* My Journey *: Journey to Hanoi

Early in morning at 6.30am, AirAsia™ flight brought me together with lots of Vietnamese labors working in KL/N. Sembilan to Hanoi. In the aircraft, 1 Vietnamese told me that his contract was matured and has to be back to hometown. Personally I reckoned that this was due to retrenchment during economy downturn. However, he and his friends looked happy probably because they were too eager to see their family members.

The first thing I did when I landed in Hanoi city was to find a tourism center for a city map. With the map in hand, I managed to find my hotel as every road in the city is indicated with clear sign board.

The first meal to fill up my empty stomach in Hanoi was Wantan Mee. It cost me 25,000 VND (USD1.50). It was very thin, with lots of ingredients despite of expensive price. I spent my whole afternoon walking around Old Quarter streets; for sure I had no energy to walk every single 36 streets. March in Vietnam is spring season; hence it’s quite windy with 15°C. I couldn’t see a sun or moon there as the sky was too overcast in winter/spring season. Suddenly I felt the blessedness living in Malaysia that we have blue sky with white clouds J At night, I managed to buy the ticket for the last show of the day - Water Puppet (similar to ‘shadow play’ in Malaysia but they used puppet). It cost me 40,000 VND (USD2.40) whereby after the 1 hour show, I felt the ticket price really worth it! After that, I walked along the night market along Dong Xuan street which is much more longer and crowded than Petaling Street in KL and Ladies Market in Hong Kong. Like typical night market, you could see lots of bags, clothes, shoes, souvenirs, snacks, food sold at the stalls.

In the next morning, I departed with a tour bus to Halong Bay harbor, which is ~170km from Hanoi. About 3.5 hours on road, I arrived at Halong Bay harbor where my passport had to be handed over to the tour guide. Prior to that, I’ve pre-booked the Halong Bay package of 2d1n with the price of USD55. That would include accommodation on the junk, 4 meals, visit to cave, 1 hour kayaking activity, BUT the beverage was exclusive! The food provided in the junk was similar to Chinese food. My most preferred food was the white rice J In the same junk, I managed to get to know 2 tourists from Australia, 2 from France and 2 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The couple from Australia actually took unpaid leave to travel all over Vietnam in 21 days!

Ha Long Bay has a 120 kilometre long coastline and is approximately 1,553 square kilometres in size with about 2000 islets. The area designated by UNESCO as the World Natural Heritage Site includes 434 km² with 775 islets, of which the core zone is delimited by 69 points: Đau Go island on the west, Ba Ham lake on the south and Cong Tây island on the east. The protected area is from the Cái Dăm petrol store to Quang Hanh commune, Cam Pha town and the surrounding giants zone. (© Wikipedia™)

People: In Short, Vietnamese are very kind, friendly and helpful. Despite of different language that we communicated, we could understand each other and managed to deliver the message that we wished. On the other hand, all Vietnamese I’ve met were kept with slim body. I hardly could find 1 person fatter than me :p

Food: About the hawker food, it’s a bit expensive compared to Malaysia. Anyway I’m satisfied with the taste.

Accommodation: Regarding the accommodation, I did not find any downside of it, expect of the narrow staircase J Room was clean, equipped with hot water (this is essential in cold season!) with a reasonable price of USD14

Transportation: Vietnamese are creative on modifying the transport to fully occupy the space and to optimize the number of passengers for 1 trip. They’re good engineers! Public transport to and forth airport which cost me 25,000 VND (USD1.50) one way for 40 minutes drive.

Culture: I was there for less than 4 days hence I have no in depth understanding on their culture. Hanoi city is full with motorcycle, known as ‘city of motorcycle’. The road courtesy is pretty nice, likewise in Medan Indonesia. The driver used to honk especially when they overtake motorcycle. After a while walking in the town, I had confidence that the motorcycles were not going to bang on me while I was crossing the street. On the other hand, people in Hanoi used to wake up early (5am+) and had morning exercise around Hoan Kiem Lake. Probably this is one of the secrets of them to keep slim and healthy.