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.

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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.