Hanoi or Hanok?

 It seems like the locals pronounce Hanoi as 'Hanok'.

At times, we just stood around near the traffic light and watch the traffic and beautiful ladies riding motorcycles in their pretty/ sexy dresses& high heels while waiting for my cousins shopped their asses off.

Tips: This is the tips I’ve gotten from a couple of friends and family members that is not to spend the night at Halong Bay because it is not worth the money.

Excluding the flight tickets & Hotel accommodation, I have spent USD90 for:-

- Airport pickup from and to the airport

- Halong bay bus/ van transport, boat ride to Heaven Cave inclusive of seafood lunch on the boat (1Day) with a very competent tour guide- Ms Jong. She can speak very good English and Mandarin. She can even advise you on the local food.

- A City Tour to the Museum, a couple of temples, Temple of Literature, Hoan Kiem Lake c/w lunch (Our tour guide are a couple of kids with no tour guide experience at all). This time we actually skipped a couple of place i.e: the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum due to a million people waiting in line just to go in. couldn’t stand to wait in-line under the hot morning sun. I thought we were early enough leaving the hotel at 8am. I now think that we probably need to start queuing at 7am. We also skipped the Cultural Village.

Tips: If you plan to visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, turn up early to queue. 

Comment on our Asia Hanoi Hotel

Cousin U & I are considered lucky as we got the 3^rd Floor bedroom facing the street. I can still handle the honking noise. We watched ‘The Voice- Vietnam Version’ and were appalled by the level of singing that went through to the next round. The ceiling is very high. It is a little dusty and you can tell that the toilet has never been properly cleaned since the last occupants left. The door to our room and toilet also are a bit loose. The hotel is considered to be a run-down hotel. HF got the 1F bedroom where they have the creepy bathroom and ceiling with a few man holes opening. We were taken aback when the hotel insisted that we surrendered our passport to them in case of theft while walking the street. We let them have it for half a day and collected it back at night.

Halong Bay Trip

I was expecting our bus ride to Halong Bay to be a 3 hour journey.

It turns out that it took 3-4 hrs from Hanoi to Halong Bay with 20minutes halfway stop at a souvenir shop. We left our hotel at 8am and reached around 1pm.

It took 4-5hrs from Halong Bay to Hanoi with the same 20minutes halfway stop at the same souvenir shop.

This is probably because our bus is super slow. The bus is going at 60km per hour and less with no traffic. My butt was sored from sitting so long. We took off from Halong Bay around 4pm and reached Hanoi around 9pm! We were edgy and hungry. Not a good combination. People were about to blow their tops from hunger and frustration of finding and deciding on a good dining place. 

Anyway, to be so near to these natural wonders the view of Halong Bay is breath taking. We paid another USD5 each person for a row boat that fit 6 people. The rower just took us through the opening of one bay and that was it. He then turned the boat around and went to the other bay. This is not really worth it. You do have a choice of kayaking and you can go and leave whenever you want. The water is filled with jelly fish. Urgh..~ Scary.. The bay was once where one of the James Bond movies was filmed. I cannot recall which though.

We had our seafood lunch on the boat. The USD90 package is including the seafood lunch but exclude drinks. They even sell pearl on the boat.

After lunch, we went to the Heaven Cave. I thought we were going to climb far up just to get to the entrance of the cave. I was already having trouble catching my breath. But just around the corner, I saw the entrance and out came a sigh of relief. The cave was beautifully decorated with colorful lights. It was mid July, the interior of the cave is naturally ventilated but we were all still sweating bullets.

I was already expecting the weather to be hot and humid. So, I was lucky that I took an umbrella with me. We had to wait on the docks to board our boat with hundreds of other people. There were people standing around with large umbrellas for the visitors.