Woke up... dazed...
Haha... the time is about 4am and the train is already in Hanoi and should be reaching the Hanoi Railway Station soon. Man... I'm excited! I'm back in Hanoi! There's this air of familiarity inthis place. How could I not be familiar with this place? I've been here thrice previously... have got friends like Trang and Tung in this place. I miss Hanoi!
We finally reached the station! We bid farewell to our neighbour and alighted from the train. A little lost because it's our first time at the railway station. Hmm... we were trying very hard to find the Fortuna Hotel on our map so that we could direct our taxi driver there. But the hotel's nowhere in sight! Just then, our neighbourly uncle came towards us again and asked us where we were going. We told him and he found the hotel on our map! Wow... So, we followed the taxi driver to his vehicle. But horror of horrors! The 'taxi' was outside the railway station (meaning... we've to walk quite a distance) and it was a taxi but a van! The first thought that came to mind was... HOW MUCH is this gonna cost us? So, we asked and he said it's 100,000VND (that's about S$10). Wow... that's expensive! And in that crucial moment, i remembered a most important phrase... TAK GUA!!!! And that meant EXPENSIVE! Haha... the 'taxi' driver and his friends were surprised that I know that phrase... and believe it or not, they actually shook my hand (to congratulate me?)... haha... anyway, we embarked on a bargaining war... and finally we reached a consensous... 60,000VND! Hee... just as we were driving away, Jasmine remembered that we've yet to take photo in front of the railway station! Ha... so we stopped the 'taxi' driver in his tracks, rushed down the cab and took a photo each!
We reached Fortuna Hotel and Tung was there to welcome us! He's still as cute and handsome and his grinned from ear to ear when he saw us! I miss him so much! We quickly made ourselves at home at the hotel lobby and started taking photos with the Christmas tree in the hotel lobby. Haha... then Tung came over to chat a short while with us. We showed him our photos (still in our digital camera). He took one of the cameras, went to behind the Conceirge counter and looked through the photos. He looked as if he was doing some paper work at the counter but in fact, he was looking at photos! Hee... so smart of him hor...?
I finally gave in to temptation and bought a packet of Fortuna homemade cookies! We happily shared the cookies and left some for Tung.
His shift ended soon after and we made our way to his home at Ho Tay Lake. His aunts and grandma saw us and simply came up to us and hugged us! We really felt very welcomed in this place. The warmth that we received... Well, we dropped our bags and went for breakfast! Hee... it's that CheeCheongFun lookalike... and it's so so so very yummy! Awww... we miss Viet food!
Anyway, we had a yummy breakfast and then went back to Tung's home. Hee... we got him to switch on the computer so that we could transfer all the photos from our memory cards to my portable harddisk (80GB... don't play play ah...). Wow... we didn't realise that we took so many photos! Anyway, we took a long long time to transfer all that photos... and after transferring the photos, we decided to look through and see which are the photos that we want to develop into prints... and then sorted them into 1, 2, 3 and 4 prints respectively. Hee... we did all this while Tung was taking his little cat nap.
Finally, we're done and Tung also woke up from his nap. So, we went downstairs for homecooked lunch by his aunt. Wow... yummy. It's no fancy feast but definitely very cosy family meal. Hee... while the family members had a full bowl of white rice, the three of us only asked for half a bowl. I was the first to finish my lunch (as in my half a bowlof rice) and then, grandma wants to fill my bowl again. I politely declined... only to get scolding! Haha... Grandma believes that the young ones should eat more... so I obediently allowed grandma to fill my bowl... three-quarters full! Wow.... that's definitely more than what I usually eat! Then Jasmine and Xiuyue learnt from my experience that they better fill their bowls themselves else they'll suffer from my 'fate'. Haha... we were very full but we definitely enjoyed the meal... it wasn't just the food, it was also that warmth and joy of being treated as one of the family! :)
After lunch, we went to Old Quarters where Jasmine was on a mission... to make Ao Dai for her colleagues! Xiuyue and I went to Youth Hotel, only to discover that the friends we made at Youth Hotel have all gone elsewhere. A little sad but i guess life moves on. We went to have our fruit juice... i had my strawberry shake! Yeah... yummy yummy yummy... After Jasmine has accomplished his mission, we went to develop our photos. We actually had 714 prints! Wow... The shop assiatant was amazed and when we told Tung, his eyes popped out. Haha... And we spent about 1,000,000VND (S$100) on the photos! Tung was like... ' that's one-fifth of my monthly pay!'
Guess I can only say that we're spendthrifts on holiday!
Haha... anyway, by the time we're done around the Old Quarters, it's time for us to make our way to Trang's house.
Hanoi's definitely grown economically... because there are so much more cars on the streets now! And we were her two years ago! Gosh... Anyway, being people who can self-entertain anywhere, we decided to sort out all the photos and place them into the photo albums provided. Haha... we are good, aren't we? Hahah...
When we reached Trang's place, Trang also just arrived home. It seems that she was also stuck in the traffic jam! And then, I saw Bob, Trang's little one. I couldn't believe it! The last time I saw him, he was only 1-month old but now, he's a 2-year-old toddler running about the house! And he resembles Minh so so so much... Tung says that he's a photocopy of Minh! Haha...
But we had so much fun just catching up with one another, updating one another of our recent being. It's just so cool. Jasmine commented that this trip to Hanoi is not a holiday... it feels like we're at home, just visiting friends, having coffee and chatting. And I agree so much. We're in Hanoi not to tour but to visit our friends.
We had steamboat for dinner... and I figured that it's the Vietnamese custom to feed the young ones with tonnes and tonnes of food. Trang's mum was so busy cooking the food for us and didn't really eat a bite herself! We finally had to force her into eating some food when we started cooking food and piling the food into her bowl! The elderly is just so very loving of the young ones...
Well, by the time we finished dinner and had a long long talk with Trang's family, we decided to go home (it's 11pm Vietnam time) because the next day is a working day. It wasn't a sad farewell to the family because we knew that we would be back very soon... :)
Back in Tung's home, we quickly bathed and went to Zzzz...
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