Only went to bed at this time, knowing that I need to wake up just a couple of hours later. Was going through my luggage, trying to see if I missed out any item. Or maybe I'm too excited about this trip. Put away my stuff after I'm assured I did not miss out anything.
The flight is at 1005 Hrs. I need to reach the airport at 0800 Hrs. Need to go rest now.
0430 Hrs:
Woke up. Think feel too excited to sleep any longer. Also, the wind was blowing in strongly through my window. Very cold and strong wind. Just shortly after, it begin to rain heavily. Just laid back down on my bed to rest for a while longer.
Feeling excited in my heart. Not knowing what will actually happen when I'm there. Also not sure of the actual route that I will be taking although I have a brief itinerary planned out.
"Just take it one step at a time", I told myself.
Slowly, I took a bath, dressed up and got ready.
Its time to go.
0630 Hrs:
Left the house. It was still drizzling. Cold.
Still raining.Going for breakfast. As I'll be moving around with that big backpack, need all the additional strength that I can muster.
Went to Changi airport by MRT. This was how I looked with my big backpack, small backpack and my camera bag.
0800 Hrs:
Reached Changi airport T2. Went to check the gigantic board in the middle of the departure hall for my check-in belt. My flight is SQ 176. The lady at the counter told me my big backpack is about 10 - 11 kg. Going to check in this big package as it contains some liquid items. See image below.
Seeing this sign board reminds people of the tightened security on board airplanes.0830 Hrs:
Got through the customs. Went around for a walk.
Gardens @ Changi Airport.
Restaurants.
Passengers waiting for transition.
Viewing gallery.
Souvenir shop.
They have free internet too.0915 Hrs:
Queuing to enter gate F33.
We were given this Arrival - Departure Declaration by the airport staff to fill up.1005 Hrs:
Flight SQ176 successfully took off. Heading for Hanoi's Noi Hai Airport terminal.
1043 Hrs:
The crew are serving drinks to us. Had a Singapore Sling. I had brought a small notebook with me on this trip to record down the details of the trip as well as my thoughts into it.
1140 Hrs:
Had lunch. Chose wok fried pork with beancurd sticks and celery served with steam rice. Strangely, there was no beancurd sticks inside.
Lunch in flight. Yum Yum.
View of the outside world through the small window. I was sitting at the aisle seat. Beside me was this couple, the husband was from Holland while the wife India. Both are living in Singapore now. This was their second trip to Vietnam and they travelled together with their colleagues as a company trip.
The pilot announced that we would be touching down at 1220 Hrs local time.On board the flight, I was watching the show Letters from Iwo Jima. The ending is touching. There was this phrase which I remembered. The japs had shot an american soldier and captured him into their caves. The jap commander ordered his men to treat the american soldier. However, the soldier died in the end. The jap commander searched the dead soldier and found this letter sent from the latter's grandmother back in the states. One of the things she told him was "Do what is right, because it is right".
1204 Hrs:
Plane is slowly descending.
1211 Hrs:
9 minutes more to landing. Cannot wait for it to land.
1214 Hrs:
I can see land outside the window.
1220 Hrs:
SQ 176 touched down at Hanoi Noi Hai Airport. Temperature outside the plane is 29 degree Celsius.
Waiting to alight from the plane.
The immigration counters. If you noticed, its a problem telling where is the queue line.
At the conveyor belt waiting for my backpack. I waited 10 minutes for it to appear.1401 Hrs:
Finally, I am out of the custom area.
The airport has a symmetrical design. From the looks of it, one side caters to international flights while the other side is for domestic flights.
Now, the next step is to get to the city. Though I had already did some checking on my own in Singapore, it is still better to confirm on the ground my information. Of course I will approach the tourism counter at the airport.
The lady manning the counter.I had planned to go to Haiphong the day I arrived at Hanoi so I also asked her how can I get to Haiphong. She told me that there is a bus service that runs between Hanoi and Haiphong but it will take 3 hours to get to Haiphong from Hanoi. By the time I get to the bus stop and board the bus, it will be too late when I arrive at Haiphong. Thus, she proposed that I stay in Hanoi for the night and travel to Haiphong the next day. I also told her that I will go to Halong Bay after Haiphong. She told me that there is not so much things for tourists to see in Haiphong so I can go to Haiphong in the morning and go to Halong Bay in the afternoon.
Thinking what she said into consideration, I decided to change my itinerary on the spot. So I asked her how can I get to the city and to the hotel that I had booked. She pointed out on a Hanoi map to me that most of the tourists attractions are clustered in an area. The hotel I booked was quite far away from it. She suggested to me that I stay for the night at their company's hotel instead which is located in the area. The usual price is USD$25 per night but if I were to book at the counter I can get USD$20. This is almost the same price as the hotel which I had booked so I agreed after some consideration. The hotel is called Pacific Prince Hotel. The hotel is situated inside one of the attraction area in Hanoi called Old Quarter.
Taking the card of the hotel from the lady, I went out of the airport to take a taxi. I boarded this taxi and showed the driver the hotel address. He does not know how to speak English. He drove the taxi out of the hotel onto the highway.
*****Situation*****
However, a short way down the highway, he turned and veered down a dirt track and into a very small town.
He stopped in front of this small shophouse and murmured something to me in Vietnamese language and got off the car into the house.
"Shit! Dont tell me its just my first day here and something is gonna happen."
All my senses were suddenly turned on. Ready to react at the slightest hint that something is wrong. I looked around and waited for a good 10 minutes before the driver back into the car from the house and drove off. I asked him if it was his house but I am not sure if he understood me. Not sure if the situation is over, I said to him "city?" a few times and showed him the hotel address again and he kept nodding his head and replied "City. City."
Only when the taxi got back onto the highway, I began to slowly let down my guard. The journey took some 45 minutes. Not knowing how long was the journey in the taxi and to ensure he knows where I wanted to head to, I pointed to the road in front and said "City" a few times. Every time, he just nodded his head and replied "City" to me with a smile. Sigh ...
**********
1500 Hrs:
Taxi arrived at Pacific Prince Hotel. The driver wanted to charge me USD$20 and I tried to bargain with him. He did not speak English so it makes the process difficult. In the end, we settled at USD$15.
I had already paid for the hotel at the airport. So I just walked over to the counter and showed the 2 female receptionists the receipt. In addition, I also bought a map of Hanoi from them. I also asked them how to get to Haiphong the next day from Hanoi and what are the attractions in both Hanoi and Haiphong. They do speak a fair bit of English but they still do not understand some of the things that I spoke. They were basically very friendly. Understood from them that I would need to take a taxi to the bus station and get a bus to Haiphong. It will cost me VND 35,000 and it will take around 2 hours. Also noted down some of the attractions in Hanoi.
One thing to take note, to stay at a hotel in Vietnam, you would need to hand over your passport over to be kept by the hotel. The passport can be collected the day you check out. Remember to ask for it at the counter if the receptionist forgets to return it to you!
One of the ladies told me that actually the taxi driver had overcharged me for the taxi ride. Any taxi to and from the airport door-to-door will only cost USD$10. Ok, point taken. Lesson learnt.
Hotel room.The room is not bad. Decor is ok.
Rested for a while and watched some TV.
1645 Hrs:
Wanted to go out and walk around and also take dinner. As I walked passed the counter, the ladies stopped me and asked me to talk to another young guy. Apparently, he is their friend. He knows how to speak Chinese. Pheww ....
He explained to me how to get to Haiphong from Hanoi. I told him that I will be going outside to walk around. He suggested me to go and see their night market, which starts at 1900 Hrs and lasts all the way till 0000 Hrs.
Night market. Hmmm ... sounds interesting.
Its time to roam around.
Old Quarter. Back in the 13th century, Vietnam's 36 guilds came together and established here, each taking a different street. Nowadays, there are more than 36 streets in the Old Quarter. For more information, please refer to the book Lonely Planet Vietnam.
The streets are lined up together like a maze. On both sides of the streets are old houses with a narrow front. Each street sells a different item. Things which can be found include clothes, spectacles, suitcases, art gallery, wooden stamps etc. Lots of hotels are also clustered in this area. Their price range starts from around USD$8 to USD$35 depending your expectations. Small travel agencies are also available around the place.
Experienced the traffic of Vietnam. Take note of the oncoming traffic whenever you cross as it is different from Singapore. The traffic is very fast and there are lots of motorcycles. For places where there are no traffic lights and you wish to cross the road, go steadily. No sudden rushes. Just take note of where the traffic is coming and walk steadily. The motorist would steer to make way for you too. For junctions where there are traffic lights, wait for the traffic light to turn green before crossing. However, maintain your vigilance while crossing as traffic turning towards you would not bother to stop for you to finish crossing but would just come straight at you. Advise is to cross as if there is no traffic light. It means to still look out for traffic and to go steadily.
The thing that is important to tourists is naturally food. Restaurants, cafes, pubs are can also be easily found. Of course, the most common eatery that can be seen are those roadside stalls set up by the local people selling noodles, rice and small snacks. You just need to order them and there are small tables and chairs around for you to sit down and enjoy your sumptuous treat next to the road. Alfresco style.
Yeah, they had kebab too.
It was not easy to find a dustbin around. What the people do is they will just throw their rubbish at the side of the road. Sometimes there would be a small pile of rubbish at the side and people would all throw the rubbish into that pile. There will be people going around in small carts sweeping up the rubbish and also collect rubbish from the shops. Something like the picture below.
As I walked, I came to this Hoan Kiem Lake. Hey, this was one of the places which I had planned to visit in Hanoi. However, it was not a big lake. From one end you can see the opposite end. Surrounding it on all sides are roads and buildings.
Walking around in this maze of roads in Old Quarter, you need to remember the route you had taken if you have not come here before. It may be easy to get lost inside this maze, especially when it gets dark.
Dinner for me was in a small restaurant with a tour agency counter at its entrance. I had pho, a traditional and common Vietnamese food which is noodles made from rice. What I had was pho with beef. There was also pho with chicken.
I forgot to take the picture of the food before I started to eat.After dinner, the time was already wat was 1900 Hrs. Time for exploring the night market.
It was made up of makeshift stalls set up in the middle of the street and stretches along one long street. Items on sale were clothes, shoes, accessories, ice cream, snacks, deserts and pastries. There were also stalls where children can sit down and do some handicraft stuff. The whole place was so crowded. There were tourists and also hordes of local people. Bought 2 danish pastries. big in size but cheap.
A family enjoying dinner inside the shop.
Even the law could not resist the tasty food.
Small kids doing some art and craft stuff.
Suddenly, the sky was lighted up by lighting. Its going to rain soon. I quickly make my way back to the hotel. There were a lot of people so moving around was not very convenient. Found a provision shop and bought 2 bottles of water. Had not drunk any water the whole day since I alight from the plane save for the banana juice at dinner.
The moment I stepped out from the provision shop it started to rain cats and dogs. So great that I had decided to leave my jacket at the hotel. More wonderful was that it was still a long way to the hotel. There was a small shop beside the provision shop that was selling raincoats. No choice, I had to buy it. It was made of thin plastic material that gets torn easily, especially so when putting it on.
This is me inside the easily torn raincoat. Used it to cover my camera bag too. Had torn it at the neck area when wearing it.This raincoat is the most common kit used by the local people against rain, instead of umbrellas. You will see shops hanging them out for display the moment it rains.
Back in the hotel, switched on the TV after I bathed. There were a lot of different channels to choose from. Some where Vietnamese channels but there were cable TV too. Some of the shows in English had Vietnamese translations directly imposed over. So you would hear the translations with the original English faintly in the background. The translations were all spoken by a single person. So, you would only get to hear the same voice translating throughout the whole show. The voice was a bit flat with no emotion.
Finished watching the movie Blade before I went to sleep. It was still raining outside.
Tomorrow would be a long day.
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