Ps:// I told you my trip to Hanoi was a long long 5 days trip. So much things to see and too much memorable moments to mention in 1 post *wakaka!

27th January 2008
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The next morning, we woke up… err… at least i woke up before dawn. I open the bedroom windows. It was dark and calm outside. Ahh… my so called life at sea.

Taking in the fresh air… pondering about life

We had breakfast and headed to our next destination… Hang Sung Sot.

I love this guy. Captain of our junk

Hang Sung Sot meaning “Caves of the Surprises” has many surprises awaiting us.

Hang Sung Sot

The cave was quite high up. There are steps leading towards it.

Stairway to heaven?

The small hike was definitely worth it. The view from up there is spectacular.

Through the foliage

Sung Sot cave has 2 chambers. The chambers are lighted up with colorful dramatic lights. The stalagmites and stalactites carved a breathtaking scene in the cave.

Huge chamber

The state of the cave was impressive. They did a great job maintaining it. There were man-made pathway for tourist. The more popular features in the cave are showcased to visitors with effective lightings. Small penguin shaped bins are everywhere so i guess littering is a no-no.

Wow factor

Just look at the ceiling. Looks like an egg container LOL. Cool huh?

Beautiful ceiling

Observing the chambers i can’t help but get the feeling that the chamber is slowly engulfing me.

Castle

Within the cave, there are rock formations in the form of animals. The tortoise shaped rock was the most popular. It is said that a person’s longevity will be extended by touching the tortoise’s head. Naturally, believer or not i touched it *waka
ka. So did most of the visitor. It works better if you throw in some $$$ :P.

Long live tortoise

Then there was the crocodile shaped formation. Amazing huh?

Grrrr!!!!

And just when i thought i saw it all… there was this… *muahahaha! What does it looks like?

Hello, lil’ bro

I suspect everyone knows about this mini-dicky. Even our guide and the Captain was trying to keep a straight face when we kept pointing at it. -_-” Orgasmic experience… (puns definitely intended)

From the caves

Scenic jetty

Alas it was time for us to leave. As we walked to the jetty we looked back one more time.

Our junk waiting for us

By the way, i saw this fat adorable pup on a small sampan. Awww….

Fat pup

Being our last day on the bay, we asked the staff for one last drink of coffee (they have great coffee on the junk). I am going to miss their coffee the most *wakaka!

Coffee or me?

I sat wrapped with the blanky for warmth on the deck end while we sailed back to shore.

Brrr… cold cold geh

Fighting cock rock formation

Although heavy-hearted, it was time for us to go. There are more adventure awaiting us in Old Quarter.

Bye bye Halong Bay

To be continued at:-
From Hoan Kiem Lake to St. Joseph’s Cathedral

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

25th January 2008
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You’ll never believe how many street stalls are in Old Quarters. These ‘mobile’ business women and men are everywhere. Just one minute ago she’s hard selling her merchandise to us then the next minute she’s on another corner of another street making do her business.

Really fresh fruits!

Mobile business woman

It’s interesting how the food peddlers here maneuver around the town armed with just a mobile stove-like thingy. Just stop them and they’ll fix you a bowl of superb noodle just right then and there. Before they move on to another street, just hand over the empty bowl and of course your payment.

Motorcycle anyone?

It gets pretty confusing in the small town. All the streets looked the same. Some of the streets (mostly small alleys or streets) are not even listed in the Lonely Planet map. It happened that the street, Hang Dong where Tropical Sails (our Halong Bay tour agency) is located is not in the map. So if you’re traveling without a guide, it’s easy to get lost on the first attempt.

So guess what? We got lost… yeah we did. We got lost in the middle of a tiny little Old Quarter on the very first day we arrived. *way to go -_-” So much for our heroic start…

Cua O Quan Chong (“Old East Gate”) – see the no car sign? yeah right…

However, i must say that getting lost (no pun intended) wasn’t such a bad experience after all. From our guesthouse, we went in circles. After 1 or 2 hours, we were back at square 1, at the Old Quarter’s Old East Gate which by the way is the last remnants of the city walls. Take a photo or two while you’re there.

Under the wall

I gather that people in Hanoi loves to eat… and really good at making business. Even the space beneath the historical Cua O Quan Chong (“Old East Gate”) is not spared from food stalls. *wakaka!

Raining in Old Quarter

Accidentally wandering into some of the unpopular back alleys or small streets gave us a new insight on the lives of the locals. While the more popular streets are utterly buzzing with locals and tourists buying or selling merchandises, the smaller streets are equally busy with mostly locals trading everyday necessity and fresh produce among themselves.

Old newspaper… old newspaper… old news papeeeerrr!

Although the alleys were quite dirty, damp (from the rain) and narrow, it was quiet and ii was good to get away from the non-stop honking of vehicles.

Siapa mau cepat beli!

Even the narrow streets in Old Quarter were packed with food stalls and food peddlers.

Steamy hot potato

There were road signs at every end of the streets. We just had to walk to the end of every street and figure out which end was it. After a while it got easier.

Thanks god we found the tour agency on time coz i think the locals got tired of watching 2 clowns repeatedly walking up and down the streets.

Tropical Sails Co. Ltd at Hang Dong Street

By the time we got back on the right track, we were already starving.

Food is everywhere

The sight and smell of food on every nook and corner of the town made our tummy growl.

At first we were torn between having our meal at the local street stalls or at restaurants nearby. We opted for the second coz it’s safer. We didn’t want to end up with a tummy ache and diarrhea on the first day. So off we went searching for Little Hanoi.

Little Hanoi

Read all about the food at Little Hanoi HERE.

First dinner … more like supper.. on bed.

It was really late by the time we got back to our room. The guesthouse owner was nice enough to go all the way out and get us dinner… more like supper. He even delivered it to our room.

Read all about dinner on bed HERE.

Very high tech air con in my room.

Here’s a tip. If you’re traveling during the winter season, the first thing to check when you check-into your hotel or guest room is the heater. Never ever forget that. NEVER!

We made a mistake of not checking. We assumed that everything was in place…

Cold cold night in Hanoi… *sob sob

We spent our first night freezing with no heater (the heater rosak liao), no water heater (also rosak liao so we had to shower with icy cold water) and damn thin blankets (don’t have comforter ler). *boo hoo

To be continued at:-
Braving the Cold on Scenic Seascape
Natural or Man-Made Beach?

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

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.