Day 02
28th April '16
Bai Dinh Pagoda & Trang An Eco Tourism Tour
($35/person 7:40 A.M – 6:30 P.M)
Yesterday’s city tour was quite exhausting and we slept pretty late last night because we were so stumped editing all the pictures we took during our DIY city tour so we’re not sure if we’re really prepared for today’s itinerary.
8:00 AM - Front desk rang us up to remind us about the tour. Good thing we’re all ready to go and about to head downstairs. We just devoured what’s left with our birthday cake for breakfast lol. Whilst waiting for our tour guide, I spoke with the front desk to settle our bill ahead of time since we’re checking out later tonight or let’s just say I really wanted to get my passport because front desk took it for safekeeping or should I say it’s their way to ensure that their guests will not run off without paying their dues. Ok, so the guy at the front desk named Dave is been giving me and my sister a hard time since yesterday because he speaks english but do not comprehend that much so it was really difficult talking to him due to the whole language barrier thing. I asked him if it’s ok I settle the whole bill now, he responded to just pay the whole thing upon check out so I instead asked how much the total would be so at least I have an idea. He computed my bill and told me how much. I asked him again, ’so, I’ll just pay this later right?” Dave answered “No, you pay it now.” At the back of my mind I was all confused if we’re understanding each other or what although I suspect he really doesn’t so to make the long story short I paid the entire bill including the tour, airport drop off and all then asked for my receipt just in case. I paid everything in US dollars so he asked if it’s ok for my change to be part USD and part VND, I told him I prefer all USD because I won’t be able to convert the VNDs when I get back to my country. He then said ‘I do not understand.’ I’m a nice person really, if he just told me from the beginning he couldn’t understand me our conversation could’ve run smoothly. So I dropped my accent and started talking really slow because I really do not want to give him a hard time, I just said ‘yeah, it’s ok if you give me some US dollars and the rest in VND.’ All was well afterwards although I seriously think he's being sarcastic the whole time.
Few minutes after 8AM - our tour van finally arrived yay! It was a Ford Expedition with a 16 person seating capacity. I didn’t even catch our tour guide’s name and again my sister and I had a hard time understanding him because vietnamese people when they speak in english you’ll hear a lot of Z’s and no R’s. The tour came with free lunch and free bottled water.
The Trang An Eco Tourism Complex is about two hours away from Hanoi (Ninh Binh province) and yeah it was really far to think we didn’t even eat enough food for breakfast oh my God. Our tour guide wasn’t so talkative which was alright because if you talk too much on a two hour drive you’ll exhaust you vocal chords big time. My sister and I just listened to my iPod because there’s no music in the van the whole time. We Filipinos are music lovers and it’s pretty tough for us to endure long trips not listening to anything or it’ll bore the hell out of us.
10:00 AM - We finally reached Trang An. We asked our tour guide for loo time because most of us really have to pee and we were told that the boat ride would take two hours so it’s a must to use the restroom now. We paid 2k VND for using the restroom btw, they also charge which is kinda like back home. Our tour guide suggested that we buy some hat to protect our head from the heat of the sun and it gets pretty windy at times as well so, we bought ourselves this cute green hat for $1 a piece. Of course my sister and I bought identical hats lol. Afterwards, we were handed our tour cards which looked like an MRT card then our boat tour officially commenced as soon as we all on board. Our boat only had 5 passengers in total. My sister and I, the Aussie and the Greek guy plus the Vietnamese woman who will row the boat for us.
We went boating for two hours and along the way, weird thoughts kept crossing my mind such as what if an Anaconda or a crocodile sprout from nowhere? I guess we’re all doomed lol. Our tour guide confirmed later on though that there's no crocs in the Trang An lake.
I enjoyed this part of the tour because my sister and I are both nature lovers and it felt so serene out in the lake. The most exciting part was when our boats entered the many caves, it was pretty cool although on a serious note could lead to casualty if one of the passengers failed to duck whilst inside the cave. Nevertheless, everyone finished the tour unharmed. Our tour mates even helped to row our boat, they're big guys anyways. Although, seriously, it's not easy to row a boat for roughly two straight hours.
We entered numerous cave chains: Sang Cave, Toi Cave, Ba Giot Cave, Sinh Cave etc. We also had a good view of Ha Long Bay in land during our tour.
I enjoyed this part of the tour because my sister and I are both nature lovers and it felt so serene out in the lake. The most exciting part was when our boats entered the many caves, it was pretty cool although on a serious note could lead to casualty if one of the passengers failed to duck whilst inside the cave. Nevertheless, everyone finished the tour unharmed. Our tour mates even helped to row our boat, they're big guys anyways. Although, seriously, it's not easy to row a boat for roughly two straight hours.
We entered numerous cave chains: Sang Cave, Toi Cave, Ba Giot Cave, Sinh Cave etc. We also had a good view of Ha Long Bay in land during our tour.
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| Buddha Sanctuary place of Bai Dinh Pagoda. |
Around 12:30 NN - After Trang An, We had our lunch first at this restaurant with free wifi access somewhere close to Bai Dinh. A table is already set for all of us when we got there which means we all have to share the same table except for our tour guide and the driver because they have their own. It felt really awkward because my sister and I are both not comfortable sharing a table with other people because we never do that even back home. That was the time we told ourselves we could’ve opted for a private tour. It was a sumptuous meal though, they served goat meat, tofu, vegetables, soup etc. We were both uncomfortable though the whole time were having lunch because we’re dining with people we just met not that we don’t like them, we’re just not social beings that’s all.
1:30 PM - After having lunch, we headed straight to the Buddha Sanctuary place of Bai Dinh Pagoda. The tuk-tuk took us to the massive Bai Dinh Pagoda gate which cost $3 or 60k VND per person.
The Buddha Sanctuary place of Bai Dinh Pagoda is the biggest one in Vietnam with 500 Arhan statues according to our tour guide. The Sanctuary have 10,000 buddhas excluding the massive ones. The first temple we went to housed the Buddha guards then we visited about five more temples afterwards which all housed even more humongous Buddhas. They were all picturesque. I love temples and massive Buddhas, they never cease to amaze me. We finished taking pictures with all the Buddhas so we decided to go back to the main gate on our own which was a bad idea because we had trouble finding the main gate and we were extremely late when we catch up with the rest of our group and yeah it was really embarrassing. We shouldn’t have gone astray. The result, our tour guide was a little ticked as soon as he found us which was understandable because we sort of hassled everyone
lol. Lesson learned - never leave your group if you’re out on a tour. We seriously didn't know what to do back then because the Sanctuary was huge and we don’t have any contact number for any of our tour mates nor our tour guide. Our guardian angel must’ve saved us again thank God. We finally left Bai Dinh around 4:30 PM which was supposedly at 4:00 PM my oh my! Afterwards, we endured another two hour trip back to Hanoi and my iPod’s battery was totally drained out.
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| Banh Mi |
7:00 PM
Back to the Old Quarter. Our tour van dropped us off close to our hotel. We immediately settled in to prep up for our flight later. Gadh, we’re so famished and exhausted. We just dropped off our stuff in our hotel room then looked for a place to eat preferably somewhere close to our hotel in Bat Dan. Good thing, we found this food stall across which sells Egg coffee and Banh Mi (and it’s not so packed). So we ordered Banh Mi and egg coffee right away and immediately chow down. We’re so pressed for time so we weren’t able to eat out a lot and sadly we weren’t able to try other Vietnamese food other than Pho Ga and their coffee. We enjoyed the egg coffee by the way because it was more of a dessert than a coffee according to my taste buds. Banh Mi was also tasteful, it was Bagel with veggies, meat and chillies. If ever I’ll go back to Hanoi again I’ll make sure to try their spring rolls first and very minimal tour next time since we already did that during our two day stay.
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| the really good egg coffee.. |
8:00 PM - We went back to our hotel room, took a bath because the heat at the temples was a killer, packed our stuff and checked out minutes before 10:00 PM, took our passports and bid the hotel staff adieu as soon as our airport shuttle arrived at the hotel.
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| No Bai International Airport |
Cab to No Bai International Airport
The cab driver barely speaks english as expected so we made sure we’re clear with which airport he’s supposed to take us because there’s no time for mistakes as our flight is in less than 3 hours.
On our way to the airport we had the chance to listen to Vietnamese FM radio and we noticed the melodic/ballad songs dominating their airwaves. The songs kind of made us even more sleepy although they were melodic except we can't understand a thing as usual. We barely slept in Hanoi due to time constraints and we promised to ourselves to never do that again. We should’ve stayed minimum of 3 days and maximum of five. Anyways, we had a great time in Vietnam and hopefully we get the chance to visit Ho Chi Minh (southern part of Vietnam) as well in the future!
The cab driver barely speaks english as expected so we made sure we’re clear with which airport he’s supposed to take us because there’s no time for mistakes as our flight is in less than 3 hours.
On our way to the airport we had the chance to listen to Vietnamese FM radio and we noticed the melodic/ballad songs dominating their airwaves. The songs kind of made us even more sleepy although they were melodic except we can't understand a thing as usual. We barely slept in Hanoi due to time constraints and we promised to ourselves to never do that again. We should’ve stayed minimum of 3 days and maximum of five. Anyways, we had a great time in Vietnam and hopefully we get the chance to visit Ho Chi Minh (southern part of Vietnam) as well in the future!
1:15 AM (29th of April)
Flight back to Manila.
As soon as we're at the Noi Bai International Airport, we immediately looked for Cebu Pacific's web check-in counter. I was just surprised they don't have separate counters for web check-in as oppose to back home. Web check-in in is so hassle-free because they don't weigh your bags anymore. The queue to Immigration was pretty lengthy and disorganized all the way through final security check. My sister consumed all of our vietnamese dongs because we won't be able to use them anymore when we get home. I have seven bucks left and I sure am excited to go back home. Au Revoir Hanoi ’til we meet again!
Please check out this little video I made regarding our Hanoi adventure! Enjoy 😀
(video editing tool: iMovie)
As soon as we're at the Noi Bai International Airport, we immediately looked for Cebu Pacific's web check-in counter. I was just surprised they don't have separate counters for web check-in as oppose to back home. Web check-in in is so hassle-free because they don't weigh your bags anymore. The queue to Immigration was pretty lengthy and disorganized all the way through final security check. My sister consumed all of our vietnamese dongs because we won't be able to use them anymore when we get home. I have seven bucks left and I sure am excited to go back home. Au Revoir Hanoi ’til we meet again!
Please check out this little video I made regarding our Hanoi adventure! Enjoy 😀
(video editing tool: iMovie)
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