Back from Hanoi

Just back from Hanoi this afternoon. It's summer in Hanoi, the weather was very hot and humid without wind. After spending 7D6N, our skin colour is now same with the vietnamese people - same same, but different. Traveled uphill to Sapa, the paddy fields were so green in colour.
The Black Hmong (a.k.a. Black Cat '苗族') kept following the tourists.
Our journey to Cocly Market.

We have to climb up to the top of the hill to visit this Cocly market.
The sceneries in Sapa and we chosed for the home stay.After treking in Sapa, we chosed to relax in Halong Phoenix Cruiser.
We went for kayaking to discover the caves.
The trip budget is approximately RM1.3K (including air ticket RM342 without promotion, accomodation, Sapa & Halong tour packages, food, entrance tickets, taxi fees, cyclo, LCCT van & Skybus and everything). The 2 tour packages which we booked online, Halong tour is quite satisfied while the Sapa package isn't South Pacific Travel's specialty, it's a bit overcharged compared to the quality. Actually it's not necessary to exchange money for Vietnam Dong before going to Hanoi but USDollar because the exchange rate from USDollar to VND is better at there, compared to Ringgit Msia to VND in Msia. We did see a group of Msia tourists bought souvenirs with Ringgit Msia.
Well, taking taxi with meter in Hanoi isn't safe because they have a button to tweak the meter to speed faster. The vietnamese is very poor and it's like our parent's olden days, and we got to see it here. Many of them couldn't even speak English and finally we'd learnt many new words in Vietnamese language, like Ve Sinh (toilet), Moat-Hai-Ba (1-2-3), etc. Luckily I've borrowed a tiny calculator from Zaila, so that we can ask how much is the items because many of the people don't even understand what is 'How much' but you have to show them the calculator. Sometimes we have to show them the paper of USD or Dong first. It's fortunate that when we met someone who understand English but of course people in good restaurant & hotel can understand English. Then, the ladies in Hanoi are quite fierce where we saw a few cases that they fighted in the main streets like in drama =p Some ladies prefer to wear sexy inner wears out to pasar malam, quite open minded.
Soi, our home stay host in Sapa. A very friendly and cheerful person.
Many photos are still with my colleagues, I will upload more after collected from them.

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7
Accommodation of Hanoi Trip
More photos at my Vietnam Trip Photo Gallery.

The 32nd Bon Odori 2008

My first time to visit Bon Odori in Shah Alam, Panasonic Sports Complex. It's convenient to reach by KTM where there were many free shuttle buses awaiting us at Shah Alam KTM station.
Shashin o torimasu ka? 写真を撮りますか。
Open air Sushi King stall.
Many varieties of Japanese food was selling at food corner. Of course the price was expensive. いろいろ食べ物。とても高かったです。
The stage of performance.
The dancers were waiting to go on stage.
Japanese kids simply dance on the street.
Look at the Japanese kid faces......
A group of girls wearing like pejamas.
kimono... kimono... everywhere...
so shiny......
The performers also had their own photo sessions before going up to stage.
Everybody can follow to dance on the field. This front row were students from Japanese school who were assigned to follow dancing.
I met with my japanese classmates and Iwahara sensei:
Lee-san saw Iwahara sensei from the crowd and brought her over to us. Lee-san also joined in the photo. Iwahara sensei no longer teaching us, she's teaching in UPM now. The guys grab the chance to exchange phone number with sensei.