Vietnam - Day 1

22nd Oct 2007 - Hellloooo Hanoi!!! Touched down at Hanoi airport at 8.45am. Back in Malaysia, I found a place online called APT Guesthouse; USD15 for a triple sharing room, comes with breakfast and free pickup from airport. Not bad, so we booked a room. Went out to meet the guy from the hotel who was supposed to pick us up. Hmm, no one there. Met this other guy who was waiting for some other people. He found out that we were waiting for the APT people, who knew so he helped us call them. Oh, did I mention that he was cute? Yum...APT guy finally arrived, and gosh, he was cute too! *swoon*

The drive into the city took about 45 minutes. Passed by quaint Vietnamese houses. They looked like Willy Wonka's house, only with colour....They were really tall, and really thin, and came in all the colours of the rainbow; pink, orange, blue, green, purple, yellow....I swear!!! And I also noticed that Vietnamese people have a thing about their honks. They can't keep their hands off them! Every 3 seconds there'll be someone honking. Serious!!! *beep* *beep beep* *beep* It's like Morse code on the road...and the ride was such a freaky experience! There were motorcycles, bicycles, cars, chickens, cows, humans just zipping left and right!!! Somehow everyone manages to avoid one another.....

Finally got to the hotel in one piece. And guess what? More leng chais came out of the hotel to take our bags. Wah, we booked a leng chai hotel ar??? :p Ahem, enough of my fantasies, back to the topic. So apparently, our room was not ready yet, so we decided to take a walk around town first. Loi, the guy working there gave us a map and some directions. We left our bags at the hotel and went exploring. Somehow, I ended up in charge of navigation.....First stop, Hoan Kiem Lake. There's a temple there linked by the Red Bridge, but you must pay 3000 Dong to enter the temple. Here lies the preserved body of a giant tortoise from the lake. Legend goes that King Le Loi was lent a magical sword by the king of the sea to fight off invaders, and the sword was reclaimed by a giant golden tortoise. Apparently, there're still giant tortoises in the lake. See if you can spot one...bring you good luck, you know!

Real 'jeruk'-ed turtle, I swear!!! I think....

Tortoise Tower, a pagoda on a tiny island in the middle of the lake. Sorry la, it's damn far out ok....camera don't have such 'canggih' zoom...

After the temple, we wanted to get tickets for the Water Puppet show. Went to the theatre which was just across the road, but it was closed till 1.15pm. Dang....

A word of caution....if a lady selling stuff comes up to you and puts her basket thingy on your shoulders and asks you to take a picture, be suspicious, be VERY suspicious. Most probably you'll have to take your wallet out for that picture (read: forced into buying what she's selling). SissyDear was one such gullible victim, as evidenced by this picture.

It's only 11 something in the morning, but SissyDear was feeling hungry, so we went around looking for food. Found this little shop (and I do mean little....it was more like, tiny) selling 'pho' (rice noodles). They were barbequeing some meat to be eaten with the noodles. We were sort of apprehensive with what kind of meat it was, tried asking the lady selling the noodles, but she didn't speak English. So we did the touristy thing....Mummi flapped her arms like a chicken and moo-ed like a cow....which of course resulted in laughter from all of us, noodle lady included. *swt* I still don't know what meat it was, but as long as it wasn't dog or cat, it's all good....

Bun Cha, which is basically noodles with barbecued meat and it came with a heaping basket of veggies. The noodles is kinda like bihun, only a little thicker and softer. The meat was in a soup that tasted a bit like they added vinegar inside, sweet and sour-ish. The first few spoons of the soup tasted fine, but after that it became a little too much for me....

Walked around after lunch. Mummi and SissyDear were in shopper's paradise. Those two can really shop! I was getting kinda tired and cranky after a few hours. At around 2pm, they decided to go back to the hotel to rest. Finally!!! Our room was ready. It was quite big actually, with air-conditioning, hot water, TV (with HBO, Cinemax, AXN, Cartoon Network, Animal Planet) and fridge. They even give towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and toilet paper! Oooo, and they even clean your room everyday! Not bad for USD5 per person, per night. Sweeeet....! We were so tired, we took a nap....like, for nearly 4 hours....woke up at dinner time. Big mistake. Should have gone and seen the sights more and not wasted so much time. Actually, it was kinda amazing that we managed to sleep that long. You see, our room was on the first floor, which is probably not the room to choose if you are a light sleeper....remember that I mentioned earlier, how the Vietnamese love their honks? Well, try sleeping through all that honking that is practically right out your window....

Went to try this place recommended in Lonely Planet, Cha Ca La Vong. Sells something called Cha Ca fish, which is grilled fish. And it's the only thing that they have there. Quite pricey, 70,000 Dong per person, drinks not included. Apparently, the whole street (Cha Ca Street) sells Cha Ca fish, so you can probably get it cheaper at another shop. Not sure bout the taste though.....

Some weird veggies I haven't seen before and pho which goes with the fish. The Vietnamese sure love their pho....They gave peanuts too, which I wasn't sure was an appetiser or was supposed to be eaten with the fish, cause it all came at the same time (I ate it with my noodles...hope there wasn't a Vietnamese somewhere there secretly laughing at me.... :s)

Cha Ca fish in a pan on a charcoal burner thingy. You're supposed to put the veggies in the pan to cook....at least, that's what the lady did.....Monkey see, monkey do.....

After dinner, me and SissyDear were planning our itinerary. And yup, we wasted some time today. Should have gone to see all the sights in the city, then we would have time to go on another day tour. As it is now, we have to choose between the Hoa Lu-Tam Coc tour or the Perfume Pagoda tour...no time for both. Sigh...

Went back to the hotel, and asked the girl working there, Thoa, what was there to do at night. She recommended that we go to Hoan Kiem lake for some ice cream, Thuy Ta Cafe. We were sort of expecting the special Vietnamese ice cream, but turns out, it was like what you can normally find in Malaysia. Not worth it some more, 13,000 Dong for a single scoop on a cone. The view of the lake at night was beautiful though. A lot of people come here at night to sit by the lake. Quite a number of couples there too.

Walked around a little, looking at the shops, mingling with the crowd, and I have to say this...I was in 'leng chai' heaven!!! Hehehe.....

Oh, and here's a guide on crossing streets in Vietnam:

1. Summoning up the guts: Watch the locals cross. See how they miraculously get across in one piece? You can too!!!
2. Offer up a prayer to the big guy above, and ok, now put your left foot out....and, no, don't put it back in...this is not the Hokey-Pokey ok???!!! This is a matter of life and death!!! Now, pay attention!!! Ok, left foot out, then right foot, left foot, repeat....
3. When doing Step 2, make sure you are looking at the vehicles coming towards you. No, you are doing this so you can avoid them, you are looking to make sure that they are paying attention, and that they spot you, and THEY will avoid YOU. If not, then so sorry, your luck....
4. WALK, DO NOT RUN!!!!! Do not make any sudden movements, or you'll just startle them and most likely make them run straight into you.
5. Still alive? On the other side of the road already? Congratulations!!! *clap clap* You've managed to cross the road in Vietnam!

*If you still can't master the steps above, look out for any locals crossing the road and cross at the same time. Watch carefully where they step, and when they move. If this still doesn't work, then I also cannot help you already. Good luck waiting for the road to clear up enough so that you can cross.