proceeded to ben thanh mkt for our shopping after lunch, the stuffs on our to-buy list include the famous viet coffee (trung nguyen) & north face backpacks. e layout of e mkt is actually quite like bangkok's chatuchak, wif similar pdts being grp tght in the same sector.
a bargaining advise: u shd always cut watever they quote by 50% as a starting gauge, then from there u assess again. normally, they'll say cannot cannot too low, but if u walk away, they'll start to call after u & agree to watever price u quote. but sometimes, if e stalls r selling at fix price, then of course no bargaining is needed. e fixed price stalls will hav a signboard like this:
kian shopping for his north face backpack~~
tried che, a sweet vietnamese dessert quite like our chendol~~
we oso went to binh tay mkt, e counterpart of ben thanh mkt, located in chinatown (district 5). it is actually quite far from ben thanh & a cab will cost abt VND 80k (~S$5.7). i wont recommend gg to binh tay mkt cos they mostly sell stuffs wholesale, like e chinatown in bangkok, hence wont entertain u if u oni wan to buy 1 piece. e variety of backpacks in binh tay is oso very limited. din hav time to go to An dong plaza, oso in chinatown & according to my research is like e platinum mall in bangkok.
chill out @ gloria jean's while waiting for our night bus to phnom penh.
e interior of our bus~~
most of the bus to phnom penh operate in e day, a 6 hrs drive from hcmc to phnom penh. we tot dat by taking e nite bus we'll save a night's accom & of course no need to waste e day travelling. we ended up regretting our decision as it was a total nightmare! we boarded e bus at abt 12am, n reached phnom penh oni at 12pm e nx day! apparently e cambodia border immigration is closed at nite & we had to spend e nite sleeping in e bus which parked itself jus outside e border, without any aircon cos it switched off its engine! seriously crap! n we had to give our passports to e driver, who will pass to e custom for chopping. so we din even hav to go down from e bus to pass through e custom at all. kian couldnt sleep e whole nite cos it's hot & stuffy plus e border is at some secluded foresty area, so he spent e nite worrying abt our safety, etc.
We booked a day tour to halong bay with e local tour agency @ US$22 per pax (deluxe package) inclusive of kayaking. There's actually a cheaper non-deluxe one @ US$15 w/o kayaking, but we were told dat e deluxe one comes with a nicer boat (there's really tons of junk boats at the bay!), better seafood lunch and longer boat tour.
After a 3 hrs ride from Hanoi, we finally reached our destination. Halong Bay, literally means descending dragon bay, is a UNESCO world heritage site surrounded by limestones 500 million yrs old. The view here is actually quite similar to taiwan's taroko gorge, jus dat we r on waters. our junk boat took us on a ride through the bay, visiting e floating village, caves & of course kayaking through the little arches under the huge limestones. oh, e ride also feels similar to phuket's boat ride to james bond island!
one of e floating village~~ according to our guide, there's abt 100 families living here & e village is self equipped with a school, post office, etc.
our boat also brought us to this island where there are some caves with numerous stalactites & stalagmites. it's like being back to australia's jenolan caves, jus dat e stalactites & stalagmites r not as well preserved, but they hav better lightings. it's really smart to use colourful neon lights, makes e whole plc much more beautiful.
our seafood lunch~~
kayaking~~
sightseeing ard e bay on e boat~~
e famous kissing rocks~~ u'll see them appearing in a lot of photos promoting halong bay~~
there r packages wif 2D1N stay on e junk boat, but i tink a day trip will suffice for halong bay, unless u jus wan to r&r on e boat, go swimming, etc. or else there's really nothin much to see except limestones. ha!
a nice & clean toilet wif bathtub~~ 
strolling ard Hoan Kiem Lake, a popular plc wif both locals & tourists located btw the old quarters & french quarters. u can see grps of old folks practising their tai chi, couples relaxing by e lake, etc. there's also a story abt a golden turtle residing in e lake.
walked ard e old quarters, aka 36 streets, which has a history of 2,000 yrs. there are actually more than 36 streets in e old quarters, wif each diff street selling pdts of a diff theme (eg. shoes, bags, food, clothes, etc.) a very cool thing to note was e street names are named after e pdts they r selling (eg. hang bac st - "hang" means shop & "bac" means silver, so e shops there all sell silver & jewelry). we read this from lonely planet, we printed out e online version on vietnam & cambodia & brought them there!
big mkt at e old quarters, very similar to ben thanh mkt in HCMC~~
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum~~ we forgot to check e opening hrs of e plc & it was alr closed when we went after lunch... sadz... tink e opening hrs are from 8am to 11am, so we din get to go inside.
one pillar pagoda~~
streets of hanoi~~
one thing we noticed in vietnam was the buildings r all very narrowly built. i went to googled abt this & found dat it's to fit as many shops in a street as possible. an alternative theory was since e property is taxed based on its width, of course they'll try to build as narrow as possible.
temple of literature, first university of vietnam, featured on e back of e VND100,000 banknote ~~ e royal families & elites studied here, wif a system quite similar to china (eg. they studied 四书五经).
chilling out at highlands coffee, similar to our starbucks, in vincom centre, one of e more atas shopping centre in hanoi.
took a domestic flight from HCMC to Hanoi, via Jetstar Pacific, formerly known as Pacific Airlines until 2008 when Qantas took over and bring it under the Jetstar family. a return flight from HCMC to Hanoi cost S$164, booked just 1 day prior to departure, cos we keep changing our itinerary so our route and events r very ad hoc. e 2 hrs flight was jus like any other budget airlines flights in spore, jus dat this time round we r surrounded by vietnamese. we flew on the boeing 737 & came back on an airbus 320 n e return flight was significantly more comfortable in a newer plane. so pls choose e airbus if u r taking jetstar pacific.
anyway, after reaching Hanoi, we took e minibus @ US$3 per pax from airport to town, journey took abt 2 hrs inclusive of waiting time (e minibus will oni start moving when it is filled, so if u r rushing for time, dun take it) and e peak hr jam. under normal non-jam condition, a cab arranged by ur hotel to e airport will take slightly less than 1 hr & cost US$15. we saw dat those vietnamese who took e minibus tght wif us clearly paid a very nominal fee, so US$3 was "tourist price". a very impt pt to rem when travelling in hanoi is "e drivers will collaborate wif other ppl to con u!" there's this incident where e minibus arrived at some random street outside some random shop n suddenly 2 guys jus opened our door n say "welcome to Sinh Cafe!" (they noe we wanna go sinh cafe cos we told them b4 we boarded e minibus) for goodness sake, e rd name is wrong, e shop's name is wrong n most imptly sinh cafe wont give us such a welcome (based on our experience in HCMC). so we jus stayed put in e car, told them it's e wrong plc n asked e driver to bring us to e correct one. luckily e driver brought us to e correct plc after seeing them cant con us.
so after reaching sinh cafe, we proceed to book our 3N2D Sapa tour @ US$74 inclusive of return train tic (soft sleeper cabin), 2 star hotel accom in sapa & guide plus all other transfers. we heard from 2 fellow backpackers (who did DIY) sharing e same cabin as us afterwards dat e return train tic alr cost US$50, so our package price was quite worth it. but one thing we regretted was not opting for a homestay (dat means u stayed in e villager's hse) as dat wld hav been a nicer experience. if u r getting a package tour for sapa, make sure to check clearly wat's e train type (there's express & non-express), cabin class, etc etc. alternatively, u can oso take a bus up (like we go genting like dat), journey time shd be abt e same, but not sure abt its cost.
@ e train platform~~
our cabin~~ we met 2 very friendly british backpackers, a teacher & a sociologist. they came from Hue after a 14hrs bus ride to hanoi n was sharing wif us some of their advantures. i tink they r e nicest british travellers i've met so far, n kian feels dat u can alr see their characters from their careers.
so we slept overnite on e train, which departs hanoi @ 9pm & reached lao cai station (e town closest to sapa) at 530am. after a hr bus ride from lao cai, we finally arrived @ sapa town~~
our hotel, emotion~~
sapa is located northwest of vietnam, 350km from hanoi, very close to e border wif china. a few of e ethnic minority grps lived here, wif Hmong being e majority and grow rice & corn on e sloping terraces as their means of living. sapa town lies at an altitude of 1600m, even higher than katoomba (town of e blue mountains in sydney)!
e minority ethnic grps (both young & old) will wait outside our hotel everyday & trek wif us to sell us their stuffs (woven pouch, pencil case, pillow case, etc).
had our breakfast @ e mkt~~
began our trekking after breakfast, visited cat cat village, where e Hmong live & trekked through hilly terrain, rice paddy terraces, waterfalls & streams, etc. sapa is a really beautiful plc, wif its natural landscape coupled wif e paddy fields. trekking in cat cat village is relatively easy, wif pathways for ya to walk.
a little gal we met on e way... e kids here all looked like this, wif no shoes & torn clothes, jus wandering abt... there's a really kind spanish backpacker in our grp who brought clothes & medicines all e way here to donate to the villagers. kian says we shd go & do some volunteering work in e 3rd world countries. i agreed... it's definitely more meaningful than painting e walls of e old folks home in spore (if u've watched e recent variety prog, u'll noe wat i'm refering to). who needs u to paint their walls when there's ppl starving/dying of disease/killed by landmines elsewhere? ok, jus my two cents worth.
a device to make use of e kinetic energy of water~~ damn cool!
buffalos resting on e fields~~ so cute!
had our dinner @ one of e vietnamese restaurant in town, viet curry chicken is quite nice...
began our trekking e nx day in e morning, weather wasnt good to us, rained e whole day, so we had e additional difficulty of trekking in e rain, where everywhere is so slippery. luckily we bought north face waterproof jackets in HCMC, so it has been put to good use!
a little gal trying to sell her stuffs to e tourists...
visited lao chai, another village where the Hmongs lived. trekking to e village is much more difficult than cat cat, cos there wasnt any paths for u to trek, jus stones & mud & grass, crossing streams by walking on a bamboo stick, e male ang mohs in our grp r so afraid they'll break e bamboo stick due to their weight. 
