Vietnam

The Golden Bridge

November 14th, 2024

The breakfast at the hotel is good but since it is a wellness spa, it lacks food items that are considered guilty pleasures.  I remind myself, after last night’s culinary tour, I should be eating a healthy breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed out to Sunworld’s Ba Na Hills, an amusement park sitting on top of a mountain not too far from Da Nang. I must admit, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, I have never seen anything like it before and kept wondering, was this park made for Instagram?

We boarded a cable car that currently holds the world record for the longest nonstop cable care ride in the world to the top of the mountain.  The ride up and down the mountain was probably the best part of the park.  The views were spectacular with beautiful views of the jungle and at times waterfalls.

After arriving, we crossed the golden bridge, probably one of the more photographed attractions at the park. Unfortunately, it was crowded, it was too crowded, and people were pushing.   It was difficult to get a decent picture of the bridge.   Ironically, the pictures and videos advertising the park always show the bridge as being empty or almost empty.   The experience was different from what was advertised. Continue reading →

Hoi An

November 13, 2024

We booked two back-to-back tours in Hoi An, right after we finished our brief historic tour of Hoi An, we started our food tour.   Our first stop was White Rose restaurant where we learned how to make the white rose dumpling.  You can white rose dumplings in a lot of restaurants in Hoi An and those dumplings all come the White Rose restaurant.   The staff makes thousands of dumplings per day.  We got a demonstration and then taught how to make our own.  Let’s just say, our white rose dumplings were not as pretty as those being made by the staff, but we enjoyed eating them.

We then stopped at another ancient house.   The owner was talking about the house and how it had been in his family for generations.  He has a workshop and creates silver jewelry, unfortunately, neither of us were interested in buying any jewelry.  We found a nice set of chopsticks which we bought, and Sophon bought a couple of souvenirs for his family.

It was then on to try Cao Lau, a regional dish made with noodles, pork, greens and broth. Although it sounds simple, it is complex and delicious.  This is a legendary dish, guides and guidebooks talk about how the recipe for the noodles is closely guarded family recipe.  The ash in the noodles comes from a tree grown on nearby islands and the water used to make the noodles is from an ancient well.   There are even stories about the name.  Cao Lau means “high floor”, which is where the more successful merchants sat while eating their noodles.   Who knows how much of this is real and how much of it is folk lore, Cao Lau is good!

Continue reading →

Tam Tam Cafe

November 13th, 2024

Hoi An is an ancient city in central Vietnam known for its charm and atmosphere.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I have been to Hoi An a few times and I have fond memories of walking the streets, visiting the shops and galleries, hanging out at the restaurants and sitting on the balcony of the Tam Tam cafe while having a few Tiger beers.   Unfortunately, as we headed back to our hotel, I felt extremely disappointed.

Let me say upfront that Hoi An is a wonderful place to visit. It is full of charm, interesting shops and good restaurants. However, since my last visit 15 years ago, the area around Hoi An has been built up, there was a huge park/resort built on the island in the middle of the river, and everything felt more commercial and a lot more crowded.

Our first stop in Hoi An was a silk factory where we got a five-minute demonstration on how silk is made, it was interesting but then suddenly, we are getting pressured to buy silk products as we are taken from one room featuring different silk products. Unfortunately, I see this a lot where you get a short demo and suddenly it becomes a high-pressure sales pitch and if you do by something, the tour guide is collecting a commission as you exit.  As we left the shop, I pulled our tour aside and let him know that we weren’t interested in shopping. Continue reading →

We got up and had our last breakfast at the Park Hyatt.  We both discussed how we were going to miss the hotel breakfast.

After checking out, we headed to the Ho Chi Minh airport.  As we sat and waited for our Vietnam Airlines flight 126 to Da Nang, I people watched.  I guess the latest trend is to wear crocs with hole fillers as well as for teenage girls to carry stuffed animals. I spotted a few women in their twenties doing this and thought, you can get away doing that in your teens but mid-twenties?

The flight was just over an hour long and it was uneventful.  We arrived in Da Nang, met our guide and headed to the TIA Wellness hotel.  As we drove to the hotel, the first thing I noticed was that the hotel wasn’t in Da Nang nor was it in Hoi An.  There wasn’t much around the resort except for other resorts, including Marriott, Wyndham and Radisson.  I guess we were going to be eating hotel food the next few days.

I typically don’t book spa hotels and I thought it would be fun to do something different. but the hotel was right on the beach and the villa had a private pool. The hotel included two wellness treatments, including massages, per day. Continue reading →

November 11th, 2024

After breakfast, our tour guide picked us up and we headed south to the Mekong Delta.  As we headed out of the bustling city, we headed into scenic rural landscapes with small villages, rice paddies and fruit orchards.

We arrived at our destination and boarded our boat to experience the water-bound life along the Mekong Delta. We snacked on dragon fruit, lychees, watermelon and bananas.  While watching both large and small boats carrying goods up and down the river.   After a ride on one boat, we stopped and boarded a small rowboat and went through a mangrove via canals.   I think Sophon enjoyed the rice hat a little too much!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but notice the amount of plastic pollution in and around the river and canals.  Vietnam is a developing country and some of the smaller villages, waste management may be lacking.  I wondered how this might impact future tourism.

We stopped at an ancient house and learned how the architected houses during that time period before we headed to lunch at Le Langanier, which included two of my favorite items, fried spring rolls (Cha Gio) and carnalized pork in a clay pot (Thit Khat To).  The showstopper was the fried elephant ear fish which comes from the Mekong Delta.   All of it was delicious as we sat in a picturesque colonial style building. Continue reading →

Spring Rolls and Cha Gio

November 10th, 2024

Our tour ended early afternoon, we decided to get some lunch.  We walked to Hua Tuc, a restaurant around the corner from the hotel which was recommended by our tour guide.  Google maps sent us around the block and when it started to send us around the block a second time, I spotted an alley where we found this somewhat hidden gem. As we sat down, I noticed that there were various awards posted and that it was included in the Michelin Guide.

Hoa Tuc

We ordered Spring Rolls, Cha Gio (fried spring rolls) and Banh Khot (Vietnamese Pancakes).  Everything was so good!  I couldn’t help but notice they offered cooking classes.  Later, I would learn that the building was originally an Opium refinery.   I will definitely put this place down for my next visit and hopefully take a cooking class!

Afterwards, we went looking for Vietnamese Coffee to bring back with us and then we went back to the hotel to rest before our night tour.

Our night tour was a culinary tour of street food.  We would not be dining in high end restaurants, we would be getting our food from carts and sitting at times, at tables that were made for toddlers.   We started with Vietnamese Pizza, which according to our guide is extremely popular.  Made on a grill with rice paper, egg and pork, it was crispy and delicious but I wouldn’t call it pizza. Continue reading →

Saigon Central Post Office

November 10th, 2024

Slept well but with the time change, woke up around 4:00AM.   I did some work and then got ready.  The breakfast buffet had everything – Pho, Banh Beo, Banh Mi, bacon quiche, breads, pastries, waffles, and more.  I decided not to dedicate an entire entry on breakfast but wanted to state how good it was.

22 Gia Long Street

We started out walking through Ho Chi Minh square towards the Saigon Central Post office.   On the way, we passed 22 Gia Long St.  Our guide pointed to the top of the apartment building and I immediately recognized it. He pulled out copies of the original picture but if you search “evacuation of Saigon”,  you will definitely see the iconic photo of a helicopter on the roof with hundreds of people lined up as they fled Saigon prior to it falling to the north.   At the time, the picture was reported as Americans crowding to the roof of the US embassy but it wasn’t the US Embassy but rather an apartment building that housed Americans.

I couldn’t help but think of famous scene in Miss Saigon where they recreated what had actually happened on top of that building in 1975.  In Vietnam, they call it the American War and after we stopped at the post office to admire its unique architecture, we would be headed to the Independence Palace and the War Remnants Museum, which both center on the conflict with the US. Continue reading →

Ho Chi Minh Square

November 9th, 2024

After checking into our hotel we went and walked around a little.  Right next to the hotel is the Opera House, built by the French when they occupied Vietnam.  It is adjacent to Ho Chi Minh Square where a statue of Ho Chi Minh stands in front of City Hall.   I struggled with trying to get a picture, there were a lot of people doing selfie-productions and I was hungry, and wanted to eat.

I noticed that most of the people in Ho Chi Minh still use motorbikes, but I thought there were more cars on the road compared to the previous time I had gone there.  I would never drive in Ho Chi Minh, the way traffic moves is very different from the US.  We continued to navigate our way to a restaurant our guide had recommended called Nha Hang.

Between us, we ordered three dishes and I had two tiger beers.  I took a picture of the first dish but we were so hungry and the food looked so good, I forgot to take pictures of anything else!  My favorite part?  The bill comes and it is 580,000 VND.  I pull up the currency converter app thinking I will never get used things costing hundreds of thousands but am pleasantly surprised when I see that in US dollars, it is $22.80.

Opera House

Nha Hang Restaurant

Nha Hang Restaurant

November 9th, 2024

Flight VN 600 from BKK to Ho Chi Minh

The flight from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh was under two hours.  Vietnam airlines hadn’t changed a bit since my last time; airbus planes that had seats with no leg room, and a meal that consisted of an egg salad sandwich and fruit.  I had the same thought as the last time, for a country known for its food, this is the best they could do for an airline meal?

We landed and the line for customs was long. I had warned Sophon that in Vietnam, it wasn’t uncommon to see people walk to the font of the line or to push you out of the way.   We saw plenty of that!   We got through customs and made our way to meet our tour guide.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t find him for another hour.  When we finally connected we were off to the Park Hyatt Hotel where we would stay the next few days.

Over the years, I have stayed in some nice hotels.   I knew that the Park Hyatt was nice,  I was a surprised at just how nice it was! Everything felt elegant.  People dressed up for afternoon tea, the breakfast was very high end with a lot of high end choices.  Flowers were everywhere and the room was spacious.  I was extremely impressed with the friendliness of the staff.   The best part was the location, we could walk to a lot of attractions, restaurants and coffee shops!

My Room

My Room

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea

Breakfast Buffet

Great Pastries

Floral decorations

Main Lobby

Park Hyatt Pool

Lychee Martini

Hotel Bar