balestier walkies in hanoi

our 5-day trip to hanoi was conceived not long after our first overseas trip to melbourne. it was not possible to have a longer trip because although the former teachers in the group have all retired, the former students are still working. other than the city tour on the second day and the halong bay trip on the third, we were very much on our own. part of the city tour included an hour long segment when we were taken on a very interesting cyclo ride around the old quarters of hanoi. our accommodation was at the fraser suites, one set up by singapore's fraser and neave.

judging from all the happy faces of our tour participants, you can be sure that there will be more follow-up trips. our next trip is either to guangzhou in china or kuching in sarawak. our visit to the temple of literature coincided with a visit by a group of vietnamese male and female undergraduates who were there to pray for success in their university exam. the young girls were very obliging when approached by the men in our group to take pictures with them in their ao dai.

the men were not the only ones happily snapping away; the ladies also wanted to be in the thick of the action. we all took photographs at the various tourist attractions - ho chi minh's mausoleum, ho chi minh's stilt house, one pillar pagoda, tran quoc pagoda, quan thanh taoist temple and even at the water puppet theatre. the unique water puppet performance was quite interesting.

typical of singaporeans, we sought out the best local food. when we arrived on 4 december, our first vietnamese meal was room service style. the general manager of fraser suites arranged for lunch to be served in our duplex. that night we had local cuisine at a high-end restaurant called the ly. the next day, we had a very satisfying lunch at another vietnamese restaurant called wild rice.

on our 'free day' we went to buy dvd and vcd at one of the shops near the hoam kiem lake in the old quarters of hanoi. we also strolled along 'hang gai' (street of silk) where the ladies bought lots of silk clothing and embroidered materials.

in hanoi, vietnam we were literally millionaires (in dong). a japanese meal we had cost us about 3 million dong. the smallest unit in the vietnamese currency is 500 dong. i do not think there is any vietnamese coin. in singapore, the best exchange rate we could get was $1 to 14 800 dong; in hanoi, we managed to get $1 to 16 300 dong.

from friends who have been to vietnam, we heard about dog meat (thit cho) being sold on the streets. however, although we visited two markets and explored the old quarters, we did not come across any stall or shop selling dog meat.

playing chinese chess seems to be a favourite pastime among the man folks of hanoi. one of our group members, a chinese chess aficionado, was so tempted to play a game with the locals by the roadside.

of course, we were on the lookout for snatch thieves and pick pockets after being warned by well-meaning friends who have visited vietnam or who have heard of incidences of such petty thefts. the ladies had to secure their handbags while riding in the cyclos and the men made sure their wallets were inconspicuous at all times.