woke up at 6am to a bright and cheery morning. too much beer last night, so no sunrise for us lol. everyone else was still asleep so I decided to go up to the deck to get some fresh air. It was great just enjoying the scenery on the deck, and imagining that I really belonged to Halong Bay haha. Tam had woken up too so he came up to join me. had a nice long chat exchanging bits and pieces of our lives.
indeed, life is tough all around. though he’s a university grad, it’s tough for him as he’s always away from home. it's also hard for him to find his other half, a girl who would be willing to travel with him or wait for him. but i told him not to worry cos he’s very interesting and he’s bound to find a life partner soon haha.
this was my favourite photo of the whole trip! hehe nice ya!
American breakfast was up next, though we were a bit disappointed. but their butter was good lol. we needed the energy for our next activity – kayaking!
there were only 6 kayaks so we had to take turns. had wanted to swim in the sea before our turn, but we changed our minds when we saw a huge jelly fish floating around our boat..it the size of 2 huge soccer balls!
us and our cosy room! I look like charcoal next to van haha.
CGP – communist girls party.
hehehe..
the last time i kayaked was during OBS!!! haha despite it being short-lived, and the fact that none of our life vests were in proper working condition, it was great fun! especially in a beautiful place like Halong Bay, priceless :)
then we took a slow sail back to mainland Hanoi, and of cos more camwhoring after taking a shower!
the food was good, especially the fish. tho i dunno what's up with fries in vietnam. i thought they're american? lol.
nothing can beat an ice cream in this crazy hot weather.
and cold cucumbers lol...
and snake wines!!!!
something i wasn't expecting to see - kids playing hand-held games.
we were a bit apprehensive when we got back to Blue Paradise hotel. after all, they didn't have enough rooms for us the first night. but boy we were in for a surprise....
since 4 of us girls were staying together, we got the largest room in the hotel, a suite. this time, our beds were even bigger, there was a computer, a couch, a big bathtub... the room looked FANTASTIC!! and they call this budget haha.
next, dinner time! hehe.
found a few small coffeeshops, the first one sold snails too lol. but there wasn't enough space in the first one, so the 4 of us followed Jude next door for pho. though i was looking forward to eat snails, this was better!
for only 20000D (S$1.70) this was the best pho i tasted during my trip in vietnam haha. and what is dinner without some Bia Hanoi!
i thought our coffeeshop was dirty. but look at this.
we noticed that all over in vietnam, the locals enjoy sitting on stools eating by the roadsides. it doesn't matter if the food is unhygenic, or the stool is short and uncomfortable, they enjoy it!
and it also doesn't matter if the food falls on the ground, or they chop their veges using the road as chopping boards. everything's edible lol.
and then we found our coffe stall! vietnam is very famous for its coffee, especially weasel coffee which is supposedly only found in indonesia and viet. it's a rare type of coffeebean which is eaten by the weasel, and passed out in its shit, the whole bean of cos.
so essentially, it's weasel shit beans.
coffee sampling was free, so you could order any coffee drink (cold, hot, freeze etc..) - unlimited and for free! but take note that if we don't buy anything, we have to pay for the drinks.
after a lot of coffee tasting, we were intoxicated enough lol.
we decided to buy the best grade weasel coffee (grade 8) at S$15 for 250 grams, definitely pricey, as you can see Jude was already digging his wallet lol. but it was very worth it! there's zero sourness in this coffee and super fragrant. my grandpa loves it haha.
oh and the beans are also weighed, grounded and packaged in right front of you, very fresh indeed.
and now time for some finger lickin' good!!
but of cos we were too full to eat anything, so we just went in this 4 storey KFC building to have a rest lol. this was their grand lucky draw prize - a shiny scooter!
i was amazed by the grandeur of the KFC in vietnam. all of them were well-furnished, multi-storeyed, cheaper and prettier than Singapore's haha. one interesting thing is that there is no McDonalds in vietnam, not a single one! some say this is due to Mcdonalds unable to find a partner in vietnam, and some say it's cos KFC is already dominating the fastfood industry. and in fact, vietnamese don't really go for fastfood anyway haha.
it was getting late, but we decided to take a stroll around the largest lake in Hanoi - Hoan Kiem Lake aka Lake of the Returned Sword. legend has it that when vietnam was fighting against the chinese, the emperor was losing and one day he saw a giant tortoise emerged from the lake with a magic sword. using the sword he defeated the chinese, but during his victory parade, the tortoise emerged again to take the sword back from him, and swam back to the lake again lol. after that, he built a temple on the lake for this tortoise.
ok enough stories for now..back to the hotel!
and look at what we found haha.
i just couldn't believe that these kids were allowed to roam around the deserted streets at 11pm at night. haha they were playful and naughty, very cute and friendly too! the hotel staff detested them though lol.
time to turn in for a good night's rest! :)
