The last day cruise itinerary was utterly disappointing. We woke up very early that morning, and the cave we checked out was the Luon Cave. There was nothing to it, just a guest receiving platform, local boat rowers, a tunnel "cave" which leads to a small lagoon which was almost exactly what we had seen during kayaking.
But before that, we also woke up earlier to attend the Tai Chi Class, which was taught by ... *drum roll*, the multi-roled Sunny. Sunny and Fung weren't just guides, they co-worked as waiters as well, and now Sunny, was also the Tai Chi instructor.
He was all dressed up that morning, in the local loose fit slivery white Tai Chi attire. There was a good turnup that morning (I'm assuming this since I can't compare it with the previous day because we didn't attend the session) and the entire session took around 15 minutes.
He went through 2 introductory parts of Tai Chi with us, first the breathing exercise, then, the moving of "melons" exercise. It was actually quite fun to be learning Tai Chi on board a junkship early in a chilly yet tolerable Wednesday morning on Halong Bay.
Back to Luon Cave... There was really nothing much to it, and felt like another time wasting activity. They could have brought us to a more exciting/interesting spot, instead of just having us "explore" (nothing to explore) the luon cave just because it's close to the Surprise Cave. The new group of guests carried on with the Sung Sot tour, and since the 3 days 2 nighs guests had already gone there, they ferried us to the nearest cave, regardless of how boring it was.
That was the last of our stop, before heading back to our boat, pack up, and get ready to return to the harbor, and finally back to Hanoi City. I'm gonna fast forward a little because there weren't any interesting encounters or anything noteworthy to mention.
Oh, perhaps one thing to add, I actually tipped Sunny on my own free will. He was the first guide that I tipped willingly, wanted to tip Fung but we couldn't catch him as he already went out to Victory 08 to welcome the new group of guests who signed up for the 3 days cruise. We could finally have a decent conversation with Sunny at Victory cafe while waiting for our shuttle bus, and got to know him better.
The trip back to Hanoi City took half a day, and when we finally reached our new accomodation, Charming Hotel, I, we were taken aback. I didn't expect it to be situated at this narrow lane, and even though it was less than 100 metres away from Hotel Diamond, it was nothing like the latter. The hotel was old, rundown and felt low grade. It was an absolute downgrade from our previous accoms, but what the heck, it was too late to regret it.
I had booked a different hotel because I was curious to try out different hotels there, and since both Holiday Gold and Charming Hotel were under the same hotel group/management, I thought they wouldn't differ that much.
The amentities were all the same alright, Charming Hotel only "brought" over the stuff I didn't like from Holiday Gold and added more low points to our accom experience. My dear was so moody, though I didn't really know why but I believe was cos she felt the same way I did she just laid on the bed and didn't wanna move an inch. I had to pretend to be alright, and still hyped up even though deep down inside, I was regretting being that curious.
We managed to drag ourselves out and decided to check out the Ngoc Son Temple @ Hoan Kiem Lake. However it was closed by the time we got there but did see an interesting sight... A local was bringing his 2 Chow Chows for a walk and he got a lot of attention because both his Chows Chows looked like baby bears. They were so ginormous that if both of them combined were to start chasing whatever and whoever, even Cesar Millan would have trouble pulling them back.
The owner was obviously basking in all the attention as he pretended to act cool and walk his dogs in mini circles so that the locals and tourists could snap more shots and to hear their gasps of awe repeatedly.
The bridge leading to Ngoc Son Temple stood out like a red light district in the seemingly dull looking lake. It was so red the photos we took all gave a creepy red hue especially to our faces.
We decided to check out the French Quarter that night, and came across a 3D art exhibition on our way there. It looked interesting from the outside, so I decided to give it a go. Paid quite a bit for that, and when we entered, I was thinking "Oh Shit".
Let's just say I saw whatever I was hoping it would not be. The inside looked empty, and felt like a cheap looking art gallery. There were just 3D pictures spaced out from one another in which visitors could take photos with. The images on the pictures were very CG-ed, fake and cartoon-like. The only thing which cushioned my pengsanness was that there was this guy who helped us to take the photos, and we could have them either emailed to us, or transferred over to our SD Card.
That way both of us could finally be in the picture together without our enlarged faces taking up most of the frame, but after viewing the photos when we came back... oh crap, it was indeed a waste of money. The shots were not well taken and that guy, who looked like a geeky arts student with good photography skills, turned out that he didn't quite have the "eye" for photography after all. Parts of the images were not in the photos because he tended to zoom in too much and though the 3D effect was there, the "whole" effect was missing.
Newaz, most of the images had a mini sample shot pose at the side and there were even some exhibits we could go into, to further create the 3D depth of field. (photos at the bottom)
We didn't spend much time there, and the whole thing was over in less than 30 mins. We then headed to the French Quarter, and saw... and saw... and saw... actually there wasn't much to see over there.
The French Quarter was a more affluent part of the city, the restuarants there were more high class, so were the retail shops, and they even have Hugo Boss there. However, it felt like a deserted Orchard Road. Bright lit streets, well furnished shops, with hardly any patrons. The hosts of the restaurants were all very fluent in English.
We passed by the Opera House, and this other building which I think was the History Museum, both of which looked like another other French-influenced building over in Hanoi.
As a matter of fact, it was pretty boring there. We stopped by a bakery, bought some expensive, normal tasting bread (comparing to the standards there, around the same price per piece of bread here in Singapore) and dined in. My dear wasn't feeling that well and thought it'll be good if we tried something more "normal" and filling.
We decided to head back, and somewhere along the way, we came across an alleyway where motorcyclists would park their bikes and buy ice creams which came in cones. Curious, we walked in, tried to blend in, no difficulty there because quite frankly, no one gives a damn since most of them were couples and we looked like locals anyways.
My sua ku hesitation in getting a cone as well gave ourselves away, but yet didn't invite any stares. A coned ice cream cost 12,000 dong, less than a dollar and tasted rather artificial. It tasted like milky icicles. I wasn't sure why it was so well liked by the locals but concluded that it was one of the authentic local tastes there. The stall's name is Ken Trang Tien, if you're wondering.
Not filled by the "snacks" we had, we, I, had our final dinner at a Pho Restaurant, called Pho 24. It was a more decent looking stall, air-conditioned, but cost more than the usual Phos. The foods were served in clean white bowls and it felt like a commercialised Pho cafe. It didn't have the local feel and the taste was very "generic".
They have their very own brands of instant noodles and according to the table paper mat (or whatever you call it, similar to the piece of paper on fast food trays) it used to have an outlet in Singapore. I recalled trying out a Vietnamese Restaurant along Tan Quee Lan St, not sure if it's still there, or if it was the same one.
That ended our night stroll along the busy streets of Hanoi City and we covered close to pretty much all the attractions over there... with a few exceptions which we further checked out on our last day there (to be continued, on last post, Day 8).
3D Gallery Photos:
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