Sailing

Today was very stressful for me as I had to play timekeeper for my Mom who has a history of tardiness and failing to keep her appointments. When I opened my eyes, Mom was wide awake making koot-koot (slang for fussing around aimlessly) and was ecstatic to see me awake. She had already been up for an hour and was anxious for me to get up so she could converse with someone. I asked her what time it was and she said it was 5am. Since it was still early, I encouraged her to close her eyes and catch some more sleep but even I was having a hard time getting back to la-la land because Mom kept on talking and talking. Wake up na daw kasi 6am naman ang breakfast call namin.

Imagine my surprise when she forgets that the clock on her cellphone was never adjusted and that in actuality, it was only 4am in Hanoi. Inis! But as I said, I couldn't fall back to sleep so Mom and I just kept on talking for the next 2 hours while waiting for breakfast to be served at 6am. Mom and I work in the same office six days a week and I even go to her house for Sunday lunch and yet we never run out of things to say to one another. She is my best friend BUT she is also my worst enemy. Especially when she wakes me up at 4:00 in the morning!!!! I didn't have time though to stay mad at her because I was determined to get Mom on that tourist van on time.

The irony is despite Mom waking up at 3am Hanoi time, we still ended up 10 minutes late for our Halong Bay pick-up. Double Inis!


Anyway, Halong Bay is 3 hours away from the City and most tour operators will tell you that an overnight stay is ideal to enjoy a trip here. Upon my official guidebook a.k.a. Michelle's advice, I convinced my companions that a day trip would be sufficient. The drive was leisurely and we hardly even felt the distance because we were all asleep in the van. By the time we got to the dock, there were hundreds of people all waiting to get on their respective boats and embark on their afternoon long adventure.



When we were negotiating with the Sinh Tour Operator the day before, she assured us that the boat we would be sailing on would be first-class. Hmmm, I think she was pulling our leg.
Nevertheless, I think the $28.00 per person we paid was sufficient for the van ride, sailing around for 4 hours, entrance to two caves, (inaudible) tour guide and lunch on the boat pa! My only complaint was that the deck didn't have enough lounging chairs to accommodate us so we ended up sitting on the floor. It was enjoyable nonetheless!





Despite the gloomy conditions, the water was surprisingly calm and the breeze was cool and relaxing. As I have mentioned in my past posts, I get very dizzy on anything that moves and shakes but lucky for me, I didn't find any need for my bonamine and poy-sian inhaler. It was so nice to sail around in such ideal conditions and with great company to boot! Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the bay features thousands of limestone cliffs in various sizes and shapes as shown in the pictures above. How beautiful! They were so massive and there were times that we were sailing so close to them. What a sight. Nena was right. Halong Bay is a must see!



Around the area, you will see clusters of floating houses that have fishpens and other seafoods for sale to the sailing public. You will also see boats that sell anything from fruits to junkfood to mineral water and even tissue paper! Heehee. We didn't purchase any food though because the lunch served on the boat was more than enough for us. We had spring rolls, pickled and stir-fried vegetables, fish, squid, clams, rice and fresh plate of dessert to compliment the feast prepared for us.



After lunch, we had the opportunity to visit two grottos but opted to just go to one. I wasn't aware though that we had to climb up a flight of stairs so I even convinced Mom to join us. Tita Jean opted to stay in the boat as her stomach was getting a bit queasy on her. Naku, when I saw how high we had to go, I tried to talk Mom out of going pero she got stubborn on me na. Thankfully, she was able to make it to the top with no hitches and she was so glad to have gone. It was a beautiful sight inside and she says she would never have the chance to see it again (no more stair climbing in the future!) so buti nalang daw she went.


Our sail ended at around 4:30 pm but with the wet road conditions and some traffic along the way, we made it back to the city close to 8pm already. Our main problem now was where to eat dinner since my itinerary didn't have a dinner venue that evening so our concierge directed us to Quan An Ngon. He says that this place is frequented by the locals and since it was within walking distance, we took his advice. The place reminds me so much of Streetlife, the high end food court that used to be in Glorietta. You get spring rolls in this kiosk then the pho noodles in another kiosk. We were so excited to eat! But as luck would have it, there was no more food left when we got there at 9pm.



Instead, we ended up here. Tan Tan Eel is a few steps away from Quan An Ngon and we were very skeptical of the place kasi walang tao! Reymond has this thing that if there are no people inside a resto, di daw masarap diyan. I guess after 8 years of marriage, his beliefs had rubbed off on me as well. But we would find out later on that the resto was about to close and that they merely accommodated us. Siguro talagang mukha na kaming gutom. The food was average but for the hungry bunch, it was heaven. The funny thing is, even if the specialty of the house was Eel (obvious ba?), we didn't bother ordering any dish with eel in it. Funny talaga kami. We got back to HE3 at 10pm, busog and super tired. Finally, it was time to go back to la-la land.

Hot in the City

In 2005, my Mom decided that instead of spending money for a lavish party to celebrate her birthday, she would treat her girls to a trip in a foreign destination of her choice. We enjoyed HK so much that year that Mom decided she would make it an annual event much to the delight of her beneficiaries. In 2006, Mom had hip replacement surgery and so that year was left blank. In 2007, the tradition was revived with a trip to KL. This year, we chose to visit Hanoi because: a) the airfare was discounted courtesy of a Cebu Pacific promo and b) none on us had been to this city. This year though, we missed my Mom's only sister Tata and my sister-in-law Shyla as their busy schedules did not permit them to take time off work. Nevertheless, we were determined to have fun in our journey to discover the capital of Vietnam!

As we touch down in Hanoi, Tita Cora is harassed and detained in the Immigration area simply because she was holding an American passport. We couldn't think of any other reason because all of us breezed through immigration while she was questioned for about 20 minutes. Goodness! When she emerged at the Luggage Carousel, we all broke into nervous laughter! What a relief indeed. After gathering our luggages, we were deluged by about 20 men all asking us if we needed a ride. I was straining my neck though for a placard with our hotel name and my name written on it but I couldn't find any. Again, we were held up for about 20 minutes with these men continuing to harass us until the hotel driver finally arrived. Mukhang nakatulog sa parking lot. Grrrrr.

Happy naman kami for about 45 minutes which is the time it takes from the International Airport to the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We were talking and laughing about how our adventure had begun barely an hour in Hanoi. All of a sudden, our driver stops and starts looking around in what appeared to be a deserted street. Naku, what a time naman to be lost. He was looking left and right until he finally stopped at a building that had a heavy steel gate barricading it. And then he says, THIS IS IT. All of us refused to go down. We were all talking at the same time, my Mom insisting that he bring us to the Hanoi Elegance 3 but when I looked down at my reminders, there it was. 106 Hang Bong Street. I looked up and realized that he brought us to the right place. Naku, I thought, yari ako sa mga travel companions ko. It really looked like a dingy hotel. At the precise moment I was thinking of strangling my friend Michelle for suggesting this hotel, the steel gate lifts and we are greeted by the hotel staff. As we walk in, it wasn't naman pala that bad.



The Hanoi Elegance is a group of boutique hotels all located in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. The HE3 is the newest in the hotel chain and it had only been in operation for 3 months. The HE3 has about 30 rooms and each room is equipped with a desktop computer with free wi-fi and an LCD tv pa. The things that are important to me like clean sheets, clean bathroom, great personalized service with a free basket of fruits pa every morning were all provided for. It is very quaint and we would find out in the morning that the location of the hotel was excellent. The reason the street look deserted that evening was because the shops all close by 10pm. Wala atang nightlife dito! The morning after, the street outside HE3 was buzzing with activity!


Since we arrived at 1am that morning, we took our time getting ready for our first day here. We started with a great breakfast which was already included in our hotel package. Our favorite was the gravy beef mixed with some curry, unknown herbs and spices served with a crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside baguette. You tear off bite size portions of the baguette and dip it into the gravy beef. Super sarap! As my friends will attest to, I like things that are familiar to me. As such, I had the breakfast entree for 5 straight days. You must, must try it if you ever find yourself in a Hanoi Elegance Hotel.

We went back to our rooms to rest some more then met up again at 1130am to begin our happy trek to our lunch destination. Along the way, we are met by a variety of stores, a million and one motorcycles, restaurants ON the sidewalk, sticky heat and dead air that usually precedes a heavy downpour. True enough, as soon as we step into the Green Tangerine, the rain fell. Good thing we were already indoors!



The Green Tangerine is actually an old colonial home restored and converted into a restaurant which serves delicious French food. There is a small courtyard before the airconditioned dining area which is where we stayed given the wet conditions. I had the salmon mousse skewer on a lemon grass stick served with ratatouille probably because I was intrigued by the dish that had a movie with the same name. Heehee. For dessert naman, I had a French cheese cake with mango and passion fruit sauce. My new discovery is that the French cheese cake is very different from the one I have over here! The one I had was similar to a sponge cake and it wasn't sweet at all. It felt very new to my taste buds but I'm glad I was able to try something different.




After lunch, mainit nanaman! The rain was able to let off some steam but the air was so dry and humid. We crossed the street and made our way to the nearest Sinh Cafe and booked ourselves for Halong Bay the next day and a City Tour the day after. As advised by Nena and Michelle (lahat talaga ng advise nila, sinunod ko!), we booked our tours there since their prices were much cheaper than the tours booked at hotels. Seen in the picture for the very first time is our friend, Tomo, a Japanese national whose husband Kenji was stationed in Hanoi. The couple were friends of my Tita Cora when they were stationed in Manila a couple of years ago.

As soon as we finished booking our tours, Tomo brought us to all her sukis around the Old Quarter. Similar to Saigon, Hanoi boasts of very beautiful lacquer products, silk clothes and accessories and embroidered linen that were of very good quality but was reasonably priced. Look lang kami ng look but no one was buying pa. Nagkahiyaan ata! Before we realized it, we had been going around for about 3 hours when we finally took a rest at Moca Cafe which was very near the St. Joseph's Cathedral. After a brief spell, we were able to go inside the church and roam the grounds as well.





After walking around St. Joseph's, we also took time out to visit the nearby stores that had unique furniture and interesting decor.




To end Day 1 in Hanoi, we had dinner at the Tamarind Cafe which happened to be right in front of the Hanoi Elegance 2 where Michelle, Jerrie and Co. stayed at the month before. TC is the worst place to be if your last name is Valdez because it's actually a vegetarian restaurant. The good news was we didn't bring the boys along so we were willing to experiment and see if we could actually have a good meal without meat. Lo and behold, it's possible! We had fried spring rolls, crunchy mushroom, tofu and even lasagna -- all without meat. We left there satisfied but not stuffed like we usually are! The dinner also served as Tita Cora's birthday treat since we didn't know what time we'd get back from Halong Bay the next day...