Oh My Janey

Saigon Loves Me Not

saigon loves me not

My love for Vietnam is no secret.

When I first visited Hanoi in 2013, I instantly fell in love with the chaotic streets filled with hundreds of motorcycles and the cheap Vietnamese coffee you can buy anywhere. Aside from the fact that I obsessed over the food, I met quite a lot of nice people in Hanoi.

I recently went back to Vietnam, but this time I visited Ho Chi Minh City. I had a great time roaming the city and nearby provinces with Aika and Mariel. But we can’t possibly expect everything to always turn in our favor, right?

Luckily, I don’t encounter much misfortune when going on trips. Well, there’s that one time I had to climb Pico De Loro with broken shoes. Then another time I got sick while camping in the beach. Then there’s my recent Vietnam trip. [Read more…]

Motorcycle Diary: Hanoi, Vietnam

motorcycle diary
Before going to Vietnam, I’d been told that the streets are full of motorbikes. I’ve seen photos and videos, too. I was prepared to see the most number of motorcycles (and scooters!) in my life

They make it sound like the streets of Vietnam is a dangerous place. But I spent four days walking around Hanoi, and I didn’t really feel threatened. It’s actually really interesting because everyone, young or old, professional or not, rides one. Rain or shine, they ride their colorful bikes and wear their equally colorful helmets. They heave giant boxes and anything they can on top of their bike. [Read more…]

Vietnam Food Diary

vietnam food diary

Four months after I visited Vietnam, I’m still not done blogging about it. And believe it or not, there’s still a few more posts queued for writing. I took a lot of photos that time, maybe because it was just Jinky and me. Traveling in small groups allows for more leisurely time. We spent a lot of time just walking around Old Quarter, and it was definitely one of the best things I enjoyed in Hanoi.

And of course, there’s the food. Suffice to say, we ate a lot of good food for really cheap price. Pigging out in Hanoi, specifically, was inexpensive. We opted for traditional restaurants with huge crowds. After all, it’s not the interior that people try again and again but good food, right?

Dining is truly a unique experience in Vietnam. I love how it’s so low-maintenance and unpretentious. Most restaurants have wooden interiors, a very basic menu, and seating that extends to the sidewalk. Yes, every store has little chairs and tables outside where customers can eat. But being shy people (heh), Jinky and I usually sat inside.

It gets kind of awkward because they thought we’re Vietnamese, too! They end up asking for our orders in the local language, and we didn’t know how to respond. Haha. I guess Filipinos and Vietnamese have the same facial features and skin tone? 🙂 [Read more…]

Hanoi Diary: Its People and History

It has been almost three months since my trip to Vietnam, but I’m not yet done blogging about it. I have a few more posts queued for posting, but I can’t seem to find the time to write it. I’ve been so busy with life lately that blogging about a trip that happened a few months ago doesn’t call out to me to hurry up and tell its story.

December is about to end, and the only thing I’m thinking of is how I’m going to fit my budget through all this Christmas shopping and monthly bills and expenses. But every now and then, I long to be on the road again, traveling to someplace foreign, or just someplace unfamiliar. On mornings that I feel grumpy, I miss the coffee I drunk in Hanoi for four days. On afternoons when I feel tired, I think of the sunset at Hoan Kiem Lake and yearn for that calmness again. On nights when I’m nostalgic, I wish to be on a plane heading to my next destination.

Tonight is one of those nights. Or maybe I just really want to finish all my Hanoi posts before the year ends.

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Ninh Binh in a Day

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Ninh Binh is three hours away from Hanoi, and it’s situated in a mountainous part of Vietnam. We basically spent our third day in Vietnam traveling for 6 hours, but that sounds a little compared to the 8 hours of traveling to and fro Halong Bay. I slept mostly during the duration of the trip, so the hours passed quickly.

If I have to choose one word to describe this day, it’s calming. For our Ninh Binh day tour, we visited the Bai Dinh Temple and the Trang An Grottoes and were welcomed with utter calmness. The most people we saw that day was during our stopover in the morning. Just like in the previous day, we visited a souvenir station where they sell clothes, potteries, art works, and whatnot. After that stop over, we visited places that seem to be vacated except for us.

This time, we joined a traveling group of mostly Vietnamese from Ho Chi Min City. There’s also a mother and daughter pair from Chile, and we talked mostly to them.

Our first stop is the Bai DinhTemple and was astounded by the vastness of the place. Everything about it is huge. The temples were humongous and so were the Buddha statues. It was pretty solemn since it somehow felt like we were the only one in the place.

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