slosh down the pepper!

Hanoi Escapade - Day 3

DAY THREE / 30 December 2006, Saturday

HALONG BAY - HANOI


Haiz... the fog was heavy. No sunrise. It was terribly chilling to the extent that we had to squat behind the deck-beds in a weak bid to hide from the howling wind. We cannot tahan more than half an hour for such a torture and willingly resigned to the fate of not seeing the much-touted sunrise at the Unesco site.

After breakfast, it's canoeing! My first attempt. No guides. No training. Totally DIY whether you can or not. They only provide the canoeing equipment plus a life jacket.

Haha. I was trying very hard to listen to Tempest on how to steer a canoe and maneover the paddle.

15mins later, he kinda gave up. "Ok, you sit and hold your paddle up. I will do the paddling."

That was our last activity in Halong Bay.

Before Huy & gang left in another junk to Cat Ba Island, Lena gave us two banana-leaf-wrapped thingys.



Phuonc left with the group to Cat Ba. Another guy came along. We decided to tip the crew before we left the junk. After paying up all the items we had spent on the junk, Tempest made a count of the change and decided to give in all in as tips. It was VND $77,000, which was equivalent to SGD$7.70. We didn't think it was that big an amount for a crew of around 5-6. But the Captain was apparently ecstatic and gave Tempest a big hug! Hehe.

Lunch was at a seemingly well-furbished restaurant, though the food was similar to what we had on the boat, just a more generous serving and a better grade of ingredients. The next stopover was at Hai Phong City, at a little building which sells a variety of souveniers, local foods, paintings, ornaments and ice cream.

On our way back to Anh Dao Hotel, we visited a Vietnamese Airlines ticketing office to confirm our flight home. Deks Air had repeatedly reminded us to call up the airlines a few days before our departure lest there is a change in flight schedule. It was nearly 6pm; so the lady in charge told us to return next morning at 8am as the main office was already closed.

We walked back to Anh Dao, only to realise that they shifted us to one of their sister hotel, Camellia 2. No complains! Look at the bigger room & slightly better furnishings.

To dinner now! We set out to do a series of street food tasting.


We even had the opportunity to exchange a few words in Mandarin & Vietnamese with the waitress. She's currently studying Chinese in a local university. She had even wanted to exchange contact numbers, but we thought emails could be more appropriate. I don't want to end up with high phone bills too!

Labels: hanoi, travel

posted by slingwoof @ 6/26/2007 09:23:00 PM