I am here. My little travel review.
Yumi was in Halong City. (◕‿◕)♡
March is a good season for flower blooming in Halong. There were many pretty flowers around the hotel I stayed, included Ume flowers too.(￣ε￣＠)
And since Vietnamese New Year had just finished, I still saw mandarin orange trees remaining indoors and outdoors.
Even delicious-looking Pomelos were still on the tree, without anyone around at that time; it almost gave me the idea of stealing one.(￣▽￣*)ゞ
Yumi was riding bicycle (◕‿◕)♡
Single and tandem bikes were free to use from Vanilla Halong Villa, where we stayed during our trip in Halong City. Mum and I had so much fun together since it was our first time riding a tandem bike. ( ˘⌣˘)♡(˘⌣˘ )
Moreover, there was a sidewalk all along from the hotel into the town which made us feel safe to ride, away from the driveway. We gone around the nearby local town, but some parts of the area were still under construction and empty buildings.
Because where we stayed was a new town and a bit far from the center, there weren’t many shops or restaurants opens yet. After riding about 1 hour, we ended up eating Lotteria chicken at Marine Plaza. And even that Plaza area was also quiet, and almost empty.
In the future, I hope there will be many shopping centers and tourist places open in Halong City, and then I will definitely visit there again.
Yumi was staying at Vanilla Halong Villa (◕‿◕)♡
We stayed one night at Vanilla Halong Villa on March this year. It was a small hotel but the room was very clean and so comfortable. The balcony was also lovely decorated with beautiful flowers. It was a good choice for a quiet place to sleep. ( ‾́ ◡ ‾́ )
The hotel located in a huge area with many buildings around, but some buildings are still empty, no tenant yet; also the surroundings are still under construction so there aren’t any restaurants nearby. We had to go into town for food and exploring.
Good thing I like about the hotel is we could use tandem bike for free to look around the city. It was lovely and we got so much fun. (〃＾▽＾〃)
Yumi is in Halong City (◕‿◕)♡
Actually, we booked a one-night Halong Bay Cruise Tour through internet which we were supposed to wait in Hanoi City for their pick up at 6am the next morning. But when we checked their tour schedule, we noticed that we wouldn’t have chance to look around the Halong City at all, since it was a cruise tour (no city tour included). We were really curious about Halong City, that’s why we decided to go there by ourselves one day before the tour by taking a private taxi with $100 charge from Hanoi City (＃￣0￣)
After looking around the Halong City, we realized what we did was wrong; it was not a good idea to travel this way. We wouldn’t say it was not worth to come, just, Halong City is still developing, not many tourist places yet and we spent another $100 for hotel and food ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡
Considering there isn’t much to do in the surrounding area, we think Hanoi City is a lot more fun and attractive to stay so if you book Halong Bay Cruise Tour, I highly recommend you to stay in Hanoi city and wait for their free pick-up. You can save your time and money too.
Yumi was in Hanoi (◕‿◕)♡
We’ve been dreaming to go to Hanoi City for many many years, and finally we made it this year. (ɔ ˘⌣˘)˘⌣˘ c) There were 3 of us, my mum, my friend and me. We took a flight from Phnom Penh to Hanoi Airport also known as Noi Bai International Airport. The flight took about 1h45mn, and we arrived the Hanoi Airport around 10am.
We were planning to go to Hanoi City so we were looking for a taxi. When we were about to call Grab taxi, there was a Vietnamese guy approaching us and asked if we need a taxi or not. He looked so suspicious but I don’t know why my friend made a deal with him. 〣( ºΔº )〣
The guy started to make a phone call and then showed us the picture of the driver who will come to pick us up at the arrival. A few minutes later, the driver showed up, but it was just a normal car. That guy might have just called to his friend or relative or someone he knows and standing by near the airport, I think. That was the way we went to Hanoi City. ┐( ˘ ､ ˘ )┌
However, I didn’t think this was a good way to do at all so I didn’t recommend you to take a random taxi like us. We were lucky that nothing had happened to us that time. It turned out that the driver was also a nice person. It’s better and safer if you take an airport taxi or just call a Grab taxi right from the airport to Hanoi City.