Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Amazing Ha Long Bay Cruise Experience

Ha Long Bay (Halong Bay) is truly a nature wonder. The name Ha Long 下龙 revealed the legend that the place was once the site where dragons descended. The breathtaking islets with vertical karst limestone walls are contrasted by the emerald green water below, calm and quiet. No wonder it is listed as one of the UNESCO Heritage Site. 

Ha Long Bay is four hours away from Hanoi by road (30 minutes of rest in between). Lucky, the road condition was not too bad. We were able to rest on our eleven-seater Ford Transit.

Our two-day-one-night tour was provided by Indochina Junk. Our itinerary- lunch on the junk while we cruised into the heart of Ha Long Bay, kayaking around the islet, exploring the cave at Thien Canh Son, swimming, and later dinner on board on the first day. Second day, we took our breakfast on our way to Vung Vieng fishing village, exploring the village and the pearl industry, and took lunch on our way back to the harbour. The fee, USD280 for two of us.

Why Indochina Junk? First, strong recommendation from Livien, which had pushed us to take the tour package with Indochina Junk. Then, overwhelming good reviews in Tripadvisor, and of course, the exclusive Bai Tu Long Bay tour. As far as we knew, there were only two cruise companies have been given the permission to enter Bai Tu Long Bay. We were lucky to enjoy more space and privacy in the middle of the world heritage. Worth it or not? For us, definitely a big yes.

We were introduced to our tour guide, Tony after we arrived at the Ha Long City. It was 1 pm. He led us to our junk with a glamorous name- Dragon's Pearl (made us think of Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean). We would like to continue our sharing with our photos.

Entire "Ha Long" fleet can be seen from the waiting room at the harbour.Please click on this photo to see the bigger panoramic image.

Photo taken at the jetty, when we were waiting for the transit boat to our junk. It was hazy throughout our 2 days' tour. The haze limited our visibility but had enhanced the elements of adventure.

Junks undocked from the harbour and cruised into the sea dotted with limestone islets.

One of the sister ships of our junk. We shared the same journey throughout our trip.

The bedroom was decorated in traditional Chinese style with wooden wall and floor (upper left), outdoor and indoor dining area (upper and lower right), and a place for us to lay down and relax on the top level of the junk. The indoor dining area was completed with a bar.

Our photo on the upper deck of the junk.

We took 2 hours to reach Thien Canh Son. The islet is owned by Indochina Junk and received very limited visitors. Thien Canh means heavenly landscape. Our tour guide Tony described the place with a name that we couldn't agree more- Paradise Island.

 Beautiful scenery around the islet.

Photo taken from opposite site of our landing area, which could be accessed through Thien Canh Cave. The view from the high ground was amazing, even though some of the view was blocked by overgrown vegetation.

Cave exploration was something that we didn't expected. The cave was windy with cooling temperature during our visit. The ancient stalagtites and stalagmites revealed the age of the cave. This beautiful cave could be reached by climbing a few stairs- a price that we gladly paid.


 Our family photo at the entrance of the cave.

Yeah, we went Kayaking. That experience was larger than life. The limestone islets were so huge and magnificent when we moved closer to them. We should have brought our camera with us, but we didn't. We left it in the locker when we went kayaking.

After kayaking and caving, we spent some time to enjoy the beautiful beach. A swim in the cooling sea water was really refreshing.

Back to our junk, we enjoyed our sumptuous dinner with finely decorated dishes.

We couldn't see anything around us, except the dim illumination from the junks. However, when we pushed the ISO to H2, well, this is what our saw through our camera.

Night on the junk was quiet, with occational sound of singing and laughing from other travel mates. We slept early that night, with the hope to wake up early to see the sunrise. Follow us on the second day of our cruise tour at Ha Long Bay in our next post. 


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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Places Nearby

Second day in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was our first stop, followed by the Presidential Palace and the stilt house in Hanoi Botanical Garden. Then, we visited One Pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature, and eventually, Hanoi Royal Citadel.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Presidential Palace, the stilt house, and One Pillar Pagoda are nearby to each other. We visited all these places together. Then, we took taxi to Temple of Literature and Hanoi Royal Citadel. We missed Ho Chi Minh Museum and Military Museum, as both museums were closed on Fridays (as well as on Mondays). Ho Chi Minh Museum is near to the mausoleum, while Military Museum is about 200 meters away from the citadel.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum with a large square in front of it. We couldn't go inside as the mausoleum was closed on Fridays.

A closer view of the mausoleum. There are security personnel that keep the tourists away from getting too near to it. There was nothing interesting from the outside. We just stopped by for a while to take photos. Then, we continued our tour to the Presidential Palace nearby.

Hanoi Presidential Palace was built in 1906 for French Governor-General of Indochina. Now, the palace is used for diplomatic purposes, and it is closed to tourists. This building is located within the botanical garden, which the entry is closed at 11:00 - 1:30 pm. The garden is opened until 11 am only on Fridays and Mondays. The entrance fee is 20,000d per person (RM3.10/ USD1).

Turning left from Presidential Palace, we found the quarter for the workers. It was once the residence of Ho Chi Minh. The cars and living area of Ho Chi Minh were displayed. Ho Chi Minh refused to live in Presidential Palace as it was a symbol of colonization. He stayed in the quarter until he moved into the stilt house in 1958.

The stilt house was the place where Ho Chi Minh stayed until he died in 1969. This wooden house is very simple. Perhaps, too simple to accommodate a national leader.


One Pillar Pagoda stands on one pillar. However, that is a temple that standing on the pillar, rather than a pagoda. Built in 1049, the pagoda which stands like a lotus in a peaceful pond is not the original structure anymore. The pagoda attracts many local believers. The entrance is free. The pagoda is located next to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

Our next stop, the Temple of Literature. Four pillars with traditional Chinese characters mark the entrance of the temple. We paid 20,000d per person for the entrance fee. We spent about one hour in the temple.

The Temple of Literature is formerly the first national university in Vietnam. Built in 1070 AD, the temple was dedicated to Confucius. From the architecture and design, it can be easily mistaken as a Chinese temple. It has enormously big compound with four sections. Each section can be accessed through a unique entrance. The white structure on the left is the first entrance, while the second entrance is shown on the right.

The third entrance is beautifully designed (left). The stone tortoise in the middle shows the name of successful scholars graduated from China. These stone tortoises which were built between 1484 - 1780, have been recognized by UNESCO as Documentary Heritage of the World. The statue of crane and tortoise in the temple is a symbol of harmony and longevity (right). One of our Vietnamese friends told us that this statue also represents the spirit of helping each other. In flooding season, the crane will rest on the back of the turtle. In dry season, the crane will bring the turtle to the places with sufficient water. 

Traditional music performance in the temple. You can enjoy the music with a little donation. During our tour, we saw many university students were taking their graduation photos within the compound of this temple.

After lunch, we visited Hanoi Royal Citadel. Built in 1010, the citadel served as the center of Thang Long capital during 11th - 18th centuries. The south gate in this photo was the entrance to the forbidden city, where the King and the Royalty lived. The citadel was deserted when the capital of Vietnam was moved to Hue City. The citadel has been listed as the 900th UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.

From the remaining structure, we could see that the city was once guarded by very tall and thick walls. 30,000d was the price that we paid per person to enter the gate of the forbidden city. The compound of the citadel is big, with a few museums located within it. The artifacts found within the area of the citadel, some old photos of Hanoi, and the information about the lifestyle of Vietnamese were displayed in these museums. Although we pushed ourselves to be hurry, still we took about one hour to walk through the museums. We spent two hours in the citadel. Driven by exhaustion, we left some part of the citadel unexplored.

Stone dragons at the ruin of Kinh Thien Palace (upper left). The dragons guard the stairs since 600 years ago. Other photos show the items exhibited in the museums.

The Hanoi Flag Tower can be clearly seen from the second level of the citadel.



The command center of North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War was built within the compound of the citadel. Please make sure that you explore the underground part of the command center.

The side door of the citadel. With the help from the members of HanoiKids, we managed to get a taxi in a short time from this side door to go back to our hotel.

Vietnam War Museum is closed on Fridays and Mondays. We missed the opportunity to go into the museum. So, we just took some photos from the outside. This old war machine is displayed at the left flank outside the museum.

The Temple of Literature and Hanoi Royal Citadel are the sites that every visitor to Hanoi should not miss. These sites showed us how Hanoi was some 1000 years ago. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Presidential Palace, and the stilt house brought us back to the age of colonization and how Vietnamese fought for their independence, and united their country. These places are really worth a visit.

During our tour, we used taxi frequently, as the taxi fare in Hanoi was quite cheap. The taxi run by meter, with the initial fee of 14,000d. Local English speaking tour guide is essential as majority of the people in Hanoi cannot understand English. We were lucky to have members from HanoiKids moving around with us. They were really helpful.

We went to Ha Long Bay on our third day in Vietnam. The bay is a true wonder of the World. We will bring our experience in Ha Long Bay next.


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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Exploring Hanoi Old Quarter

We visited Hanoi in late April. From Noi Bai International Airport, we took more than one hour to reach our our hotel- Hanoi Old Centre Hotel. The hotel is located at the heart of Old Quarter, one of the most prominent tourism area in Hanoi. Old Quarter is believed to be inhabitated by Vietnamese some 1000 years ago, starting from the time of King Ly Thai.

Of course, we can't expect that the streets remained the same as 1000 years ago. Now, it is a township with concrete buildings and narrow streets. However, a few very old historical relics survived as well. In a round trip, we visited Ngoc Son Temple, Thap Rua (Turtle Tower), the Opera House, Vietnamese Women's Museum, St. Joseph Cathedral, and Ly Quoc Su Pagoda.These places are nearby Hoan Kiem Lake. Starting at 2 pm, the tour took about 3 hours.


Hoan Kiem Lake (or Guam) is in the heart of Hanoi Old Quarter. It looks like a peaceful oasis in the middle of traffic sandstorm. Turtle Tower medidates on a patch of dry land in the lake (upper left). The surrounding area is well landscaped with people resting, relaxing, jogging, or even drawing beside the lake. The legend of Hoan Kiem Lake and the history of Turtle Tower is available at hanoi.vietnamplus.vn. One of my Vietnamese friends stated that Turtle Tower is the most symbolic monument in Hanoi. If that is true, then, Hoan Kiem is definitely a must visit site in Hanoi.

Turtle Tower was built in 1886 as a tomb. Now, it serves as a tower to honour the magic turtle which is guarding Le Loi's sword. The legend told that King Le Loi crushed mighty Chinese army with the magic sword originated from the sea. A magic turtle later claimed back the sword from him. Some believed that the sword is still being kept in the lake (Hoan Kiem, 还剑 means returning the sword).


Ngoc Son Temple is located on the northern island of Hoan Kiem Lake. The temple is connected by a wooden bridge (upper left). The entrance fee of 20,000d per person was collected at the entrance (upper right). Built in 18th century, the temple has strong Chinese influence (lower left).The name Ngoc Son means 玉山 in Mandarin, or Jade Mountain. A 6-feet-long giant turtle specimen is displayed in the temple. The giant turtles are still populated in Hoan Kiem Lake. As the lake endures heavy pollution, more conservation work have to be done to keep the turtle happy and far from extinction.

The legend of Hoan Kiem is carved on the entrance of Ngoc Son Temple.

Panoramic view of Ngoc Son Temple. The temple attracts many foreign and local visitors.

Hanoi Opera House is located at the southeast of Hoan Kiem Lake. We found the building is nothing but a vivid structure with rich French Colonial Architecture. Well, we left the building after taking a group photo there. If you wish to catch some performances there, you can visit Official Site of the opera house.

Our next stop, Vietnamese Women Museum, 500 meters away from Hanoi Opera House. The museum is housed in a contemporary white building. It is catchy in the middle of beige colonial themed street. The entrance fee was 30,000d per person. The museum is open from 8 am - 5 pm, seven days a week.

The museum was built to honour the women's contribution to Vietnam. From costume of wedding, the tools for farming and fishing, to the fire arms that the women of Vietnam used in the fight against the intruders, the three-storey-museum was much more bigger than what we had expected. It cannot be considered as an impressive museum, but it can definitely keep us occupied with more than 20,000 objects exhibited. We stayed in the museum for one hour. More information about the museum is available at the Museum Official Website.

Tired, we decided to take taxi from Women's Museum to St. Joseph Cathedral. The journey took 5 minutes, with the fare of 18,000d.The cathedral is opened to public for prayer after 5 pm.

Built in 1886, this majestic Gothic cathedral is a house of worship for Catholics. The stain glass windows are breathtaking.  There are several lemon tea shops outside of the cathedral which worth trying.

We passed by Ly Quoc Su Pagoda on our way back to our hotel from St. Joseph Cathedral. The pagoda is located some 50 meters north to the cathedral. Dubbed one of the oldest pagoda in Hanoi, we found that the existing building there was actually built after 1954. The old one was buried deep under the flow of time.

In this afternoon tour, we actually made a big circle around Hoan Kiem Lake, clockwise. Our trip was blessed with a good weather. We learnt a lot of information about Hanoi from our HanoiKids tour guides. The tour was really helpful for us to familiarize with the places, especially when we went out on our own at night for shopping later. The information about attraction in 36-old-street is available at vietnamonline.com.

Next, our second day in Hanoi. We visited Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda, Presidential Palace, Temple of Literature, and Hanoi Citadel. 



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