2013 Hanoi Trip - Halong Bay Part 5 - Hiking Dao Go Cave (Hang Đầu Gỗ)

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Full experience of my visit to Hanoi can be accessed through the list below:

Attractions:   St Joseph's Cathedral | One Pillar Pagoda | Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum | Thang Long Water Puppet Theater

Dining:           New Day Restaurant | Sketch Coffee | Bánh Cuốn Gia Truyền | Dương Hoa Kem Caramen | Thu Nga Kem Xôi & Chè Thái Lan

More about Hanoi can be read through the list below:

Vietnamese Dong

After departing from the floating village, we cruised through the waters for some time, admiring the lowering sun and its reflection from the churning wake of other passing vessels. Our next stop ahead was much more secure than the floating structures of our last stop, for it was a concrete pier built on a side of an island.

Cruise vessels amassed on the pier and the size of it allowed them to comfortably line beside each other, their captains and crews sharing light conversations and cigarettes before the return of the passengers. Upon disembarking from the ship, we followed our guide to begin our hike.

Window to the Sky

2013 Hanoi Trip - Halong Bay Part 4 - Floating Village

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Full experience of my visit to Hanoi can be accessed through the list below:

Attractions:   St Joseph's Cathedral | One Pillar Pagoda | Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum | Thang Long Water Puppet Theater

Dining:           New Day Restaurant | Sketch Coffee | Bánh Cuốn Gia Truyền | Dương Hoa Kem Caramen | Thu Nga Kem Xôi & Chè Thái Lan

More about Hanoi can be read through the list below:

Vietnamese Dong

If we were just on board the ship and stared at the passing scenery for 6-hour, that would be a rather impersonal way to admire the natural appeal of Halong Bay. Fortunately for us, the trip included 2 highlights to dispel the monotony - a visit to the floating villages and a hike through the caves.

The UNESCO level beauty of Halong Bay hide an ugly past - caves of all sizes riddled the limestone karst islands scattered throughout the bay, lending pirates a haven after preying upon trading ships. With so many hiding places among the islands, it was a tough time for the authorities to wipe them out or to patrol the waters.

Hues of green

2013 Hanoi Trip - Halong Bay Part 3 - Halong Bay (Vịnh Hạ Long)

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Full experience of my visit to Hanoi can be accessed through the list below:

Attractions:   St Joseph's Cathedral | One Pillar Pagoda | Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum | Thang Long Water Puppet Theater

Dining:           New Day Restaurant | Sketch Coffee | Bánh Cuốn Gia Truyền | Dương Hoa Kem Caramen | Thu Nga Kem Xôi & Chè Thái Lan

More about Hanoi can be read through the list below:

Vietnamese Dong

Halong Bay is one of the most recognized name in the South East Asia, sharing its fame with the likes of Angkor Wat and Borobudur. Thousands of limestone karst islands of different size and geometry dotted the bay in the north east of Vietnam, attracting uncountable visitors near and far to cruise the waters every year, including us.

Most ships cast off at different times, depending on the speed of their passengers boarding. As the ship chugged away and cruised the waters, we just relaxed and enjoyed the moment while the captains enjoyed a slight competition in speed between different ships. Some enterprising businesses would power their boats close to each cruise and jumped aboard like a pirate, surprising unsuspecting passengers and peddling not death but fruits.

Land, sky and sea

2013 Hanoi Trip - Halong Bay Part 2 - Bai Chay Tourist Wharf (Cảng tàu khách Dl Bãi cháy)

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Full experience of my visit to Hanoi can be accessed through the list below:

Attractions:   St Joseph's Cathedral | One Pillar Pagoda | Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum | Thang Long Water Puppet Theater

Dining:           New Day Restaurant | Sketch Coffee | Bánh Cuốn Gia Truyền | Dương Hoa Kem Caramen | Thu Nga Kem Xôi & Chè Thái Lan

More about Hanoi can be read through the list below:

Vietnamese Dong

I was unfamiliar with my surroundings when I arrived, only trusting that we were not kidnapped to places unknown with the gathering of touristy faces disembarking various tour buses and vans. Even through my bleary eyes and stiff back resulting from the 3 hour long monotonous journey could I see that we were at a pier of some kind. Entering the squat building with its glass exterior, we waited for our guide to purchase tickets while stretching our sore muscles, glad for some exercise.

Our entrance ticket to Halong Bay, with the date stamped 1 Nov 2013 and a price tag of VND80,000 (~RM12).

2013 Hanoi Trip - Halong Bay Part 1 - Road to Halong Bay

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Full experience of my visit to Hanoi can be accessed through the list below:

Attractions:   St Joseph's Cathedral | One Pillar Pagoda | Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum | Thang Long Water Puppet Theater

Dining:           New Day Restaurant | Sketch Coffee | Bánh Cuốn Gia Truyền | Dương Hoa Kem Caramen | Thu Nga Kem Xôi & Chè Thái Lan

More about Hanoi can be read through the list below:

Vietnamese Dong

I have been lazy in writing recently, and the trip to Halong Bay was nearly forgotten. I better starting completing the record of that journey now before such a joy fade into nothingness. This post is long overdue anyway.

One of the highlights of our Hanoi trip was a day trip to Halong Bay, which all Hanoi visitors would put onto their travel plans. After all who would want to miss a trip to one of UNESCO's World Heritage? However I found that there are certain things seldom highlighted about the journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay, so I decided to list down some points I found indispensable.

Guardian

2013 Hanoi Trip - Thu Nga - Kem Xôi & Chè Thái Lan

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Full experience of my visit to Hanoi can be accessed through the list below:

Attractions:   St Joseph's Cathedral | One Pillar Pagoda | Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum | Thang Long Water Puppet Theater | Lý Thái Tổ Garden

Dining:          New Day Restaurant | Sketch Coffee | Bánh Cuốn Gia Truyền | Dương Hoa Kem Caramen

More about Hanoi can be read through the list below:
Vietnamese Dong


I wouldn't have expected that Hanoi has a delicious and less well known dish which involved ice-cream. After getting our fair share of bún, phở and bánh cuốn in our 8 day trip, to find respite from the more conventional everyday meals was welcoming. We had our pleasant surprise at the successful food hunt for Kem Caramen at the Northern end of the Old Quarters, and our subsequent adventure to the south bagged us an encounter with Kem Xôi, an ice cream dessert with stick pandan rice and roasted coconut.

Introducing another Vietnamese treasure - a dessert known locally as Kem Xôi, where vanilla ice-cream complements the pandan sticky rice covered underneath. A heaven sent after a hot walk under the sun.

2013 Hanoi Trip - Dương Hoa Kem Caramen

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Full experience of my visit to Hanoi can be accessed through the list below:

Attractions:   St Joseph's Cathedral | One Pillar Pagoda | Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum | Thang Long Water Puppet Theater | Lý Thái Tổ Garden

Dining:          New Day Restaurant | Sketch Coffee | Bánh Cuốn Gia Truyền | Thu Nga Kem Xôi & Chè Thái Lan

More about Hanoi can be read through the list below:
Vietnamese Dong

Look up for must-try food in Hanoi, and one would not get any explicit recommendation to try kem caramen. It would hardly exist in any of those list, or at least I couldn't see one which it did. Personally though, I would say that one should at least make an effort to try the one in Dương Hoa, for you would not be disappointed at all.

For this successful food hunt, there is my friend and his trusty guidebook to thank for. Chuah Chin Yee, this post is dedicated to you! :)

Kem Caramen (VND6,000, about RM1.00) is really a tasty dessert that one should not miss. Bombard your senses with the fragrance of caramel and relish the silky smooth texture of the custard.

Batu Tenggek (Sitting Boulder) - Remembrance

Location: Teluk Intan, Perak, Malaysia

Located in Teluk Intan is the queer Batu Tenggek that is listed within most travel guides and blogs on the place but there is surprisingly little information about it apart from those that are echoed among the said guides, given the fact that it is comparably more famous than Hock Soon Temple (福顺宫).

Sitting on top of a pedestal is the boulder that is famed in Teluk Intan yet surprisingly little was said about why it was chosen to be erected here.