MENU goes East - From Hanoi to Ha Long Bay

When you go to Vietnam, people tell you of all sorts of places you must see. We will come back one day to see the rest of the country. The one place we think you should never miss is Ha Long Bay. We were given the advice not to go with the small and cheaper operators but to go with the big, fairly expensive companies. It was the best possible advice. This trip was a dream come true. We absolutely loved every moment of it and thoroughly recommend that you add it to your bucket list

It is a three and a half hour trip to Ha Long Bay from Hanoi. It is not that far, the roads are very busy and congested and one drives slowly through many towns, rather like our N2 highway through Somerset West. So it was an early start as our luxury bus came to collect us at 8am. We took overnight bags and left our suitcases at the hotel, to which we would return after three days away

The outskirts of Hanoi

This is the typical Vietnamese house, it may have many storeys, but all the houses seem to be the same width

Only the older houses are bigger. And people have built small businesses in their gardens

Halfway there, we stopped at a tourist centre which employs disabled craftsmen who make local art and crafts. Many of the disabled people are victims of the Vietnam war

Alabaster statues and carvings

made on the site, using ordinary power tools

some showing immense skill and artistry

Embroidery

Painting

A laughing Buddha for your garden temple

Clothing and jewellery

Our luxury bus was very comfortable

We stopped again later for a drink of fresh coconut juice. It was amazing how much liquid is in each coconut. They are very refreshing

We arrived at the harbour and met our urbane and well spoken tour guide Smiley Huang

Several different tours were leaving and there were tenders to take everyone and their luggage to the boats

Some were on one night stays, our voyage was two nights, three days

We passed some of the other boats

And there is ours, the magnificent Dragon Legend 1 which is run by Indo Junk Tours

Boarding the tender and putting on life jackets

Passing a smaller boat. We even saw a boat which they called the honeymoon boat - just one couple

Labels, in case we boarded the wrong boat! Immediately after boarding, we had a meeting with the crew and were given safety instructions

Wow, we were not expecting this. Our luxury cabin

Finest percale linen

and a large bathroom on suite

And we begin our slow cruise through the wonderful pinnacle islands of tropical plant clad limestone

You can see how the water level has dropped over the centuries

Up on deck for lunch. We knew then we were in for an incredible three days. First course: Spicy and sour fresh shrimp & tomato soup

Garden Salad with lime dressing

Prawns, so sweet in a Lemongrass and ginger sauce

Deep fried Ha Long crab meat 'kebabs' skewered on sugar cane sticks

Stewed chicken with black beans and (no) mushrooms

Steamed green seasonal vegetables - mostly morning glory we were told. This was served with steamed sea bass in soya sauce and steamed rice. Dessert was a platter of fresh fruit

Getting to know each other over lunch. There were 27 passengers, the boat has 24 double cabins, some with an extra bed for children

Mountains in the mist with a fishing boat

Caves and what we assume is a navigation marker

It is so relaxing slowly sailing past these lovely islands

Time for an outing after a tour of the ship. Kayaking for the energetic

Naps for those, like us, who enjoyed the large lunch.

But first, we opted for a gentle cruise round the immediate environs round the anchored ship

to watch the intrepid kayakers departing

to take in a few views of the ship, 

and the beautiful bay

to watch some of the fishermen

at work in small boats

some were a bit bigger

Then back to the ship

for a view of the bay

from the upper deck

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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MENU goes East - Day and Night in steamy Hanoi

Lynne decided to sample the Vietnamese breakfast. Quite similar to what we had eaten the night before. Those mushroom and onion rice pancakes, and some Pho with noodles and fried soya nuggets. Extremely filling

John stayed with the omelette, but lost the rather stringy indigestible cheese filling. The fruits came as an appetiser every morning, good dragon fruit, crisp slices of different melon varieties, but not always with much taste. The fruit juices were superb, especially the mango and the passion fruit. They tasted freshly squeezed and not too sweet, so we suspect (thankfully) that they had no added sugar

Our charming and very helpful waitress, Mie, who always said after we ordered, "Any more? You must have more". We could not! It seems the Vietnamese either eat more than we think (it doesn't show in the North, they are all very slender) or they expect us to. John's brother tells us that in the South they have adopted Western food and are getting much fatter

The very tidy and clean dining room. The chef, whom we could see in her outside kitchen was young, but very professional. And the food came quickly

The restaurant is next to reception

We had read our one book each and discovered that Hanoi has a book exchange, which was half an hour away from the hotel. We thought we would walk, but our receptionist said it was too far in the heat and we should take a taxi. It cost only $3US and we were delivered to the door. We gave them our books and bought two more. It was very reasonable, should you run out of reading matter in Hanoi

We discovered a cooking school in the same courtyard and Lynne asked what the prices were. Rather too high for our travel budget, but worth looking at if you are in Hanoi

The inside of the cooking school was impressive, albeit on a small scale. They also appear to do catering

Tempting smells from a street barbecue, but we had eaten well at breakfast. We were never hungry at midday because of the heat and only ate twice a day. We did drink lots and lots of bottled water

A local restaurant in the street of the book exchange looked very tempting, so we went in for a look at it and the menu. It serves fusion Vietnamese/French food. The prices looked average (1520 Dong to R1), but the wines were exorbitant

We think they were waiting for the lunch time crowd

The lunch menu. Salads were R82; Starters R88; Duck main R180 and a special of Grilled Prawns with a Ha Long seafood emulsion R167, so average fine dining Cape Town prices. We thought it a bit far from our hotel, but considered it for a special evening

And then we saw the Drinks menu. Entry level bottle R560 for wines: French, Spanish, Italian Australian, Chilean, Argentina, South African (Obiqua). Glen Carlou Chardonnay and Fleur du Cap Sauvignon Blanc only R822 and if you fancied some Dom Perignon R9530. So we decided not to stay. This is why most people drink beer in Vietnam (R32)

 Outside eating, but it was too hot on this day

Perhaps lunch on the terrace in the cool season

Street vendors passing the time while waiting for customers

Why did ......?

You can almost see steam rising off the lake

Central city living, some of the houses are very posh indeed, others not so much

The lake was filled with these grey ghostly carp

Hanoi lakeside apartments with a restaurant below

Gasping for food? or air?

Flamboyant trees overhang the lake

Faded glory, with newish neighbours behind

Had crabs had come to feed on the vegetables? But it seems they did not live long. Or is this someone's discarded supper?

Not sure if this is a moth eaten chicken or even a relative of a turkey? The chicks don't look familiar

Shacks squeezed in on top of a roof

Another of these strange fowl. John thought they might be fighting birds

A raft of papyrus

Flamboyant

Luxury apartments with the lake on both sides

An ornamental chicken with his harem

Redneck!

This doesn't look recent

Island in the lake with temple

Street market for the tourists at the lakeside

Nice fruit for sale? Or are they temple offerings?

Lots of haggling going on

Temple offerings and good luck charms

A drinks restaurant by the lake

Turtles for sale

Distressingly, this one was tied and could not walk away

The pagoda

We learnt a good lesson, as it kept happening to us. We got there at 11.30. They close then till 2.30. It appears to be the same for all the tourist sites

So we looked at the lake and the lotus wall,

the dragons on the roof

and the firmly closed gate

Mango trees are everywhere, but these were not yet ripe

John spotted this sunken boat which was obviously serving as something else, so he went to look. Lynne sat under a tree relaxing, it was over 40 degrees and midday

The lakeside promenade

A Tree of Heaven

Getting closer

It's a public swimming pool moored in the lake! Good recycling venture

The pagoda from across the lake, still closed

We decided to start walking back to the hotel. The lunchtime crowd was out and on the road. Masks seem necessary and raincoats. We made it safely across this road and then we spotted our next destination

An oasis of calm and cool, with lotus flowers floating in water

And sight of the special of the day delighted us! They were featuring South African wines from Vinum

Yes we admit it, we had taken refuge from the heat, humidity and haze in the oh-so-comfortable and coool Sofitel Hotel bar

Two ice cold Tiger beers arrive in ice cold glasses. With free nibbles. Sigh, luxury is worth paying for sometimes

A second for John. The first didn't touch sides. It was expensive in dollars, but so worth it. We took a taxi back to our hotel

Later that day we ventured out to Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the restored Sword) nearest our hotel to see the bridge to the island there, where there is another temple

Sketch artists outside

Another beautiful flowering tree

The entrance

The famous turtle tower. Legend has it that it was the golden turtle who returned the emperor's sword

Lakeside art at the temple gate

A shrine

Inscriptions in old Vietnamese characters. Modern Vietnam uses the Roman alphabet

All the explanation you need. The Vietnamese do not appear to have realised that tourists cannot read Viet

Off through the streets to find dinner

One of the top ten restaurants in Hanoi and it only ever serves one dish

Ours is about to arrive, so the waiter lights the burner

The accompaniments are fierce yellow chilli, mixed herbs, shredded spring onions, peanuts, soft boiled noodles and fish sauce

Lynne looking hot and a bit sceptical. But we did enjoy it

It’s a local soft fish called mud fish (were those what we saw in the polluted lake?) coated in a thin, spiced coating which the waiter begins to refry at the table

He then adds (alarmingly) huge quantities of fresh dill and baby leeks (or spring onions, we couldn't tell which. They tasted of sweet leek but had the burp effect of raw onion). When they have been stir fried and rendered down a lot, you help yourself to the fish and veg and add some or all of the accompaniments

The menu explanation

The bill came to a reasonable R210. It was great to sit in air conditioning to eat

And just down the street, another family business - topping and tailing and bundling up those spring onions

The beautiful symbol of Vietnam, the lotus flower

All the coffee in Vietnam is flavoured. Usually with vanilla or chocolate. But we didnt fancy this one at all. We prefer ours without anything but a coffee flavour

Late night street life, this is what the residents of Hanoi do on a hot evening in May

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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