Without further ado, let's get right to it!
Travel Date: 15th - 19th November 2017
Expenditure: Approx $280 per person (SilkAir to and Singapore Airlines fro inclusive of 30kg check-in + taxes) Approx SGD$306 for private 7-seater car transport for 3 full days. SGD $363 for accommodations at Rose Garden Residences inclusive of breakfast for 4 nights (Apartment-style with a proper kitchen, living room, decent WI-FI, 2 toilets and 2 bedrooms. Really good!)
WI-FI: We rented the Changi Recommends Wi-fi Rental Service. For ChangiWiFI, it is SGD5 per day for Vietnam and you can book/ reserve one day in advance on their website prior to your departure. The connection is not too bad and can be used but it is unable to connect to phones at higher places up the mountains and hills. In addition, it can become over-heated after non-stop usage for about 4-6 hours. Recommended to switch off for a while before switching it on again. Can connect 4-6 people. Charge it overnight (Or if you are afraid it will explode, charge it until the green button flashes). Return to Rental booths at any of the Changi Airport terminal upon your return from the trip. (:
Weather: Cooling. It rained on one of the nights and on the last day when we were leaving, it started to turn chilly (A long-sleeve shirt/pullover/light jacket/ windbreaker is recommended to bring along if you intend to go around this period as the season starts to change around this period and it becomes unpredictable; can be cold or warm depending)
Navigation: If you know, traffic in Vietnam is insane. Vehicles weave in and out whenever they please. You have to be very skilled, and very brave to navigate there if you intend to drive. As for my family, we travelled in a rented 7-seater vehicle with a local driver.
Time: 1hr earlier than SG timing. (e.g. SG 10am -> Hanoi 9am)
Communication: I have included this part because unlike my previous posts/ experiences, we need not communicate with locals that much. Even if we communicated, it has always been in simple English and they understood. This is the first time we talked plenty to our local driver and because he could only understand a few English words, we used Google Translate a lot. It was a really funny experience getting them to read the translated text and hoping it didnt turn out strange to them. Google Translate works for simple short phrases so we are satisfied with that!
*Disclaimer: This is not an official travel guide so opinions, reviews and instructions are subjected to biases, memory lapses and the occasional side-track rambling.*
PLACES WE WENT:
1. Ba Vi National Park
My family and I went trekking/ hiking around this area. When we first drove up the mountainous roads which wind upwards, we saw plenty of lovely sunflowers. I guess the place is known for the sunflowers?
As you can see, I am clearly very amused by this >.< Secretly laughing while taking this photo hahahaa
Yup, CLEARLY still not getting over it LOL.
Love ya, mummyyyyyyy <3
The scenery here is gorgeous!
So at this point, we are only halfway up the mountain area. This is the place where most locals will stop at to enjoy picnics. There's even a restaurant nearby where they host important functions like weddings. When we were there, we saw a few girls dressed in traditional Vietnamese outfits. Not too sure if it was a wedding reception but it was definitely lively enough to be one! In addition, a receptionist staff at our hotel told us beforehand there was nothing much to look at here. We were guessing that most locals usually just stop here. However, if you are really into hiking (like my crazily active parents) please proceed up ahead.
My mom taking in all the fresh air and lovely scenery. Yes, it is cloudy that day. But nevertheless, when the clouds clear at times to reveal the sun, it is breathtaking! (:
When you get to the top, you will see 3 similar entrances like the picture above. There are all together 3 summits to climb. Each summit takes about 1 hour or so to complete.
Ho Chin Min Temple on King High Peak (One of the 3 summits we hiked)
Izzit #OOTD? Hahahahah...
By private car
Opening hours:
24/7
Advice:
Entrance fee per person is approx SGD$2 (Additional charges apply for the car + if you have a driver, you will need to pay for his entrance fee as well)
When locals tell you there is nothing much, it is true to a certain degree because you don't do anything else there but hike.
Please wear proper hiking gear if you intend to hike there. (Long-sleeve shirt, leggings/ active wear, cap, sports shoes that is NOT slippery (or hiking shoes with proper grip) as you will have to climb plenty of stairs). In addition, some of the roads/ trails are not completed yet so do be careful when hiking!
Bring along sunblock. Although you are under the shade of trees, you are still outdoors.
PLEASE BRING REALLY STRONG mosquito repellent! They were incessant and bit through my leggings despite me putting on a mosquito patch. Then again, I get bitten really easily so slather up everyone!
Bring your own food/ snacks such as sandwiches or bread or crackers (unless you intend to eat at the only restaurant there. There is also a snack shop at the area where the entrances of all the summits are and you can get some snacks there) AND HYDRATE!
Even though the weather can be cooling, hydration is still important! There are restrooms around the area so need not worry about drinking too much (:
We spend almost the entire day (approximately 11am to 3pm) there because we took our time to hike and enjoy the view. However, if you intend to go other places to view the scenery, I suggest you clear the hike by 1pm latest so you have time to visit other places. I speak from experience as we went to another place around that timing and had to rush around because the sky darkens around 5pm during this period.
2. Thien Son Suoi Nga
We came here to see the renowned gorgeous waterfall. However, to no avail. :(
I wouldn't be able to stand there if there was any water. Pretending to be happy with the puny amounts of water cascading pitifully downwards.
Apart from the disappointing waterfall, the rest of the scenery was nevertheless beautiful! Here is a handstand to celebrate the fact that there is nobody around except us! As it was around 4pm, many visitors probably left the area already since it was beginning to get dark. Then again, perhaps they knew that the waterfall had no water and so they didn't bother to visit here. Either way, I am kind of glad it was relatively empty because we get to explore and take unobstructed photos (:
Imagine waking up to such scenery everyday? How can you not love life and Mother Nature? It was so peaceful! >.<
20-minute drive from Ba Vi National Park
Opening hours:
24/7
Advice:
Entrance fee is more costly than Ba Vi National Park. At least SGD$7 per person (Additional charges apply for car + if you have a driver, you will need to pay for him as well)
Part of the reason why it is more expensive than the National Park is because there is a water park within the area and their fees do not adjust accordingly despite it being off-season. Yes, it is a little unfair for tourists like us who paid the admission fee and did not get to see the waterfall nor play at the water park (Waterfall, together with water park which consists mainly of slides and a playground is closed when we went). However, I am kind of glad we went there off-season because we get to take pictures and walk around the park freely as we were the only ones there. The only downside is that we did not get enough time to fully explore the area as the sky is darkening and the driver's shift is nearly over (His schedule ends at 7pm. Any delays and we will have to pay additional charges. I don't think our driver is that calculative though). However, my parents did not want to exceed the allotted time and so we left after staying for an hour or so as we need at least 1.5 hours to get back to our apartment.
So anyway, the choice is yours. If you really wish to see the waterfall, listen to the locals when they tell you there is no waterfall to see. If your main aim is just to visit the area and you prefer an unobstructed, tranquil scenery over anything else, then do so when it is off-season. Either way, you pay the same fees but your intentions may differ.
Recommended to spend about 2 hours there to fully enjoy/ explore the area! It really is very pretty, especially in the late afternoon and evening when the sun is low (:
3. Ha Long Bay
(Ferry boat, Limestone cave exploration, lunch, kayaking)
Playing with the Meitu app whilst waiting for our private ferry to arrive!
This is where we waited for our ferry. It is a 3-hour drive from our apartment to here.
So when you are bored, what else can you do? Look at chiobu (pretty girls) lah! Hahaha... hooked onto my wi-fi and started IG story much to the amusement of my friends. :DDD
On the way to our private 48-seater ferry boat. As described on the Halong Wave website, it is 2 floors, equipped with fans and karaoke equipment. Best of it all, WE ARE ALONE! :)))
We bought a Non la (Leaf Hat) for about USD $1 (SGD $1.35) for pictures! (:
Picture taken from my Instagram (@nicesgjy)
Too big for my head though. ): And in case you came from my IG and wondering whether this is my back or front, I am facing the camera with my back. Kudos if you got this little mystery right! (:
Me with the fam!
They say that the rocks look like two people kissing and it signals love between a couple. Couples can take a picture to mirror the rocks.
Well, we are sisters. So close enough? Hahahaha...
Prior to entering the limestone cave, they will give you a ticket like this. You have to keep it until the end of your Halong Cruise tour. When you enter different tourist sites/ attractions, the guards will sign off/ put a chop.
First limestone cave we visited!
The cave is beautiful and huge! Those are artificial lighting though. When we were walking around, there were also plenty of other tourists around. There was a tour guide who was explaining some of the images that can be seen within the limestones to her tour group. For example, if you look carefully in the middle of this picture, there are 2-4 people standing together and they represent a family. That being said, those descriptions are really subjective and I guess what one person sees may differ to another. Either way, it is really quite fascinating to hear tour guides tell stories!
Yes, this limestone cave was quite crowded.
After lunch, we visited the 2nd limestone cave! This is our favourite limestone cave out of the 2 because it was not crowded at all! (probably because everyone else in other boats were having 2-hour lunch breaks and as we did private ferry, we ate our lunch within an hour).
The place is huge and so peaceful because there was no one around at that time except us! The photos don't do justice to this beautiful and spacious cave, really. :OOOO
That's my dad trying to have a different pose for every picture we took hahah...
This view. <3 (Looked like I took it out from a travelogue!) But nope, entirely taken by me!
Yup, cannot get enough of this view!
Apart from exploring the limestone caves, the scenery outside is definitely not one to be missed!
If I still attended art lessons when I was young, my Art teacher would have made me paint this for my watercolours artwork hahaha... But seriously, THIS VIEW! <3
Next up, we went Kayaking!
Trying our best to snap decent pictures without the oversized life jackets.
My parents taking pictures of us taking picture of them. Or the other way round. Hahaaa...
This is the boat you go into if you are taking the group ferry boat. There will be a rower who will at times rock the boat and give those onboard a thrill of possibly falling into the water. The place echoed with their screams and shouts and it was annoying. Our private package included kayaking but not for them as I overheard their tour guide telling them in Chinese (so I presume mostly Chinese tourists) that they have to pay extra to go kayaking. As we were not very skilled rowers, my sister and I bumped into one of their huge boats. Luckily, we didn't capsize. I'm not worried about getting wet because I wore a swimming costume underneath my clothes. It was our phones that I was worried about because we didn't have on the waterproof phone cover (perhaps something to consider to bring along in future when we go on similar ferry tours).
Prior to Kayaking, we had our 10-course meal onboard the ferry! It is included in the private tour package. The crab is stuffed with glass noodles and chunks of crab meat. It is unique but not exactly super scrumptious.
Getting here:
We had to wake up around 4am in the morning and set off around 5am from our apartment. The car ride is approximately 3.5 hours long to reach the ferry terminal and our ferry boat left at approximately 9am.
Advice:
You can book the private tour package at Halong Wave Website in advance and liaise with them via email. My parents' friend recommended them to us and helped us to arrange everything so it was definitely much easier. Prior to private tour, we have to make a deposit of 1,000,000 VND (Vietnam Dong) and make the remaining payment directly to the staff working on the boat so please bring plenty of cash to pay them. The staff typically consist of 3-4 people to a boat. Of course, the group package tour will be more affordable because it is not private. However, we opted for the private package because we get the whole ferry to ourselves and honestly, the price difference isn't that much.
Total cost of private ferry tour: SGD $160 from 9am-6pm (inclusive of free 10-course lunch but drinks extra cost; approx SGD$1.30 per canned drink), kayaking and 3 island-hopping/ limestone cave exploration). And no, I did not go to the 3rd island because I was busy revising for my upcoming examination which is held the day after I arrived back in Singapore :(
Anyhoo, they will usually give you 1 hour for each island and that is usually sufficient to explore the area.
Remember not to lose the ticket they give you as it is the same ticket you will use for all the islands!
Bring sunblock, shades, cap and waterproof phone cover just in case.
Wear shorts or swimming costume bottoms because you will get slightly wet due to the damp seats of the kayaking boat. The rest of the island exploration are on dry land so need not worry about getting drenched or wet.
I wore slippers because we were near wet and beachy areas, but my parents wore covered shoes. Either footwear is fine, just make sure they are non-slip because limestone caves can be a little damp and slippery.
OTHER FOOD WE ATE:
1. Roadside local Pho
Cheap, relatively bland but filling. We had roadside chicken pho that we happened to chance across near our apartment. The dish Pho is just soup, meat (usually chicken or beef) and bánh phở (rice noodles). A very simple dish but fills the stomach, nevertheless. We paid approximately SGD$4 for 4 bowls of this and my dad was very happy because it was the cheapest meal we had thus far.
2. Phuong Thuy Restaurant
(Located near the ferry terminal)
After Ha Long Bay, we returned to the ferry terminal and our driver took us to this restaurant which he occasionally eats at.
Yup, that's right! We Google Translate what we wanted to eat! There are typical water tanks that you often see in seafood restaurants containing fishes and other kinds of seafood available. We just pick and choose and then Google Translate the way/ method we wished it to be cooked. (:
The eggs are delicious! The kangkong is just stir-fried and the crab is steamed.
The cucumber, carrot slices and rice paper wrap (circled in black) is actually for the fish we ordered!
Our driver showing us how to wrap the fish meat together with the other ingredients inside the rice paper wrap. Not shown in this picture but he also added a tiny bit of wasabi (which comes in squeezy tubes). It is quite delicious! (:
Our bill in total amounted to SGD$80 for 5 people (We invited our driver to have dinner with us). This is inclusive of fish, 2 crabs, 1 egg and 1 plate of vegetables and beverages. I think it is pretty cheap! I'm sure there are other places that sell even cheaper seafood since Ha Long Bay is particularly known for its delicious and cheap seafood. However, since our driver recommended it to us, we simply followed. And no, he was not given commission when he introduced us to this restaurant. He was telling us that although he eats there occasionally, the staff do not know him exactly (via Google Translate of course). Regardless, we had a great time chatting and trying out the new way to eat fish meat. A hearty meal for a second day of the trip!
Getting here:
The driver took us here.
Opening hours:
Not too sure as I could not find it online but we went there around 6 plus 7pm in the evening on a Saturday night.
Advice:
Overall, quite decent and worth a try. It is seafood so be prepared to pay slightly higher prices if you are very used to Vietnam dishes being supremely affordable and cheap. It is after all seafood and the fish is still relatively more expensive than the other dishes.
Ask your driver or the locals for good and affordable seafood! (:
And yes, in case you are wondering, we managed to have such a sumptuous dinner despite our 10-course lunch! We were all surprised we could eat THAT MUCH! So after a full day of ferry cruise, do not be surprised if you get hungry again!
Apologies that I got to stop here because I spent the last day doing my 4000-word essay for my prof for one of my courses in my Masters degree. Yes, it was due on the same day as my examinations. Because I had to stay at the apartment to complete the assignment, the rest of my family went to visit other places such as Hanoi West Lake (Tay Ho Lake which includes visiting pagodas like Tran Quoc Pagoda). When visiting temples, do remember to wear long pants to display respect and modesty prior to entering these sacred places. No worries though because they do have cover-ups which looks like a raincoat for those who are dressed inapprorpiately. In addition, they also went to Old Quarter Night Market at night/ evening and they got me this necklace with my name written on it. Unfortunately, the person didn't spell my name correctly and my parents and sister didn't check carefully enough. 101% effort to da fam for thinking of me regardless though :') From what I heard, the Night Market is opened in the morning during the weekends, especially the retail stores. The makeshift stores, however, only appear in the night/ evening. They sell mostly souvenirs, trinkets and imitated branded goods.
Proof of my sad life! A 4000-word paper + examinations (schedule shown above) both due on the same day really sucked! A little background story, my family (minus my brother) booked this trip in advance (around April) and that was before my examination date was confirmed. Because we didn't want to miss the relatively cheap flight prices, I just told my parents to book the tickets and worry about the examinations later. So here's the price I have to pay for having deadlines to meet in November (the only month my company gives us as a form of holiday/ break before the work year begins again AND yet, before the semester officially ends). Anyhoo, glad it is over!
As that's all I have to write, I shall end here regarding my Hanoi trip! (:
MY PERSONAL AFTER-THOUGHTS:
PEOPLE: Generally friendly people. Most of them cannot speak English fluently so Google Translate is your best friend. Regardless, they are willing to stop and converse with you regarding directions. We were at Ba Vi National Park and doing one of the hiking trails to one of the summits and we stopped 2 locals heading in the opposite direction we were heading. We asked them via Google Translate as to what lies at the place they just left. They typed back in the app and said "Nothing. Just rocks but no water." So yeah, pretty friendly. The lady staff in our private ferry boat speaks Mandarin relatively well. I'm guessing because she interacts with a lot of tourists and has picked up some conversational language. In addition, while my family left for the 3rd island to explore and I stayed onboard the ferry to revise my work, she was watching some Chinese drama show on her phone hahahah so I guess that's where she also attains a better grasp of the language.
PRICE: Affordable and cheap everywhere! You can use Vietnam dong (VND) or USD (at more popular tourist areas).
By the way, if you are unsure what kind of food products to get. I recommend THIS SOYA BEAN DRINK! I first bought it at the snacks shop at Ba Vi National Park's main area where the entrances of the 3 summits are. It was pretty good! And we managed to find it again at a nearby supermarket store so I believe this is pretty common! Yumm (:
Thanks for taking the time to read my post! Feel free to post a comment to enquire about certain details and information (accuracy not guaranteed though heh).
Follow me on my Instagram: @nicesgjy to slide me a DM, if you find that more convenient (:
xx
Loves,
Nices
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