Vietnam - June 2014 [Da Nang & Hoi An]

Da Nang

Day 10

We took the 10am'ish flight to Da Nang from HCMC. The flight was delayed for 40 minutes. I was of course a little annoyed. But seeing other flights being delayed for more than 3 - 4 hours, I was grateful ours was only 40 mins...

The moment we arrived in Da Nang, our thoughts were, is this still Vietnam? Lol. Every city that we've been to have been 'old' in a way. With small roads, and many motor bikes. Da Nang gave us a very different feeling.

We had booked 3 nights at Hyatt Regency Danang. As soon as we stepped into our room, we were wowed away. The pictures speak for themselves.

 So.damn.awesome.

 White sandy beach

 Their beach pool

The view from our balcony

I loved the place and I really would not mind going back again. The sand was soft, and there wasn't a lot of crowd. Though there is still something missing that's missing in terms of Hyatt's service, I would still return for the overall experience. In my opinion, it's worth it to pay a little extra for their Club services. Free flow during happy hour, private pool, separate check in/out area, the whole package was worth it.

Lunch was at one of their restaurants and we were satisfied.

 Shrimp Salad

Hue's local pork noodle - this was yummy

The rest of the day was spent swimming, lazing around, exploring the hotel. It was awesome...

Day 11

Day of my birthday~! I told Kevin I didn't want to do much for the whole day. I just wanted to chill, read, and pamper myself. Hehehe...

Lunch was back at the same restaurant from the day before.

 Sugarcane juice - I love it how Vietnamese add lime to their sugarcane juice. This however did not have any lime in it. We asked for extra lime...

 Fried springroll

 Vietnamese bread roll is also one of my favourite Vietnamese food. No other country makes their bread roll quite like them... Crunchy on the outside, so soft on the inside...

Hyatt provided complimentary face massage for staying in their Club rooms so we booked a full body massage together for the afternoon. After the massage, it was almost time for dinner. Kevin booked dinner at The Intercontinental. The ride there took almost half an hour. It was worth it though. Intercontinental was very grand. They even have a tram inside their hotel!

 View from Intercontinental - It's very different from Hyatt

I would like to try their afternoon tea here the next time I return...

Where we had dinner

Dinner was good. The manager even asked one of the waitress to show us around the other parts of the restaurant :). Price wise, it's worth it comparing to what you'd get in HK for the same price.

Day 12

My Son & Hoi An

The day before, I noticed that we could see sunrise from the hotel. Kevin wasn't very happy that I didn't wake him up to see the sun rise. So we woke up early this day to catch the sun rise. I loved it.

After breakfast, our taxi picked us up and headed to Hoi An, stopping by My Son on the way.

My Son is listed on the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO. It's not as well known by people like Combodia's Angkor Wat. It's still worth a visit if you have time. Bring an umbrella if you are worried about the heat. There was practically no shade when we went... Entrance fee was VND100,000.

After visiting My Son, we headed to Hoi An. Hoi An was also another town that Kevin and I really liked. It's a nice quiet little town where it felt like it's a different part of Vietnam.

We had lunch at Mango Mango. Though it's pretty good, it's slightly more expensive than the other normal Vietnamese meals we have had during the trip.

 Grilled pork - the texture was pretty hard. I didn't finish it.

The prawn with tangerine & chocolate sauce was pretty good though

The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting small little shops, and Chinese temples. A point to note is that some of the points of interest in Hoi An require to buy tickets. You can buy tickets to five sightseeing places for VND120,000. Not all points of interest requires a ticket. You can choose not to buy the tickets if there isn't a sight that you are interested in that requires you to pay. We bought the tickets because there were a few sights that I was interested in.

We headed back to the hotel after. If we were to come back again, we would probably spend a night in Hoi An to see what it's like here after dark.

Our last dinner was spent at Hyatt. We managed to try all the restaurants Hyatt had to offer. We were quite happy with all of them.

Day 13

Time to head back to HK =(. It was a very good holiday and both of us enjoyed it. We will be back!

Vietnam - June 2014 [HCMC & Mui Ne]

Ho Chi Minh City

Day 5

It was late afternoon by the time we reached HCMC. My sister in law picked us up together with my sister and little brother. Seeing we still had a little time, we went to the salon to get our hair washed, and so my little brother could get a haircut before seeing my parents. His hair was a mess. After that, we went back to my brother's place to rest and 'wait for orders'.

Dinner was at La Villa, one of our favourite French restaurant in Vietnam. My brother and wife have been their regular customer for a few years now. Every time we go there, we leave with a very satisfied stomach... :D

My other brother and sister's family were already there at the restaurant by the time we arrived. After a few hugs, we had to get into position to wait for our parent's arrival. As soon as my parents arrived, they were shocked and didn't know what to say. They had no idea. :D

Now, to wind back a little, for those who know me, you would know that my dad calls everyday to check in. To avoid any suspicion, I had to subscribe to this service called Stealth Roaming because calling someone while they are in another country is another kind of sound. I don't know why. So that wives in HK can know that their husbands are lying when they are indeed in China? Anyway, with Stealth Roaming, people are not supposed to realise you're overseas on roaming. I wasn't sure if my dad would be that observant to realise but I didn't want to take a bet... So indeed, he was surprised. ^^v

Dinner was good while everyone caught up with each other. Life is good =).
Some of the things that we ate that night...

Day 6

It was planned that we would take a family portrait in the morning before heading off to Mui Ne where the family would spend a few days together. Family portraits with the little ones were not easy! It was hot, and the kids were a little impatient after a while. I sure hope there were some good photos...

After the portrait we left for Mui Ne. It was around 5 hours car ride? Not the most comfortable ride ever... We were exhausted and tired by the time we reached the resort place.

Day 7

After a good night's sleep, the kids woke up excited about going to the pool for a swim.

 Mia with her umbrella. It was a lot heavier that she could handle but she insisted...

 The pool

The tennis court

After the swim, it was time for lunch. We headed to a hotel nearby for some Vietnamese noodle soup.

When all these vegetable are mixed together, you have a nice bowl of Vietnamese noodle. Which I didn't take a proper picture of...

The end product after it's a mixed together

While food was being prepared, we of course took the opportunity to take pictures...

After lunch, it was back to the resort to chill. The rest of the afternoon is spent lazing around...

Dinner was at a local seafood place that served fresh seafood such as below. Yum yum yum....

Day 8

After breakfast, we headed to the sand dune nearby.

Sliding down the sand dune

The family

After lunch, we went to one of a nearby hotel for spa treatment. By the time we got back to the resort, it's almost time for dinner. As it was our last night in Mui Ne, they have prepared some home cooked seafood for us :)))).

 The crab is one of favourite dish. Everything was so yummyyyy.

The Queen of snails apparently... Nevertheless, yummy.

Day 9

After a few days of fun in Mui Ne, it was time to head back to HCMC :(. Another long car ride... We stopped by to buy some dragon fruit before heading back. The dragon fruits in Vietnam are super awesome. It's so sweet and they are so much bigger compared to the ones you get outside of Vietnam.  Another note to add, mangoes are really good in Vietnam too. Extremely sweet.

By the time we got back to HCMC, it was almost time for dinner. Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant and I was surprised with a birthday cake. It was time to say goodbye to the family...

It has been a good vacation and it's a shame we can only gather once in a while. Distance makes the heart grow fonder I suppose... We may end up killing each other if we had all lived in the same place anyway. Hahaha. 

Vietnam - June 2014 [Halong Bay]

Ha Long Bay

Day 3

We booked our Halong Bay cruise through our Hotel. Bhaya Cruise was pretty good overall. We wanted a small cruise so that we won't be packed with a lot of people. The food on board was not 5 star but it was better than I had hoped for. The overall experience was relaxing. There was one little thing I wanted to complain about. Can they ban kids under the age of 12? My near perfect ending ended up with kids running up and down, left and right, playing catch or something... Sighs.

The day started with Bhaya Cruise's driver picking us up at our hotel. The driver picked up three other group of people before heading to Halong Bay. Half way to Halong Bay, we had a mandatory stop at a marble sculpture place for tourists. Guess it's normal to stop by these places anywhere you go these days.

The car journey took around 4 hours and we finally arrived at the place where the cruise ships are parked. We boarded the ship after waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive. The tour started with introduction to the ship, and itinerary for the day and a half. After lunch we went to a nearby floating village where the villagers rowed us around the island.

 The boat that took us around the village

After the tour, it was free time to do whatever we wanted. Happy hour started at 5'ish where you get buy one get one free. Yay for us. We sat outside on the deck, sipped on our cocktail, felt the breeze in our hair, and watched the scene below go by. It was awesome.

Dinner was a three course western dinner and it was alright. Won't rave about it but nothing much to complain about. There were some activities after dinner but being the introverts that we are, we retreated back to our room and watched a few more episodes of Modern Family before going to bed. Lol.

Day 4

The next day started out early again. This time we are headed for one of Halong Bay's famous cave. Again, I didn't bring my camera.... It was quite a scene. I really should get the pictures from Kevin...

After a light lunch, it's back to mainland and time to go back to our hotel in Hanoi. Another four more hours of car ride. ><"By the time we got back to Hanoi it was already 4 5'ish. We decided to walk around for a bit and have some coffee, stumbling upon this coffee shop on the corner of a busy street. I love the coffee culture Vietnam has. People just sit around, chat, and watch the world go by. Wish there were more places like this here in HK...

 One of my favourite combination - ice coffee with bread dipped in condense milk :)

Dinner was originally planned at Wild Lotus. We felt a little lazy and decided to skip it. Going to a nearby hotel for dinner instead. Food there wasn't anything extraordinary. Probably should have gone to Wild Lotus instead... ^^"

Vietnam - June 2014 [Intro & Hanoi]

It's been a long time since I last blogged about my travels. Ever since FB became popular I abandoned the idea of blogging since it's so much faster to just upload pictures to show what I've done. However, all this uploading of pictures really don't mean much. After a while, I can't even remember what I've done and how I felt that day. A travel journal helps with that. I can't share with others what I write in the journal though... Another way to share with more detail is through this blog. Though I'm not too sure who reads this. Hahahah. Let's see how long this will last anyway...

Vietnam was my latest travel. It was chosen by my siblings as a place to surprise my parents. It's hard to gather all the family together in one place when all of us live in different countries. We initially thought of going back to KL to gather up but one of us suggested to surprise my parents instead. The plan was to get my parents to Vietnam where my brother stayed. When they asked the kids to go there instead, everyone would say that they are busy and won't be able to make it. The surprise worked and they were touched (I hope). More on that later...

In summary, the trip was good fun. It has been too long since the whole family spent time together and made me long for more time together. It would be a while before we are all together again I guess...

Anyway, back to the main topic. I've always loved going to Vietnam. The food is good, friendly people, quality clothes, awesome coffee. Since my siblings wanted to surprise my parents in Ho Chi Minh City, I decided to spend sometime up north before meeting up with them down south. Here is my itinerary for this Vietnam Trip.

Day 1 & 2 - HK -> Hanoi
Day 3 - Hanoi -> Halong Bay
Day 4 - Halong Bay -> Hanoi
Day 5 - Hanoi -> Ho Chi Minh City
Day 6 - Ho Chi Minh City -> Mui Ne
Day 7 & 8 - Mui Ne
Day 9 - Mui Ne -> Ho Chi Minh City
Day 10 - Ho Chi Minh City -> Danang
Day 11 & 12 - Danang
Day 13 - Danang -> Hanoi -> HK

Before I start, I must note that I never intended to write about my trips on my blog hence there are many pictures/details which I may not have taken to provide you a better picture of my experience... I'll do my best to describe. If you see some missing descriptions, it just means I've forgotten what I've eaten/seen/done.

Hanoi

We decided to stay at the old quarter of Hanoi after some researching. Almost every point of interest was a walkable distance from the old quarter. However, the roads were a little difficult to walk on as it's rare that the path for people to walk on isn't already taken up as a parking space by the motorbike. We had to walk on the road most of the time. It was hard not to be paranoid about either getting hit by a motorbike or getting robbed. Nothing happened to us during our time there and I doubt anywhere is as dangerous as KL when it comes to snatch thief on a motorbike in Southeast Asia...

Day 1

We stayed at Orient Boutique Hotel which was located at a very convenient location in the old quarters. From there, we walked to a place nearby called New Day to have our first meal. The price was reasonable and you could tell it's not just a place for foreigners.

 Beef noodle

 Sweet & sour pork (yes, I know it's a cliche Asian dish but Kev was craving for it...)

One of my favourite in Hanoi - Dried noodle with grilled meat ball and fried spring roll

After a very filling meal, we walked to the Hoan Kiem Lake. It was hottttttttt. It was exhausting even though it really wasn't that far away.

 The bridge that connected to a temple at the lake

From the lake, we further walked to the St Joseph's Cathedral. I was hoping that I could go in to the cathedral to have a look but it was under construction at the time when we went. It looked pretty old and abandonded from the outside but sill had a sense of beauty to it.

St Joseph's Cathedral

By the time we walked to St Joseph's, I was already dead tired. I know, I have really bad stamina. We decided to head back to the hotel to rest for a while before dinner. For dinner, I chose this place called Green Tangerine. It's highly recommended by a few people and guidebooks so we decided to give it a try. It's also just located 5 minutes from the hotel. Yay for me. Hahahah. Green Tangerine is a French restaurant in a nice looking mansion (?). It was overall a nice meal. But if I were to go again, I would probably request to be seated downstairs where it's cooler and seemed to have a nicer ambience.

 A nice place for couples to go to

 Pastry with iced parmesan cheese in the middle

Day 2

I can't remember why, but I didn't bring my camera out the whole day on the second day. ^^" If I have the time, I'll ask for some pictures from Kevin...

Anyway, we woke up early with the intention of wanting to go to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum as it's only opened for the first of of the day. The taxi dropped us somewhere close to the entrance but it.was.so.damn.crowded! There was this longggg line getting into this place. Kevin and I decided not to join the line and went to visit the outside of the HCM museum instead. We kept going around in circles looking for HCM's stilt house till we finally realised it was under renovation. Lol. We felt pretty stupid at that time. 

After that confusing walk around the HCM museum, we decided to move to our next destination - Van Mieu (Temple of Literature) where it's the first National University of Vietnam. I am not sure where we went wrong, but we ended up walking the wrong direction and got a little lost. Nobody on the street seemed to know where we wanted to go... Before getting even more lost than we needed to be, Kevin made an executive decision (I was still undecided whether I wanted to continue walking) to catch a taxi. It was lucky that he made that decision. From the looks of where the taxi went, we were pretty off course.... Hahaha. The Temple of Literature was very Chinese looking and there were many locals taking graduation photo there. It's not everyday we get to see Vietnamese students in their traditional clothes. Entrance ticket was VND20,000.

The Vietnam Fine Arts Museum was our next destination. We took our own sweet time walking around the museum. It was empty enough for us to look at the pieces slowly. For VND30,000, it was good value for money.

We were pretty hungry by the time we finished touring the Art Museum. From there, we walked to Quan An Ngon for some Vietnamese food. The concept is like a big food court centre but you don't have to walk around to order. Food was decently priced and from the looks of the crowd, it's popular among local and foreigners.

Next up, Hoa Lo Prison. I debated with Kevin on going to this museum. I'm not a fan of looking at these things. It gives me the creeps... He won in the end and I ended up going in... Though it's not as scary as I thought it'd be, I still wanted to get out of that place as soon as I could. Entrance ticket was VND20,000. 

We headed towards the Opera House before heading back to the hotel. You can already imagine I was really tired by then. We rested at the hotel until dinner time before heading out again. Initially, we wanted to go for some street food at the night market. It seemed we had already missed the night market by the time we got there. It's either the night market wasn't opened on that day or we were at the wrong place... We ended up choosing a random place, and went back to rest early as we had to wake up early the next day for the car ride to Ha Long Bay.

Snail Pace Progress

From my last post, I said that I wanted to do something about this loop that I'm constantly in. I have made almost no progress since that last post. It's frustrating but I'm the only one to blame for this. I have at least started with my list though. Lol. It's not much, but it's something to start off with at least.

I've been reading and researching about this topic of "living and working passionately". It seems the common theme is finding out what you believe in and doing something in relation to the cause that you believe in. Without your 'why', you can't possibly have a fulfilling life. Most of us are just doing what we're asked to do, or what we believe is the 'right thing to do'. Be it doing a job that provides security even though it sucks the soul out of you, buying a house because everyone else is doing it, investing because it's the 'in' thing, or getting married because it's 'time'. It has always been a mind boggling question.

I have yet to find my own purpose and I know I'm not alone. So many people whom I speak to are in this constant battle with themselves. Some will win and eventually find their why. Some will give in to society and tell themselves they are happier that way without the battle. I haven't given up yet, but it's such a tough battle.

You would think that you know yourself the best. Yet when I try to explore my own thoughts, desire, want, passion, my mind goes blank. Has the social norm and society successfully swallowed my mind? So many times I tell myself to stop thinking because there is no point in all this extra thinking. Not as if my life is miserable. In fact, it's very good. Except from the fact that I constantly feel that something is missing. Sighs, the constant battle with myself.

Ok, this post is going no where. I still need more time to sort out myself. I need to change my approach in handling this problem though. Perhaps I should start writing here more often again. To at least get some ideas out of my head anyway...

Recent Change...

It's been yet another year and a bit since I last wrote. I have been way too lazy. ^^" Though it doesn't make too much of a difference to many people whether I write or not, it's more of something that I need to do for myself. Expressing my thoughts here provides a form of relief since it's normal for most of my thoughts and feelings to get bottled up somewhere and it gets released in an unhealthy way...

Anyway, as a form of update, I moved from KL to Hong Kong in January. The most common question that I get asked these days is "How are you settling?". My most common answer is "Ok, I guess. The space and crowd is something that would take me a while to get used to". For those who don't know me well, I grew up in a place where space and crowd was never an issue. Instead, space was abundant and the human population is less than the sheep's population (something that many people laughed at as well). Why oh why did I move again? The grass is always greener on the other side I guess. It's a journey which I set myself up to take. If I am lucky, I will eventually find out how my dots are connected.

My recent move has had its challenges. Not only because of the space and all. It's also due to the job role, the environment, the whole package. It has prompted a question which I have been placed in a box and hid it somewhere. It's the age old question. What makes you happy? What are you passionate about? I've been telling myself these questions shouldn't be too hard to answer. At the end of the day, no one knows you better than yourself, right? So I thought anyway. I have some vague idea. But I've never pursued these vague ideas of mine. I get lazy, and then I take the easy way out by forgetting about it. It's a cycle that I really need to break. I can't continue to give myself these excuses, fluffy ideas. It will eventually be too late one day.

I don't want to end up spending time on things that don't mean much to me at all. Days are long but the years are short. Before you know it, it's over. I didn't give myself a new years resolution at the beginning of this year. Today, I'm giving myself one. I want to stop going around in this circle that I'm always in. Let's see how things pan out...

Rant

Seriously, there is this really annoying human trait that I am getting quite annoyed at.
That is the tendency for us to complain how things are never enough.
We are always demanding more and more and more.

No, you are not answering the way I expect you to.
No, you are not responding the way a good [insert title/position/etc here] is supposed to.
No, you are not doing enough.
No, you are not good enough.
It is never good enough and it will never be good enough

Honestly, the day is already tough enough to get by.
Can't we all just be a little less uptight and a little more considerate?
Everyone is different and we all hold a different ruler to measure each ruler.
I may use inches you may use centimeters.

I.am.tired.trying.to.make.everyone.happy