-DAY THREE-
True Beauty Emerges
The day I was most excited for - to Halong Bay! Saw so many beautiful pictures of the place itself prior to the trip down and heard really good things about Halong Bay too!!! :-)
At our stopover where the staff doubted us when we denied that we were Vietnamese..... lol.
After countless selfies with my bus buddy and the four hour ride, we finally arrived at the harbour to take the junk to Halong Bay!
Love love love love places of nature. Brings a smile to my face naturally.
Guess we didn't take enough selfies on the bus, so here's one on the junk taken by a fellow tourist, or the guy that Clarissa refers to as "the loner".
Happyyyyyyyyyy.
Group shot taken by the Korean tourist again! Pretty good skills I must say heheh.
Clarissa and I were just such big embarrassments there. We were totally lost on how to move in the direction that we wanted, while Germ and TH kayaked like professionals. There was this 'danger zone' as mentioned by our tour guide previously, and Clarissa and I somehow kept ending up in that direction. It also didn't really help that she was busy instastorying and taking pictures HAHAHA *ahem* so most of the time I was kayaking alone. There was this point in time that I screamed because our kayak was on the verge of capsizing.
She kept asking me to turn around so that she could take a picture of me.. but this was the max I could turn HAHAHA and I really couldn't be bothered to take pictures at that point in time because all I wanted to was to stay alive and reach the dry land safely HAHAHA (I kid), I just wanted to kayak properly because it was actually pretty fun hehe.
My face of exasperation. HAHAHA SEND HELP PLS.
The professionals! Quoting from Clarissa, they kayaked as though as they were going for a dragonboat competition hahahahahaha.
Love it there sooooooooooo much.
Really felt so happy to just be there and try things and explore places that we don't really have back home!
We visited the caves after and just took some pictures before leaving the beautiful place :-)
Super amazing dinner back at Hanoi - Buncha!!! So glad our driver drove past this on the way back to our apartment. 10/10 for this! Headed back to rest after the long day out!! :-)
- DAY 4 -
More, please.
First stop to the mausoleum! We did some research prior to this and read about the long queues and decided to come earlier! Unfortunately, HCM's body is currently in Moscow.. so we didn't get to head in as we anticipated. :-(
Decided to pop by the military museum that was nearby! The exhibition was a rather small area and it was rather run down. We ended up walking around the outdoor section more lol.
No idea what we were doing here lol.
We wanted to head to the Citadel that was just nearby as well, but we passed the opening hours by the time we reached there. :-(
I can't exactly remember what we did on this day because we didn't really plan it but decided to just roam around randomly! Went on to this place where we refer to as the 'Bamboo Street' which took us quite awhile to find! (and look at germ drinking beer in broad daylight HAHA)
Went to the cathedral and we wanted to attend mass for an experience. But we missed the english service.. so we decided to sit in the Vietnamese one for awhile. We felt so out of place because we couldn't understand a thing and decided to leave HAHAHA.
Was it Shoe Street or Hoan Kiam Lake that we went after this?? I don't have any pictures for the rest of day 4, but we had a really interesting dinner that night.. which I shall not elaborate on hahaha ;-)
- DAY FIVE -
A Part of Them.
Embarrassing outfits to start off our last full day in Hanoi!!! Can't forget the number of stares we attracted along the way lol. We started off our day at the book store followed by a long walk back to Shoe Street (yes, again) lololol.
Went out to the mega mall for grocery shopping! Yes matching bag and pants hahaha lol. They sealed all our bags thus the plastic bag on my bag. I spent the bulk of my money here lol. Think we went to another supermarket on this night too?? And Hoan Kiam lake if I didn't remember wrongly heheh.
My crazy coffee loots. It was so hard to pack everything into my luggage lol but thankfully I somewhat did it eventually!!!
-DAY SIX-
See You Again.
We weren't able to do much on the final day as it was a morning flight back! Just had a quick breakfast at our favourite Cong Caphe, and proceeded to the airport. I remember leaving with a heavy heart - not what I expected prior to going to Hanoi.
Hanoi was definitely not the most organized or cleanest country to be, but amidst all that, the beauty of the country shines so brightly with the simple lives the locals lead, the beautiful places of nature and just the peace they had. There're really so many more places to step foot on and wander about in this country, so I will definitely be back!!! :-)
Just thank God for the journey mercies granted throughout the entire trip, ensuring our safety at all times and also for the amazing company! Also, for nudging me to go on this trip with 4/6 of Snoopz. Initially I was reluctant to due to some considerations, but somehow I decided to trust God and go on this adventure with them. "Let go and rest," He said.
I let go.
I rested.
My heart is full.
Thank God.
