Hanoi....opening a new salon

After my long trip, I flew up to Hanoi again in June to prepare for the opening of our new corporate salon. We've had an office there for couple of years but never a salon. And since it was time to focus our efforts on the business in Hanoi, my auntie felt it was time to open a corporate salon to increase our brand awareness as well as build up our company reputation.

Here's how the salon looks like.....basically we converted a house and used the front for the salon and the back for the office and school...

Do you watch Discovery Travel & Living? If you do then you may know who Bobby Chin is...He hosts the food series Cafe Asia. He has a restaurant in Hanoi and we thought we should go try it to see how good his food was....

The decor was a little on the dark and romantic side....he also had an area that was for lounging and smoking Shishas.....here's a view from the side window....


His menus were kinda whacky....guess it reflects the owner's whackiness too!

Food was ok only....its Asian Fusion food.....but they said that it would be better if he cooked it himself....guess we were not so lucky....

Appetizer...forgot what it was...hehe....

Eggplant salad...it was cold.... :{

The mains were ok....we had salmon and beef...

Had better luck with food at the Japanese Restaurant called Sakura...

The Beef Sukiyaki was excellent I tell you! And they cook it from scratch in front of you....delicious!

After our salon officially opened, I headed back to Singapore....couldn't wait to back! On the way to the airport, I just snapped a couple of shots of the city....

...last leg of the trip....San Francisco

Off we went to San Francisco, the last leg of this month long trip...

I left off the last post showing you the amount of luggage that we had amongst the 3 of us...here's how it looks after packing all of them into the car! It was no easy feat I tell you! Here's the view of the luggage at the back...stacked up all the way!

And as there wasn't enough space at the back, some of them were piled up on 1 side of the passenger seat....a lot or what!?!?!? :P

We drove by the coast line and had some pretty amazing views along the way.... Couldn't take any pictures from the side window 'cos it was all stacked up with the luggage!!!

While we were at a gas station, I caught sight of these tree/bush/shrub...whatever...that was rathering interesting. It had these pointed ends and grew in a windy crazy fashion...kinda like a fir tree but yet not quite...cute...

By the time we reached SF, it was night....hungry! So we dumped our bags in the hotel and went out searching for food! Ended up in Fishermans Wharf for some seafood....

Even though the food looks great along the street, we decided to eat in a proper restaurant and treat ourselves. Went to this lovely restaurant by the water called The Franciscan Crab Restaurant......
They had lots and lots of black & white photos of people or celebrities of the past....

I thought this picture was quite funny...the lady looked as though she's just discovered popcorn! hehe....
They also had 'themed' cutlery.....


We had their Crab Bisque and famous Dungeness Crab cooked in sweet garlic sauce...it was yummy!

As you can tell, I was really happy with the food! hehe... :P

After dinner, on our way back, I saw the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum! Thought it was only a show and didn't realise that they had museums too!

During our cab ride back, I noticed that our driver was acting a little wierd...he was twitching and his hands were shaking a lot...Don't know whether high on something or what! But he was really chatty.....and I was praying that he would concentrate on driving and that we'd make it back to the hotel in 1 piece! As I was looking out the window, I saw that he had a lot of stickers on the window and door....some were quite funny, such as this....got secret camera catching taking our pictures!! Better not dig my nose in the cab!

And this....how do I know if it's safe outside??!! Who's going to tell me??!?! If not safe then how??

The following day was spent driving around and catching the sights of the city.... Drove past this rather huge Mother and Child installation piece....

And this pyramid-ish looking building....

Union Square.....

Known for its super 'slopey' roads, we had quite a bit of fun going up and down the roads....here's a picture when we were at the top looking over the city...

And another picture at the base of the road....

Went to see the famous Golden Gate Bridge as well....a tourist mah, have to do some touristy things.... :P

Check out the number of cars...it was packed!

The man who built the bridge....

The size of each of the cables holding the bridge together...massive!

We then went on to take the city trams!

Once they reach the end of the route, they need to be turned around manually! Phew....hard work!



And so we hopped on to the tram.....Here's my auntie and me enjoying the ride and the view....

Time for dinner....We went past a lot of nice looking cafes and restaurants but 1 really stood out and caught our eye.....The Stinking Rose!

Here's my colleague posing with the restaurant's mascot...Thot it looked a little like Ms Piggy... :P


The decor inside the restaurant was very very "unique".....



I felt like I was in some Voodoo place or something... Dark, scary, wierd, garlicky....but the food was yummy though! I especially liked how they keep the bread warm...like an essential oil burner...cute...

We had mussles and squid ink pasta....

Was so hungry that I only remembered to take some pictures after almost finishing the meal! hehe... Didn't have any dessert but they gave us some candy.... that had only 3 calories! But it didn't taste any good...spat it out! Maybe that's why it was only 3 calories :)


Of course one of the main things that we did in SF was shop! One of my favourite shops....

Here's me in Nieman Marcus trying to decide which make-up to buy that is also good for my skin....


Evidence of a happy shopper..... :)

I really liked SF! But was there only for a day and a half so didn't really get around much....Would love to go back again and spend more time exploring the city....anyone wants to join me?

All in all I had a fantastic trip! I learnt a lot on this trip and also visited many cities which I haven't been to before or hadn't been to in a loooong time. How wonderful it would be if I could do this every 3 to 4 times a year! hehehe....