Amazing Thailand

It's just one week after I came back from an amazing trip to Thailand. I am still in good mood and so eager to write about this trip.

Wat Traimit

                                                     

We are 3 girls who travelled to Thailand by ourselves. Actually I was very eager for this trip because it's my first trip outside Vietnam. I booked air ticket with Jetstar airlines (it's one of cheap airlines in Vietnam) about half year before travelling. The price was not too cheap ($90 for round trip) but it's acceptable. If we booked AirAsia airlines it might be cheaper.

I also booked hotel before coming. I booked Blutique hotel through the website booking.com because there is no deposit and I can pay after staying. However, it costed me 7400 baht for 4 nights while the actual price was just 6600 baht. In my opinion, it's a comfortable and convenient hotel because it's in small alley inside Pratunam market (a wholesale market for clothes). Also the receptionist (or owner, not sure) is an European handsome guy. So I can easily communicate and ask for supporting whenever I need.

After landing, we had a first try of Thai foods in a restaurant at airport (forgot the name, but it's in front of BTS station (a sky train in Thailand). Then we bought BTS ticket (40 baht/person) and enjoyed a new experience of sky train which hasn't have in Vietnam. The feeling of experiencing new things is really wonderful. From Rachaprarop station to hotel is near so we just need to walk there.

In the first night, we went to Siam Paragon, a huge and beautiful mall in Bangkok, to enjoy our dinner. We decided to stay in Bangkok only because our objective was just shopping. However we just went window-shopping in Siam because it sells only luxury brands which we are unaffordable.
The second day in Bangkok, we went to Ekkamai Gateway. From Phaya Thai station we only need to buy ticket at 25 baht and get out at Ekkamai station. However it's opened at 10am only. We went there too soon and had to wait outside. Our plan is playing in snow town inside Ekkamai because I never see snow in my real life. However it's only opened at 11am. We waited again. The weather inside snow town was not too cold so we didn't need to hire a coat. The ticket is 250 baht include boots. The snow is not very much and the area is small. However at 11:50am there was dancing show by a guy in bear clothes and two girls in Santa clothes. After the show we head to exit gate, luckily a girl who lending skateboards stopped us and told to stay because there would be falling snow in 2 minutes. Thank to that girl, we could enjoy the falling snow at 12pm. It's really beautiful. We all love it. We bought some clothes here because the price is cheaper than Vietnam.

In the afternoon, from Ekkamai we took BTS come back to Asok station (15 baht/person). Then we took a MRT (underground train) to Hua Lamphong station (29 baht/person). Then we took a bus to Chinatown (9 baht/person). We got out at Wat Traimit (a famous temple with a golden Buddha statue weighed 5,5 tons). My friends could not go inside the temple because of personal reason so I was the only one went inside to see the Buddha statue. I bought a ticket of 40 baht for seeing Buddha statue only (if you want to see photo exhibition you can buy another ticket of 100 baht). When I came to the stairs I asked a guy where the entrance is. He asked me to give ticket to another guy (could be gate keeper). Then he asked me "where are you come from?". I replied "I come from Vietnam". He said that he thought I am Thai because I look like Thai. I thought "Omg what a pity! If I didn't buy ticket I might go inside free" because Thai are free to visit temple. Hahaha

After visiting Wat Traimit, we walked to China town where we could enjoyed super delicious street foods. China town is a long street which has many different kinds of food like mango stick rice, grilled pork... Tired from a long walk we took tuktuk (a popular mean of transportation in bangkok aside from taxi) to Maharaj coffee area where I can have delicious coffee and cake at After You shop. That was my first time riding a tuktuk, we can deal the price before acceptance. However we weren't good at dealing price so we got the rather expensive price at 170 baht from China town to Maharaj. Maharaj is on the side of Chao Phraya river, Maharaj is also the name of a pier where express boat come and go. Maharaj is a complex of coffee shops but most famous and crowded and expensive coffee is After You. The price is not cheap but it is delicious. The feeling was very good when we can see sunset on the river side, very romantic haha.
In the evening we went shopping again at Pratunam night market. We were surprised because the price is very cheap here. It's thousand times cheaper than Vietnam. After a long day of discovering and walking in Bangkok, we were so tired so decided to relax ourselves by having smoothy and listening to music. The old lady was playing guitar and sang so many songs including English and Thai songs. Her voice is so sweet and guitar played very well. I love guitar melody so much.

The next day we travelled to Safari world (about 30kms far from Bangkok centre). We asked hotel to book a tour for 3 people, the price was rather expensive at 1300 baht per person including pickup and drop at hotel and buffet lunch. As I know the entrance price for foreigner is 1200 baht in total while Thai is only 580 baht. There were so many people visiting Safari on that day. Most of them are Chinese, Indian and Thai students. Safari has two area. The first area is Safari park where animals are fee so we have to travel by car in order that animals cannot attack us because there are a lots dangerous animals like tiger, camel, deer, bear... they all are wild animals. We really enjoyed the feeding show at 10am when a girl stand inside a cage to give meats to hungry tigers. After Safari park we were dropped at gate of Marine park for walking inside. Marine park is the second area that I mentioned above. It has many interesting shows such as Orang Utan, sea lion, elephant, dolphin, spy war...
Orang utan is a humorous show with animals like monkey to perform Muay Thai competition. At elephant show we can see elephant playing football and drawing pictures. Every picture drawed by elephant were sold at 750 baht. Dolphin show is the most expected show because it's very interesting. Before the show begin, the stage was full of people. The MC played dancing music and asked Thai students and Indian guys to dance. Thai students are very young and small in elementary school but they danced very strong. We love it so much. The show of dolphins was fantastic that we totally enjoyed. Spy war is a very different and incredible show. The show was performed by human not animal as other show. They just liked making an action film. They have story and do a lot of effects such as fire, booms...the only thing I don't like that they don't speak English.
After coming back to Bangkok, we had dinner at Big C (the food is cheap and diversified). We also bought many things in Big C supermarket. Unfortunately my friend was stomachache, so she had to go to the hospital. They went to Police General Hospital for treatment. It's one of expensive hospital because it's international hospital. They costed 1000 baht for examining and 200 baht for medicine. Luckily she got better after treatment.

The next day my friend got better and she can go for shopping again. This day we shopped at Baiyoke Gallery and Platinum. The Platinum was so big that it took one day to go all shops. In the noon I had a chance to meet my Thai friend and had lunch with him and his sister. His sister is very beautiful and nice with me. She is also good at English. While my friend was shy when speaking English. But they all treated me so well. My friend invited me lunch and recommend me many delicious Japanese deserts that I like it so much. I felt very happy when we can meet each other.
All day shopping we were very tired and our legs were nearly broken. And the day after we had to go to airport for our flight back to Vietnam so we called taxi to send us to airport instead of BTS. The dealed price was 400 baht because taxi in Bangkok don't turn on meter. Unfortunately perhaps I love Bangkok so much that I gave Suvarnabhum airport my coat with a mobile battery charging plugin and 2 lipsticks in the coat's pocket (actually I forgot to get my coat when I put it in trolley :()
My feeling when I had to flight back to Vietnam was regrettable because I still want to stay more days.
I promised I will come back to Bangkok one day because I loved Bangkok at first sight :)

Hekou-Hanoi

Well, there are so many feelings whenever recalling memories in the past. It's the trip that I combined in the trip to Moc Chau and Sapa. Totally I travelled 8 days.
I shared my part 1 in previous post, now it's part 2.

                                                            Chua mot cot - Ha Noi

Actually after finished the trip to Sapa. My friend and I decided to travel to China. It's only the small town near by the Vietnam-China border called He Kou (河口) of Kun Ming city, Yun Nan province. Introduced by hotel owner, we no need a passport to travel to China. Just give the agency about $15, they will make me a temporary passport which is valid within one day and provide a tour guide who guide me how to get into He Kou.

Easily we came to China land which I used to dream to be there. However I soon disappointed because the guy accompanied with us to China has connection with the restaurant and they charge us a very high price for a very normal lunch ($30/meal for two). He also tried to direct us to shops or supermarket that I think he also had connection there. Thus, after we learnt from the expensive lunch, we resited his offers to visit other shops.
Although there were not many places to visit in that small town, I still felt the difference of architecture between Vietnam and China. The Chinese architecture is more modern compared to Vietnam. Although I had a bit of disappointment, I had different experiences in China. By the way I am still happy to be there in China once.
End of the trip, we took the train and came back to Hanoi where we had interesting journeys. We stayed at the hotel that we usually stayed every time we travel to Hanoi. It's a rather affordable hotel in the centre of the capital (named Heart Hotel) with the price of $30/night. I have to recognize that the hotel rate in Hanoi is really expensive.
In the next morning, we hired a motorbike and travelled around the Hanoi capital ($10/day). Although I visited Hanoi so many times but this was the first time I really travelled to famous tourism places in Hanoi.
I still remember the first time when I visited Hanoi with my lovely boss. She just gave me 2 hours for going around before flight time and she just sat in Highland coffee to wait for me. At that time, because the time was too short, I had no idea where to go. So I just walked around the Ho Guom lake and took pictures. After that time I promised to come back to Hanoi to visit other places, so this was the time I implement my promise.
At first, my friend and I rode on our motorbike to Van Lieu Quoc Tu Giam (it's the first university in Vietnam). There were a lot of activities on that day. Many students from other universities came there to celebate their graduation. Also, there were painting exhibitions and other events. I noted there were many foreigners visiting this famous place. After that we travelled to Ba Dinh square where the body of Uncle Ho put in. Unfortunately the museum was under construction during that period, so I couldn't get inside to see him. I could only visited Nha San, lake, Chua Mot Cot... During our trip we joined a tour from Saigon so we could listen to tour guide presenting the history of places we visited. That's our experience to not to hire a tour guide but we can still have a tour guide. What you can do is going very close to them and catch up every place they go, then tour member will think "oh they're also members" and the tour guide will say "oh our tour have two more members" :))

End of the tour, we brought with us the memorable things during the long trip to Moc Chau-Sapa-Hekou-Hanoi back to Ho Chi Minh city.

Moc Chau & Sapa

A single girl loves traveling and gives you objective opinions and experiences on traveling in Vietnam.

Let me tell you another story about my trips.

Harvested rice field

Another memorable trip is going to Moc Chau and Sapa. I went there in November 2014 with another girl, Ms. Thuy, my best friend and the one who always accompany me in most of my trip.

We are two girls who like free traveling and don’t like traveling with tour. So we just booked air ticket from Saigon to Hanoi (normal rate is $120 in total/person), then we took bus to Moc Chau because there is no other transportation to the area except for motorbike but it’s too dangerous for two girls to ride during that route.

Moc Chau is 185km far from Hanoi capital (5-6hours by bus). We took route Ha Noi-Son La bus (ticket about $8/person) at noon. When we got there, it’s 20:00. We stayed in Truong Giang hotel with the rate around $15/night. I think this hotel is rather good.

The next day, we hired a motorbike from hotel to go around famous places such as kale flower hill, Heart tea hill, Dai Yem waterfall, Ban Ang pine forest, Ban On 5 caves… The rent price is $10/motorbike/day (fuel filled by renter).

Moc Chau is really good place to experience because of its wildness and beauty.

Aside from beautiful places in Moc Chau, the delicious food is also a famous thing there. We tried Bê Chao (small beef), Lợn Bản Nướng (pork) and Trâu Gác Bếp (buffalo) which are very special cooked foods and really cool to be tasted in Moc Chau.

The weather in Moc Chau is really special to me. It's cold in the night and warm in the day. The feeling of riding a motorcycle through large green tea hills and sloping streets is really fantastic. The wind slaps us on the face and the new day's sunlight shines our shoulder. It was the most wonderful memories.

Leaving Moc Chau, we came back to Hanoi because there is no good transportation from Moc Chau to Sapa. We took the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai city in 10hrs (it costed us about $20/person). From Lao Cai to Sapa we had to travel by bus with the distance of 30km (ticket $2/seat). It's a good bus because it's not crowded and the driver also stop for us to taking picture on the way.

Soon we got Sapa city and the driver sent us to the hotel whose owner is relative of driver (named Hoang Lan hotel, 13 Pham Xuan Huan street, Sapa town). The hotel is painted by pink color and look new and located in the city centre. Especially it's a very cheap hotel (around $13/night). Thus this is the affordable hotel for low budget like us.

We hired the motorbike from hotel with the cheaper price compared to motorbike in Moc Chau ($4/day). Also the quality of motorbike even better than the one we hired in Moc Chau. We used motorbike to visit traditional villages. One memory I still remember that we are only two girls riding on a motorbike to very strange villages of our different ethnicity, so we were a little scared at first. That's why on the way we asked to join with other foreign couples and they accepted with a very nice attitude with us (that's the thing I love at foreigners). We just rode together on the way but it helped us not to worry and more brave. At last we said goodbye to that couples and rode by ourselves because our plan was different from their.

                                 

We also met so many people of other ethnicity in Sapa such as Thai ethnicity, Tay, Dao Do... We went to famous places such as Thác Bạc (Silver waterfall), Cổng Trời (Sky gate), Hàm Rồng mountain (where we can see the whole Sapa city), Tả Van village, Cát Cát village... (You should not go Bãi đá cổ (ancient rock zone) because there is really no ancient rock anymore). 

Foreigners like to take trekking to villages in Sapa and I think it's a wonderful experience. A thing surprised me that Sapa people speak English very well. There are many Sapa girls do tour guider for trekking, so you can hire them (remember to bargain because they might recommend you a high price).

I still want to travel to Sapa many more times because there are still many hidden charms in Sapa.

They are waiting for you to discover.

p/s: My total fee for this trip was around $300 in 6 days.

Happy memories of Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan

It's very good when thinking of memories on my business trip to the beautiful places in the south-east of Vietnam. It was autumn in 2012.

A fishing village on the side of Ca Ty river - Binh Thuan

My schedule is to visit Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province. However, it’s hard for me to find the address on the map. The district named Bac Binh where is very wild. This area seems not located on the map. It’s 255km far from Ho Chi Minh.

The first difficulty is that I could not get the good bus to go. The bus is so terrible that I don’t want to recall. Narrow but crowded, old and hot…the second difficulty is that there is no hotel surrounding the area at least 20 kilometers. I had to stay in a motel without wireless. There is no super market, restaurant or entertainment place around the area. So bored… When I first got there I really wanted to come back. But i had to stay. The first night I was there, alone, I had to turn on the TV whole night to sleep. I have to say that this trip is for me to overcome the fears. The best place is the square and the house of Cham ethnic where they display Cham’s cultures. But I could not come in because I had no time. I only was outside and looked at their great architecture.

After finishing my work, I got a bus and went to Phan Rang-Thap Cham city, Ninh Thuan province. It is far 100km from Bac Binh. I like the road from Binh Thuan to Ninh Thuan because of the wonderful view of the mountain and the sea. One side is the mountain another side is the sea. When I came to the city of Ninh Thuan, named Phan Rang-Thap Cham, I felt very good. It seems like I already came back to human. The city is crowded, there are a lot of hotels there but I had to stay in a hotel that my boss asked me to stay. Anyway the hotel was very good. I heard that there are a lot of tourism place in Ninh Thuan such as Ninh Chu beach, Vinh Hy bay, Thap Cham, Nam Duong sand hill, grapefruit garden… But at last I could not go anyplace except for the beach. So when I left, I regretted because of missing some places.

At weekend I went to Dalat city from Phan Rang to visit my relatives. It is far 100km from Phan Rang to Dalat. However, the way is too dangerous for a bus to go because they haven’t constructed it. It’s took me 3hrs for 80km to Dalat city. Dalat is the most beautiful place in the south of Vietnam because the weather is always cold even in the summer. But it will be another story, I will write about it later.

After enjoy weekend with my relatives at Dalat. I took a trip to Phan Thiet city, Binh Thuan province again. It is far 160km from Dalat to Phan Thiet. The way going to Binh Thuan from Dalat is very beautiful. The hills, rivers, pine forests… I love them. However on the way, I was so shy because of my react. It’s not my fault. I sat next to the driver and I could see everything in front of the bus and the whole street. I saw that the driver was taking a phone call. And it was the big truck in front of the bus, but he didn’t care. I saw that he across over the truck and go straight to the barriers of two lines. I thought that I may be died that moment.  I can only shout at him. “NO”. But he even didn’t care my word and continued with his driving. Nothing happened after that, the bus still ran on the barriers and there is no crash. Then he explained me “Little girl. It’s okay because it’s only the plastic barriers.” I was shy so much and didn’t say anything.

Then I got Phan Thiet city, a beautiful city with the long beach. I love beaches. This time I was not alone. I could stay with my colleague and it was very fun when we were at the beach to take pictures. At last I have someone to take picture for me.