Hanoi and Halong Bay [270319 - 310319]

Day 1 [270319]

Reached Hanoi late afternoon. Checked into our hotel and walked around to explore the area. Hanoi is more developed than I imagined, there are all kinds of bubble tea brands around, faceshop, miniso, restaurants, etc. We were quite surprised.. Hoan Kiem Lake was nice, and we realised the locals just love sitting around doing nothing.. Haha..

We ended up at this place as we wanted to eat Pho for our very first meal. 2 tasty bowls of Pho + a plate of 3 vietnam rolls for sgd$12 made us happy and satisfied.

Day 2 [280319]

Had our city tour for the day - Literature temple, the making of Lacquer paintings, Ethnology Museum, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda, Ngoc Son Temple. And we had some amazing viet food for dinner again!

Day 3 [290319]

The 3.5 hours bus ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay was not dreadful at all (thankfully!) because we were so tired from waking up early that we spent more than half the time asleep anyway. Lol. Boarded our "cruise" at Halong Bay which was also our accommodation for the night. We thought time on the cruise would be rather boring/relaxing as there don't seem to be much to do. But we were pleasantly surprised when we realised that we would be brought to some places and there were activities as well.

We did kayaking at Pearl Farm on calm waters, and it was much easier and relaxing compared to the prev experience at Krabi! Then they brought us to Ti Top Island for a short hike. Went back to wash up for dinner on board, and we spent quite some time squid fishing after dinner. First time fishing for squid (with no real bait) and it was quite interesting! Managed to catch 3 in an hour. Lol. Lazing on the top deck just under the sky was also rather therapeutic.

But just a little hiccup in the middle of the night as I was feeling unwell and nauseous. Found out in the morning that a number of ppl also felt unwell on board.. Wondering if it's the water..?

Day 4 [300319]

Visit to Surprising Cave early in the morning so as to avoid huge crowds (which is alr quite crowded even though we were so early). The cave was elevated so it was quite a climb again.. After that was some free and easy time to let us enjoy the rest of the morning on board before we had lunch and travel back to Hanoi.

And from that evening was my travel companion's turn to feel unwell. So I went out to get dinner alone.. Settled for Banh Mi and an avocado juice. So affordable and good~ The beef with cheese Banh Mi just cost $2!

Grateful that we managed to settle on something just 3 weeks before the trip. It was a short but enjoyable getaway!