The last 2 weeks was a whirlwind! Minghui and I were in Vietnam for 8 days, and after that Ashley & Lixian were here in Singapore for 4 days, and then now it's back to my final semester in uni. I've got no classes today so I shall finally write about my holiday.. And I've so much to say so I'll try to keep this concise!

We took Jetstar to Ho Chi Minh City from Singapore, then took another flight to Hanoi. Our second flight was delayed so we were held up at the airport for another 1.5 hours! And so, our first day was basically spent traveling. Took a cab to our hotel once we reached the airport and nearly got ourselves a heart attack. Our taxi driver was acting fishy and even stopped at a roadside stall in the middle of nowhere to get a drink! While the meter was still running! Grr. We were just so thankful when we reached our hotel safely. Upon reaching, we were told that there was a mix-up and the room we booked wasn't available. So we got upgraded to a deluxe triple room that even had a computer, for free. Yay! We love Hanoi Phoenix Hotel :D

The next day, we set out to explore the city. We had our first taste of authentic pho from the streets, stumbled upon the Singapore embassy, visited the Temple of Literature, went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, got sunburned, explored a Catholic church, went into a hero's shrine, took pictures outside the St. Joseph's basilica, took a break at a cafe overlooking the Turtle Tower at Hoan Kiem Lake, continued walking to Ngoc Son Temple, discovered AMAZING "chicken cau" which tasted so so so good, strolled around the Old Quarter, pondered over some art pieces for a really long time, and then finally called it a day!

So.. First day quite eventful ya? We managed to see a lot of things. But the next day we were setting off for a 2day/1night cruise at Halong Bay! =) There were 16 of us in total on the same cruise and it took us nearly 4 hours to get to the jetty from our hotel. The weather was getting hot but once we got onto our boat, it was so windy and cooling! And we met a few really interesting and inspiring people on the cruise too. The only bad thing about our cruise was that we couldn't use the AC in our room till at night. We had lunch on board and shared a table with a French family. They seemed really nice but due to the language barrier we didn't chat much. We were just basically cruising around Halong Bay, and then later on visited The Cave of Surprises, got about 45 minutes of kayaking, and also jumped off our boat into the sea for some swimming! But soon enough we found out that there was jellyfish in the waters and everyone scrambled back onto the boat. :P Went to the upper deck to watch the sunset before dinner was served. This time, we sat with Rob & Sarah from England, Stephen from Switzerland and Kevin from Singapore. We were amazed with travel stories from Rob, Sarah and Stephen. They've traveled so much and done so much and seen so much - I hope we'll be able to do that in the future!! We moved on from the dinner table to the head of the boat for cuttle fishing but failed to catch any fish. All we saw was the horrendous amount of jellyfishes in the sea and how extremely long their tentacles were. At least a meter long!!

The next morning, we actually got up at 5a.m. to catch the sunrise.. Only to find out that it had been raining the previous night. The skies were cloudy so there wasn't much of a sunrise to catch. Back to sleep it was! The morning was spent idling on the boat and sailing back to the jetty. Had lunch at Halong City and only arrived back in Hanoi in the evening.. We went to St. Joseph's basilica again as there was an evening service and boy is the church gorgeous on the inside! And there's so many people attending it that they actually project the service outside the church on a screen as well! We continued strolling around to explore the Old Quarter's 36 Streets. I loved how each street is unique and sells particular items only. We were looking at coffee beans and even got to try 'Weasel coffee' for free! FYI it is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet and other related civet populations, and is known to be the most expensive coffee in the world. But truthfully speaking.. I don't think we knew how to really appreciate its taste.

That wraps up our time spent in Hanoi! It all flew by so quickly. Sigh. Will write about Ho Chi Minh City & Mui Ne next! (:

The last 2 weeks was a whirlwind! Minghui and I were in Vietnam for 8 days, and after that Ashley & Lixian were here in Singapore for 4 days, and then now it's back to my final semester in uni. I've got no classes today so I shall finally write about my holiday.. And I've so much to say so I'll try to keep this concise!

We took Jetstar to Ho Chi Minh City from Singapore, then took another flight to Hanoi. Our second flight was delayed so we were held up at the airport for another 1.5 hours! And so, our first day was basically spent traveling. Took a cab to our hotel once we reached the airport and nearly got ourselves a heart attack. Our taxi driver was acting fishy and even stopped at a roadside stall in the middle of nowhere to get a drink! While the meter was still running! Grr. We were just so thankful when we reached our hotel safely. Upon reaching, we were told that there was a mix-up and the room we booked wasn't available. So we got upgraded to a deluxe triple room that even had a computer, for free. Yay! We love Hanoi Phoenix Hotel :D

The next day, we set out to explore the city. We had our first taste of authentic pho from the streets, stumbled upon the Singapore embassy, visited the Temple of Literature, went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, got sunburned, explored a Catholic church, went into a hero's shrine, took pictures outside the St. Joseph's basilica, took a break at a cafe overlooking the Turtle Tower at Hoan Kiem Lake, continued walking to Ngoc Son Temple, discovered AMAZING "chicken cau" which tasted so so so good, strolled around the Old Quarter, pondered over some art pieces for a really long time, and then finally called it a day!

So.. First day quite eventful ya? We managed to see a lot of things. But the next day we were setting off for a 2day/1night cruise at Halong Bay! =) There were 16 of us in total on the same cruise and it took us nearly 4 hours to get to the jetty from our hotel. The weather was getting hot but once we got onto our boat, it was so windy and cooling! And we met a few really interesting and inspiring people on the cruise too. The only bad thing about our cruise was that we couldn't use the AC in our room till at night. We had lunch on board and shared a table with a French family. They seemed really nice but due to the language barrier we didn't chat much. We were just basically cruising around Halong Bay, and then later on visited The Cave of Surprises, got about 45 minutes of kayaking, and also jumped off our boat into the sea for some swimming! But soon enough we found out that there was jellyfish in the waters and everyone scrambled back onto the boat. :P Went to the upper deck to watch the sunset before dinner was served. This time, we sat with Rob & Sarah from England, Stephen from Switzerland and Kevin from Singapore. We were amazed with travel stories from Rob, Sarah and Stephen. They've traveled so much and done so much and seen so much - I hope we'll be able to do that in the future!! We moved on from the dinner table to the head of the boat for cuttle fishing but failed to catch any fish. All we saw was the horrendous amount of jellyfishes in the sea and how extremely long their tentacles were. At least a meter long!!

The next morning, we actually got up at 5a.m. to catch the sunrise.. Only to find out that it had been raining the previous night. The skies were cloudy so there wasn't much of a sunrise to catch. Back to sleep it was! The morning was spent idling on the boat and sailing back to the jetty. Had lunch at Halong City and only arrived back in Hanoi in the evening.. We went to St. Joseph's basilica again as there was an evening service and boy is the church gorgeous on the inside! And there's so many people attending it that they actually project the service outside the church on a screen as well! We continued strolling around to explore the Old Quarter's 36 Streets. I loved how each street is unique and sells particular items only. We were looking at coffee beans and even got to try 'Weasel coffee' for free! FYI it is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet and other related civet populations, and is known to be the most expensive coffee in the world. But truthfully speaking.. I don't think we knew how to really appreciate its taste.

That wraps up our time spent in Hanoi! It all flew by so quickly. Sigh. Will write about Ho Chi Minh City & Mui Ne next! (: