You've been begging me to exercise. You know I won't stop, My liver's performing in it's prime.

Vietnam
Ngày 6


The weather was hella fine the next day, so we were all able to get on the day boat to explore Halong Bay or aka Bay of Descending Dragons.

Dayuuum, never expected that rocks engulfed by the vast sea could look so sexy, and the sea breeze was on point. We disembarked from the boat to an island with a huge cave.



These rock formations are composed of limestone, which dissolve easily in carbonic acid. HAHAH wow see, my geog game is strong even though I dropped it 3 years ago(ok just messing around, this limestone and H2CO3 shit was tested so many times in Chem TYS & past year papers, yuck.)


Probably translates to "something something caves"




Inside the caves, with all the stalagmites and stalactites(and fake coloured lighting).

Was really uneventful because it was really crowded with lots of people pushing and shoving.

Returned back to the boat to continue our sea adventures :) The view from the junk was amazingly picturesque, and there's an upper and lower deck that could probably fit around 40 people but there were only 12 of us, so I was busy going up and down and up and down heh.












Had lunch onboard the boat, and I'll be damned, they served almost similar dishes as the previous day's lunch and dinner. *faints* Maybe cause Ha Long is near the sea and stuff so there's always heaps of seafood but eating the same thing again was damn sian.

After spending an entire day at the bay, we were transported back on land and proceeded to take another long-ass bus ride back to the capital.


Would you like to purchase some SHAKEfins, ma'am?


Attended the opening of this Hello Kitty themed cafe, the interior was beautifully done but the food was like a 2 out of 5.








Don't be fooled, the crepe was like $H!T.

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Ngày 7

Visited Uncle Ho on the last day of the trip.


This is where the great leader is buried, in the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. There's a thought that kept bugging me though, why wasn't his body laid to rest in Ho Chi Minh city but in Hanoi? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.


Entering Uncle Ho's burial grounds is strictly out of bounds but walk about 700m away and you'll reach the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which is open to all at a fee. Security checks similar to those performed at airports were conducted before we were allowed to pass through.












No idea how some of these artworks are related to HCM, but they look hella cool.




Perspective

Last meal in Vietnam at the airport: a warm, hearty bowl of pho mmmmmmm



Would I visit again? Probably. But not anytime soon unless the government does something to stop tourists from being obscenely overcharged. All in all, it was a great adventure :)

We wake up and we go to school, together breaking every rule.

Vietnam
Ngày 4

Spent the day exploring Hanoi, roaming along the streets and soaking up the atmosphere. I must say, for a city so congested and crowded, Vietnam's capital does have its streets nicely aligned and organised(maybe because it was colonised by the French in the past).

Each street has its vendors selling goods of a particular type, eg. there's a silver street where all shops sold silver jewelry, silk street, coffee street etc., you get what I mean.

Visited this grand old cathedral, the oldest of its kind in the city that was built by the previous colonial French government.


Standing in front of it. We wanted to enter the church compound but it was closed for Christmas preparations(on the left, you can see people setting up the scene of the birth of Jesus)


Hoàn Kiếm Lake or Lake of the Restored Sword. Didn't capture the lake at the right angle and location, and thus this shit photo does not do justice to its beauty.


On the other hand, I absolutely adore this photo, kind of aptly captures how much Vietnam has modernised and opened up to the world, with Korean eateries and foreign labels such as Swarovski blending in with local businesses.


Wanton mee, a rare find here, and it tasted heavenly.

Visited this famous coffee place called Giang Cafe, apparently many people on tripadvisor have said that this place is a must-go because of its unique incorporation of egg yolk, YES, EGG YOLK in coffee, hot chocolate and even BEER.



I was a little skeptical at first, like eww raw egg yolk in my drink?! But it was the BEST cup of coffee I've ever drunk. I don't know how the guy does it, but one gulp and you can taste this magical concoction of creamy egg-y goodness that goes hand in hand with the aromatic coffee.

This ingenious use of eggs in coffee was invented by the cafe owner's dad when milk was scarce in Vietnam many decades ago, so raw chicken egg was used as a close substitute(hehehe econs reference).

The owner was extremely cordial and spoke to us even though the whole place was packed, with a long line of customers outside. He was raving about Singapore and how he loves it so much that he visited SG 5 times when he found out about our nationality. Hehehe love it when foreigners praise our dear country :)))))


Egg coffee, in hot and cold forms.


Egg hot chocolate, yummy but can't be compared to its coffee variant.

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Ngày 5

Set off in the morning towards Halong Bay, which was a four-hour bus ride away. Shared the tour bus with a bunch of Australians, a Russian couple and a Singaporean family.

We were supposed to go on an overnight cruise on a huge boat with cabin rooms and all but everything got ruined because of the weather. There were about a hundred foreigners including us stranded at the Tourist Wharf because the shitty weather meant that all of the night cruises for that day had to be cancelled.





Yeaaah, total waste of time + money. In the end, no refund was made but they did provide us lodging at a 4 star hotel for the night.

Ok la, the room was super big with 2 single beds and one double bed, with a wall separating the double bed from the single beds.



Took the double bed while my parents took the single beds cause it would be weird(and scary in case something joins us) to leave a bed empty.

Went to the market via taxi and there was nothing of interest there.








waiting for foooooooood


Had dinner with the Russian couple, and the food was very...unique. Man, haha basically what we ate for lunch earlier at another restaurant was the same as what we had for dinner(at a different place).

HAHA anyway, the couple was very funny and crude, the woman was commenting on the people sitting behind them(the Australians) about how some of them were so fat yet they still ordered extra fries and fried chicken hahaahah couldn't stop laughing. And they even brought a bottle of rum everywhere and would shout cheers during lunch and dinner to ganbei with us HAHAHAH. Russians are really true badasses.


Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel :)

If you wanna float, we can float away. If you wanna fight, we'll be fighting.

Vietnam
Ngày 3

Took another one hour bus ride, this time on a minibus to a gigantic market that caters to both tourists and locals alike, selling goods ranging from handwoven dresses, bags, soft toys, calligraphy etc.(basically things that didn't caught my attention hehe, but it was still an interesting experience)





I just love this photo, the communist poster in the background simply transports me to some sort of a warped dystopia. (Vietnam is still largely communist even though it has adapted over the years, currently possessing an open and free-market economy)

Then we had lunch and were up on the bus again to travel to another village, where I got to know a really friendly Korean girl with her mum and bro after she dropped her phone onto the ground as well as a French dude.



Shy pup.


Mooooo

Neighhhhhhhhhhhhhh





Where Vietnam meets China.

We were transported to the China-Vietnam border before we were sent back to the terminus where we had to wait 4 hours for the evening sleeper bus to bring us back to Hanoi.
Ate dinner for an hour then used the wifi hehehe that's why I love meal times, all the cafes and restaurants we went to had free wifi(of course street stalls do not have them)

Then the guide moved us to another location to continue waiting for the bus. There was this HK couple, an English guy and a French lady all waiting with us. The French lady was super friendly, and we all ended up talking for 2 hours until the bus arrived.



Apparently, she came from Paris but lives in the UK for work purposes, and she wanted to take a break by spending a month in Vietnam. We exchanged stories and it was all very lovely.

Sat next to her on the bus heh.



Very tempted to just stop here because I'm too lazy to do the other days.