#Visit to Museum of Ethnology

Together with V.E.O vice president and students from British Council :)

Museum of Ethnology

Met some vietnam little girls there who are soooo friendlyyyy! :D

 Some exhibitions in the museum that display the unique culture of Viet and many other ethnic groups in Vietnam included their living tools, costume, traditional occasion, house design and more. There are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, each of this ethnic groups has their own astonish cultures

There is one art gallery in the museum which I think it was pretty cool. There are some life gallery of different ethnic groups in a black room.

Outside of the museum, there is some show room of the traditional houses of different ethnic groups. 

This is the tomb. They gathered all the dead body in the tomb. After few years, they will have the celebration in front of this tomb as the blessings for the dead people who already reincarnated to the other world. 

This is the stilt house of Bana in Vietnam. 

& there is a long house in vietnam as well. 

After we visited the museum, we continue our journey to Bah Trang (Pottery Village) 

Spontaneously photo in the antiquate dam when we were on our way to take bus to Bah Trang. To go to Bah Trang, we took bus in Long Bien Bus Stop, which is no 47A bus. (p/s: There are a lot of bus stations there, have to take a look on the signboard to get on the right bus)

Street view of Hanoi nearby the bus stop. 

#Visit to Bat Trang

Finally reached here in Bat Trang after 40minutes of journey on the bus, it's a small village that is very peaceful and full of pottery products. I guess all the villages that away from Hanoi are very tranquility and peaceful. :)

Started to make our own pottery, it cost us 40,000 Dong. There are some Vietnamese from the Pottery Village were promoting in the bus station, we were heading straight away to the shop from the bus station.

We have tried to mould the pottery ourselves but it's really difficult for a beginner O:!

Yeah, finally it's done! :D 

There will be an artisan who helping tourist to carve on the decorations on the pottery.

Lastly. colour up your pottery with your creativity like a flying horse XD

After making the pottery, we had our lunch in the restaurant nearby the bus stop :D!

It's a small restaurant serving Pho, Bun Cha and some traditional snacks. I've tried Bun Cha which is a soup made from fish sauce with some grilled pork, eat together with Bun (one type of noodle in Vietnamese).

Then, we visited to the pottery market.

My friend bought this as souvenir which we could customize the little pottery with alphabets ourselves into a bracelet. Every alphabet cost 5000dong. :D 

Me and my friends,

Gabriela from Poland and Jomina from Philippines have visited to Old Quarter after work!

Old Quarter is a must-go place in Hanoi. It's an ancient place with a lot of old style streets. In Old Quarter, it's always hustle and bustle with a lot of cars and people over there. It's one of the tourist attraction in Hanoi, a lot of backpacker hotel and souvenir shops located there. Therefore, the price of the goods in Old Quarter are slightly higher compare to the other places. But it's a nice place for wandering around and visiting this historical vintage place. My host told me that originally Old Quarter street name was categorized by the name of the good that specially sold there, such as paper street, wood street and a lot more. But they did not keep this tradition now anymore.

#1 Hoan Kiem Lake

We dropped off from the bus in Hoan Kiem Lake. There is one turtle temple at the centre of the Hoan Kiem Lake. Well, it's not the same as my imagination. I tot it was big but turned out it's just a small building on the lake. *We must not trust on Google image! But it looks nice when the lightning light up at night. So, we just took a walk around the lake and some photos around the lakes. It was a wedding scenery for Vietnamese I guess, we saw like three pairs of new-wed were taking photos there :)!

#2 Trang Tien Ice Cream 

This is the must-try dessert in Old Quarter! :) It's really well-known as everyone in Hanoi recommended us to take the coconut flavour Trang Tien ice cream there! Therefore, we straight away headed to buy a Trang Tien Ice Cream when we reached there! :) 

But the signboard of the menu was shown in Vietnamese, three of us did not understand it. Therefore, we just ordered the ice cream that looked similar to coconut ice cream! But I think we have made wrong order, turned out we only have a vanilla ice cream ! TT

For me, it taste just normal but the cone is different from the normal cone. It's not that crunchy but slightly soft. Maybe I should have tried the coconut flavour ice cream next time :)!

One ice cream costs 12000 Dong = Rm2.10. It's slightly expensive but it worth trying since it's famous dessert in Old Quarter. :D

#3 Pho Bo

After wandering around Hoan Kiem Lake, we took our dinner in the roadside at Street Cao Go. Pho is kind of noodle like Kuey Teow with the clear soup and slices of beef or chicken. Pho Bo is beef Pho while Pho Ga is chicken Pho x) 

It's kinda nice as the noodle is smooth with the light soup and the beef slices are thin and tender.

On the way we were travelingtohave egg coffee, we met a vietnamese girl who is selling fruits with the bamboo basket. She just put the basket on our shoulder and ask us to take photo. After we have taken the photo, she forced us to buy some fruits from her and the price was ridiculous! She costed us for 250000dong -,-! We insisted not to pay her money but she kept arguing with us -,- so I've paid her 100000 eventually ==! *Don't get cheated by those fruit seller here! :( *AND THE PHOTOS ARE BLURRED!
But I took this as an expensive happiness token as I've gave the pineapple to my host family and they are really happy about that :P! She made me some pineapple slurry with the pineapple I gave them :)

#Egg Coffee

YEAHHH! I wanted to try this for long time! It's the famous Vietnamese drink which made up of egg yolk and coffee! This was the first time I have this coffee and it really taste good! :) It's actually a layer of sweetened egg yolk cream pour on top of the strong vietnamese drip coffee! The sweetness from the egg cream blended well with the bitter flavour of the coffee, Jomina and Gabi have ordered egg with chocolate but all of us think that egg coffee taste better because the chocolate drink is too sweet.

Xin Cao! :)
Yan Mei travels to VIETNAM HANOI! :D
The amazing journey gonna last for 41 days :)!

19.07.15
I've started my journey on this day.
bee and I had a lot of fun time in KLIA before my flight!

Until the time I was going to leave, I suddenly felt a little reluctant to go. Because I have to leave my home for one and half month. I have took a lot of courage to participate in this exchange. But I know that I would have no regret to join this programme because it will be a life experience for me :)

I felt so unwilling to leave my bee bee for so long! :( 

Same goes to my family, even though they didnt come to airport to send me off but I know that they miss me a lot too! :/

we hugged so tight before he sent me off. <3 nbsp="" p="">

I will miss you a lot babee, take care of yourself ya!

Dont forget your promise!

I m looking forward for your changes after I come back, kay? :)

Please take care of my parents also :P

Well, my journey officially started!

This was the first time I took flight myself. The first stop was Ho Chi Minh City.

In the flight, I have met with two Indonesian. They were heading to Germany and having transit in HCMC! It was so amazing when we were sharing our own stories and telling each others our traveling plans. 

 The flight time was from 2pm-3pm but I have no idea why the flight time was prolonged. I was late when I've reached HCMC. It was 4pm in Hanoi already that time!

I was so panicked because my next flight was 5pm (HAN time). I should have checked in already but I couldnt find the terminal that time!

Luckily, I have met a friendly Vietnamese guided me to the right terminal. Or else I couldnt imagine if i couldnt catch up the flight and I was alone there! 

At the end, I still able to get on flight and transit to HANOI!

*Some complementary dishes on plane :P

I touched down in Nobai Airport, Hanoi at 7pm. But it was raining heavily. I was stucked in the plane for almost half an hour. Then, I've waited for my buddy to pick me up in the arrival terminal.

YAY, we finally met up! :D

They drew me this, so sweet XD 

Taking bus to Mai's house

Meet with my buddy Quynh Anh and her best friend :D!

Ph Anh and Quynh Anh :) 

We talked a lot and shared a lot of things because they are so friendly! :)

They were sending me to my host family in Mai Thruong Street. 

When I have reached my host family, it was already 10pm.

This is my roommate, MAI! :)

A cute Vietnamese girl! We were staying together with her grandparents!

I felt so fantastic that we were having pillow talk even we have just met for few hours. 

These were some foods that they treat me as dinner, some simple dishes but I felt so warm :D

She taught me some Vietnam language,

"Xin Chao - Hello

Tam Biet- Byebye

Cam On- Thank you

Chau chao ba- Greetings to grandma

Chau chao ong- Greetings to grandpa

Ten toi la yan mei- My name is yanmei"

The next morning, I met with her grandparents. They were so cute! :) 

Her grandpa knows chinese, he spoke mandarin with me.

Even though the slang is a bit different but at least we can communicate in Chinese!

I felt so warm when he spoke chinese with me because I couldn't understand what were Vietnamese talking all the time XD!

First day breakfast,

Xoi (Sticky rice) with homemade soya and some plums :D

  

Then, Mai brought me to buy sim card and have lunch together with Quynh Anh and her sisters! :)

I met another new friend-Onion :)

She is Aiesecer as well :D

Then they went to class and Mai dropped me in "Pattern Cafe" :)

I m enjoying my time in this cafe surrounded with Vietnam handsome guy now :3 

I think the hot selling item in this cafe is those handsome guyssss undoubtedly HAHAHA. 

All the waiters here are handsome guys XD! 

I couldn't believe that I have already in Vietnam! 

The weather is hot like Malaysia :P

The biggest different is most of the Vietnamese travels with motorbike!

It's so cool to ride motorbike in the city! Mai is so brave, her motorbike doesn't even have side mirror! :O

 Me and Mai in helmet :D

I asked her how she ride without the side mirror she said she has already used to it! I was like WOW! O.O
But  I think it was normal for them as there is really a lot of motorbike on the road. Even the car has to give way for the motorbiker.
But this city is fulled of honks, very lively and busy.
You would be amaze if u were here also, people here all travel by motorbike. Even GIRLS also. They were riding bikes with pretty dress and heels! XD

Everyone used mask on the road so I bought myself a mask as well :) 

Mint green colour mask

I never regret to join this exchange programme because it was totally different with traveling!

The mask marks the different from me with other traveller!

because..

They couldn't travel everywhere like local vietnamese here by motorbike but I do!

They couldn't taste the home cooking dish here but I do!

They couldn't meet with Vietnamese local people here but I do! 

They couldn't learn Vietnam language but I do!

It was really an incredible journey to have this 41 days exchange here in Hanoi! I can't wait to discover more places in Hanoi and meet more friends here! :D