Halong Bay, part two.

Day 2 adrift at sea, no food or water, without land in sight...

Okay, enough of playacting! Especially since we haven't moved at all from our ship parking lot in the bay... I got up early to catch the sunrise, but alas, the entire bay was covered with clouds and fog and I could not even see the sun. 

Breakfast was supposed to be western style. I failed to identify the salt and pepper on the table, so my eggs tasted terrible. The toast was probably the worst toast that I have ever put in my mouth... I instantly regretted even trying to eat it. The sausage was Vietnamese sausage! It has a distinct flavor and texture that I always fail to identify what exactly it is made out of, which I think I probably do not want to know. 

After breakfast, we visited a cave. So these are limestone caves. I have seen a number of them, and this one does not particular stand out, though I still made an attempt at photography. 

Pardon the stop sign, I have no software to remove it at this time... Given that I was shooting at 1 sec speeds and forgot my tripod, the entire cave trip was me contortion-ing myself into various positions to stabilize against rocks... I am sure I provided plenty of amusement for the Taiwanese and French tourists behind us. And of course I completely missed our tour guide, who was just boringly pointing out various rocks that can be imagined into creatures. I can play that game by myself, thank you. 

There was something very amusing about this collection of penguin trash cans...

And of course, lots of climbing has to be involved. At the entrance, there always is the sign that says "the elderly, people with hypertensive heart disease should not enter"... What is the hate on diastolic heart failure? I feel like smokers, especially COPDers, should be part of that warning as well. 

So after the slightly boring cave visit, that was apparently the conclusion of our $129 cruise around Halong Bay. We were ushered onto shore to have lung and driven back to Hanoi. 

Goodbye, beautiful Halong Bay! You disappointed me some but was still impressive!

So some conclusion thoughts about visiting Halong Bay. So number one is that one has to visit with a cruise boat. There are no other way to visit this area, but then you have to follow the plan set by the tour people rather than self explorations unless you shell out money for a private tour. Some of the activities, such as kayaking is really fun and worth it, but the other stuff like squid fishing and cooking class really is not. I am uncertain how to really get unique shots as it seems impossible to venture out on one's own... If I was to do this again, I think I would probably go with the cheapest cruise as long as they include hot water and kayaking (though this should be taken with a grain of salt when advertised by the hotel or company). 

This is a shot of me attempting to run onto the other cruise boat to prolong our trip... Don't I look like I am a dorobo? 

 (Image from google image search...)

I should totally photoshop that picture... Teehee~ 

Halong Bay Part one: I want to shoot a postcard quality photo!

Having seen lots of pictures of Halong Bay, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Halong Bay. One, I get seasick very easily, and the idea of being on seawater never appealed to me. Two, I also am not expecting a good trip considering this is catering purely to tourists. But, everybody raves about the experience and how beautiful this place is. And truthfully, I must admit it is a beautiful natural wonder. 

Our journey started in Hanoi, where our tour group came to pick us up from our hotel. I really wanted sugar cane juice, but after we embarked on our journey for sugar cane juice, we found out that the shop does not open for another hour. And then I wanted pillow cake, which when we found it, the shop was just opening and the frying oil is not even hot. 

So with some disappointment, we met Menh, our guide. We got on with the rest of tour group in a mini bus and took the 4 hour journey from Hanoi to Halong harbor. The drive was actually quite pleasant and I napped the entire way save for the 20 minute stop at this super touristy shop...

A friendly reminder that they are responsible for either the loss of belongings after we leave or loss while on the bus...

After being shuffled into the "waiting pen" at the harbor, an area where tourists get herded to while waiting for the guides to do whatever they need, I tried to get some photos, though most of them were of the ships. There were some very small ships, which I lowered my already low expectations for our accommodations (I though we were going to be sleeping in bunk beds and sharing bathrooms...). 

When our guide returned with our very fake looking tickets, we got on a small boat, which then took us to our larger cruise ship further away. 

Our cruise ship was better than I expected. We were given some instructions and then left to explore and photograph on our own. Unfortunately, the first day was quite cloudy. This led to some cloudy pictures as well. I did my best here to squeeze in some colors, though most things were a big white blur. 

Somehow, the numerous islands really reminded me of FF8, where you run around the strips of sand to find the Chocobo forest, but apparently that's just me...

This is the "welcome drink". This seems to be popular at a lot of places, tours, hotels, messages etc. Really though, it just taste like tang with raspberry syrup on the bottom. 

Our lunch was as I expected, some flashy tourist affair. It was not bad, just not the bun or pho that I have been craving. Even cheap Banh Mi sandwiches would have been better in my book. 

(Pic of Ti Top Island to come)

After lunch. we stopped at Ti Top island. This is clearly a tourist destination and you need a ticket to see the island! Not that you can get here anyways without a tour boat, so I am uncertain of why a ticket is even necessary. Oh, and the bamboo seats set out on the beach? 8000 VND/hr/chair. The stone ones are free though. 

Our guide led us up these ridiculous stairs to reach the pagoda at the top. Needless to say, we stopped a ton of times and completely lost our tour group. I was able to snap some beautiful photos of the bay. To come when I get home and can actually process and upload said beautiful photos of halong bay. 

The view up top was definitely worth the climb, though it was also full of tourists. I couldn't resist having a picture snapped just to document that yes, I made it up top!

We stayed for about 1 hour at this island. It was full of tourists, and some people went to swim in the water, though I could caution against that as the water smelled and there were tons of trash floating by. But as always, sitting on the beach, listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore and smelling the salty flavor of the sea will always be a good experience. 

After returning to the boat, we set out on a part of the adventure that I was semi-dreading... Seawater Kayaking! The thought of possibly flipping over and falling into the water was absolutely terrifying. Also, since I have never kayaked before, we were ridiculously slow and lost track of our tour group while in the bay... This led to a mental breakdown on my part where I played Robinson Cruise for the next hour while we wandered around the rocky islands...

Alright, I'll admit it... I was actually having fun. It was also fun to pretend that we are adrift at sea without food or water.... :P

The sun was also setting at this time, though it was difficult to see through the clouds, but it was beautiful. 

There were these caves at the side of the islands that may or may not be entered, though I certainly did not see any person entering. Lots of boats kayaking near it though. 

(Pic of floating houses to come)

There were also these floating houses that one can consider calling village. We did not receive any explanation from our guide, but I suspect these houses belongs to the ladies who go around to the different cruise boats to sell snacks, water, drinks and alcohol. I did not see any signs of fishing activity, therefore my suspicion is that these sprung up due to tourism. 

By the time we have returned to our ship, it was close to being dark. I must emphasize one thing though, it appears that all the cruise ships just sails to the area next to Ti Top island, and then just settle there until the next morning when they all depart to return to the harbor. The actual ship only travels from the harbor to this area and back. So my pictures are really mostly of the other cruise ships rather than any beautiful bay scenes as we barely moved anywhere. 

The cruise ships in the distance, all settled for the night. 

Pardon the not so artistic picture. This was the cooking class, aka "here are some stuff and why don't you DIY your own spring rolls so you can be preoccupied"... Yep, one line instruction and that's it. Never mind the fact that I used to sell spring rolls with VSA...

I was worried that the DIY spring rolls were going to be our dinner, but thankfully we had another touristy dinner. Once again, the food is decent, but not delicious like bun or pho... 

After dinner, there was squid fishing, which really just means throw a sinker into the bay on fishing rod, and hope for the best. No real bait, no additional attraction for squids. I am pretty sure squids are actually quite intelligent creatures and won't fall for a lame trap without any enticing incentives. The squids were clearly insulted, and the men who went fishing just got drunk...

Alright, enough for one day. Part two to come. 

Pizza Hut

Okay, I have to admit it. I love food, all kinds of food, including junk food... When I visit China, making a stop to Pizza Hut is a must as the Pizza Hut there serves high end dishes like escargot and seafood pizza. And their crust is not just some burnt up greasy carbs, but is actually a nice soft buttery toast. So after checking out the high end menu that the Pizza Hut located near Vinh Trung Plaza, I had to stop and get something. 

Unfortunately they did not have escargot, though I suspect it is because snails are are very commonly here, so it is not considered a delicacy as it is in China. But the prices on the menu are quite high end, a bit more so than KFC. 

I was finally able to get a watermelon juice, which was okay priced at around 26,000. It was pretty delicious as expected. 

Now the pizza... Ooh... This is the seafood curry, which had yellow curry sauce drizzled over the cheese, and bits of pineapple, shrimp, fish and scallops over the pizza. 

Another view of our lovely "regular size pizza", which honestly I could eat by myself...

Freshly toasted goodness...

This is a closer view at the other pizza, Fisherman's favorite, which had Thousand Island dressing. Now imagine a nice buttery toast with cheese and seafood on it, then throw in the taste of Thousand Island dressing on top... It was a bit odd, though the buttery toast and cheese still made it delicious. But with the dressing, I can't help but think of salads... Perhaps it helps quiets the consciousness as I wolf down thousands of calories.

Our bill, however, took a nice chump out of my wallet (well, at least the VND part). It came out to be about 180,000 VND, which really is less than $9 per person, but being used to meals costing less than 30,000, it was a bit of an expected shock. But all in all, a super delicious meal. I wish I got to try their desserts and pasta... Next time! 

Snacks: I will never be able to quit my sugar addiction here...

So today I finally cave in and bought a jar of candied fruits. There were so many choices! I have been having some bad luck with picking out snacks so I was a bit worried and stayed safe with the strawberry. But it was also so cute! 

This jar was 25,000. I forgot how much it cost at Big C, but was not too much from it. 

It doesn't taste too much like strawberry, instead it's more of a mix of tangy and sweet like candy but with the texture of a dried apricot or prune but more firm. The strawberry taste is more hinted at after you chew for a while. It was a good exercise for my teeth, though given the amount of sugar on it, I am a bit worried for my teeth. 

Also introducing some other random snacks!

I actually am not sure what it's called, though I think it's Banh beo... It's a toasted rice paper with fishy/shrimp like crisps on top, so it tastes like a mix of shrimp chips with rice as a base. But because it is toasted rice wrapper, the bottom part can be quite chewy, a good exercise for the teeth! This was quite cheap at 2000. 

This is a sesame ball, except it's the size of my palm... It looks and pretty much taste like the ones in China, except not as good...

I highly disliked the inside filling, which I suspect is green bean or mung bean filling, except there was probably too much flour in the filling and not enough sugar and oil... I dumped out the inside and ate the skin instead. That was pretty delicious. :D

I probably mentioned this in the Hoi An post, but I think the fried donut deserves a review here under street food. It is different than an American donut in that it the dough is mostly not sweet. However, it still is fried and then dipped in cane sugar. A freshly fried one is delicious! The other triangular one on the right side is a piece of fried dough/bread with pâté smeared on top. The left one has coconut shreds on the inside. This was okay as it didn't have much flavor. The same piece of fried dough can be found with green bean filling and peanut filling. 

These colorful little pastries can be found in a number of bakeries. We initially thought they were different, so bought one of each. Well, their filling is very similar with either green bean paste, lotus seed paste or coconut filling. 

This is the green coconut pastry. Because the skin is the multilayered puff pastry type of dough (though softer and not as crispy), combined with a sweet filling, this can be quite rich.

I will need to write an article on fruits as I bought quite a few and will post when I have eaten them all! XD

Supermarket!

So we decided to go find a supermarket today. The closest one that was within walking distance was a supermarket located in a mall, called Big C. This was located in a pretty busy and extremely bustling area with little stands selling everything from pickled goods, candy by the weight, household products to helmets. It reminded me of wholesale markets in China. This area is collectively called Vinh Trung Plaza, though I think officially it's probably just the large building that is the mall. 

The mall has a Lotteria and KFC, as well as some chain stores like Levi's and some other brands I did not recognize. There was also a tourist stand and other small food retailers.

The whole area was extremely bustling today! I guess it is because of the upcoming Tet where it seems customary to shop your hearts out. I presume it is for the preparation of guests, as candy and other snacks seem to be the most popular item. Also if it is anything similar to China, having new clothes for the New Year is also extremely important. One thing about the stands next to the plaza and in the wholesale market, bargaining is hard. I saw the "prices are reasonable, no bargaining" sign, but as all good Chinese folks, I promptly accepted it and tried bargaining anyways. Based on the quality of things there, nothing was worth the asking price! I only got a hair tie after 1 hour of circling the hundreds of stands. 

Let's talk about Big C. It totally reminds me of any supermarket in China, specifically Carrefour. It is also split in two levels with top selling household goods and lower selling food. The two levels are connected by the sloping escalator for shopping carts. The selection is extremely similar, though replace the foods to Vietnamese tastes. For example, I found bottles of nguoc mam sauce, which I really, really wanted. The only problem is that this stuff expires in 1 year, and I am not Vietnamese enough to eat it every other day. Also, the ice cream selection had chocolate, strawberry, coconut and my favorite: DURIAN!

Alright, by the virtue that durian seems to be a basic ice cream flavor, you know you are in a SE Asian country. 

The prices are fairly reasonable, though it definitely gained me more perspective, which is that Bahn Mi's are just ridiculously cheap! The tub of ice cream above is about 60,000+ VND. This comes out to be about $3, which in China would have cost $5. Detergent was fairly expensive at $5-$8. Meat was also expensive, running around $10 per kilo. The fruits were variable. The dragon fruit that I keep getting charged 40,000/kilo was slightly cheaper at 36,000. But the star apple fruit (I will talk about this tomorrow!) that I pay 40,000 VND/kilo for is sold at 43,000 VND. So yeah, variable prices. Oh, I have been paying 10,000/500 ml bottle for water. Turns out the 1.5 L bottle costs 7800. Now I feel pissed... 

I also found listerine (they had green tea flavor!) here, which has been the only place that I have found so far to have it at 250 ml bottles, though it was still expensive. Also, Kotex here is waay cheaper, like 70% cheaper... yep, I stocked up. 

And just my two cents on these jello cup thingies. 

I love jello cups. In fact, I even like the bigger cups that come in durian, passion fruit and coconut flavors. And these looked just like the ones I have had in China, which was pretty good, so I bought some to try. They taste NOTHING like the Chinese ones. They taste like artificial flavoring mixed with gelatin. Yep, it's that bad. Interesting flavor choices like plum, banana, watermelon and taro, but they all just taste like chemicals made to taste like each flavor... T.T My durian ice cream was much tastier! 

So I think I mentioned this supermarket is just like a Chinese one, which meant that everything that is sold by weight needs to be weighed at the weight check, obtain a sticker for check out. With the huge hoard of people, I somehow remembered to do such for the jello cups but forgot for the hoard of fruit that I bought. After waiting in line for 15 minutes and being pushed and shoved, the check out lady is like WTF... So I ended up taking my stuff back and rechecking out through the horrendous line. 

So speaking of people mountain people sea, I could not figure out if the sheer number of people is due to the upcoming Tet holiday, if there is a huge sale, or if this is just the norm on Thursday evening. Business certainly seems good, and I somehow got a 500 VND bill! Did not know these things existed... 

I am debating whether to keep for souvenir's sake and challenge myself by trying to spend it somehow...

Cafes Part 2

I should mention that I am actually writing this post as I am sitting in a cafe. :D 

Dollhouse Coffee is another book cafe type of coffee place. It is a lot smaller and is a bit noisier on the inside. 

As you can see, it is quite cutesy as well. The circular stairs in the back leads to a second floor, where there are scenes between seats, though it is also a shoes off and sit on the floor type of cafe. Oh, a secret about these places, pick a seat near the walk so you can lean against the wall. It is better than most places. 

They had some more drink choices than Cafe Velo, which I mentioned in the last post. I tried the Oreo Dá Xay (on the right), which is blended Oreos in milky water. Despite the way it sounds, it was quite good, sweet like everything else I have here... The left is cafe sua dá, iced Vietnamese coffee. 

This is lemon juice with prune juice (the Chinese salted kind). It tastes just like really sweetens lemonade with the salty prunes on the bottom. Very refreshing! My friend attempted to order the yogurt drink, sãu cua, but they didn't have yogurt.... So instead she got the strawberry milk instead! It tasted like fresh strawberries with creamy milk. 

The story of how I ended up ordering this quite unpleasant looking fried fish bal... I tried ordering the Oi Xi muôi (guava) that I liked so much from Velo, but they didn't have it. Then I tried to order the Bap Xaò, which they also don't have. No to the grilled sausage either... My only choices were fries or fish ball... At least the orange chili sauce makes everything taste better!

Moka Coffee is directly across the street from Full House. It is a mix of the street viewing cafe and bookcafe. 

The inside has these cutesy studying areas and also window facing seats and bar stools. The menu also contains some alcoholic drinks as well as granita. Unfortunately, no food! :(

So I got the kiwi lassi, which was more like a kiwi smoothing blend. My friend got the orange soda, which is similar but blended with soda rather than milk/cream. I really think Vietnamese people drink everything blended...

This is the only cup of coffee that I have had so far in my trip. The portion size is too small for me to really enjoy or warm up to, so I have avoided it ever since. The other thing to mention is that the "fresh milk" mentioned in these menus just mean with fresh cream, which is considered special here. 

All cafes offer free wifi, and I have to say this is the most accessible I have been to the Internet. Even in the states, there are not as many coffee shops and not all of them offer such easy access to coffee shops. And with the purchase of one drink, you can sit there as long as you want. 

Though a word on the prices. So Bahn Mi ranges anywhere from 10,000 VND (<50 cents) to 18,000 VND. Coffee usually costs 20,000 to 35,000. Juices and blended drinks usually go for around 30,000 VND, which is about $1.50. Food here is definitely pretty cheap, and most people can afford to sit in a cafe with a cup of coffee. I have yet to figure out salary and such. More to come! 

Cafes Part 1

Since the importation of coffee from the French during the colonization of Vietnam, Vietnam has been known for the coffee. Since my arrival, that has been one of the most impressive things about Vietnam. There is literally 3-4 coffee shops on every block of every street. Even in the country side, there were coffee shops along the country roads. And almost every one of them has customers, ranging from one or two to the whole place being filled. And this is at every hour. There are customers at 8 in the morning, mid morning on a work day, noon lunch time, afternoon and late evening. The one thing I never had to worry about since being here is not finding a place to have Vietnamese coffee. 

The coffee shop styles ranges from open coffee shop where it's open to the streets, and these are usually older folks street watching or chit chatting. 

This one is from Cafe Mocda, which I stumbled upon while getting lost in Hoi An. It is a very classic country side cafe with open air, no lights on during the day and no menu. Being the second day in Vietnam, I was only able to communicate coffee to the owner, but the coffee was good!

This is Cafe Suã dá, which is made with sweetened condensed milk. Dá means iced. Of course, this name I learned later in the next week after pouring over many menus. 

Cafe Velo is a different type of cafe. It is a bookcafe, which means it is closed to the outside traffic and is very quiet inside. This one is located on the busy street of Quang Trung near Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. 

The inside is very cutely decorated, and is usually littered with students studying and chatting. It is not really quiet like a library, but is free from the noise from the streets. 

This type of cafe usually have a menu and usually have a few snack foods. My favorite is the Oi xi something something (I forgot the name... -___-), which is guava with dried prunes in prune juice. That is the one in the back there. The left is Bap Xao, which is corn kernels stir fried with scallion and dried shrimp with a side of the orange sweet chili sauce (more on that later). The right is Mi Truong, which I could not figure out what it was and just ordered it... Turns out it's instant ramen! With a sunny side egg on top too. 

Their drink choices comes with coffee, fruit juice, tea, soda or yogurt. The left is Saigon Coffee with sweetened condensed milk. The portion size is a bit disappointing! The left is the delicious Bac Xíu, which I think has milk in addition to the sweetens condensed milk or just extras of it... 

This is when we tried the fruit juices. The left is the Ép dúa, which is pineapple. The right is ép tâo, which is apple. It is actually a mix of some fruit purée with sweetened water?

This is another adventure where I decided to try something I could not figure out off the menu, so I ordered the yogurt hôp, which is actually just regular plain yogurt (see above left)... And I can never get over how sweet Vietnamese like their foods... That yogurt was definitely mostly sweet with a hint of sour! And the middle is yoaurt xòai, which is mango yogurt drink. And then bac xíu again. :) 

And this is the cafe where I found dragon ball z in Vietnamese!

Alright, more coffee houses to come. There are too many for me to list in one post, so I will wrap up about this orange chili sauce. 

It is the orange stuff next to the corn. I will later add the pictures where it was served with the chicken at KFC, the Hong Kong style roasted duck, the fish balls, and a million other places. It is a bit sweet and tangy sauce with a hint of spice. I fully plan on purchasing a bottle prior to my departure from Vietnam, though this is contingent upon if I can actually find a place that sells it...