Saturday, February 21, 2009

Friday night traffic chaos + nice local house....

This photos was taken from my office building, on Friday night recently.  This among teh main junction in the city and there are traffic lights.... but the traffic just chaotic.... 
Just imagine yourself driving or riding bike or ... taking chance crossing the road.  I saw there are two traffic police officer manning the traffic...  but the traffic just seem uncontrollable... probably in our outsider eyes... For the local, it's normal day as usual.... 
Police traffic here has such a magic power when controlling the traffic... probably the obedience of the peoples or the harsh punishment if you disobey... 
We visit a few sites today, and I was quite amazed with the nice houses in this area.. the design probably influenced by the French...  I could saw they have small fruits orchard,  vegetable gardens and reared a few chickens...  Even rich people here reared chickens... 
Most of the house have the national flag... perhaps belong to important party member.....

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Halal restaurant in Hanoi....

As far as I know, this is the only halal restaurant in Ha Noi... although there's 1-2 more restaurants claimed they are halal... their defination of halal is unconvincing...

Nisa restaurant is operated by uncle Ben Taat, a Malaysian who has been living here for quite a long time... The above picture is the local gift shops nearby the restaurant... since I have problem with my upload here... I just keep it there...
The menu comprising local Malay, Indian and Western dishes...  and they are delicious... the portions is generous ... and the pricing if you compare to Malaysia is quite high, but if you compare to the local dishes here.... it's reasonable... about RM20 per person.

I was amazed to see the owner collections of photos, from the photos of him with the famous public figures.. such as presidents, ministers, politician, artist..... to photos of his involvement in Sepaktakraw game in various countries....
This is the restaurant name card... keep it with you as you need it when you want to direct the taxi driver to the location... they don't speak English here..... so a card with local address really helpfull..

the ambience inside is quite cosy and relaxing... place for Malaysian use to hang out for tea tarik and chat.... the usual patrons are Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean... and foreigner who loved the food.... 
front view of the restaurant.....

It's blogging again...

I have to appologise to my fellow friends who's been asking me on my update...  I don't know why, I gradually felt like not writing...  perhaps thinking of my new job in Hanoi.. after relaxing for almost 3 months back in Muar.

So now, I have been staying in Ha Noi for more than a week... trying adapting to the local culture, trafiic, non english speaking peoples, hard to find halal food, and quite unwelcome weather... cold and dusty...
This photo were taken at the famous local and tourist spot, nearby Hoa Kiem Lake.... normally after office, me and my friend take a cab to the only halal restaurant .. have decent dinner.. and walk to this place... just watching the local enjoying the night... 
Vietnamesse like to going out at night, they just travelling in their scooters and motorcycles..  going from places to places...   hanging out in hundreds of street side cafe...  perhaps because of the French influence...
This is the lake near the Ha Noi Zoological Garden... I don't know the name but I need to go there early in the morning to capture the sight of unpertubated lake... later, and the perfect reflection would be lost...