8 Day 7 Night | BeiJing | Crowne Plaza 

Travelling with the bf's family (:

Is this a scary thought? Many of my friends worry that I might not "survive" the trip well. However, it turn out to be fine, maybe joining the tour group with all the planned activity help. So here we go 8 days in Beijing, Capital of China.

We stayed only in one hotel throughout the trip which is kinda surprising. The hotel was considered 5 Star in China, the service was alright, the room was bit old but clean, menu is the same everyday but my watch was stolen ):

Apologies for the half shot of bath tub, not sure why I shot it this way too ): To my surprise, the water was clear unlike the first few trip I had in China where the water is in yellow shade (:

Basic toiletries provided..

The hotel was located near their Orchard road and it was super convenient to visit the stores at night. The temperature was around 5 degree Celsius to minus at times hence there were few clothes that we could buy to wear in our tropical climate. We mostly bought food and accessories as gift to friend and family.

A very wavy facade treatment we saw

There was no planned activity for the first day after our dinner hence we walk around the area for a bit before heading back to rest for the day...

Alright will leave the rest to the next post. :D 

Around the world #41

Vietnam | Hanoi

7 Day 6 Night | Apricot Hotel

Starting with the view you can observe from the roof, overlooking the lake and town area. 
It was quite late and shops were closing so we didn't bother to compare price with others as it was already cheaper than  buying online. We booked and paid cash for our Ha Long Bay tour as we have still quite a bit left and there was a atm nearby so we were not worried.  
On google map our hotel was just a 15 min walk from the place. But since we alight at a different place, it was further away and 1 of the staff volunteer to bring us back with her scooter (: maybe she earn quite a bit from our booking. Who knows :p
Han came soon after and he had to piggy back our luggage hehe. The staff brief us on the appliance and finally we can rest (: 

Hotel swimming pool which wasn't up to a 5 star hotel standard, just very simple and conventional. 

Shops and houses beside the hotel 

Study/Admin room equipped with laptop and printer which was perfect as I was so excited with the job offer from my company :D 

Courtyard which we were facing from our window, not so bad after all as it adds on to the coziness of the hotel.  

_ _ _ 

How we got here. 

It was around 9pm when we touch down and we were worried the sinh tourist will be close as the opening hour were only till 9.30. We gave the taxi driver, the address we copied and it was around 9.30pm when we reached the destination. We alight upon seeing the first sinh tourist though the address was different as we didn't realize there was a number of them. 

The staff could only ferry one at a time, so i left first to check in and waited at the lobby for Han. Upon check in we were greeted with mango smoothie in a luxurious looking lobby. 

The room was nicely decorated and very clean probably because this is a fairly new hotel. 

Following the new trend of hotel design, most of the room comes with open concept where we can see people bathing and what not. 

 Finally able to rest after a long day

We booked the hotel for two separate days, 1 before of Ha Long Bay Trip and 1 after the trip. On the last day of our vietnam trip, we were short of cash as we couldn't withdrawal from the ATM and i lost my mastercard ): 

and this is all what we have left. Both of us laugh as we were staying in a 5 star hotel but eating instant noodle for dinner and breakfast. Felt so happy that we were staying in a comfortable place, having enough money to take a cab to the airport and it was the last day of the trip.     

Tada... Our awesome pho instant noodle.

Shall post more soon enough

Love, 

Yinzhen

Around the world #40

Vietnam | Nha Trang

Michelia Hotel

7 Day 6 Night | Michelia Hotel | Day 2.2

 It was close to 8.30pm when we reach nah trang and we were both worried if we would be cheated again by taking normal taxi flag along the road side but we didn't book with the hotel so we had no choice.

When we board the taxi he claim that he would be using meter for the taxi charges, so we need not worry but the meter was jumping so fast along the way and we ended up paying 600k dongs for this trip. We only realise that we were cheated when the taxi serivce at hotel was 440k to airport ):

We checked in the hotel around 9pm at least we were safe and sound (: 

We didn't went out to walk around that night as we were both tired out from the mekong trip so we ended up soaking in the bath tub and ended the day. 
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In nha trang, they have different paths for the cyclists and cars to travel on and most of them are really clean.

 Our hotel room with partially open toilet window and tv with catoon of course. This hotel claims to be 4 star but to my experience in Vietnam, I feel that Hoang Hai Long (3 star) hotel that we stayed in Ho chi minh was having equal standard with them. We had a view of the beach that we didn't went for two days (: 

For the first time we swim in a hotel swimming pool <3 It wasn't as pleasant as there was construction work right behind the pool but oh well.

There was quite a number of dishes to select from for their breakfast menu and it taste alright (: 
We left shortly after we extend our hotel stay as we have only booked it for 1 night online. 

The first place that we went to was the vietnam active ( tour agency ) that we found online but to our dismay we were too late for either the snorkeling / diving trip ) : The tour agent thn recommend us a cycling day trip for the next day as we will be leaving for another flight to hanoi at night. Han was keen and at the least we were still able to explore. 

As for the rest of the day 3, we rented a bicycle from them and we started cycling around the area as shown from the map at the top (: 


Alright will leave the rest to the next post. :D 

Around the world #39

Mekong River 

Vietnam

7 Day 6 Night | Mekong River  | Day 2.1

We bought our tickets from a tour agency that is located near the hotel at  785k dong ( Sin $48)  for both of us. This is a tour group with about 15 pax, pick up and drop off will be at respective hotel. Prior to this trip, I have enquire about Mekong day tour from various agency and most of them offered $100USD ( Sin $140/Pax) for a private tour. Hence I personally encourage you to get your activity and package in Vietnam. 

We had our breakfast at the hotel before we left for the tour (: They had awesome Pho, Super love. 

The first stop was a chinese temple, with one of the largest buddha in that area standing 3 storey high.  

We were just in time to witness their daily prayer for lunch time, as all of the tourist crowd around the main hall to watch the event, other monks were busy preparing food and drinks at the back. 

We reached the ferry terminal and our boat trip starts here (: For most of this trip, the transportation was by this bigger ferries as shown below. Our group has a good mix of tourist and one of the family was from Singapore ! 

The mekong sapan boat was a short little experience, where the boatman, mostly woman who will row us to another part of the island through the palm trees. One of the Sapan can only hold 4 passenger and we went together with the tour guide. From what he told us, the boatman earns from the tips that the passenger give them. Hence remember to give some generously!   

We went to their coconut sweet production factory and as told, it was one of the famous delicacy in that area. When every step was still handmade and wrapped. 

After the tour, we had a lunch break under a huge hut and this weird looking fish was the first dish they served. They slice the fish in pieces and wrap with mint leaf with a flour skin as a starter, personally too fishy for me. hahs 

Pretty flower from the tour guide at the end of the trip (: 

Love,

Yin Zhen

Next Nah Trang <3