Anyways, with so much going on in the busy Hanoi, it made a 5 days stay seems more like 5 months.

25th January 2008
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Continuation from:
From The Airport

Despite our room at the budget hotel being super small, we were fine with it coz it was clean, cozy and the young owner of the guesthouse proved to be the perfect host.

We dropped off our bags and we went on our way to find the Halong Bay tour agency. We had pre-booked our tour packages at Tropical Sails. They offered to come over to our guesthouse but we declined. It was drizzling and cold but there was nothing that could stop us. Besides, we couldn’t wait to explore the town on our own.

It was already noon. We were feeling hyper, excited and very very heroic.*kami boleh! We didn’t have a real road map but we figured that maneuvering around this small town would not be that difficult. Afterall, we had the one page map from Lonely Planet. There’s no way we could get lost.



Tube houses

The first thing we noticed are the vintage-like buildings spread all over Old Quarter. I can’t begin to describe how charming and graceful this old town is.

These ‘tube houses‘ with typical measurements of 3 meters wide by 60 meters long have at least 3 stories in all. They are long and narrow because residence or storekeepers were taxed according to the width of their storefront, storage and living space. My guess is, one story would be as big as your medium size living room. So, you can go higher but not wider. *no wonder i don’t see any fat people in Hanoi ler…

Cable works

Then there was the… uhm… cables dangling dangerously at every street of the old town. Nice piece of work huh? Locals don’t seem to notice it. I’ve seen a shopkeeper hooking advertising boards on the cables right above his head. So, i guess we shouldn’t have kept pointing and taking photos of it.

Motorcycles are very popular there

Walking around Old Quarters could be really stressful… at first anyways. There were vehicles, cyclos and motorcycles especially, coming from everywhere! *SOS invasion of the motorcycles! There are no traffic lights. On the narrow streets where i could see a ‘No Car Allowed’ sign, there were vehicles honking furiously at pedestrians and other drivers.

On a less busy street

It turned out that everyday is a busy day in the streets of Hanoi. We could hear honking of cars from as early as the sunrise till the wee hours pass midnight.

Charming isn’t it

At first, we were a little… uhm… alot actually, disoriented. Wherever we go drivers were honking at us, even though he/she was still few feet away. It was pretty unnerving. We keep bumping into locals on the crowded streets while watching out for passing vehicles that seems to come out from nowhere. Each time we hear a honk it made us jump *that’s us jumping every second or so!

After a while it gets easier. The secret is to ignore the coming vehicles and other pedestrians. Ignore the many cyclo drivers, taxi drivers and for hire motorcyclist hard selling their service along the streets. Tune out the honking and walk. Vehicles will miraculously miss you. Sure, you’ll get grazed alot but they’ll never hit you. Trust me, or you’ll be stuck day and night on the same side of the road waiting to cross.

Cyclos everywhere

Intersections were the scariest. Vehicles came from every intersection all at once. There’s no need to wait till the street
is clear because there’s no such thing in Hanoi. What you need to do is to make a start slowly to show that you are going to cross the road. Then proceed to cross slowly. Don’t be mistaken though… they won’t stop for you. Vehicles still cross without the care in the world but they’ll avoid you at the last second. Don’t panic!

Locals seem to have mastered the art. They go about their business and stopping at whichever stalls or shops that interest them (pedestrians and even motorcyclist). Even if they were blocking the whole damn street.

Beer joint… very vintage

One good thing about this is that there’s no road bully in Hanoi. None that i noticed anyways. Just addiction to honking that’s all.

Carry baskets… mobile business women

Peddlers roam the streets. No matter in the morning or evening, you’ll see locals selling stuffs from their bicycles or from their carry baskets. *i think the word ‘mobility’ originates from Hanoi.

Bicycle peddlers

The carry basket is just two baskets suspended on a long pole. It isn’t easy to carry on the shoulder at all. But there they were, carrying fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers and even daily necessities everywhere to be sold. We even spotted a few carrying basket full of metal scraps.

That is some heavy baskets to be carried the whole day

Here’s a tip. Whatever you do, never make eye contact with the peddlers. Especially those selling fruits. Once they have sustained connection, you can’t run away. *Lord, have mercy!

We happen to be standing at the corner of the street looking at the map then came along a woman with basket full of fresh fruits. We told her we weren’t interested. But then i made a mistake. I had another look and smiled at her.

Below photo is the result -_-”. (I look like an idiot fat woman with fruits. I was wearing 4 tshirts under that jacket ok?!)

Me selling fruits… please ignore how ugly i look here.

She was keng. She was quick as lightning. She took off her farmer hat and put it on my head. Before i knew it the basket gizmo was on my shoulder. Naturally i took the chance to snap a few photos with it. Then…oh well… i felt obliged to purchase fruits from her. *it’s a trap i tell ya.

I didn’t mind but i walked away real fast the next few times i was approached. LOL.

To be continued at:-
Lost In Old Movie Like Town
Braving the Cold On Scenic Seascape
Natural or Man-Made Beach?

**** ——- ****
Note:
All photos are taken with my Panasonic Lumix F8.

I will explain but i have to warn you that it’s a long story on the next few post to come :P…
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EatAllYouCanShung and i had always wanted to travel by ourselves ala backpacker lifestyle without a tour guide or anything like that. Tour packages are dead boring. They rush you to places that are uninteresting. They bring you to crafts stores selling junks that will cost you both arm and leg. Well… aunties enjoys it… not us. You won’t even have enough time to capture nice photos before being shuffled to the next destination.

It was a dream come true when we got cheap flight tickets from AirAsia. We were going to Hanoi, Vietnam free and easy style. Nevermind that this is only the second official trip we ever had. Nevermind that we have no idea how to go on planning the trip. Kenny and Nicole had done it. How hard would it be right?

We couldn’t be more wrong *muahahaha!

Anyways, we had few months to plan on the trip… but on the day before our trip our result was still:-

25/1/08 – Arrive at Hanoi
26/1/08 – Halong Bay Cruise
27/1/08 – Still at Halong Bay
28/1/08 – Have no idea. Will plan when we get there
29/1/08 – Same as above… evening catch flight back to Malaysia.

MUST DO: At all cost, consume every yummy food we encounter in Hanoi!

We already booked into a budget guesthouse. We had also reserved a room on board of Lagoon Explorer junk for a 2D 1N stay on Halong Bay. We were all set for the coming adventure.
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25th January 2008
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We arrived at LCCT at about 4.30am. It was a mistake booking the early flight. I didn’t not count in the time it takes to travel to LCCT plus i forgot that we have to check in at least 1 or 2 hour earlier. *i will never repeat this mistake again, i will never repeat this mistake again, i will never repeat this mistake again, …… i will never repeat this mistake again

Me at LCCT’s McD having breakfast at 4.30am…yawn…

I thought at least i could watch the sunrise from the plane but WTF lor. It was too misty. I couldn’t even see the clouds. It was a tiring flight coz it took about 3 hours to arrive at Vietnam’s Noi Bai Airport. Their time in Hanoi is late by 1 hour so it was already 10.30 in the morning Malaysian time.

I had no idea that Vietnam has 4 seasons until that day. Apparently the north part of Vietnam including Hanoi has 4 seasons. Its winter now and it’s darn cold. I guessed that it was at most 12°C only that morning. *die hard lor… i only brought sleeveless Tshirts and a Forever 21 jacket which is not thick at all!



Bus no. 17 to Old Quarters – Locals are wearing think jackets and scarfs.

Here is when things got interesting. The staff from our guesthouse was already waiting for us outside the airport. It was hilarious! We were expecting a car or van or at least a taxi to pick us up but there we were walking down to the bus stop in front of the airport and boarding a mini bus that cost 5,000 VND per ticket. *LOL. I was like -_-” tiu lor… it’s damn cold and i have to naik mini bus so many hours to Old Quarters!

In the bus on the way to Old Quarters

However, it turned out that taking bus no. 17 to Old Quarters wasn’t that bad after all. It was a pretty great way to start our trip. Besides having a chance to mingle with the local passenger, we get to see the countryside because the bus took the alternate route to Old Quarters.

Besides stretches of paddy fields, there are flower and fruit orchards everywhere. I saw even fields full of ‘sakura’ or what we Chinese called ‘mui fa’ and ‘kat jai’ which is the Chinese mini mandarin oranges.



Paddy field comes in abundance in Vietnam

Although it was quite a long trip (1hour plus), we were ooohhhh-ahhhh-ing the first few 10 minutes of the ride. *like some jakun keluar kampung -_-”. You won’t see all these if you were taking the highway route. Fortunately the locals on the bus weren’t even bothered. We found out later that locals in Hanoi just don’t bother about tourists… period. They don’t give a hoot who you are or where you’re from *I like them already!



Almost there… see the bridge behind? It’s darn long .

View from our room

Our tiny guesthouse, WildLotus Hotel is located at Luong Ngoc Quyen Street. It’s pretty near the entrance to Old Quarters in a nice neighborhood on one of the quieter street in town (quieter but still noisy like hell so you could imagine what’s it like on another street).

Wildlotus small bedroom

When i say tiny i mean REAL tiny. Tiny like hell. Tiny shit. T.I.N.Y.

The staircase was so narrow that it will only fit one person at a time. Due to that i got my very first present in Hanoi…. I got a swollen eye -_-”.

Super narrow stairs

As EatAllYouCanShung head up the staircase towards our room, i follow suit. I have no idea what had gotten into him when he suddenly decided to practice a Bruce Lee back-kick. Needless to say, i ended up the victim. He back-kicked right into my right eye. My right eye swelled up and my glasses needs repairing now.

And that marked the start of our 5 days stay in Old Quarters -_-”

Ps:// Dear i’m not mad at you so stop getting all guilty about it… i just hope that you have mastered your Bruce Lee attack on my expense *muahahahaha!

See how tiny the room is?

Looking down from the window

To be continued at:-
Busiest Town On Earth
Lost In Old Movie Like Town
Braving the Cold On Scenic Seascape
Natural or Man-Made Beach?


**** ——- ****
Note:
All photos are taken with my Panasonic Lumix F8.