cRaWy's ThOuGhTs ...

back from holiday and back into the craps

4 days of leave ... 5 days 4 nights on a holiday to rustic hanoi, vietnam. reading up on hanoi is no fun. travellers are talking more about the sellers on the streets and the mundane scenery. best was my fren whose 1st comment on hearing that i was going to hanoi was ... "i'm sure you know that hanoi is a BORING place ... ". gave me the creeps but well, its really boring i would say, but on a $100 return ticket, whois to complain?

we were picked up at the airport by a nice chap who was leaning on the horn the entire journey and flicking the lights almost every 15 secs that i was getting a little cheesed off by the sound of the flickering. but it gave us a good insight on the traffic conditions in hanoi ... that the motorcycle is king of the road. the hotel is nice ... packed in the ancient quater of hanoi. its a family run hotel which only the owner himself speaks english. nice and clean rooms, better than i expected for USD 15 per nite. went out to find pho on the streets like 8pm or so. after walking along, we found the place recommended by the owner, but i suspect that we got cheated.

the next couple of days were spent walking around hanoi looking for buys (and trying to guess the prices of stuff so that we wont get ripped off) ... going to the supermarkets around the town which is akin to a wet market on the ground floor and shops on the 2nd floor selling clothes and the likes. we found the ONLY air con shopping centre in hanoi and best thing is that there was a supermarket so we could get stuff that has prices on them. at least we know the relative prices of stuff on the streets.

one highlight of our journey was a shopping trip which the owner's wife brought us on. we managed to find some of the more local hangouts and places where they would get their stuff (basically in supermarkets / markets, not on the streets as the prices will be higher). we were also introduced to the most popular local coffee hangout where the coffee was great. we also found fanny's ice-cream which sold good ice-cream scoops for S$1 each. tasty and good.

overall, the trip was a good relaxing one. soak in the ancient feel of the town. i would say that hanoi is a countryside town where the people are mostly related to farmers and the likes. imagine singapore's own chinatown in 1960s and there you have hanoi. streets upon streets of people trying to sell their goods to you. i dont think i will be travelling back to hanoi soon, but i would say that i would want to try out Saigon instead ... so called the bangkok of vietnam.

posted by Crawy @ 10:17 pm