I have a hard time concentrating and staying awake this morning for yet another day of early, full-day meeting.

The aching in the body is definitely NOT helping.

I downed 4 pieces of Snickers/Toblerone mini, after 3 pieces of kaya/butter toast, hoping that I have some kind of sugar high to keep me going.

They did a miraculous job though I suspect one stick of cancer culprit did help.

***

Finally, I am gonna start (by right, I should be posting it in its entirety, but I sure delay until moo moo comes home) on the recap on Hanoi trip.

It was good to be on such a chilled work trip, which left plenty of fresh memories to last me for a long, long while.

It was a busy morning when I took a cab ride that cost more than 40 bucks to the airport (SERIOUSLY?!), and met up with the rest of the colleagues there.

Shopped around for 2 bottles of red wine each, and we ended up looking like a alcohol smuggling syndicate with enough alcohol to drown Sentosa.

The flight was only enough for me to watch one and half movie, and thankfully I didn’t get bored with Krisflyer’s help, before I entered a world nothing like I had ever been before.

***

Hanoi is quaintly beautiful, there is still an air of innocence about it, but it was just scorching hot during the days when we were there.

The only fortunate thing was we weren’t trapped in the flood due to the heavy rain storms the day before I reached, and the day after I left.

The rice field made me feel like walking around it barefooted, though I didn’t have the chance to do it.

I made a comment how some of the structures reminded me of the quieter part of Russia.

On the way, we passed by the Red River, flanked by tiny small houses, and it was a picture of exotica.
Couldn’t wait to get to the hotel, and it surely didn’t disappoint, as we resided on one of the lakes in the famed city of lakes.

(The picture of the hotel’s view in the centre, the guy with the piggies and us eating are courtesy of Ian Tan)

The hotel is really cosy, and there were woven baskets on the lake which made us wonder if we could row ourselves in them, but decided I probably couldn’t balance.

The massage pavilion was luxuriously pretty, though I couldn’t part with the money to splurge on a well-needed massage.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the welcome team, and we checked into our room which comes with an attached balcony that opened up to a picturesque Westlake.

We got changed, and it was exploration time around Hanoi city centre.

***

One thing about Hanoi is, the traffic is infinitely intimidating.

And the honking NEVER stops. It is almost like a traffic offense if you don’t! It would still ring in your ears the moment you get away from the noise pollution, and I am just glad our hotel was tucked nicely away from all the buzz, and was very resort-ish with a nice pool that we couldn’t wait to dive into for a fulfilling dip.

We were almost wondering if there were any traffic lights in Hanoi, and we excitedly pointed out one when we finally saw one.

And I even saw a shop called “Scarlett – The Stylish Mum“, ahem, what a shameless plug!

Our first stop was Dong Xuan Market, but being a non-shoppy person, I walked away empty-handed, and was having a free sauna treat by the burning Hanoi weather, to the extend I had to bun up my hair with a pen I found in my bag. It also made the trip to Hanoi make-up redundant, laughs.

We walked for the longest time, with 2 NS-trained men leading us the wrong ways, before we got to Hoan Kiem Lake.

We took a cab to an air-conditioned mall to buy slippers/shorts, after being told the sneakers and jeans we brought were a tad too “formal” for the ballroom meeting sessions. Though surprised, but gee, absolute good news man!

Finally had a nice dinner with some of the others joining us, and we couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel for a nice, long shower to rinse the stickiness.

It was breezy, and absolutely cooling in the peaceful night of Hanoi (picture courtesy of Ian Tan again!), and the moon was beautiful.

Finally got into the showers, love the bathroom, though Marina Mandarin’s in KL still rocks.

I hid in the room and did a bit of work, surfed a little, and just stared into the far distance, lit by the night light, and its reflection dancing in the lake.

That was just before, the heavy downpour came as suddenly as it went.