Hanoi 2012

So blessed to be able to go to Hanoi for free this holidays! :) and not just Hanoi, but also Bac Giang where I saw the things I loved the most - MOUNTAINS; plenty of them!!! And paddy fields, bulls, real villages, waterfalls too! :D Went to Halong Bay too, which is one of the wonders of Asia. Really peaceful and pretty. :) I also survived many 3-4 hours car and bus rides to and from the village and Halong Bay all thanks to my motion sickness pills haha. Saw, experienced and learnt a lot. So so thankful. :)

Hoan Kiam Lake, right in front of our hotel, Zepir Hotel

Fascinating french colonial kind of buildings in Hanoi

Truong Son School in Bac Giang. The school has three branches located in different locations of the province. This is the one closest to the Hanoi, and the other two further into the village are less developed and have fewer number of students. If I'm not wrong, the third one only has two students.

Met some of the girls during the distribution of colour pencils and gifts. That's Quyen right beside me. :)

Had homemade lunch at one of the teachers' house located next to the second branch of the school. Their culture is really different. Anyone can just sleep in their house, or use their washrooms without knowing who they are! Also along the road trip, we would stop by some houses which are also selling snacks and drinks with tables and chairs outside. We even entered their houses and used their bathrooms or take photos, while the children were sitting comfortably watching tv. Lol I think I will never allow anyone to do that in my house.

Such a peaceful and pretty view from the house. I love the scenery here! Sigh, don't know if it's better to be living in a developed or underdeveloped place. It's so crowded in Singapore with so many buildings and no nice scenery during road trips.

Enthusiastic cutiepies singing :) I hope they will be happy and lead a good life forever. I also hope that it will be more accessible for them to go out to the city! Build better roads for them please!! Hope you all love the new washrooms :)

Went on an impromptu hike to the top of a mountain omg. Daebak!! Really pretty waterfalls and flowers along the way up. No wonder couples go there for dating!

View from the top of the mountain. There are many mountains there!

Halong Bay! Great weather that day ^^

Many islands there. I always thought islands refer to like a land but nope, it refers to each cluster of mountains/caves you see in the photo. #geographyfail haha. And I can't believe there are people staying there! Anyway we took a sailing boat to go around the caves, sooo peaceful. We also went into Thien Cuong cave, very cooling inside with stalactites and stalagmites. The tour guide seemed very proud of the place and kept pointing at random areas, telling us what they look like, such as buddha and merlion haha.

Ah and not to forget, the food there is nice and easily acceptable too! Some of them taste like Singapore food, and I realised they eat a lot of vegs! And they have special dips for every dish, super cool but abit ley chey haha. I love their lipton tea with milk and some grilled fish thing that they will cook in front of you. I think it's called cha ca but I can't seem to find them in Singapore. :( Anyway they can be found at Quan An Ngon (http://ngonhanoi.com.vn/) and I highly recommend this place! Cheap and good! Their seafood hotpot is very yummy too! :) We also went to Hanoi Social Club, a very cool indie kind of cafe which can be quite hard to find and I think the food wasn't really nice. The ambience is good for chilling though and they have very nice interiors. :) 

Oh, and on the first day, our friends brought us to a buffet place (which I can't remember the name) and it was quite embarrassing. My local friend and I just went straight to the dishes we wanted like what we usually do in Singapore but were told to go according to sequence, which is salad, followed by snacks and then rice etc hahaha. There are many nice cafes and bakeries in Hanoi, all very nicely decorated like those high class french style but we didn't get to try them. But it's quite fun to suddenly bump into these pretty places while walking along streets of old, colourful and cramped buildings.

It is really good to go out of Singapore for awhile to meet new people, learn new cultures, try new things etc. This is probably the best and most fulfilling school holidays I've ever had. Thank you!