I am just too lazy to put up the photos, will do that once I finish packing my scrapbook stuff. I promised....Finally put up the shelves so now its sorting time... gosh i got too many stuff. 2009 I gotta put myself on a paper ban. :)
Ok back to the story.
We took a overnight train from HaNoi to Sapa, its about 8 hours train ride, and I think I only slept like an hour in total. Sleeping on the upper deck its wobbily+ noisy + musical ensemble through the night. A good thing I never fell down ahha.
Reach there early morning, driver Hai pick us up. Now that's quite a handsome young boy(to me he consider a boy category), with eyes that can mesmerise you. (Now thats the story that evolves around our Sapa beauty and him hahah)
I wonder how he drives with mist and I can't even see the road. An hour ride and we are into cat cat hotel. Freezing cold and electricy surge. Luckily the manager gave us each a hot tea. That really keep us warm a little.
Went out for breakfast and a few of us decide to try the market food while the majority of the rest go into some cafe. Met a local lady and she speak pretty good english and help us to order food. Hmm nice yummy noodles. I like it :)
Met our tour guide Miss Khu in the afternoon and she brought us trekking into cat cat village, a disappointment cos its all misty land. So we see horses, chickens, ducks in misty mountains. Reminds me very much of my grandparents place,or my old place.
Sammi was joking her friends are going to laugh at her for spending $$$ to come here to look at all this when she could have look at this in Malaysia .. opps.
I think these local people are smart, will attach the photos soon to show u why they are smart, making use of each opportunity to pound rice.
A real pity we couldn't see the terrace rice fields, went down into the waterfall. Well just another waterfall to me, unless its those magnificent ones like Nigara which I haven't got the chance to see yet.
Going back is a real challenge, cos we have gone all the way down into the valley so now its up up up slope. Gosh. Finally we make our way back. Actually for me going down the steps is always a scary thing for me, feel like tumbling down like humpty dumpty .. Going up is never a issue ekkekeke
Second day we went into Ta Phin, village.
The moment we get down from the bus, all the ladies and kids crowd around us. Trying to sell us their handicraft. ( i got no idea what they are selling then, cos its all covered up in baskets)
They follow us, asking us our names, I simply ignore. You see I don't want to get entangled into this never ending story. We walk quite a far bit still there are still a few of them who followed us. One of them walk beside me asking me my name. I keep quiet . I spoke in Mandarin telling my tour mates infront and behind me, saying : 我知道我很没礼貌。Guess what, the local tribe lady replied me: Never mind.
Gosh I am so embarrassed, she actually understand. Ok I forgot to mention Tafin village comprises mainly of the red tribe and their ancestors are from China. So most likely they understand mandarin.
There is also this lady who is carrying her baby behind her and following us all the way, I really feel so sorry for her and the kid. hmmmm the rest of my tour mates are reminding me don't be so soft hearted.
Along the way back, Cyn ask me to take a photo of her and a tree. I gave her this weird expression and almost want to say: What's so great about this tree? Then I told her in mandarin hey I am going to take u + the tribal lady beside u. Cyn went ok. After the shot, she told me: U really think I want to take with the tree, its the lady I want to take. HAHAHa.. Blur sotong me.
End of the story is I end up buying a pouch from the lady carrying the baby. She and her fellow mates are trying to tell us in English about having to take care of children etc. I don't know the stories she and the rest told are true or not about feeding babies etc but well if If a SGD 2 can bring smile to her, why not. I can see that she is happy cos after that she can run so fast with the baby. Ok I never have a photo of her, cos I just don't want to take. I buying the pouch from her doesn't mean I should take a photo of her. Its just not right.
The third day we went to one of the markets, don't know the name. But is definitely far 3 or 4 hour ride with us having to find a toilet when we reach the destination. The tribles there are all flower tribes. Hmm in my opinion nothing much in the market.
The most interesting part is along the way, cynthia was saying Cow . Miss khu went: Its a Buffalo, buffaloes have horns, cows don't. Haha, and the whole journey was we teasing cynthia. Even Hai went teasing her on all the animals that we came across during the journey Poor Cynthia actually got so confused and doubted her own self and when she was in teh market, she ask her cousin if those at the market are cows or buffaloes.
Oh ya found this in youtube on Sapa. Ignore the music on the second video, no idea why they put such Chinese kind of music .. eeks
When
Showing posts with label Hanoi/ Sapa Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hanoi/ Sapa Trip. Show all posts
Friday, January 2, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Counting my blessings
I can't wait to tell u all about my Hanoi trip. I count my blessings during this trip...............really.... . some of u going to peng san when I tell u all what happen...
One of us had arrange to book at (i cant remember the name) but end up the hotel owner give us Eden plaza without explaining to us . They pick up up from the hotel, and suddenly charge us for the trip from airport to hotel on the 1st day.
Turns out they over book and got 4 of us a 2 rooms at the hotel behind Eden plaza. (I can tell u the bed sheet is really dirty and my friend's don't dare to use the towel cos its dirty. I end up having to stopping touching and looking at the bed sheet, place the duvet set over the bed sheet (so rough and make me itch ) and sleep.
Early morning, got woken up by Jenny. Aiyo this jenny and beeling has forgotten to set the clock back by an hour and woke up early. They then decide to have breakfast and start walking around looking for hotels for standby case. Something prompted beeling to do this (I think its the spirit though she is not a christian, you will know why I said this later)
Everyone was complaining about the Eden plaza hotel, toilet flood lah, air con blowing black soots, etc etc. Beeling and Pat set into action and start negotiating for discount or refund... Per website information this is suppose to be new with elevators but we see no lifts. Well boss said no refund but a $10 discount plus free transport to airport for our trip back. Some of them change room.
The 4 of us had to move our luggage from the other hotel back into this hotel. Hmmm strange smelling hotel oops.. (am I complaining too much)
Boss told us to be back by a certain time for water puppet show.we went back early and suddenly was told the show was earlier and we have to get out own transport there (eh.. strange arrangement)...
The shock we had came on our last day when we came back from Sapa early morning about 6 plus or was it 5 plus am. There was no room for us. Jenny and a few of them went to check out the other hotel that Beeling ling and her check out that early morning (see thats why we said all this come with a purpose) to see if any rooms are available.
We insist to speak to the boss and the poor guy keep refusing until he can't hold on anymore and phone the boss. We threaten to wake up all the hotel guest.. During this time Samy discover something, the boss has overcharge us for a room for 4 nights (don't ask me why we never discover this earlier, I guess when the few of them paid, they were trusting the owner too much)
Jenny and the rest called back to say there is a room available in the other hotel..
The boss actually stay on the 5th floor and really take his own sweet time to come down. Saying there is a group that is leaving for Hailong bay on 7am and we can have the room later, we only paid 70% for the last day.. balblablala.. Pat swing into action to have he explain how he calculate the overcharging.. hmmmm.... finally he admit his error on the calculation.
Well we never take back the $10 disc cos he claim we use one of the rooms for washing up. Well if he wants to charge us, should have say so earlier on, don't have to use such little dirty tricks.. cunning man, 杀人不眨眼. When he came down from 5th floor, he still put on this smiling face , walking steadily down, he already expected us to make noise in my opinion...
The hotel that we move to later is pretty new and good service except we make a boo boo. early check in is consider a day and we need to check out by 12pm, any later will be consider another day's rate. somehow one of us misinterpret and .... when we check out at 5pm later we realise we need to pay double. manage to get a 50% off. Its our mistake so can't complain.
When we take the transport to airport later, the driver suddenly stop halfway. Gosh lucky vehicle never breakdown else if we miss the flight we sill be stranded till the next flight which is next Thursday I think.
Lesson learn:
1) never pay in full for budget hotel stay , always pay day by day. In case u need to change hotel u can always do so anytime.
2) Never go to Eden Plaza, 货不对半, boss is dishonest.
3) Everything must be in black and white, especially in a place where their English is not good, there might be miscommunication
4) Lord is always with us. If not for the last day of room non availability, we would never discover we are being double charge, if not for beeling and jenny waking up early, we would not have a backup hotel and can move in so quickly.
5) Oh ya blur me actually somehow left my shampoo behind one of this day and one of my friend who happen to use the room's toilet pick it up. And on the last day, somehow I left one of my stuff behind and my friend also pick this up ahhaha See people are always looking out for me. :)
One of us had arrange to book at (i cant remember the name) but end up the hotel owner give us Eden plaza without explaining to us . They pick up up from the hotel, and suddenly charge us for the trip from airport to hotel on the 1st day.
Turns out they over book and got 4 of us a 2 rooms at the hotel behind Eden plaza. (I can tell u the bed sheet is really dirty and my friend's don't dare to use the towel cos its dirty. I end up having to stopping touching and looking at the bed sheet, place the duvet set over the bed sheet (so rough and make me itch ) and sleep.
Early morning, got woken up by Jenny. Aiyo this jenny and beeling has forgotten to set the clock back by an hour and woke up early. They then decide to have breakfast and start walking around looking for hotels for standby case. Something prompted beeling to do this (I think its the spirit though she is not a christian, you will know why I said this later)
Everyone was complaining about the Eden plaza hotel, toilet flood lah, air con blowing black soots, etc etc. Beeling and Pat set into action and start negotiating for discount or refund... Per website information this is suppose to be new with elevators but we see no lifts. Well boss said no refund but a $10 discount plus free transport to airport for our trip back. Some of them change room.
The 4 of us had to move our luggage from the other hotel back into this hotel. Hmmm strange smelling hotel oops.. (am I complaining too much)
Boss told us to be back by a certain time for water puppet show.we went back early and suddenly was told the show was earlier and we have to get out own transport there (eh.. strange arrangement)...
The shock we had came on our last day when we came back from Sapa early morning about 6 plus or was it 5 plus am. There was no room for us. Jenny and a few of them went to check out the other hotel that Beeling ling and her check out that early morning (see thats why we said all this come with a purpose) to see if any rooms are available.
We insist to speak to the boss and the poor guy keep refusing until he can't hold on anymore and phone the boss. We threaten to wake up all the hotel guest.. During this time Samy discover something, the boss has overcharge us for a room for 4 nights (don't ask me why we never discover this earlier, I guess when the few of them paid, they were trusting the owner too much)
Jenny and the rest called back to say there is a room available in the other hotel..
The boss actually stay on the 5th floor and really take his own sweet time to come down. Saying there is a group that is leaving for Hailong bay on 7am and we can have the room later, we only paid 70% for the last day.. balblablala.. Pat swing into action to have he explain how he calculate the overcharging.. hmmmm.... finally he admit his error on the calculation.
Well we never take back the $10 disc cos he claim we use one of the rooms for washing up. Well if he wants to charge us, should have say so earlier on, don't have to use such little dirty tricks.. cunning man, 杀人不眨眼. When he came down from 5th floor, he still put on this smiling face , walking steadily down, he already expected us to make noise in my opinion...
The hotel that we move to later is pretty new and good service except we make a boo boo. early check in is consider a day and we need to check out by 12pm, any later will be consider another day's rate. somehow one of us misinterpret and .... when we check out at 5pm later we realise we need to pay double. manage to get a 50% off. Its our mistake so can't complain.
When we take the transport to airport later, the driver suddenly stop halfway. Gosh lucky vehicle never breakdown else if we miss the flight we sill be stranded till the next flight which is next Thursday I think.
Lesson learn:
1) never pay in full for budget hotel stay , always pay day by day. In case u need to change hotel u can always do so anytime.
2) Never go to Eden Plaza, 货不对半, boss is dishonest.
3) Everything must be in black and white, especially in a place where their English is not good, there might be miscommunication
4) Lord is always with us. If not for the last day of room non availability, we would never discover we are being double charge, if not for beeling and jenny waking up early, we would not have a backup hotel and can move in so quickly.
5) Oh ya blur me actually somehow left my shampoo behind one of this day and one of my friend who happen to use the room's toilet pick it up. And on the last day, somehow I left one of my stuff behind and my friend also pick this up ahhaha See people are always looking out for me. :)
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