one day in hanoi

my travel buddies and i are die-hard fans of aa cuz we love their promotions and would grab any cheap ticket they offer. as long as the flight is on time, we are all ok!! but if it's not, then we'll really curse him. that sounds pathetic cuz i cant tell the flight is on time or no. it depends on my luck. but i dun go for spacious leg room, i dun even complain abt their sour-faced aircrew. so i get what i pay for, thats it!! even though my heart so much wants to talk abt their lala-ish aircrew.

so, to hanoi we went!!

bearbear in my most familiar a320. aa is ferrying the passengers wiv this model of aircraft to destinations which are reachable within 4-hour flying time. being a frequent flyer of aa, im so well aware of its business model. having said this, the places i traveled so far only require 4-hour flying time or less. go for aa X if you want bigger plane. but you'd be flying to oz and shanghai. maybe to few other destinations, i dunno.

our arrival at hanoi noibai airport. look at tok's wry smile. some liquid bottles, which yean suspected it was vietnamese soy sauce, leaked and spilled over his backpack. this dry cleaning cost us 2usd. wth so expensive.

i dun mean to upload this photo of yean and jeff. but look at the large crowd of vietnamese at the back!! they were simply excited to be home. so dun get a shock if you see them celebrating the homecoming in the plane - screaming, singing, clapping hands... yean and me were like looking at each other, dumbfounded.

when the wires went haywire. the tnb will get biggest headache if they serve the people here. hanoi is just dusty like this.

the above pic was taken on the way to our hostel. the airport transfer was so called foc. but it wasnt really free cuz we were made to pay 16usd upon arrival. in fact, we hav heard quite a lot negative comments abt this hostel, namely wild lotus for being dishonest. but their one-nite accommodation rate was the cheapest. so we din mind paying 2usd per pax, somehow or rather this hostel was just a stopover to take rest and shower before our nite train to sapa.

first taste of hanoi street food. grabbed a stool and had a bowl of poa (kue-tiaw soup). the vietnamese dun speak english. but we were pretty good at using sign language.

opposite hoan kiem lake.

very wrong combination ok. i totally hav no idea why we made them pose for this pic.

hanoi is counting down its 1000th anniversary in year 2010. so there is a huge digital clock at the heart of city. but, i hav no idea abt the white statues at my back.

nyonya on trishaw.

a glance down the street at old quarter.

at wet market. yean and me became such bimbos. couldnt stand the heat in hanoi and tried best to stay away fr the sun. at the end, we din finish the city tour, instead we went back to hostel, continued sleeping.

our dinner before off to train station. nice, cheap, simple as that.

a view inside coach cabin which comes wiv 2 double-decker beds.