23rd Oct 2010: Heavy hearted

Had an excellent breakfast at the rooftop cafe of the hotel overlooking the busy pier.

Then it was time to head back to the busy street of Vietnam and the honk beats. We reach the Ha Long Pier at noon and got our lunch. The lunch was comparatively the best out of what we had over the past days in the past short tour we had in Vietnam. I would highly recommend Huang to all those who are interested to take such package in Vietnam.

We finally got back to Hanoi at the peak hour. The traffic was crazy as expected. Our last meal was authentic Vietnam dishes in the downtown.

Our tour finally came to an end when we returned to our homeland on the 24th Oct. Back to reality and work space :S

No photograph for the days as we were exhausted after the long tiring journey.

22nd Oct 2010: Cat Ba...best place for sunset

Me and my roomies all woke up early in hope to be able to catch a glimpse of the early light. However we were disappointed after shivering for close to an hour to witness nothing...to console ourselves, we earned some time to catch some good shots of ourselves on the junk.

After a fullfilling breakfast, we were transfered out of our junk to Cat Ba island enrouted to another nice island on the park. It was a really calm and enjoyable island. We went biking round the island, passing through jungle, tunnel and paddy fields.

We were then transferred to our hotel, Holiday View Hotel on the Cat Ba island. After the lunch, we got the whole afternoon to ourselves where we went explore along the beach and discovered the Sunspa Resort on the other corner of the island.

Then we spend some excellent time on pier, witnessing the sunset. The sunset was perfect with a golden yolk.

Ended the day over cards and beers...hooray!

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21st Oct 2010: Best day of the trip

We were picked up early morning by our guide, Huang. He was very knowledgeable about their history. He shared about their 1000 years of history since the celebration banner was still hanging everywhere along our way as our past tour, we got free ride round the city. Though this was already our 6th day of our trip, the city still remained unfamiliar for us.

On our hours of bus ride, we had a short stop at a craft shop...an overprice shop. Tour agent should have avoided this as they are scaring every tourist off. Everything was sold 3 to 4 times the usual price....my yam ice cream was 3 fold.

We finally arrived at Halong City at about 11.30am. The harbour was really happening. Huge tourist crowds and tens or hundreds of big and small junk cruises and boats at the harbour. It didn't look as good as we expected for the smoky sky. However the expression of those returning ones ensure us on the total fun we could have here.

We finally being transfered into our junk cruise, Imperial Cruise on a smaller boat. The Imperial Junk was beyond my expectation. With as little as USD97 for 3 days/2 nights, I was expecting something more economical. Our rooms were all with a/c and water heater. The bed were comfortable and clean as well. It was better than APTez in Hanoi City.

On board, we were welcomed by the crew and each being given a cold towel and welcoming tea...kind of like the mild flower aroma of the tea. After the drink, we were served with lunch. As usual, we have French fries, fried spring roll, fried cabbage and fried chicken with onion but this meal was outstanding with the fresh seafood and tasted to our liking. We loved the squid, fish cakes and spring rolls...satisfying meal!

While we were enjoying our lunch, the cruise was sailing towards the Sung Sot Cave aka the Amazing Cave. The sky got clearer and we got better view as we got further away from the harbour. We finally disembarked from the cruise and started our hike...it was more of a walk with occasional stair steps than a hike. The cave has few huge chambers filled with all sorts of natural formation resembling the shape of dragon, forest, tortoise, elephant, Buddha and etc. It was nicely light...humid and cold...unlike in Gua Tempurung. The view from the top overlooking the small islands and floating house in Halong Bay was an enjoyable one.

Next activity was the kayaking. This was the best activity on board. I got on a solo kayak....was really fast on it as the water is calmer than the Batu Ferringhi shore. We enjoyed kayaking despite witnessing a kayak overturned by the waves of a moving huge junk. We also witnessed how fast the crew responded. We enjoyed kayaking and wished we could have longer time here but without those junk around.

Back in our cruise, we saw 'Ang Mo's enjoyed their swim so HJ and I dared to follow but not daring enough to leave our life jacket behind. When we got into water, we got shock. The swim seemed harder than we have imagined. The wave was too strong for us. It swapped us on our face. We struggled to swim to the front of the junk...15 minutes in the water seemed like hours on shore.

After refreshing up, we went to the upper deck for sun set. It was not very nice as it was blocked by the many 'Long's there. We enjoyed the breeze and scenery and wait till the moon moved in with a can of Hanoi Beer on hand...beer was one of the cheapest drink on the menu despite the pricey menu, it was still relatively cheap compared to in Malaysia.

For dinner, we got to enjoy BBQ food...yummy seafood, the squid was exceptionally juicy and tender. The salad was good too. With another can of beer, the meal is perfect till I retired to my room for a hotel shower.

Back on the deck and tried to fish for squid. Finally heard that it takes time for the light to play its role to attract the squid. Left idle for an hour while we were on cards. When we were back on jarrod, there were fishes and squids around. when SY finally got the squid on hook, suddenly the light just dropped and gave us all a shock. That ends our day.

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20th Oct 2010: Nice excursion but disastrous evening

We arrived at Hanoi Railway Station at 5am in the morning. Not sure if it was the lower berth that was more comfortable or it was because I was too tired. I have a good night sleep. I slept all the way till our alarms rang. That was pretty unusual for me when I was travelling. Anyway, Mr Anh was there to pick us up 5 minutes after our arrival like he has told us earlier. He arranged for a van to drop us back in APTez Hotel.

We arrived at APTez Hotel too early. The employees were sleeping soundly when we knocked on the door. We was hoping to check in early but there was no room available. They were kind to arrange a room for us to freshen up. We left the hotel before 7 and went round to hunt for food. We have yummy clear soup chicken phon. As my sore throat and cough were worsening I skipped the chili. The chili was good according to others but it wasn't for me :-( After the meal, we walked around then headed back to our hotel and wait for Perfume pagoda pick up.

At 8, our guide for the day, X. arrived to pick us up. Then we went zig-zagging across the city to pick up other tourists. This was the 1st time to get to see more of the city on broad daylight. We passed by the shopping area in the downtown. There were lots of branded stores there...Gucci, Cartier, LV, Mont Blanc...most probably I were to name all those branded brands to me, they would have it there. After leaving the city, it took us another one and a half hour bus ride to arrive at the river.

There were 5 of us and another man, most probably a Singaporean on board with X. Our boat was hand rowed by a lady in her 30s. Quite small size for a boat of 8. X was very humorous. He spoke mandarin very well. It was an entertaining ride despite the slow pace rower and under the roasting sun. He could still make drastic moves to shake the boat left and right to make our ride more exciting. The scenery was postcard like and marvelous.

When we finally arrived on the other land, we stopped by the counter to claim our cable car ticket. Many foreigner ops for hike up and cable car down to see more. We were too tired for hiking and to race against the cable car. The waiting time and travelling time on cable car was about 30 minutes while the hike itself would take about 40 minutes if we were fit enough. So we stick to our original plan of cable car as our legs were aching. At the stop, I got my 1st cream of the trip despite my cough. The weather was too hot and the green bean ice cream was just too tempting. Glad that I took for it was refreshing on a hot sunny day.

Arriving at the top of the hill, we still have to descend on a long staircase into the Tiger Cave. The cave have a tiger similar natural limestone sculpture at the entrance. In the cave a a typical Chinese temple. There were few goddess and altars for the believer. I was more fond about the limestone :D Then he hike out of the cave and back to the cable car station to head downhill for our lunch in a local restaurant.

The scenery seem better on downhill ride. It was series of green mountains, undisturbed forest with occasional huts in between. Under the clear blue sky, yes no more polluted grey sky as in the city center, this was the best outdoor activity so far in Vietnam considering the weather, environment and the difficulty level. I just love it!

At the bottom, we were served with lunch in a huge local restaurant. The back of the restaurant seem more like a shelter for the pilgrims during festive season. There were lots of empty room with a huge plank platform for resting. There were 1 or 2 more luxury rooms with thin mattresses. This restaurant cum shelter can easily fit over hundred of people.

The lunch seemed to be the worst provided by our many tour package agents. We got the usual dishes but tasted the worst. For starter we have deep fried spring roll and French fries. For main course, we were served with stir fried cabbage, stir fried chicken with onion and lemon grass, deep fried tofu and deep fried fish with white rice. As usual, most Europeans or Australians would praise that the meals were excellent when in fact, they got all the flavors from the additional soy sauce they have requested from the waiter. Half bowl of soy sauce sauce for 1 bowl of rice.

After our lunch, we quickly made a detour to the silver pagoda. This was one of the newest and best maintained temple I have seen in Vietnam. This temple seemed to have element of Chinese and Japanese architecture. The shiny red pillars and windows were astonishing Chinese while the pagoda and it's roof edge were like the Japanese. Under the blue sky, the silver pagoda just stand out. It was a satisfying spot for photographer like myself.

Finally it was time to head back. We got on our sampan again and the ride back was more comfortable as it wasn't that hot. The sunset view from the bus over the paddy fields was mesmerizing. It was a nice short excursion but lots of time spend on travelling. I was too tired that I felt asleep on the bus after witnessing the sunset.

We asked for a drop off at the lake area. We intended to head to KFC for dinner...just curious of their menu in Vietnam but this short detour turned out to be a disaster strike. HJ's camera was stolen from her back on crowded street. Lucky for her purse and passport were in safe. Anyway we decided to lodge a police report. Finding a police station was a challenge to us. The word 'police' was not common here. We finally learnt it from a hotel reception.

Arriving at the police station, our communication skills were put to challenges. No one seem to understand what exactly we were speaking. Only 1 young officer could clearly say 'I know. I know' when we asked if anyone speak English. Those were the only 2 English words from him. After long hand and body gesture communication, they finally got our intention and as usual they were reluctant to take our case.

They asked for hotel contact and got the hotel staff over to talk us into dropping the case. They told us that the camera can not be recovered. Cost incurred on us would be more that what the camera worth...guess they meant they were expecting some bribe to get those officer to hunt the culprit down. We didn't felt bad over the remark for this was not something new we learn about Vietnam and it wasn't our country after all. We were pissed when the hotel staff tried to condemn our country by comparing his friend murder case in Malaysia. Though he may be true to certain extend but when you hear it from him, you just get pissed off.

We have no choice but to drop the case. We headed back to our hotel while searching for food but have no luck. We ended our day with dinner at Hue where we bumped into a Korean with her local friend. They were so nice to show us the right way to wrapped our BBQ meat. Another 鬼佬凉茶, Hanoi beer!

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19th Oct 2010: 3 falls in a day

We started our day with a healthy and filling complementary breakfast from Thai Binh. We were served with egg omelet/scramble egg with French bread with local coffee/tea at Thai Binh Hotel. I have tea as I was coughing very badly and have bad sore throat. Decided not to put up fight against my throat.

Hien met us at 9pm. We quickly finished our breakfast, checkout from the hotel and on our feet towards the valley. Not to forget to mention here was the magically treat of Cinnamon stick. Hien introduces us to the Cinnamon stick. It was almost 1cm thick...guess tenth fold of what we normally use in kitchen back at home. He said that this spice can cure sore throat. So I got my share. It has mild sweetness and a little menthol and anesthetic effect...cooling and a little numbness. I proved to be at help for me.

The moment we stepped out of the hotel, we were swarm by the ladies in black/blue. The scenario was as though as we are honey and bees are all after us. The early of our journey was along tarred road downhill to the valley. The scenery of the valley from the high up was good. I could imagine that it would be better if the crop has yet to be harvested. Anyway it still worth our visit here. Along the way, we passed by the Rose Valley. It was empty as well all the flowers have been harvest for the Women Day.

Along our way, we met a lot of LIB. There were old and young. Some were too young to sell but yet she could still carry along a baby on her back. These children are really poor and forced to skip school over few dollars each day. :S We came across a pair of siblings that were farming on steep hill side, could be about 45 degrees. At one point, he almost slipped and some shouted out in fear for him. After about 4km, we started to dive on a muddy path.

I didn't have difficultly hopping around avoiding the mud spot and natural fertilizer until a steep slope. I tried my best to descent slowly but with my nike air sneaker, it was not helpful at all as compared to their rubber slipper. On the muddy path, my sneaker turned out to be a ski board. the narrow lines were filled with mud. So there I slipped and fell. Quickly, I was back on my feet again.

Then my 2nd fall followed, it really hurts. My reflex system did exactly like what KS done during our Balik Pulau field trip. I held my camera high and allowing myself to fall hard on my buttock. It hurts this time. After the 2nd fall, I decided to keep my camera safe in bag. Looking at my 2nd humpty dumpy fall, Hien offered to carry my precious camera for me.

I continued the rest of my hike with her help...shitly I fell again at another narrow and steep path. Ouch...my buttocks!

After 1 and a half hour and 3 falls, we finally arrived at flat land. By then we have already arrived in the Black Hmong Village. She showed me her house from far, it seem simple and small in between those paddy fields. So after purchasing some pricey souvenir from her, we bid farewell.

We finally stopped at a local operated restaurant by the river side. That meal was remarkable. It top our list of worst meals in Vietnam. The noodle soup has very strong meat smell despite having pork only. The pork taste 10x smellier than what we usually have. I have to force myself to swallow the noodle dry...avoiding the meat, soup and the bad aroma from it.

After the noodle, we were back on track. On our way through the village, we passed by a primary school and hospital. Those children were worries free. They just love his company. The remarkable part of the hospital was the small steel box right outside, looked like a post box, hanging on the pillar was in fact a condom distributor point. The government gave out free condom and encourage them to use it to curb their over populated issue...Bravo! This project should also include STD transmission prevention into its' objective.

Moving on into the 2nd village, there were less LIB. Most ladies are dressed in bright colour. This village also seem less crowded and has more business opportunities. There were many shops selling locally crafted souvenirs. There were also slight change in terms of the architecture, more cement and concrete were used.

At the end of our trek, we passed by another primary school and a community hall. Those ladies and children seemed to be enjoying their time around their family members there. We headed back to our hotel at Sapa along steep and narrow winding road.

Then we were back in Thai Binh to collect our luggage and head to the Hoang Ha Hotel for shower. Glad that our agent already made arrangement for us to have shower there. It was so nice to have hot shower without have to worry about burning the hotel down. Then it was another less delighting meal at that hotel.

By 6pm, we left Sapa on a packed van through winding road downhill. Thanks to the reckless driver, I experienced the latitude sickness...my ear almost burst and I almost throw out. We reached Lao Cai at about 8pm and have to wait long till our train SP4 arrived at the station.

So this was my day. After the 3 falls, my whole body ached and hurts. I have to resort to take the lower deck in hope for a comfy sleep.

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18th Oct 2010: First minority tribe village visit

Even with the late departing, we still managed to make it to Lao Cai before dawn. We were alerted of our arrival minutes before the train stopped at the station. It was a quick packed up.

In the station, we were received by our driver. There were ten plus other who were with us on the bus. The scenery uphill was good. It kept getting nicer as we travel further up.

After an hour long bus ride along winding road uphill. We finally arrived at the Hoang Ha Hotel. We ate our breakfast at the hotel. The buffet was rather simple, fried noodles, fried rice, noodle soup and deep fried eggs. It wasn't to our liking, not because lack of variety but due to the tasteless dishes. The coffee was disappointing too...tasted like burned charcoal. We were thankful for not settling with this hotel as suggested by Anh during our reservation.

Then our guide, Hien came over to our table and introduced himself. He was a young man at about our age and with a smiley face. His command of English was much better than those that we have met in Hanoi this far. He then got his friend to take us to our hotel which I guessed was about half km away from where we were. So with big luggages, we braved the road under the light drizzle.

We didn't know what to expect from Thai Binh Hotel until it was within our sight. Looking through the wide glass door gave us all a relieve and a smile on our face. My first impression was this was a small cozy and warmth hotel. It was a narrow 4 story high hotel. It stood out among others with a natural tone furniture. The white wall looks best with the maple or perhaps white oak wood ceiling and reception counter. I love the fireplace too. Nice to sit beside it.

We got into our room, 302 but later to discover that we have got ourselves 3 rooms instead of 2. So I moved to 303. The room was as cozy as the reception. Each room was equips with a fireplace and an electric heater. The window opens to the pine tree wood behind the hotel. It was so simple yet very comfortable.

Then by 10am, we were back at the lobby to meet Hien. We headed to the Cat Cat Village. We were surrounded by many Black Hmong ladies along our winding journey down the valley. Their English were generally good and understandable. It was surprising that these ladies can speak way better than men in the city. Perhaps their encounter with foreign tourist really change their way of life. They were selling their handmade crafts.

Cat Cat Village is resided by the Hmong tribe. It was down in the valley about 4km away from the Sapa Town. It seemed that this tribe actually shares the same ancestry as the 苗 in China. We have a pleasure time hiking with Hien. We talked about so many things and learned that his hometown was actually under the flood water too. Other than the side talk, we learned the meaning of tea leave hung outside of the Hmong house. It symbolized solemn event in that family and guests were not welcome.

We walked through the paddy fields and houses to arrive at the breath taking Cat Cat Waterfall. It was a great spot for photographing but sadly my batteries were flat :-( The waterfall was our last site of the hike of the day. We hike up the valley and continued to the town on a charted army jeep. We were too exhausted after the bumpy night ride.

We have our yummy lunch at a conducive restaurant by the hill sight. The local dishes were yummy. After the late lunch, it was free time for us to wonder around and to rest. We walked back to our hotel but with a few pit stop. We could not help but to get attracted to the local pastries shop. Those chocolate tarts were so tempting. We did another stop at the Sapa Market. The minority tribes stores were all manned by ladies. They were all so busy sewing their traditional clothings and weaving. Impressive to see that the government gave them so much... assuming that they got it free...hahaha. We were back in hotel after buying few XL size fruits :D

I wanted to hike up to the Ham Rong Mountain but just couldn't get enough strength to go further. By the time I have enough of recharge, it was close to 5pm. It was getting dark and the hike up the hill seem like a mission impossible. So instead, we headed down to the the market. Glad that we all returned with bags and bags of triumphs. Shopping could be one of the best activities on a cold day.

We were back in hotel and waited patiently for Hien's pickup. He arranged for a Vietnamese meal in an Italian Restaurant. Again, the environment was very comfy. After the meal, it was shopping time again and again I returned with bags loaded. I got my best buddies sleeping bags. These were the best gift ever and I was sure we would be using them pretty soon.

Back in the hotel, it was hot shower time. I enjoyed mine but sadly the HJs got traumatized after a nearly blown off experience they got from the gas powered heater. The flame indicator was scary. We ended our night with Heineken beers, cookies and our chocolate tarts over few card games.

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17th Oct 2010: Museum of Ethnology & Old Quarter

Another early day on backpack. We were served with fresh French loaf with fried egg and a cup of Vietnam coffee at hotel. It was worth every cent spend in the hotel.

This was a packed day within the Hanoi City. Our first site of the day was the Museum of Ethnology. It was about 10km from where we stay. We hailed for a cab and speeded through the busy street of Hanoi. We arrived at the Museum at about 10am. Based on review online, we decided to check on the outdoor display and continue indoor if we have time left as those at outside seem more appealing and interesting. First we headed to the largest minority tribe house in the museum, the Cham House. It was a well organized compound with little huts with each serving certain people of the family and for specific purpose. The walls were made from earth and wood combination and the structures were slightly raise above ground.

Then it was hideout at the Ede House. The rain was very heavy forcing us into the house for about 30 mins. Ede House was pretty much like our 'Rumah Panjang'. It was a long house for the whole of the community. The most remarkable part of the house was the awkward shape on the staircase at the front. It seemed to me like boobs, non functionality, for decoration purpose only.

Then we headed to the Water Pavilion right in front of the Viet House. The water puppet show seemed less interesting due to the lack of maintainance. Those puppets' colour faded and the water was full of green moss. So we left half way through the performance to visit the Viet House. It was a concrete made structure with wooden door frame and a over 1 feet of obstacles.

Next in our list was the most interesting building, Bahnar Communal House. It was a high platform, high roof community hall for Vinh Quang commune. However I didn't get why they made it so hard to get into it. Beside the Bahnar was the obscene Giarai Tomb. We were not aware of it being a tomb and forgive our shallowness for taking it as a place to make out looking at the building was surrounded by obscene sculptures.

got what drives us to conclude that way yet?

We continued on the Yao, Hmong and Hanhi House. From our visit, we could conclude that the minorities' houses were very simple and lacking. All made of earth, wood and bamboo. Everything was done under the same roof. It was their stores, their bed, their kitchen and workplace. Many were lacking of windows too. Perhaps windows were harder to make and most probably a luxury to them. There were a pottery workshop within the compound too. Some exhibits were great and were made by local children. No wonder they have so much of masterpieces available for tourist to carry home each day.

We ended our trip with the yummy chocolate tart purchase at the Museum Cafe. No wonder so many people recommended this cafe on the internet. The tart was indeed delicious. The crust were thin and have the correct hardness. We got a fruits tart and opera cheese cake too. These 2 were ok. I preferred the chocolate tart better.

Finally we got back to our hotel to meet up with HJs and to learnt that we each has been robbed off USD4. We each has to pay USD4 for a short shower. We have previously agreed on USD12 but when he learnt that we have 5 pax rather than 3, he was quick to remake his calculation. So just for that 10 minutes shower per person, we were made to pay USD20. For that price, I think we most probably can get a full body massage ready :S

So after meeting up those girls, we continued our exploration. We went to the Hoan Kiem Lake aka Sword Lake. This lake is believed to home an endangered species of long soft shell turtles but no luck. I detected none of them. If I did I would most prob be the luckiest person on earth since last detected in year 1997. Anyway I preferred the night view of the lake better with those colourful neon lights and the cooling breeze. It was hot and worsen by the water reflectance. Luckily they have lots of shady trees along the lake side.

The Ngoc Son Temple sitting in Jade Island at the Northern side of the lake was connected to the shore on the bright red lake. The temple's architecture and build up was pretty similar to any Chinese Temple back at home. Red was always the theme colour with paintings and sculptures of the 4 sacred animal sat on all corners. Opposite the entrance to the temple was the less interesting Martyrs' Monument.

We continued our exploration into the old quarters...heading to the Dong Xuan Market. This was where I bought my pirated North Face smallest backpack. It was really cheap n worth every dongs. Backpacks were incredibly cheap...1 got 1, SY got 1 and SL got 2...shopping Queens! I thought I would have buy more if Dong Xuan has the same to offer as Ben Thanh. I could not get coffee here :-( and the food section was rather small.

Finally we rushed back to our hotel for our 10 minutes shower before our check out time at 5pm. Sadly we ended up being fool by the taxi driver. It was supposed to be few hundred meters of straight road then a right turn and continue straight for 1 or 2 more km only but he ended up taking us round and round in the opposite direction. There was no way he didn't know the direction when we newbies can easily walk around with that map. We kept telling him he was in wrong direction but he kept telling us he needed to make that turn...:S

After the damn pressure 10 minutes bathing time, we checked out from our room. We left our luggage behind and went hunting for food. The hotel reception counter was man by a friendly lady. We consulted her and found out that we are actually on the food street. She recommended us a couple of stalls next door. Finally we settled with the Net Hue. This was a lovely restaurant with air conditioned sitting place. They served real yummy local dishes. I ordered a grilled pork dish served with vegetables and vermicelli, 'Cuon thit Nuong', rice cake with shrimp, 'Banh Ram it nhan tom' and fried banana & coconut milk dessert, 'Che Chuoi'. I loved them very much! This would most probably be our best dinner here. Looking forward to discover more great place to eat.

After dinner, we walked along the Silk road again. We just have too much time to till until 8pm when Anh was supposed to picked us up. We waited from 7.45pm till 8.30pm when he finally showed up. We have a great conversation with our hotel reception lady again...talking bout travelling, schooling and etc. Anh arrived and walked us to the taxi...oh not to forget, then bakery nearby our hotel was great. They sells some interesting French pastries. We got ourselves some French macarons, almond crisps and chocolate cookies for supper in train.

We boarded our train to Sapa at about 9.30pm. Luckily we got the compartment to ourselves. 5 in a 6 beds compartment so that we could have some privacy. The bed was rather hard and the space above was limited. The higher the bed the narrower the space was. It was the opposite in India. As usual I was on the top berth. It was more difficult than I imagined. It was super bumpy and hot...the AC seemed to aim the lower berth...omg! With that condition, I was awaken every now and then....tired!

Today was less interesting due to much waiting time and less sight seeing time. Definitely hope that my bumpy sleepover was worth the scenery in Sapa. Looked forward to Sapa.

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16th Oct 2010: Reminder of India and Saigon

It was a late night flight on the night before. All thanks to the reschedule by our low cost air travel provider, Air Asia. We initially booked for 9pm flight but were rescheduled to 11pm and due to the late arrival of previous flight, our flight only took off at close to 12am.

By the time we arrived in Tune Hotel, LCCT, it was already 1am. It was a short nap before waking up at 4.30am and be in LCCT at 5.15am. We were all seated on the hot seat beside the emergency exit. I loved my 14E seat. It has ample of leg space to give the extra comfort. Our flight took off at 6.40am and we arrived in Noi Bai International Airport on time. The immigration clearance was pretty quick as the crowd in the airport was less. However the baggage was rather slow. We waited for half an hour to collect 2 luggages.

The first impression that I got of the Hanoi City was the people was less friendly as compared to their famous business hub, Ho Chi Minh. We asked for whereto and howto get to our hotel but were offered with overprice taxi services instead. Taxi services offered at counter could go up to USD38 when it was actually USD15 only. We asked for a map each just in case we got separated at times but were given only 1 unclear photocopied map. I could recall how friendly the ground staffs in Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh were. Previously we did not have any difficulty in getting tourism information of the city. Read about my last experience flying into Vietnam at here. Anyway I hoped it will be better when we get to city later.

After hunting around the airport, we finally caught a taxi right in front of Vietnam Airlines taxi stand at USD15 as suggested. We arrived at APTez Hotel at about 10.30am. The hotel was situated at Tong Duay Tan. It was along a hidden alley with lots of food stalls and motorcycle parked by the side. We were greeted by the hotel's friendly staffs. We were thankful for being allowed to check in early. We were given the VIP room, 503 on the 5th floor(the Asian way of counting). The room was clean and spacious. 2 things which I was uncomfortable with were the blue lighting on the plaster ceiling and lack of elevator for a 6 stories high building.

We dropped our luggages in the room, freshened up and headed down to our first destination of the day, the Presidential Palace. En route, we looked for decent local food stall but found nothing. We finally settled with Joma Bakery Cafe, a western cafe. Nice food with excellent environment, nice hideout place from the noise pollution from the crazy traffic of the city. The roads were crowded with motorcycles and all equipped with annoying horn. As usual, I could not understand why horn was used every now and then.

We continued walking under the light drizzle along Dien Pien Phu, passing the Le Nin Park, Flag Tower and our Malaysian Embassy. It was a pleasure walk ignoring the noise and the crazy traffic. The huge trees lining along the both side of the road and colourful lantern and decorative item used for the city millennial celebration made the walk an interesting one.

The Ba Dinh Square was half under renovation. We could only watch it from far. Then we stopped in front of the Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum to admire the exterior of the Russian style architectural. We walked ups and down looking for ways into the Presidential Palace and the Stlit house. The officer stationed there were not helpful with poor command of English. We finally figured out that the stilt house was closed for lunch till 2pm from the 2 officer we bumped into.

We decided to head to the famous One Pillar Pagoda first before turning back to the Stilt House. The One Pillar Pagoda was nice but I was expecting something more magnificent since it was highly recommended by many sources. It turned out to be a 2m x 2m temple to house few goddess on the water surface. The temple was supported by a pillar of 1.25m in diameter. As I was busy on the camera, both SL & SY were looking at sourvenirs. They were offered prices in all different currencies which includes 人民币, 台币 but never 马币 was mentioned. I guessed our presences were rare in Vietnam.

Moving on, we headed to the Ho Chi Minh's Museum. It was situated beside the Pagoda. According to our old guide book, the museum resume after lunch at 1.30pm but it was incorrect. We sat by the museum and waited patiently with few other visiting groups, giving our aching legs some time to recover. However when time came, we decided to skip this from our itinerary as we have few other more interesting place to go. So we went back to the HCM's Vestige In the Presidential Palace Area. This area housed the Presidential Palace, the Stilt House and HCM living quarter as well as HCM's used cars garage. It was a nice green garden with a private lake in the heart of Hanoi.

Then we walked along Ong Ich Khiem into Son Thay. We passed the Hung Vuong and then turning into Hang Chao, the screw and electrical appliances street. We got a detour round the Temple of Literature. Stepping into the temple felt like stepping into another world. It was ambiance, all green and no worry about eye sore sight like we have seen in other part of the city. I found lots of comfort in there. I loose myself for a moment here while busy rubbing the head of those tortoise in hope for academical luck. This was surely one of the best attraction in Hanoi.

We continued our journey under the rain, heading to the weekend market within the Old Quarter. On our way, we passed by the wet market along the Ngo Si Lien. There were a lot of light snacks being sold there but we were not daring enough to try on our very first day here. We only tried the fried maze fritter. Seeing BBQ dog sold in the market freak most of us off. I wished I could have the courage to try it on.

We went to the restaurant nearby our hotel for a late tea. I got my first dessert and a beef noodle. Both were so so. Then we stopped by our hotel to ask for clearer direction to the weekend market. The reception highlighted the route for us on the map and we then left.We walked westward along the Silk street, Hang Bong. We arrived at the Hang Dao way too early. Most of the night market merchant has not started their business yet.

We walked to the lake instead. It was nicely lid with colourful neon lights. So much effort being place to make this a community leisure spot as well as a tourist spot.
Then we head back to the night market We walked and walked. The night market seemed endless. We were hungry but we did not see any food around. So we decided to diverge out of the night market street. We ate a yummy chicken Pho at Hang Khoai.

We were so exhausted. We were back in our room at about 10.30pm and I slept at 12 after a can of Ha Noi Beer. It tasted a little bitter but worth every dong. 10,000d/RM1.50 for a can of beer was too tempting.

This was a great day to start our trip. It could be much better if it was dry.

For more photo, please refer to fb

Online photo printing service by eoe Online : Part II

This is my follow up review for eoe Online photo printing service.

Software : After my last review I continued to explore on the other order method. Their Photo Express Software was great. The uploading feature was pretty similar to its online version but in a better manner. It did the printing size checking prior to upload. Alerting you on the poor quality prior to your upload and so you can avoid wasting time on those photos which you would end up not developing them. Besides, it was also cool to resize all the photos to the sufficient size prior to the upload. With this, you can actually save some time avoiding oversize image upload. As a whole this is a user friendly application, easy to install and simple to use. Score : 5/5 (*this scoring does not take the editing capability into consideration)

The assessment page prior to upload...all my downloaded photos from FB is red out ever for 4R. I am cool with the poor quality as I was only fond of the memories.

I received my 1st order and thanks eoe Online for the kind give away :D. Here is my after printing review.

Timely : I sent in my order on 23 Nov under their Blogger Review Program. The order was confirmed and processed on that very same day. My photos arrived on 25 Nov. That was very fast. Bravo to the proactive response team. Score: 5/5

Packaging : It was delivered on the SkyNet courier system. It arrived overnight. The packaging was handled with care with double seal plastic Skynet bags, no worries about damaged by water. The 4 R photos were nicely placed into the albums. I usually prefered the developer not to insert my photos into their albums as the glossy finish is very prone to fingerprints and smudges but they have managed this well. Perhaps they did the insertion with the help of photo cloth or some fine gloves. The 8R packaging was ok. They have placed the 2 photos into a big transparent bag with a hard paper board in between and finishing it with neatly taped side to keep the photo in place. Score: 4.5/5 (I suggest they offer an option to pack the large photo into a card folder for those who didn't intend to transfer them into albums. This give a more professional appearance compared to a plastic bag with a hardboard. Anyway this is an extra. If they are to offer that, then I will definitely say they are more than 5...perfetto!)

Value for money : You don't have to wait till 31st of every month or specific time of the year for such a promo price. In fact they are one of the lowest I can get in town and best that you don't have to run to the stall twice to get them develop. Score : 5/5

Printing quality : I was a little disappointing with some of the printings. It seemed like they did some contrast adjustment to my photos. Those lovely outdoor photos turned out worse of the whole album. The bright blue sky looked like overexposed white while the earth tone skin was nearer to overshadowed spot. I strongly suggest them to give an option to user on whether auto colour adjustment are needed or not on their photos. I understand that general user need to have their photo to be fine tuned to look more appealing but it is definitely not for photography lover. Please make an option for this. Make it default in your application to auto adjustment and I believe many photo lover out there like myself will know to disable it by our own choice and this will save your time too. Score : 3.5/5

some photos look ok...this is one of the best due to the original colour contrast was not so much different. Tuning the contrast would not give such a huge impact. They did change the WB a bit and it turned out fine. I didn't mind having the original colour too as it tells my story...the sun just set and it will be dark in minutes

this is the worse. It was very lively but turned out that I was like in a bush with some dying roses...so dead! The bright green and striking yellow turned out to be in dirty green and brownish yellow

thanks to the contrast adjustment, my skin was full of blemishes. The earth brown barrel turned out to be plain brown. The blue scarf under lime light became very white.

I love the photo but not the print. The green early summer leaves appeared to be early autumn and worse that I lost all the blue sky and cloud details.

I am upset with this. I love this very much which is why I got this printed out in 8R. I hate the print out. First is that they cropped my photo and second was the auto contrast. Needless to comment more :S

Conclusion : I will give them 4/5. They are good for general use. To tackle my photo kakis, they need to enable the non auto adjustment for us.

I still have 183 more photos in my folder waiting to be printed and I am looking forward to their non auto adjustment option before I proceed. I will just drop them my suggestion and hope that I do not offend them...this is nothing personal.

Online photo printing service by eoe Online

My friend has introduced me to eoe Online for quite sometime but I have not tried this out just because I have the wrong perception of how troublesome it can be. I was obviously wrong till the moment I decided to get a sponsor for my digital prints and hence giving this provider a try.

Here are the steps that I have gone through to place my order.

1. Registration

Registration was pretty simple but please read the terms and conditions. There were 2 clauses which made me uneasy.

Security risks
Please note that transmissions to and from this website may be intercepted and modified by third parties. Files obtained from or through this website may contain computer viruses or other defects.


No liability
In no event shall eoe Online, its employees or associates be liable for loss or damage that may arise from the use of this website or information available at this website. Nor does eoe Online take any responsibility for the information contained in eoe Online’s website. Any advice is to be used at your discretion.

I have concern about my personal information leak as well as my IPs. I did not understand the need of IC No during registration and strongly suggest that the service provider to remove this field from their registration form. Why bother to keep an information which has no use and may cause so much heboh later? DOB matching is a good enough method to validate individual identity.

In terms of monetary, I didn't have confidence over their credit card payment as it was done through a local company name Commerce Payment Sdn Bhd. Reputable provider like the PayPal and SecurePay are always my preferred choices. Anyway the best choice for me at the moment was the bank in option.

2. Made printing order

There are 2 ways of uploading your photos to be developed. Option 1 would be using the no install option, the Easy Upload Online tool. I will review on the option 2, installation required option, Photo Express Software later.

The Easy Upload Online uses simple activeX upload photo widget.

My average upload speed was 42KB/s. Hence averagely time needed for me to upload a 1MB photo was less than a minute.

I was not even bothered to resize my photo. However if your line was not as broad as mine, you may want to opt to resize to ~0.5MB (600 x 800 dpi) for a 4R print. You may need larger resolution for larger printing. The online too does provide a check on the end of the order to ensure the printing quality but it is best if you can resize up front and not waste your time uploading on your narrowline. I think this feature is good to serve as a reminder.

Upon upload completion, you will have to choose the printing size. The printing size can be made applicable to all photos or you may update 1 by 1. I prefer to apply all the default before I specifically modified few to certain size of my choice.

3. Payment

Next up was the payment page, as mentioned earlier in this post, I did a bank in payment and dropped them details of my payment and my order was complete. Now I will wait for few days before the printing reaches my hand.

Do come back to learn about the other order method and the printing quality!

For more info about eoe Online, please visit http://www.eoe.com.my/en/

Withdrawn Raya Advertisement

I was not aware of this advertisement until recent forwarded email with this clip attached and titled Iklan Raya TV3 yang ditarik balik. I didn't bother to read the content of the email and went straight to the video. When I first watched it, I was marveled. The advertisement was a breakthrough. It was fantasy like and different from all the previous ads.

I have to admit that the flying beca and the pak cik did reminded me of Santa and his sleigh. But I was not so sure what drove them to withdraw the advertisement. So I went back to the forwarded email and read the content.

It seemed like a group of pro-Islam was accusing that the ad contained non-Islamic element and demanded immediate removal. I did agree with them on the non-Islamic element but personally I thought it wasn't such a big deal. I bet no Malaysian who has access to TV service has not seen any of Santa scene or Siddharta Buddha...oups, I did not even detected the Buddhism and Hinduism lotus until being highlighted by this group of minority.

I think this advertisement is cool for it managed to demonstrate the true cultures of 1 Malaysia. True 1 Malaysia shall be a culture which represents part of past and future of each Malaysians regardless of the ancestry background. It's time for us to unite and we all know that unity begins with tolerance, acceptance and assimilation in you and me!

Live from Vietnam

This is my 4th day in Vietnam as well as my last in Sapa.

Back in Vietnam for the second time reminded me of my 66 days in India. The non stop sound of horn and crazy traffic are so familiar. Bargaining too is remarkable in this trip. I slashes price like no body's business. All thanks to the alligators here. They can easily markup their merchandises by 10X. Anyway I never expect to buy so much in shortly 4 days but glad that I did. LY, PS, VH and Stella will love it. 100% sure of that.

Looking forward to my visit to minority tribe in awhile. It is going to be a tiring 7km walk.

Tschüss!

Last update before holiday

I have been quite sometime since I update my blog. So I decided to give an update before I fly off for my holiday this weekend.

Some spammer just annoyed me and so I decide to remove my cbox here.

Moving on on other updates,

1. My master prog - status unknown. Result is not out yet. Can't tell I will continue on or just stop after sem 1. If I fail, then likelihood is I will quit the program and repay my company for the 1 semester fees. If I pass, likelihood is that I will graduate in 2 or not more than 4 yrs time.
2. Work - tiring and demanding as usual with a lot of uncertainty factor. I can't tell when is my last day but item 1 above may be the 1 of the many driving factor.
3. My new home - just moved in into my bro's new house. Got a comfy bed and at a more strategic place to stay in. I now need less time to travel to and from office daily. This equate to better living quality. On my new house, the construction is progressing very well. The house is almost 80% completed. However I hoped that it will not be completed so soon. I need more time to save for my renovation fund.
4. Leisure activities - I have less time for photographing and editing. However I did a lot of reading on these topics. Looking forward to capture great moments in Vietnam. While on the craft work, I did spend few hours creating 1 and a half monkeys. I will need to go buy more to complete them.
5. Dream gadget - I want and need an iPhone 4 so badly. My poor memory needs an external support. I have kept forgetting about my early morning and late night meeting. But as usual I have financial constraint. So it will depends on the status of item 1 as well. If I do not repay the fees, then I can probably afford 1 very soon.
6. Holiday plan - Trip to Vietnam is my last confirmed holiday. Wished I could afford another next year but with all those commitment, it is difficult. Japan and Australia are missions impossible now. Asia countries are difficult as well. :S :S :S

Looking forward to my holiday.

Phobia

After a year in elementary, 6 years in primary, 5+2 years in secondary and 4 years in tertiary, I have not face such a fear before.

Shortly 5 month in my postgraduate, it was time for final exam. Some how I grew to have exam phobia. I am not sure if it was due to my lack of confidence or due to the fact that I am going to fail looking at my poor carry mark and my incompetence. My financial status made my scenario worse. If I am to fail, then I will most probably have to quit and repay my company for the sponsor.

Anyway thank god that I have finally finished the 2 papers. I did try my best. Now I can only pray for miracle.

Close to drown

To much of distraction at a time. I could not concentrate. This song totally spell out my feeling now.

11th July 2010: Goodbye Korea!

It has been years since I last stayed up all night long. Song and I spent so much time together for the past hours.

Finally in the morning, we got ready for our last breakfast together....more kim chi for the last time :D. We finally departed for Incheon Airport at about 8.30am and arrived at about 9.30am. There were long queues at the check in counters. We quickly checked in our luggage. I was thankful for the extra baggage allowance. My luggage weighted 31.7kg and it was checked in straight all the way until Penang without additional charges on me....yahoo! We bid farewell to Kim and Song and headed to our gate. It was such a waste that we didn't have time for the KAL Golden Lounge or time to admire the world class airport.

We boarded MH067 and flew straight back to Kuala Lumpur. This time the business class was completely full but I was too tired and slept on most of the time. We finally arrived in Malaysia at close to 4pm. I bid farewell to the other folks and headed to the Golden Lounge. I continued my flight back to Penang and arrived home at close to 9pm.

These 10 days were very exciting. I got to see the world and enjoyed world hospitality.

For more photos,please refer to FB album

10th July 2010: Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty

This was my 9th day in Korea.

In the morning, we had a very satisfying breakfast prepared by 대모. Yummy cakes and buns...so much on the table :D. After the breakfast, we followed 대부 and 대모 to do some shopping at the local supermarket. The supermarket has all sorts of things and they were all so fresh. 대모 also showed me tips in buying Korean ginseng and Korean chopsticks set. Thanks 대모 for all those tips! My mother would surely love those ginseng and chopsticks.

In the afternoon, we learnt to cook Korean style vegetarian curry from 대모. There could be so many flavours of curry and I love them all. The Korean style was pretty much the same as the Japanese and Hong Kis style. So nice to cook, eat and wash up together.

After the meal, 대부 and 대모 arranged to bring us Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. I was so excited before our road trip. It felt like I was about to go for a family outing. I missed those days going out with my family members. 대부 and 대모 showed us around the world heritage site and told us about their legend. I enjoyed spending time with them and this ended my homestay experience in Korea.

Then we departed back to Seoul and checked in to Lexington Hotel. It was just a quick stop at hotel to drop our luggage. Then we went shopping at Namdaemun market again. I got a lot of souvenir there at a very good bargain but those guys were even better shopper than me :D

Later we walked to Myeongdong Market and met up with Soomin, Jisu and Cha Hee for another round of pizza as dinner. Another special treat for us again. This was the best pizza we got in Korea. I love their beef pizza. It has my favourite beef chucks and onions on it.

Later at night, we went to Hongdae with Jisu, Cha Hee, Song and Kim for supper. We ordered Shoju, 삼겹살 and another meat dish. They showed us how to make delicious fried rice on the pan. The oil and crust were excellent to make fried rice. The night was still young. We continued on our night walking along Hongdae area. We searched and searched for the ideal club for us but we finally changed to a bar instead. It was an ideal place for us all to chat. We were there until 3am and Park asked us to join him in the hotel.

Park bought us another round of drinks and we continued our night in the hotel room watching the 3rd place World Cup Play-off. This was a fascinating day in Korea with the Koreans. The Koreans really exhibited the true Asian hospitality spirit.

For more photos,please refer to FB album