XYUENX: Vietnam Vacation Part 2 (D3 & D4 - Hanoi, HCM City, My Tho)

Hi guys. This is the second post update of my Vietnam vacation. I've been trying to get all the collages done up until the last day, so that I can close all the programs used for the pictures and just write. Just so you know, my current Dell Inspiron (and it's an old model by the way) lags like hell if there are a few more programs opened. =.=

Really celebrating the day when I can finally use my own i5 processor laptop. This thing is still using Pentium.

Anyway, Day 3 is another flight day because we flew from Hanoi to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City is a mouthful) in the afternoon. If you don't know already, Hanoi is in the north and Saigon is in the south of Vietnam. Saigon is the old name for HCM City.

So we checked out from our hotel in Hanoi in the morning...

And visited the Temple of Literature (Văn miếu), which was founded in 1070 by Emperor Ly Tranh Tong, and is a shrine to the Chinese philosopher Confucius.

It consists of four courtyards with the last one having a temple dedicated to Confucius and there is a statue of him in there. It had been reconstructed by several dynasties due to war and other disasters. Until now, it is still one of the most important venues for people of Vietnam to host cultural and educational events. By the way, when we were there, one of the Vietnam universities was hosting a graduation event.

The two pictures on the right arepavillions with steles which are sitting on top of tortoises. These steles honour the school's successful doctorate candidates.

Confucius is behind me. :P

Then we paid a visit to the One-Pillar Pagoda, which apparently had a legend behind it. The following was an excerpt from a Vietnam tourist website:

The legend has it that on Ly Dynasty, Emperor Ly Thai To had no children so he used to go to pagodas to pray the Buddha for a son. One night, he dreamt that he was granted a private audience to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who was seated on a great lotus flower in a square-shaped lotus pond on the western side of Thang Long Citadel. He gave the King a baby boy. Months later, when the Queen gave birth to a male child, the Emperor decided to build a pagoda supported by only one pillar to resemble the lotus seat of his dream in the honor of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. The pagoda was built in a style of a lotus emerging out of the water.

It was said that Emperor Ly Thai Tong had this temple constructed in gratitude for the mentioned significant legendary event in 1049, by erecting a pillar in the middle of a lotus pond, and a temple of lotus-shape, exactly similar to what he saw in the dream.

Also visited the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which is just a stone's throw away from the One Pillar Pagoda, so we walked there. It is a museum dedicated to the late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, depicting his life and deeds for Vietnam, and also Vietnam's revolutionary struggle against foreign powers namely the French and US, and was constructed in the 1990s.

Outside

At first we weren't allowed to go near the centre of the Ba Dinh Square. It's like Dataran Merdeka in Malaysia, as it's the place where Viet Minh (northern communist group) leader Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence.

It's a heavily guarded place, there are many soldiers around, and the laws here are strict. Not allowed means not allowed, as there was some sort of formal event going on there every Monday.

Later it was heard to be cancelled, so we could go to the centre to take photos of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, a large memorial in Hanoi. ;)

Then we visited the Tran Quoc (National Defence) Pagoda.It is considered a cultural symbol of Vietnamese Buddhism as it is the oldest pagoda and situated in the center of Hanoi capital. The most outstanding feature of the pagoda is that it was built in a very intricate way.

The pagoda is just beside a large lake, called the West Lake. It is a freshwater lake in the center of Hanoi, Vietnam. With a shore length of 17 km, this is the largest lake of the capital. ;)

One thing noteworthy about Hanoi is that there are many lakes there, sometimes even in the middle of a busy city.

Walking around makes me hungry! Thank God we had an all-you-can-eat buffet for lunch. Thank God even more for the return of my big appetite. Buffets are so wasted when you have no appetite and can barely swallow something. There was so much food there. Barbeque, Japanese food, cakes, desserts, Vietnamese food, and a lot of fruits. We almost ate all of the fresh lychees there, which is a must-eat! :P

What do you do when you're finally full? For me I went out and took photos. :PPP

The place around the restaurant is beautiful. ;)

And now time for a domestic flight to HCM City! Travelled on a budget Jetstar Pacific flight. It's like AirAsia, you have to pay for even water. Thankfully I still have some leftover Hershey's chocolates in my bag. :P Flight took like 2 hours.

I can't believe I still have time to click away while climbing into the plane!

The aerial view of Saigon is just W-O-W.

If you've noticed in the above collage, HCM is MUCH MORE modern than Hanoi. There are skyscrapers here, where in Hanoi the tallest building is only like four storeys tall. Lol. HCM is like 10 or 15 years in front of Hanoi. However, both cities share the same love for greenery and wide parks in the middle of the city, so here you can still find a lot of green nature despite having skyscrapers.

And also they still share the same love for motorcycles.

Motorcycles are everywhere in Hanoi and HCM alike. There are only a few cars compared to motorcycles. You can see them surging forward every time the light turns green. By the way, traffic lights are mostly useless. They are functioning, but Vietnamese people don't really bother.
They swerve here and there on their motorcycles, narrowly avoiding others and honking all the time. It's like a free world, no traffic rules anywhere. You can do anything on the road if you're brave enough to.

The interesting part: you don't see an accident anywhere.

Was sort of late when we arrived, plus it was drizzling rain. so we had dinner first.

In Northern Vietnam, there are four seasons (summer now), while in Southern Vietnam, it only has two seasons, dry season and rainy season. It's rainy season now, so it rains whenever it likes.

We had a traditional Vietnamese dinner. Collage above shows all the traditional dishes served. On the top left, you can see something like papery plastic. It's edible. O.O Really. It tasted a LOT like plastic. But it's used to wrap meat and vegetables.

The drumstick-like thing is actually beancurd wrapped onto sugar cane. And then there's the lotus leaf-wrapped rice. The bowl of reddish yellow sauce is fish sauce which goes with everything. Like soya sauce. Oh and there's the chicken noodles again. ;)

Checked in at hotel again! We're staying here for two days, then going to Vung Tau for one night, and then one last night here again. It's very golden and everything. ;) Note my tired look, haha. Good night!

Good morning! Day 4 is going to My Tho, a town (inland port) in the Delta of the Mekong River (haven't we all read about this in Sejarah *history*?) It's a two-hour drive away from HCM. Apparently it's a must-visit place as they have a huge collection of fruits and vegetables, all fresh, since it's like the main producer of fruits and vegetables in Vietnam.

Along the way

Stopped by the Mekong River Stop, a rest place on the way. It's a really huge place with very pretty surroundings.

*an excuse for taking lotsa photos! :P*

Continued on the journey to My Tho. Reached the port finally, where we were supposed to take a boat to an island, where the fruit orchards are.

Okay I'm here! First up is the bee farm. Had honey tea and local snacks there. Quite yummy. We can even hold the bee frame, but I didn't. I don't want to be accidentally stung by a bee, because that would create a lot of problems and spoil the mood for the day. I might even go into hypersensitive mode and faint. =.= and no, I did not choose to be hypersensitive.

Preparing the honey tea on the left.

And then we had a walk through the island and see the houses there. It gave me a Balik Pulau feel LOL. You know, the school merentas desa (cross-country) trail. It was almost exactly like that, haha.

Even had a short horse carriage ride. The horse was small, but really strong. I mean, six adults, and it can pull us all along at a good pace. *claps*

The tree on the left is very interesting but it's not what you think. They hang the fruits on it, haha. If only it can bear different fruits right? :P

Stuff made from wood on top right, and bottom right is a coconut with a knife into it. Decoration purposes.

Had a sample of fresh fruits from the orchard. I know, they're all what we could have here in Malaysia. But well, they're from an orchard, so should be very fresh. Plus they entertained us with traditional folk music. ;)

Taking photos along the walk. :P You can see the proof that I was in the orchard. Hahahahhaa.

The making of coconut hard sweets. First the mixture was cooked and well-mixed over a fire of burning coconut shells and husks, then it was poured out into long rectangle moulds. After it has hardened a bit, the rectangles were cut into small pieces and wrapped individually. I think it's nicer while it's warm and soft. When it's hard, it sticks to your teeth.

We had to take a sampan boat along a maze of narrow canals to reach the other side where our big boat was waiting.

Shit enough it rained along the way, while we were on the sampan boat. =.= Obviously we were all drenched. But clothes dried fast enough. Just afraid that I would get sick (which I didn't). :)

Lunch on the island. The highlight of the lunch is this FISH dish. The fish was fried and held upright. Quite yummy I must say. Crispy. ;)

Taking photos wherever I go. :P

Along the way while leaving the island, we get to drink coconut water from a coconut. ;)

I'm not fond of it actually, but it tasted fresh and warm.

Came back to Saigon! Above is a collage of Ben Thanh Market, one of the most famous landmarks of Saigon. It was opened in 1914, and it's super super crowded with narrow, one-way aisles, where to the left and right are crowded individual shops selling anything you can imagine. But the stuff is cheap, and you can bargain all you want here. (they'll cut 90% off the first price they quote you if you know how to bargain) I feel like a wallet with legs there. =.=

Views of a rainy Saigon day.

Went to the hotel to take a bath and change into fresh clothes. Came out again for dinner, which is on a cruise ship! :D

The night scene of Saigon is fascinating with many lights.

On the ship! Above collage contains photos of another ship beside. ;)

Dinner first. Entertained by music and singing. Interior of ship is quite nice. There were three decks, ours was the lowest one. The first and second were for Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine, and the top deck for Western cuisine.