Wei Yang @ Halong Bay
A kayak instructor teaching his students
An early morning breakfast was followed by a short kayaking trip around the bay. The calm waters was accompanied by the 'mountains' over the sea. Though tiring, the expedition was a fulfiling one and was soon over in about an hour.
Jo and Braun!
Transferred to another junk for our return to Halong City for lunch as the remaining members continue with their tour. As Jo and Braun were on the 3 Days tour, we took some photos together and bid farewell.
The French!
During the journey back to the city, we interacted with the French and somehow we ended up singing our national anthem and they sung theirs. The French national anthem is actually written to inspire the french to destroy their enemies. What a special meaning to the national anthem!
Had another 3 hours journey by van back to the hotel only to realise that the promised 4-person suite was unavailable. It was made worse when they wanted to raise the rates for each room if we were to stay for another day. Not knowing the reason for the hike in price, we were determined not to pay extra even though the facilities and decor of this hotel is really good. Personally, we felt that the increase in price is due to the fact that we've been to Halong Bay and is returning by flight to Singapore soon, this means that the hotel would be unable to sell us anymore tours or train tickets which equates to lesser commission for them. It might be economically wiser for them to sell it off to other tourists who have yet to book any tours. In conclusion, we were all set to move out the next day and not ready to pay more.
Hunted for more than an hour for a good cheap place for dinner and we were really hungry by then. Its so hard to look for an eating place in Hanoi! The places selling food in Hanoi is either Vietnamese roadside stalls with no english menu or high end restaurants. It was really hard for us to find a middle-range shop.
Settled for Pho Bo at a local shop full of Vietnamese and had a really good feeling about the food here. Its Pho Bo is a little different in that it had very little soup and looks more like sauce than soup. Mixed with peanuts and plenty of beef, this meal was worth scouting for.
Stuck outside the shop due to the heavy rain.
It then started pouring very heavily right after dinner! Stood outside that Pho Bo shop to shelter us from the rain.
Saw a desserts shop right across the street and with no other options available, we decided gave it a try and it proved to be good.
The desserts were really unique with a tinge of local flavour to it. Green bean sticky rice ice cream was our favourite as it tasted like pandan ice cream but the 'kou gan' (texture of the food) is a little different. Strawberry ice cream with yoghurt is cold at the top and warm below, with lots of fruits inside! Excellent finishing after a wonderful Pho Bo meal.
As the rain still didn't subside and didn't seem like it will, FM Goh decided to try one of his stunts yet again. Still wanting to slash the budget even more, he made a brave call to WALK in the rain back to the hotel. Do bear in mind that the hotel is not just across the street but about 15 minutes away! For some reason, most of us went mad with him and agreed upon that decision. Kai had no choice but to reluctantly walk back to the hotel with his crazy friends.
And so back to hotel... All drenched!
Day 16 - Hanoi
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