Hanoi (Vietnam pt1)

Date of Visit: 18 - 26 Oct 2008

Touched down Hanoi, already people trying to rip us off so we decided to take a public bus. Its a blessing in disguise as we had an out of city tour before we reached Hanoi's Old Quarter


Our first meal. Sticky rice and meat. Don't know its name but it's not cheap though, about RM6


The very cool auntie who make very nice "Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun" type of food


Honoians will do anything on their bike. Here, buying toys for their kids


Stuffed animals


The road near Hoan Kiem Lake


Very long night market which happens from Friday till Sunday



The dessert looks yummy but since its our first night, we couldn't take the risk of having food poisoning. Didn't try


People walking only from one direction on the night market. One lane go and one lane back. So unlike the way they ride their bikes


The very cheap(RM0.75 per glass) but very smooth bia hoi (means draught beer in Viet)


This is the cross road where we had our bia hoi


Motorbike "taxie" which could carry 3 passengers


Apart from ripping off tourists, the locals love excercise


The Korean community Catholic church. The building seems very much Chinese influenced


One of the very old Catholic church in Hanoi


Roadside cafe where the coffee is excellent


Roadside cafe


Roadside cafe


Apart from the excellent coffee, the ice-blended custard apple is good too


Unfortunately the excellent coffee came in very small cup, too small


Students coming out of the church


Cool dudes having their coffee


Cigarettes sellers


Another delicious find (thanks to Chow Shevy's guidebook), a tomatoe soup flat noodle


Hit the street again as we are going to take the night train to Sapa


Street view


Check out the tagline, "For women who use computers", you know its talking to you

Sapa (Vietnam pt2)

Khol(left), our native guide, ready to brief us in front of our hotel


All set ready to go for our trekking trip


Funny kid


On the way down the valley


"Hi! Whats your name? Where are you from?"


She is famous in this part of the world too


Buy me! Buy me! (They really meant "buy from me!", I assume.)


Our Japanese friend Aoi is being surrounded


Native kid's meal


Native kid's lollies


There is a squirrel in the bird cage behind the kid


Corn hanging on the ceiling inside the house


They normally don't wear pants


Ahhh... cozy...


Different tribe, different backpack


Naturally dyed fabric(indigo blue extracted from a type of plant) to be made into their traditional clothing


Too bad can't swim here


Too far down


And too cold too


A pig was slaughtered when we passed by a village. A party is coming up, probably.


A native joinning us


Villagers opening a new path


Kids hang around


While their mom & dad dig


Pretty native (probably already given birth to 3 kids)


Check out what they have in their backpack


A craft made from a roadside plant by the natives, nice


Our trail is getting tougher


One of us saw a tiny green snake somewhere over here. Khol, our guide just sprung off. Later she told us she "doesn't like" snake


Native kids


We came from the far end of the cliff, and keep walking




"Buy me! Buy me!"


"Buy me! Buy me!"


"Buy me! Buy me!"


I hope he is not lost


Cool old dude


In a primary school. For some strange reason, we are allowed to go into a class in a middle of a lesson


Their books hanging on the wall


No, she is not the teacher


Yes, there is a teacher


Kids playing in front of the school


Hopefully a bigger school will be built here


Buffalo roaming


Not sure if its pork or beef


A patrol kiosk and a worker (kidding about the later)


Ending of our 12km walk


Our friend Roisin(right) just can't resist the native art anymore


Its is just a swing


They work while seating, walking, talking and selling stuffs to tourists


Aoi and her mom, I m so impressed by her endurance


Room with a view. Its not as expensive as it looks


All meals are included and they are one of the most decent food we have eaten during this trip


Sapa town, drizzling


Remind me of some European small town


To Mimosa, a very nice restaurant. Should try the hot plate, really delicious yet affordable


Remember the name, there is a fax number too




Highland Bakery, friendliest place. The boss actually helped me to make a phone call back to Hanoi twice without charging me. Its so rare in Vietnam. I came back to but its excellent chocolate baguettes




Remind me of Japan


Rose plantation