Curioser & curioser…

What do you make of this?

I saw this whilst prowling around the old quarter in Hanoi on my last trip up. You know you’re an iconic figure once there’s bootleg art of you around. I have to wonder though … is the naked lady supposed to draw attention to Obama or is he supposed to be drawing attention to her?

A couple of streets down and a turn into an alley furnished this sight … the local market (which I must say smells alot more pleasant than the frozen foods aisles of some supermarkets!)

This narrow entry is for both human and vehicular traffic .. beware the oncoming Vespa’s.

The dry goods section which leads on to the fresh meats starting with the live seafood.

Fresh fish or would you prefer a side of bacon (this little piggy was being carved up into smaller pieces by a lethal knife!)

Now this takes fresh to a whole new level..the prawns were constantly jumping out of the baskets at this corner.

On our way to Ha Long Bay I caught sight of this field of lotus blossoms. Trust me when i say they do grow out of the muck. Bad image I know but I was in a moving vehicle!

For those who do make it up to Hanoi for more than a weekend i would recommend a trip up to the bay. Its truly lovely (though swim in the waters at your own risk – especially the spots where they pull in for sightseeing) and well worth the trip. We ventured off for a night on the water on the “Emeraude’ and other than me suffering through slim pickings in a seafood heavy buffet we had a lovely time.

The enterprising spirit of developing nations is amazing though. These ladies pulled up to our boat to sell us supplies once we had docked for the night.

 

A view of the bay before boarding our boat..

Where we docked for the night..

While going through my picture pile for this post I came across this..

More than tissue paper is being used to claim a seat in restaurants these days but this just bordered on ridiculous. And lastly the pervasiveness of trends that sweep the US and the power of the tween-teen generation – “Twilight” in Vietnamese being sold at the airport in Hanoi.

Mumbai-Goa-Nanded: February 2008

Ok it took me almost 30 years but I’ve finally broken the tradition and travelled beyond the Delhi-Punjab sector. To further spice things up my travel companions and I booked our flight and the hotel for the first night only..figuring we would find our way around as we went. Was it an easy trip..so-so..but its an experience I’m eager to repeat again. It helped that back in February when I went on this trip I had the immense need to break out of my comfort shell and push my boundaries again 🙂

At the airport in Singapore we indulged in an ages old tradition to take a parting picture at the various bits of decor at the terminal.

Landing in Mumbai we encountered familiarity..stepping out the sights, smells, and sounds let you know you are in India. As we got into our taxi to make our way to Colaba however we encountered the charming architecture and a much higher level of cleanliness than we had seen on our trips to Delhi. Mumbai has a vibrant pulse thats noticeable from the get-go and we enjoyed the obvious differences.

Once we got to the hotel I decided to get to the nearest travel desk to sort out the next leg of our trip. One of the best things about India…the fact that it sees such a diaspora of tourists it has travel agencies to cater to all travel budgets and i emerged with tickets and hotel booked for Goa.

Before I had left for the travel desk though I’d realised that packing your bags at the last moment isn’t the smartest thing..I’d left the keys to the lock that was on my luggage at home. After the travel desk I took a walk down Colaba to the landmark Regal theatre where a good friend of mine was to meet me for dinner. My first night in Mumbai I had wonderful conversation, great company and a memorable drive to watch the twinkling lights of Mumbai…that is until jet-lag and exhaustion caused my light-bulb to dim considerably. Thanks you JPPP!

Goa:

Goa was lush, green, scenic, laid-back and a nice break from the city scenes of both Mumbai and Singapore. The days were hot….massively hot and I even had to get myself a hat to keep from passing out from the heat.

We visited North and South Goa and had a good time with the day tours. I would definitely recommend a visit to Goa if you are going to be in the area. Some of the highlights for me were:

~Seeing dolphins in the wild

~These poor cluckers were on their way to the market: Ingenious transportation

~This mobile toy store caught my eye as our tour bus was stopped for cashew nuts, wine and fenny, the local home-brewed alcohol

~Only in India!

~the changing landscape of the Goan countryside

~The sunset as our boat cruised down the Mandovi river

~This store’s signage begged to be photographed

From Goa we headed back to Mumbai where we were met by my sister for the second phase of our trip…Nanded and the Gurdwara Sachkhand Shri Hazur Sahib which is a significant historical and spiritual venue for Sikhs. The landscape from Mumbai, through Pune and farther into Maharashtra toward Hyderabad changed considerably and these windmill dotted plains caught my fancy.

Upon our arrival at the Gurdwara, after a really loong 15 hours drive, we found wonderful accommodations within the premises for a measly INR200. The room we got was comparable to any 3 star hotel with its own sitting toilet and water heater 🙂 along with 2 double beds with nice thick blankets!

The weather in Nanded was much cooler than we had expected and due to the massive construction in preparation for its 300th anniversary, there were many large mosquitoes. I’m rarely bitten by mosquitoes as I have a rather low body temperature but even I was not spared. The next morning we went in for the morning services and enjoyed the beauty of the temple as the day broke before heading back into our 4WD for the ride back to Mumbai.

~The exterior of the Gurdwara

~The gorgeous interiors

~The massive kitchen where food is prepared and served to all who come

Back in Mumbai we spent our remaining 2 days shopping and seeing the sights, which included a drive-by tour of the homes of Bollywood celebrities. The driver who took us to Nanded remained with us for the rest of our trip and was an excellent guide and a companionable tour-guide. The highlights for Mumbai….

~My sis and I at the Gateway of India

~And next to us were these guys sneaking in a quick bath

~At the hanging gardens

~Posing against the backdrop of Mumbai’s famed Marine Drive

~A trip to Hajji Ali

~My family blending in with the locals at Juhu Beach

~The carnival atmosphere at Juhu Beach

~The sun setting on the last day of my vacation

~The beaches in India are very animal friendly. Here the bull and dog enjoy their Sunday at the beach too 🙂

I would love to return to Mumbai again and visit places I now know and the many other nooks and crannies I’d love to visit again..all the wonderful street markets, the strip at Colaba where I went crazy buying books as its cheaper than book shopping in Singapore, eating paani puri and pao bhajji (yummy!!), and finding little treasures to bring home like this buy.

Mumbai, Goa and the rest…worth the visit in my books!

Mehndi Artistry

I’ve been putting off my post about my most recent trip to India. Where do I begin to describe a truly amazing vacation and all the insights (both good and bad) that I experienced….

Well as good a place as any i think will be the mehndi i got done at Inorbit Mall in Malad, Mumbai for a measly 100 rupees. The lady who did it for me is something I aspire to…she started at one point of my leg and with simple but incredibly fine lines gave me an intricate design which I sorely wished was permanent.

It may not be on my skin any longer but I’ll always have this picture to remind me how absolutely lovely (in my opinion) my skin looked with my mehndi 😀

India: A visit to the motherland(pt 2)

Feel sufficiently restored and able to continue with the chronicling of my trip (rather sheepishly at that since its been ages since i’ve returned). For those of you who expressed your feedback or left comments me says thanks!

So after the fanfare of “You’re here! We’ve missed you!” etc we set off to Jalandhar, about a 2 hour drive from Amritsar, where my cousins live. There is always an excitement in me when i find myself in the “motherland”. The sights, smells (yes even that), and sounds (its a euphoria that does induce some delusion since the sounds of a multitude of cars honking on the roads can be grating) all combine to produce a sense of familiarity and ‘home’. Granted the life i see in Jalandhar vis-a-vis my family there is an affluent one and that affluence expresses itself in alot of the comforts i have at home here so there is no “hardships” per se.

Over the next few days we spent much time just being with family exchanging stories and catching up on all the happenings over the last 2 years. We visited a few places amongst which a must-mention is the grand old haweli (or mansion) my cousin lives in. Its over a hundred years old and has its own turrets!

Included in this home’s charms is an equally old and magnificent four-poster bed which stands over 7 feet tall and is intricately carved and inlaid with ivory. Another interesting feature of the home was its network of doors which had every room, with the exception of the bathroom, connected to at least 2 other rooms allowing you to do a circuit of the entire home.

When it came time to return to Delhi we opted for the train which was a much cheaper alternative to air travel. We took the Shatabdi Express and got first class seats for about 1000INR per person. The train journey took about 6 hours and left at 6:15 so it was a comfortable time of day to travel. The first class ticket comes with numbered seats to ensure your seat is there for you, air-conditioned compartment, breakfast and newspapers. My sis and I had no problems whiling away the hours by napping or just enjoying the scenery between the limited stops the express train makes. Fortunately for us an acquaintance of our relatives was also travelling into Delhi that day and assisted in getting us a coolie to get our luggage off the train and safely into the cab headed to our hotel.

We had not made any hotel arrangements but in India you’ll find an abundance of travel desks (I strongly recommend the government certified ones unless you speak enough of the language to get by) where you can find a hotel to suit your budget and also arrrange for day tours as we did for our plan to visit the Taj Mahal.

For our stay in Delhi we picked a hotel in Karol Bagh and found it central to travelling around Old Delhi where alot of the markets and stores are. We had a whole street of department stores, restaurants and even a hair saloon some 20ft from our hotel lobby. The hotel was also quite close to the Metro line (a train system similar to our MRT) and it was always a relief to step into the cool Metro after braving the blistering August heat outside to either do some sight-seeing or shopping. Alternatively there are air-conditioned taxis but tempu’s, or auto’s, are a much more economical way to travel around Delhi.

On our last day in Delhi we headed out to Agra to view the Taj Mahal, the monument of love built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. We had seen it as children but for me seeing it with the eyes of someone who now understood love and the somewhat fickle nature of it made viewing it even more awe-inspiring now than it was all those years ago.

Luck was a lady the day we decided to visit the Taj Mahal as there was a celebratory occassion (I forget which-the hazards of putting of writing a post for 6 months!) and as such it was free entry for all..including foreigners which if you have travelled to India you will know is quite a bargain for such a tourist spot! We arrived at what was the beginning of the hottest part of the day (12pm or so) and thank god for our cotton clothing is all i can say. Once you reach the actual building you do have to deposit your shoes and make your way across the foyer and up the stairs barefoot. The trip up was alright but on the way down my tootsies were so toasted I provided some entertainment for the locals by sprinting (if you ever saw me run you’d know why this was so entertaining) and doing an “ouch! ouchie!” all along the way. I can honestly say that was a personal record broken for me 🙂

We rounded off the Taj and our India trip with me living up to my nickname of “Gulabo” (pinky) as evidenced by the pics.

On the whole I truly enjoyed my return to the motherland. Family, fantastic food and your best friend as your travel companion….what more can a girl ask for 😉

(this post has had its timestamp adjusted. I finally finished writing it on Feb 17th 2008 but feel sufficient embarassment at the delay and undertook to have the date altered to match that of the first post on this trip – especially since i’ve already made a second trip to India in the 6 months it took me to write this!)

India: A visit to the motherland(pt 1)

India…what do i say and where do i begin to chronicle my trip. It wasn’t a touristy trip like most of my vacations are as India is my ancestral home and i still have some family there. So here’s the reasons i went to India: My niece and nephew.

When i first moved to Canada my niece was 4 and my nephew 8. Watching the 2 of them grow up and especially these last 4 years (it will be 4 years since i’ve returned from Canada this September 1st) when i haven’t been there to see each change take place has perhaps been the biggest adventure of my life.

They were the first to christen me “massi” which means my mother’s sister (their mum and i are first cousins although she takes care of me like i’m another one of her kids) and introduce me to the delights of being sugar-high every Halloween when we would stay up all night to finish the left-over candy. They taught me alot about patience and what it takes to really care for a child yet give them the room to develop their own personalities. They will be, oh god i’ll sound like my dad, my babies no matter how big they get!

Before i go on to chronicle my travels in India perhaps i should give some background as to why i like the place so much. My family has been out of India for 2 generations. My father was born and raised in Singapore and my mother though born in India (go figure that one out…she’s half chinese and she’s the only one to be born in India out of all her siblings!) was raised in Malaysia as my grandparents had moved out there when she was just 3. The cultural climate that i grew up in is an NRI cliche as in we spoke only English at home (even my grandmother is fluent though she can’t spell so we spell anything we don’t want her to know) and never really identified ourselves as Indians..and in my case it was even harder to juggle with being an inter-racial teen…second generation no doubt but i was hardly ever asked if i was Indian. To this day people don’t always get it right in the first go. To say i was apathetic about my cultural identity as an Indian would be an understatement.

This changed quite dramatically when i moved to Canada for my university. My family in India dispersed to either Singapore or Canada and we had had little interaction with the cousins/relatives on that side. Moving to Canada introduced me to people who were Punjabi and were quite loudly proud of it (if you’ve had any interaction with Punjabi’s you will understand this!). I was exposed to the music, the culture, the food, and most importantly forced to speak alot more punjabi than i did at home. The village bumpkin in me flourished and now my family here makes fun of how “indian” i am and most especially in India. Thats why every trip i make out to the mother land is a special treat of sorts for me. Does this mean i like everything about the place…no..but i don’t like everything about Singapore either…but one thing India does is to make me feel vitally alive.

Wanting to make the most of our limited vacation time (my sis could not take any more days off) we took an evening flight into Delhi and got in at 2am. The flight by Jet Air was good. They have individual entertainment systems that are independently accessible unlike the ones on SIA which have a fixed time rotation. The only drawback was that they had to reboot and start it up 4 times during the 5 hour flight. Not unbearable since the movies can be fast-forwarded to the point you had left off. I managed to catch about 1/2 of “The Namesake” and contrary to my thoughts about Mira Nair and Kal Penn i did not find myself too disappointed. Tabu and Irrfan Khan were amazing though i did wish Irrfan Khan had been given a meatier chunk of the movie.

An interesting incident during the flight was a lady who got herself a little more intoxicated than she had intended (i hope! Noone should set out to get that drunk) and ended up in an argument with a fellow passenger when she began to make loud derogratory remarks about Delhi. The flight attendants did their best to calm both parties down but not before he mentioned women shouldn’t drink and she told him to get off her flight. It proved highly entertaining but less so than actually watching our intoxicated fellow traveler attempt to navigate her way through immigration.

The airlines was considerate enough to get some help for her and assigned a groundstaff member to help her with her hand luggage. Unfortunately she clung on to him in a way which left him quite embarrassed. She was unable to stand on her own for long and was in very high heels on a slippery floor. She was fast-forwarded through immigration but couldn’t find her passport so i was asked to come forward to get my passport stamped. Upon seeing my passport on the counter she grabbed it and exclaimed “Here’s my passport”. I will admit to having a teensy moment of panic at the thought of how i would get my passport back without creating a scene.

Our connecting flight was at 7am but thankfully there’s a very decent visitors lounge at the Indira Gandhi Airport thats above the arrivals terminal and across the street from the departure terminal where we were catching our flight to Amritsar. We took the time to rest a little and absorb being in India. The lounge had a decent crowd and some declined the seats and stretched out on the floor. Towards 5am people began getting up and calmly going about getting dressed much as they would if they were home and in their own bedrooms versus an airport lounge with on-lookers. For the perverts out there i’ll have to disappoint you if you thought you’d catch a peep show. This viewing was strictly ‘G’.

As can only happen with me the transit flight was quite eventful as well. I had booked and paid for our AirIndia flight from Delhi-Amritsar online and had to go get the ticket issued on actual paper on arrival in Delhi. We asked several people and each kept pushing us off on others so we just got in line to check in. The guy at the counter, when we explained our situation, said follow me and he hopped onto the conveyor belt and off the other side. Now as i think back yes it would have been logical for me to go around the huge crowd of people and risk losing him in the crowd…but i wasn’t thinking at the time. He said follow me and so i did. I hopped up and on to the conveyor belt and thankfully managed to get myself safely, if a little clumsily, off.

Once we got our boarding passes all seemed well until the race to get the luggage tags for all our hand luggage (the airport really should inform passengers of this) so that we could get the security checked stamp on them. We commiserated on this with passengers on the flight who were headed all the way to Toronto…the Canadian side of me couldn’t resist plunging back into my accent of course! That triggered my sister’s aussie twang acquired during her Masters in Brisbane and cacophony ensued.

We landed in Amritsar safe and sound and were met by wonderful family I had missed terribly. They must have missed me quite a bit too since they hugged me eventhough i was starting to smell like i needed a shower. Even at 9 am the heat was quite a bit more than i had expected!

To be continued (i’m tired of typing and you must be of reading all this too)

Hanoi Pt III

The last of my 3 part visit to the fair city of Hanoi. My sister has since returned home and Hanoi is now off the destinations to visit list for some time. One interesting quirk is that the immigration stamps for all 3 visits sit on the same page on my passport and now i have officially christened it the Hanoi page.

Due to the lack of time and vanity taking importance in all our “must-do before we leave Hanoi” activities we didn’t make it out of the city. I was though exposed to parts of Hanoi outside the Old Quarter and i wish i could have spent more time there to do it proper justice.

The first night in Hanoi (it was 8pm by the time i got into the Old Quarter) was dedicated to food and relaxation. For my second evening there though we made it out to the Summit Lounge at Sofitel Plaza Hotel. The lounge is on the 20th floor and offers a breath-taking view of Hanoi’s skyline. We shared our space with some businessmen winding up their conference and everyone packed the terrace to take it what was a glorious sunset.

 

 

 

 

A few of the businessmen had perhaps enjoyed their drinks a little too much and provided us some entertainment when we left. The lounge is accessible via a lift that travels between the 19th and 20th floor or via a staircase. We had seen a gentleman enter the lift and make his way down. When the lift came back up and we proceeded to enter ourselves he’s still there. He was quite adamant that we all get off since the lift didn’t work and the doors did not open on the 19th floor. We decided to try our luck anyways and piled into the lift with him and a few other businessmen. The lift doors opened but on the other side. Our ‘merry’ friend had stared at the doors through which he had entered the lift and did not see the doors opening on, as he put it, “his back side”!
That night we sampled authentic Vietnamese cuisine in cute little claypots and ventured out to a club called “The Toilet” or T-pub. The music played was a bit of a mix by the standards of clubs in more cosmopolitan cities but ventured more to the R&B/Hip-Hop genres than anything else. The decor had to keep with the name and the showpiece bottles were housed in urinals mounted on the wall next to the bar. The tables all had a roll of toilet paper and it would have been nice if they had thought to keep some of the toilet paper for the actual toilet facilities which went without. It was interesting though to observe the young, urban Vietnamese. There were some who were clearly affluent from the way they were dressed, even going so far as to emulate the plaster Nelly always had on his face, and breaking out into elaborate breakdance routines. I was sadly left to dance mostly on my own since i was in my heels and standing at 5’10 and taller than most of the men there :-p

For the last day in Hanoi more good food was on the agenda and the ambiance in all the restaurants is truly something. Here’s the view from the cafe where we had breakfast:

 

The architecture of the Old quarter is truly wonderful and i personally love all the balconies you see in profusion. The Old Quarter also has to have some of the best and cheapest valet service anywhere in the world. The extreme motorbike traffic also results in creative parking of said bikes because many of the side streets in the Old Quarter are quite narrow.I also managed to capture this video from my cab window  of a typical street scene in Hanoi. Unfortunately the cab was going very fast and my camera’s video functionality isn’t the best but you can get a vague sense of what it would be like to walk the streets for yourself.

For my last night i managed to get some Bun Cha for dinner and had a lovely evening with my sister, her friends in Hanoi and our new friend Saupath Kosal, a truly fun, entertaining, and warm person. We retired to a pub called “The Dragonfly” where we attempted to play cards but Jenga proved to be the far bigger entertainer. Note to self: Drinks while playing Jenga may seem like a bad idea logically but it makes for way more fun!

 

I’ve to confess to being really bad with my blog. Life is evolving and with it has come a re-shuffling of priorities and sacrifices to be made. Its all still a little up in the air and i’ll wait for the dust to settle some before we see which road i take.Have a good week everyone!

 

Hanoi Part II

I am convinced there must be a ‘Travel God’ whom i have failed to appease or managed to displease by how smoothly my first trip to Hanoi went.

The first inkling that things weren’t going well was when “Tiger Airways’ delayed the flight by an hour and that too without an announcement of the delay or giving passengers any reasons behind it. Well an hour was not a short delay but most of us just took it in our stride. We proceeded to the boarding gate at the re-stated time and the view that greeted us confirmed that we would be there for a lot longer.

 

The flight ended up taking off 3.5 hours after its original flight time. Passengers were not given any reason for the delay while waiting in-line and when some asked to speak to a senior manager/supervisor to enquire as to the reason for the delay no-one came forth. No consideration was shown to the many families with very young children or the elderly and when we finally managed to get on-board we learnt that it was a valve that was connected to the air-conditioning system of the plane which was needed to be replaced and that the plane could have taken off without the replacement being made as it would not have affected the quality of the flight.I’m not a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination and barely understood the functioning of my VW Golf but i’m thinking the folks at Tiger should have known their job and we should not have been subjected to such a delay. To top it all off the flight wasn’t much cheaper than the full-service airlines which fly to Hanoi from Singapore. On our way back the flight was delayed by an hour and there was a computer failure which caused check-in to be delayed. They did eventually get it sorted out but it took us an hour to get ourselves checked in.

To add to the confusion ground staff at the airport in Hanoi were telling all passengers to pay the UDS14 airport tax and we found out upon checking in that that had already been covered by the airfare and fortunately getting a refund wasn’t a problem. Other than the bumps associated with Tiger Airways the trip was really quite pleasant and Hanoi once again did not let me down.

On our first day we had breakfast in a cute restaurant called “Little Hanoi”. The ambiance and decor were really amazing as well as the profusion of fresh roses which seem to be in season in Hanoi right now and can be found sold on every street. The picture on the far right is of the uniquely designed fan controls at the restaurant.

 

After breakfast we headed to the cloth market via Hoan Kiem Lake. My grandmother (pink top) and my mother (red top) couldn’t resist the touristy snap and i attempted something a little artistic with my point-and-shoot camera.

 

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On the way to the cloth market we encountered the hustle and bustle of Hanoi’s traffic and since its getting much warmer than my first trip in February the street hawkers are also out in full force now. We also passed by the local cinema and those of you old enough to remember will find it reminiscent of the box-office at the Old Cathay.

 

The Cho Hom Cloth Market is a must-see destination if you want to experience what the local life is like. Its a two-storey structure with the cloth stalls on the top and a market selling food, vegetables and fruit on the bottom. It was here that i realised just how serious Vietnamese women are about looking good as i found a beauty salon tucked into a corner of the market.

 

 

The colours of the fruits and vegetables were amazing to behold as were the size of the grapes we saw. Roses are in season and we were sorely tempted to buy some but the inability to carry them back with us nipped that idea right in the bud.All in all we had lots of fun soaking up the ambiance in the different restaurants and i-Box(pictured below) is a must-visit for both its decor and its great food. The architecture of Hanoi is also quite interesting. Land is really expensive in Hanoi so the houses are quite narrow but several stories high to make up the square footage they require. Hanoi is also a great place for unusual finds like the knitting supplies and Horse stamp i bought for myself (i’m born in the Chinese calendar year of the Horse).

 

So the verdict on Hanoi: The place hasn’t lost any of its charm after my second visit but a budget carrier has proven itself to be the last option for all future travel.

A 2-day millionairess in Hanoi

I got back from my trip to Hanoi early Monday morning (1am) and on the whole i had a blast. It was loads of fun being around my sister and indulging in the general weirdness you feel comfortable only exhibiting to people who’ve known you your whole life.

 

My sister

This was the first time i had flown any budget airline and i would recommend Tiger Airways for the budget conscious traveller. Both flights left on time and the on-board service was quite acceptable. The airline could do with offering some entertainment options the way Jetstar does since the flight to Hanoi does take some 3.5 hours and you could easily watch a movie in that time. I managed to get an emergency exit seat both ways and it never fails to amaze me how air-stewardess’ can keep a smile on their faces while they tell you all the gloom and doom which may befall the flight and how to prepare for it. The icing on the cake is always the “Enjoy your flight” as they leave you to ponder all the things which can go wrong. I’m a decent traveller though and don’t bother overly much about all that.Immigration in Hanoi is a little slow moving so for all of you thinking of taking your next vacation there you may want to pack light on the hand-luggage. My sister was a little late coming to pick me up and i was re-acquainted with the joys of being under-dressed for cool temperatures. I had foolishly worn open-toed sandals, 3/4 pants, a cotton t-shirt and a light denim jacket for the flight. The temperature on arrival in Hanoi was around 12 degrees celsius and there was a cool breeze. The airport at Hanoi is some 30 minutes drive from the city and you can easily get taxis right outside if you have already booked your hotel. Hotel package bookings can be made within the terminal once you have exited immigration.

My 12 degree days in Vancouver used to be filled with sunshine and warmth so i was unprepared for the fog and chill of Hanoi. The days take a while to warm up but there is such a hustle and bustle to the city. It literally teems with life and shops are open from around 9am to after 10pm. Shopping in Hanoi is easy as well since streets are nicely divided along the lines of products sold. Price comparisons are easily made and they are open to bargaining. Comfortable shoes are really a must since its quite easy to walk to most places of interest within pockets of the city and we were luckily located right in the Old Quarter where some of the best shopping is to be had.

The best way to orient yourself around Hanoi is using Hoan Kiem Lake, or Lake of the Restored Sword, as your base. Tourism centers, Citibank Atm, restaurants and many shopping side streets flank the lake on each side. (The lighting in my picture is really bad!)

 

Hoan Kiem Lake

I was lucky my sister has been there for some time so it was easy enough for us to navigate since Vietnam is not an easy place to be in if you don’t know the language. If you tire of walking and can figure out the bus system its a really affordable way to travel. A bus ticket costs the equivalent of S$0.30 and bus numbers and routes are marked at the bus stops. Be forewarned though that the buses don’t come to a full stop when you get on or choose to alight so be quick to get on and off.

 

Bus ticket

Like Thailand motorcycle taxis are readily available but we didn’t use them since they are private and unlicensed. Taxi’s and rickshaws are both easy enough to flag down. Be sure to ask the taxi driver to use the meter and settle on a price with the rickshaw driver before you get on.

The currency exchange rate between Vietnam and Singapore is around SGD1 = 10,000 Dong (VND). Due to the wonderful shopping i did i had to avail myself of an ATM and the receipt issued just begged to be immortalised. I was so rich!

 

ATM Receipt

Food is also another treat in store for the weary travelers. Restaurants are big on ambiance and decor and the food is a refreshing change of fresh flavours to someone used to supermarket produce. Meals are relatively inexpensive and  though Western food is widely available i absolutely pigged out on my favourite local dish of Bun Cha which comprises of glass noodles, grilled pork, pickled vegetables, and fish sauce. I tried the Bun Cha at several places and was not disappointed even once. The variety of fruits and fruit juices is wonderful and my tastebuds were zinging in pleasure whenever we sat down to a meal.

Bollywood movies can also be found in Hanoi and many locals are fond of the movies although they have no clue what goes on. This DVD left me clueless as it has Madhuri Dixit (from Devdas) and a cowboy on the cover.

 

Hanoi dvd

My next trip to Hanoi in March will be one that focuses more on the sights, sounds, and places of interest. For a great weekend get-away Vietnam gets my thumbs-up!

And so 2007 begins

A very happy new year to one and all.

I was stewing for the last couple of days thinking hard on what my first post in the new year should be. I can honestly say i did not come up with any new, revolutionary, or even earth trembling ideas. Since i could not possibly delay my first post of the year forever i thought I’d just do a nice round-up of things since my last post.

• I received some really nice feedback on my Year-in-review post all through email since Vox requires you register and be a member before you can leave a comment. For the people at Vox – please do something to allow the lazy bums out there to leave comments without registering. For the lazy bums – honestly if you can put together an email you can register and leave a comment right??!! If not please make it your new years resolution to do so ;-p
• I had a very nice and relaxing holiday in Phuket. Here’s a shot of the final sunset of 2006:

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

  Final Sunset 2006

  And here is my grandmother who by far and away took the prize for the best picture on the vacation.

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

  My grandma

  Here are some other highlights from the vacation.

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

• One peeve i had from the holiday was the airlines with which i flew: SilkAir. Those of you who hail from the Southeast Asian countries know that Silk Air is the slightly cheaper arm of Singapore Airlines. I’m a big fan of SIA and have been known to take on part-time jobs just to be able to afford the airfare for SIA to fly home to Singapore when i was living in Canada. Naturally i had high expectations from Silk air as well only to be disappointed.
  

1. Our flight out to Phuket was delayed but the ground staff failed to see the need to inform us of that until after the boarding time had passed.
   
2. The crew was lost in their own world and were chatting loudly to themselves during the flight back from Phuket.
   
3. I did not expect the personal screens and extensive game menus that come with SQ flights but on Silk Air they did not even offer us headsets for the tiny screens we were forced to pay attention to suspended from the ceiling. Now if that was the kind of service i wanted i would have paid half the airfare for a budget airline and paid the $10+ for the meal which is the only extra that Silk Air seemed to provide.
   
4. For all of you thinking to fly in relative SIA luxury please save your dollars for the actual SIA flights and give Silk Air a pass.

• Speaking of airlines this brings to mind my horrendous airline episode from last year. I had taken an Air Sahara flight to New Delhi from Singapore and my baggage was picked up by someone else upon arrival. Air Sahara did next to nothing to help me get my luggage back and did not bother to file a report with airport police on my behalf when my bag was returned by the other passenger, a Mr. Ajaib Singh who lives in Everton Park (near Singapore General Hospital), torn and missing about $700+ of its contents. I did file a police report but unfortunately since this incident occurred outside of Singapore jurisdiction not much could come of it. Air Sahara delayed the return of my bag and its remaining contents, the fax of letter of responsibility written by Mr Ajaib Singh, and when i was in their offices in New Delhi there were mice running amok within the confines of that small space! Moral of the story: Get travel insurance because the airlines you choose may not be very co-operative once they’ve taken your money off you.

An interesting new development is shaping up in the form of my nail art. I’ve been contacted to teach a class on it later in the month. I’m pretty excited and terribly nervous all at the same time. I’ve also had my arm twisted into filming a video presentation on the latest product being offered by my company. I will post more on that once the final video is available.

On that note a sayonara to one and all and have a great weekend!