By the time you're reading this, I'm already back in my lovely hometown with very very limited internet access, enjoying momma's home-cooked meal, surrounded by kids, watching Astro day and night, lazing on my bed in my pretty pink room, gatherings with friends and turning into a PRINCESS.
Don't be jealous. I'm taking appx. 10 days off from work! Tee-hee..
HAPPY CHINESE 'NIU' YEAR EVERYONE!!! :D
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Day 4 in Sapa - Y Linh Ho - Ta Van
I'm seriously taking forever to blog about my Vietnam trip. Are you bored already arR?? You shouldn't be, because it's, errr... interesting! I'm speading the joy and experiences I had, see I'm that kind.
Anyway, the second day in Sapa was more interesting than the previous day.
We woke up early morning and the weather was slightly warmer than the previous day. We just took a stroll around the small town and waiting for the time to pass before we embarked on our next daytour we signed up the night before.
Again we were attacked by numerous of H'mong people who tried to sell their wares.
Guess what, a few of the ethnic people even commented I looked Vietnamese o_O Probably because of this, not much H'mong people followed us as compared to gweilos.
But eh, do I seriously looked like Vietnamese arr? ;(
Pork satay again!!!!! HAHA Told ya we indulged in this ev.e.r.y.d.a.y. during our trip in Vietnam! :P But this little stall in Sapa town is definately the best!
Basically the tour we signed up for only includes the transportation. We took this jeep all the way to the entrance of Y Linh Ho village, about half an hour from Sapa town. Like damn adventurous innit? Tee-hee. On the way, we passed by a few fresh landslides along the hill slopes omg it's really freaking me out! But the driver told us not to worry, it's a common thing there -__-"
As soon as we reached, we were attacked by a BIG bunch of H'mong people who rushed towards our jeep and surrounded us right after we stepped down.
The driver explained to us which main routes that we should be following and he'll be meeting us at the next exit.
At first we were kinda worried when we signed up for this trip since there'll be no tourguide following but the agent assured us that we won't get lost 'cause there'll be a lot of H'mong people following us to sell their wares..
.... and true enough, there were really a lot of them.. -_-" From young to old, I think this is their main source of income over there..
In the end, the total of EIGHT H'mong followed TWO of us.. and they speak quite fluent English. They asked me a lot of question too.
"How old are you?"
"What is your name?"
"Where are you from?"
blaa...blaaa...blaaa....
Amazing innit? Seemed like we hired 8 tourguides! HAHA!
The journey was much easier as compared to the difficult trekking the day before. Basically we entered from one village and along the journey we'll passby 2 more villages before meeting up with the driver at the exit.
Y Linh Ho - Lao Cai - Ta Van that's it.
We saw this pregnant Sapa black pig omg notice the bump??? There were a lot of Sapa black pigs wandering around and they're very tame. I stood right beside them for a few times and they didn't even bother wtf.
And the cats were very camera sensitive.
See? Can smile at me somemore -___-"
Anyway, the second day in Sapa was more interesting than the previous day.
We woke up early morning and the weather was slightly warmer than the previous day. We just took a stroll around the small town and waiting for the time to pass before we embarked on our next daytour we signed up the night before.
Again we were attacked by numerous of H'mong people who tried to sell their wares.
Guess what, a few of the ethnic people even commented I looked Vietnamese o_O Probably because of this, not much H'mong people followed us as compared to gweilos.
But eh, do I seriously looked like Vietnamese arr? ;(
Pork satay again!!!!! HAHA Told ya we indulged in this ev.e.r.y.d.a.y. during our trip in Vietnam! :P But this little stall in Sapa town is definately the best!
Basically the tour we signed up for only includes the transportation. We took this jeep all the way to the entrance of Y Linh Ho village, about half an hour from Sapa town. Like damn adventurous innit? Tee-hee. On the way, we passed by a few fresh landslides along the hill slopes omg it's really freaking me out! But the driver told us not to worry, it's a common thing there -__-"
As soon as we reached, we were attacked by a BIG bunch of H'mong people who rushed towards our jeep and surrounded us right after we stepped down.
The driver explained to us which main routes that we should be following and he'll be meeting us at the next exit.
At first we were kinda worried when we signed up for this trip since there'll be no tourguide following but the agent assured us that we won't get lost 'cause there'll be a lot of H'mong people following us to sell their wares..
.... and true enough, there were really a lot of them.. -_-" From young to old, I think this is their main source of income over there..
In the end, the total of EIGHT H'mong followed TWO of us.. and they speak quite fluent English. They asked me a lot of question too.
"How old are you?"
"What is your name?"
"Where are you from?"
blaa...blaaa...blaaa....
Amazing innit? Seemed like we hired 8 tourguides! HAHA!
The journey was much easier as compared to the difficult trekking the day before. Basically we entered from one village and along the journey we'll passby 2 more villages before meeting up with the driver at the exit.
Y Linh Ho - Lao Cai - Ta Van that's it.
We saw this pregnant Sapa black pig omg notice the bump??? There were a lot of Sapa black pigs wandering around and they're very tame. I stood right beside them for a few times and they didn't even bother wtf.
And the cats were very camera sensitive.
See? Can smile at me somemore -___-"
H'mong toddlers just stole my heart away. They're so adorable and I admired their independance, really.
This is the Red Dzao people. Basically these 2 ethnic people lived together in peace and that time when they met, they were all discussing about the ginger she held in her hand -__-"
We came across this beautiful riverbank with this traditional wooden coffee shop built by the side. The view was seriously breath-taking..
See? I can imagine the locals washing their clothes by the riverside pada zaman kurun HAHA
But when I showed this pic to my brother, he asked me, "What? The construction site near our house also looks like this what.."
-___-"
We passed by one of the H'mong's house (among the 8 who followed us the entire journey) and she offered us to take a look. Sure, why not?
She stays with her in-laws. When we went, her husband was drinking with his friends in her in-laws house and she took us to a smaller wooden house right beside where she lived with her husband.
It was much smaller, as compared to the house we visited the day before. What I can see was just the hardened mud floor and wooden walls. She was telling us where's the living room, the kitchen and the bedroom, but all we can see was just walls and floor. No furniture at all, nothing. It hit us hard how poor they really are.
Anyway, I did not take any picture inside the house 'cause I think it's not really nice to do so.
Cute toddlers again!!! OMG I shall just write an indiviual post and post up all toddlers pics I took during the trip *heart*
I was touched by the H'mong community, the scenary and the simplicity of life. It's not a common sight definately and worth the long distance travelling by train.
This lady looked very familiar to me when we first met. By the end of the journey I realized she looked a lot like my sister's ex-maid, Malini.
OMG... Malini, is that you??????? Apasal cakap bahasa orang putih sekarang???!!
About three hours of soft trekking passing by 3 villages, I've seen a lot, experienced a lot and I was quite traumatized by how hard and difficult they live their life. But this is a place I felt as if I've been really far away from city life and experiencing a true countryside. It's a place which I've never imagine I'll be able to step my foot in at all, apart from watching from Astro.
Before we leave, they offered us many kind of handicraft, but since there were eight of them, it's almost impossible for us to buy from all eight of them.
"Buy from me, please."
"Please, this is very pretty..."
"You want this? What about this? And this??"
We ended up buying from 5 of them as we're running out of Dong.
It's hard to say goodbye.
Back to Sapa town around 6pm and it was very cold. The remedy? ;)
Nah.
This is the best pho bo I've had in Vietnam! I finished up everything including the soup for the very first time of my life T__T Usually there'll be a lot of leftovers, but this pho bo was exceptional, it's too GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDD to resist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friendly hotel staff. We left Sapa town by the hotel's van to Lao Cai train station that night itself.
Baguette we bought from a street hawker outside the train station. Saw many locals and tourists having it I guess it must be quite a common/ famous food in Vietnam.
Sapa is definately a place with energy like no others. I'd definately be back visiting again if I have the chance.
*sigh* I'm missing the people already...
p/s: Sorry if there's any typo error, will check later! :P Rushing out now!!
This is the Red Dzao people. Basically these 2 ethnic people lived together in peace and that time when they met, they were all discussing about the ginger she held in her hand -__-"
We came across this beautiful riverbank with this traditional wooden coffee shop built by the side. The view was seriously breath-taking..
See? I can imagine the locals washing their clothes by the riverside pada zaman kurun HAHA
But when I showed this pic to my brother, he asked me, "What? The construction site near our house also looks like this what.."
-___-"
We passed by one of the H'mong's house (among the 8 who followed us the entire journey) and she offered us to take a look. Sure, why not?
She stays with her in-laws. When we went, her husband was drinking with his friends in her in-laws house and she took us to a smaller wooden house right beside where she lived with her husband.
It was much smaller, as compared to the house we visited the day before. What I can see was just the hardened mud floor and wooden walls. She was telling us where's the living room, the kitchen and the bedroom, but all we can see was just walls and floor. No furniture at all, nothing. It hit us hard how poor they really are.
Anyway, I did not take any picture inside the house 'cause I think it's not really nice to do so.
Cute toddlers again!!! OMG I shall just write an indiviual post and post up all toddlers pics I took during the trip *heart*
I was touched by the H'mong community, the scenary and the simplicity of life. It's not a common sight definately and worth the long distance travelling by train.
This lady looked very familiar to me when we first met. By the end of the journey I realized she looked a lot like my sister's ex-maid, Malini.
OMG... Malini, is that you??????? Apasal cakap bahasa orang putih sekarang???!!
About three hours of soft trekking passing by 3 villages, I've seen a lot, experienced a lot and I was quite traumatized by how hard and difficult they live their life. But this is a place I felt as if I've been really far away from city life and experiencing a true countryside. It's a place which I've never imagine I'll be able to step my foot in at all, apart from watching from Astro.
Before we leave, they offered us many kind of handicraft, but since there were eight of them, it's almost impossible for us to buy from all eight of them.
"Buy from me, please."
"Please, this is very pretty..."
"You want this? What about this? And this??"
We ended up buying from 5 of them as we're running out of Dong.
It's hard to say goodbye.
Back to Sapa town around 6pm and it was very cold. The remedy? ;)
Nah.
This is the best pho bo I've had in Vietnam! I finished up everything including the soup for the very first time of my life T__T Usually there'll be a lot of leftovers, but this pho bo was exceptional, it's too GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDD to resist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friendly hotel staff. We left Sapa town by the hotel's van to Lao Cai train station that night itself.
Baguette we bought from a street hawker outside the train station. Saw many locals and tourists having it I guess it must be quite a common/ famous food in Vietnam.
Sapa is definately a place with energy like no others. I'd definately be back visiting again if I have the chance.
*sigh* I'm missing the people already...
p/s: Sorry if there's any typo error, will check later! :P Rushing out now!!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Random shit
Was chatting with the boy yesterday through phone and he called me sweetie which was so rare. Me of course was smilling in love and later on when I asked him to call me sweetie again, guess what he said?
The bf: Eh? Not sweetie la... shittie I said! :P
WTFFFF
The bf: Eh? Not sweetie la... shittie I said! :P
WTFFFF
Friday, January 16, 2009
Shocking Friday!!!
I......
I am.....
I am.....
I can't believe this... but...
I ammmmmmm ..............
GOING HONG KONG NEXT MONTH FOR VALENTINES!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMGGGGG!!!!!!!! Hong Kong I'm coming to you again!!!! Can you hear me???? :D :D :D
omg..omg.. what to pack???!!!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
I ammmmmmm ..............
GOING HONG KONG NEXT MONTH FOR VALENTINES!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMGGGGG!!!!!!!! Hong Kong I'm coming to you again!!!! Can you hear me???? :D :D :D
omg..omg.. what to pack???!!!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Day 3 in Sapa, North Vietnam
Woo... so I've been out of the blogging world for quite some time. Stupid lappie died on me and I sent it to be formatted and spent 80 bucks. No more MS Office software in my lappie now BOO! I even lost my Adobe Photoshop software CD and gotta make use with my bro's older version with not much features, sigh!
Can't believe I've been dragging for so long to blog about my Sapa trip and yeah, I was in Hanoi last month, at this date as today. Which means if I turn back time to a month ago, I'll be leaving by train to Sapa tonight! Time flies, innit?
Seriously, our trip to Vietnam wouldn't be complete without stepping in to Sapa.
We took taxi from our hotel to Hanoi train station which was just about 10 minutes distance. There're a lot of small stalls outside the station selling light foods and drinks. But the station itself is a very old and dirty building and even everyone inside looked weird.
I felt like I've been transferred back to the past. Back to pre-war period. There were a few men who dressed up like soldiers sitting near us but in very unhygenic state. Unruly hair, shoes without socks and kept me wondering if they're really soldiers?? Soldiers from the 20s wtf. And next to them were some goods on the floor and inside one of the rattan bag I saw a dog. Which, I think it's dead and ready to be cooked anytime T____T
A man guided us to our cabin when our train arrived and the railway looked very very spooky, probably I watched too much of korean horror movies.. :(
4 sleepers cabin which we shared with 2 gweilos thank God.
For security reason.. LOL
We overnight in the train which took about 8 hours to reach Lao Cai before taking another connecting coach for about 1 hour to Sapa.
Sapa lies in the very north west of Vietnam near the border of China. It is a quiet and cold town on a mountain, home to variety of ethnic minority peoples like the black H'mong and Dzao people.
It was very fogy when we arrived the next morning and the weather was indeed very cold - thanks to Nghiep who adviced us to get a winter jacket before proceeding up to Sapa.
Chau Long Sapa Hotel where we stayed for a night.
After taking a nice shower (mind you we went out the whole day the day before and straight up to overnight train without taking shower since morning!!!) and getting some rest, we went around the small town to look for some food, some authentic Vietnamese food.
Pho bo - beef noodle soup. No trips to Vietnam is complete without trying out this dish.
The bf's very Cina style punya stir fried noodles - pho xao bo hoac ga
Guess he's not that adventurous when comes to food. I am the type who'll try out the specific place's popular local delicacies when I travel. For example, I won't look for nasi lemak in Vietnam or pho bo in Hong Kong -__-"
Little Sapa spring roll.
Completed with LaoCai beer and cafe sua. See? Very localized, HAHA!
Sapa is such a colourful town with people from the local hill tribes who head into the town to sell their colourful clothing and handicrafts.
There're a lot of stalls selling colourful traditional costumes which made me salivates but not buying in the end 'cause I find no point of buying it wtf.. We were also approached by a number of nicely dressed black H'mong people who offered us all kind of souvenirs
Elder women were more insistent. Its really hard to say "No" to them, probably they reminded me of my grandmama who's about the same age. But, buying from them means there're chances of us being attacked by more of them.
We've been indulging in this pork satay everyday during our trip in Vietnam, it's really good and I'm missing it already..
Some local dessert which I've yet to figure out what was it.
And oh, I got this checkered jacket from Hanoi! Yeah, right after I got this jacket, I had my bag slashed WTFFFF... And those gloves I got from a stall in Sapa. "You want gloves?? Sapa is very cold!!!" That's how I was being approached.
Roses again. This is the stall where the bf got me ONE stalk of rose, hRm..
We signed up for half day tour from a local travel agent to the nearby Cat Cat Village, about 3km from Sapa town.
Kids sliding down the staircase was a common sight. They basically lived a very simple life. It's a social community where everybody looks after each other. The tourguide told us that if there're 2 toddlers playing together aged 2 and 3, its the responsiblity of the elder to take care of the younger. They're much matured compared to kids here.
H'mong people make their own clothes independantly. It takes many months to make a piece of clothing item. They dye the cloth using indigo plant (as above) and they typically weave and embroider the fabric themselves. I was shocked to learn that a bride would stay at home for months/ years to make her own wedding gown! Wahhh!!! Crazy!
We paid a visit to a local H'mong house.
H'mong houses are large wooden structure with high ceiling, dirt floors and no windows. Pardon the bad quality of my pictures of it's totally dark inside. A pot of water was kept boiling to keep themselves warm and I was amazed that they can still do stiches in the dark -_-"
The kitchen.
Barrels of dyes from indigo plants used to colour their garments.
Cute H'mong kids! The young bare bottom girl was crying and the elder girl tried to keep her calm, how cute! ;)
This is one of the best shot we had :)
The scenery was surreal, but the journey wasn't easy. Noticing there're less tourists after a long journey, we asked the tourguide if it wasn't famous touristy destination.
"Oh, most tourist will only visit Cat Cat Village. This package you signed up involves very difficult trekking, not much people can do it.."
-_____________-
We were not informed of this 'VERY DIFFICULT TREKKING' when we signed up.
It was indeed very difficult. The very last time I had trekking like this was back in secondary school time.. I aged, I can no longer take up this challenge...
*sigh* No wonder I was that tired..
But the hard work was worth it all. This is the first time I experienced the true countryside.
Toddlers were left unattended and the adults didn't seemed to worry about their safety unlike in Malaysia. They played with tyres, tins, flattened bottles, they rocked on a piece of wood, and they still looked happy. ;)
Everything moved at a very slow pace there and I even suggested to the bf to consider spending the rest of our lifes there.
Local tourguide who speaks fluent English.
We came across this stall selling sticky rice in bamboo shoot and some roast meats. The sticky rice taste something like the local Malay's lemang but it's taken with brown sugar.
Alast, we gave up and did not complete the full journey as the trekking was getting too tough.
The sky turned dark around 6pm and not sure where all the people gone. The streets were more or less deserted, although hotels and restaurants are being built everywhere. It was kinda spooky and we dare not wander far from our hotel.
Can't believe I've been dragging for so long to blog about my Sapa trip and yeah, I was in Hanoi last month, at this date as today. Which means if I turn back time to a month ago, I'll be leaving by train to Sapa tonight! Time flies, innit?
Seriously, our trip to Vietnam wouldn't be complete without stepping in to Sapa.
We took taxi from our hotel to Hanoi train station which was just about 10 minutes distance. There're a lot of small stalls outside the station selling light foods and drinks. But the station itself is a very old and dirty building and even everyone inside looked weird.
I felt like I've been transferred back to the past. Back to pre-war period. There were a few men who dressed up like soldiers sitting near us but in very unhygenic state. Unruly hair, shoes without socks and kept me wondering if they're really soldiers?? Soldiers from the 20s wtf. And next to them were some goods on the floor and inside one of the rattan bag I saw a dog. Which, I think it's dead and ready to be cooked anytime T____T
A man guided us to our cabin when our train arrived and the railway looked very very spooky, probably I watched too much of korean horror movies.. :(
4 sleepers cabin which we shared with 2 gweilos thank God.
For security reason.. LOL
We overnight in the train which took about 8 hours to reach Lao Cai before taking another connecting coach for about 1 hour to Sapa.
Sapa lies in the very north west of Vietnam near the border of China. It is a quiet and cold town on a mountain, home to variety of ethnic minority peoples like the black H'mong and Dzao people.
It was very fogy when we arrived the next morning and the weather was indeed very cold - thanks to Nghiep who adviced us to get a winter jacket before proceeding up to Sapa.
Chau Long Sapa Hotel where we stayed for a night.
After taking a nice shower (mind you we went out the whole day the day before and straight up to overnight train without taking shower since morning!!!) and getting some rest, we went around the small town to look for some food, some authentic Vietnamese food.
Pho bo - beef noodle soup. No trips to Vietnam is complete without trying out this dish.
The bf's very Cina style punya stir fried noodles - pho xao bo hoac ga
Guess he's not that adventurous when comes to food. I am the type who'll try out the specific place's popular local delicacies when I travel. For example, I won't look for nasi lemak in Vietnam or pho bo in Hong Kong -__-"
Little Sapa spring roll.
Completed with LaoCai beer and cafe sua. See? Very localized, HAHA!
Sapa is such a colourful town with people from the local hill tribes who head into the town to sell their colourful clothing and handicrafts.
There're a lot of stalls selling colourful traditional costumes which made me salivates but not buying in the end 'cause I find no point of buying it wtf.. We were also approached by a number of nicely dressed black H'mong people who offered us all kind of souvenirs
Elder women were more insistent. Its really hard to say "No" to them, probably they reminded me of my grandmama who's about the same age. But, buying from them means there're chances of us being attacked by more of them.
We've been indulging in this pork satay everyday during our trip in Vietnam, it's really good and I'm missing it already..
Some local dessert which I've yet to figure out what was it.
And oh, I got this checkered jacket from Hanoi! Yeah, right after I got this jacket, I had my bag slashed WTFFFF... And those gloves I got from a stall in Sapa. "You want gloves?? Sapa is very cold!!!" That's how I was being approached.
Roses again. This is the stall where the bf got me ONE stalk of rose, hRm..
We signed up for half day tour from a local travel agent to the nearby Cat Cat Village, about 3km from Sapa town.
Kids sliding down the staircase was a common sight. They basically lived a very simple life. It's a social community where everybody looks after each other. The tourguide told us that if there're 2 toddlers playing together aged 2 and 3, its the responsiblity of the elder to take care of the younger. They're much matured compared to kids here.
H'mong people make their own clothes independantly. It takes many months to make a piece of clothing item. They dye the cloth using indigo plant (as above) and they typically weave and embroider the fabric themselves. I was shocked to learn that a bride would stay at home for months/ years to make her own wedding gown! Wahhh!!! Crazy!
We paid a visit to a local H'mong house.
H'mong houses are large wooden structure with high ceiling, dirt floors and no windows. Pardon the bad quality of my pictures of it's totally dark inside. A pot of water was kept boiling to keep themselves warm and I was amazed that they can still do stiches in the dark -_-"
The kitchen.
Barrels of dyes from indigo plants used to colour their garments.
Cute H'mong kids! The young bare bottom girl was crying and the elder girl tried to keep her calm, how cute! ;)
This is one of the best shot we had :)
The scenery was surreal, but the journey wasn't easy. Noticing there're less tourists after a long journey, we asked the tourguide if it wasn't famous touristy destination.
"Oh, most tourist will only visit Cat Cat Village. This package you signed up involves very difficult trekking, not much people can do it.."
-_____________-
We were not informed of this 'VERY DIFFICULT TREKKING' when we signed up.
It was indeed very difficult. The very last time I had trekking like this was back in secondary school time.. I aged, I can no longer take up this challenge...
*sigh* No wonder I was that tired..
But the hard work was worth it all. This is the first time I experienced the true countryside.
Toddlers were left unattended and the adults didn't seemed to worry about their safety unlike in Malaysia. They played with tyres, tins, flattened bottles, they rocked on a piece of wood, and they still looked happy. ;)
Everything moved at a very slow pace there and I even suggested to the bf to consider spending the rest of our lifes there.
Local tourguide who speaks fluent English.
We came across this stall selling sticky rice in bamboo shoot and some roast meats. The sticky rice taste something like the local Malay's lemang but it's taken with brown sugar.
Alast, we gave up and did not complete the full journey as the trekking was getting too tough.
The sky turned dark around 6pm and not sure where all the people gone. The streets were more or less deserted, although hotels and restaurants are being built everywhere. It was kinda spooky and we dare not wander far from our hotel.
The hotel lobby.
Since there's nothing much to do at night, we just camwhored in the room.
;)
I really love their star printed tees and I bought 2 pieces in green and red!
And bought a lot more for my nephews and niece back home and they gonna rock the house during this CNY ;)
We took up another tour package from another travel agent the next day and there were much more beautiful sights and more amazing experiences..
I'm missing Sapa already...
Since there's nothing much to do at night, we just camwhored in the room.
;)
I really love their star printed tees and I bought 2 pieces in green and red!
And bought a lot more for my nephews and niece back home and they gonna rock the house during this CNY ;)
We took up another tour package from another travel agent the next day and there were much more beautiful sights and more amazing experiences..
I'm missing Sapa already...
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