Good Bye Hanoi

25 Mar...

Today is Auntie Leng’s birthday. Uncle Koh treated us a sumptuous lunch (beef steak and ‘po pian’) at a beautiful Vietnamese restaurant. After lunch, we went for last minute shopping at a local market. All of us manage to buy something, and we happily returned to Prince Café Hotel.

As it was still early, I wondered around Hanoi City on my own. I recalled what Darren said on the 1st day “If you want to cross the road, do not wait for the cars to stop. Just walk and the motorists would avoid you!’ He was absolutely right; In Hanoi, you really have to walk in faith.

Okay, that's all for my Hanoi trip. Hope you enjoy reading it.

How fortunate are we...

In Tavan village, many poor children give up their studies so that they can earn extra income to support their family by selling handicrafts, bangles to foreigners.

I met 2 pitiful Tavanese brothers (about 5-6 years old) at the village food store. Their dad had died and their mum was a hopeless opium addict. And these 2 poor boys have to survive on leftover food at the food store.

Although these children live a life of hardship and poverty, they remained cheerful, hopeful and contented. Sad to say, this kind of spirit is missing in many children in my own country.

Sapa Trekking

23 Mar...



The train left Hanoi station at 1030am and reached Lao Cai station at around 6am. I bided farewell to Zhao and his buddy and followed the driver to the minivan. After almost 2 hours of bumpy ride, I finally reached Mimosa Hotel in Sapa. Viet Hoai welcomed me and directed me to the kitchen for breakfast. At 1st look, I thought he was a tour guide, hahaa. In actual fact, he is the boss of the hotel.

Then Viet Hoai introduced Ms Chung to me. Chung was our tour guide for tavan village trekking. She is a young tour guide but she could already speak many languages, including Mandarin, French and English and of course Vietnamese. I also got to know a French couple (Benoit and Elaine) and a Singaporean couple (Uncle Koh and Auntie Leng).

Auntie Leng and Ms Chung

It was a tough journey which lasted 4 hours but I really enjoyed it. The weather was excellent, visibility was good, the air was refreshing and the scenery was beautiful.





After a long walk, we took a van ride from Tavan village to our hotel. I bidded farewell to Mr Koh and Auntie Leng as they were going back to Hanoi. Before they left, they reminded me a few times to look after myself and my belongings (Just like my parents). Auntie Leng also passed me her hotel name card and asked me to look for them when I arrive at Hanoi tomorrow.


In the evening, Ms Chung brought me to a few places and we went for tea. We chatted about many things, about work, living standards, lifestyle, culture and the people in our own country. It was really a fruitful exchange program.







Sapa Church