When: 25 - 30 Dec 2014 (Staying at Aranya Hotel http://www.aranyahotel.com)
Where: Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam
The Deal: Nil
FYI: You do not need to prepare USD to visit Hanio (unless you already have USD). Everything can be paid in VND
Just got back from Hanoi, not too bad a trip but I will not say its great. Will write more when I have the time ^^
Dinner was at a road side stall near the hotel. We had no idea how to order food but wanted to try something local. Lucky after walking pass 4 to 6 stalls we found 1 with pictures and english menu. We ordered 2 bowls of Pho Bo, 1 Banh cuon (Steam rice/vermicelli roll) and a beer. Cost us VND150K (S$9.30)
DAY 2
Walk walk around Hanoi's Old Quarter and join a street food tour.
Random street stall lunch. We had a Duck Egg (half developed duckling) and a pan fried compressed rice cake.
Dessert is soya bean curd
After that we just hang round the lake area
I have to say I really enjoy this tour as I have the opportunity to learn about other types of Hanoi's food and learning how to order them. Of cause you can just follow my pictures and the address to try all the food on this tour but it will take the fun out of walking around in a big group and meeting people from all over the world ^^ also learning how the food was prepared. In our group we met friends from Brazil, Canada and USA! The guide can speak very good english and she is ready to answer all our questions.
1st stop: Bun Cha (BBQ pork with 2 pork meat balls) very tasty!
2nd stop: Papaya salad (with beef)
3rd stop: Bo Bai (A sweet treat made of freshly grated coconut and pieces of cane sugar)
4th Stop: Fried Savoury spring roll and donuts (Spring roll made with rice paper, 1 donut with sticky rice and 1 donut with flour)
5th stop: Bun Bo (This stall is a very famous stall that sell a dish that looks like stir fried Pho, the menu has just 2 food items, Bun Bo and Ga Tan, the rest of the items on the menu are drinks. Ga Tan is a kind of chicken soup. Ok Bun Bo is the top of the MUST try dish.)
5th stop: Dessert (Not a traditional Vietnamese dish but very tasty, it has small balls of Vietnamese coffee that will pop in your mouth) On our last night, I learn that this stall is actually 2 street down from our hotel, so I ordered another dessert to try ^^v
Last stop: The entrance to this very popular coffer joint is a small alley way (have to walk about 5-6 meters into the building), we will never find this on our own! According to our guide the reason for a lot of shops having such a small entrance is because property tax is charged by the width of their entrance to the main road, thus the smaller the entrance the lesser the property tax.
Here we try very nice egg coffee. The creamy part of the coffee is made up of egg yolk and condense milk. We also ordered a cup of ginger tea.
As we joined the last group tour, after coffee it's already 10pm (I was sleepy). So we bid farewell to our group mates and left for our hotel.
DAY 3
Off to Halong Bay for our 2 days 1 night Cruise with Galaxy Cruise (the reason why we pick this company is because they are the only 4 star Cruise with wifi onboard hahaha :p). We took 5 hours to reach Halong City due to the speed limit of the roads in Vietnam, average speed is about 60km/hr. Meaning it feels like forever before we reach Halong City. But I find it is worth to travel out of Hanoi to escape the noise and mess of the city to the peace and quiet of Halong.
Sad to say, we didn't stay the night on the cruise as the weather was too bad for any ship to stay out in the sea.
(Will write more about our experience of moving from cruise to staying @ a hotel in Halong city soon)
DAY 4
Morning at Halong City. Our Galaxy Cruise guide organised a morning walk to a near by market to look around. After that we check out at 12 noon, had lunch (included in the tour) and head back to Hanoi. Don't think we will be in a hurry to visit Halong Bay any time soon, the 4-5 hours bus ride is not very enjoyable.
Sun setting as we reach Hanoi.
Check in to Aranya Hotel again. Dinner is at a recommended 1 of the best Pho in town by our food tour guide. And yes it is very tasty!
DAY 5
Walk walk around west lake area, check out Vietnam war thingy, lunch at Green Tangerine and the last highlight of the trip is the water puppet show. The water puppet show is very popular we didn't manage to get the earlier show so we ended up watching the last show at 9pm.
DAY 6
Morning flight so just breakfast and off to the airport. The brand new T2's shops are not open yet, so I didn't manage to finish spending my last VND100K.
very empty airport, can only see Vietnam Airlines using it for now.
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