Hoi An Ancient Town

27 Mar 2007…

In the morning, we took a 3 hours bus ride from Hue to HoiAn, a charming and peaceful small town. It is sometimes called the Venice of Vietnam because of the narrow canal that cuts through part of the town. You can see rows of tiled roof shop houses beautifully decorated with colorful lantern. This town is most beautiful at night when all the lanterns are lighted.

Hanh brought us to Pho Noi Restaurant for a sumptuous lunch, and then we took a minibus (provided by the hotel) to the popular Cua Dai beach. Danny and I went for a swim. The ladies were enjoying their coconut drink under by the beach. This place is clean and less crowded. I like this place very much!

We then took a walk in the Hoi An town. We chanced upon an interesting silk making shop. The shop assistant showed us the whole process of silk making, beginning from rearing silk worm, to formation of cocoon and finally to the making of silk. When a cocoon is uncoiled, it’s about a few hundred meters long. Silk strand from multiple cocoons are then twisted together to form one silk thread.

We went for dinner at Trung Bac. We had the HoiAn popular dish called Cao Lau. It’s simple and yet tasty.

The Forbidden City of Hue

26 Mar 2007..

After we checked into the hotel, we took a morning tour to Majestic Forbidden City. This was where the Vietnamese Emperors used to stay in the 18 century. As we were approaching the Citidel, we were greeted by 11 Canons, 4 on one side and 5 on another side. These canons have never fire before. They are named after the four directions (North, South, East and West) and the five elements that make up the earth (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth).


The entire palace took a total of 27 years to build. The tour guide further explained 2 unusual characteristics of the palace. The architecture of the court room was designed such that the king who sit in the centre of the court room could clearly hear the sound made from every part of the room. And the selection of building material has made the room cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Unfortunately, the grand king and empress palaces were both destroyed during the Vietnam War.


This animal statue was created to protect the palace. It was made up of body part from 7 different animals! Head of a lion, feet of a crocodile, tail of a rooster, moustache from a goat,etc. Can’t remember the rest.


Dee is as tall as the 1st emperor of Vietnam.


We also visited the king’s tomb. Every king had a grand burial. Their body was buried with precious gold and jewels in the tomb. According to the tour guide, the French excavated the tomb and took away all the valuables during the French occupation. It was believed that these items were currently exhibited in French museum.

The uneven ground was the result of excavation



On the way back, we visited a place which made incense sticks. Look at display of the colorful incense sticks!


In the evening, we attended a traditional ‘opera’ like performance on a boat in the perfume river.

Hanoi City

25 Mar 2007..

We spent one full day in Hanoi City. We went to Cha Ca La Vong restaurant for lunch. This place was introduced to us by Sam, the guy whom we met on the minibus. I find this place very interesting because it served only 1 dish, ‘grilled fish’, the signature dish of this restaurant. Chunks of grilled fish and some oil were served in a metal pot and placed over a mini charcoal stove. After the oil was heated, we added vegetables into the pot and stirred fry the mixture. And it is eaten with rice noodle dipped in fish sauce. It seemed weird but it was quite tasty.

We visited the Hanoi historical museum and revolutionary museum. The visit to revolutionary museum was not fruitful because I find that the information was not well organized.

We went for a drink near the lake and then returned to the agency to place our deposit and headed to the train station.

Halong bay

24 Mar 2007..

Danny, Waying, Dee and I boarded the boat in the late morning and had lunch on board. We were separated to join different tables for lunch. We were glad that it happened because Dee and I made acquaintance with a family from Ho Chi Minh. Dee clicked very well with this lady and her daugher Ann.

We were pretty lucky this time because the visibility and the weather were much better compared to my previous visit. We then took a sampan, which ferried us around the vicinity to take a closer look at the rocks.












There wasn’t nothing much to see though. And this 15mins boat ride was relatively expensive too. It cost almost the same amount as the entire Halong bay trip. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the journey; it brought back some fond memories of my previous visit.










These 2 rocks are known as the fighting cocks.

Around 4pm, we took a minibus back to Hanoi. It was a torturous experience. The bus was moving consistently at 60-65km/hr along the highway. He made no attempt to speed up even the road was clear ahead of him. There was a European coupon on the bus and they had to catch a train at 845pm. A kind man, Sam, explained the situation to the driver and the tour guide in Vietnamese, but it didn’t work for him. We reached Hanoi at 820pm and the poor couple was
dropped off near the Lake and had to find their own way to the train station.

Delay flight..

23 Mar 2007..



A long wait at the airport due to flight delay.

Vietnam trip!

Read on to find out more about our exciting 10days Vietnam trip!