Hanoi - Day 2

Wake up at 7am and have our breakfast in hotel. The tour guide reach at our hotel 8 am sharp for the city tour around the town of Hanoi. Our first destination is to Tran Quoc Pagoda that sits on an island in the West Lake or better known as Ho Tay. It's  one of the oldest pagodas in the country that was built near the Red River in the 6th Century. A bodhi tree in the closure is said to have been growth from a cutting of the tree under which Buddha has achieved enlightment.

Tran Quoc Pagoda

The old lady is 93 years old who spent most of the time in the temple reading sacred manuscript in the temple.

The Golden Statues of God inside the temple.

Lotus flower which are sacred flower of Buddhism.

The Pagoda



Then we stop over at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and also Museum. Surprised to see that there are so much people visiting the Mausoleum during the public holiday. You even have to queue for quite some times before you are able to see the house that Ho Chi Minh used to stay before. Somehow, you wont see Malaysian spent their public holiday visiting Tugu Negara or National Museum because they rather spent their time shopping in Midvalley.

Ho Chi Minh Masoleum.

Ho Chi Minh reject to stay in this palace. Therefore, it become the places for him to meet leaders from oversea. He however stay at a small house nearby this palace.

This is the house that Ho Chi Minh used to stay. The lower ground is for the children to play when they come visit him. The upper part of the house consist of 2 rooms. One is the room to sleep and another room is the study room.

Too bad the Mausoleum was close during the public holiday therefore we cant go inside. The tour guide even told me, even if the Mausoleum is open during weekdays, you will have to queue up for a long distance before you can get inside the Mausoleum. After that we stop over at One Pillar Pagoda. According to the local, the Pagoda was built by the king to worship Kuan Yin after he dreamt that Kuan Yin handed him a son.

One Pillar Pagoda

The entrance to Temple of Literature

Another section of the temple.

One of the king that built one section of the Temple of Literature

Musical performance by using traditional music instruments.

The Ngoc Soon Temple at Hoan Kiem Lake

We move on to the Temple of Literature which was founded as Confucian Temple. It become the Vietnam's first university that trained a lots of scholar. The large courtyards consist of nice gardens, lily pond, bronze statues of crane, stone carved of all the scholars and beautiful styles of chinese gates display. There is also short performance about the tradisional music instruments of Vietnam inside the Temple of Literature. We also visit Ngoc Soon Temple at Hoan Kiem Lake which is nearby our hotel.

Tea pot

All are hand made.

The owner's son and daughter who welcome us to their factory.


Thang Long Theather

The traditional water puppet show.

After lunch, we visit the porcelin factory which was outside the Hanoi city. Too bad some of the big factory was closed during the May Day. At night, we walk to Thang Long Theather to watch one of the most famous troupe in Hanoi, the Water Puppet Show. A traditional Vietnamese orchestra provides background music accompaniment. The instrumentation includes vocals, drums, wooden bells, cymbals, horns, erhu (Chinese two-stringed fiddle), and bamboo flutes. The bamboo flute's clear, simple notes may accompany royalty while the drums and cymbals may loudly announce a fire-breathing dragon's entrance. It portrays the day to day life of rural vietnam and the folk tales handed down over generations. Stories of the harvest, fishing and the festivals are highlighted. One should never miss such an extrodinary show of high cultural value.

Hanoi - Day 1

Our journey to Hanoi started when we reach Noi Bai International Airport around 9am local time. Mr Pham our tour guide is already expected our arrival outside the airport.  Without wasting any time, he fetch us to enjoy the usual breakfast that normally Vietnamese, Pho Ga or better known as chicken noodle shop at Pho 24 - fast food concept of food like KFC and McDonalds.

Busy street at Old Quarter

1st May a public holiday for Vietnam better known as May Day

More and more Vietnam flag. Somehow I feel Vietnamese are more patriotic than us Malaysian.

Soon after finish our breakfast, he fetch us back to the hotel where we will stay our 4 nights in Hanoi. The journey from air port to our hotel is around 40km and soon after we step inside the car, the thrill of excitement begin. The traffic at Hanoi is so terrible until you constantly can hear horn everywhere you are heading. The road is so muddy until almost all the motorists are wearing surgery mask. Somehow the traffic in Hanoi make me think back what my manager ever said before about the traffic in India and somehow you need to have 3 good to survive. Good Brake, Good Horn and Good Luck!!!

Along the Hoan Kiem Lake

The red bridge to the temple of the Return Sword Lake

The red bridge that lead to the temple

We stay at Hoabinh Palace Hotel located at the middle of Old Quarter along the Hang Be road. The room was very clean, convenient and comfortable for the entire stay in that hotel. Old Quarter lies between the Return Sword Lake or better known as Hoan Kiem Lake to the South and the Long Bien Bridge to the North and the spans of 2000 years of history.

The bridge always pack with people especially during weekend.

An artist trying to earn decent money around the lake by drawing for tourist

Master of engineering... Telekom can't fight at all..

Till today, you can still see the original architecture of old Hanoi and the original street layout. What so special about Old Quarter is that the city consists of 36 streets and each streets represent an unique merchants and households specialization in silks, coffees, blacksmiths, incense, tombstone and many mores.

Cyclos or trishaw waiting to fetch anyone who like to discover the street of Old Quater. If I am not mistaken, USD 5 for an hours trip around the Old Quarter

The temple of Return Sword Lake

Hoan Kiem Lake

Our first day at Hanoi just simply hanging around the streets looking at the uniqueness and also the culture and people around the busy street of Hanoi. We even took cyclos or trishaw to circle around the Old Quarter and it is the best mode of transportation if you want to enjoy all the streets around Old Quarter. The weather during that time is around 25 celcius making it a nice weather for us to enjoy coffee under the tree with a nice view of the Hoan Kiem Lake. The night view of Hoan Kiem Lake is a place not to be missed. The chilling wind breeze through us is simply make it so so nice.

Year of Dialects

Some of the photos taken at Sungai Buloh Leprosy Center. Being invited by Douglas to attend this charity show to the residents at Leprosy Center. Chinese Opera is a popular form of drama and musical theather which is famous many century back in China. But somehow, chinese opera will lost his root if there is enjoy the beauty of the art.

Qing Ming

Qing Ming or tomb sweeping day is already part of our family tradition. For me, Qing Ming is more like a gathering for my family after Chinese New Year. If you are thinking that visiting tomb will be a scary place, you might need to think again as for me, I will see it more like a picnic for me. Haha!..

The very first time that we do when we reach the tomb of my grandparent is cleaning the tomb.

My dad cleaning the pictures and the writing.

Colorful paper "decorating" the grave.

Some of the paper offering for my grandma.

Purse with loaded of big notes...

My uncle burning the joss stick.

Haha! That me, loaded with huge stack of hell money! How good if was real money!!

My silly brother thought he is Rambo covering himself with fire cracker.

Imagine how many zero are there in that single piece of hell money. I also dunno how to count. Trilion? Or perhap mega-trilion??!!

Ok. Stop disturbing me. I wanna count money first. Bye...!