3 Jul 13
Consolidating all the photos of Hanoi in one last post! Also food recommendations at the end of the post 😉 We stayed two more days in the city after returning from Halong Bay.
Started the day with coffee at the Hotel Metropole Hanoi
Then took a walk around the French Quarters
And then back to the Old Quarters
Found the popular Bun Cha place and filled our stomachs
Walked back towards our hotel
To hang out at the cafe near our hotel and have more coffee
When we got hungry again, we walked to a nice place called Little Hanoi for dinner
Followed by a nightcap at Cafe Linh, a drinking hole decorated with memorabilia from the Vietnam war
The next morning, also our last day, we had a quick bite at this cafe (photo on the left) as we were running late
But give us a balcony any day and we only just end up taking things even slower. So we hopped onto a cyclo to take us towards Ba Dinh district to buy us some time. I wanted to squeeze in some last minute sightseeing of Hanoi’s landmarks!
A statue of Lenin
Urm, no clue what this is
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Lastly, some places worth eating at within the Old Quarters.
1 Pho Gia Truyen (49 Bat Dan Street) > A local place for pho. Order the ‘tai nam’ style which is rare steak and flank.
2 Bun Bo Nam Bo (67 Hang Dieu Street) > Bun Bo is another viet-style of noodles. One of my favourites on this trip.
3 Cha Ca La Vong (14 Cha Ca Street) > This place serves only one dish, grilled monkfish. Local institution that’s still good.
4 Try Banh Xeo if you can find it!
5 Highway 4 (25 Bat Su Street) > This place caters to foreigners. Food’s good, not authentic Viet but nice & clean does it.
6 Bun Cha (1 Hang Manh Street) > Another style of noodles, this one comes with pork belly and porky meatballs.
7 Little Hanoi No. 9 (23 Hang Gai Street) > For a little Western cos you might be craving it on your last day (like I did!).
8 Vietnamese coffee – Cafes are a dime a dozen, stop and have it iced or steamy. Also free wifi!
| Tags: 50mm/F1.8, hanoi, nikon FM10, vietnam
4 Jun 13
Hang on, it’s June? Already!! I kinda can’t move any faster. Anyone feeling the same? Well, back to this. Last post on Halong Bay. Picking up from where I left off in part 02, we explored two lagoons after lunch. I love the word ‘Lagoon’, I can say it all day. ‘Sorbet’ too. So of cos I was thrilled to go kayaking in a lagoon, or two.
As we were paddling back to our day boat, it was nice to see one boat transformed into a junk! With the sail up and everything.
The following morning, there was another one with the sail up! We were up early to go see the Sung Sot Cave or Cave of Surprises.
Passed a fishing village. There’s even a bank in there, like a money bank! So, the cave. The photo below, I took after we completed the trail. I took some photos with my iPhone inside the cave too. I wished they didn’t put multi-coloured lights cos I kept thinking of ice kachang and I wanted my first cave experience to be cool like Batman and not dessert.
It is HUGE inside, I don’t know if the photos show that. Hope this helps – I placed two tiny yellow dots above two people on the path for walking in the photo below.
Some fisherwomen hawking their catch of the day at the pier. After this, it was back to mainland and back to Hanoi. Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen and it sparked a want to go see more beautiful parts of the world.
| Tags: 50mm/F1.8, halong bay, iPhone 5, nikon FM10, vietnam
27 May 13
Halong Bay cont’d from part 01 – on our second day we got onto a day boat and sailed further into the bay. We sailed for almost an hour before reaching the next destination for kayaking. I make it sound like an hour felt like forever. But that hour was the most peaceful and serene hour I’ve experienced in a long long time. No sound but the wind.
Told you there would be rocks on rocks on rocks, heh
This is the top deck where most of us sat around. As I’m typing this at my desk, there are about five different types of sounds around me. I never noticed how much noise I endure every day, it’s like I finally understand what peace means. In the sense of an environment. I thought I knew peace… but boy was I way off.
The captain anchored our boat here. Signalling it was time to get into kayaks and explore on the water.
We chilled a lot on the kayak, as best we can without capsizing, to soak up every peak and valley in the sky. In part 03 next, we explore lagoons and caves!
| Tags: 50mm/F1.8, halong bay, indochina sails, kayaking, kodak 400, nikon FM10, vietnam
21 May 13
Now onto Halong Bay, the main reason why we travelled to Hanoi. There are day trips or two-days trips to visit Halong Bay though we felt a 3 days 2 nights itinerary suited our preference better. We sailed on the Indochina Sails boat which we booked through Halongsapa Tours.
The drive from Hanoi to Halong took about 4 hours
Couldn’t wait to explore the deck and take in the sights!
Grumpy face but I wasn’t grumpy :>
Activities began after lunch and our first stop was Titop Island. Here’s the view from 200 steps up on a cliff.
Down on the beach and a bummer that it was too chilly to swim
Expect a lot more rocks in part two! Here in real life, I’ll be sharing news about Pomheads tomorrow. It will be ready for sale and I’m so excited!!
| Tags: 50mm/F1.8, halong bay, kodak 400, nikon FM10, vietnam
13 May 13
This morning, Ben helped me shoot some photos for my upcoming hair pieces. I’ll share them here real soon! Don’t laugh tho when you see me in them, it’s been forever since I’ve been in front of the camera. Those days of ‘wardrobe remix’, you remember those?!
I got all my rolls of film developed almost immediately this time. Our trip to Hanoi, especially Halong Bay, was just terrific. It’s one of those places where no photo can quite capture what is before you. Not even a panoramic photo, yo. But before I post those ‘not-quite-photos’, I’ll start with some of Hanoi, particularly the area known as the Old Quarters.
This is St Joseph’s Cathedral
A slice of Paris in the form of the Paris Cafe (13 Nha Tho Street)
Walking around Hoan Kiem Lake, it was close to evening time so people were out and walking, talking, sitting around
A moment of stillness, while traffic is buzzing around the lake like crazy
This is Ngoc Son Temple, connected to the lake by this red bridge
We didn’t go inside the temple but found this guy outside
Walked on some more to get an idea of what’s around us and what to eat for dinner!
The ubiquitous Vietnamese straw hat
I wrote a list of what to eats too but that made this post way too lengthy. Save that for later, pictures of Halong Bay next!
| Tags: 50mm/F1.8, agfa vista 400, hanoi, nikon FM10, vietnam
