Travel - a must or no?

The tour guide at the Nepal tour I was in, once said, "you people from developed countries work very hard everyday, earn lot's of money, after working so hard you need to de-stress, so you spend money to come to  non developed countries like Nepal to de-stress"


I also have a friend who had never gone on a holiday in his whole life.  Firstly, he thinks that it's a waste of money.  Secondly, his idea of a holiday is to laze around and do nothing, he has yet to to find anyone who can do that with him.  Lately, I saw that he drives quite a luxurious car, comparatively.  Different priorities, I guess.

At that time, I didn't agree that spending on holidays is a waste of money.  At that time, I was earning a fixed monthly salary, I thought it makes perfect sense to fork out that "little" percentage of our "hard earned money" to have some fun in other parts of the world.  After all, we have paid leave to clear, etc.


As you may have guessed, I've not gone to any holiday destination since 2012.

An ex-colleague called to ask if I'm interested to go to a alumni of sort in a resort in Philippines.  Many ex-colleagues from different parts of the world will be there, it will be fun to catch up, bla bla.  My spontaneous answer was.."no thank you, now that I don't earn a fixed income, I watch my expenses quite carefully, I'd like to keep whatever extra cash I have for more other things that I'd like to spend on ..from sports/gym related, occassional splurge on food/beverages, unexpected expenses, so, travelling is not one of the priorities for now".

I, myself, was surprised by the spontaneous answer.

Without realising it, I now agree with my friend who thinks that travelling can be a waste of money.  Think about it, the Nepal trip probably costed RM5,000 or more, I think.  Those days, without much commitment, I don't feel much forking out RM5,000.  Now?! RM5,000 can be the margin of one hard earned project.

Oh boy..what have I turned myself into :D

I don't mean that I will not ever travel again.  I'll have to go for cheaper and economical ones, probably local self-drive or nearer SEA destinations like Thailand or Indonesia.

Secondly, I'd choose my travel partners too.  Earlier part of 2012, I rejected an ex school mate to go to Bali or Bandung with a few other school mates.    I was being very honest by saying..that, now that I don't have much travel budget, I'll have to choose very carefully (kiasu-ly).   I have not met these school mates for over 20 years..and we were not that close in school anyway. Sorry..I was bad, I know : /



So, what am I trying to get at here?

I'm not sure..just trashing out some thoughts..

Do we really need to spend thousands to go and visit these far away countries?
Do we really need to go far away to relax and de-stress?


Well, it's probably a case of what we have and what we want.

When we work very hard, we barely have time to to stop and rest, that's why our employers give us paid leave, and hence, using our hard earned money we end up going for holidays.

Alternatively, going away for holidays is a good way to get away from our day to day routine.  Just to let the mind relax and wander to a new horizon.

But then..now that I'm out of the rat race, I don't really have that urgent need to de-stress. Yes?


Hmm..no conclusion.
Lol.

At the end of the day...it boils down to how much extra cash we have!

Among the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh

I really enjoyed this. CLosed to 50 mins long..but definitely worth watching.  Not sure if they've shown on on NatGeo yet..and I probably don't watch idiot box often enough to have noticed it while it was being aired.

If you have not seen it..enjoy!



By the way, the orang utans were cute but Datuk Michelle Yeoh's even cuter speaking Malay :P

Coffee Galore in Vietnam

I know I complained somewhere about being tired of Vietnamese coffee and all..well, that was after we had tons of it.  In all kinds of shapes and sizes actually.

The very first cup stole my heart.  The guide was clever to take us to the best on our very first try..or may be it was a coincidence that it's situated near our first stop - Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

We opted for the most basic..the traditional way and it costed VND45,000 almost equivalent to a glass of latte back at home.

The very first cup at Trung Nguyen Cafe

Initially, I thought we were being ripped off. Typical mentality of a tourist.

But we realised soon enough that price comes with quality.  Through out the trip, we had our caffein fix at different places at different price range.

The cheaper ones were around VND23000

Look the same, doesn't taste the same

They may be using the same brand but the consistency and thickness ain't the same.  Not even close.

We even had a cuppa in the village.  It's 3-in-1, around VND20,000, about MYR3.00, well we were in the mountains..freezing cold..we were willing to pay for some comfort.  It was also a nice experience having coffee in a small hut-shop in the middle of a village.

3-in-1 version at the village

Awesome one.

 This was a bomb!  I think it's one of the best.  I can't remember it's name nor the price..don't remember it being expensive at all.  The cafe was located near the Lao Cai-Hekou (China) border.


While we were bored and mission-less during o one night stop at My Tho, we stumbled upon the Lac Hong Cafe.  My Tho is an extremely quiet town in Mekong Delta..there's absolutely nothing to do there..apart from strolling by the river watching the locals waiting and boarding the ferry to and fro work / home.

So..we were closed to ecstatic when we found Lac Hong Cafe  :D

So cosy...

Drinks as usual were extremely good and inexpensive.  I still wonder how they manage to make their iced coffee thick and full of taste ..even after all the ice have melted.  It's simple...they don't mind putting in more coffee powder, hence, earning less margins ~

Look out for this sign, if you happen to be in My Tho!

After My Tho, we 'landed' in Can Tho.  It's much bigger than My Tho.  More people. More shops..but it's like being stranded in Kampar for a night.

This is when the smartphone, WIFI access and Foursquare comes in very useful.  We scanned Foursquare for notable places that fellow users had checked-in before, and Cafe Hop Pho was one of the few that we thought we should try looking for it.

Even in a small town like Can Tho, almost every hotel and cafes have free wifi access, some do not even need passwords.  

So..we managed to locate Cafe Hop Pho using Foursquare's map direction ..it was just a short walking distance from our hotel.

Ta daa..we were so impressed when we saw the place !

I miss Vietnamese Coffee now : '')

Vietnam, In Summary

I know I know, this is really outdated.
Better late than none, right?

So..we were in Vietnam for about 10 days.

http://www.vietnam-travel-guide.net/vietnam-map.html

Day 1 : Arrived at Hanoi in the morning, did some sightseeing, had lunch, watched the water puppet show, had dinner, checked in hotel ..we were so tired that most of us fell asleep during the water puppet show.. sorry, but we really had a loooong day as we had to be at the KL airport in the wee hours..in order to board at 6am

Ho Chi Minh Mausouleum - a 'must-go' to pay a visit to the much respected Uncle Ho.   

Walking along the streets of Old Quarters was quite an experience

We checked out the next morning and headed to Halong Bay.

As expected, the scene was breath taking, that's why it is a UNESCO World Heritage

The weather is very cold at this time of the year. So, we couldnt do any island hopping nor snorkelling.
We had a boat all to ourselves..lunch was on board..visited some caves, fish farms and headed back to Hanoi for early Dinner.

Why early dinner?
Cos we had to board a night train to Lao Cai which is about 254km from Hanoi.

I can't remember the exact time we boarded though..I think it was around 8ish.  The 4 bedded cabin was quite comfortable much to our relief.  Each coach with about 4-5 cabins has one toilet.  No..there wasn't any shower facility..so we could only 'dry clean' and went to bed..  As always..I don't normally fall asleep easily =.= so it was a bumpy night for me

We arrived at destination around 5am (I think)..we were hoping that we had time to wash up but..NO..we were basically shooed off the train !  Haha..that was another memorable experience!

So..with us all groggy and blur..we boarded a bus arranged by the tour agency for another 1 hr journey to Sapa.

Beautiful landscape

We enjoyed Sapa most. Despite the cold weather, it was around 6c in the morning and we were trekking up waterfalls and muddy village lands. My lungs almost froze.

Muddy muddy

Pigs!

The villagers were also very happy to see us :P

Red Dzao Villagers - waiting for us to buy souveniers from them

I like the pics from Sapa more, but I shall refrain from posting so many here but you can check out the video I did earlier - HERE


We had about 3D2N in Sapa, on the 3rd night we boarded the night train back to Hanoi and departed to HCMC by flight.

HCMC is like Shanghai of China..i.e. it's the business hub if the country.  So..it's a shopping haven :D

But.we did the 'necessary' first before indulging in Shopping..

Check out the traffic!

Notre-Dame Basilica

Like...being a typical tourist visitng the typical attractions in HCMC :P

Main Post Office

Reunification Palace

And de-touring a little further to Cu Ci and Mekong Delta..

Traffic jam at the canal

People of My Tho

Cai Rang Floating market..was more like a wholesale place 

In conclusion, it was a well rounded trip.

If you are planning to go to Vietnam..consider spending more days in Sa pa and Halong Bay.

As for HCMC, don't bother bringing any luggage nor bags..just come with lot of VND and shop till you drop..luggages, backpack, knap sacks, and handbags are all very cheap..decent quality of 'branded' goods...

So...just come empty handed..buy a back pack or luggage ..and fill them in :D

Foodie Trail : Vietnam

For some reasons I was least excited with my food adventure here in Vietnam compared to other countries that I visited recently.

All meals were provided (part of the package) during the the first part of the trip (Hanoi-Sapa-Hanoi), so there's really nothing to shout about. Well, food were great, I don't remember ever feeling hungry.

We saw the largest buffet set up ever..not even in Malaysia's biggest hotels!  I've never seen so many many different kinds of food served in a buffet.

Many of these 'stalls', but we concluded that they all tasted the same, chicken, beef, seafood, all same taste.

 

I think I spent more time taking pictures than eating.

But I won't post much here cos the food were nothing to shout about. Typical buffet food.  

Vietnamese Spring Rolls - eat all you can..

I'm not saying that the food were unsatisfactorily.  They were just typical tour package food.  I guess they can't take the risk of taking us to road side stalls. 

So grand.

Lunch on-board - Halong Bay Cruise

Hanoi-Halong Bay-Sapa after some time every meal seemed pretty standard. Fried cabbage.  Clear soup with chopped vege.  Fried fish.  Pork. Prawns / Squid.


Well, we did go goo goo gaa when these were served after our visit to Mekong Delta canal.

But..the foodie in me was yearning for some adventure.

Saw these in a village in Sapa.. did we try?

Nah..we only opted for a pork skewer ..

And sweet potato

In Ho Chi Minh, we had more flexibility as only lunch was provided.  So we were free to explore at night.  A friend took us to Nha Hang Ngon, a great place for typical Vietnamese street food.  The total bill was about 1.4 mil VND!  That's about RM200+ for about 11 of us.  Pretty good deal.  Finally, I got to taste real Vietnamese food!  Nha Hang means Restaurant - I only found out towards the end of the trip :D

Some info about Ngon - HERE

Just in front of our hotel, we spotted this shop that serves BBQ seafood.  Different types of clams, snails, scallops, you name it they have it.  Ermm..actually we can't name anything cos they won't understand. So, we could only point to what we want :D

  
Typical Vietnamese way of eating..sitting on stools by the road side.  This is what I want when I travel..


We came here twice!  We even witnessed live, how the DBKL equivalent authorities came to 'perform their duties'.  In seconds, stoves, trays, stools, tables were moved back into the tiny shop.  We stood up from our stools to make way but were told to SIT.  Haha..apparently the authorities won't touch tables seated with customers.

At the night market, we tried Vietnamese popiah..so-so only for me.  I didn't like their strong coconut taste.

 

Also tried the baguette, something very popular amongst the locals.

 

Tasted quite good at first bite, but not something I will miss though.

On our one night stop at My Tho, we were on our own with nothing to do. Lonley Planet recommended two places apparently good for Hue Tieu.  Just did a quick internet search and found out that Hue Tieu actually means My Tho soup noodle.  Go HERE 

Definitely better than our version of Pork Noodle!

Well, my travel mates will tell you that I was complaning ALOT about eating anything that starts or ends with Tieu or Pho.  Can't blame me... it had been over 10 days.

An Aussie Burger at a back packers joint in Can Tho called Cappucino...was heavenly!

Tried more hawker stuff at Can Tho.

Not sure what's the name of this food but his stalls was the busiest.  Locals come on foot and motobikes to take away packets from him.

It's glutinous rice with quail eggs and 'etc' toppings...taste wise..so-so only

And finally...our highlight in Can Tho was a hot pot dinner on-board a boat sailing along Mekong river!