WaffleJungle

First daylight in Vietnam, Hanoi after a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs and french bread (Vietnam has the nicest French bread. Besides France of coz), we started on our day long tour of Hanoi on foot.

Hanoi is a noisy, motorcycle shoving place. Over here, the motorcycle is the preferred mode of transport, the streets rarely have pedestrian traffic signs and the road lanes are not demarcated at all. What resulted is haphazard traffic conditions, with motorcycles and cars zip around, shoving each other on their way about, narrowly missing each other. Hanoi, my dear friends, is not human friendly. Hanoi, is the Mother of Fear Factor: Traffic Mania. To quote the wonderful guys from Top Gear, Hanoi traffic is “a sprinking of massive discomfort.”

Traffic in Hanoi

Today’s itinerary is a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake (which is 5 minutes away from the hotel), Temple of Literature and end the day with a Water Puppet performance.

Maintenance work at Turtle Pagoda - Hoan Kiem Lake

Serenity within Chaos

Hoan Kiem Lake is really more like a enormous pond in the middle of the city. Surrounded by government buildings and shophouses, Hoam Kiem Lake is a quiet sanctuary in the middle of chaos. Its an eye opener to stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake both in the day and at night when you’ll spot lots of children playing, ladies gathered for mass aerobics and the pagodas were colourfully lighted up.

After taking a relaxed stroll around the lake, we walked a distance to Temple of Literature. Along the way, we saw several interesting shophouses like a row of them selling only mannequins. Interestingly enough, anyone with a kettle, a charcoal stove, short table and afew stools can run a eatery business at the side of the road. You can’t get more authentic street food then this.

Mannequin Street

Its a place of tribute to the academic achievements of ancient Hanoi. Learned people gather here to study Confucius teachings. An intimate courtyard greets the visitor where upon entry, one will see several tablets mounted on stone turtles (Turtles are considered one of the 4 Legendary creatures besides the Dragon, Phoenix and Unicorn.) Each tablet lists the names of scholars and I feel it serves as a reminder and symbol of the continued search for excellance and knowledge till present day. A very interesting place to explore and immerse oneself in its tranquil and scholarly atmosphere.

Temple of Literature

Pho Bo dinner @ Pho24

Pho24 is a specialty shop selling Vietnamese popular Pho (Rice Noodles), with the most popular being Pho Bo (Beef Noodles) and spring rolls made with rice paper. The dinner however, disappointed as the noodle was bland (even on my standards!), spring roll unchewable and Vietnamese drip coffee tasted severely watered down. I can see the rest of the patrons didn’t look too happy too (80% were also tourists).

We ended the night with a Water Puppet show. Its really a touristy must-do. The show was interesting but not entertaining as we had no idea what they were singing about. If only they flashed subtitles.

Thanh Long Water Pupper Theater

Oh, maybe because I missed Day #13 and so there’s some extra voodoo bad luck today. Its like Murphy decided to throw me a “Draw Two” at the Uno Game of Luck.

Well, to start it off, the day has been unsympathetically hot. Scorching if you may. Next, I’m meeting Nicky for lunch and the food turned out so bad I ate close to nothing. Third, I’m meeting Su for tea at Ann Siang which is generally a shelter-less place. (Yet, I shall be thankful I got a bit of a tan). She was an hour and a half late (Yay, more tanning!). The magnum opus of Bad Luck for today got to be when I whipped out my camera to take a pic of the coffee and tiramisu we’re going to have for tea and the display showed “No Memory Card”.

Well, FML indeed.

Shots Cafe @ Ann Siang Hill

Anyway, Shots Cafe is a cosy cafe along Ann Siang Hill. With its facade painted red, one could hardly miss it. The interior deco of the place is really nice. With the gorgeous photos hung around the place, its like chilling out in the middle of a photography exhibition. I ordered a Cold Cafe Latte which tasted rather average. A tad watered down actually. The Tiramisu fared no better because all I could taste was immense sweetness. Su ordered their ‘Awfully Carrot Cake’. I didn’t give it a try, but from the looks on her face, the naming of the dessert is probably apt. The sandwiches the girls at the next table ordered looked pretty good though.

It was a spontaneous decision to go to Malacca and I look forward to the trip not just as a photography outing, but also as an opportunity for me to get away and to think things through. Hopefully in the midst of the trip, to find my muse again.

Having not found my muse or something like that, I still completed this journey deeply inspired and encouraged to push forward and to challenge some boundaries.

Malacca is a small town in Western Malaysia that is steeped in culture, predominantly Chinese and Malay, yet the Dutch influence since its colonial days still flavour the little town. We stayed at Hotel Equatorial, cosy, comfortable and wonderfully within walking distance to my venues of exploration.

I find the architecture interesting, more so with the mish mesh of different Chinese dialect groups with the malay, indians and the whole horde of tourists.

A Famosa

Tourist sq - Christ Church Melaka

River before Jonker Walk

Gula Melaka Cendol

Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls

SpiderCat - *spew spew spew*