always important). It was a short walk down the street to the water and boarded a sampan to cruise around the water and into the Tam Coc Caves.

It’s really peaceful out their and our boat crew of 2 people were very nice. They said they were husband and wife and tried to speak to us in broken English. They pointed out things to us like the goats, birds, statues, and temples. They even took pictures for us! But in the end, of course they try to sell you things before leaving. They showed us pictures of their family doing embroidery and so we ended up buying some items to give as gifts. But overall, it was a nice 2 hour cruise then we headed back to Hanoi.

We had trouble finding a place for dinner but we ended up at this nice restaurant called Wild Rice and had a prix fixe menu for $20 per person, not inclusive of drinks. The restaurant was pretty fancy looking and actually reminded me of SF homes with all the crown moulding and coordinating paints. The food was pretty good, I think the garlic peanut prawns were the best.

Sufficiently stuffed we headed to the night market which runs on Fridays and weekends from 7pm onward. Mostly stalls of silk purses, some clothes, and some food. It was all pretty cheap but we didn’t buy anything. We were all pretty tired so headed back to the hotel to rest up before heading to Ha Long Bay in the morning.

It’s been very interesting for me to see that Cambodia and Vietnam so readily accept US Dollars as their currency, it seems like they prefer it over their own currency.

So here are the pictures, to see the album online, click HERE!

Today was the start of our trip to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. We relaxed and slept in today since our flight was not until 4pm. Plus Ron needed to recuperate from lack of sleep during exams. We ordered in McD for lunch because we were too lazy to go out. We had a taxi van take us to the airport which we found out was a bit more expensive than taking 2 taxis, at least for a flight at this time in the afternoon. The taxi van holds 7 passengers and it cost 42SGD while a taxi holds up to 4 passengers and it costs about 16-20SGD depending on traffic.

We took Tiger Airways for the first time and it’s in the “Budget Terminal” at Changi Airport. At SFO there are so-called budget airlines but they don’t have a separate terminal, they are just usually farther away from the main entrance and exits. Tiger Airways is actually in a separate “Budget Terminal” complete with purple sign touting “BUDGET TERMINAL” and yellow painted walls. Inside was warehouse like and Tiger was the only airline. But after the check-in counters, the terminal is like any other airport terminal fit with shops and eateries.

Of note, I think all public bathrooms should have these:

Boarding our flight:

The flight was about 3 hours and the time in Vietnam is 1 hour behind Singapore. We arrived a bit late because we were delayed at Changi for about 20-30 minutes so it was around 7:30pm. We had booked a tour sometime last week so the tour guide Handetour was coming to pick us up at the airport.

We had an hour ride into Hanoi and they just dropped us off at the hotel, Chains First Eden Hotel. Our tour wouldn’t officially start until the next morning but the guide advised us to walk a few blocks down the street to the “old quarter” and around the lake to find a place for dinner.

We got settled into our rooms then decided to venture out to find dinner. It was a bit crazy because you’re trying to cross the street but there is a swarm of motorbikes coming your way and they don’t really stop, they just swerve to avoid you. You’re risking your life to cross the street… but surprisingly no one seems to get hit as the bikers have pretty quick reflexes.

We ended up having dinner at a place above the Visitor’s Center near the lake. The restaurant was called “Bunta: Everything is Bun”. “Bun” meaning noodles! We had a fantastic dinner, except maybe the portions were small but I filled up at the end with a three color drink dessert, one of my favorite things to get at a Vietnamese restaurant.

The menu:

Bia Ha Noi (Bia = Beer):

Spring rolls with pork:

Spring rolls with pork and shrimp:

Yummy dipping sauces, one ginger-like and the other peanuts:

Bun Bo (spicy beef noodle soup):

Additives for my soup (the green curly things are “morning glory” and the yellow strips are “banana flowers”):

Ron’s dinner of Bun Thit Nuong (grilled and shredded pork dry noodles):

Three color (actually four…) drink, from bottom to top: yellow bean, green and red gelatin with water chestnuts inside then topped with coconut milk and ice.

We had a pretty satisfying meal for less than 10USD per person.

We took a walk partially around the lake and then hailed a cab home. The cabs here fit 7 people. It was a nice car actually and the cab driver was funny, I don’t think he really understood us well so we’d ask him a question and he’d turn up the stereo. We were blasting “Missing” by EBTG until we got to the hotel. It was 58,000VND (less than 4USD, the conversion is 16,000VND to 1USD).

We had breakfast at the hotel included for the morning and our driver with tour guide was picking us up at 8am, so we headed straight for bed.

Just some other travel notes if you’re interested in travelling to Vietnam:
Our flight cost 380SGD RT per pax from SIN to HAN.
The visa took about a week to get and cost 70SGD per pax (we had to go to embassy, they don’t have e-visa applications yet).
The whole tour was 173USD per pax (not inclusive for all meals but did include all accomodations, transportation, and tour guide) and you’ll see in the next few posts what we did on our tour.
Dinners cost approx 10-15USD per pax depending on what beverage you had.
They expect tips! but you don’t need to give much, a few USD is enough. Be nice but don’t be conned.

For slideshow including a few other pictures, click here or see below.

It rained a bit this morning, kind of yucky. I went to down to the pool to see if there was Aqua-Gym because I needed to work off all that Mexican food from last night but I didn’t see anyone there. I found out later there was a class so unfortunately I missed out. I’m going to miss out on Aqua-Gym in the mornings once I start work… I think last Weds was my last class for a while since I can’t go the rest of this week either.

It was just as well that I missed it, I decided to do some reading to refresh my memory for work. I’m completing the CE credits from a pharmacotherapy course I took last year. I need the credits for renewing my California license too so it has double benefit.

At lunchtime, I went with Emilie and Gladys to have lunch and also to “help” sell tickets for the upcoming Monsoon Ball on Nov 2nd. Gladys had been put in charge of selling tickets this week while the students were taking finals and we were recruited to help. Although we didn’t do much except collect & count the money and help to update the spreadsheet when people paid. Apparently INSEAD has 2 dinner/dance parties each year, one in winter and one in summer. The tickets for this party states it is at Sentosa Resort & Spa so I think it’s this one. A dinner & dance ticket is $150 per person (or “pax” as they say here) or $100 for dance only. It sounds pretty expensive but I heard it’s going to be a good party and everyone is going so we are too.

Afterwards we lounged around at the bar/cafe to have coffee and chat about our weekends before I headed home again to study more.

We had Mandarin class again tonight and we learned how to tell people what our nationality was and did review from the last 2 classes. There is 1 more class left of this session then I’m going to move on to take a more advanced class at the Singapore Chinese Chamber Institute of Business (SCCIOB). It won’t be as fun without the other Partners but hopefully with a more frequent class (2x/week) that I’ll learn faster.

A few pictures so share of my evening snack. Have you had dragon fruit? It’s a bit intimidating at first glance but quite easy to just cut into slices and peel off the skin. It tastes sort of like a kiwi.

I also love this winter dates. They sort of taste like an apple but not quite because the flesh is quite airy and not that juicy. But it’s really crunchy which I like. I’m so used to dates being dried that fresh ones are a nice change.

We also had mango and grapes. Yum Yum.

Ron sent me this funny link so I thought I’d share it if you need a disguise? Click here.
Might be good for Halloween!