Vietnam Series (Part 1) – Getting from Hanoi to Cat Ba Island

Just got back from our 12 days of fantastic- tripping around Vietnam. It was entirely a DIY trip, so we mulled through tons of travel blogs / articles and also our trusty Lonely Planet to plan our journey. Travelling in the month of January in Vietnam can be quite tricky when it comes to packing for attire, since the misty cold winter lingers up North (average of 16◦ in Hanoi / Cat Ba Island) but the sun shines warmly at the South (average of 25◦ in Saigon).

As we were doing our typical pre-trip rigorous research leading up to our adventure, we faced a mini dilemma of sorts. We wanted to do some rock climbing on Cat Ba island, but wanted to cover Halong Bay at the same time. At the very end, we decided that Cat Ba > Halong Bay.

Since Cat Ba is the trip less taken, getting from Hanoi to Cat Ba requires a bit more transit as compared to Halong Bay. Z has taken the liberty to write the (nitty-gritty) details as reference below:-

Bus Company: Hoang Long

Departure Times: 5.20am, 7.20am, 11.20am, 1.20pm

Duration: 4 hours from Hanoi to Cat Ba Town (including transits and waiting time in between)

Cost: 210,000VND per person (covers 2 bus rides, 1 speedboat ride, and 1 final bus ride)

(some sources have claimed it to be 240,000 VND which might be the peak summer season price)

Bus Station Address:

Ben xe Luong Yen,So 1 Nguyen Khoai

1.      The bus station is a 15 minute taxi ride from the Old Quarter in Hanoi. Motorcycle taxi should cost around 40,000 VND per person while normal taxis should not cost more than 80,000 VND.

2.     Once you’re at the station facing the petrol station, the ticket office is to the left with a counter for Hoang Long inside. Show up at the bus station at least 20minutes before departure as the buses are punctual! You will board a red Hoang Long bus that is air conditioned with reclining seats and reasonably clean. Then it’s a 2 to 2.5 hour ride to Hai Phong City. The bus will most likely make many stops to let people on and off along the way. Just point to your ticket and say “Cat Ba” and you will be fine.

Note: Do not use the toilet at the bus station unless absolutely desperate. As in DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES use the toilet unless you are literally on the verge of pissing your pants. It is hands-down the foulest-smelling toilet I’ve been to! And I’ve been to many poorly-maintained Malaysian public toilets in my life!

3.       The bus will stop at a small Hoang Long office by a main road and you will need to disembark with all your luggage. At this bus stop/ office, you may get a toilet break/ buy some snacks and drinks as you wait for the next trip. You will then have to get on another similar bus which will take you to the pier which is approximately 45 minutes away.

4.      Once at the pier, you will board an air-conditioned speedboat that will take you to Cai Vieng harbor on Cat Ba island after 35 minutes.

5.        Once on the island, you will transfer one last time to another bus which will take you into Cat Ba Town in 30-45 minutes. The Hoang Long office/bus stop in Cat Ba town is along the main road facing the harbor where almost all hotels are so it should be just a few minutes’ walk to your hotel.

On your return journey, it will be the same thing but in reverse! Just buy tickets from the Hoang Long office/bus stop in Cat Ba town, or even from your hotel in Cat Ba.

Busses depart at: 7:15AM, 9:15AM, 1:15PM, and 3:15PM

Take note that once again, this depends on the season. When we were there during winter, the 7.15AM and 3.15PM buses were not available. There should be a sign board outside the office indicating departure times. It’s the same price for the tickets all the way back to the same bus station in Hanoi. Once at the bus station you'll need to get a taxi to your intended location in town. Prices for taxi are as stated above. You will get hustled by dozens of taxi drivers the second you step down from the bus, so brace yourself! We’ve been advised that taxis waiting at bus stations are more likely to be rigged, so try and walk out to the main road and hail down a Mai Linh taxi if possible.

Getaway @ Awanmulan

People often quipped that city people are busy people, with minimal time to spare. Born and raised in a city, I have unknowingly picked up the traits of a so called "city" person. Always having something on the to-do list, always too occupied. On rare occasions, I remind myself that it is essential to schedule ME-time to reflect, to ponder, and to plan. 

Today, I finally had some "me" time. Not intentionally scheduled, but definitely much needed. Had my glorious 8 hour rest - scrolled through pictures left in a folder named "to be sorted" for way too long, reminisce about the good memories captured on pictures - caught up on the latest episodes of Suits - read through some thought provoking articles that got me thinking - and most importantly, reflected on my priorities of late.

Time really flew by way too swiftly this year. One of my goals this year is to write more, in order to trigger my memory (be it good or bad) in future for reflection purposes. My effort to date is totally meh, so my new challenge is to improve the statistics before the year ends. Since inspiration and motivation striked the same note today, gonna write about the wonderful stay I had in Awanmulan on Merdeka's weekend. 

Was so caught up with work the last couple of months both Z and I were worn out, literally. After much persistence from my end, we were up, up and away to Awanmulan for a short weekend getaway! 

We stayed at Evensong, which has a pleasant jungle view. The room came with a spacious wood deck balcony, where we could just take in the sun while sipping our tea / read / breath in the jungle air / enjoy the scenery. Supposedly this room has the perfect sunset view granted good weather conditions. No sunset for us given that it rained heavily, but I actually enjoyed the rain tremendously. 

Gawd it was such an awesome getaway. 

Both of us were silly enough to actually lugged our heavy work laptops there, thinking we could get some work done in between relaxation time.. but decided otherwise once we were there. 

Awanmulan is a place for total rejuvenation. 

We cooked, swam, ate, lounge, read, laze and did all things stress-free. 

Kudos to Uncle Teng and family for creating such an cool breakaway space for city folks! 

I left a piece of my soul in Seoul (Part 2)

We went a little crazy picking hotels / backpackers for our 10 nights, and ended up staying at 5 different places altogether. Madness it was, packing and unpacking, dragging our heavyweight luggage through snow. But twas fun getting to stay / check out different rooms each night! 

Entrance of Banana Backpackers. The receptionists were mainly university students, and they are so hospitable! That's the 'tourists' wall right there above the brochures. They'll keep one of the polaroid and let their guests keep one for memories. I have mine slot between the pages in my moleskin. :p 

On our last night, we stayed in Studio 41st Hostel. It's located walking distance from Hongdae (filled with young adults / uni students). The room has an inbuilt kitchen and washing machine. How cool is that. 

The common area! We had our complimentary breakfast here.

The guys at Studio 41st recommended us to this cozy barbeque shop, manned by a middle age Korean dude. Very popular with the locals but definitely not catered for tourists. The only menu in sight is the ones stuck on the wall with Korean writings. Haha, we had trouble ordering what we wanted, so we nodded at whatever the shop owner said, and hoped for the best. 

TADAA! Glorious barbequed meat!! He gave us a hearty portion, and taught us how to barbeque the kimchi together with the meat (my first time seeing people barbecuing kimchi). We were also served side condiments and a delicious tasting soup. 

Noryangjin fish market is not heated, and visiting it on a winter night is not a bright idea although it opens 24 hours a day. Our main mission -- to gulp down some live octopus.

Bought a baby octopus from a random shop we passed, had it chopped at a dodgy eatery behind the market, and tried our fresh octopus sashimi (a.k.a. Sannakji)! 

Omg it was still squirming when we place it in our mouth. As disgusting as it may sound, it tasted very very awesome, like how fresh sashimi should taste! Won't do it again though, too cruel an act. 

Hongdae on a weekday night. Pretty quiet, at midnight. We wanted to try Charlie Brown cafe or Bau House Cafe (where dogs are allowed), but woke up too late on our last day in Seoul. Meh.

Freshly steamed red bean poppers on Insadong street!

Korean inspired boyfriend. :p

Wined and dined to usher in the New Years. Had Western for a change, wine instead of Soju. (:

So Koreans don't celebrate countdowns the conventional way. From what we interpreted from the locals, Koreans usually go outstation for countdown, like Jeju. Man, so there were no fancy fireworks to be found, only a crowd at Bosingak Bell, with some performances on stage.

Half tipsy, we stumbled into Yogane Dakgalbi, which in my opinion, has the best Dak-galbi ever!

AH LOOK CRAVING FOR SOME RIGHT NOW.

omnomnom.

I left a piece of my soul in Seoul (Part 1)

It's been 6 months since Korea.

Admittedly, much of my memories of discovering Korea are slowly dissipating. A post left in the draft for waayyyyyy too long! Eheh, since declaring today a chillout day (but feeling quite inspired to write, surprisingly), here's a peek into my touristy experience of Seoul.  

++++++++++++

I love new experiences. I love trying new things.So it wouldn't be strange for me to find excitement traipsing around in a foreign country during different seasons of the year. And boy, was I squealing with joy to have a chance to catch a glimpse of the city of Seoul covered in a blanket of snow. It was somewhat magical. 

We had 4 days to explore the nooks and crooks of Korea. What I clearly remembered was how cold the weather was, touching -20 degrees on the coldest days. Covered with four layer of clothings, we still felt shivers down our spine walking along the streets. Winter can be so unforgivingly brutal. 

But winter landscape is too breathtakingly beautiful. The picture above depicts Seoul covered in snow -- taken at dusk atop N Seoul Tower. 

Coincidentally our last sunset of 2012. 

Seoul is like a successful man wearing a tailored made suit, but pairs the suit with a classic old tie (a gift from his mum 20 years ago). Ok, my metaphor isn't that great, but all I wanted to say is I'm impressed by how Seoul managed to keep its traditional culture throughout the years modernising. 

Me with N Seoul. Freezingly pale.

Thousands of love locks along the walls of N Seoul. Each bearing a special meaning to a certain couple.

Spot ours! That's my boyfriend being corny. 

Quirky decorated cafes can be found at almost every corner of the streets. We were quick to comprehend why it was so. Nothing beats the feeling of sipping a cup of latte in a heated coffee joint watching the snow fall outside.

And of course, we had our fair share of coffee during our stay there. Our very first cafe was BEANSBIN coffee, a famous coffee chain around Seoul. 

... with waffles to pair.

Grand entrance of Changdeokgung Palace (창덕궁).

Very surreal to see a palace covered in snow.

We also made a pitstop at Bukchon Hanok Village. 

This is the one of the main street, where traditional hanok rooftops are juxtaposed against the skyscaper skyline of modern Seoul. 

Samcheong-Dong with Bakaksan (부각산) in the background.

Hehe, think I could totally fool people to say that this was taken from Switzerland instead.

That said, Samcheong-Dong is a hipster street filled with hipster coffee joint / bakeries. We wanted to try so many of the coffee places, but so many of them were fullhouse. Speaks of the level of coffee consumption in Seoul during winter. 

It was wayyyyyyyyyy too cold, as usual. So we spend a couple of hours sipping coffee, people watching. From my observations, Koreans dress impeccably well!

Z was very enthusiastic to ice skate at the City Hall skating rink. On a Saturday night, this place was filled with happy Korean kids, dating couples and even tourists were spotted! Romantic Korean ballads filled the air as people skated around the ice rink (or at least, attempt to! :p).

To our dismay, only a limited amount of people were allowed to skate in the rink. So you had to book your time slot, and wait in line. We decided to scrap this activity given that next available time slot was at least an hour away. But it shall remain on my bucket list!

We ended up in Lotte Mart to grab some souvenirs and local delights. Ermerged, the human traffic inside Lotte Mart is insane. Typical Asians are everywhere blocking every lane possible with their filled-to-the-brim carts. Not gonna reommend Lotte Mart unless you're kiasu and really like to get some cheap Lotte stuff.

Half an hour later, we were battered. Decided to have a quick bite instead, so we had my favourite Tteokbokki (chewy rice cakes) ! I LOVE TTEOKBOKKI!

Remember to catch Nanta' when in Seoul!

It was SOO funny and entertaining!! No dialogues, only rhythmic banging of knives, pots and pan. Highly recommended.

Note - Buy your tickets online for more discounts!

Ending this post with my favourite picture of the lot!

Taken with the frozen fountain behind us at Cheongyecheon Stream.

Part 2, coming soon!

Jeju Island, Korea

One of our main mission visiting Jeju Island was to hike Mount Hallasan, well apart from visiting the obligatory tourist destinations in Jeju Island itself. Afterall, it is known as the "Hawaii" of Korea. We stayed in Yeha Guesthouse, a clean and nicely decorated backpackers. 

Guests were given one complimentary beer each night!

We chilled at the common room, enjoyed how homely backpackers can be. No hotels can ever give you that awesome experience of staying in a backpackers. 

The walls stairs were lined with happy pictures of tourists from around the world. 

The next morning, we hired a cab driver to bring us around Jeju Island. Manjanggul cave was our first tourist destination, known as the longest lava tube in the world. We thread through the icy cold cave, avoiding puddles of water and uneven rock formations.

This was what we were rewarded at the end of the cave, a unique formation nicely lit. Given that neither of us were really interested in structures and formation, we were not very impressed, and were eager to turn our backs and head back to the cab. 

Our cab driver also became our photographer of the day! He was nice enough to stop at a few scenic locations along our journey to take a few pictures for us. There were two cute little kiddie chair placed there, so we took a few shots, and I personally like the one above a whole lot. 

Made a short climb up Seongsan Ilchubong Peak, supposedly a famous place to observe the rising of the sun. The view of the top was quite magnificent, you could get a bird's eye view of most part of Jeju Island. Very scenic. 

 (: 

Lunch! at some restaurant where the cab driver brought us to. We had seafood pancake, abalone porridge and some seafood soup alongside the condiments. The meal was truly worthy. We loved how fresh the seafood were, and how the soup warmed our cold bodies up.

That's Seongsan Ilchubong behind us! 

Seopjikoji, filming location of many a Korean drama. Would have looked more picturesque in spring, when the grass is green and flowers bloom. 

 Steep narrow stairs down the lighthouse.

Oh we also visited Jeongbang waterfall, the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean before calling it a day.