SEA: Cat Ba Island, Hanoi

hanoi,vietnam
day01 of 07

18November 2012
just landed at Hanoi at 12mn. It's already four in the morning here. The supposed pick-up service didn't came. So we decided to an overnight at Cat Ba Island and just do a day tour in Hanoi since we've been hearing (and experiencing), so far, that Hanoi is not at all tourist friendly. Maybe Cat Ba is. Met a very persistent airport taxi driver who insists on driving us to our guesthouse for $30!. Sorry..it's $30!.. What the.. Good thing we met a Pinoy!.. who came to our rescue.. So the plan is, we'll wait for the exchange rate counter to open and after exchanging our dollars to dong, we head to Cat Ba and just spend the night there..Maybe, hopefully, we'll make a good decision.. It's effin cold..By the way..23 degrees for the record..wasn't prepared at all.. should have brought thicker clothes..let's see. hope things would turn around..eventually..I hope.. Looking forward to that dreadful 30 hours bus trip..?


Arriving in Northern Vietnam, there's a feel of stricter atmosphere. I've been to Saigon and I can tell the difference. Hanoi's immigrations officers, they mean business.Saigon immigration officers are more relaxed, less rigid, if you ask me. The locals are not even friendly to the tourists. They sort of tolerate their existence.

The plan of having a day tour of Halong Bay didn't pushed through because of travel delays, of pick-up services that didn't showed up, and a lot of unforeseen incidents. But something good came out of our misfortunes.. we get to see Halong Bay at sunset..cheaper!

He never knew any English and yet we understood him

Accomodations built along the bay

Spring rolls, fried!

View from one of the ports

Yeah that's our ride

Cat Ba Island at night

Cat Ba Island is cooold as well. It do reminds me of Coron. But you know, Coron is waayy better.hehe. Cat Ba Island has a certain charm to it.. Houses built along side the bay.waking up to a view. Watching locals getting ready for the day. Have a walk along their baywalk and experience the local life. I mean, I think, what I love Cat Ba Island is the locals let the tourists be. No one is pushing you to buy their wares, take their tours.. makes you blend in.. that authentic feeling of being a traveler..

But just like any booming tourist destinations, give the place two or five years, and it would be just like any tourist place.

But for now.. Ha Long Bay should be experienced through Cat Ba Island.. gives justice to its title UNESCO world heritage site.. nowhere else.

Sea 02: Hanoi

Day03 of 07
19 November 2012 (Monday afternoon)

Just waiting for our 6pm bus to Luang Prabang, Laos. Free wifi! Cat Ba Island is lovely. Less tourists..Hanoi is lovely as well.. Culture..food..We missed the rice! Overpriced for the bus tickets $63 each instead of $50..huhu.. what to do..

writing from Highlands Coffee cafe

We decided to roam around the Old Quarter when we arrived at Hanoi. and just see the places that we can before waiting for that dreadful thirty freaking hours bus ride to Laos. We had our lunch at a cafe near the Hoan Kiem Lake, on which we went to see after eating. It seems the surroundings of the lake are where the locals and tourist hang out.

view from our lunch table

spring rolls!

Hoan Kiem Lake

St. Joseph's Cathedral

We had coffee at their local Starbucks. Highlands coffee.

And killed time at St Joseph's Cathedral, which unfortunately was closed at the time. Only opens during Saturdays. And  passed time observing kids from a nearby school out of their classes, playing, waiting for their ride home. We sort of missed our childhood. Had a big laugh of a kid who was bursting out of his school uniform. you know, the bully-type. and he then proceeded to scratch his thing at the middle of the street. That was priceless.

We were sitting beside a mom with her two girls, who were so cute and so sweet with each other. 

People watching, I really love doing this.. especially on a foreign country who knows nothing of you, and you are clueless of.haha

SEA: Ha Long Bay

I knew, even before I lay my eyes on Ha Long Bay, that Coron, will and will always be better. Still, I was swept away..

18November2012

..lovely evening..

..lovely, indeed :)

SEA02: Prelude

“You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.” – Ella Maillart


I had a different experience when I did my first SEA trip. I have my expectations. I thought, doing that trip would somehow fill whatever space I have in me. It didn't.

I was turning 25 when I did my first SEA trip and I had this idea that I should do something, be somewhere. I was turning 25! Twenty freakin' five! Frustrations. Out of frustrations, I did the trip.

But I came back, more frustrated. I didn't told anyone where I was going. Even to my closest friends. I was away and no one knew. And when I returned, things were all the same. You know the feeling of dying? For the first weeks, people would remember you. And then, add a year or two, you'd be a memory. That's what I felt. Only the closest people remembered that I was gone. That I can't be contact through my mobile. That I needed to be found. Only a few..

This time, I have different expectations. I was travelling to experience things..not to pacify whatever hole, loneliness or unfulfilled plans I have. I had a different perception this time. I guess, with all the travelling I've done, I see things more clearly and with deeper understanding.

new set of eyes, eh?

Photoblog: Be still..

Photoblog: Rotee

Photoblog: In motion

Photoblog: Sun sets..

Sunscreen

I've known this song when I was in grade school..I never understood some of the words back then..it all made sense when i reread it again..i guess, we see and understand things differently as we get older.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99 

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.

1.Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine.

2.Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

3.Do one thing everyday that scares you

4.Sing

5.Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

6.Floss

7.Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

8.Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

9.Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

10.Stretch

11.Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

12.Get plenty of calcium.

13.Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

14.Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

15.Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

16.Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

17.Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

18.Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

19.Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

20.Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

21.Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

22.Travel.

23.Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

24.Respect your elders.

25.Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

26.Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

27.Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…

Photoblog: Patterns