First time in Hanoi

Lovers of the past will relish with Vietnam.  Vietnam was independent on 2 Sept 1945 but they still having war between North and South till year 1975. They have stop develop for 30 years which all symbols and old structures are still there. It's like bringing me back to 30 years ago.

Flight: RM 187

Tour package: Rm521 (include 3 meals, hotel, transportation, airport transfer, entrance fee)

Days: 4 days (9th Apr - 12Apr 2011)

8.50am: We arrived at No bai Air port in Hanoi. We engaged with Tour Guide when we in Malaysia and huy (our tour guide) is going to be our guide for the days in Hanoi. First Place we reached is Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. Don't get mix up, it is located at Hanoi.Ho Chi Minh is a person which we called as Bapa kemerdekaan in Malaysia. When i entered the Mausoleum, i did not know who am I seeing. There are guards along the way into and out from the Mausoleum. We are not allow to whisper, talk or make noise. Everyone need to queue up two by two. No cameras or phones are allow as there is a machine like airport which will scan your bags before letting you in. After i came out from the Mausoleum, then i was informed that he is Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh City was named after him after the fall of South Vietnam, Saigon to honour him.Ho Chi Minh used to live beside this Mausoleum, with a small simple house/Office. The house has only two rooms, one is for work and one is for sleep in second floor. For the ground floor, is for meeting purpose. He do gardening himself and has no luxury items in his house. Ho Chi Minh has not married and has no children as he used his whole life to fight for the country. The peoples of Vietnam will call him Father and his last wish is to preserve his body. Vietnam is #13th most popular country with 89 millions of peoples. Their Honda motocycle price is equivalent to our Proton Car price. House tax is calculated based on the width of the house, which makes the country has long house with small width. Speed limit in town is 40-50km/h. 3 times ticket from police, license will be revoked. Everyone (motocylist, pedestrian, cyclist, car, bus, cyclo) used the same road, therefore the speed is very slow. Everyone horn when they drive on the road including bicycle and cyclo.

Average Salary in Hanoi is 1.8k USD per year.

Average Salary in Ho Chi Minh is 2.8k USD per year .

2nd day: Halong Bay.

Due to slow traffic and bumpy road as they do not have a highway, it took us 4 hours to reach Halong Bay from Hanoi City else we can reach in 2 hours. One junk can fit around 40+ peoples.So we thought, it will be more than 12 of us. Surprisingly, only 12 of us in the junk!! wow.. we look like millionaire who own a junk. It is a 2-decks junk. 1st deck for eating, drinking and dining. 2nd deck is an open air deck and we can enjoy viewing the scenery and wind. We have seafood lunch in the junk. The amazing part about this junk cruising is how they stop over to the port. As due to high traffic of peoples visiting the lime stones in HalongBay, there is more than 50 junks trying to squeeze and diserbark. They just bump each other junk to squeeze in and out of the port! Salute! see more Halong bay


Check out my Itinerary here.