vietnam
Vietnam 2017: Hanoi/Halong Bay/Sapa
11:24 PM
Our flight was at 9.10am sg time so we reached around 11plus viet time? Hanoi is 1 hour behind. The weather was perfect! It was 22 degrees when we reached. I really wished Singapore had that kind of weather in winter.
en route to our hotel
We stayed at Hanoi Little Town Hotel and the service was really good, the receptionist came to help me get my luggage before I could even open the cab door (btw we used Grab most of the time) and she wouldn't let me carry my luggage even though I insisted.
They served us tea too
View from our room
The bed hahaha damn cute they sprinkled some petals
Our first meal was some random street store that served the Viet version of Wanton Mee. I still prefer the dry version though.
I love the architecture in Hanoi! It may be messy but the different colonial designs are really nice imo. I don't know how they manage to build the buildings without a gap between though.
Hoan Kiem Lake
There were some activities going on along the street beside the lake which were pretty cool. They close off the street on weekends and it just so happened that it was a Sunday that day so we got to see these festivities.
This game looked very fun haha
Aesthetic tree
Visited a quaint looking cafe
Tried egg coffee and it sucks!! Both of us didn't like it. The egg taste was too strong
Went back to walk around the lake area and sat on a bench till the sky turned dark
At night, there was a night market around the Old Quarter and we had dinner at one of the bbq places along the road. Eating hot food in cold weather is always a nice feeling.
DAY 2: HALONG BAY
Breakfast at the hotel. I had 2 huge plates because I didn't know they would serve so much my goodness
We booked a day tour to Halong Bay prior to the trip so the van came to pick us up at our hotel in the morning! Stopped at this cool place before we reached Halong Bay.
They basically hire deaf/mute/disabled people to work here and produce these amazing artworks
My favourite
such talent
lunch on the boat which was mediocre
went kayaking!
I look like a bao
It's really peaceful inside this enclosed clearing
Obviously not putting in a lot of effort HAHA. I have no idea why I was so weak that day, I found it so hard to row the paddle lolol.
Next up was cave visiting which was kinda ruined with all the artificial colourful lights they placed inside. Would have been much prettier without it
Also, when our boat was parking at the harbour, the window hit the edge of another boat and it shattered hahahaha. No one was hurt luckily. The last time I was overseas with fong, our van window was also shattered.
THROWBACK TO LAOS
Dinner was pho at the rest stop
caught the sleeper train to Sapa at night. It was my first time on a sleeper and I was very excited!
Bought our tickets online which cost twice as much as it would have cost on site so PLS buy onsite #jasmine'straveltips
Didn't have a good sleep because the train was very rocky :(
DAY 3: SAPA
Reached Lao Cai Station at dawn and took the shuttle bus that brought us up to Sapa. Sapa is this mountainous region in Vietnam so it was much much colder than Hanoi. Took a cab to our Homestay which we booked through airbnb!
First things first, breakfast!
They had dogs omg I loveeeeee
Warming ourselves up by the fire with the doggies
In the afternoon, some of the children come over to learn english from one of our hosts.
We rented a bike to explore Sapa by ourselves. Lent him my scarf to cover his mouth because it was so cold with the wind blowing against us as we rode. Plus it was drizzling a little too hahaha doesn't he look like a badass biker boy
It was very misty so you can't see anything :(
back at the homestay
had a family dinner with the other visitors
DAY 4: SAPA
Explored our region a little more! And climbed the terraces.
Took the shuttle bus back to Lao Cai at 5pm and I was feeling a little sick from something I ate earlier on :(( And on the bus I puked HAHA and the plastic bag was too small to hold my vomit and it ended up overflowing and some got onto me. Goodness I was a mess. Say Fong held my bag of vomit all the way till we reached even though I insisted for him not to. And he had some vomit on his hand too yucks. As I type this I am recalling the smell of my vomit now. THANK YOU FOR TAKING CARE OF ME LOVE <3 p="">
Took the sleeper train back again and reached Hanoi at dawn. Thought we could check in early but there were no more rooms omg so we ended up booking a hostel nearby for a few hours to sleep because we were v tired.
All in all, this trip was pretty fun even though I got sick for awhile. And I'm grateful to fong for taking care of me well. Yay! To more trips together.
NEXT UP: MYANMAR
in 3 weeks. Not with fong though, with my sch mates for a mod. Hope it's fun!
DAY 5: HANOI
Took the sleeper train back again and reached Hanoi at dawn. Thought we could check in early but there were no more rooms omg so we ended up booking a hostel nearby for a few hours to sleep because we were v tired.
Had buncha for lunch! Don't really like it though it's too sweet for me.
Rented a bike again and travelled around going to museums and such.
Dinner was western because I was sick of viet food lolol
view of the church
All in all, this trip was pretty fun even though I got sick for awhile. And I'm grateful to fong for taking care of me well. Yay! To more trips together.
NEXT UP: MYANMAR
in 3 weeks. Not with fong though, with my sch mates for a mod. Hope it's fun!
8 comments
Im such a fan of you two!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Jasmine, you plan Sapa trip on your own?
ReplyDeleteI heard tout is around train station, and since is dawn...is there bus from Lao Cai to Sapa?
Which tour you took on Halong Bay?
Thanks.
Hi Chris, yes I did! Yes there was a free shuttle bus from Lao Cai to Sapa, we bought our train tickets online which came with the free bus transfer! When we reached the Lao Cai station, there was a man holding up a sign with my name so I just went to him haha.
DeleteHi Jasmine! Was it safe when you guys were riding in sapa and hanoi? Do u need to give your passports and let them hold on to it in order for you to rent the bike?
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ReplyDeleteHello! We rented through the owner of our homestay we didn't need to give any copies of our passport :) when we were there it was constantly drizzling and the roads are quite narrow and steep because we didn't stay that near the sapa town centre so it was quite dangerous! But my bf has a bike license, I think if you have experience with riding it's fine, if not it's better not to ride on your own!
ReplyDeleteHi..could you please share the link of where you bought the online train ticket? we plan to go there in August
ReplyDeleteThanks for you well-organized information and eye-catching pictures! Other article as best places in Vietnam can also give a closer look to Vietnam destinations to have memorable time in Vietnam
ReplyDelete