Hanoi Day 3 (AM) - Monday 14.05.08

A landmark just outside Dong Xuan Market

We didn't bother going down for breakfast this morning. We knew that it'd be something like yesterday so we decided to pass. So it was serunding, cakes and coffee breakfast in the room that morning.

Once everyone was ready, we went downstairs to get a cab. It was a nice day. No rain like the day before. Actually in our planned itinerary, we put down the option of going to Halong Bay. If we did decide to go, it would have been 3 hours in a van down to the bay. Then spend 4 hours sailing a junk to see some natural caves and then another 3 hours back. It's a natural beauty we bet. No arguements on that.

However, the thought of sitting in a van for so long to get to the destination was not really what we had in mind. Not when the main objective of this trip was retail therapy. So we all agreed that we will pass. Next time perhaps. Mana lah tau we may want to make a return trip with the family ker. We'd do Halong Bay then. Today....we shall hit the streets one last time. Esok dah nak balik and still ade lagi stuffs which we have not managed to get.

The cab we took that morning to Dong Xuan Market took us on a different route. We finally passed the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It is the place where body of Ho Chi Minh was kept. The cabbie drove passed a busy market area. There were people trading all along the street. Traffic was busy but we must complement the driver coz he was so good at making his way through.

All the kains we bought...

First, we went to the top most floor where clothes we sold. Nothing we liked there so we headed to the fabric area. Here we got more of those boing-boing materials. We also managed to get some really good bargains on Vietnamese silk. Muni & Jupe got some. This time I passed the silk...ummppp something very unusual for me. After the kains, we went down and headed to the handbag section. The first store we stopped at didn't have anything we really liked. The girl at the shop was pretty aggressive trying to sell something to us.

Mom's bag...dark blue with sunflowers

We walked to another one round the corner. I spotted this nice bag, blue black with floral embroidery on it. Mom had texted me from Mecca (she and her friends went for umrah a few days before I left for Hanoi) asking how things were with my trip and asked me to look for a nice bag for her. I felt the one I saw would be just nice for Mom to put her things when she goes for her mengaji class. Really a striking one and I was sure Mom would like it. Then I saw another one and another one. Ahhh sudah...ader 3 pieces yang dah really, really jatuh hati on the bags. I asked the girl how much were those bags. She gave some figure in Dong....entah berapa tah. Something like 250,000 to 300,000VND for one. So 3 bags would be more than 600,000VND!!! Wah...gilos minah ni. No way I was gonna pay that much for the bags. But sukaaaa nyer pada ALL the bags. Have to get it, really a must buy.

So I bargained and bargained like no end. I told the girl we really liked her bags but the price was not ok. If she can give in to the prices we wanted, she'd be making such good sales today. Muni pun dah pegang a few bags and so did Jupe. I guess the girl really saw that we meant business. It was really a time of who was the most determined one. Eventually, the girl gave in and we got the bags at the prices we wanted. She had made sale of more than 500,000VND in less than 30 minutes that morning. Not bad huh??? Thanks to us..the three bag ladies ;-))

We left the Dong Xuan Market feeling so happy. We walked down the street again heading towards the Water Puppet area. Bukan nak gi tgk Water Puppet show lagi. But nak gi cari Kipplings lagi. Tak habis-habis lagi...layan....

On the way there, I managed to get Nissa a dress and a Vietnam t-shirt for Bibik. Muni and Jupe got some Polo tees for the hubbies back home. Kena la ingat kat they all ni. Dah ler tak pi...tak kan tak de ole-ole...hehe..hehe :-))

We then tried looking for the transparent bangle at the shop where we saw it (well...we thought we saw it at that particular shop). Alah...dah tak de!!!! We were so, so dissapointed. Should have stopped to check it out on that very day we saw it.

It was almost lunch time and we were getting hungry. We didn't feel like going to the same restaurant where we have been having dinner. Let's try something else la plak. We then saw this restaurant called "Bun" something. "Bun" was we understood it is "roti" lah kan. So Ok lah..we were game to try. There were also some vegetable dishes which we felt would be safe.

yours truly waiting for the "bun"

looking so poyo... to the max!!

When the menu came, we ordered different types of "bun". I had "bun" with seafood, Jupe ordered "bun" with something else and so did Muni. We figured bila datang our food, boleh la try each other's one. Terfikir jugak...macamane la nak eat "bun" with seafood ni.

When our food came.....ha ha ha ha...what do you know!! The "buns" came in bowls. "Bun" is actually noodle in Vietnamese. So kira ok lah. We each got a type of noodle for lunch that day. Taste wise, it was pretty not too bad and the helping was quite huge.

After fueling up ourselves, we we ready to go look for those Kippling bags. We walked slowly, no rush as we had gotten most of the things we wanted. I then got a small pouch for Faris and a coin purse for Farah. We jalan-jalan lagi but we didn't find anything else we really, really liked. So I guess it was time to end this stint in Hanoi.

the stuffs from that morning's spree

the kains...

all handbags from yesterday & today

We were all so tired by then. The afternoon heat was getting at us and tiring us down. We walked cross the road and then hailed down a cab to take us back to the hotel.