She speaks. Or rather, she writes.

Day 1: Walked the whole city

This was one day where I failed to plan ahead.. So I missed a trip to perfume pagoda :( But nevertheless, made our way to the usual sights and places of Hanoi.. On foot. Totally doable and fun, just make sure you get a map from your hotel. In my case, I got it from highly recommended Hanoi Guesthouse that is raved about in tripadvisor. I arranged for a trip to Halong Bay through them too, which turned out to be one of the great experiences in life… right there next to Cape of Hope and Ulu Watu and Grand Canyon!

- when I pointed this place on the map and asked what building this was, the hotel lady said “Ho Chi Minh dead people” hahahhaha for some reason I imagined skeletons scattered all over in the building hahaha..

- my mom trying to earn some extra cash.. (we forgot to keep some for airport tax)

Navigating through 3000 little islands…

..in a Chinese junk boat. That’s pretty much the closest I’d ever come to a cruise hahaha.. All for 58 amelican dola.. You get awesome meals on board, get to jump off the roof of the boat into the lukewarm green water, get to witness breathtaking sunsets, get to see “floating markets” up close, get to karaoke the night away.. and really just enjoy one of many God’s beautiful places on earth.

- the cave in one of the tiny islands

-i loved the perspective, colouring and the effects of this pic!

- jumping off the roof with some of the fun people on board (i was 2 seconds too late to be in the shot hahaha, and mom was never quite able to capture another shot as awesome as this)

Met some pretty awesome people.. there was this group of New York nurses that quit their jobs to do the whole ’see the world’ thing.Totally jealous hearing about that, makes me wana do it too. Then there was the cute Vietnamese who couldn’t speak a word of English but insisted on talking to me.. in sign language. So he’d say something in Vietnamese, I’d repeat it, then I’d say something in English, and he’d repeat it. Not too sure what we accomplished at the end of the day though, considering I already forgot how to say 1-5 in Vietnamese. The one thing I remember is people pointing to my teeth.. apparently its white! Hahahahah.. Wanted to tell them its probably the same colour as theirs, just that the background colour of comparison helps with the contrast.. But those were too many words to say in sign language hahahahaha…

- the mini floating market around the boat

- the gorgeous sunset

- the chilly foggy sunrise (5.30 am!!) Hahahah can’t believe I managed to wake up!! It was soo cold, camera lens got all fogged up and this was the only shot I could take!

- day view of the bay

Before I knew it, it was time to get to the airport and make my way home! It’s been one of those trips where you get a lil amazed at the experiences you went through, a lil humbled at the poverty that was apparent, a lil thankful that you’re not in the generation after war, a lil proud for planning & backpacking through it all, a lil sad that you didn’t get to see & do more.. and a lil happy to be going home.

It’s been a great trip and all I want to do is jump off to another!