Destination: Hanoi, Vietnam
Duration: 4 Days 4 Night (Aug 29~Sep
02, 2018)
Malaysia Opposition Party was
celebrating its first election win in GE14 and we as ‘Rakyat’ was given 2
additional public holidays for its victory. However, not all companies were
able to have public holiday on the fly thus ours were replaced on Aug 29 &
Aug 30 instead. A short excursion is planted in my mind since it would be a 5
days long weekend. Hanoi became my choice as it was an AirAsia direct flight
from Penang and cost only about RM400+/pax for return tickets (purchased
without zero fare promo).
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| Sammy is craving for a trip! |
Day 1: Some People Walk in the
Rain, Others Just Get Wet
Our Penang-Hanoi flight departed on
Aug 29 in the wee hour of 6.15am. We departed from home at 4am to park the car
in multi-level car park at Bayan Lepas area (can’t risk the car getting flooded
when we were out) before taking Grab to the airport. Yes, Grab was definitely available
at 4.30am and came to us in 5 mins. It cost RM7 to get to the airport in a
5-10mins ride. Amazingly our flight took off on
time and we managed to take some short naps in the 2.5 hours flight.
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| Sammy having kid's meal on AirAsia... |
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| Mini Pizza anyone? |
We arrived
in Hanoi Airport at around 8.20am (Vietnam is 1 hour behind) and bought a
simcard with 2Gb/day data plan for VND200K. The girl at the counter helped us
to setup the phone properly and made sure that it was working before handed it
back to us.
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| Hanoi welcomes us with rain... |
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| Data plan at VND200K for 7 days |
It was raining and we were wondering
whether to take a minibus or bus 86 to the old quarter. The minibus driver
quoted us USD5/pax then slashed it down to USD4/pax when he saw we were not
really interested. We ended up taking bus 86 which cost only VND35K/pax to
disembark at the Hanoi Melio hotel stop. The bus conductor was really helpful
as he was asking around which hotel the passengers stayed so that he could give
advice on the correct bus stop. The bus trip took less than an hour.
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| Bus 86!!! |
We booked Serenity Villa Hotel which
cost around USD29.7/night from booking.com and it was around 10mins walk away
from the bus stop. This was the 1st time we experienced the Hanoi
traffic and I must say it was definitely an eye opener! The best was to follow
the local to cross the road – or just close your eyes and leave it to fate! LOL!!!
We put our data plan to good use for Google map and walked past this Book
Street with quaint little book stores – definitely our 1st photo
moment in Hanoi (with rains and all!). ;)
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| At the Book Street |
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| Lots of Little Bookstores at the side... |
We walked past a lot of local shops
and restaurants on the pedestrian walkway which was mostly covered by
motorcycles or chairs & tables from restaurants. It was definitely not easy
to maneuver with luggage but thankfully we traveled light.
Serenity Villa Hotel was located at
the end of a small alley and we were greeted warmly by the staffs. We were
offered coffee/tea with the reception giving us a map and explained to us on
places of interest while they prepared our room even though we were too early
for their check-in time. We managed to get to our room at around 10.30am. The room was clean and comfy with slight issue on the shower glass door but we just let it slide since it was only USD29.7/night - with breakfast for 2 no less!!! We were lazing on the bed since we had a super early morning flight.
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| A View from our Room |
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| The Bed |
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| Complimentary Drinks |
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| Bathroom |
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| Serenity Villa Hotel located at the end of an Alley |
We finally dragged our heavy feet to
explore the area amid the heavy rain. I’m a breadoholic so the 1st
thing I wanted was to get a delicious Banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich). I did some
research before the trip and noted down a shop but hubby decided to ask the
hotel reception for local recommendation. They pointed us to Banh Mi Pho which
we were not impressed as the pork seemed tasteless.
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| Recommended by the Hotel |
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| Saigon Special |
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| Kebab Banh Mi |
We continued our walk to Saint
Joseph’s Cathedral and it was really impressive – one might thought we were at
some European square. We continued our walk through small alleys to main road
and stumbled on the Hanoi Train Street among the houses. We quickly took some
pictures but did not stay for the train since it would only passed the railway
at 3pm.
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| Saint Joseph's Cathedral! |
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| Let's just imagine i'm in Europe! LOL!!! |
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| Railroad in an Alley |
We marched on to find the Flag Tower
of Hanoi and continued to the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long in the gentle rain.
There were hardly any visitors there and the entrance fee was VND30K/pax.
During our walk, we noticed that Vietnam’s national day actually falls on Sep
02. Therefore the imperial citadel was decorated nicely with blooming flowers which
made it a great place for photos! Definitely excellent timing! :p
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| The Flag Tower of Hanoi with wet pants! *facepalm* |
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| It's time to visit The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long |
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| Flowers for National Day? |
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| Overlooking the Flag Tower |
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| Oh no... I can't seem to escape Stairs during travel.. |
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| At the Top... |
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| A Great Place to take picture! |
After filling our SD card with countless pictures with the
rain finally stopping, we continued to Cua Bac Catholic Church. Our legs were
killing us as it was really not comfortable to walk with wet shoes for such a
long time. Or perhaps we were simply TOO OLD for this! *facepalm* Cua Bac
Catholic Church might not look as impressive as St. Joseph’s Cathedral but it
had its own charm with its yellow paint. It looked especially refreshing in such bleak weather. ;)
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| Cua Bac Church in Yellow |
We continued our long walk to the Presidential Palace and
walked past some quiet streets. We were trying to take pictures of the street
since it seemed so serene but a police stopped us! We suspected the stretch was
some government buildings as we noticed quite a lot of police booths there. We
walked past the Presidential Palace but did not go in since we were too
crippled and there was tight rules for visit.
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| Picture taken before getting stopped by Police!!! |
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| Presidential Palace at the back... |
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was our next destination for more
photos before turning to One Pillar Pagoda. There was basically just one pagoda
with crazy tourists (That would be us!!!) posing for photos nonstop. *facepalm*
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| Just Keep Walking... |
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| The Mausoleum |
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| One Pillar Pagoda |
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| One could pray up there.. |
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| A Museum that we never stepped in.. =P |
Our next destination was Temple of Literature but for some
unknown reason Google map went astray. We could hardly walked anymore so we
walked in to a random café called Goky Tea. We ordered some Matcha latte which
tasted too sweet but enjoyed resting there for a while. Of course it was also a
good chance to use a clean toilet at a café. The heavy downpour also started
during our short break there. *sigh*
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| LOST!!!! |
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| A Much-needed Break! |
We were there for almost an hour before bracing the heavy
rain to walk to Temple of Literature. Entrance fee was VND30K/pax and the
complex was a typical Chinese style temple. The downside was we had to walk all
the way to the entrance for exit as other exit gates seemed to be locked. Not
to mention that the rain was really heavy and there were pools of waters
everywhere.
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| Entrance of Temple of Literature |
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| At the 1st Courtyard |
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| 2nd Courtyard? |
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| Finally the Main Building |
We finally waved the white flag and walk back to our hotel
under the torrential rain with non-stop honking traffics for some rest. During
our walk, we noticed that the locals all seemed to be occupied with some
football match and were shouting nonstop on the street.
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| GOAL!!!! The Locals were shouting nonstop... |
After a short rest in hotel, we finally separated ourselves
from the comfortable bed to hunt for dinner. Trust me, it was not easy to get
up after such a long day! It was still raining quite heavily but thankfully our
destination was just 5mins away. An Café (link)
was highly recommended on tripadvisor for their banh mi and it was my original
banh mi destination for breakfast this morning. We ordered “Special” & “Egg
Special” along with Hanoi Specialty Beer & Saigon Specialty Beer. Both
choices had the crispy baguette stuffed full of pate, meat, sausage, Chinese
sausages and some pickled vegetables topped with fried shallots. The difference
between “Special” & “Egg Special” was the pate was fried with egg for “Egg
Special”. With the price of VND25K & VND30K each, they were definitely
value for money and totally delicious!!!! Even hubby had to admit this was so
much better than Banh Mi Pho which was more expensive and bland.
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| Here we are!!! |
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| Beer! I love Hanoi Specialty Beer with less bitter taste if compared to Saigon Specialty Beer |
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| Our Banh Mi are served! |
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| OMG!!! Look at all the Egg & Meats!!! |
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| Cheers!!! |
After the yummy banh mi, hubby was tempted to try Dong Thinh
Nha Hang Mien Luon - Glass Noodles with Deep-Fried Eel (87 Hang Dieu, Hoan Kiem
District, Hanoi) which was another 3 minutes’ walk from An Café. The restaurant
was the typical humble non air-conditioned Vietnamese eatery with locals and
tourists. We went in and ordered Eel Soup (VND40K) & the famous Glass
Noodle (VND60K) with a full stomach. *facepalm* The Eel Soup reminded me of
sharkfin soup with a sweet seafood taste broth and it was really nice to had
hot broth during the rainy weather.
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| Second Dinner! *facepalm* |
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| Eel Soup |
The fried glass noodle was served with lots of vegetables
and the crispy eel – the eel was not as crispy as I liked as I think it was
fried and left there for a while. The glass noodle had a nice stir fry taste
(wok hei) and we were obsessed with the spicy chili sauce. The chili definitely
enhanced the overall flavor.
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| Don't underestimate that unassuming Chili Sauce!!! |
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| Glass Noodle with Deep Fried Eel |
After the heavy double dinner, we’d decided to burn some
calories by venturing to the Old Quarter. When we arrived there, there seemed
to be police setting up some roadblocks but we thought nothing of it. We walked
around the Ho Kiem Lake for night view and that was when the crazy celebration
started! Hundreds or perhaps thousands of motorcycles were riding around the
lake in circle with engine & honk blasting nonstop and Vietnam national
flag flying along in high speed. We thought it was due to their national day
but we were told later that the Vietnamese celebrated for the national soccer team
for making into Asian Cup semifinal. The celebration was on even though they
lost the match 1-3 to Korea since it was the 1st time the team ever
got into that far. The celebration seemed to go on forever but luckily we managed
to find an opening to cross the road with those flying motorcycles. Gosh! It was
only the 1st day and we couldn’t even feel our legs anymore. It was
already 10pm++ when we reached our hotel to call it a day.
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| The Old Quarter's Iconic Building |
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| Strolling around the Lake |
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| Ngoc Son Temple at the Back... |
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| Closed at Night though... |
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| Continue to fill our SD card with pictures since we are already there! |
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| At another Angle of the Temple... |
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| It's a Celebration!!!! |
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| Good night Ho Kiem Lake! |
Next Day: Day Trip to Halong Bay
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