South East Asia is an area where I neglected as I am always eager to conquer the far away lands but forgot the beauty that is near home.

This time, we set off to Hanoi, on the quest to slowly visit the New7Wonders of Nature.

We have done Jeju Island and Table Mountain only.

Day 1
We took the airport transport arranged by the hotel at USD18 for 4 seater car as we read about the various taxi scams in Hanoi. Day 1 was spent mainly walking around the old quarters and it was a really hot and humid day. Luckily I brought the portable fan along.

Bun Cha Dac Kim recommended by our hotel. The bf loves it.

Day 2
Supposed to visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum but my outfit was inappropriate (shoulders have to be covered. unfortunately it was the longest outfit I brought) and had to give it a miss as I did not want to spend money to buy a shawl. The queue was also terribly long and we are glad that we give it a miss cause we later read that people queue on average 2 hours to enter for a 1 min time in the mausoleum! The bags had to be locked in the locker so imagine 2 hours without water! The mausoluem closed at 11am so even if you are queuing halfway, the door will still be closed at 11am sharp.

We went for the Ho Chi Minh museum instead and it was so boring. The artifacts are only in Vietnamese. Not worth a visit. Even the locals seem not interested. I would rather read up the history online. 

one pillar pagoda, walking distance from the museum.

Hoa Lo prison, worth a visit.

At night, we walked around the lake and this time the weather was much better and enjoyable! We also visited the night market again. The items are very similar to Singapore’s pasar malam so I did not make any purchase. We also visited the Thang Long water puppet show as this is a dying tradition which we could not watch in Singapore anymore. 

Day 3
To Halong Bay, the highlight of this trip.

Halong Bay and Baitulong bay are so calming. We didn’t have any connection to the world and it feels so good to disconnect 🙂

Day 4

Visit to the cave, nothing fanciful as we have visited more grand caves in South Africa and Ipoh.

Day 5  

The Malaysian couple we met on the cruise told us that the Women’s Musuem is much more interesting so we decided to give it a visit since we woke up early. Indeed, I like it much more than the Ho Chi Minh museum, and is very impressed by the tenacity of the Vietnamese women. Respect. I find the permanent exhibits very interesting, the marriage, the remarkable women in the past who fought against the French colony, Americans etc, and also the history of the Ao Dai.

We booked a grab car to go to the airport. In this short stay, we find that the grab taxi or grab car is a convenient way to get around Hanoi, as we do not need to bargain with the driver, no need to communicate on the address and most importantly, no need to fear of being scammed. So thankful for the invention of data plan and grab app!

The grab car cost about USD12 to the airport 🙂