The sight of a street in Hanoi. Located about half an hour journey from Noi Bai International Airport, we arrived at Hanoi in a Toyota Vios by using airport transfer booked via Klook.
Media Hotel and Spa was a great place for our 3 nights stay. Looks unique on the outside, elegant in the inside. The staffs were friendly too!
Our first stop was lunch at Cha Ca Thang Long, where their specialty is pan fried fish! One of the best meals to start our journey in Hanoi.
Travel around Hanoi is easy. We used Grab whenever we want to travel from one attraction to another. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was the first attraction we visited. The place was wide, airy and soothing with some bamboo decoratives, and there's a temple-like building called One Pillar Pagoda located behind it.
All the walking made us thirsty, so we dropped by Hanoi's famous egg coffee by Giang! The aroma of coffee went well with the creamy egg!
By the time we finished the drink, it was getting dark. We strolled along Hoen Kiem Lake, which was beautifully litted with lights around it. Plenty of activities and crowd surrounded the lake, and just so happened there was a mini concert going on too, so it was super crowded!
One drink which I must recommend is the Huyen Vy fruit yoghurt ice! Sweet and refreshing! Filled with fruits too!
Next day our itinerary is to Halong Bay! Listed as a UNESCO Heritage Site, it is best known of its magnificent view and rich marine life. Unfortunately, the trip that we booked via Klook to Halong Bay used bus and small roads instead of highway, which resulted a long 3 hours journey for a ~170km distance. Perhaps the tour operator want to save cost? Or just want to drop us to those tourist gift shops in the middle of the journey?
Our boat departed on time. We were sitted together with a British couple, where 4 of us will share food together.
Fries and rice does not go well together...
Male and Female Chicken Island haha:
Our package included kayaking, which we kinda fail in figuring out how to steer the kayak around the lake, but it was a fun experience!
Exhausted from all the kayaking, we still have to climb some stairs into a cave to look at the limestones.
After that, another 3 hours trip back to Hanoi city. A different scene was observed around the Hoen Kiem Lake today. Together with the slight chilling weather in November, it was so nice strolling along the street. We tried Mcd meal in Vietnam's one and only McDonalds outlet!
3rd day was kinda like a leisure day, no specific itinerary, just explore more in-depth of Hanoi.
We visited Maison Marou, a renowned patisserie cafe specialises in chocolate. The price that they charged for cakes, pastry or chocolates is quite premium I would say, if you compare with the rest of Hanoi. But no doubt their chocolates were good, suitable to buy as souvenirs.
Tried the famous Pho 10 for... of course Pho. Pho is a Vietnamese dish consists of mee, broth and usually beef. Fast service, delicious broth.
Not far away is the St. Joseph Cathedral.
Cute shirt, I bought one in black!
Oh by the way we changed to a more premium hotel for our final night in Hanoi, the Damsels Boutique Hotel.
Watched an evening show of the Lotus Water Puppet, one of Vietnam's traditional culture show.
This is actually a wantan mee, but Vietnam style! The meat and coriander covered the mee, like it was a salad!
Located in the same street as Giang, this is Xoi Yen which sells sticky rice, yellow mung beans and topped with fried shallots! The portion I ordered was quite big, and I am unable to finish it due to I find its taste a bit similar as cheese.
The next day's breakfast was held at the roof top of the hotel, where it has a commanding view of the city of Hanoi. Eating a vermicelli bowl in chilling weather with that view was so awesome!
That kinda ended our trip in Hanoi. Please have a hearty meal before heading to the airport, because the meals sold in airport was super expensive!
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