Trattoria Singapore at 313 Somerset

Trattoria Singapore
313 Somerset, #01-16/17/18, 230 Orchard Road, Singapore.

Met Fata for a quick lunch at 313 this afternoon, main purpose was to collect my cell phone which was left in the car :P

We had decided on the Italian restaurant on the 1st floor of 313 'cos it looked presentable and Fata had heard from some people say that the place had good food.

The menu reminded me of Cafe Cartel's menu, the scratchy font and a numerical reference for every item. But this place has NOTHING to to with Cafe Cartel, I found out when I was paying for the meal that this was part of the 2 Trattoria places in Bali, with branches in Medan, Jakarta & Kuala Lumpur.

Lunch was decided, we ordered calamari (though the waiter said calamansi twice...), black ink pasta with salmon cream sauce and the 3-meat pizza. As they didn't serve free water, we ordered a bottled A&W root beer which was only 250ml for S$3.90! A can is 330ml.

Starter = calamari. For S$8.90 the portion was pathetic... we must have paid 80cents per little ring in that basket... very sad... and the rings were too small to fit even my pinky finger.

Main courses were shared, the first to arrive was the squid ink pasta. The first thing was the lack of length in the noodles. Though there were noticeable balls of longer noodles, there were many little stragglers... like 2cm - 4cm long stragglers dotted the border of the dish. Plus, I found it tasteless... even after a sprinkle of salt, it was still bland...

The pizza arrived about 5 minutes later, the toppings were really few and far between. The pepperoni slices were even halved! The cheap supermarket ham wasn't impressive either... Another problem with the pizza was that we couldn't pull it apart 'cos it was not sliced through. The wait staff were all busy, so I picked up the pizza plank and walked the 5-6 steps to the counter to ask a lady to help cut the pizza properly. Then I had to walk back again to the counter to collect my pizza 'cos the lady behind the counter also had difficulty getting the attention of any wait staff...

Sigh...

The bill came up to S$46.80 for the both of us, to pay, I had to go to the cashier to be ignored by 2 people (plain clothes people, so I assume they are 'management') before a 3rd main clothes person took my check. When I told this lady that my lunch experience was not good, all she said was that they are still under training. Not apology, not even a question in why is was not a good experience.

If anyone goes there and has a good time please let me know? Because I know that I will not be going there again. Strange thing is that the place was full of people by the time we left... why? Enlighten me please...

MH - Chrome Drillbot a.k.a. Chillbot

My shiny new trap from Ronza! (shown here with the Magma base & Gouda cheese)

Let's see how it works out in Derr Dunes :P

MH - Merry Christmas :)

This time on the Festive Comet through December brought me all my 7 Hydras, 6 Trolls and 13 Elves. Plus, the 8 special Christmas mice.

But with the Festive Gift Shoppe and Ronza here again with all the new toys it'll be another 3 to 4 months before my coffers will be filled enough for the Clockapult :P

Plus, I used to to missing just 3 mice out of 138, namely the Harpy, Cook & Shelder. Now the mice count has gone up to 140 + another event mouse -> Frozen, Toy & Frosty. And I'm missing all the 3 new mice :P

MH - 12-days + new trap + Ronza!

Larry has turned trapsmith this festive season! Trade in your items from the 12-days of Christmas event for a limited edition Christmas Cracker Trap!

Here is the Christmas Cracker Trap from Larry with the Candy Cane base from Ronza! Also bought the Snow Globe Trap from Ronza :)

Note: still prefer the HVMT & Magma combination at the Festive Comet :P

MH - last 2 of the 7 special X'mas mice

This ornament mouse was the toughest one for me to catch.

The Christmas Tree Mouse preferred SB+ :)

MH - Gingerbread Trap & Base

Got this sometime last week :) So cute...

MH - Finally! the Hydra!

Yippee!!! The hydra!!! FINALLY!!! Plus, they're wearing Christmas wreathes to boot! hahaha...

MH - Festive Gift Shoppe 2009

Moreover! There is a special Christmas shop with lots of new and special ( & not so special ) things! News just got out that blueprints are needed to craft a new Christmas trap for the special 12-day Christmas event.

From The Nibbler - 4th Dec 2009 edition:

Feedback Friday Cliff's Notes Version (no frills, no fluff, just the important stuff)
- Only Gingerbread Cheese can be crafted at this time. Really, that's it.
- A new trap (or component) will require a blueprint which has not yet been found.
- The Festive Comet will begin to melt, and new items and objects will be revealed as it does.
- Festive Mice will be here through the end of December.
- The 12 Days of Christmas event will last 12 days, and something new will happen each day.

P.S.

15 x Gingerbread cheese is obtained by smashing 1 x plank of gingerbread. :)

MH - Christmas Mice 2009

I got 5 of the 7 Christmas mice, still waiting for the Christmas Tree Mouse and the Ornament Mouse :)

Candy Cane Mouse

Present Mouse

Nutcracker Mouse

Stocking Mouse (got my first one just this morning).

Scrooge Mouse

MH - Mice dressed up for Christmas!

Cute little fella dressed like an elf.

A steely chorus...

Bundled up bear :)

Bling bling treant.

Such a cute ASM, got 2 in a row with trap checks this morning :)

The troll I caught yesterday was not dressed up yet :P

Ho Ho Ho...

Haven't gotten one of these X'mas ones yet...

So cute! With reindeer antlers and a bright red nose :P

MH - Bonus Mice Badge & X'mas Glee!

Just got my Bonus Mice Badge! I think it was the first Troll yesterday :P

Plus, check out the decked out banner and MH logo!

Hanoi, Vietnam - 29 & 30 Nov 2009, Mon & Tue

From the boat transfer off the Halong Bay Cruise, we will all squished into a very very tight mini van back to Hanoi. Extremely uncomfortable for a lot of people. Seats were even arranged so Allan and I sat 2 rows apart. This will likely be the one and only time to and from Halong Bay...

Good thing Elegance Hotel 2 was better than what we were expecting. Thank you Elaine Tay for the recommendation. Our room was on the top / 8th floor. It was US$75 nett via TripAdvisor's link. If Pea had stayed, it would have been the same room we would've paid US$95 for 3 people. The receptionist said that their rooms vary from US$40 to US$75 per night, and the rooms come with free wifi and a personal computer in each room. :)

Walked around the Old Quarters again trying to locate the 'famous' beef pho behind the Water Puppet Theater, instead we found a chicken pho place and unknowingly had unborn eggs. Unborn eggs are not fertilized, so they are NOT the chicken foetus. They are more like just the very round egg yolk wrapped in a like-sausage-skin casing, I found them tastless :P

Dinner was a problem, should we go all local? Or should we go somewhere nice again? It was decided that we will do a nice place, so off in a cab to the Metropole Hotel area to check out the fancy restaurants there.

We thought that the Press Club's menu looked interesting so we went up & settled down to decide on what's for dinner. But when we opened the menu, the familar honking of motorcycles and cars from 3 floors down reached us, we looked at each other, paid for the sparkling water we ordered and headed for Nineteen 11.

Granted the first experience for me wasn't great, it was good for Fata :) Plus! it was very quiet :) Fata had the pumpking soup with dumpling and a steak, we shared a cold foie gras dish, and I had the same bisque, but went for the chicken breast with pistaschio paste. Okay, i picked a real dud with the chicken, the pistachio paste had a strange taste :( oh yes, the chef's French, Hugo Baberios (spelling?) so we don't think he understood us very well :( oh well... But Fata had a good time :)

Luckily I got my waitlisted 30 Nov flight out of Hanoi :) I don't know what I would've done by myself for a day in the Old Quarters :P Moreover, Facebook was inaccessible via laptop (only by cell phone) since the Tuesday before :(

Halong Bay, Vietnam - 28 & 29 Nov 2009

Happy birthday, Fata! :)

To start, the bus pick-up to Halong Bay was 20 minutes late, 'cos there was a delay at one of the earlier pick-up places. Oh well...

The drive to Halong Bay was supposed to take about 3+hours, but there was standstill traffic at a road, and all the buses heading for Halong Bay made u-turns. Oh well...

Reaching the tourist-laden pier for our Halong Bay cruise, had to take a connecting smaller boat to the larger overnight boat, very much like the connecting boats we take to Kaleebso :)

We we lucky yo get on Phoenix Cruises' largest boat, the room was tight but comfortable. The bathroon had a rain shower too. Nice :)

I didn't like the set-up in the dining area, not at all flexible, they have more tables then are set up, and people are made to play musical chairs to accomodate families and couples... Lunch was not good, and we soon found out that all the meals weren't any good at all :(

After lunch, we took the smaller boat to a cave walkabout. Pretty, but nothing extraordinary. oh well...

Instead of heading back to the boat, Allan had asked the guide to bring us to buy some seafood for our dinner. At a small collection of floating houses, there were a few nets of fish, cuttlefish and crab. Allan decided to buy 5 large black-shelled clams and 6 small matis shrimps, all for 350,000 / US$20 / SG$30.

It was really sweet at dinner time when the boat presented Fata with a birthday cake & flowers. And another couple who were there on their honeymoon, also got cake & flowers. The rest of the evening was spent chatting with Kurt & Evie from Belgium.

The next day was quite a rush, 7am - breakfast, 8am - kayaking & 9am - springroll making class. Breakfast wasn't any good, as usual. Kayaking was uninteresting as we went to places where the main boat had gone before, plus the guide didn't tell us what we were supposed to do, nor provide any instructions on kayaking [like getting in / out of the kayak, how to paddle... all they keep telling us is to NOT loose the paddles 'cos they're US$20 each :( ]

When we were rushed back to the main boat, we were given 15mins to freshen up and check out 'cos the rooms had to be cleaned... oh well...

Thankfully, the springroll making class was somewhat fun. By the way, did I mention that the large boat that we were on had engine probolems overnight? The 3 couples going for the 2-night cruise had to be transferred to another boat... oh well...

Oh yes, the springrolls... while the class went on, we noticed that a boat had pulled up on either side of us to tow us back to the pier. It was interesting to see the differences between the 3 boats. Ours was definitely the biggest, with an extra level.

The boat on our right (starboard side) was filled with very hungover looking young people. The boat on our left (port side) was filled older people wearing big hats :P

I feel that Halong Bay is in the same category as the Water Puppet Show, a one-time deal. But we met people who have been to Halong Bay multiple times :) oh well...

This trip to Halong Bay reminds me of the getaway we had in Sentosa earlier this year, but at least this one's in-and-out in 24 hours :P

5 Bookmarks Worth Of 'Wisdom'

5 days of Melia Hotel, Hanoi bookmarks:

(1) The world is full of willing people - some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

(2) Success is not doing extraordinary things, but doing thing extraordinarily well.

(3) The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone he can blame it on.

(4) Experience is the name people give to their mistakes.

(5) Don't take life too seriously - you will never get out of it alive.

By the way, what is up with Facebook in Hanoi? Can't log in since yesterday :(

A Tale Of Two Travelers

On our trip to Sapa, Pea & I met 2 people, 2 men traveling alone to the Sapa.

The first guy, we met in the dining cabin of Victoria Express (US$170 return) on the way to Sapa. He was already there when we got there, and we stopped to chat. He's English, traveling alone (had a train cabin all to himself, expensive...) to Sapa. Been to many southeast-Asian countries before and will be visiting more after Sapa.

We bumped into him at Victoria Hotel, so he was staying there too. (Rate rates start st US$215).

At the train station for the train back to Hanoi, we chatted again. He said that he had a guide all to himself, and that he had gone further than some falls... He also said that he had a cobra. To eat. The heart, the gall bladder, then the snake was cooked in 6 ways.

After Sapa, this first guy's off to even more places to see even more things. We had bumped into him at the Lao Cai station waiting for the train back to Hanoi.

The second guy we met was at the first dinner we had at Sapa Global Hotel. He is Chinese-American, and he spoke in Mandarin with us at dinner. He's a retired professor, and he was in Vietnam for a conference in Hanoi on Sunday. The professor said that he bought his Sapa trip from the tourism desk at the airport in Hanoi.

For US$130, he got the overnight train to and from Sapa & Hanoi (we didn't ask which class), a couple of nights at Sapa Global Hotel and the half day treks, plus the transfers to and from the Lao Cai station and Sapa.

The professor was leaving Sapa the day after we left, after Hanoi's conference, he's going to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, then meeting his wife and daughter somewhere in China, then he's going somewhere else again...

Note: Not all hotels in Sapa have heating... and Sapa Global Hotel has no heating... you have to ask to either electric blankets, a heater, or just loads more blankets!

I find these 2 gentlemen very interesting 'cos the first guy looks 60+ and traveling alone using the expensive route & having a whale of a time. The professor is retired so maybe a little older than the first guy, but also traveling alone and using the more budgeted route and still have a great time. I think they're both really cool, I just hope that when I get to their age I'll still able to do such things :) Thank you for having met them both :)

Hanoi, Vietnam - 27 Nov 2009, Friday

In the morning after Fata was left for his conference, Pea & I wandered out of the hotel towards the old church looking for a french cafe Fata said he saw, for breakfast. We got all the way to the grouchy-lady sandwich shop, but still no french cafe, so we just walked down this street and stopped at a little cafe for an omelette and bread breakfast.

In the menu, I saw 'Dance On Ice', I asked the lady taking our order what it was, she said something I didn't understand, but for 15,000 dong, I figured let's give it a go. :P

A tall goblet filled with white cream, a dash of brown liquid & crushed ice. I took a sip and the taste was not pleasant, it was like something had gone bad in the glass! hahaha... tasted the brown liquid and it tasted like strong coffee. Oh well, I order an iced chocolate. The omelettes were ok, they came with 2 fresh rolls each.

After finishing all the food, and the ice had melted more in the glass of 'dance on ice' I attempted it again. When the same lady came back to clear our plates, she asked if I like it, I gave her a decided 'no'. Then she said that there was coconut, coffee and xxx in it. The xxx we didn't get... Anyhow, when we paid the check, we were enlightened!

The xxx was yoghurt!!! 'Dance on Ice' = yoghurt + coconut + dash of espresso + crushed ice!

The next hour or so was spent wandering around whichever street looked appealing to us :) That was when we chanced on 'Boo', a local street wear brand. Very cute t-shirts... Pea got 2 and I got 1 as a present for Tua Tao.

It was getting hot, and again the honking was getting to us again, so we strolled back to the hotel to wait for Fata to finish up with his conference.

When Fata found out that we couldn't find the french cafe earlier, he suggested that we find it and have have lunch there. Off we went again towards to old church... 3rd time today...

Oh well, had to look down a couple of street but we found it! It's called Paris Cafe, and there's another one called Moca Cafe just across the street from it. We shared an onion soup, a spaghetti puttanesca and a beef bourgignon. I had a chocolate-orange frappuccino, Fata had a lemon freeze & coke, and poor pale Pea had an earl grey tea.

There we chatted with the table of 4 next to us, there was a Singaporean, one from China, one from Hong Kong & I think the 4th one from Malaysia? It was like Asia at one table :) They recommended the best beef pho in Hanoi, some little stall that has only 2 tables and only one dish = beef pho! We recommended to them that place where we had our foot massage yesterday.

We vacated when the parisian cafe lost it's parisian flavor when a loud tour group entered. Walked down the street to get more name cards from the massage place, and we stopped at a shop (where Fata had gone a few times before, also just opposite the grouchy-lady sandwich shop. We bought more stuff for family before walking back to our hotel.

But a little alcove caught my eye, there was a bright red spiral staircase at the end of the short corridor. In we went, up the stairs.

A quaint store of propaganda inspired t-shirts, mugs, dolls, magnets, stickers... very cute :) I got a t-shirt, stickers, a boat magnet (for my granny), & a silver pendant/ring. The first shopping for myself :)

I wanted to go somewhere nice for dinner as Fata's birthday was the next day, and Pea birthday's 9th Dec, wanted to buy them a nice meal. We all took a cab to Metropole Hotel (5-star and VERY fancy, with lots of huge brand name stores lining the hotel), and walked around the available restaurants.

Saw the very fancy La Beaudieu (spelling?) at the Metropole Hotel, but with main courses costing about 600,000 dong, we figured we give this one a miss. Walked to the Opera Club and the Press Club across the street, and ended up at Nineteen 11 on the side of the Opera House.

There were 2 menus, one for the al fresco dining with pasta & pizzas, one for the restaurant buried in one side of the Opera House. Pea has the pumpkin soup with foie gras dumpling & orange duck. Fata had the prawns with Sapa mushrooms and lamb. I had the prawn bisque with sea bass. It was on the whole a very yummy meal.

But the service though good, the staff kept brushing into my bag which was hung from the corner of my chair, even with my arm over my bag, the waiter still brushed past... Plus, there were 3 bones in my sea bass :( I would've never expected any bones in a sea bass served in a fine dining restaurant :(

Anyhow, Fata & Pea both had a good meal, that was the more important thing.

Hanoi, Vietnam - 26 Nov 2009, Thursday

The train reached Hanoi at about 5:30am. Our Hanoi tour co-ordinator had told us when we left for Sapa, to not worry, that we will have a transfer from the train station back to the hotel. Well, after wondering around for about 10 mins, I called the dude at 5:45am. He asked us to take our own taxi back to the hotel and not pay more than US$2 for the trip.

Ok... we did not have the hotel name card, nor did we have the address of the hotel written anyway, how to get any of the cab drivers to send us to the correct hotel? We went up to a cabby and said - Melia? He said Mah-lia... next...

2nd cabby, we said - Melia? He said - Mah-lia?

Okay... pen on palm I wrote - Melia... cabby sees it and says - Mah-lia... hahaha... toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe... we made it back to the hotel for US$3. :)

I took a shower and went to bed 'til about 8am. Three of us went out and had beef pho for breakfast just a block from the hotel.

Then started the search for propaganda posters for my colleague. Followed by a 70min foot massage at a place opposite the grouchy-lady sandwich shop.

A super light lunch was at a local fry-up at a street stall just to the side of the old church. It was a dish of fried shapes, in different sizes, with a plate of greens and 3 bowls of clear dipping sauce. It basically the same filling, but with different 'packaging'. Some in rolls, some wrapped in bread, some squares...

We planned to have dinner at Koto. Took the cab from the hotel and we ended up paying the cab driver 10x the cab fare :( stupid mistake = one very happy cab driver...

Anyhow, Koto was good. I had Bun Cha (pronounced: Boon Cha), a local street food, with small BBQ patties & BBQ pork slices, with cut noodles and a clear dipping sauce. All for a good cause. Run by an Australian NGO to take street kids off the street, & teach them a skill.

The water puppet show was next. The tickets were 60,000 dong each for the 1-hour show. Yes, absolute front seats are good... It is a must-see from a cultural point of view. :P good thing it was only about an hour long...

The evening was whiled away in the Illy Cafe, on the 5th floor of the KFC/seafood building. It's very pretty being high up above the traffic, though you're still exposed to the beeping horns, with a cup of coffee. :) There goes another day on Hanoi...

Sapa -> Hanoi, Vietnam - 25 Nov 2009, Wednesday

Victoria Hotel breakfast was alright... ended up with some beef pho to warm up before venturing out again. The hotel's main building is pretty with many fireplaces. Very cozy and comfortable.

We had to check out before the trek but we could use the facilities before leaving for the overnight train back to Hanoi.

An old army jeep, very spartan, drove us down to the 2+km of concrete road we were supposed to walk down from Sapa town to the path to the Black H'mong tribe, stopping along way to snap beautiful shots of the terraced rice fields.

As we got off our jeep, Ha said to speak Mandarin in light of the groups of Black H'mong women just outside the vehicle. There were so many, Ha had to ask them to move back to just open the jeep door. :P

Ha was right! A smattering of Mandarin ensured no touts followed you more then 3 meters.

Walking down a bumpy path, lined (often on both sides) all sorts of poo... buffalo poo, piggy poo, doggy poo, chicken poo, ducky poo... lots of poo... Then Ha told us about this plant that grows from pig poo, how appropriate...

We were also showed a plant & leaf which was used for making indigo dye, and if you look around some locals indeed had blue stained hands. There were also a houses which were drying freshly dyed fabric.

At the first school we came across, there was a bright red banner welcoming 'Pasir Ris Secondary School', a school in Singapore. And to think that only a half hour earlier, Ha said that he had a cancelled trip with a group of 40 students from Singapore, who wanted a whole BBQ black pig for their homestay in Sapa, but they had cancelled with him.

It was very interesting to see how the local people lived, that black h'mong village was home to about 3,000 people (according to Ha). The 2nd village was the Tay (pronounced: tzai).

Lunch was at a homestay, where Ha said he was going to cook. It felt that we got there really early, 'cos he had us sit in the bedroom-kitchen area (where the homestay owners lived, the main larger area was for homestayers) to watch Vietnamese dubbed televisions programs.

Note: up to 20 bed spaces, only one bathroom and only one toilet. Sounds like half of Kaleebso, but Sapa weather at this time of the year feels like in the low to mid 20 celsius in the day, dropping to maybe 10 celsius or lower in the night. The homestays do not appear to have any heating, just lots and lots of blankets :)

Ha carried the stuff for lunch in his backpack, little plastic bags of sliced carrots, sliced lemongrass, cut tomatoes, sliced chicken, sliced pork... Food was in the form of 4 steaming hot home-cooked Vietnamese dishes. :)

Chatted with an American couple, the guy is originally from Colorado, and the couple were staying in Penang for work. They also referred to Fransipans as Fancy-Pants! hahaha...

It was another short walk out of the valley to our jeep, and the same 'dancing road' back to Victoria Hotel. We used the hotel's shower at their heated pool & sauna room at the top of a hill.

Cleaned up, Ha took us to the Wild Orchid in Sapa Town to buy silk cushion covers. :P Be careful what you buy where, 'cos the same silk purses I bought the day before (14 for US$20) were also there for US$3 each :P but we didn't see the US$5 silk cushion covers anywhere else. But, if we walked around a bit more I'm sure we would've found them...

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Mountain View cafe. If only the sun was out like the day before, it was all foggy... We said out thank-yous and good-byes back at the Global Sapa cafe to Ha. With our tip, he left with a smile that went ear-to-ear. :)

Dinner was not great, again... oh well, need to fill up for the overnight train back to Hanoi...

The drive back to the Cao Lai station was in a packed medium-size bus filled with lots of very tall Europeans & Australians... good thing is wasn't a long drive :P

With over 2 hours to waste Pea and I sat at one of the local drinks stalls with a hot sandwich from a street stall.

On the train we met a pair of American ladies, one from Chicago and the other from Texas. They recommended the Water Puppet show, front seats are best. And we should try the Orient Express :)

The rest of the trip back to Hanoi was restful, no dining cabin to hang out in :P

I wonder how the 40+ students in Sapa did in the wintery cold...

Sapa, Vietnam - 24 Nov 2009, Tuesday

We rolled into the station at Lao Cai Town at about 6am? Was drowsy and it was chilly & foggy... Ha, (hahatrekking@gmail.com) our Sapa tour guide, met us with a smile.

We rolled over to a beef pho breakfast with Vietnamese tea (a strong green tea) at a local cafe.

After, Ha located our driver & van, we drove to Coc Ly (pronounced: cock-lee) Market of the Flower H'Mong tribe. It was super crowded with lots of people. There was even a small buffalo market on the side. Ha even gave us a quick lesson in selecting buffalo. He said to look at the lick on the buffalo's head, I think he means where the swirly part of the fur. If the lick in in the middle, the buffalo is naughty, not a good worker. And the hooves, the two nails should bend inwards, towards each other, so that the buffalo will have better grip in soft soil & not slip = better worker :) a young buffalo could cost US$150 & up. A mature one, maybe US$700? Anyone wants a buffalo? He also joked that 10 buffaloes = 1 car? :P The trip to Coc Ly was fun, but it only on Tuesdays. There are markets almost everyday of the week, but I heard that the largest one is on Sunday.

At the market, Ha bought ground nuts. Dry ones and steamed ones, he said that they were for the boat ride later. Amidst the commotion it was easy to spot a guy carrying to bags of peanuts. Pea said that it like how some tour guides will carry a flag or an umbrella. our guide was carrying 2 bags of nuts! :P

A short drive from Coc Ly Market, was a ride down a beautiful river in a metal long-tail boat, just, Pea, me, Ha & the boatman. But the tramps down to the boat was a bit far and a wee bit steep. (I'm so out of shape!) The scenery was gorgeous... high slopes with... slow meandering river...

Along the boat ride we stop for a quick village walkabout. We saw people drying corn and casava. Casava, Ha said was some kind of root / tube. Which is fed to buffalo, & the stuff make the animals high... :P so that the buffalo will know their way home. On the way to the boat, Ha bout steamed corn. He said in the village it's 10,000 dong for 5 cobs, in Sapa town it's 1 cob for the same price, and he really likes the stuff.

A piping hot local lunch was at a street side restaurant at the end of the boat ride. Followed by the drive up to Sapa to check into Victoria Hotel, Sapa. The room we had was on the ground floor, with a view of the internal garden. Ha said that he used to work for Victoria Hotel, and it showed. Most people he passed said 'hi'. He said that he had worked his way up to department head, but he left for better prospects elsewhere.

10 minutes to get to our room & freshen up, Ha took us to buy a pair of shoes for me. The pair of 4/5 year-old Salomon boots had part of the base already slipping off, (no amount of elastic bands will keep that part of the sole to the boot) and Ha said that they will not last the walking the next day. After about 20 minutes of hopping shop to shop, with no luck, we also failed at locating the shoe-repair-person. When all seemed lost, Ha took us to Fransipans Hotel to rent a pair of Asics runner for US$2 for a day.

Crisis averted, we were led down another short cut to the lake in Sapa Town. Beautiful, plus we were really lucky to have the sun out with a luxurious blue sky. I felt like I was somewhere in northern Europe. Nice :)

Ha told us about the Fransipans (the tallest mountain in Sapa), he said that the champion did the return route in 1h5m, he did it once in 9 hours with 1 hour of rest in the middle, regular fit people will take 20 hours, but I will take 40 hours... hhhmmm... not impressed... He also said that ChauLong Hotel's really good too, and way less pricey as Victoria Hotel.

With the lay of the land in mind, Ha left us to our own devices. Pea & I wandered around and ended up at one of the cafes along the lake. Then we strolled around the town and I bought 14 silk purses (flat, about hand length with zip) for US$20. Those purses are meant for most of the women in my life :P

We also walked around the few streets and the center market of local tribal-ware. The sun was out so we had great views of the surrounding moutains. Really pretty...

Dinner was at Sapa Global Hotel ('cos our Sapa-based tour was arranged with out Hanoi co-ordinator Minh Tien [Michael]. Not great, but the soup was hot and the rice was hot. :) Ha gave us the rundown of the group trek the next day, we were supposed to walk a total of 12km, starting at 730am and finishing at 430pm.

Uh... I don't think so... We opted to pay him an extra US$40 to drive us part of the way there and back, and trek easy routes to visit 2 tribes (instead of 3). The black h'mong and the tay tribes.

Back at out hotel, we turned in early 'cos we didn't much sleep on the train & we were supposed to start our stroll at 9am.

Before I forget to mention this, Ha was learning Mandarin, so we used bits of it with him, it was fun. PLUS! he said when approached by tribes-people selling their wares, just speak Mandarin, they will back off 'cos they don't understand the language. Ha said that most tribes-people can speak fluent French and English, so Mandarin was our line of defense :) We saw tourists swarmed by 6-8 people at a time and we didn't want to get caught in such a situation.