back from hanoi!

left for hanoi on wed for a 4day trip. my first time in vietnam so it was really quite exciting. the incessant spray-like rain which was on for abt 70% of the trip wasnt half as irritating as the misty, foggy n terribly grey skyline throughout. the famous ha long bay which is apparently very beautiful (which i can see why after trying to see pass the fog n up-ing the contrast level in my brain of the view) was only memoriable thanks to the fresh steamed red crab we had during the cruise. it was really soooo goooooood i tell u. walking around the old quarters was quite interesting n terribly touristy. nonetheless, u get a somewhat complete picture of vietnamese life, especially since we got a personal guide throughout. the best buy from our shopping trip must be the 'lonely planet - japan' we got for 100,000dong ( abt s$10), obviously fake, but photocopying done for this copy was decent, legible n with coloured pictures too! BUT its not mine to keep, for but for gilly, as requested. i think my best buy must be... chewing gim then. even the price of the ah pek singlets i got was comparable to the ones i got in spore (s$2). there really isnt much to buy... but given time to walk round the old, quarters more, i cld pick up more stuff which i wld obviously not need but hey, nice to have what... they have themed streets, like coffee street, hardware st (which was quite interesting), handicraft st, books st etc.. overall, not too bad a trip despite changing hotels everyday cos hanoi is simply fully booked to bits.

pictures will come later k :)