north vietnam tour: 08 June 2005

night chat with our dearest kien

back to hotel for some washing up after some window shopping...chatted with the night shift hotel attendent, whose name was kien...he was actually a university graduate and speak pretty good english i will say...but end up having to work only as a hotel attendent as the job market is not really that good there...very friendly and nice guy...really miss him now lol...ask him to teach us some basic vietnamese too haha...but pretty sad i will say we nvr manage to take a picture of kien... =(.....sad sad....

dinner at street "restaurant"

caught in daze...or are they just drawned to the food that just came??? haha...

salivating, looking at all the food after a long tiring day!!!

view of the street "restaurant" (u could see a few foreigners there too enjoying their meals hehe...)

took a cabbie back to the old quarters from the west lake cos we are really too tired to walk anymore haha...i think we walked pretty much around 1/4 of the whole city already!!!!...found ourselves at one of the street "restaurant" for dinner...the "restaurant" is really limited only by the number of tables and stools they have, and not by the space or even the roads!!! they happily layed another line of tables and stools just by the road (really just 1 foot away from the road lol)when we arrived...extending their already crowded "restaurant"...treated ourselves to some seafood...but once again, the experience of eating in such street "restaurant" is really unique and interesting...although i kept looking to my back to ensure that i was "really" off the traffic of the road!!!

west lake / tran quoc pagoda

street hawker setting up stall...notice those little stools again haha...

all those motorcycles again...imagine crossing the road!!!

tran quoc pagoda under the sunset

nicer picture of tran quoc pagoda under the sunset....but why am i in the photo...wat a spoiler...=(

the walkway that leads to tran quoc pagoda...those palm trees really enhances the picture

west lake's sunset (notice that swan boat in the middle of the lake...how romantic it will be...haha)

one of the boat restaurants anchored on the lake

romantic??? haha...

west lake is the biggest lake in hanoi city itself....and known for his nice evening sunset and some pagodas along its bank.....and lots of vietnameses like to come here to jog in the evening....so healthy!!!...we visited the tran quoc pagoda just before the sunset...it is found on an islet along the lake's bank, linked by a narrow walkway which is lined by trees...nothing much there again...street hawkers will setup their stalls along the lake's bank in the late evening to provide locals with dinner choices...there was this little boy who keep pestering us to buy postcards from him...and he actually knows how to speak simple english and chinese...guess he probably learn extra languages so he can approach tourists of all nationality haha...he also "cheated" us of a packet of potato chips when we wanted to take photo with him haha...finally, the much-waited sunset arrived...really worth the long wait....really nice....how i wish it could be forever =P ...and the view of tran quoc pagoda under the sunset just looks so magnificent...

truc bach (white silk) lake

while silk lake in the late afternoon

those swan-liked boats that i mentioned

dayong sampan...dayong dayong sampan...

street hawkers taking a break by the roadside that spilt west lake and white silk lake

delicious!!! muahahaha

just right of west lake is its little sister, the white silk lake...this lake is probably just 1/10 the size of west lake...on both lakes, there are swan-liked boats that u can rent so that u can take a ride to the middle of the lake to enjoy the beautiful sunset later on...there is also a supermarket just south of this lake...the first supermarket we saw in hanoi haha...finally i get to buy my much needed deodorizer cos i am starting to stink already due to the excessive sweating under the hot sun...we also met a vietnamese gal who was promoting shampoo to us...and she speak good chinese!!!....and she was very pretty too...ops haha...later on, we pampered ourselves by taking a ice-cream break at a small cafe along the lake while we wait patiently for the sun to set...

quan thanh temple

inside of quan thanh temple (look at the powerful sunshine!!!)

just before we reached west lake, we find ourselves a cooling place to take a break from the hot blistering sun!!! haha...built in the early 11th century, this temple is dedicated to tran vu, one of vietnam's legendary hero, who later became the guardian saint of hanoi city...u also get to see a big bronze bell which was cast in 1677....but bascially nothing much to find here unless u are really a religious person...

ho chi minh museum / presidential palace

ho chi minh museum

ho chi minh mousoleum (look how strictly guarded it is!)

flag tower in front of ba dinh square

outside of presidential palace

for those who is interested in history, a visit to the ho chi minh museum is definitely a must...u get to know about how mr ho chi minh (i prefer to call him uncle ho becos of this closeness to the commoners) leads vietnam to gain independence and all about unlce ho's life story...just close to the museum is the one pillar pagoda...but we missed it probably due to the hot weather and we are to lazy to search anymore...haha...we also walked pass the ho chi minh's mausoleum where u will be able to see uncle ho face to face...yes, we will get to see his real body which has been preserved since...but we were told by the guards that it was closed that day...so sad...walking down the big ba dinh sqaure where uncle ho delivered vietnam's declaration of independence speech in 1945, u will reach the presidential palace...uncle ho didn't wanted to stay in this palace, saying it belonged to the people...so instead he stayed in a smaller slilt house built inside the same compound...once again, this shows how humble uncle ho as a person is...

temple of literature

entrance of the temple

inside view of the temple

confucius altar

stone stelae of the scholars

the injured bird close-up

the temple of literature was the first national univeristy of vietnam and was built in 1076 for training talented men for the nation...now it is a temple dedicated to Confucius...for nearly 1000 years, it has preserved its ancient architectural style and precious relics...many stone stelae of the scholars still stood by the side alleys of the temple and are mounted on the back of stone turtles, symbol of strength and longevity...we happened to see a poor little bird which i think injured its wings and couldn't fly....then dawn studys life science....so u know why this picture was taken lol....XD

vera's shop in hanoi? o.0

didn't know vera is so popular haha...

came across this shop along the way called vera!!!...one of our close friends is called vera for those who are wondering...kinda funny, so we went in to have a look so that we can buy a sovenier for vera...haha...in the end, i think we bought a panty with the word "vera" all over for her...haha...wonder wat will vera's reaction be when she see it...

hanoi train station

went to the train station to buy our train tickets to go lai cai, the stopover to sapa...and also the return tickets back to hanoi...usually people like to do a overnight train ride from hanoi to lai cai and vice versa so as to save some precious daytime...air-conditional softsleeper costs around US$15 per way...took really long to buy our tickets cos vietnameses people really like to do things quite slowly...haha...the locals usually pay much lesser compared to the foreigners...the extra $$$ probably goes into the tourism board or something...later we had our lunch at a restaurant just opposite the train station...next to the restaurant, there is a local bank if u need to change some currencies...

hanoi train station...lots of motorbike taxi (locally called "oms") there waiting for customers

hao lo prison aka "hanoi hilton"

hanoi hilton was a prison that was used to lock up the leaders of the communist government during the french era...later it was used during the vietnam war to imprison the US POW........the prisoners were tortured here and lived in crampy and dirty conditons....their feets are usually cuffed and locked up in a small room...inside the now converted museum, there is also a small garden where the old guillotine used to execute vietnameses resistance during french ruling still stood...and the cravings on the walls show how the prisoners were brutally tortured during their imprisonment...

room where prisoners are leg-cuffed to their concrete bed...so sad...

u gals are not gonna escaped...hahaha...

no! no! i am innocent! dun behead me!

wall cravings in the garden

st joseph's cathedral

today we decided to do the hanoi city tour by ourselves instead of joining the daily tour...our first stop...st joseph's cathedral...built in 1886 by the french, it is one of the very first colonial era buildings in hanoi city...the front door is usually opened during the early morning for the masses to go in for worshipping...else u can enter thru the side gates which lead to some beautiful murals, each telling a little story about christianity...inside the church, some pretty stained-glass windows still remained...in front of the church also stood a statue of virgin mary...there wasn't much people when u went there...just a few church attendents doing some cleaning...but most probably because it wasn't sunday...haha...

front view of the church, rising high above the streets

mural showing the last supper (da vinci code???...muahahaha...)

another of the mural (anyone knows wat it is supposed to say???)

craving showing resurrection of jesus chris?

old quarter streets

we had a simple breakfast provided by the hotel...bread with jam and butter...tea and orange juice...woke up kinda late haha...probably becos last night we stayed up too late ...so nvr really get to see how hanoi town wakes up...but i heard the town usually wakes up as early as 6 am, when the shopkeepers will open their shops and the street hawkers will set up their stalls...then poor myyher slept without pillow yesterday night cos only 2 pillow and both me and dawn took one...hehe...like i said before...the old quarter streets is very chaotic and full of traffic...very messy...there are exactly 36 streets in the old quarter intersecting randomly with one another...trying to find your way around probably need to take some times...motorcycles are virtually everywhere on the road...motorcycles to cars ratio is probably 10 : 1 lol...and the road sides are usually also packed with street hawkers...there are also hawkers carrying fruits and vegetables using two hanging baskets at each end of a pole, walking around selling them...simply very limited space to walk haha......learning to cross the road is a must must!!! traffic waits for no man...hehe...

yummy yummy!!!