Vietnam Part One - The City of Hanoi

its spring time in Hanoi now, which means we are greeted with nice cool weather upon walking out of the airport. the temperature ranges from 18 to 24 deg c which makes it pleasantly cool and a welcomed changed from the hot and humid KL. jan to march is the recommended time to travel to hanoi due to the lovely weather so make sure you book your trip at these months :p

we spend the first day in hanoi city, the next day to halong bay and stayed overnight on the cruise boat (will update on part two) and then back to the city centre. here are the pictures and my review will be based on the pics okey :)

this is a common thing to see in hanoi, ladies carrying baskets and baskets of lovely gorgeous flowers on their bicycles and bikes. the weather apparently is perfect for flowers such as roses, lilies and gerberras and its imported everywhere.

because 70% of the people in hanoi uses motorbikes to get around, they tend to "fashioned" their bikes to suit their favourite designers. so you can see bikes sporting an Burberry print design, like the one below here :)

and my personal favourite, an LV design hehe.

and, just because you riding around on a bike all day, does not mean you can sacrifice your sense of style! these ladies rock their bikes with cool clothes and super high heels equal to the ladies of new york! and check out how their helmet usually matches their bike seats too!

so cute! who says you cant dress up and still look super cute on a bike!

check out her six inches heels!

Cho Hom is the heaven for those who wants to go shopping for super cheap and good quality chiffon silk, cotton and vietnamese silk. its quite far from the main lake at the city centre, about 30 minutes walk, yes we walked! but u can take a taxi as taxi fares adalah sangat sangat murah.

rows and rows of cloths! this place reminds me of pasar siti khadijah in kota bharu hehe :p

the night market in hanoi. its only on fridays, saturdays and sundays. and starts at 8pm to midnight. this is where you can buy extremely cheap fridge magnets, ceramic and bamboo plates, chopsticks, table mats, etc. elsewhere mahal, here you can get the best bargain! the market is at least one km long and we didnt even walked to the end cos its really really long!

pembunuhan teddy bear beramai2 hahaha

at one of the main streets of hanoi, you can see along the stretch of the road is this wall decorations made from ceramic! its really really gorgeous and they use small2 coloured ceramics to turn them into beautiful pictures of sceneries. such an effort and sangat2 lawa!

this is our hotel. its is located right in the heart of hanoi, 5 minutes walking distance to the main lake, where everything is! the location and cleanliness is good but we had some issues with the assistant manager, his name is Tom. so if you guys wanna go there, yes the place is recommended but let me know before you go so that i can advice you on that man. we booked our rooms through hostelbookers so we got a good and cheap rate.

we were ambitious on the first day and decided to watch this puppet show. entrance fee is about RM12 per pax. the show only started for a few minutes and we all fell asleep! hahaha ye la, all woke up at 3am to catch the 6.30 am flight, lagi ada hati nak tgk the show! dah la gelap and we didnt understand it cos its in vietnamese language! but the puppets are super cute and music is nice and soothing..tu yg boleh tertido tu haha

muka2 baru lepas bangun tido :p

this is the famous main lake in Hanoi - Haon Kiem Lake which is the centre of Hanoi.

one of the halal restaurant in hanoi is Nisa Restaurant. owned by Uncle Ben, who greeted us happily on our way in.

we ordered nasi goreng as starters hehe cos super duper hungry and being melayu nak jugak carik nasik kannnn :p

but actually we all ordered this! "pho"!! the original beef noodles soup..heaven!

so that's some of the pictures of our trip!

okey break down;

air tickets - RM260 per person. its a three hours flight so u might wanna book yr food awal2 on the flight in case by the time the cart reached you tinggal maggie sahaja hehe.

hotel - about USD45 per person for three nights at the hotel including breakfast.

cruise - USD 110 per person including transport from and to hotel, food on board the cruise, tido one night and all the activities included (will update next) actually can get cheaper but we malas nak carik and its already in our budget anyway so we ok saja. our boat memang nampak mahal sikit compared to others but yang lain pun mcm ok saja so up to you ok :)

food -oh food is so susah!! breakfast they serve toast and they have an omelete bar BUT ingredients included pork so sah2 guna kuali yg sama kan!! so thank god we brought lotsa of maggies, campbell soups, bread and cookies. on the cruise takyah risau cos the whole boat i.e. us and the rest of the mat salehs semua makan seafood sesajo, so dats allrite. restoran Nisa tu near our hotel but its not really that cheap la but ok jer nak makan situ tiap2 hari. lucky for us, on the last nite we got an invitation to dine at one of the malaysian embassy staff so the auntie masak sangat sedap and we all makan beria haha.

transport - taxi adalah sangat sangat murah!! so naik jer taxi, tapi make sure yang ber meter la kan, dats normal everywhere you go :) otherwise if yr like us, we WALKED everywhere! cold weather kan, so jalan2 pun relax jer tak panas!

shopping - we went crazy shopping for - Kipling bags, Crumplers and all those vietnamese silks and wat nots. for the bags, expect to spend about RM30 each and for the kains, around 2 - 3 USD per meter. i only brought about 250USD to spend, change it all to Vietnamese Dong and spend in VND as its cheaper. i ended up only spending slightly more than half and i got about 6 bags and 10 pasang kain (4 meters each) and tons other stuff like silk robes, fridge magnets, chopsticks and table runners and mats!

currrency - change all to USD, once you reach vietnam cari kedai EMAS, yes GOLDSMITH to change your USD to VND. tak tau kenapa kat kedai emas the rates are THE best! kat mana2 boleh jumpa senang jer. make sure you changed all your VND back to USD BEFORE you leave, at aiport the rates are pretty good, cos kat Msia they dont accept VND sangat so rugi.

so dats my simple review of the city of Hanoi - next i will update on Halong Bay!