Hi Marija - glad you actually made it, and looking forward to more.

Welcome home! I'm eager to hear all about your trip.

looking forward to the report...good start

Waiting patiently for more...

Welcome home!

Looking forward with anticipation to hearing how it all went, make sure you add all the details ! Glad you got home safe.

At the Novotel Suvarnabhumi

It was close to one in the morning when we finally reached Bangkok. Wasn't much of a surprise that both of our United flights were delayed for several hours due to "technical problems." In Narita we sat on the ground for close to two hours while an electrical problem which wiped out part of the lights was solved. The fix broke the seatbelt and lavatory occupied lights, or they were already broken, but I guess they aren't essential.

Before leaving I made sure I knew how to get to the Novotel Suvarnabhumi from the airport--take the shuttle bus from Door 4. My mistake was trying to confirm my information with an official looking person at baggage control who directed us to an escalator and told us to go down. And down we went following the signs for Airport Hotel. Unfortunately, the signs lead you to the tunnel for the hotel, not to the shuttle bus which takes off from Level 2. It's not simple to talk your way back up to Level 2 from the bowels of the airport, especially when the escalators up are guarded by fierce men who pretend to not speak Lithuanian or English. Once we found Door Number 4 on Level 2 we saw the big sign identifying it as the launching point for the Novotel shuttle. Do NOT follow the signs for Airport Hotel if you want to take the shuttle to the Airport Hotel.

I made it a point to enter our Accor Hotel loyalty number (or some such) when making the hotel reservations in the hope that it might lead to an upgrade. It did. Too bad we only had 6 hours or so in our very comfortable upgraded room. The Novotel has a very sensible policy of renting you the room for 24 hours from the time of check in, regardless of when that is. The upgrade brought its own set of problems. The room I reserved included internet and breakfast, two perks which didn't transfer to the upgraded room. I didn't understand why I could get WiFi in the room until I was told that it was not included with the room. By that point we had already eaten an unexpectedly fine breakfast and were about to head to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap so I abandoned the WiFi issue.

Several days later when checking our credit card charges to see if we were sharing our credit with anyone, I noticed a $68 charge from the Novotel. We had a prepaid rate for the hotel so I wasn't expecting additional charges. I figured I would deal with it once we got home. Soon we received an e-mail from the hotel asking us to complete a survey. I usually ignore these intrusions but thought this might be a quick way to find out about the errant charge. In reply I received some gibberish about out how we were charged what we should pay. This annoyed me so I found the hotel manager's email and repeated my complaint. In a couple of days I received an email (copied to a bunch of people at the Novotel) informing me that the charge I saw never existed. Mysteriously, without a trace, the charge was gone from the credit card. Is that called saving face?!

Warm greetings Marija, and many thanks for your delightful writing. Warms my heart on this warm, early Singapore morning. One more day of CNY holiday for yours truly and others before flying ex-SIN later on for work.

Your description of initial arrival at BKK makes me smile; welcome to the Land of Smiles, indeed. Somehow, someway, reminds me of early Bangkok business trips, arriving late via UA at Don Mueang and on more than a few occasions, walking over and checking in at that fine Amari Airport hotel. (Almost always the 'executive' fifth floor and the rather adjacent 'After Flight Centre' massage centre with the sweetest manager and masseuses; sweet dreams.)

Keep up the brilliant writing Marija; it's right up there with the unmatched and missed dogster, along with the lovely crosscheck (and others). Hope your stay at 'our' cherished Peninsula, Bangkok proved satisfactory -- perhaps even our special suite. And, as always, would be honoured to offer completely unbiased counsel concerning ('our') sensational Singapore Airlines for your future flying endeavours.

All the best to you Marija, and all -- and warm Gong Xi Fa Cai greetings. The past several days in our fine home of Singapore have been most festive, and graced by the presence of cherished family, from rather near and rather far (Scotland; those winter escapees).

macintosh (robert)


... Singapore Girl, You're a Great Way to Fly ...

<<It's not simple to talk your way back up to Level 2 from the bowels of the airport, especially when the escalators up are guarded by fierce men who pretend to not speak Lithuanian or English.>>

Just about everyone we met in Bangkok pretended not to speak Lithuanian!

Looking forward to reading this -- expect it will help us decided between India or SE Asia.

Siem Reap

Our flight to Siem Reap on Bangkok Airways was problem free. The only glitch was that I didn't know that departure cards, which had to be completed in order to leave Bangkok, had been put in our passports when we went through passport control at entry. Fortunately there was no line at passport control leaving Bangkok so it wasn't a problem to go to one of the little tables and fill out the departure forms.

The problem was in Siem Reap. Thinking I could save time and not have to fight forms on planes, I had downloaded both the Cambodian and Laotian entry visas forms and filled them out, including attaching photos, at home. When the VOA forms were passed out on the plane I compared them to mine and the information and layout were identical. The only difference was that the size of the sheet of paper. I thought I was good to go but that turned out to be an overly optimistic evaluation of the situation. We were first in the VOA line and when I presented the forms the agent wordlessly threw them back at me. I got the hint and went to a table and filled out the same info in the same format on a smaller sheet of paper. Lesson learned. Don't bother downloading visa forms. If you do, make sure they are identical in every respect, including size, to those given to you on the plane.

There must have been at least ten agents, all sitting in a row, processing the VOAs. That's not ten agents each processing different forms. No. For some mysterious reason, each passport and VOA form was tenderly passed from agent to agent, none of whom actually did anything, except for the last one who called out the name and returned the well caressed passports. (The first money handling agent theatrically rejected any currency which was not in perfect health.) I definitely got the idea that we had worn out our welcome before leaving the airport, though it was a nice touch that at customs we were told to keep the custom forms which no one had even glanced at.

Based on previous trip reports, it looked like Hotel de La Paix was a great place to stay. My attempts at reserving it were thwarted since the hotel closed down at the beginning of July 2012 and would only be reopening in early 2013 as the Park Hyatt Siem Reap. After much hand wringing (googling, really), we decided to stay at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor, aka Raffles. I did agonize over whether the hotel would be overrun by precious American tourists. Fortunately I stumbled upon dogster's contribution to a Raffle's discussion in which he admitted to staying there and even just possibly liking it. That was enough.

We really enjoyed our four night stay at Raffles. The hotel and rooms were tasteful and comfortable; the staff was solicitous without being obsequious; the breakfasts were the best of the entire trip, (though the lunches were pricy, unimaginative and underflavored). And to our relief it was not inhabited by obnoxious arrogant tourists. We were all there to see the wonders of Angkor, a rather dusty and tiring mission, which didn't seem to attract aging starlets and their entourages. The hotel is well located, a ten minute or so tuk tuk ride ($2) from Pub Street.

"the staff was solicitous without being obsequious" - You have a way with words, Marija. Too bad you missed the Hotel DLP/Park Hyatt but Raffles sounds nice...

We did the Visa online for Cambodia through their government website including attaching a scanned photo,printed them out, cut the actual Visas out of the paper and then stappled them into our passports.It was fine.It took 24 hours for them to email our Visas to us.
I am confused why they refused yours.

HT--they refused ours because I had a visa application, not a visa. I debated applying for an actual visa through the government website but I was concerned about credit card security. I read that the site has been repeatedly hacked and I didn't want to deal with that.

Loving this. Sounds as if VOA situation in fact might have improved since we were there. I remember spending the entire BKK-SR flight filling out TWELVE landing documents (3 for each of us) as the rest of the family feigned sleep.

My best advice if you want to get through immigration quickly at REP?

1) Bring a visa photo and a clean $20 bill with you.
2) Fly Bangkok Airways and sit in one of the very last seats.
3) The FAs will give you the entry forms. Fill them out on the plane. It is less than an hour flight, so don't put it away for "later."
4) When everyone else is exiting forward, the attendants will open the back exit. Go down the steps and walk briskly to the entry hall.
5) Look for the row of agents on the left and hand your papers, etc to the first guy. You will likely be first in line.
6) Go to the end of the row of men and wait till they call your name.

I am always one of the first to finish, even ahead of the "pre-arranged visa" people.
NOTE**I do not run on the tarmac, nor do I push anyone to the side in crossing!

Hi, Marija--
I've loved your reports across so many of the boards over the years, and, of course, this one is also great--and looking forward to the rest of it. A question, though. Your name has always intrigued me. Is it you who is Lithuanian? If so, is Marija the equivilent of Maria? Pronounced the same?

Thanks for reading and for the comments (Yes, Bo, I am the Lithuanian with the silent J embedded in the simple Maria. Try explaining that to your teachers!)


Visiting the temples

Swayed by all of the positive reviews here for Ponheary Ly, we engaged her as our guide for four days of temple visiting. (Unless you've done lots of homework, you won't regret hiring a guide.) On the remote chance that anyone reading this is unaware of the Ponheary Ly foundation and its mission, here's the link:

www.theplf.org

Although it was difficult to abandon the vision of us as intrepid 30 year olds who would delight in bouncing around in tuk tuks inhaling dust, we bowed to reality and also hired an airconditioned car and driver. Depressing, but an excellent decision. It's hot and dusty out there and the temples are scattered over a large area. If you're an "experienced " traveler, don't underestimate the benefits of a cool car, refeshing drinks, and saved steps.

As you would expect, Ponheary knows lots about the temples and will tell you all the details you may want to know. She'll also position you and your camera for the best shots. What's unique about spending time with her is the opportunity to catch a glimpse of life in Cambodia for the Cambodians both now and during the Khmer Rouge years. We talked about the girls in the local high school who didn't get enough to eat and her plans to take them all to dinner at a nice restaurant so they would aspire to a better life for themselves, about the school children who pass out from hunger in the classroom, the orphaned college student without rent money....

Based on how many temples organized tour groups claim to cover in a day, we were definitely underachievers. The first afternoon after arrival we headed for Angkor Wat, stopping to buy three-day passes ($40 cash). The days don't have to be sequential but they must be within a week of purchase. The pass is punched each day you enter. No need to bring photos since digital photos are taken at the time of purchase and included on the pass. If you enter after 5 PM the day doesn't count and the pass isn't punched.

We generally started touring at 8:00 AM, took a midday break and then resumed after lunch at 3:00. An earlier start time would have been better but we did enjoy having a leisurely breakfast before setting out. Unlike an African safari where you miss out on animal viewing if you don't spring out of bed before dawn, a later start for temple visiting just means that you'll be warmer and have more company. Unfortunately some of your companions will be climbing in forbidden areas, smoking despite the signs, dislodging stones for souvenirs, stepping not only on your toes but also in front of your camera. But then if you're planning to see 20 temples in a day you can't dawdle.

We visited the star attractions: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom and the Bayon, as well as the nearby Banteay Kdei and Preah Khan, and the more distant Banteay Srei, including a stop at the Knar school that the Ponheary Ly Foundation supports. The many smaller temples we saw, including those of the Roluos group, were as fascinating as the big ones, (thanks to Ponheary) and much less crowded. There was agressive tree extraction taking place at Ta Prohm, in hopes of stopping all those mighty roots from dismantling the massive temples of Angkor. Though the goal is noble, it was alarming to see.

We learned to recognize nagas (seven-headed snakes that turn up everywhere as rails on balconies and bridges) and garudas (heavily muscled bird-men, eternal enemies of the nagas, typically enlisted for holding up the sky), even when their heads were missing. Photographing the site-information signage upon entering a site helped us identify the copious images that burdened our cameras' memory card.

We certainly didn't get "templed out" and were glad we spent four nights in Siem Reap. I think we would have been unhappy with a shorter stay.

How lucky you were to have Ponheary as your guide - one of the most memorable people we've met in our travels. She picked us up at the airport and had tea with her, but were guided by one of her minions (who was fine). I wish she could have taken us to the temples, but she was otherwise engaged on our dates. Did you get to visit one of the schools?

Yes, crosscheck, we stopped at the Knar school. Ponheary wanted to meet with the principal so we just poked around. We made a donation to the foundation before arriving, instead of trying to arrange something at a school.

Eating in Siem Reap

We are devoted eaters and stick to local dishes, though on this trip our definition of "local" was somewhat broader than usual. In particular, French in Vietnam was deemed acceptable. I diligently studied Lori's (offwego's) list of places to eat in Siem Reap and was relieved to read that:

"You can eat anything at these places without gastrointestinal consequences. Eat the meat, eat the vegetables even if they are raw, try the frogs, have a shake, chomp the ice, it’s all good. Most of the food in Siem Reap is pretty safe these days; the days of amoebic dysentery for lunch are almost behind us. Your own dirty hands are probably your biggest threat."

Did I believe her? Well, kindda. I'm willing to take my chances with fake saffron, broken taxi meters, and rigged ATMs but the laid back attitude doesn't extend to food. In more exotic places we don't eat street food (except for food blessed by street food tour mavens) and we prefer eating at establishments that have documented survivors, instead of making our own discoveries which may be memorable for the wrong reasons. Complicating all of this is our aversion to bland touristy hotel food.

Breakfast was included in our room rate at Raffles so no worries there. These were the best breakfasts of our trips, eaten outdoors overlooking the lovely grounds. We particularly enjoyed a mysterious green juice blend that the staff concocted on request. The first morning they asked if we'd like some and subsequent mornings we were clever enough to ask for it. The only drawback to breakfast was the smell of insect repellant and sunscreen which hovered over us. Perhaps we applied it too diligently and liberally every morning? I think we protected everyone within a mile radius of us. Although Siem Reap isn't malarial, I had become dengue-phobic from too much reading about health hazards of SE Asia.

The first two afternoons we ate lunch at the hotel since we didn't want to waste time taking tuk tuks into the city. (Raffles is about a 10 minute ride from Pub Street.) The lunches were dismal enough to dissuade us from trying the "fancy" Cambodian restaurant at the hotel. The third afternoon we walked over to the Victoria Angkor which is on the same square as Raffles. The lunch menu was much more appealing and extensive than that at Raffles. We ordered an excellent pomelo salad and red snapper with noodles in a claypot. Too bad we gave Raffles two chances before we walked.

We had the same paranoia about dengue on our trip last year. And wouldn't u know on the first day in SR, I showered and of course got all the deet off. Forgot to reapply walked outside and got bit by a damn mosquito! Obviously I did survive, but that made me evermore diligent.

I became addicted to pomelo on our trip to SEAsia.
enjoying your TR.

I'm enjoying your report. So glad you loved Angkor!

Marija,

I am greatly enjoying your excellent TR! I see that you really enjoyed SE Asia! So did we! I think that we did a similar itinerary to yours in January. Thanx for the detailed report!

My doctor, who is from Sri Lanka, put the fear of dengue fever in me. He rolled his eyes and said, "Oooo. If you get that you're gonna be a real sickie. A REAL sickie". Problem is, I didn't know exactly how to stay out of harm's way; there are no anti-dengue fever drugs evidently. Bugs like my blood and seem to bypass others in order to feast on me no matter what the precautions. I came back from Cambodia with some nasty bites. When they first appeared, they itched and burned and wept so much that I had to ask our tour guide to direct me to someone or someplace for help. He took me down a little alley to what looked like a roadside stand. Turned out it was a pharmacy, and the lady behind the counter seemed to know what she was doing. Perhaps she had been a pharmacist who had survived the Pol Pot days. She recognized the kind of bites and gave me a topical med along with something to take internally. Both for something like $5. According to the info on their packaging, one came from India and the other from Korea, I think. I used the topical but was afraid to take the pills. I'm prone to allergies and was concerned about a possible reaction. When I got home I went to my own doctor who said that both, including the pills, were right on.

I'm really enjoying this report. Can't wait for more.

Marina, I think you gave me some good advice about truffle hunting in Piedmont last fall. And this is something completely different, but like others I am keen for the next installment as we are currently in Thailand en route to Viet Nam and Laos. I know I will learn a lot, both practical and philosophical!

I know that should be Marija. Autocorrect doesn't believe me.

We had a dengue scare when we returned - Mr. Crosscheck had a very high fever with no other symptoms. Turns out it was a virus or flu he probably picked up on the plane. Our doctor was very reassuring but we were pretty freaked out for a day or so. Might be why I'm avoiding finishing the trip report....Sorry to highjack your excellent report, Carry on!

Hi, Marija,
I'm now enjoying your TR as I've been bit by the Asia bug and dreams of SE Asia are now filling my head! Wonderful report, great writing!

Maybe next year... We'll see what juggling can be done, but I've now added SE Asia to the top of the bucket list!

Marija, I'm diligently reading every single word. We had a false start on our own SE Asia trip this winter and are hoping it happens next year. Looking forward to reading more of your lovely report.

Again, thanks for reading. Glad we didn't get those nasty bites or the fever.

Dining in Siem Reap

Based on many excellent reviews, we knew that we wanted to eat dinner at Cuisine Wat Damnak, www.cuisinewatdamnak.com, but not on the first night in Siem Reap, since we weren't sure how alert or hungry we would be. We wanted to be in top eating form for this meal. (We applied the opposite logic in structuring our itinerary. Siem Reap was our most important destination so we headed there first. I had dwelled on possible misfortunes and wanted to make sure we got to Angkor before we were run over by motorcycles in Hanoi, bitten by rabid dogs in Luang Prabang, or held captive by shop owners in Bangkok.)

Lori's list recommends The Khmer Kitchen for its "extensive and authentic Khmer menu" so we hailed a tuk tuk ($2 ) and set off in search. www.khmerkitchens.com
Since we hadn't made reservations, we had to wait a bit for an open table, always a good sign. Our dinner of spring rolls, fish amok, pork curry and beer was an excellent and filling meal for $15.

Leaving the restaurant, I saw a brightly lit sign pointing to Pub Street, a road I have strolled with dogster:
http://thedogster3.wordpress.com/siem-reap-1
but Bruce was anxious to return to the hotel so we'd be rested for temple viewing in the morning. It was just as well since Pub Street could remain a bit longer the way I imagined it.

Apsara performance

Apsaras, in Hindu and Buddhist mythology are female spirits of the clouds and waters. Their graceful images, carved into stone, decorate many of the temples of Angkor. Traditional Cambodian ballet/dance is sometimes called Apsara dance since the dancers mimic the hand gestures of the Apsaras. This is not a dynamic style of dance like you see in Indian dance performances. Don't expect flames on top of dancers' heads! Many restaurants in Siem Reap feature Apsara performances in the evening.

Since it was convenient and we knew the food would be "safe", our second night at Siem Reap we went to dinner and a performance at the Apsara Terrace at Raffles. This was the only day we could go since it takes place only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This was probably the most expensive option around at $45 per person for the show and "pan-Asian barbeque cuisine." Wine is ridiculously priced at $16 per glass. The food was very good. There were 15 or so food stations on the periphery of the outdoor room. Each station cooks your food to order. There were soups with a large selection of ingredients, Indian food, Khmer food from the Khmer Kitchen, BBQ, vegetable curries, sweets and much more. You can spice up the food as much or little as you want. The lines at the stations moved pretty quickly but you did have to wait for your food to be prepared. Food service started at 7:00 and the performance at 7:45. If you're going make sure to be there promptly at 7:00 so you get a chance to eat before the performance since it's disruptive and awkward to have to go in search of food in the dark during the dancing.

The Apsara dances and martial arts were interesting but we did find ourselves drifting off. If we hadn't invested heavily in the evening we might have snuck out before the show ended. I think we would have been just as happy seeing one of the lesser shows in Siem Reap and then going for dinner somewhere. But we know nothing about the intricacies of Apsara dancing and it may be that we saw an exceptionally fine show that was worth every penny we paid.

First Visit to Cuisine Wat Damnak

With the Apsara performance out of the way, the next evening we were free to set out for dinner at the much lauded Cuisine Wat Damnak. Since its location is a bit remote, we made sure the doorman gave detailed instructions to our tuk tuk driver. It was a beautiful evening and the ride along the river was most pleasant. And then, right in front of Swensen's ice cream shop, all of the lights went out. Our driver continued down the now even more chaotic than usual darkened streets to Cuisine Wat Damnak where we found the owners standing on the street: "Sorry. No power. No dinner." Ever alert, I immediately asked whether they could move our reservations to the following evening. They assured us that would be fine and asked for our phone number so they could notify us if there was a problem the next evening. Now what?!

We debated returning to the hotel, but weren't excited by the dining possibilities there. Our driver offered to take us to a "really good place" but we knew the possible perils of such recommendations. Complicating our decision was the fact that we didn't know if power was out everywhere. We finally asked our driver to take us to Pub Street on the chance that it had power. And indeed Pub Street was all lit up and packed. But where should we eat? I had Lori's recommendations downloaded on my iPhone but it was too dark to read the list. I tried to find the Khmer Kitchen again. No luck. We haphazardly wandered the streets looking for names that I might recognize from the "approved" list. I insisted on "safe" food. Bruce insisted on food.

Before we went our separate ways, we came upon Soup Dragon, an approved restaurant. It wasn't Cuisine Wat Damnak but we enjoyed our spring rolls, pork with ginger and chili, Vietnamese pancake and beer, again all for $15. We made an anemic attempt to explore Pub Street and the Night Market but we weren't up to the mission, though we did encounter the Linga Bar, another dogster haunt. I wonder if any other group misses dogster as much as we do? You can't plan a trip to South East Asia using fodors without repeatedly encountering dogster's footprints.

This is making me very hungry. I also like the suspense...Will the new Cuisine Wat Damnak res indeed be honored?

<I wonder if any other group misses dogster as much as we do?>

He was legendary in the international theatre world, but that pales to the force he was here on Fodors.

I agree, crosscheck!

Loving your report, Marija.

Cuisine Wat Damnak (again)

The next night we again set off for Cuisine Wat Damnak with our tuk tuk driver from the previous night. (Before he left us on Pub Street we agreed to his request that he would come to our hotel at the same time the next night.) Lights were on everywhere, no calls from the restaurant, everything looked good. It was only when the driver turned off the main road to the side street that all was dark. I hoped that the residents were just conserving power. It was only when we saw the owners again standing in front of their restaurant that grim reality set in. The owners were surprised to see us since they had called the hotel to warn us that they had no power, a message we never received. During our discussion they mentioned that the previous night power eventually returned and they did open. We knew instantly what we had to do--hunker down and wait for the power to come on again. This was our last chance since we were leaving in the morning.

Fortunately the owners invited us into the dark restaurant, lit some candles and even took drink orders. Ever the optimists we asked to see the food menu as well. We were determined to wait as long as it took for power to come back or until we were asked to leave. Luck was with us and within the hour power was restored.

The restaurant serves two menus, a five course menu for $19 and a six course menu for $26. Excellent cocktails are $4 and there's also a selection of reasonably priced wines.
From their website:

"Cuisine Wat Damnak was founded on the simple concept of using only local fresh seasonal produce with which to create exquisite Cambodian food. Our dégustation menus change on a weekly basis to maximise the use of seasonal fruits, vegetables and fish, some of which are only available for a three week period every year. Some items are difficult if not impossible to source through our local market channels, but we go the extra mile and hunt them out so we can incorporate them into our menus and make them as exciting as possible."

We wanted to sample all of the available dishes so we ordered both menus, and a bottle of Viognier. The dishes were excellent and an incredible value for the price. I took a menu to remind me of what we actually ate. Unfortunately, the last evening in Bangkok, the takes- up- no-space menu was tossed during a frantic attempt to stuff a large wooden Buddha head into the luggage.

Angkor National Museum

The last morning in Siem Reap, before flying to Luang Prabang, we headed out to the Angkor museum which is a short walk from Raffles:

http://www.angkornationalmuseum.com/about_anm/1.

Admission is rather pricey at $12. Photography is not allowed in the exhibit halls. We didn't expect much but Bruce is in the museum business so he's always checking out the competition. We were amazed to find such a modern, well designed and curated museum in Siem Reap. It must have been built by the government since we couldn't find any indication of funding sources. Definitely worth visiting this impressive museum of Khmer culture and artifacts. May it continue to find funding and flourish.

Loving this. Such a relief that you got into CWD. SR has evolved: No prix fixes or fine dining when we were there in '06. I don't believe the museum existed either - will have to return.

Luang Prabang

The flight from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang, with a short stop in Pakse, left early. I was a bit concerned about Laos Airways and regretted that I hadn't booked a flight on Bangkok Airways, a more "reputable" carrier. It was a needless worry, since Lao Airways had new planes and was definitely not a second class airlines. They were so careful that the snack boxes had stick on labels correcting "Your's safe with Lao Air" to "You are safe with Lao Air." Yes, we peeled off the labels to see what atrocity was being hidden!

On arrival in Laos we were first in the visa on arrival line. I filled out the forms distributed on the plane, although I had almost identical completed forms that I downloaded from the Laotian embassy website. I wasn't going to risk being sent to the end of the line again. The procedure could qualify as a comedy routine. Two guys on stage. One collects all 40 or so passports and applications and stacks them in a pile while other guy eats his noodles. First guy then leaves, presumably to eat his noodles elsewhere. Second guy finishes noodles and then takes a leisurely postprandial stroll back and forth along the counter. Satisfied that digestion is successfully underway, to our relief he flips the tower of passports, so the first is no longer last. He takes the documents back to his office, snoozes a bit, and then finally stamps them all and returns to collect money. Slightly less than an hour and we're on our way.

We arranged a pick up for $12 by our hotel the Maison Souvannaphoum, the return by regular taxi was $5 or so. I thought it quite unhospitable to ask us to fill out credit card and passport forms by hand in the dark in a moving car on the way to the hotel. The hotel was OK, but certainly not noteworthy, especially for the price. Our room was adequate but the welcoming envelope on the bed had a card addressed to someone else. The bed had a heartfelt message constructed of leaves and blossoms. Too bad no one came to remove the arrangement. We had to pick up all the petals if we didn't want them joining us in bed. We did enjoy the breakfasts, especially the traditional coconut pancakes, which were seriously delicious. The hotel staff was pleasant but the manager Sergei who is consistently praised in reviews never made an appearance during our three days. There was no one to offer suggestions for activities or restaurants during our stay.

The hotel is located about a 10 minute walk from the night market, at the edge of the old city. There's little of interest around the hotel. Most of the restaurants are a 20 minute or so walk away. If I had to do it over again I would stay in a more centrally located hotel. There were plenty of tuk tuks around at $4 a ride, but the roofs of the tuk tuks were very low (and hard on the head) making for less than a comfortable ride. Interesting how the construction of the tuk tuks differs from place to place.

No surprise that after checking in we immediately turned our attention to dinner reservations. Our first choice, L' Eléphant, was not available but we were able to get a reservation at 3 Nagas:
www.3-nagas.com
We stopped at an ATM on the way to the restaurant and were confused by the currency--there were no recognizable numbers on the bills. Turns out that one side of the bill is only in Lao, the other side features Arabic numerals --quite a relief not to have to master Laotian numbers!

The nightmarket is on the road between the hotel and the restaurant, so we walked through it. Bruce found the going slow since he was taller than the canopies that covered the market. I found the market large but disappointing with everybody selling the same massproduced stuff. It's certainly possible that a more skilled shopper (that includes just about everyone) might have unearthered treasures where I saw only junk.

Dinner at 3 Nagas was great. We ordered seaweed chips, Lao sausage and river fish, Lao beer and a decadent chocolate dessert recommended by a neighboring table. The evening was lovely and we enjoyed sitting outside protected by our trusty insect repellant since Luang Prabang is a low malarial risk area.

We returned to the hotel with a tuk tuk driver who, as is usually the case, claimed no money to make change. (We needed the equivalent of $4 back, the fare for a single ride. Hard to believe we were his only customers of the day.) Of course, it was our own fault for not inspecting more carefully the stack of Laotian bills we were now carrying. Fortunately the hotel gave us smaller bills. I wonder if drivers just don't know enough arithmetic to conduct such delicate transactions.

That's so funny about your arrival in Lao. We were also first in line with forms in hand, We zipped right thru, guess we were lucky.

Wonderful, have been waiting almost patiently for you to get to Luang Prabang.

<<Yes, we peeled off the labels to see what atrocity was being hidden!>>

"Your's in store for a long wait at customs"

Thanks for reading!
------------------------

Luang Prabang is a great town for leisurely exploration. Unlike Siem Reap, there aren't many must sees, with the possible exception of watching the monks collecting alms early in the morning and several noteworthy wats. There are caves and whiskey villages outside the town but we were happy to just stay put, especially since there are great places for leisurely lunches and dinners.

Our first morning started with the obligatory alms giving ritual. I asked at the hotel where we should go and was told to stand in front of the hotel since the monks pass by there. I had this vision of a long line of monks all walking the same route, so I assumed that it didn't matter where you stood as long as you were on the route. That's not the case. The monks walk around in the areas surrounding their wats so if you stand in a place without many wats you won't get the full impact. It's definitely worth going into the center of town where all of the action is. That's what we did after a rather anemic monk turnout on the first morning by the hotel. The activities in town started later than the suburban ones so the light for photography was also much better. There are vendors selling rice and other food for the monks but the signs on some of the wats warn visitors not to buy street food for the monks since it can make them ill.

The Royal Palace is also an interesting stop where you can see the moon rock that President Nixon left behind. We also enjoyed the small ethnology museum and the movies about tribal life. Every afternoon from 1-3 the Luang Prabang library hosts "practice English with the tourists" sessions for the monks. It was fascinating to talk to "our" monk and learn about his life and dreams, which did not include a permanent state of monkdom. I highly recommend this. The library also sponsors a book project where for $2 you can buy a book for distribution to children in remote villages.

http://www.lao-kids.org/lp-library.php

Eating

Besides our dinner at 3-Nagas, we had dinners at L' Eléphant and Tamnak Lao. L'Eléphant is very much the stereotypical French bistro, crowded to a fault when we were there.
www.elephant-restau.com/Engindex.html
We had Mekong fish stuffed with pork and herbs and a side of assorted vegetables. Dessert was some sort of nougat concoction. This was the least favorite of our dinners, though Bruce was introduced to Dark Lager from Beer Lao which immediately became (and to this day remains) his favorite SE Asian beer.

Tamnak Lao , www.tamnaklao.net, has none of the pretension of L'Eléphant and serves well prepared traditional Lao dishes. Our order of
fish casserole, moo (pork) larb, banana with laos honey and, of course, lao dark was very good.

Lunches were at Tamarind , www.tamarindlaos.com, and Apsara, www.theapsara.com, both excellent. The fruit/herb drinks at Tamarind were exceptional and the local wild mushroom dish at Apsara was the best dish we had in Luang Prabang. I wish we had been in Luang Prabang on a Friday when Tamarind has a special dinner.

Our flight to Hanoi on Lao Air was scheduled for early afternoon and we arrived in plenty of time. When we checked at one of the three airport counters, the agent handed us two bottles of mineral water and informed us that our flight would be three hours late. We certainly didn't think that the free water was adequate compensation.

There's nothing at the Luang Prabang airport, including working wi-fi, so we briefly debated returning to town and having lunch, since it was only a 20 minute ride. The drawback to that plan was that they might unexpectedly move the flight back up and then we would be out of luck. We pulled out the two remaining emergency granola bars, which together with the free water, made a dismal lunch.

The small airport seating area is after passport control and we watched it fill up, wondering if we should join the growing crowd, so we wouldn't be left seatless. On the other hand I was afraid that once we passed passport control we could not reenter Laos and all of the ticket agents and counters would be out of our reach. That was an excellent call. Do not go to the departure area of the Luang Prabang airport until you know your plane is leaving on schedule. There are no airline staff there and you can't change your flights.

We hung around the counter area and found out that there was another flight to Hanoi that was leaving before our hypothetical departure time. (Since there aren't any arrival or departure boards this was info we picked up by talking to people.) After much discussion with the airline staff and going to a special office to have our names inscribed on a waiting list, we were put us on the earlier flight which was also delayed but at least had a plane at the gate. The obedient passengers who headed to the gate were out of luck.

While participating in the active social life of people checking in, we witnessed a man who was denied a boarding pass to Hanoi because his birth day on the smudged Vietnam visa on arrival letter didn't match that in his passport. (Just the day, everything else matched.) His tour guide made some frantic calls and headed out to the Vietnam consulate not far from the airport. He did return in time with a visa for the lucky passenger who did have to pay a couple of hundred dollars for the rush job.

"The monks walk around in the areas surrounding their wats "

Either that's a difference between the suburbs and the town, or things have changed. In town it certainly used to be true that all the monks walked in a long line.

I think L'Elephant may have gotten too popular for its own good.

The monks walked in lines, but the lines seem to start and end at different places and have different numbers of monks.

Bruce has excellent taste in beer. The Beer Lao Dark Lager I enjoyed in LP is by far the best I have had in SE Asia. I believe it was served at the MS when we stayed there...

Still enjoying your TR.
What i really liked about LP was exactly what you said its great for "leisurely exploration." Totally agree with you on the food. I still long for one of those fruit drinks from Tamarind.
Where we stood the monks walked in a long line down the street. Not sure what went on at other portions along the way. We would see them coming out of their wats and joining the long line.

HANOI

Few of us who came of age during the Vietnam War could ever imagine vacationing in Vietnam. Out! was the chant. But decades later here we are, voluntarily standing in line waiting for permission to enter Vietnam.

Heeding Tonkin's warning about long lines, we obtained visas before arriving, opting for a "loose leaf visa" which does not require you to mail in your passport. You just send in a form, and of course your money, and receive a loose leaf paper visa which you bring with you. I went a step further and stapled it into our passports. Introducing unauthorized metal into a passport is probably illegal but I wanted to ensure that the visas and passports would travel together and remain as an expensive memento of our trip ($90 per visa, plus Fed Ex charges. Fees are not given on the embassy website, you have to call. Guess that saves them the trouble of updating their website each time they increase the fee.)

Since Tonkin arranged transfer from the airport to the hotel, it was in their interest to get us on our way ASAP, so I was a bit suspicious of their warning about visa lines at the airport. But lines are always possible and, since we were scheduled to arrive in early evening, it seemed imprudent to put our dinner plans in jeopardy, not to mention having to endure the grumblings of an impatient husband. Since we arrived several hours later than scheduled, I was particularly pleased to go straight to the immigration control line, leaving the soon-to-be-fainting-from-hunger VisaOnArrival crowd in the dust.

A helpful employee of Lao Air contacted Tonkin to alert them to our delay and change of flight but we were still uncertain as to whether someone would be waiting for us. We were relieved to see our name on a sign when we exited. Traffic was heavy, probably made worse by the drizzle, and it took almost an hour to reach the Sofitel Metropole. Check in was efficient and we settled into a room in the new wing for our four night stay. (Since the room was booked by Tonkin Travel we couldn't take advantage of our Accor member benefits but the Tonkin rate was better than what I could unearth. ) The room was small but otherwise comfortable. We gratefully took note of the hotel's no tipping policy, since we were still dong free. (There is a Citibank to the left as you exit the hotel from the historic wing.)

The location of the hotel is excellent, a 10 minute walk to Hoan Kiem Lake and the old city. Brides flock to the hotel in their wedding finery to have their photos taken. At one point we counted 15 couples posing. Maybe the time before Tet is particulary favorable for marriages?

Our room rate included breakfast which was served in three locations. The breakfast rooms were crowded and a couple of times we had to visit several venues before we found one without a wait. The first morning we were seated at an empty table for eight and told to expect company. The couple who joined us a while later also seemed surprised by this forced befor coffee congeniality. The breakfast was extensive, embracing foods from many regions. We did not eat any other meals at the hotel, though we did have drinks at the Bamboo Bar and the Club Bar where unfortunately we missed the chocolate buffet which is rumored to pop up in late afternoon.

Every day the hotel gives free tours of the underground bunkers which were discovered during remodeling. You must sign up in advance. The hotel historian, after a brief recap of past events and noteworthy visitors, outfits you in hard hats and takes you down into the bunker where you listen to Joan Baez sing, as she sang in that very bunker during the Christmas bombings of 1972.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/19/hanois-metropole-hotel-un_n_1019217.html

The tour ends with complimentary hot tea which we drank in silence, reflecting again, after so many years, on this war and our collective actions. Surprisingly, the Vietnamese seem to treat what they call the "American War" as just another war in their tragic history. We always felt welcome wherever we went. Of course, many of those who actually experienced the war are dead and their offspring are too involved in planning their future to dwell on the past. That's quite different from the ethnic grievances that are often passed from generation to generation. For example in China, we were amazed at the open hatred of the Japanese expressed by the young.

Still following and enjoying your report, Marija.

Fascinating about the bunkers -- I didn't know about them. Yes, I felt the same as we toured VN last year -- how can I be here? echoed in my head over and over and I was constantly thrown back into those turbulent years. The VN people are just lovely and I was amazed in conversations detected no animosity towards Americans. The younger people we talked to about the American War talked about looking to the future and that was well into the past for them.
Continuing to enjoy your report and often relive our trip last year.

Now you're in uncharted territory for me - haven't yet been to Vietnam. So fascinating about their feelings about the "American War." You would think the whole country would still be in therapy, as in a way we are.

Hi Marija,
I'm really enjoying reading your report as it's so similar to the one we took several years ago....but I got scared off of Luang Prubang and cancelled because i was worried about the smoke from fires. We also had Ponheary and loved her insightful yet low key tours of Siem Reap. But I think my overriding impression of Siem Reap was the extreme heat and humidity!
I didn't realize we could tour bunkers under the Sofitel Metropole....is this a recent development?
Looking forward to your reports on Hue and Hoi An, two of our favorite places.

We got all our visas ahead of time so didn't go through that drama.

Hi Marija I am very much looking forward to more !

We opted for Visas on Arrival to Hanoi, arrived around 7 pm and had no waiting whatsoever to get ours [took about 5 minutes in all]. Not sure if we were lucky or whether it depends on time of day.

Thanks for reading!
barefootbeach--unlike you, we had great weather in Siem Reap. It wasn't unpleasantly hot.
yestravel--I think the bunkers were found in 2011. Don't know how long the tours have been available.
---------------------------------------------
The first night we asked the concierge to make reservations for us at the Green Tangerine, www.greentangerinehanoi.com, a restaurant that has been recommended by many here. Although I knew the restaurant was a short walk away, we went by taxi since I had read so much about the difficulty of crossing streets in Hanoi and I couldn't risk death or injury delaying dinner. (Taxis are incredibly cheap in Vietnam, $2 will get you almost anywhere you want to go. )

In fact, crossing streets does take concentration but it was not nearly as perilous as I feared. There are stoplights, though not at all intersections, and you're seldom crossing alone so you have cues from locals on when it's safe to proceed. We never saw any kind of accident during our 11 days in Vietnam.

Green Tangerine is set in a gorgeous old house. It was too cold to eat outside on the patio and the first floor was full, so we were led to the second floor which was not nearly as charming as the first. Not a problem since our main interest was food and drink. We had the only table for two, the rest of the youthful patrons were seated at large tables, drinking and conversing very loudly. The loud conversation turned to shouting and some sort of altercation ensued. Together with our food, we were quickly relocated to the first floor. We later saw some of our fellow diners leaving against their wishes.

The food and drink were a major disappointment. It's quite possible we were responsible for both. I had read suggestions to order a Vietnamese sampler and instead of following our usual strategy of diversification, we inadvertently ordered it for two. Poor choice for one, even worse for two. We also selected a bottle of wine which was terrible. Bruce accepted it after the sample thinking it would "open up." Instead it seemed to "shut down", growing worse with each sip. We were forced to do the unthinkable--leave a bottle of wine unfinished. Even in India and China we managed to empty bottles of wine impersonators.

The first morning, a financial representative from Tonkin was supposed to meet us at 8:30 for some sort of formalities that I couldn't get them to explain. We were paying by credit card and they had the number; we already had hotel vouchers and e-ticket numbers so, as far as I could tell, we were good to go. When no one from Tonkin showed showed up, the concierge called them, someone apologized but showed no interest in rescheduling. Unfortunately, despite our failure to rendezvous, the charges showed up on our credit card.

Our second meeting of the morning proceeded as scheduled. Two absolutely charming Hanoi Kids, www.hanoikids.org, were waiting for us in the lobby at 11:30. Thanks to all here who recommended them! They were an absolute delight and the highlight of our stay in Hanoi. Hanoi Kids is a free guiding service provided by university students who want to practice English. They are forbidden from accepting money. You just feed them and pay for taxis.

We chose our meeting time so we could start with lunch at Quan An Ngon, the "safe" street food restaurant. We sat at one of the long communal tables and asked the Kids to order for us. They asked if it was OK to order some of the more pricey meat dishes (maybe $3) and we encouraged them to order without financial constraint. In Hanoi, at this restaurant, we felt as flush as Bill Gates. (That feeling rapidly evaporated when we entered the confines of the Metropole with its $20 cocktails!)

The Kids made excellent selections and tutored us in the art of wrapping pancakes and herbs in rice paper, as well as in other nuances of Vietnamese table manners. No one left hungry. This was a great place to have local supervision since there were so many menu items and the protocol for ordering, eating and paying wasn't completely obvious. Although it looks like a food court, you sit down and wait for someone to take your order.

After lunch we went to the Ho Chi Minh complex which, except for the one legged pagoda, was pretty much closed. Having little choice, we left Uncle Ho to continue his rest and walked to the Temple of Literature. The Kids said it was not far but a wrong turn entered the picture and it took close to an hour. We encouraged them to give us an abbreviated tour, since it was getting late. One of the rules of the Kids is that they have to return you to where they found you, so we all took a cab back to the hotel, chatted a while longer, took photos and parted. (Thanks to Craig for the suggestion to bring something from home for the Kids since they can accept small gifts.)

Our afternoon with Hanoi Kids, aka The Little Ambassadors of Hanoi was most enjoyable. We didn't view them as tour guides. Instead they provided a unique glimpse into student life. They discussed their majors and classes, their families and apartments, the structure of their organization and the difficulties they encounter. The sights of Hanoi just provided a backdrop to our conversations. Of course, it's possible that not all Kids are willing or able to open up to strangers.

For dinner we confidently walked over to the Ly Club, www.lyclub.vn/hanoi, dodging all obstacles in our path. (The major obstacle was not motorcycles but torn up sidewalks.) Like Green Tangerine the Ly Club is in a beautiful converted old mansion. We selected the degustation menu which was good, but not noteworthy. After the tragic wine of the previous night we stuck to beer and cocktails.

On our second morning in Hanoi, after breakfast of course, we again took a taxi to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum which on Saturday is open only in the morning. (We always asked the doorman to tell the cab driver our destination and carried a hotel card to show for the return.) Remembering the snaking lines in Beijing to view Mao, we agreed that we would not wait in line for more than half an hour. (We wait longer only for pizza in Naples!)

To our surprise there was no line and, despite signs to the contrary, no need to check bags and cameras, though we did go through a scanner. The guards didn't rush us so we admired the excellent embalming job as we slowly walked past. Ho Chi Minh looked just like his photos! Amazing! I've read that there's a lot of expense and expertise involved in keeping HCM looking good. Unlike the Venezuelans who waited too long with Chavez, the Vietnamese didn't dally in preserving HCM and it may be that with proper care he'll last forever.

Next up was the nearby Ho Chi Minh museum. I loved it. It was what I think a museum should be---lots and lots of disjointed stuff, of every size and type, displayed in random groupings. There were huge plastic fruit displays, signs with wise sayings, war plans, clothes, dishes, numerous statues and photos of HCM, and so much more. Don't miss it if you like museums that show their wares without harnessing a gazillion computers to try to make it interesting and educational. ( This represents only my views not those of my museum employed DH.)

From the HCM museum we made our way to the famous Hỏa Lò Prison aka Hanoi Hilton where American prisoners of war, including John McCain, were held. It was originally built by the French to house their political prisoners. Although most of the prison prison was demolished, the gatehouse remains with depressing exhibits and dark rooms with gruesome pasts. Much of the museum recounts the torture of Vietnamese by the French. It wasn't pleasant but we wanted to see the remnants of the prison that we'd heard so much about so many years ago.

To lift our spirits our thoughts turned to lunch and we headed to Madame Hien . We both ordered bun cha, since the waiter claimed one order would not suffice
www.verticale-hanoi.com/madame-hien/madame-hen-why.html
Again this was a restaurant in a restored French mansion but this time we really enjoyed our meal. Lunch service ends at 2:00 PM and several unhappy groups were turned away. Bruce returned to the hotel in a cab while I explored the surrounding streets of Hanoi on foot.

Dinner was at La Badiane, www.labadiane-hanoi.com, a French restaurant in yet another restored mansion. For our main courses, Bruce ordered lamb shanks with harissa, I had ravioli with shrimp in mushroom sauces. Both were excellent. The soups and molten chocolate cake and crème brûlée desserts were also tasty. We regretted not ordering a bottle of wine but we were still concerned that wine is somehow imperiled on its long journey to Hanoi.(We did see Vietnamese wine in the Delta, though we didn't see any on offer in restaurants.)

On our last full day in Hanoi we took a tuk tuk through the 36 streets of the old city. Although I had covered part of the area on foot, the tuk tuk gave a different perspective since I no longer had to watch where I was stepping. Our driver was skillfully dodging motorcycles, bikes, cars, pedestrians, and animals, leaving us free to focus on the streetside action. And there was plenty of that. I don't think we covered all of the streets but we certainly saw a good number. Since Tet was approaching there was an entire street devoted to necessary items, including supplies for the dead. Everywhere we went we saw Tet preparations. In Huế even the bottoms of trees were being painted.

For lunch we went to Quan An Ngon again but we didn't order as well as the Kids did. The highlight of the meal was a dessert of banana coconut soup. Sticking to the war theme our next stop was the Vietnam Military Museum which Bruce wanted to see--lots of big war making equipment outside and dull displays inside. Hope he liked it.

In late afternoon we walked over to the water puppet show which was not compelling but certainly amusing. The concierge got us front row tickets for $5 or so. I found it much more enjoyable than the War Museum. After the hour long show we headed back to the hotel and dinner at Club Opera across the street from the Metropole. Maybe if there had been more than four people in the restaurant, and cleaning supplies weren't on a cart next to our table, it wouldn't have struck me as so musty, dark and dreary. I wanted to leave but nothing stands in the way of Bruce and his dinner. From the ragged menu I ordered an appetizer which I thought was terrible, so I didn't order anything else. Bruce ordered a fish dish which he described as OK. Definitely do not recommend this place.

Our flight from Hanoi to Hue was at 11:30 and our pickup at the hotel was supposed to be at 9:30, so all we really had time for was breakfast and checking out. I paid the bill and went to the Citibank next door while Bruce kept the packed luggage company. The hotel was incredibly crowded and busy since the president of Argentina was staying there. There was even a scanner set up in the lobby and police and security were everywhere.

Once I returned to the room I packed a couple of stray items and then went to share the dong I had pulled from the ATM with Bruce. My wallet was not in my purse. I unpacked the luggage hoping I had absentmindedly packed it with the toiletries. No such luck. I searched the room. I went to the reception desk and Citibank. No one had seen it. Fortunately our passports and most credit cards were in a wallet which I had chained to the inside of my purse so only the dong and ATM card had vanished. There was nothing else we could do so we hurried downstairs to wait for our driver. I again mentioned my loss to the front desk and they assured me they would send someone up to our room to look for the wallet.

The driver was quite late, since he couldn't get to the hotel because of all of the security. He drove like a man possessed and we checked in for our flight to Hue barely five minutes before the counter closed. I was still obsessing over the fate of the missing wallet and hoped that it was just naughtily hiding in the luggage, especially since the hotel manager called to say housekeeping couldn't find it either. It had to be somewhere.

Hanoi is a fascinating city and four nights was much too short of a stay. I regret that we ate too timidly. I had the information for the local hole-in-the-wall places to eat but we were too afraid of Hanoi Belly. Maybe next time we'll be more daring.

Despite the unfortunate pickpocketing and the bad meal, this makes me want to spend a week in Hanoi.

Love the way you write and enjoying reading your TR. So many of your days were identical to ours. Like you I absolutely loved the Ho Chi Minh museum. I thought it was fascinating & amusing at times. Did u get to the Women's Museum in Hanoi?
Too bad you didn't try the local hole in the wall places -- next time. I still remember the Bun Cha and I think it was Bun Thit Nuong--delicious.

Bummer about your wallet. Interesting it would happen with all the extra security no less.

Oh no! Anxiously awaiting news of the missing wallet...

I am enjoying your report on Hanoi and am so sorry for the theft of your wallet. We've had that happen in Italy and it's so much trouble to cancel credit cards and replace them from so far away.
Perhaps the reason that Father Ho looked so good is that when we were in Hanoi in October 2011, his embalmed body was in Russia for it's "annual restoration."
I also enjoyed the museum there and visiting his home.
We love Vietnamese food and enjoyed some of the same restaurants as you two.

Thanks for writing such an interesting report...so sorry to hear about the wallet.

We went to La Badiane for my birthday, but the night before we'd been to Green Tangerine and I think I got a mild case of food poisoning there (despite loving the food)....so had no appetite and barely could eat a few bites at La Badiane...such a waste!

And Hue/Hoi An? We liked Hoi An, wonder if it is good to do Hue as well...

"confused by the currency--there were no recognizable numbers on the bills. Turns out that one side of the bill is only in Lao, the other side features Arabic numerals --quite a relief not to have to master Laotian numbers!"
Interesting! You must have used a different Lao currency to the one I use every day. I just pulled out a 1000, 2000, 5000, 20,000, 50,000 and 100,000 from my wallet. ALL bar the 1000 have the numbers printed on both sides!

It is there, VB, but not where those of us used to North American or European currency are used to looking for it. I have to say that on a trip that has taken us through Thai baht, Vietnameses dong, Indian rupees, and Bhutanese ngultrum, I am finding my current currency experience in Luang Prabang to be the most challenging. Or maybe it's that 7.8 multiplier that is boggling me.

Thanks for the correction VB. I didn't pay attention to labeling differences in the denominations. I just remember that there were bills whose values I couldn't find easily. From the link below it appears that, besides the 1000s, at least some of the 50,000s are also not labeled in Arabic on both sides.

http://www.bol.gov.la/english/kipmodel1.pdf

Hue

At the Hue airport we were met by a guide and driver. Since the main sights in Hue are out of the city center and our time was limited, we asked Tonkin to make the arrangements ($128 for two half day tours for the two of us, including entrance fees). I'm sure we could have hired a guide cheaper in town or just hired a taxi for the day but it seemed like a good idea to have everything in place before we arrived.

We stayed at Hotel La Residence, a much updated home of the French Governor.
http://www.la-residence-hue.com. It's a bit out of the city center, on the Perfume River and features a pleasant outdoor pool, a spa, and a large restaurant with outdoor terraces. Our riverview room was quite comfortable, though the river, or at least the parts we saw, is neither scenic nor interesting. Overall a very pleasant place to stay, though the food was rather ordinary.

Before beginning our tour of the Citadel, the home of emperors past, we had a 20 minute break at the hotel. Predictably Bruce thought this an opportunity for nourishment of some type but I convinced him we should yet again search all of our belongings for the missing wallet. After half an hour our search was interrupted by a call from the guide who was anxious to get started.

By way of explanation for our tardiness, in the car I related (briefly!) the saga of the runaway wallet. The guide immediately declared that it was stolen, a scenario I hadn't even considered since I never left my purse unchaperoned between the bank and the hotel room. Then I remembered the elevator ride to the room. The only other person on the elevator was a middle aged man who stood behind me. Ever the astute judge of character, I assumed he was part of the Argentinian security detail that had invaded the hotel.

What was memorable about the short ride was that before my companion got off on the floor before mine, in the doorway, he turned around and stared at me. Twenty years ago I would have interpreted that as an admiring glance but, alas, not any more. And surely from the back of my head he didn't recognize me as the author of his favorite college textbook whose autograph he craved. Nope. I think he was considering whether he could get away with not just the wallet he had lifted, either in the elevator or in the lobby, but whether he could also grab my entire bag which was securely strapped across my chest and which contained a large pouch that was velcro sealed and chained to a hook. (No doubt he had encountered the pouch while visiting my purse.) Fortunately my powerful biceps must have frightened him and he retreated. At least now I had a credible explanation of what happened and could cease looking for the stupid wallet. Bruce was relieved that no more meals would have to be sacrificed.

The Citadel is a short drive from La Residence, on the other side of the Perfume River. The moat surrounding the Imperial City, a World Heritage site, was not adequate to protect it from destruction by the French and the Americans and much of it has been badly damaged, especially the Purple Forbidden City which housed the Imperial family. Reconstruction is underway.

Although the sun was replaced by ominous clouds the heavens stayed shut and we were able to wander unimpeded, except for the droning of the guide. The Citadel required more imagination of the visitor than the Forbidden City in Beijing so we appreciated being told what we were looking at but the details did get to be excessive. Can't blame the guide. He's just doing his job. (We only hired guides for Hue and the Mekong .)

Since I had read some good reviews of the dining room at La Residence we stayed put for dinner, starting with drinks and snacks on the terrace. Dinner was an appetizer plate, asparagus soup and crab soup, Bun Bo Hue , in honor of our location, and then a crème brûlée assortment. It was all good but nothing was outstanding.

The included breakfast buffet, which we ate at an outdoor table, was extensive with both local and Western dishes, though it was marred by strangely underpowered coffee. Together with our guide we set off for the tomb of Tu Duc, spectacularly situated among pine trees, on the shore of Luu Khiem Lake. Today we appreciated the guide's commentary and his sheperding us through the many nooks and crannies. Since the other notable tombs were more difficult to access by foot and we had already spent a lot of time at this tomb, we decided to proceed to the Thien Mu pagoda with a quick stop at the market. We weren't too keen on seeing the market but it was on the list of places the guide was to take us. I'm an impaired shopper who doesn't know have the patience to look for treasures or recognize them when I stumble on them, so we were in and out of the market before the guide returned to the car with his coffee.

After admiring the pagoda we set off by boat for the return to the hotel. This was one of the least pleasant boat rides I've been on but at least we weren't expected to row. The moment we sat down the boat owner's wife started her sales pitches. Every five minutes she would try to sell us something. Very annoying. The river may have scenic parts but we certainly didn't see them. It was a relief to reach the hotel.

We set out for our lunch at Les Jardins de la Carambole by cab. I had read good reviews of the restaurant and, unlike the Perfume River, it did not disappoint. Truly one of the best meals of our trip. (Don't confuse Les Jardins de la Carambole which is close to the Citadel with the La Carambole restaurant which is in town.) In a charming room, we feasted on shrimp and pork wrapped in banana leaves, squid fried with spicy batter, morning glory Vietnamese pancakes and banana fritters. That boring boat ride did stimulate our appetite! (Thanks loncall for the recommendation and great report.
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia/spicy-sour-bitter-salty-and-sweet-three-foodies-tour-vietnam.cfm. )

Instead of continuing to tour Hue we decided to return to the hotel where Bruce had some sort of cup massage. It took a couple of weeks for the inflamed looking red rings to disappear. At least there were not as many red circles as when he got attacked by the red ants in the Pantanal. After the glorious lunch we had a light dinner of octopus , followed by a green tea mousse and ice cream creation, at the hotel. Again, nothing special. I regret that we didn't eat at Les Jardins de la Carambole more than once.

While planning the trip I wondered whether we should include Hue. I'm glad we did.

Enjoying your descriptions of Hue. We didn't get their on our VN trip. A reason to return.

Thanks for reading, Kathie!

Hoi An

Since we had hauled ourselves out to Hue, it was very little effort to include Hoi An. Tonkin arranged a driver who picked us up at 9:00 and got us to Hoi An before noon. The drive over the Hai Van Pass was beautiful and we made several stops to take photos. The itinerary included a visit to Dong Hai, the "Marble sculpture village", at the foot of Marble Mountain where we didn't linger since we weren't going to relocate massive marble sculptures to our home and we didn't want to chance missing lunch.

Tonkin recommended the Life Heritage Resort in Hoi An and we went with their recommendation

www.life-resorts.com/index.php?nav1=resort&nav2=hoian

The resort is located on the river on the edge of the old city. Rooms are spacious, though walls are thin. We finally encountered weather in Vietnam that was pleasantly warm so we spent several hours at the pool, our only pool time during the entire trip.

Our lunch destination was the acclaimed Morning Glory,

www.restaurant-hoian.com/index.php/en/restaurant-morning-glory-hoi-an/home-morning-glory-restaurant.html ,

where we ordered so many dishes that I couldn't keep track of what we were eating. Everything was excellent and the open kitchen added to the fun. Don't miss Morning Glory if you're in Hoi An!

Across the street from Morning Glory is Hòa Nhập, a handicraft shop featuring items made by the disabled

www.reachingoutvietnam.com

I was looking for a tablerunner that is much longer than the factory made runners displayed in all of the shops so we stopped for a quick look. They had an unusual runner that was of the correct size but I wasn't allowed to take a photo to send to my sister who was the intended recipient, so I wasn't daring enough to buy it. The shop does feature hand made items different from the standard tourist stuff in the shops. On the longish walk back to the hotel, along very congested streets, I continued my search for the nonstandard sized runner but none was to be found.

Hoi An is littered with tailor shops so I opted to have a custom runner made at the first shop that had a suitable fabric. The owner struck out in convincing me to order additional clothes, though that seemed to be a major activity for many of the tourists. I picked up the runner the next day and was pleased to have my sole shopping task out of the way.

We spent what remained of the afternoon at the pool, since walking in the old city Hoi An was not pleasant--way too many tourists and cookie cutter shops. Dinner was close to the hotel at Brothers,

http://www.brothercafehoian.com.vn/intro/?act=/en/24/25/

The river setting was delightful, though the outdoors magnified my dengue fear.
The surroundings probably made the food appear to be better than it really was, but we enjoyed the pumpin and seafood soups and shrimp with tamarind and octopus, accompanied by beer for Bruce and a cocktail for me. We still avoidied ordering wine in Vietnam having been traumatized by the terrible bottle at Green Tangerine in Hanoi.

The next morning we skipped breakfast because we had signed up for the Taste of Hoi An Food Tour and we wanted to be as hungry as possible since we were paying $60 per person,

www.tasteofhoian.com

We were picked up at the hotel as promised at 7:15. The other three tour members and Neville the Aussie owner were already in the van. Neville indicated that we were very fortunate to have a group of five since most of the time the groups are substantially larger. I think doing this tour in a large group would make for a lot of wait time for everyone.

This tour was tripadvisor's number 1 activity in Hoi An at that time so I should be gushing about it, but we were a bit less enthusiastic than most takers seem to be. (It's number 2 now, with the craft shop mentioned above as number 1. Strange.) We've always felt compelled to pass up street food in Asia due to questionable sanitary practices but it's often so very tempting and it requires great willpower, and recall of some unpleasant incidents in the past, to keep on walking. Finally we would have a chance to eat preapproved safe street food in a city known for food. And the food was great and plentiful!

The downside was that this was not a tour conducted by a native or a long time resident with an authentic food background. The "teacher" is a jovial loquacious retired Aussie who figured out a good gig. He walks the market and streets patting street vendors on the back, kissing children and acting like a politician running for office, while sprinkling details about the food. In particular I was taken aback by his claim that all street food in Vietnam is safe because if it wasn't people wouldn't buy it. With that statement as the lead in to the morning, I couldn't help but view him with scepticism. The grand finale where he tries to sell you bibs, biscuits, coffee presses and other items, albeit for his charity, also didn't add to his credibility. We both enjoyed sampling the food and there was lots of it but at $60 a person for the experience I felt like what I was--a gullible tourist. For $120 we could have ordered a lot of food at Morning Glory!

Hoi An had its charms but it was our least favorite city of the trip. I wish we had added those two nights to some other place.

lol - another reason I don't use Trip Advisor, aka Trip Advertiser.

Thanks for the candid review.

I'm still reading too. I, too, was not especially charmed by Hoi An (although I enjoyed the food at Brothers, glad to hear it's still there). I thought the best thing was an early morning visit to My son (it needs to be early to avoid the tours). I did have a couple of items made, as I had been traveling for a while and needed some new clothes, but I was not impressed with the result.

Still following along too. Absolutely loved Morning Glory - we ate there twice. Thought the food at Brothers just so so, but the ambiance along the riverside was lovely. We enjoyed My Son mid morning and it wasn't horribly crowded. Glad we stopped at Museum of Cham Sculpture in Danang on the way from Hoi An to Hue. It was a great extension after seeing the architecture at My Son - the art was very nice.

Too bad about the food tour. I had been sorry to have missed that in Hoi An until reading your description.

Hi Marija,

As you know from my trip report we experienced the "Original Taste of Hoi An" tour very differently than you and, for us, it was one of the very best highlights of our trip. Hence just providing a bit of a counterbalance to your comments for other readers as we learnt a huge amount about typical local foods and how and in what circumstances it would be traditionally eaten. Our impression was that Neville and his tour group were welcomed in the lanes and markets, not least for gearing tourist money into sustaining traditional foods and local stalls rather than the more prosperous western style restaurants in the main part of town.[albeit we enjoyed these places a lot as well !]

We experienced absolutely no hard sell of the local food items and on our tour he purely vaguely waved at a table where they were laid out as people were leaving at end and said they were there to buy with proceeds for his charity if we chose. We bought for less than a pound some sweet gingery tasting strands that we subsequently had with our coffee on Christmas day in memory of our trip. I would however agree that Neville's style is a tad theatrical.

Personally we are happy to eat street food the world over and have never had any problems at all [always frequenting popular places where food does not sit about] and we really wished we had done this tour earlier in our Vietnam holiday as we would have known more about what we were looking at as we passed so many interesting options on the side of the street and in little one room outlets !

I am glad that you enjoyed Jardins de Carambole in Hue, which still stands out in my mind as being a great local venue. Just reading your report makes me want to return.......

Just catching up. VN has long been on my list and this report will prove invaluable when the planning begins.

Re: TA - yes, it is very hard to read through the lines re: activities. (I have found that you need to make judgments based on where the posters are from.) Lodging is slightly easier because of the photos.

This intrigued me: <<the author of his favorite college textbook whose autograph he craved.>>
No surprise, of course, that you're an author.

So I did some googling, and, because of your alt first name spelling, was able to find your book on Amazon. I am in awe: A little out of my league, but wouldn't surprise me if it were indeed my graduating son's favorite textbook (besides whatever he's using for his hip hop course this semester).

crosscheck - I found out about our Marija as well when she responded to a question about Kenya a few years ago. Very accomplished lady teaching giraffes to read books about statistics!

Hi Marija,

I'm still following along too and very much enjoying reading. I have Vietnam in my sights so I'm making notes.

One of the great things about Fodors is the feeling that you get to know a poster and so have a better idea of whose opinion you value. It makes it a lot easier to decide whether a place or activity might suit my own requirements. Not foolproof of course but what is. Much better than TA reviews from that point of view.

Thanks for reading!

@loncall, I appreciate your comments about the food tour. We seem to have had different reactions to Neville. Maybe he performs differently depending on his mood and the group? For example, we had to sit through a lengthy description of each of the items that he was selling and we had to watch plates of food cool off while he carried on endlessly about his personal theories of the history of MSG use.

Ho Chi Minh City but everyone calls it Saigon

It took only half an hour to get from Hoi An to the modern new airport in Da Nang. The road between them, along China beach, is abloom with new hotels and retirement communities which are targeted to Americans and Brits. Money trumps history.

On the road to our hotel from the airport in Saigon, we quickly realized that we had left Kansas behind. It was the same excitement as when we arrived in Shanghai towards the end of our China trip. I know it's fashionable not to like Shanghai and Saigon, since they're not the "real" China and Vietnam, but to us they are an essential part of the whole. Can you tell that we like big cities?

Upon arrival at the historic Majestic Hotel we were upgraded to a suite overlooking the Saigon River, www.majesticsaigon.com.vn
The hotel is at the beginning of one of the main shopping streets in Saigon, a short distance from the cluster of hotels that surround the ornate Opera House. It features an openair rooftop bar/restaurant where you can have breakfast in the morning or in the evening sit with a drink watching the activities on the river. The Majestic has particular significance for fodorites, since it was from here that dogster embarked on his epic search for Jayarvarman:

www.fodors.com/community/asia/dogster-looking-for-jayarvarman.cfm

Dinner was so-called Vietnamese fusion at the trendy, windowless Xu

www.xusaigon.com.

Bruce had the six course menu with unlimited wine, I had to choose the 4 course with only 2 glasses of wine, so that I could lead us back to the hotel. Food was good but not inexpensive. There seemed to be few tourists, and the staff spoke little English, which made it seem like an upscale Saigonian experience instead of a tourist trap.

We spent the next day wandering, checking off the main sights. The city was elaborately decorated in preparation for Tet, the streets jammed with shoppers and bridal parties. Our attempt to buy inexpensive eyeglasses was a bust, probably because we were in an expensive mall. It was also possible that what we assumed were fake designer frames were actually real.

For lunch we headed to Nha Hang Ngon, the Saigon branch of the Hanoi street food restaurant that we liked so much. We were lucky to get a table without too much of a wait, since on a beautiful Saturday afternoon the place was jammed. A Vietnamese tour agent that was sitting next to us helped us choose from the extensive menu but we missed having our Hanoi kids with us, since they put together a much better meal. Of course we had double the ordering power with them since we were a foursome.

Saturday night is Earth Night at the Metropole; electricity is shut off for a couple of hours in the guest rooms, but not in the common areas. Candles illuminate your room and the hallways and free ecofriendly drinks are served to residents at the very crowded roof top bar. Seemed like an odd balance of public safety and earth saving!

Since we wanted to claim our free drinks at the Metropole, we decided on a early light dinner. I had read that the Park Hyatt has a wood burning pizza oven and turns out great Neapolitan pizzas. Wanting to share our Saigon pizza experience with our local pizzaiolo, we ignored our stick- with- local -food culinary mantra. Either the reviewer had never eaten a Neapolitan pizza or the lauded pizzaiolo had left. Enough said.

Day trip to the Mekong Delta

Before arriving in Vietnam we had booked with Tonkin an all day private tour to the Mekong Delta ($166 for the two of us with driver, guide and all activities.) It seemed like a good use of a day, especially since we feared getting stuck in the Chu Chi tunnels.

In retrospect, even if you ignore having to be ready for a 7:30 AM pickup, a daytrip was a poor decision. It took close to 3 hours to reach Cai Be, our destination, and it wasn't, as I had naively envisioned, a scenic ride through picturesque countryside. Instead we inched our way through congestion and dust on potholed roads. We quickly understood the need for the numerous eat and sleep-in- a- hammock stops along the road.

Once we arrived we settled into a boat and set off for the rather anemic floating market. Since it was late on the Sunday morning the market may not have been at full strength. Next up were stops at a brick factory and coconut candy producer. We passed on both, remembering dogster's restrained admonition:

What gargolic monster decreed that every tourist to Cai Be would have to suffer the fascinating history of Vietnamese popcorn, from birth to a disgusting death by stir-fry? Why did he think the metamorphosis of sugar and grease into caramel candy is worth a trip half-way around the world? Just what is it about this airless tourist-trap, these hideous junk souvenirs, the raging cauldrons of candy, the sweating slaves made to stir gunk into candy that is such a must-see?

www.thedogster3.wordpress.com/the-cai-be-shuffle

We didn't dodge the tourist song and dance show because we thought we were heading to a fruit orchard. Instead the two of us were seated at a rickety table at which we watched a handful of singers and dancers perform just for us. I hate these forced encounters with the "natives" and I'm certain they hate putting on these shows for ignorant tourists. We declined their refreshments and sought refuge in our boat.

We bobbed around in the boat for quite a while, contentedly looking at other more colorful but less seaworthy vessels and anything else we could make out on the shore. For lunch were taken to a large restaurant for a meal of elephant fish spring rolls and prawns. Having observed the water quality of the Mekong, even without sophisticated pollution measuring devices, we knew to just eat the fish, without worrying about its provenance. Lunch was very tasty and the waterfront restaurant was most comfortable.

I think there's a standard tourist circuit in this area and all tours take you to the same places, perhaps changing the order. After lunch, our guide offered us another factory stop but again we declined, in part because we didn't want to climb the steep steps from the boat to reach it.

As we headed back to the dock, we crossed paths with a cruise boat. It was the legendary Jayarvarman. A drop of its spray rolled down my cheek.

The ride back to Saigon was even more tedious than the morning ride. There seems to be but one road and we already had ample opportunity to view the sights along it. Destinations such as the grottos at Da Zu in China or the caves at Ajanta in India warranted the long drives we've taken to reach them. This daytrip did not. If we had spent more time in the Delta we may have felt very differently about the experience.

Dinner was at the Temple Club, www.templeclub.com.vn. Since we made reservations only an hour before arriving we had to eat at a hightop along the bar but we didn't mind, especially when so many people were being turned away. This was one of our favorite restaurants of the trip.

Bangkok was to be our last stop and for some reason Tonkin thought we should be at the airport three hours before flight time. The ride to the airport at dawn took 20 minutes and we had to wait for an hour for the Air Asia counters to even open. I had splurged $5 each for priority boarding and first row seats since I couldn't pass up a good deal. That's barely enough for potato chips on United!

I enjoyed your comments on HCMC. We didn't make it there on our VN trip. We also love big cities, so it sounds like something we would enjoy (without the Mekong Delta trip).

I loved Saigon -- after all I had read about it I expected to not care for it, but thought it was a buzzy, cosmopolitan city. Thoroughly enjoyed it as the last stop on our trip in 2012.
We had a very different experience on the Mekong, but we didn't do a day trip. OTher than a floating market, we didn't see any of the stops you made. We had a great guide who had fascinating stories to share with us & enjoyed our time with him. I thought the cafe's with the hammocks were fabulous and thought a chain should be started in the USA! That said, I wasn't wowed by the Mekong trip and not sure why it's so popular.

Sounds like there was a little doggie spirit bobbing along in that boat with you. He probably liked the dance but if any of the performers stumbled a bit that was him trying to make it better.

Bangkok

Our Air Asia flight from Saigon arrived at Don Mueng airport where a prearranged driver was waiting for us. We couldn't coax any of three airport ATMs to dispense baht and gave up since we had enought baht to pay the driver from the more cooperative machines we encountered on our first visit to Bangkok three weeks earlier. I arranged a limo because I was afraid that we would be confronted with a long, slow taxi line upon arrival and I would feel stupid for not having made arrangements to avoid the inconvenience. That didn't seem to be the case midday on a Monday. The limo to the Peninsula cost about six times the 250 baht fare for our return taxi to the almost equidistant Suvarnabhumi. Maybe the Bangkok regulars can tell us when, if ever, a limo service is necessary?

I read so many what-side-of-the-river-to-stay-on threads and agonized over making the correct choice. What a ridiculous issue to worry about! It takes five minutes to cross the river on one of the ever present hotel boats. The Mandarin Oriental and Peninsula will ferry you across regardless of where you're staying. Both also offer regular transport to the Royal Orchid mall, with the Mandarin offering more frequent shuttles on this route. Taxis are very inexpensive.

We stayed for five nights at the Peninsula and were pleased with our choice primarily because we were upgraded to a gorgeous corner grand deluxe suite on the 25th floor. It didn't matter that we couldn't get anyone at breakfast to pour us a cup of coffee or that we were turned away from the riverfront bar because someone had reserved all of the tables. I don't know where the legendary service hid during our stay but the spectacular suite atoned for all shortcomings. Compared to the Mandarin Oriental across the river the Peninsula was dead, especially in the evenings, inhabited almost exclusively by corporate meeting attendees.

Our first lunch in Bangkok was at Mazarro, a restaurant just across the river from the Peninsula recommended by the concierge. I wanted to go to Face at Lana Thai , but we changed our minds when we were told it would take an hour to get there. The Pat Grapow Nua Sai Khai Daow at Mazarro, a nondescript hole in the wall, was much better than the same dish at the Oriental. Our first dinner was an uninspired duck curry and fish at the Thai restaurant at the Peninsula. Except for breakfast, we found the food at the Peninsula disappointing.

We covered the usual tourist stops: the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, Wat Traimit and the Jim Thompson house. Upon request the Peninsula arranged an an enjoyable hour long klong tour along the small canals. Our best lunch was at Krua Apsorn, a restaurant known for its (shelled) crab dishes. When we arrived the entire restaurant was full but we waited for a table to open up. We ordered the crab curry and the crab omelet but they were out of the omelet so instead we ordered the lotus stem yellow curry dish which was a little too sour for our taste.

Dinners at the bustling Oriental and at an almost empty Tongue Thai were OK but our most memorable dinner was at Gaggan. I had read that Gaggan was about 16 minutes from the Peninsula by taxi but the concierge recommended that we count on an hour to get there during rush hour by taxi. To make sure we arrived on time we left an hour and a half before our 8 o'clock reservation. The Peninsula doorman told the taxi driver where we were going and handed him a printout prepared by the concierge of how to get to our destination.

This was our first encounter with Bangkok traffic and it definitely exceeded expectation. Wow! Since we left so early and the fare on the meter was so low, we just relaxed and enjoyed being in a traffic jam whose equal we had never witnessed. I had a rough idea where Gaggan is and it seemed to me, based on some hotels we passed, that we were going too far. Nothing we could do about it since there was no way we could discuss this with our taxi driver and we were confident that he couldn't help but know Bangkok better than we did. In the worst case maybe he was running up the meter by a dollar or two.

After an hour the taxi pulled up to of a congested lot in front of a restaurant, declared "Number 1 restaurant", and waited for us to pay the fare. I knew this wasn't Gaggan and realized that the driver had brought us to the restaurant of his choice, one that would pay him a kickback. We had no idea where we were, there were no hotels around whose English speaking concierges might bail us out and we had no cellphone. Even worse, we didn't have the Thai instructions for getting to Gaggan, the driver had them.

Marija,

I have a condo on the same side as the Penn and during rush hour it would take about 45 minutes just to cross the Taksin bridge. Better choice, if the concierge had any brains, was to advise that you take the ferry across the river and catch a cab from the Oriental. The driving time would only be 30 minutes the most.

Sorry to hear about the taxi con game!

You have discovered what "the wrong side of the river" means. If the doorman at the Pen had thought at all, he would have sent you to the Oriental Pier to catch a taxi to Gaggan, as Hanuman says. Getting back and forth across the bridge at rush hour is time consuming. And you could easily have gotten to Lana Thai at Face in under half an hour by taking the Pen's shuttle to the pier and taking the skytrain. I'm really appalled at the Pen's "service." There is no excuse for that.

And I'm so sorry to hear about the taxi problem. In my many trips to Bangkok over an almost 30 year period, I've never had a taxi driver intentionally take me to the wrong place. I did have a driver who couldn't read a map take me to the wrong hotel, but the doorman there gave him instructions and it all worked out easily. I'm interested in the next installment of how you dealt with the errant taxi driver.

Nice cliffhanger - Waiting with baited breath to see how you ditched the Number 1 Restaurant.

The concierge at the Pen also told us it would take an hour + to get everywhere. We did figure out that it was easier to cross the river and then get a cab, but even then we encountered mindblowing traffic (even to me - NYC native, live in LA).

Crosscheck, that's why it pays to take the skytrain after you cross the river.

We thought the skytrain was a cool way to get around during the day - do all of you use it at night as well? We only asked the Pen staff about taxis at night and they always told us that it would take over an hour to wherever we wanted to go.

Yes, I would use the skytrain at night, why not? I rarely use taxis in Bangkok except to get to and from the airport.

Yes, we have often used the skytrain at night.

From the Pen, it would take an hour to get anywhere at rush hour by taxi because you have to cross the bridge. The Pen can work well for you if you use the shuttle to get across the river and then take either a taxi from the Oriental or the sky train, depending on where you are going. Otherwise, you will feel isolated on the wrong side of the river.

We take taxis infrequently in Bangkok. The Skytrain and water taxis work for most places.

We quickly learned to cross the river whenever we wanted to go anywhere. Getting across is so easy and quick that I just don't get the big deal about being on the "correct " side of the river. It's easier to cross the river in front of the Peninsula than it is to cross a street in Hanoi.

During the night time, from 8 or 9 PM onward, I would say that it will not take longer than 30 minutes to get to or from the Penn by taxi from central Bangkok.

Yes, Marija, it is MUCH easier to cross the river than it is to cross a street in Hanoi! The problem with the wrong side of the river was that the Pen doorman and/or concierge recommended you take taxis from the Pen rather than from across the river, and didn't consider the skytrain, both of which would have made your journeys faster. You didn't know to ignore their advise and just catch the skytrain to Lana Thai or the skytrain or taxi to Gaggan.

Bangkok (continued)

The Number 1 Restaurant welcoming committee is holding the taxi door open, waiting for us to emerge; the taxi driver is pointing to the meter, waiting for us to pay. The situation is critical--it's 8 PM, our reservation time at Gaggan. Since we don't have any idea where we are, except that we aren't at Gaggan, and we don't have any way of telling another cabbie, if we could find one, how to get to Gaggan, it's clear we must make this driver take us and take us quickly. Without discussion we assume our roles.

Bruce takes out paper and pen and with great theatrical flourish starts recording every discernable piece of identifying information that is displayed in the cab in a script that he can copy. (This is no time to start learning Thai characters or to pull out an iPhone.) It is up to me to provide the sound track, a daunting task for someone who doesn't know a single word of Thai, except sa wat dee. I don't even know how to pronounce Gaggan correctly. I start with a firm NO, hoping that Thai isn't one of the languages that doesn't have a NO. Then I shout GAGGAN several times, adding an emphatic POLICE for good measure, hoping the guy knows the word from prior client interactions.

The driver turns the cab around, meter still running, and heads back in the direction from which we came. Ignoring the possibility that we might be heading to our demise, we worry about whether the restaurant is still holding our table. We stop a couple of times while the driver makes inquiries of people on street corners and, fortunately, the last couple speaks English and tells us that the restaurant is a bit further up the street. Since I know the restaurant is in a house set back from the street, we aren't concerned when the driver tells us to get out without the restaurant in view. Now to the delicate matter of the cab fare. The meter reads 150 baht ($5). I estimate that at least 50 is attributable to our detour. To discourage the driver from repeating his antics, I refuse to pay the full amount and instead give him 100. He shouts and points to the meter. We ignore him and calmly walk to Gaggan where our table is still waiting for us. Close call! Excellent meal!

Having read about Bangkok malls, even as an impaired shopper, I wanted to see what the hype is about. Since MBK is a quick walk from the Jim Thompson house, that's where we went. MBK was an experience almost as frightening as the possibility of missing dinner. I'm so glad we paid a visit since there was no way I could have imagined how big and crowded a mall can be. It made the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul look like a 7-11.

Since shopping at MBK was much too complicated for us, we went to River City in search of a small memento of our trip. The small memento morphed into a large Buddha head which barely escaped needing its own seat on the plane. Our last dinner in Bangkok was at the China House where we had superb Peking duck. Thanks, Craig, (if you're reading) for that excellent suggestion.

Our flight to Narita was at 7:00AM, requiring a 4:00 AM wake up call. The roads at that hour on a Saturday were empty and in a half hour we were at the airport. Soon we were standing at the check in counter behind a couple who must have been booking an around the world ticket using stolen frequent flier miles. We barely made it to the gate, despite arriving two hours before flight time.

Thanks for reading and for all of those excellent trip reports which helped us plan! (And remember not to give the taxi driver the only copy of instructions to your destination, especially if it's dinner.)

"I'm an impaired shopper who doesn't know have the patience to look for treasures or recognize them when I stumble on them..."

I am grateful to learn I am not alone, I was beginning to think I was suffering from X chromosomal deficiency.

Meant to add as well, that I am enjoying your report. When a cousin's child went to work in Viet Nam for a few years, I like you had a strange sense of disconnect, from hearing names I'd remembered only in a war context, spoken so casually.

I know little about Ho Chi Minh. All I remember is TV footage of radicals chanting Ho, Ho, Ho...

Great end to your report! It sounds like you had a fabulous trip with a dollop of learning experiences.

So glad to hear that you enjoyed Gaggan. We haven't been to China House in years - it may be time for a return trip.

Thanks for a great report!