HOTELS

Hanoi Elegance Diamond - dgunbug, thank you thank you thank for the recommendation of this chain. This hotel is fantastic. The room was very modern (it's a new hotel) and nice looking, the bed fairly comfortable, the shower great, the breakfast delicious, the staff unfailingly courteous, friendly and helpful, the location fantastic. All this for $99 a night for a jr. suite (the regular room is $75, and we saw it -- it would have been perfectly fine), and $105 for one night in the executive suite, which was the same as the jr. suite except larger. Their communication with me in advance of the trip was all by email, and they always followed through and followed up, even when we were in Hanoi and had asked them to make a couple of calls for us. Really terrific.

La Residence Hue. This hotel is beautiful. It was once the headquarters of the French government in Hue. The room was nicer than I expected (I thought I remembered a Fodor's poster saying the room wasn't special) with a nice view of the river and Citadel (down-river). Very nice pool area, although we didn't notice any service at the pool. We didn't eat there, but noticed there's an herb garden grown by Le Parfum, the upscale restaurant in the hotel. Breakfast is served in the same room as Le Parfum, a lovely room with outdoor seating. The bed was fairly hard (I expected hard beds throughout Asia. Although this was no Heavenly Bed a la Westin, it was not uncomfortable. Good bathroom and shower. We ate in the bar one night and the food was quite good (albeit hotel expensive). Service at the hotel was less personal than at Elegance, but very competent. Fairly expensive (for Vietnam) at $135 a night.

Victoria HoiAn. Resort hotel on the beach that lived up to expectations (the hotel and the beach). We couldn't get a view room, but we still had a glimpse of a view of the South China Sea. The bathroom had one of those giant tubs with a shower that's hard to get into and out of, but once in, the shower was good. Same remarks about service (except the man who brought our bags to our room....he was very friendly and pleasant). Pool area fabulous, and service at the pool equally fantastic. They saw me coming, and were already moving a chaise into the shade for me! Excellent breakfast, in a nice room, also with an outside area. Except for the one day it rained, we ate outside as it was very warm. I used the fitness center which was fine (I just used the treadmill, which was a LifeCycle, but a basic one), but too warm. The hotel operates a free shuttle into town 10 minutes), but it runs on a schedule, so not always useful. But, a taxi is only $3.50. I think we paid $150 a night.We made the reservations for Hue, HoiAn and Saigon through a travel agent in Vietnam.

Liberty Central Saigon. This was a somewhat plainer hotel than the Hanoi Elegance, but still fine and a great price. I think we paid $105 a night for a king. Outstanding location. Good but impersonal service. This hotel served the worst breakfast of all the hotels -- pancakes and french toast pre-cooked, whereas as the previous three, you could get them freshly made (and particularly delicious french toast at all three, we're trying to figure out what they do to make it so good). But it was certainly better than a typical "free breakfast" at a typical US motel chain LOL.

La Residence Siem Reap. Aaaah, what can I say? This hotel is gorgeous, the people lovely, the service excellent. One day we left the safe in our room unlocked. When we returned that night, they told us that we had left it open, they had inventoried its contents and closed it with a new code! Breakfast in a beautiful restaurant (I will say the one negative was that although the restaurant opened daily at 5 a.m., the one day we were there at 6 a.m. they really weren't quite ready for guests, although there were others besides us), again with a lovely gardenside setting. Oh, when we arrived, we had been upgraded from a riverview room to a gardenview room. The room was huge, with a balcony we didn't use, an incredible bathroom (although again, that huge tub that you have to be pretty agile just to climb into). Gorgeous pool. Lunch at the pool one day was very good. Great location, a few blocks from Old Town/Pub Street area. This was pretty expensive, but we knew we wanted a lovely pool to use during the heat of the mid-day (as it turned out, it wasn't as hot as expected, which was actually really nice...80s instead of high 90s). I think we paid $275 a night for this one. It was our one hotel splurge, and it was worth it!

All of the above hotels included breakfast and free WiFi.

Salisbury YMCA Hong Kong. This had been recommended to us as a great value, and that it is. However, although the lobby is quite nice, the rooms are definitely "tired", like an unrefurbished Motel 6. The location, though, is outstanding (very close to the Star Ferry pier on the Kowloon side, next to the Peninsula and the Sheraton). We had paid for a harbour view room and the view and location pretty much made up for everything else. Wow, the view! We spent one whole day, and two evenings on the Kowloon side, and two whole days and two evenings on the Hong Kong side. We enjoyed staying in Kowloon and using the ferry to "commute".

Up next, restaurants....(or maybe sightseeing). Tomorrow.

Flat beds make a huge difference in comfort compared to angled lie-flats. And N. American airlines are not always behind the foreign competition in providing such seats. Having said that, ANA has announced a new flat-bed for their business class and no more angled lie-flats in the future.

HKG-NRT is a regional route for ANA/Air Japan, so no surprise you had a regional business class seat that's inferior to the longhauls. Like domestic first in the US.

As for the YMCA Salisbury, I always cringe when people say it's like a 4* hotel. It is not.

Definitely worth bookmarking.

jdc

i think of the salisbury Y as a mid-grade holiday inn... but the location is perfect..

thanks for your reviews

Looking forward to hearing more about Hanoi. We've been here for two days--leaving tomorrow for a couple of days at Halong Bay, but we'll have three more full days back here afterward. We're also staying at one of the Elegance hotels (Ruby) and LOVE it!

We took the same route over as you, but starting in Chicago. After the United business seats on the way over, Asiana's economy seats (32" pitch, no personal TVs and rock-hard seats) almost made that flight seem longer.

I'm enjoying your report.

Your problesm with Air Asia is exactly the problem with using a budget airline for connecting flights. They will not transfer luggage even between two of their own flights, so you have to go throuhg immigration and customs then re-check your luggage. As you found, that can take some time. Point to point flights are not plagued with that problem.

Oh, and I do love the new lie-flat seats on United!

I'm back, thinking I'll report on restaurants.

HANOI:

Lunch at Little Hanoi was very good - I had a delicious chicken curry banh mi (and immediately violated the don't eat vegetables that don't get peeled rule, opting to eat both the [peeled] cucumber and the [unpeeled] tomato) and my DH had claypot eggplant. Together with two sodas and a cappucino, the total was $17. The drinks were expensive - sans the sodas, it would have been $12.

Next day, we had lunch at Koto. We were so impressed with this place (one of many we encountered that are operated as "schools" to teach restaurant skills to disadvantaged youth). The service was good, very friendly and accommodating, and most importantly, the food was excellent. We shared spring rolls and had one bun bo and one bun cha, 2 sodas and a latte and the total was, again, about $17.

Dinner at Meditteraneo - not great food but good, and a very enjoyable ambiance. We sat at the bar, chatting with a couple of German businessmen. 2 beers, 2 arugula salads, ravioli and farfelle, $30.

Quan An Ngon - we loved the ambiance, and the idea, but the food isn't nearly as good as some of the other places we ate. Still, at $6.50 for Bun Bo, Papaya salad, some appetizer (they brought the wrong thing - I adventurously ate part of it), coffee and Bia Ho beer, it's a great value. We ate at the one in Saigon, too.

Dinner at La Badiane. This was our one splurge. It was excellent, but very expensive for Hanoi. There certainly are several different economies in play in Vietnam and Cambodia. This restaurant clearly caters only to tourists and expats. We were sorry that the place was fairly empty because it was too good for that. But again, given the cost, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Inventive, good service, delicious, pretty place. About $80 including 2 cocktails (which were the least good part). Appetizers were a wrapped eggplant and goat cheese thing and a shrimp bisque, main courses were crab risotto and a shrimp dish. Desserts were fabulous - a molten chocolate thing and a hot banana "pie". Of course, my cappucino.

HUE:

Nothing special here. Lunch at a no-name cafe -- decent plates for a total of $4.00 including two diet cokes. Dishes were spicy shrimp with rice and stir fried chicken. Dinner at the bar at La Residence. We had gone out for a very long walk (miles and miles) looking for dinner, and nothing appealed to us. The food at the bar was quite tasty - delicious dishes - stir fried chicken with ginger and lemongrass in clay pot, barbecued pork skewers - $32 total including two not-so-great cocktails (I'm sticking to beer).

HOI AN:

First night dinner at Dao Tien (another "school" for disadvantaged youth) very good food, and we thought a bargain until we ate two nights later at Secret Garden. Dao Tien was $15 for two beers, shrimp with tamarind sauce, crispy noodles with beef, "moneybags" (fried wontons), tea, rice.

Dinner at Secret Garden was an excellent decision - beautiful place, very nice staff, delicious food and presentation. $17 for one beer, one diet coke, white roses (little dumplings), sour beef, Hoi An Noodles, spicy shrimp and steamed rice. Someone else recently mentioned the food lacking flavor - we definitely didn't find that to be the case, must have been what we/they ordered.

SAIGON:

Lunch at Quan an Ngon $9 for 2 diet cokes, fried spring rolls, crispy noodles with seafood, banana split. Again, more a great bargain than great food. Good though.

Dinner at La Hostaria - good change of pace. $24 for 3 cans of club soda, delicious caprese salad, very tasty margerita pizza, yummy chocolate mousse and cappuchino

Lunch at a little french bistro called Le Jardin - perfect. Unfortunately, no seats outside (meaning they were all full). I had basa with lemon sauce, green salad and mashed potatoes, DH had pork in mustard sauce, same sides, both had a soda water, I had an espresso -- total about $14

Good dinner at Tandoor $25 for 2 Kingfishers, gobi pakora, samosas, chicken masala, vegetable biryani, onion paratha.

Drinks and dessert at lovely rooftop bar at Hotel Rex ($14 for a margarita and a coffee/ice cream) with live music (mostly of lounge act quality, but a group of guitarists was excellent)!

SIEM REAP

Lunch at Le Tigre Du Papier - $12 for a decent burger, caprese salad and two diet cokes

Dinner at AHA - more upscale and trendy ambiance, food good but not great, and compared to what else you can get in Siem Reap, not really worth the $40 it cost.

By this time, we were tired of planning dinners, so just walked over to Pub Street and looked at menus and other people's food until something looked good. So we had dinner at Khmer Family Restaurant - not bad at $12 for fried spring rolls, one fish amok, one stir fried chicken, 1 giant water and a draft beer (50 cents everywhere in town)

Dinner at World Lounge - $12 for two beers, two [large] salads, pizza.

Dinner at Picasso - tapas. $20 for beer, sangria, and a bunch of tapas, most of which were very tasty, and none of which were bad. We happened to arrive in the first huge rainstorm of the dry season (it apparently hadn't really rained since October), so we were the only ones there. We had a very nice time conversing with the bartender and her boyfriend (another Picasso bartender who was off that night).

I'll add HONG KONG later:

Ice creams:

Fanny (Hanoi and Saigon)- very good, but not better than anything I can get any day of the week in the Bay Area.

Blue Pumpkin (several locations in Siem Reap)- loved it. Had passionfruit sorbet on multiple occasions, and tried ginger black sesame, too. Yummy. $1.50 per scoop.

Gelare in Hong Kong. Outstanding (except for the smell permeating from a street food stall across the street, which was so bad I finally had to leave). Don't remember what it cost, but Hong Kong prices in general were more like any big city in the US.

Hi sf7307-It was me who reported that the Secret Garden's food lacked flavor. Glad your experience was better than mine. I do agree with your assessment of Quan An Ngon in Saigon-cheap, but not very good. I am enjoying your report and look forward to more. Have you recovered from jet lag? It took me almost 2 weeks. I had to travel an additional 3000 miles to my home on the east coast, after swithching planes in SF.

Welcome back Sf7307 - I've been looking forward to hearing your report and am pleased that you enjoyed the Elegance hotels. It's always nice to know that you steered someone in the right direction! Great report and descriptions. I'm looking forward to following along with you. I enjoyed your description of yourself and your travel style which is much the same as my DH and mine.

Before I continue (where I will report on the lovely $5.00 "real pashmina" scarves I acquired, one of which I am now wearing), I have to ask, who is buying all the Elizabeth Taylor-worthy diamonds being sold in fancy jewelry stores two-to-a-block along Nathan Road in Hong Kong? And do people really feel compelled to buy real diamond jewelry at 11:00 on a Friday night?

Hi SF! Welcome home.! looking forward to reading the rest.

Yestravel, are you still planning to go? When?

Sf7307 – I’m really enjoying your report, so much so that I’m thinking about doing the same itinerary for my 3 week SEA trip next year, substituting Hong Kong for Thailand.

Btw, what is Bun Bo?

jdc

don't get a neck burn from the polyester in your wrap!!

we loved secret garden too... thought it the best in town..

rhkkmk, we went to Secret Garden because of your suggestion (other restaurants as well - Little Hanoi, Meditteraneo, Koto, Le Hostaria --- you did good!).

<<<don't get a neck burn from the polyester in your wrap!!>>>

For $5.00, I'll suffer a little neck burn

yestravel, please email me at my gmail address. I sent you an email to your work address and it bounced back.

yestravel - bun bo is a delicious noodle dish. Below is a description that I found and the best bun bo joint we ate at. My husband hesitated going into this dive, but we returned 3 times it was so good. This restaurant is in the old quarters in Hanoi.

Bun Bo Nam Bo: 67 Hang Deur Street - typical Hanoian 'ambience'This eating hole is a long, deep narrow one, smeared stainless steel tables and wooden benches to sit at and carpets of discarded banana leaves to kick at underfoot.....the few moments for your bursting bat (bowl) of Asian flavour. Here's the drum from the bottom up: a decent fistful of lettuce and herbs, the essential noodles, a scoop of beef and bean shoots sauteed with garlic, and the one, two, three of crushed nuts, dried shallots and thinly sliced triangled pickles of young papaya and carrot. A ladle of warm, sweet sauce is tipped over to finish this fine noodle nosh off. (great reviews on various sites) “Cheap, delicious”

I'm salivating - I loved this. Hoping to find a good facsimile in the Bay Area!!

Back to food.

HONG KONG: By this time, we were pretty fooded out, but we still had a few good meals left in us.

1st night - we arrived in Hong Kong around dinnertime with no idea where we were going to eat (bad idea). We didn't have any nice clothes with us, so we weren't going to eat in the nice hotel restaurants, so we we started wandering. We wandered up Nathan Road and, finding nothing, went into the Miramar Mall, thinking we'd find a food court. It appeared there were four or five restaurants on the fourth floor -- turned out there was only one - Hong Kong Old Restaurant. We were tentative but very hungry, so we poked our heads in and since it was full, we decided to give it a chance. It was pretty darn good. We were the only two Caucasians in the place, and many of the other parties were large family groups. Fortunately, the menu was in Chinese and English, because the staff didn't speak English and we don't speak Chinese. It was about $45 for rice and three dishes.

Next day we had lunch on Hong Kong Island at a local dim sum place (no-name). Very tasty although the spare ribs were chopped into pieces with the bone so hard to eat. The street was full of dim sum places, but most menus were strictly in Chinese and we were not that adventurous! Lunch was $8.00 including tasteless tea.

Dinner that night was at Cafe de Paris on Elgin. It's part of the Igor's Restaurant Group (they own something like 40 restaurants in Hong Kong). We enjoyed it very much. I had sautéed foie gras and steak frite, my DH had onion soup gratinee and bouillabaise, we shared a mango crepe with grand marnier sabayon, one espresso and one tea - total bill $888 HKD. Very nice French bistro-ish atmosphere.

Noodle soup at Aberdeen the next day (mine was with shrimp dumplings). Pretty darn good for $9.00 for two!

Our last dinner was pretty bad (our fault). We just couldn't decide what we wanted, so started wandering (again). We ended up on the Knutsford Terrace, which is a string of restaurants. Chose the Australian Restaurant and ate off the bar menu. We should have realized everything (EVERYTHING!!) would be deep fried (even the kangaroo, which I refused to eat deep fried or not ). Well, the beer was good. About $45.

Now we're home and I'm going to start my hunt for decent Bun Cha!!

Thanks for your nice report. Spare ribs in dim sum are also chopped into that small pieces. I guess Chinese are so used to bones that wasn't a problem for us.

The tasteless tea - did you order it and it came with a pot? Or they just brought a cup to you? Many of these small hole-in-the-wall places in HK don't even offer you water. But some will give you a small cup of hot water or very mild tea. Most locals won't even drink it, or use it to rinse the chopsticks. Those places MAY have some other drinks - milk tea, soy milk, etc - for extra; or the diners may just go somewhere else after the quick meal to get something else to drink.

BTW, not sure you only find one restaurant in the Miramar Shopping Center. There should be more, but of course, most looking for food just walk through it and out the back to Knutsford Terrace, which is directly behind the mall.

Thanks for the report - looking forward to the sightseeing bit,. Those lie flat seats do make a difference, don't they? Qantas currently has my favorite biz class - they provided "pajamas" on my BKK-LHR flight - made a huge difference in my ability to sleep.

<<<Qantas currently has my favorite biz class - they provided "pajamas" on my BKK-LHR flight - made a huge difference in my ability to sleep>>>

I'll keep that in mind while I save up my miles for Australia!!

Great report. Havent decided when we will go. You've got mail at your gmail acct.

great report... glad you liked my suggestions, but i got them all from other fodorites

Fantastic report. Your description of the type of travelers you are fits exactly my husband and me. In the fall our daughter will be studying in Manila so we are feeling like we should go visit her and then go somewhere exciting from there. Vietnam is top on our list. I just started poking around this forum so I have lots of reading to do. I loved this "dreaming" part of the travel planning!

I wasn't planning to give a detailed report of our sightseeing, but since this actually seems to be helpful to some people -) )....I promise to continue over the weekend.

sf - did u get my email I sent 2 u?
And I'd love to read about the sightseeing

sf...great report.

I believe I was at the Hanoi Elegance Diamond a week or so before you. LOVED that hotel and would go back in a "hot minute"! I've been back from my trip for 2 weeks and still sorting all my photos. I'm hoping to start my own trip report soon! Would love to read about your sightseeing!

yestravel, I did, I will reply today or tomorrow.

LCI, I knew that - I saw one of your other posts. Great place, isn't it. I'm recommending it to some friends who are making their first visit in October.

Tomorrow, I start my search for decent Vietnamese food in the Bay Area. Before I do, can someone tell me the fundamental difference between Bun Bo Hanoi and Bun Bo Hue? (and Bun Bo is the "dry noodle" one and Bun Cha is the one with broth, right?) Thanks!

Firstly, Bo is beef and Cha is pork. I'm not certain of the difference between the Bun Bo in Hanoi and Hue, although I think that the Hue version has more broth.

Thanks! And I know Ga is chicken (right?). What's the word for shrimp?

I'm back (having spent a glorious day in San Francisco, continuing my "be a tourist in my own town" and walking from Fort Mason to the Golden Gate Bridge and back on a gorgeous afternoon!).

As I said, I wasn't intending to post my sightseeing guide, since it's been done so many times, but I'll post my edited written-as-we-traveled notes in case it might help someone:

HANOI

Day 1 - seven hours walking around the Old Quarter; You don't need seven hours, of course, but we like nothing better than poking around the old quarter of any city, shopping, eating, visiting markets, people-watching, etc. Hanoi's is one of the better ones we've visited because with its street culture, it's different from anyplace else we've been.

Day 2 - up early. Walked to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum via embassy row, past the army museum and flag tower. Being children of the anti-war movement, visiting Ho seemed like an appropriate thing to do LOL. The line was long but moved quickly. Interesting that they force you to be duly reverential inside the building where Ho's body lies - not even putting your hands in your pockets, and definitely no talking! Lots and lots of schoolchildren, all of whom were very friendly - "hello. hello. hello. hello" And I responded to each and every one! Also visited the other areas of the Presidential Palace. Thought "Ho Chi Minh's Used Cars" was pretty amusing (they of course meant "cars used by HCM"). The grounds and the stilt house are very beautiful/peaceful. After the Mausoleum, we walked to Temple of Literature - we enjoyed it very much - it's a peaceful site, and it always amazes us to see things so old, since we live in California, where nothing is more than a couple of hundred years old. After lunch at Koto, we walked back to the Old Quarter and lake area.


Day 3 - Cheap day tour to Halong Bay (I think my DH has finally learned his lesson - just because a company advertises themselves as "different, better than all the others out there", they probably aren;t). Cramped but comfortable van. Very good driver (Papaya Tours). Tour guide (Cong) was very interested in talking -- learned a lot from him. Boat was on the less than luxurious side, lunch just okay. Caves were interesting, Halong Bay is probably beautiful, but it was cold and grey, so a little less beautiful than we expected. Floating city interesting though pretty touristy. The ride is long, and mostly ugly, but at least you get to see other parts of the country.


Day 4 - Took taxi ($6.50) to Museum of Ethnology. We were going to walk, but everyone at the hotel convinced us not to, too far. So we agreed to take a taxi there and walk back -- even the taxi driver laughed, but we did it. The Museum of Ethnology is a "must do" -- very very interesting museum about all the various tribes in Vietnam. Museum cost $1.25 each. It made me sorry we weren't going to be able to visit any of the hill areas, like Sapa. So, we did walk back, about 5 miles (exercise, plus seeing the rest of the city - clearly walked through an expat neighborhood, the rest, who knows?). Spent rest of the day walking around the lake (we did that a lot!). I think you could probably combine our days 2 and 4 into one day if you don't walk as much as we did. I was wearing a pedometer, and there were days we walked more than 8 miles.


Day 5 - morning cooking class at Hanoi Cooking Centre. Run by Tracy Lister, an Australian who was instrumental in founding Koto. Workers at the center graduated from Koto. First up, tour of the wet market, which was amazing -- the fresh meat, fish "filtration" systems, various organs, incredible vegetables and ingredients. Then made food. Instructors were fantastic - English about 80%, good teachers and sense of humor. Ate our own lunch. Dined with the only other two participants, Robbie, and Australian who lives in Hanoi, and Louise, and Australian who is visiting. After lunch, walked to QT Spa. Very nice experience, although the massage was only okay. Good way to while away the afternoon though. $150 for two massages, two facials, one foot reflexology and one manicure, plus a snack that was great and served as dinner, since we were headed to the airport. A little different from home (more naked). Very clean and lovely service. Back to hotel, retrieved our bags and the shuttle took us to the airport. Watched the news of the Japan earthquake on tv at the airport.

HUE:

Uneventful flight to Hue, which takes big planes, but has no terminal really. A bus picks you up at the plane and drives you 100 feet to the terminal. Our bags were first up, and we took a taxi to the hotel - $10 on the meter,which is what I'd been told it would be.


After breakfast in the beautiful restaurant, were picked up for our moto-bike day tour with Hue Riders. I made the reservation on line and they showed up. Nothing to sign, didn't pay until the end of the day. Incredibly fun. Two great drivers. One didn't speak Engliish at all, and the other (mine, Mr. Hung) was at maybe 30%, so we only got the gist of what he was saying, but he was really really nice, and tried so hard to make our day memorable. Our stops -


American and French bunkers overlooking a gorgeous section of the Hoang River.
Fabulous working Buddhist monastery (I don't know the name, but I'm going to research it, because it was incredible). We happened to be there during a Buddhist ceremony.
Palace and tomb of Emperor LeDuc
Tomb of Kanh Tinh
Lunch at the cafe where Hue Riders "office" is
Thien Tu Pagoda (learned the kids go to bed at 9 and get up a 3am). Got great picks of some of the children who live at the monastery, including kids mowing the lawn. Interesting - I wonder who decides they should become monks?
Citadel - very interesting, but much of it barely exists any more. The theater is one of the two best preserved buildings.
A village about 5 km from central Hue, where we saw a bridge built in the 1700s and a display of rice harvesting by a wild and crazy (and funny) 78-year old woman. Had us (and some people watching from their motorbike) laughing out loud.
Back to hotel - all this for $15 each!
No idea where to eat. Started walking, walked about an hour. Nothing appealed, so we decided to grab cyclos back to the hotell. For $2.50 each (about 3 or 4 miles is our guess), we had quite a trip. The drivers were friends and they were very entertaining, even though they spoke almost no English. They did sing Guantanamera and Ole Ole Ole Ole! Read an English language newspaper while we ate dinner. Learned that Vietnam is 100% wired for fibre-optics, and has 189 telephones for every 100 people, of which 91% are cell phones!!


HOI AN:

Sunday - hired driver through hotel for ride to Hoi An. More expensive than it should have been ($100) but we didn't plan in advance. After breakfast at hotel, got in a little pool time, then driver picked us up at 12. Drove over Hai Van Pass - beautiful, but it was a little foggy. Suckered into buying a couple of necklaces at the obligatory "rest" stop, but I had wanted to get them in Hanoi anyway (and I've worn them since). Saw the American and French bunkers, China Beach (stopped for photos). Outside Hue, passed a couple of weddings in progress. Very good driver, new Toyota Corolla, gave us just enough information. Stopped at marble factory - who buys this stuff??

Next day, spent at the pool (after breakfast outside next to the pool). Ate a late lunch at the pool. Went into town at 4 p.m. ($3.50 taxi ride). First I did a couple of miles on the treadmill. Wandered all over. Bought a "pashmina". Had a couple of drinks at a restaurant overlooking the river ($6 for two diet cokes and two cocktails). Never did get hungry for dinner so caught the 7:30 shuttle back to hotel.


Next day (15th). Weather is supposed to be bad starting Wednesday, so changed our flight from night to late morning. $60 total extra (Vietnam Airlines doesn't charge a change fee, just the fare differential -- although they didn't even charge us that when we rearranged our flight from Saigon to Siem Reap). Spent the day at the pool again. Walked a couple of miles on the beach. After treadmill (2 miles), rested, then took a taxi into town about 6:30. Finally found Casa Verde (supposed to be excellent ice cream), but it didn't really look open. Decided on Secret Garden and it was an excellent decision. Got the 8:30 shuttle back to hotel.

SAIGON:

16th - taxi to Danang airport about $23. Good decision to leave early, as weather in HoiAn is bad - cool and rainy. Ocean looks really rough today - waves are huge! We lucked out with 3 warm and sunny days in a row. Going to be complaining about the heat soon enough! Plane delayed by weather, but got to Saigon around 2 - took "fixed price" taxi for $9 - my mistake, should have only been about $5 on the meter. Checked into Liberty Central no problem. Went for a walk - had lunch at Quan an Ngon. Visited War Remembrance Museum, old Post Officce, Notre Dame Cathedral, walked through Hotel Majestic and Rex Hotels. Back to hotel for shower and rest. Dinner at La Hostaria. Walked back. Michael has a rash on both legs and a mosquito bite on his arm, and my feet are rubbing in all the wrong places! Hotel is plain but nice, and directly next door to Ben Thanh market.

Day 2 in Saigon - got up relatively late (9) had breakfast then showered. Walked to Reunification Palace aka Independence Palace aka Presidential Palace. Then walked around downtown, including Audi dealer ($90,000 for an A4 1.8), through exterior of what we later found out was the military museum. Walked over to the river. Stopped at United about our flight home, but it wasn't the ticketing office. They were very nice, though, and told us where to go. Had to use the restroom so stopped in at the very lovely Legend Hotel (and used a bidet for the first time in my life -- but this was built into the toilet and it was electronic!!). Spent some time at the United ticket office, but they couldn't find any way to re-route us other than from Seoul in coach (no dice unless someone tells me it isn't safe to transit through Narita). Spent a long while at the Ben Thanh Market (I'd say if we had to pick one category of things we like to do when we travel, it's markets), crazy place. Bought two sets of chopsticks - $5.00 each for 5 pair with covers and litttle stands. Walking through the fish section of the market, I stopped to take a little video of a bunch of live fish in a plastic bin, and one of them jumped out! I was the only one who reacted -- they just left it on the asphalt to die. Well, I guess it was going to be someone's dinner anyway. Rain (such as it was) stopped - DH went up to the rooftop pool (small, but pleasant, he said there were a lot of people up there) while I took advantage of the air--conditioned room. After dinner at Tandoor, had drinks and dessert at the lovely rooftop bar at Hotel Rex with live music. Strolled through the night market at Ben Thanh.

SIEM REAP:

Day 1 in Siem Reap. Arrived no pblm. A little confusing re visas. Lucky we had brought pictures. Had to use the ATM to get cash for visas. Lots of workers at Siem Reap airport - looks like a full employment policy. They are the nicest immigration people ever. Met by driver in Lexus SUV. DH had left his backpack inside at the visa counter. Went back to get it and they let him in and out without too much of an issue. Car service was too expensive through hotel, but worth it (and helps the local economy anyway). Hotel is fabulous. Took a walk to town. Lunch at Le Tigre Du Papier. Shopped, poked around (considering a fish pedicure), spent an hour at the gorgeous pool. Rested - watched a stupid movie on TV (Taken with Liam Neeson). After dinner, had a $1.00 foot massage at the night market. Every foot massage place at the night market was busy (why not, for $1.00?)

Day 2 in Siem Reap. Planned to grab a tuk-tuk to go to Angkor Wat. Not sure whether we would come back mmidday or not. Front desk was great - used their guy, Mr. Too - and hired him for the whole day for $17. Went to Angkor Wat (after getting tickets - $40 each) and Ta Prohm before lunch, then decided to go back for a few hours of sun and pool - gorgeous day, about 90 degrees. Had lunch at pool. Mr. Too picked us up at 3:00 to go out again - went to Angkor Thom, then to a mountain temple to see the sunset (his idea, us and about a million other people - very few Americans in evidence, loads of Japanese). Agreed he would pick us up in the a.m. at 8:30 to go to Banta Srei, River of a Thousand Lingas, and Beng Melea (which is 65 km in a tuk-tuk, so we'll see, but we loved it today). I had another $1.00 foot massage (waited for my girl, no. 56) and Michael had a shoulder massage -- mine was better than his. Total $4 with tips.

Next day, Mr. Too was right on time. He suggested going to Kbal Spean first, then Banta Srei. Done. Loved the hike at Kbal Spaen, but it's not so easy - first of all, it's uphill, second, there's a lot of scrambling over rocks and boulders. There are some great views, and you're mostly shaded. the full employment act was in evidence again, as there was a crew sweeping leaves from the path. Obviously had no idea what we were doing or looking at so took guidebook suggestion and "hired" a local guide to walk us around. Total time at Kbal Spean 1-3/4 hours. Drove to Banta Srei from there. Had a decent lunch - rice and shrimp for me, rice and stir fried chicken for M, two diet Cokes and "free" fresh fruit - bananas and mango. Very small - spent about 45 minutes or an hour there (as I've said before, we are not "in depth" people - we prefer to the short course to the PhD . 1-1/2 hours drive on bumpy dirt roads to Beng Melea. A little long, but traveling through rural areas was excellent adventure. Every single child, and plenty of adults, waved to us, and we waved back to everyone! In Beng Melea, we again hired a local guide -- we never would have gotten through the temple without him, since most of it is not restored and you have to scramble over broken-down rocks, tree roots, ledges, etc. Ride back to Siem Reap was also tiring, but again, it's a really great way to see the "countryside" (as Mr. Too, who speaks practically no English)called it. Whole day with Mr. Too was $40, plus $10 for entry to Beng Melea. After a much needed shower, and decision to have an R&R say tomorrow, had dinner at World Lounge.

Last day - R&R. Weather is gorgeous- humid, but temp hasn't gone above 85 and sun has been in and out. As usual, DH has been in the sun all day and I've been in the shade. Before dinner, walked over to Seven Candles Guest House to bring some things we had brought along to donate to the Ponheary Ly Foundation. It was drizzling when we left our hotel, and while we stood in the lobby of the guest house, the heavens opened -- a tropical rainstorm like I've never seen outside the Caribbean. We waited it out (chatting with Lori) for a few minutes, then put on our ponchos and got in a tuk-tuk (the driver had zipped up the sides). The poor driver got soaked, but he was laughing when we got to town. There was so much water, we had to roll up our pants to cross the street! After dinner at Picasso, had a fish pedicure (couldn't leave without one - very very weird, then mani/pedi at Dr. Feet.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong Day 1

Got up around 8:15. Went to Starbucks for free WiFi so I could call DD. Took Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island ($5 HKD for both of us) Walked about 8 miles (possibly not exaggerating ) all over Central -- including Sheung Wan, Li Yuen Street East and West (junky market stuff), mid-level escalator, Hollywood Road (antiques - really), Man Mo Temple (fantastic - loads of people burning incense and paper), Lok Cha Tea Shop, Upper Lascar Road (Cat Street) - lots of junk/secondhand stores Soho, Western Market, Victoria Peak (by tram), lunch at a local busy dim sum place. At the peak, we had tea and shared a piece of marble cake at Pacific Coffee (of which there may be more than Starbuck’s). Walked by well-known buildings such as Jardine House, Bank of China Tower, HSBC, Central Plaza, Legislative Council Building, Governor’s Mansion, Bonham Strand, Deveoux Road West, IFC Mall.Had a drink and a nice chat with the bartenders at Bourbon Street, then dinner at Café de Paris next door.
Took Star Ferry "home" ($5 HKD). Got back a little after 10.
Cold at the peak, not warm, but not as bad “down low”.

Hong Kong Day 2 - all day in Kowloon -- all the markets -- Ladies Market, Bird Market, Jade Market, Flower Market, wet market. Lunch at Aberdeen. Ice cream at Gelare - fabulous. Went back to Hong Kong Island for dinner - pretty unexceptional salad, pizza and pasta. The town is overrun with people there for the Rugby 7s.

Hong Kong Day 3 - took bus 260 to Stanley. Wow, the bus was amazing. Seemed new, exceptionally clean, and the route through Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Repulse Bay and Stanley is fantastic. Wandered the market, had a nice lunch at Ocean something on the water. Bought some scarves at the market. Back in town, took the ferry back to Kowloon. Ate dinner on Knutsford Terrace. Couldn't decide where, finally picked an Australian bar - pretty bad. Walked back.

Travel day. Had decided to take the Airport Express shuttle and Airport Express. Had scouted out where/how to pick up the shuttle the night before. Came within 5-10 minutes. Chatted with a nice couple from Boston (he had been in Vietnam illegally during the 70s ("peace movement") and got arrested and kicked out). At Kowloon Airport Express Station, so easy - bought our train tickets (we knew to get the "group of two" - best price at $140 HKD for 2 people traveling one way). Then we could check in and dump our bags - amazing setup, still don't know how it works. Train smooth as ever. Airport is phenomenal -- looks like the international terminal at SFO but about 10 times the size.


GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:


There are very few animals in Vietnam - no squirrels, nor rats (despite all the street food). In fact, very few dogs, but the dogs we did see all looked extremely healthy - well fed, shiny coats.

# of cell phones in Vietnam - as I said, we read there were 189 phones for every 100 people. It seems like everyone, rich and poor, has an iphone. Does anyone have any idea what cell phone service costs?

retail retail retail - every inch of ground floor space (and lots of above-ground floor spaces) seems to be occupied by a store, restaurant, or service provider.

no zoning - fascinated us how you could have a store, a place selling "street food" and a motorcylce repair shop or electrical supply place all in a row. And open fires on the street.

no fear for safety - everyone warned us of scams, and to keep our money in money belts etc. The only "scam" we encountered was the kid who wanted to "fix" my DH's sneakers, which we politely declined, pretty determinedly. DH kept his money in a money belt the first day, but after that, as he usually does, he kept it in his front pocket, with his hand on it. As always, I carried a small cross-body "Baggalini". We never had a problem, and despite all the walking we did through neighborhoods known and unknown, we never once, in all of the trip, feared for our personal safety.

friendly - people in general were incredibly friendly. If they spoke English at all, they tried to communicate, and if they didn't, a smile and wave.

crossing streets in Hanoi - this will be an abiding memory, the same way it is for Cairo. Wow! No stoplights, and even where there are stoplights, they're routinely ignored. The sheer number of motorbikes is not to be believed.

tipping issues - still not sure. We gave a few tips (manicurist, foot massage, local tour guides at a couple of temples who worked only for tips) but mostly didn't since we'd been told tips are not expected and not part of the culture.

mosquitoes (or rather lack of mosquitos) - we took anti-malarial meds (Malarone) just in case we ventured outside the Angkor area. We wore pants into town in the evening, and were covered head to toe with mosquito repellent during the day and on our ankles and legs in the evening. We literally only SAW 3 mosquitoes on our whole trip. It was funny -- our room at La Residence d'Angkor had a mosquito net, so I asked if we needed to use it and they told us it was "for decoration only".

dual economy - this was fascinating, I'm not sure I'm explaining it correctly, but there appear to two economies = an ex-pat and tourist economy, and a local economy. I mean, Prada in Hanoi? We never really found places in Hanoi where locals shop for clothes, but in Saigon, we went into a couple of department stores that probably serve locals.

Would have loved to have been in these places 30 years ago to compare.

Propaganda - there was not even a hint of antipathy toward the US, but some of the anti-war propaganda was pretty over-the-top (at the War Remembrance Museum and Hoa Lo Prison, in particular). Then of course there's all the replica propaganda "art" you can buy (and we did) - probably all being purchased by Americans.

I showed someone some pictures of building facades in Hong Kong at night (Ermenegildo Zegna is a fabulous building) - he said it looked like a pinball machine, which I thought was a great description

the juxtaposition everywhere of old and new was very interesting

The fruits & vegetables in all of Vietnam and in Siem Reap were phenomenal - beautiful, delicious. I fell in love with pomelo

Note that everywhere you go in Vietnam there's free Wifi. I was carrying my iphone and I could log on just walking down the street. Not so in Hong Kong, where there were plenty of hotspots, but not free - 20 minutes of free use per day at Starbucks. Which leads me to....

Skype. I had set up an account before I left, and downloaded the iphone app. I also put $10 on my account so I could call actual phones rather than only skype-to-skype. Absolutely brilliant. Most of the time, we called our kids skype-to-skype. As long as there was a good WiFi connection, the Skype connection was excellent. Not always perfect, but definitely very very good. A couple of times I called their cell phones, and it cost something like $.02 per minute. A definite winner.

Dollars everywhere - most businesses in Vietnam, and all in Siem Reap, accept dollars. The businesses, including the restaurants and hotels, all gave approximately the same good exchange rate.

Note: just a reminder that you need to purchase a visa on entry into Cambodia - $20USD per person. We forgot and had to take money out of the ATM at the airport. Do bring pictures, however, I don't know what would have happened if we didn't have pictures for the visa.

Multiple entry visas - also a reminder that if you go to Vietnam, then Siem Reap and back to Vietnam, you need a multiple entry visa.

Hope this helps somebody!!

One more general observation - who is buying all the jewelry from the myriad of jewelry stores in Hong Kong? There seem to be two high-end jewelry stores and a couple of high-end watch stores on every block of Nathan Road. A couple of the jewelry stores are chains that seem to have a branch on every block. I'm really very curious.

I may have forgotten to say that some of the high-end hotels -- the Sofitel Metropole in Hanoi, Park Hyatt in Saigon and Peninsula in Hong Kong are truly memorably gorgeous.

Did my research (really, the internet is amazing). The name of the Buddhist Temple we visited outside Hue (one of the highlights of our trip) is Tu Hieu Pagoda.

It's 90% Chinese from the mainland who visits all those jewelry stores in HK. There are huge number of newly rich in China, and they trust the HK jewelers and their style a lot more than domestic ones inside China.

You are correct that Chow Sang Sang, CSS and Chow Tai Fook are buying/renting up the whole Nathan Road in Mongkok. Every other store is one of those three jewelers.

I've enjoyed reading your TR. Makes me think I should finish mine, but I am busy sorting and deleting photos. In regard to your question about cell phone rates. When cell phones first arrived in VN, the only provider was the VN government and the rates were "very, very high"-per my guide. But during the past couple of years the government has allowed other providers to enter the market, and because of the competition, the rates are now very inexpensive. It is amazing that everyone in VN seems to have one.

My sister and law had mislaid her passport photo when entering Cambodia. They just photocopied the picture in her passport and charged her $2. I would not risk it however just in case!!

Great report! Thanks for taking the time to do it. I'm very impressed even with all the walking u do each day, u still hit the treadmill...
We're still debating go later in 2011 or wait until next year.

Another thing. In Hong Kong, on more than one occasion, we were startled to see a disabled person (amputees) lying prostrate in a public place (such as the walkway between IFC Mall and the Star Ferry pier) begging for money. I am pretty immune to begging (after all, I live in the Bay Area, where there is a huge homeless issue, and I've learned to turn a blind eye to street people with their hands out, since I don't think giving them direct donations solves any problems). We didn't see this in either Vietnam or Cambodia, although there was one mother at Phnom Bakheng holding a noticeably deformed child and begging. It was very very disconcerting.

Excellent trip report with fascinating detail.Thanks!

Very informative and well written report! Glad you had so much fun.

There was always a big income/wealth gap in Hong Kong, but it has grown wider in recent years. But Hong Kong is also a very free society. There had been a few panhandlers with various disabilities in Central for decades. Used to be a big camp (like skid row in L.A.) on a pedestrian bridge outside the Central Post Office, which had since been torn down.

There is enough (may not be a lot, but enough) support groups and social services in HK to take care of these people. But when that's what they want to do, and when they can make a good living do it in Central, they cannot be forced out or taken away.

Great trip report...thanks for sharing!

Thanks all for the "support", and rkkwan, thanks for the explanation(s).

YOur report has been very helpful to me as I plan and book our upcoming trip to SE Asia. Thanks!

While you should bring photos for your Cambodia visas, one time they were happy to staple a couple of dollars, instead of a photo, to our visa application . My last time, i cropped and printed a picture of me off my phone to use as my visa photo. It was black and white and on cheap copy paper. The official told me to bring a real photo the next time, but accepted it.

Nice report. Thanks for posting it sf!

<<<one time they were happy to staple a couple of dollars, instead of a photo, to our visa application>>>

Remember that full employment policy I mentioned above? Somebody's gotta pay for it

Forgot to mention that all those delicious hotel breakfast buffets included full Western and Asian breakfast options. I opted for Western and ate mostly Asian food for lunch and dinner. Fried rice and pho for breakfast just do not appeal to me!

very much worth a book mark! Thank you for this report!

Wow, I was so surprised to see it pop up again - you're welcome!

Hi SF- been periodically rereading the sections of your report for our upcoming destinations. fascinated by the Hue Riders and thinking about doing it when we get to Hue next week. When did u make your reservation? What's traffic like in the areas to which u rode? and I gather u felt safe? It sure slunds like fun. Thanks

Hi! I made the reservation just two days before we arrived in Hue, by email on their website. A couple of notes - it was a blast, and I'd definitely do it again, but consider asking for a guide with better English skills than ours had - one spoke no English - he was just a driver; the other spoke limited English. There were a lot of things we would have liked to know more about Second, Ask for bikes with back support - it makes a huge difference when you're riding all day!

Traffic in and around Hue is nothing like Hanoi - our drivers were both great and we always felt very safe.

Hi! Thanks for the info. hadn't thought about the back support issue. glad u waited til close to the day to reserve. I'd like to be as certain as one can be with the weather before reserving. weather has been all over the place.

Thanks for topping Hunybadger, not sure how I missed this in my research.

Sf307 I'm pretty sure you've given me some great advice on questions for our upcoming trip, but really glad to read this.

Thanks.

Happy to help (didn't I recommend the Hanoi Elegance to you?)

No, actually it was one I found when planning our original trip for 2011. I had the VN portion all planned out when i pulled the plug. It was sort of the new "hot" hotel at the time. They have opened another one in their chain, Elegance Essence.

What a fun day with Hue Riders! So glad u recommended them, sf. and thanks for answering my questions. Per your suggestions we did ask for bikes with back support. Sarah said they all have back support and both bikes did. We also requested drivers/guides who spoke English and Sarah emailed, " All our drivers/guides speak English.". Welll, our guides both spoke English, one fairly well, Quy. He pointed out alot as we drove and definitely took the lead on everything. Our other driver/guide, Mr. Dung, was very nice, but his English was barely so so. He also pointed sites out, but there was difficulty understanding him. Anyway, like SF, I highly recommend Hue Riders as a great way to see the sites in Hue.

Hi, yestravel. Mr. Dung (a really nice guy, but as you said, limited English) was our no. 1 guy, the other guy didn't speak any English at all -- never said a word the whole day! Same guy had the bike without back support. Maybe he was a rogue driver Glad you had a good time.

As for the Hanoi Elegance, my post was meant for aussiedreamer. Of course I know you had your trip (originally) planned before we went.

Hi there sf7307 I think you did, getting very excited. A few restaurants booked, lots mapped, I know there is more to Vietnam than the food, but I am soooo looking forward to it.

Oh, but the food is sooooo good!

Can't imagine having Mr. Dung as main guide! Very nice man, but English skills leave much to be desired. Also forgot to mention, loved the view from the bunkers, so once again good advice.

And must agree, food is fabulous! aussiedreamer - I wouldn't worry about booking in advance too much. We had one night where we couldn't get a table at Secret Garden in Hoi An. we got there fairly late and we ended up making a res for the next night. We noticed the next night, at the same time they just kept adding tables as folks walked in so not sure why they didn't do that the evening before for us. Have a great trip!

Thanks yestravel,I've actually booked a couple of places in Cambodia that I absolutely don't want to miss out on, a couple in Vietnam I couldn't get a response, so will just book on checking in to our hotel.

Thanks, I know I will love it all.

Thanks for a great report! It's helping me plan for our trip to SE Asia next year. I also live in the Bay Area - did you find a good bun bo place here yet?

Ha - good but not even close to what we had in VN. The best so far is a total dive on 6th at Market called Tu Lan. Let me know if I can be of any help in your planning. I saw on the other thread that you asked about the Hanoi Elegance (we stayed there) What kinds of hotels do you stay in usually (motel 6....Courtyard....W....Ritz-Carlton?). For example, if you go to NY, where would you stay? That'll help me help you!

I go to Tu Lan quite often because I work closeby. I agree it's a total dive but I like some of their dishes a lot. I'm trying to find some better restaurants in the Little Saigon section too. Regarding hotels, I like the Marriott and Hyatt and of course would love the Ritz but I know it's pricey. I've read so many great things on the forum about the Hanoi Elegance hotels that I know I want to stay there. Any advice you can give me on hotels, guides and flights is greatly appreciated!

topping to say thanks for the trip report - just what i needed.

I'm so glad it was helpful!

Gotta come back and read all this if I decided to go!

me too, been reading, reading and reading, off to Vietnam in 4 wks!!! Thank you so much for all the info.

Actually I meant to say thank you........