Yesterday's News
2 December
I got up early this morning although the pickup for the day tour was 9am. I had the intention to head down to the Hilton to load up my blog before heading for the tour. When I reached there at 7.30am, to my disappointment, I realized that there wasn’t any WIFI til 8am. So I grabbed myself a cheese roll and had my breakfast here instead – which is a good change since I’m quite tired of the basic spread back at the hotel which usually sees me eating two bananas, some fried rice and a cup of diluted papaya juice.
The Hilton roll cost me 6000 dong (S$0.70), and it was nice – crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
I hope that the WIFI will start punctually as I don’t want to be late as I head back to the hotel…
The WIFI didn’t kick in til 8.15am. There was some problems initially but thankfully, the duty manager fixed the problem and I was online soon enough. With just half an hour left, I quickly checked a few emails and loaded up the blog for the day before.
We met Mr Long at our hotel’s lobby at 9.00am. He had wanted to bring us to the Ho Hoam Kiem Lake but since we’ve been there, we went straight to the site where the first university of Vietnam once stood.
The First National University had a nicely landscaped area with vast courtyards. The weather was crisp and cool and so it was a fairly nice experience as we toured round the gardens. The University also housed the Temple of Literature, in which we saw the statue of Confucius and his disciples. We also learnt about how education was like back then – the uniform, the books and even how they were punished!
Many renowned doctors graduated from the University and so steles were erected stating their achievements and contributions to the community. These stonewalls were erected on the back of turtles carved in stone. It was interesting to see people rubbing the head of the stone turtles. Apparently, if you did, you’d be as smart as the doctor!
We headed next to the Ho Chin Minh Mausoleum. We weren’t allowed to bring in cameras and so I couldn’t take pictures there. They were fairly strict as we entered the mausoleum to view the body of President Ho Chin Minh. As we did, we wondered if it were the real body or if it were just a wax figure. Even Mr Long didn’t know… According to him, even the locals speculate if the body is real.
We toured round the grounds of the former president, walking through the large landscaped area. We saw the cars he used to drive, his office, his room and the large pond in front of his house. It was said that “Uncle Ho” used to clap at the pond and the carps in it will jump out to greet him. I saw many trying to emulate him, but the carps in the pond just ignored them…
I learnt from one of the students that accompanied us on the tour that carp in Vietnamese is called “Kar Chet” and peacock is called “Chim Kom”.
We headed next to a restaurant that served food from central Vietnam, Hue. Even Mr Long, who is from Hanoi, admitted that he has never tried the food.
We chose to sit on the third floor of the restaurant, and it was really pleasant having the cool breeze blow as we took in a bird’s eye view of the road below. It was even more of an experience ascending the narrow spiral stairs as along the way, we saw roofs of other houses, laundry, lingerie, cats!
Food was interesting and Mr Long must have thought we ate a lot. I appreciated the hot warm strawberry tea that kept me warm despite the fact that I was wearing some 4 layers. Our Vietnamese friends were having beer at lunch and the conversation became interesting as it led on to asking why Singaporeans don’t get married. I guess it was just a coincidence that all four of us in the team weren’t married.
According to Vietnamese culture, if a girl was not married by 26, others will spread rumours that there must be something wrong with the girl. And so, by their standards, we were considered “weird”. We explained that in Singapore, we marry later because we needed to be financially stable. Still, it was hard for them to understand our reasoning… Much as we didn’t quite understand how they could have beer at lunch!
We headed back to the hotel after lunch, and there ended our tour. We had expected a longer tour but still, we appreciated the fact that it ended there. It allowed us to do what we wanted, and so after a quick pee break (did I mention it is very difficult to find a toilet in the streets of Hanoi?), we headed to the Museum of Vietnamese Revolution, which was located just five minutes away from where we were staying.
The museum was really empty and besides some 6 others, we were the only ones scrutinizing the exhibits. Most were pictures and a few artifacts here and there that explained or brought history back to life. But what struck me most was a painting in blood, perhaps as a way of protesting. I also saw a guillotine, which made me feel highly uncomfortable, knowing that many people died under it for protesting against the French.
We headed to the Hilton Hotel after that for tea. I had a nice warm cup of hot chocolate while my team mates had a banana muffin and ham croissant. There was an event going on at the Hilton, and we later learnt that they were launching the sale of the Hilton Christmas bears to raise funds for a charity in Hanoi. It was nice to see the hotel all decked up for Christmas… and it made me miss home a little.
Two others from the HUT team came to join us and as we exchanged stories, we laughed our hearts out as well. We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. Whilst waiting for another of my teammates to come back from her manicure/pedicure, we played Boggle… and boy were the guys good! Even if we girls combined our words, we couldn’t win them!
We headed to a shopping mall for dinner – Pho24 – which we all agree serves the best Pho. I brought Huggy Bear out, and so he had some Pho too. (Yes… rolls eyes…)
My teammates did some shopping after dinner – buying groceries, toiletries and notebooks for their students. I thought that was a nice gesture. I had brought mechanical pencils along with me to give away and so I didn’t need to get any.
It was 9pm when we got back to the hotel, and because we have to set out early tomorrow to head to Halong Bay, I decided to give my Hilton Hotel-WIFI routine a miss and have an early night instead.
I got up early this morning although the pickup for the day tour was 9am. I had the intention to head down to the Hilton to load up my blog before heading for the tour. When I reached there at 7.30am, to my disappointment, I realized that there wasn’t any WIFI til 8am. So I grabbed myself a cheese roll and had my breakfast here instead – which is a good change since I’m quite tired of the basic spread back at the hotel which usually sees me eating two bananas, some fried rice and a cup of diluted papaya juice.
The Hilton roll cost me 6000 dong (S$0.70), and it was nice – crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
I hope that the WIFI will start punctually as I don’t want to be late as I head back to the hotel…
The WIFI didn’t kick in til 8.15am. There was some problems initially but thankfully, the duty manager fixed the problem and I was online soon enough. With just half an hour left, I quickly checked a few emails and loaded up the blog for the day before.
We met Mr Long at our hotel’s lobby at 9.00am. He had wanted to bring us to the Ho Hoam Kiem Lake but since we’ve been there, we went straight to the site where the first university of Vietnam once stood.
The First National University had a nicely landscaped area with vast courtyards. The weather was crisp and cool and so it was a fairly nice experience as we toured round the gardens. The University also housed the Temple of Literature, in which we saw the statue of Confucius and his disciples. We also learnt about how education was like back then – the uniform, the books and even how they were punished!
Many renowned doctors graduated from the University and so steles were erected stating their achievements and contributions to the community. These stonewalls were erected on the back of turtles carved in stone. It was interesting to see people rubbing the head of the stone turtles. Apparently, if you did, you’d be as smart as the doctor!
We headed next to the Ho Chin Minh Mausoleum. We weren’t allowed to bring in cameras and so I couldn’t take pictures there. They were fairly strict as we entered the mausoleum to view the body of President Ho Chin Minh. As we did, we wondered if it were the real body or if it were just a wax figure. Even Mr Long didn’t know… According to him, even the locals speculate if the body is real.
We toured round the grounds of the former president, walking through the large landscaped area. We saw the cars he used to drive, his office, his room and the large pond in front of his house. It was said that “Uncle Ho” used to clap at the pond and the carps in it will jump out to greet him. I saw many trying to emulate him, but the carps in the pond just ignored them…
I learnt from one of the students that accompanied us on the tour that carp in Vietnamese is called “Kar Chet” and peacock is called “Chim Kom”.
We headed next to a restaurant that served food from central Vietnam, Hue. Even Mr Long, who is from Hanoi, admitted that he has never tried the food.
We chose to sit on the third floor of the restaurant, and it was really pleasant having the cool breeze blow as we took in a bird’s eye view of the road below. It was even more of an experience ascending the narrow spiral stairs as along the way, we saw roofs of other houses, laundry, lingerie, cats!
Food was interesting and Mr Long must have thought we ate a lot. I appreciated the hot warm strawberry tea that kept me warm despite the fact that I was wearing some 4 layers. Our Vietnamese friends were having beer at lunch and the conversation became interesting as it led on to asking why Singaporeans don’t get married. I guess it was just a coincidence that all four of us in the team weren’t married.
According to Vietnamese culture, if a girl was not married by 26, others will spread rumours that there must be something wrong with the girl. And so, by their standards, we were considered “weird”. We explained that in Singapore, we marry later because we needed to be financially stable. Still, it was hard for them to understand our reasoning… Much as we didn’t quite understand how they could have beer at lunch!
We headed back to the hotel after lunch, and there ended our tour. We had expected a longer tour but still, we appreciated the fact that it ended there. It allowed us to do what we wanted, and so after a quick pee break (did I mention it is very difficult to find a toilet in the streets of Hanoi?), we headed to the Museum of Vietnamese Revolution, which was located just five minutes away from where we were staying.
The museum was really empty and besides some 6 others, we were the only ones scrutinizing the exhibits. Most were pictures and a few artifacts here and there that explained or brought history back to life. But what struck me most was a painting in blood, perhaps as a way of protesting. I also saw a guillotine, which made me feel highly uncomfortable, knowing that many people died under it for protesting against the French.
We headed to the Hilton Hotel after that for tea. I had a nice warm cup of hot chocolate while my team mates had a banana muffin and ham croissant. There was an event going on at the Hilton, and we later learnt that they were launching the sale of the Hilton Christmas bears to raise funds for a charity in Hanoi. It was nice to see the hotel all decked up for Christmas… and it made me miss home a little.
Two others from the HUT team came to join us and as we exchanged stories, we laughed our hearts out as well. We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. Whilst waiting for another of my teammates to come back from her manicure/pedicure, we played Boggle… and boy were the guys good! Even if we girls combined our words, we couldn’t win them!
We headed to a shopping mall for dinner – Pho24 – which we all agree serves the best Pho. I brought Huggy Bear out, and so he had some Pho too. (Yes… rolls eyes…)
My teammates did some shopping after dinner – buying groceries, toiletries and notebooks for their students. I thought that was a nice gesture. I had brought mechanical pencils along with me to give away and so I didn’t need to get any.
It was 9pm when we got back to the hotel, and because we have to set out early tomorrow to head to Halong Bay, I decided to give my Hilton Hotel-WIFI routine a miss and have an early night instead.
posted by deb at 9:24 PM
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