Day 1 - Walk in Hanoi, Vietnam

For the year 2011, it seemed that we are visiting more country around Asia, and would like to end 2011 at the high note by visiting the country which boast magnificent food, culture and the re-known Unesco World Heritage of Halong Bay. We headed to the beautiful capital city of Vietnam this time round - Hanoi!

For all this while, I presumed that Ho Chi Minh is the capital city of Vietnam, but it is not. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and there lays the great Ho Chi Minh, great Vietnam's revered leader. I will blog more about him in the next post.

So, we departed from Singapore Changi Airport to Hanoi using Tiger Airways. It took us about 4 hours to reach Noi Bai International Airport.

Prior to our arrival, we have pre-booked the airport pick up service from the hotel we are going to spent our night at - Hanoi Elegance Diamond Hotel. The airport pick up service is USD18 per car per trip. So, if you are going in a group, USD18/car is a very reasonable price. The distance from Noi Bai International Airport to the hotel is about 45 minutes depend on the road conditions.

Upon reaching Hanoi Elegance Diamond (HED), we were given a great welcome by the staffs. We got a nice welcome drink to quench our thirst and a cold tower to freshen things up, while they got our room ready. We were very lucky this time as we got our room upgraded from deluxe room to family room, without any extra charges! 

This is our room - 808.

The room is spacious and the ambience is comfy.

2 big beds were provided and the most exiting part was, it is furnished with a mini jacuzzi!

Free wifi service and a small laptop is provided in room. I would say, hospitality at its best!

After some rest, we got outside to have a short stroll along the streets of Hanoi.

We didn't stay too long outside, as it got colder as night came. Undecided where to have our dinner, we finally walk back to our hotel and had our dinner in the hotel and never regret it. Believe me, this in house restaurant in HED is one of the best restaurant in Hanoi.

The restaurant is located at the top most floor of the hotel and it offers marvelous food while enjoying the night scenery of Hanoi City. Furthermore, if you stay in the hotel, you got an additional 10% off the bill and no service charge or tax applies.

As the festive season is around the corner, we could see Christmas decorations in the restaurant which added even more feel to the excellent ambience the restaurant possessed.

We started with a Sesame Falafel - USD4.00

It is ground chickpea balls stuffed (separately) with spicy Japanese tofu and lotus seeds, and served with delicious tahini based sauce.

I got a Pho Chicken Noodle Soup - USD4.80

Must try this house favourite. Fresh rice noodles soup served with chicken, and the soup is enhanced with spring onions and herbs.

Connie got a Cha Ca La Vong - USD7.90

Another typical Vietnamese cuisine which served chunks of Snakehead Fish, with is marinated with turmeric, galingale sauce, condiments, and were fried and served in clay pot.

It is best eaten by rolling up with fresh vermicelli, peanut and fried spring onion, fresh vegetables and some special sauce, in a sheet of rice paper. 

In short, we call them as self made "Po-piah".

The dinner was a filling and enjoying one. I have no complains of the service we got from the staff of the restaurant. They speak good English provide a 5 star service to the customer.

After dinner, we went back to our room and have a good rest. 

Tawau Delicacy ~ Seafood At It's Best

The recent trip to Sipadan, Kapalai brought us the chance to reward our taste buds of some of the finest Tawau dinings. 

Firstly, we visited one cafe called Indo Cafe. The famous dish is the Tawau Pisang Goreng a.k.a Fried Banana.

We ordered the Cheese Pisang Goreng. Cheese and Gula Melaka is served together with the banana. The saltiness of the cheese blends well with the sweetness of the Gula Melaka, to make a good mixture with a freshly fried banana.

We did tried another type of serving of Banana, where it is served with a special sauce. I don't know how to name it, but it brings a punch of spiciness and it will be a kick for spicy lovers.

Secondly, Tawau is fond of it's seafood varieties. Not only the varieties that it is known of, the freshness is the one that is worth a thumb up for them. It is fresh everyday!

We went to this shop 好景生猛海鲜. It does not have an English name though, but it can be read as "Hao Jing" Restaurant. This shop is not those "throat-cutting" shop, but it offers great food at reasonable prices!

We been there consecutively for 2 nights for out dinner and I summed out what I had tasted below.

The scallops. 4.5/5 stars for this. Succulent, fresh! Look at how it is cooked, no starch nor oily. It is steamed to perfection!

Next up, the fish. I am not sure what type of fish this is, but i am sure this is the first time I tried this type of fish. A simple steam with soy sauce, kept the tenderness of the fish meat intact. Again, 4.5/5 stars.

Another type of fish on our menu. This type of fish is known for it's richness in Omega 3. Natural fish oil! It lives in deep sea and it has thick skin to keep it warm. Look at the flesh, it is thicker than steak! 4/5 stars.

The local escargot shells. It is steamed cooked. The star toothpick is used to pulled out the meat. Not our favorite but worth to have a try here. 4/5 stars.

In addition, the self made fried seafood bean curd is one of the must order dish. It is not normal bean curd. Inside the bean curd you may find tiny slices of prawns and calamari. 4/5 stars for this.

The Sabah Vege. In the peninsular, we can find this type of vegetable in the food menu. But, after I tried this Sabah Vege, I only know how tasty it can be. It looks hard, but when you put into your mouth and you start to chew it, you would realize how tender it could be! 4.5/5 stars for this.

Here comes the King of the day. Crab cook in salted egg. I give 5/5 star for this. Full marks. Why? Look at the amount of crab egg under the shell of the crab. I am sure you could not find this in any Sri Lanka crab sold in the market in Peninsular! The way it is cooked, heavenly! You gotta try this.

Not sure you readers are "poisoned" with what I wrote about the food in Tawau. But, I have to admit that, I misses the food there. I will definitely go back there... very soon! 

p/s: We did tried the fresh steam red tiger prawns, but we forgot to capture the picture of it, as we could not withstand it in front of us. Before we could capture it, it had gone down to our stomach. :P That is 5.5/5 stars.  

Maldives of Malaysia ~ Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort

Discover the beauty nature and be mesmerized with the wonders of serene landscape when the crystal clear sky meets the tranquil expanse of blue sea on a blissful sunny day at Kapalai Island.

We just had a 4 days 3 nights short trip to Tawau, Sabah. We took this chance to visit the diving paradise ~ Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort.

Our driver picked us up from Tawau, and it took us about an hour and a half to reach Semporna by car. Semporna itself is a gateway to the nearby islands.

We waited for all the travelers to assemble at the port and our journey to Kapalai started by speedboat!

Pei Quan looked abit "worried" due to he easily get seasick. ;p

Here it goes. 2 Yamaha high speed motor drove us in top speed across the crystal clear blue sea.

By looking at this photo below, you can judge how fast the speedboat is moving.

I almost had my glasses flew off during the journey. Wearing cap is absolutely a no no. :P

At about 25minutes of boat ride, we finally reach our destination - Kapalai Dive Resort! The first word that came out from my mouth was "Woww!"

This resort is sitting on its sturdy stilts on the shallow sandbanks of the Ligitan Reefs.

As it was still before check in time, we took the chance to wander around the resort and took some photos.

It looked like Maldives isn't it? ;p

The crystal clear water allow you to  see through the creature in the sea like star fish, lion fish, sting ray, cuttlefish and much much more. 

It is so relaxing when seeing at so many colourful fishes swimming freely.

You could see a contrast in sea water below. The place which is blue in colour is the deep sea. It is just only a few meters away.

Not only starfishes or corals that we could see in the resort. Swordfishes, cuttlefishes can be observed under us as well.

Of course not only tourists visit this Island. In fact there are some living community on this Island. They live a simple life. Look how free they are, cuddling around with their friends, and they are trying to throw someone into the deep sea!

The food served in buffet style which you can eat as much as you can. 

After the lunch, we headed to our chalet. 

The room is decorated in a comfort manner.

This is our balcony view. Some lazy chair for us to rest while enjoying the cool breeze.

The chalets are furbished with wonderful view. This is the view from our room. Magnificent isn't it!

It was near evening, and we took some time to visit around.

A view from the green bridge. A small garden was created along the whole bridge.

We reached a bridge whom will lead us to the very end of the resort - a human made sandbank.

Overlooking on the sandbank is the great South China Sea coupled with the beautiful sunset.

As the sun started to set, is time for us to fly!

And jump! ;p

As the movement of cloud is very fast, at some point, it does not block the sun, the sky brightened up again. It is very very beautiful.

Let's do it together!

Thanks to Pei Quan's sister whom gave alot of idea on how to pose.

As dusk approached, the lights around the chalet lit up, a starry diamond like painting is created upon us. 

We saw some stingrays and lion fish as well.

Even non-diver like us have a great holiday experience at this awesome island. As the time is short, we have no chance to island hopping to Sipandan and Mabul. We will be back again to visit the nearby Sipadan and Mabul island.

Picture say a thousand words. It is hard for us to describe how pretty the scenery are. Visit the island and see it by yourself.