Dec in Hanoi

my blogskin has been down for several weeks cos the author has not logged into her photobucket. for the past 2 hours i've been trying to download a new blogskin but failed miserably. i rem it being quite easy some years ago but now i can't seem to find the html codes. argh. so it's back to boring default skins for me. anyone who has a clue pls pls pls let me know.

i miss my old blogskin :(

just came back from a short trip at hanoi. if you think that vietnam's weather is just like singapore, u're not alone. but i'm so wrong! and painfully so.

turned out that it's winter over there and the temperature was around 12 - 15 degrees. even though i checked out the temperature before leaving, i still had the image of vietnam with tropical weather. i was ill-prepared in terms of clothes and had to pile on all the clothes i brought everyday. ended up wearing the same stuff each day cos that's all i had! my mum and i were wrapped in whatever shawls and cardigans and sweaters we brought along. bathing was a nightmare and a trembling-shivering affair. but i kinda miss the cool windy weather upon touching down yesterday. there's no sun and rain there, just peaceful, cloudy winds.

other than the weather, another noteworthy experience was the traffic. my gawd. it's worse than bangkok and china put together. honking was taking place every minute. there's no lanes or whatever to speak of, and cars, motorcycles, trucks, trishaws, bicycles and pedestrians can just travel along the same road. vehicles change lanes like nobody's business. my bus was travelling on the lane with oncoming traffic half the time and v often, there would be huge buses coming headway and my bus would just squeeze into another lane at the last second. i dunno how the pple there do it but i must say they have fantastic driving skills cos i didn't witness a single scratch or bump taking place. i thought i was going to die on the trishaw cos all the motorcycles were coming at me and honking from all sides but i was amazed they didn't even scratch any part of the trishaw.

visited a few scenic places and they were rather breathtaking. the pictures do no justice cos it's a totally different realm when u're physically there. the weather just makes everything so tranquil and serene. it feels like u're in another world except that when u're travelling with a tour group, u can't really filter out all the blabberings and noises from pple. and i tell u, singaporeans are disgustingly NOISY. argh. i went there to have peace but i ended up living with more noises. and having to witness how some singaporeans are simply a disgrace makes it a whole lot worse. the kiasu-ism, kiasi-ism, self-centredness and lack of common knowledge was a pain to witness. the utter low standards in our way of talk is really something the country as a whole needs to look into. enough said.

anw, i was looking forward to food and shopping but to my dismay, we were served terrible meals as part of the tour package and shopping was almost zilch to speak of. given a chance, i would love to walk the streets, have their local delicacies, go into a local cafe to try their famed coffee and french loafs. have more photography of local and street life. shopping was supposed to be at old quarters on the last night but sadly, a couple of anti-shopping males and sleep starved aunties strongly opposed and it was cancelled. it really angered some of us cos it's part of the itinerary and u're not supposed to cancel any part of the prog. argh. anyways. total shopping time = 1 hr in an art/handicraft market. -_-

hanoi's definitely a place worth exploring and i would love to visit again in future. free and easy this time, please. i had never enjoyed going on package. i now know where are the good places to go for sightseeing and i would love to stay in the hotel overlooking west lake again. more street life this time.

pics up next time! need to upload the pictures if my brother ever wanna find the camera cable for me.