Went to the hotel's cafeteria at the 7th floor for breakfast. The top floor of the hotel. Breakfast was a combination of Eastern and Western delights.
Breakfast. This was my first serving. Had some french loaf with butter after finishing this. Their french loaf was nice.
The cafeteria at the top of the hotel. Quite a nice place. The food were laid on the table at the opposite end.
Free internet for the guests. The connection was a bit slow though.I was the first guest to reach the cafeteria. The sky was getting cloudy. Hope it would not rain later. The city was slowly waking up in this lazy and quiet morning. You could guess that the traffic was getting heavier as more horning on the roads below could be heard.
My plan was to go Haiphong today in the morning. Roam around there for a few hours and head towards Halong City. From my conversation with the 2 receptionists friend yesterday, I need to take a cab to Ben Xe Luong Yen (Luong Yen Bus Stop). Yeah, clever, Ben Xe = Bus Stop. From there, I would buy the bus ticket and board a bus under the company Hoang Long. At the front of the bus would have the words Haiphong written clearly and big. The bus stop at the end will be Ben Xe Tam Bac. It would take me to Haiphong in around 2.5 hrs and the bus ticket would cost me 35,000 VND.
Over there, I will check with the local people on how to travel to Halong City.
Checked with one of the lady at the lobby counter on how to speak some simple Vietnamese language.1000 Hrs:
I checked out from the hotel. Took a cab to Ben Xe Luong Yen one of the ladies booked for me. It was already raining.
Inside the cab.
This lady was trying to shield the motorbike rider and herself from the rain ... with the piece of raincoat.
Our heroine rides on …1010 Hrs:
Reached Ben Xe Luong Yen. As I alighted from the taxi, there was this bus in front of me. At the front of the bus was written "Haiphong". There was this guy standing outside the bus amidst the rain calling out "Haiphong" to me and pointing to the bus. I said to him "Haiphong" and he replied out to me again by calling out "Haiphong" and pointing to the bus. Think this is the way you communicate when you are in a foreign land and does not speak their native language. Hahaha ...
I quickly boarded the bus with my barang barang. After a short while, the bus drove to the other side of the road. I was able to see the bus stop.
Ben Xe Luong Yen through the wet bus window. (When I return to Hanoi a few days later, I would release that I was wrong. This was not Ben Xe Luong Yen!)1020 Hrs:
Sitting inside the bus waiting for it to set off. Just a minibus that can accommodate around 20 people seated.
There was a small TV mounted at the front and they are showing 霍元甲, starring Jet Li. There was translation into Vietnamese for the dialogue and also English subtitles. However, the English subtitles were done very poorly. Firstly, the subtitles did not make any sense. Also, you could tell that the subtitles were not in sync with the spoken dialogue. The subtitles were shown later than when the actual dialogue were spoken.
1035 Hrs:
The bus departed.
1110 Hrs:
En route to Haiphong.
The bus fare was collected by a guy from everybody along the way. In order to allow more people to travel on the bus per trip, they even have small stools for passengers to sit down along the small walkway in the bus.
Sitting in the small walkway of the bus. Comfort was definitely out of the question.
1240 Hrs:
Finally arrived at Ben Xe Tam Bac, Haiphong.
Ben Xe Tam Bac.As I walked out of the bus stop, there was this guy who came to offer me his motorbike service. I rejected him yet he keep coming forward. Firstly, I am not sure where I want to go so even if I were to accept his offer I would have no destination to tell him. Secondly, I prefer to walk around so that I can take some pictures. He was quite persistent. To deal with such people, its an eye for an eye. You need to be persistent back to him.
Haiphong is a seaport due to its geographical location. Yet, the streets did not seem to be as busy as Hanoi. You have lesser vehicles and lesser pedestrians.
This is a 360 degree view around the bus stop.
The big building on the right of Ben Xe Tam Bac was sort of like a gigantic hardware center. Lot of hardware items could be found inside. Cables, wires, multi plugs, screws, bolts and nuts, ball bearings, gears blah blah blah blah blah .....
Slowly walked up along the small lake.
This seems like a school to me. Not sure what building is this. Nobody to check with.
This statue is in front of the building above. Did not manage to find out who's statue was this.Besides this statue was a flower market. Not a big one though. No pictures taken on it. Sigh ...
As I was walking along, a young lady came to approach me trying to sell postcards. I took a look at them and decided to buy a few. Each pack had 10 cards and cost 15,000 VND. I tried to bargain with her and in the end got 4 packs for 50,000 VND. 1 on Hanoi, 1 on Haiphong, 1 on Halong Bay and 1 on Cat Ba Island.
*****Situation*****
She knows how to speak a bit of English. She told me that she was still a student and the money that I had spent on the postcards would all go to her school. Since I had helped her, she said she wanted to help me back in appreciation and asked where did I want to go. I replied her that I would be going to Halong City in the later part of the day and asked her if she could tell me the way. The time now was already past 1300 Hrs. Need to prepare for the journey to Halong City.
She was not sure how to go Halong City but she mentioned that she has a friend who might know the way. She called her friend over the phone and a while later her friend appeared riding a bike with a small baby girl. The student girl explained to her that I need to get to Halong City. The lady said I should go to Ben Xe Lac Long. There are buses from there going to Halong City and I can get to Ben Xe Lac Long by bike.
(eeerrhhh ..... I have never ever sat on a bike before.)
The lady then told me she knows a friend who rides a taxi and asked me if I would like to go to Halong City by taxi. She called her friend and checked with him on the taxi. She told me the trip would cost 600,000 VND. I asked why was it so expensive and she explained that the guy would need to send me to Halong City and come back to Haiphong again. Hence the price. She added that if I were to take a bus to Halong City, once I reached Halong City I would still need to take a taxi from the bus stop to the city as they are at different location.
Considering that I totally do not know the way and the time was already past 1300 Hrs, if I were to take a bus to Halong City, it would be late when I reach Halong City. I would still need to have time to find the hotel. Thus, I thought that going by taxi would be a good bet. Yeah, a bet. An expensive one too. In the end, I agreed.
I asked her what time her friend could come to our location. She told me that her friend was at another place across the river. She suggested that she send me to find her friend on her bike. She also said she would not charge me for the bike ride.
(errrhhh ....... I had never ever never ever never ever sat on a bike before. All along my perception is that riding on a bike is dangerous. Moreover, they do not wear helmets!)
I thought to myself "since I have the guts to come all the way here alone, what is sitting pillion on a bike?" So I agreed.
**********
I asked the student lady to help me take this. Behind me was the Haiphong Municipal theatre. The portrait in the middle was that of Ho Chi Minh.
One shot with the national flag of Vietnam.I sat pillion on her bike while she placed her kid in between her legs and off we go. Of course, in my heart there was still this small worry. I held on to the small handle at the back of the bike with my 2 hands. She could control her bike very well considering that I had my backpack, small bag and camera bag on. Together with me, it was a big increase of weight on her bike. It was very windy sitting on the bike.
We came to this small jetty and she asked me to get off the bike and go up the ferry. She followed behind pushing her bike onto the ferry too.
On the ferry with other passengers.This is the river Cam. She explained to me that people from both sides of the river commute by taking the ferries. Now, there is a big and modern bridge built across the river to allow easier movement across the river. However, some people still chose to use the ferries.
The bridge across the river in the far end. As Haiphong is a seaport, you can also see the port in the picture.The boat ride only took around 5 minutes. We rode down on her bike for another short distance and we had arrived. There were small houses around on both sides of the road. We waited for a while before the taxi appeared. She told me the driver does not speak English so it is better if I pay him before we set off. Oh, Ok.
Before I hopped onto the taxi, as a token of appreciation for her help, I gave to her 2 SGD$1 coin as a souvenir. One was for her while the other was for the student lady. In fact, the student lady had asked me to pass her a coin from Singapore to keep when she knew I was from Singapore. However, I just told her that I had very little Singapore coins on my hands. I felt bad now that she had tried to offer her help to me to go to Halong City. The student lady stayed behind at the place where we had met so I asked the lady to pass the coin to her.
1415 Hrs:
We set off for Halong City.
Along the way, we passed by many houses and I could see that almost all house had a Vietnam flag hung on the front. Vietnamese are sure patriotic.
Halfway through the journey, we stopped by to rest. The driver drove to the side of the road and said something Vietnamese to me. Naturally, I did not understood him. He made some gestures however, and I realised that he needs to relieve himself. Well, it had been a long journey. I joined him too ..... Hahahaha .....
I left a mark at this spot. Haha ...1615 Hrs:
We reached Halong City. Halong City was divided into 2 by a river. The side that I was in is called Bai Chay. The other side is called Hon Gai. There is a bridge linking the two sides called Bai Chay Bridge. Bai Chay is more developed to cater to the ever growing tourism industry. Hotels are doted all over the place. From the number of new hotels being built at the moment, you could tell that the government is tapping what they could from the booming tourism market.
The taxi driver and me. His name is Nam.I had asked him to let me alight me at Cong Doan Hotel. Before I came to Vietnam, I had called and tried to reserve a room. They had told me that it was the high season and thus most rooms are booked. I would be able to get a room provided that I made advance payment over the net. I had emailed them to email their bank account to me but their mailbox was full. Next, I did not feel safe making advance payment. In the end, I did not make any room reservations in Halong City.
Here I am, at Cong Doan Hotel. I was down on my luck though. The lady told me their hotel was full for that day and the next couple of days. Cong Doan Hotel was located at the bottom of a slope. I tried to roam around to other hotels in the vicinity but I could not find any that has empty rooms. Down in my heart, I feel that it was lucky that I had arrived at Halong City early as now I would have more time to get a hotel.
There was this motorcyclist that had keep following me the moment I left Cong Doan Hotel. He kept recommending to me this hotel which he said had empty rooms and costs USD$20 per night. However, I managed to understand (he speaks very limited English) that I need to ride with him for 1 hr to get to the hotel. WTH! It already late. I did not have time to spare to ride with him. Moreover, that areas was near the beach. If I were to follow him to his recommended hotel, it would mean that every time I wanted to come to the beach I need to travel for 1 hour. In additional, I just have some feeling that the hotel that he was recommending may not be very "decent".
Seeing that I was not interested in his hotel, he brought me further up the slope (its was quite steep) to another hotel. Looks more like a guesthouse. It was owned by a family of four who lived in it too. They offered me USD$20 per night. They explained that it was the high season therefore the price. I considered that it was already in the evening and I may not get another place which had empty rooms. So I took up the offer.
View from the balcony of my room. You can see Halong Bay in the horizon on the right and Hon Gai across the river on the left.
The guesthouse. It is the building further away inside the picture.1700 Hrs:
I rested for a while before going out for dinner and walked around. I got down the slope to the beach.
360 degrees view from the beach.
The International Women's Beach Volleyball Tournament - Vietnam Sport Newspaper - Halong 2007.
The 3rd flag from the right is the Singapore flag!Walked further along the beach and there was this amusement park. There was this fair going on and there were food being sold. One of the stalls was selling this:
It is called banh cuon. It tasted good siah.
The food is called banh cuon. Costed 15,000 VND a plate.
Not knowing how to speak Vietnamese, this was how I ordered it. I asked the owner how much for one plate. He did not speak English but he seems to understand my question. (It must be due to the increase of tourism and the large number of tourists coming to Halong. The locals have got accustomed to tourists speaking English to them.) Anyway, he tried to answer me by holding out one 10,000 VND note and one 5,000 VND note. At first, I thought that I could choose a small plate for 5,000 VND or a big plate for 10,000 VND. Hahaha .....
It did not take long before it was served to me. The next question was: how to go about eating it? Looking around, I did not find any other people who are having it. So I would need to guess how to eat it. There was this small bowl of sauce with some meat in it. Now, by logic, I supposed that it was meant for me to dip the food into it. If not, they would have helped me poured the while bowl of sauce into the plate. I tried it. How did it taste? Think 猪肠粉. Yeah, taste like it.
After I finished the food, I managed to take a glance at how other people are eating it. My guess was right. :)
There were other stalls selling other foods like hotdogs, ice cream and other delights.
2000 Hrs:
I had returned to the guesthouse but .....
*****Situation*****
there was nobody in the house! I had no keys too. The ligits in the living room were on. I pressed the door bell a few times and tried to call the family's elder son but could not reach him.
I went over to the neighbour's house and tried to explained the situation to the lady owner. She did not understand English at all. :(
Had to communicate with her totally using sign language. Tried to tell her that there was nobody in the house and asked her to phone the family for me. Took some efforts to make her understand me. After several phone calls, she managed to locate the younger son of the family. He was at another hotel a couple of blocks away with his friends.
**********
His name is Luong Anh Vinh. He walks around with a limp. He had an accident two months ago when the bike that he was riding collided with a car. The accident left his left leg broken. It was slowly recovering now. You could see that it was still painfull for him to walk as he could not straighten his leg. He speaks a fair bit of English. He is now training to become a teacher.
The elder son of the family is Luong Minh Tuan. A few years younger than me. He speaks very little English yet he is able to speak very fluent Mandarin. You can easily mistake him for a Chinese when he speaks. He had told me that he went to study in Kunming, China for four years in tourism management. He just returned to Halong upon graduation four months ago. He works in a ship company now managing container vessels.
The parents does not speak English at all.
Feel very tired now. Had been moving around the whole day. Need to go and rest.
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