The Mystic East - a tale of hot food, hot weather, airmiles and imodium.
 

Just back from three and a bit weeks in Thailand and Vietnam enjoying temples, street food, tropical beaches, cocktails, coffees, puppet shows and a lot of internal flights!

Fellow Fodorite Uruabam/Weegie/Stilldontknow (aka Tommy) organised this trip and will feature as co-star.

Nb. I am posting this TR in the lounge and Europe (in addition to the Asia forum) as I am not known outside of Europe really – I saw someone else do this earlier this year so hopefully that means it is allowed/and/or no-one hits the triangle. If you do santa will probably bring you coal!

Pictures to be uploaded in sets for each destination – here’s Bangkok to get you started.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...57677450924765

Day 1 and 2 – Heathrow, Dubai and Bangkok.

Tommy and I were fortunate enough to have PPI refunds this year so the trip we’d started planning to South East Asia for Nov 2016 was suddenly upgraded to business class. I flew from Heathrow to Bangkok via Dubai with Emirates, which was almost as exciting as the holiday itself – a chauffeur picks you up and takes you to the airport, you can trough in the lounge (I had smoked mozzarella salad, then saddle of lamb stuffed with pine nuts and spinach served with roast root veg, plus a fair bit of champagne), and then you have a big seat on board that goes completely flat for sleeping, 1000s of telly channels and appropriately obsequious serfs. Despite the lounge scoff I managed to find room for artichoke soup with sumac cheese straws, Arabian spiced cod, and then chocolate delice with mango once airborne. I also had a breakfast martini (marmalade, gin and Cointreau) and a fair bit more champers. Tommy flew from Glasgow, also with Emirates. I can’t remember what he had to eat but he did show me photos, and I also recall he had a bit of red mist over the fact that you didn’t get amenity kits on the UK-Dubai leg as it wasn’t considered a night flight (despite getting in after midnight).

Dubai airport was vast, and unlike Heathrow, where you had the not insignificant luxury of boarding direct from the lounge, it was a 20 minute hike between gates. There was a lot of quite blingy décor in the lounge (ibex heads in ebony and rose gold and ornate fountains), but also good stuff like free ice cream, wifi, juice bars etc. On the second leg (Dubai to Bangkok) I only had breakfast as I was a bit stuffed. The all-important amenity kits finally arrived, full of Bvlgari goodies and I took everything out and admired it on my tray table about half a dozen times. The flight was smooth and uneventful and landed roughly on schedule.

Emirates car service efficiently picked me up right outside the main terminal then equally efficiently deposited me at the wrong hotel in Bangkok city centre. (I got dropped off in a kind of underpass, so it was impossible to spot the mistake until the driver had left.) Tommy, who had arrived first, came to rescue me in a taxi and I finally got checked into the correct hotel – Golden Tulip Mandison Suites - around 4pm. We were a 5 minute walk from the busy Sukhumvit Road, and about 10 mins from the nearest Skytrain stop. The hotel itself was very good value with big rooms in restful dark oriental colours, picture windows, a nice pool and good breakfasts (egg station, pastries, Asian congee type dishes, tons of fresh fruit, pancakes, and waffles).

After comparing flights and Tommy demo-ing the minibar etc we headed out for a bite to eat and to locate a suitable place to watch the sun go down. Our watering hole of choice was Above 11 – a rooftop bar with pink tree-shaped parasols. I had something with pomegranate in and it came with angel wings carved out of fresh ginger mounted on the rim of the glass which tickled me a bit.

We next moved on to Chinatown, grabbing a taxi from an array of bubblegum pink cars at the stand. Bit of a rude awakening here – our vehicle had no seatbelts and the driver drove like a maniac. Tommy found my consternation amusing and commanded me to abandon all notions of health and safety for the duration of our trip.

Chinatown was everything I had hoped it would be – an explosion of neon juxtaposed with silk lanterns, people tucking into bowls of rice at tiny zinc tables whilst seated on even tinier plastic stools, hawkers pulling carts, tuk-tuk drivers touting for business, scrawny cats and dogs begging for scraps. Down a side street we found a massage parlour offering hour long foot massages for 200 baht (circa £5). Our feet were washed in petal strewn tubs of water, then lotion massaged in with varying degrees of force. Tommy’s masseur was a ladyboy and he pronounced her to have very good firm hands. Mine an older women who chatted non-stop in thai with the other spa staff. We left refreshed and fragrant, to hunt out a late night eating spot, bypassing the fish stalls and settling on roast duck with rice (me), noodles (Tommy), Asian greens (both). Back to the hotel for a decent night’s sleep once we’d mastered the aircon.

Love the photos so far-lots of variety. I will love following you and you are lucky to have a "co-star".

Day 3: Bangkok

Our first full day in Bangkok and we decided on a trip to Wat Pho temple for a bit of culture. This necessitated taking the skytrain down to the Chaopraya river, then hopping on a boat to the Phra Nakhon district. Frankly, our walk to Asok BTS was a bit of an assault on the senses - in addition to the teeming traffic and its constant blaring of horns there was a cacophony of smells - durian, mango, chargrilling, raw sewage, diesel, incense, jasmine and fish sauce - and a blanket-like humidity wrapping itself around us. I can easily see why many people find Bangkok a bit full-on, but once you've acclimatised to the heat and noise and mastered the art of crossing the road (just go for it - cars and motorcycles weave round you effortlessly) - the chaos is magical.

The sky train ticket purchasing system is a bit daft - they have staff in cubicles but all they are allowed to do is give out change, and then you queue a second time at the ticket machine to actually buy your ticket. The Silom line is quieter than the Sukhumvit line. Sadly we needed to spend more time on the latter than the former for our trip, so found ourselves standing rather than seated most of the way (albeit in relative air-conditioned comfort), watching the little in-car tvs, playing solemn music and showing pictures of the recently deceased king.

At Saphan Taksin we boarded an express ferry (rather than one of the tourist boats or junks) and sped off up the muddy brown channel, passing giant riverside chain hotels and rickety houses on stilts over the water, greenery hanging from narrow balconies. Every now and then the boat would stop at piers for passengers to embark or disembark, the arrival, departure and mooring of boats controlled by agitated marshalls blowing furiously on whistles.

The walk from the river to the temple wasn't that long but we struggled a bit to find the entrance (canny touts try to redirect you to their stalls and shops, though Tommy was fairly wise to this having visited before). Once inside we wandered the courtyards in scorching midday heat, taking off our shoes to nip in and out of temple buildings, admiring gold buddahs, lacquered columns, gilded panels, knobbly spires, and rooflines edged with dragons. Sitting on the edge of a carp pond we rubbed our blisters and gave thanks for the occasional cloud intermittently relieving us of the tropical sun.

Outside the temple we found a small cafe serving iced coffees and sat slurping noisily on our drinks. There were some lovely leather goods - wallets, purses and bags - on sale in the coffee shop, but Tommy ruled it too early in the trip to be looking for souvenirs, so we carried on our way back to the ferry terminal without any purchases but full of caffeine. The walk talk us past a number of stalls set out along the road, which we'd obviously also passed on our way down, but had not really taken in at the time. When we looked closer we saw that the stalls were in fact manned by various national organisations - naval cadets, scouts, nurses and so on - who were giving out free food and drink to any and all passes-by as alms to honour the dead king. We were both really touched by this simple act of generosity. The food was delicious and varied - all home cooked. Bowls of curry, grilled meats, and wanton-like dumplings filled with pork and lemongrass. There were also sugary doughnuts, ice-creams and lollies, and bottles of water and fruit juice - all chilled on ice, and all free for the taking.

Once off the boat, we retraced our steps to the BTS, spotting chickens and a cockeral strutting round Saphan Taksin station(!), and a bizarre sign proclaiming 'No balloon!' There are a lot of things you can't do on the BTS, apparently, apart from 'no ballloon', including eating, drinking, leaning against pillars and talking loudly - all verboten. On the way back I kept an eye out for infringments but everyone - school children, office workers, and tourists - were all remarkeably compliant, glued to their phones or e-books.

Walking down Sukhumvit 20 alley back to our hotel we noticed numerous stalls set up cooking lunch for local shop staff and construction workers, so purchased some chicken skewers and grilled pork which were neatly bagged up in polythene for us (like funfair goldfish!), and took them back to the hotel for a nibble. After our portable lunch we headed down to the pool for a bit of a chill out. I swam, catching my feet and knees on a number of hidden ledges (I told you health and safety was not a thai strong point), whilst Tommy mostly sunbathed - he'd burnt his chest the day before so needed now to burn his back to match .

Evening activities started with a visit to an IT mall to try to find a cable for transfer of photos from camera to tablet, since Tommy's transfer app and wifi wasn't working properly. Unfortunately the mall (which was vast) seemed to consist of kiosk after kiosk of mobile phone cases sold by teenagers, and it's not very easy explaining 'USB to micro-USB' in thai to someone who thinks you probably want to buy a pink Hello Kitty iphone 6 cover. We left without a cable (which seems only fair considering I didn't get a bag from the coffee shop-cum boutique earlier - ha!) and headed for a district known for its street food.

There's been a concerted effort to clear up roadside traders and stalls recently in Bangkok and when we found the area (sorry, cam't remember the exact Soi) there wasn't as much choice as we'd been hoping, so we passed on eating and headed for a bar instead. I think the place was called The Rock Pub, and it didn't initially hold much promise, being half empty and with the barman struggling to assemble anything that didn't come straight out of a bottle, but first impressions can be very wrong indeed and ours certainly were. First off, although my cocktails and mocktails took an age to make, they were delish when they were finally served up, and as we were imbibing, a band came on stage who were so good that we revised our 'one quick drink then home' plan and spent the entire night there. The band were thai, performing a mix of punk, rock and indie classics (The Clash, Chilli Peppers, Rolling Stones) and were frankly, utterly brilliant. Great vocals and very tight instrumentals, blowing all the X-Factor type crap out of the water. After settling the bar bill (they had slightly reproachfully lined up all of Tommy's empty bottles by way of a tab!), we headed back to the Asok area for some late night eats.

Our destination was a tiny alley Tommy had visited before - possibly off Soi 18? - I'm not 100% sure - really no more than a narrow passage lined with tables and stools and woks over gas burners, though the occasional motorbike or scooter did thread its way through. The heat was fierce in the constricted space, smoke laced with chili catching at the back of our throats. We definitely ordered omelette and pork belly and probably two other dishes - possibly morning glory - and maybe some fish - which was all cooked to order and utterly delicious. Tommy showed me how to use the condiments provided to spice or freshen everything up - wedges of lime and chili flakes, and my favourite - vinegar loaded with mustard seeds - which I soaked the whole omelette with. We drank cokes from the fridge buzzing noisely beside us, eventually heading home for bed full of chili heat and hoarse from shouting in the pub.

Though I'm not sure that you are actually selling a visit to Thailand to me so far, I'm enjoying this very much.

Keep up the good work!

Thank you for the kind words, Stitchintime and Annhig.

Ann - I have Chiang Mai coming up next which is a bit less hectic and might be more to your taste!

looking forward to it, RM.

i read your whole blog it was really nice . nice information you have in it .looking forward to hear more topics from you like this

Beautiful photos, RM! Enjoying seeing places through your eyes immensely!

We were in Bangkok in 2014 during the period of the BKK shutdown, so missed out on visiting some of the areas that you visited, so it's great fun to finally see them!

Hello RM67. Another fun TR, yours always make me smile. And they are always mouth-watering. Not to mention the booze. I was last in Bangkok in 1976 and I wonder how much of it I would recognise now.
Looking forward to Chiang Mai. There were no paved roads back in the day!

Looking forward to Chiang Mai and Vietnam. Very fun report so far. Thank you.

Day 4: Chiang Mai

After 48 hours in Bangkok we headed north to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city. Our flight took only 50 minutes on one of Air Asia's red and white Airbuses, leaving from Don Mueng late on Sunday morning. Our cases fortuitously appeared seconds after we made it to baggage reclaim so we were almost first in the queue to grab a taxi from the well organised rank, which transferred us to our next base - the Thannattee Boutique hotel - around a 15 minute drive from the airport.

Chiang Mai, although fairly sizeable (population 150,000) has a very different vibe to Bangkok. It nestles at the foot of the mountains, surrounded by national parks replete with waterfalls, elephants and tigers, and the air is clearer and cooler. The city itself is bounded by ancient walls and a moat system. Our hotel was just outside the city centre in a residential area of houses with walled gardens, and small local shops and cafes. As in Bangkok, overhead was a mass of tangled cables and wires supplying homes with high speed fibre optic despite their antiquated telegraph looks. The hotel building was lanna style - a lot of dark wood, the bathroom with a beaten metal sink and turquoise tiling. We had a small balcony that we never used, and at the back was a sheltered swimming pool. Whilst nice enough, we felt that our accomodation wasn't that well located as we had to cross a busy road every time we wanted to get into the city centre, and although probably no more than a 10 minute walk to the ancient walls, anyone who has visited south east asia will know that that's plenty long enough to be dripping with sweat on a hot day.

We decided that we'd laze by the pool for a bit before heading into town for the night market. Unfortunately there were only a handful of loungers and these were all taken, so we sat at a small table with low wooden stools, baking in the midday heat. Tommy attempted and failed to put up a parasol, so to evade the sun I decided to have a swim instead. Navigating the narrow ledge along the edge of the pool I managed to lightly brush the parasol holder and the brolly tipped over and fell in. Tommy pretended he didn't know me while two Aussie girls swimming in the pool helpful rescued the parasol and fished it out. We left it dripping against a wall and pretended nothing had happened, doing comedically short lengths that consisted of about 4 strokes and listening to the thrum of insects. When it became clear no-one was going to vacate a lounger any time soon, we cut our losses and got dried off in the room before heading into town.

I think our first port of call was an ex-pat bar called John's Place. I'm not normally a fan of anywhere full of middle aged men whinging about home from 5000 miles away and demanding egg bacon and fried bread, but this was actually quite a nice spot, on a corner, so good for people watching, and open to the elements. We ordered Khao Soi (chicken and noodles in a coconut broth with chili and coriander, with more noodles, fried and crispy on top). Tommy was mildly outraged that our khao soi came without the correct final layer of crispy noodles but despite that it was delicious - just the right level of (medium) spicing for me. I can't remember what we drank but unless I say otherwise you can take it that typically any imbibing session consisted of fruit juice, beer and cocktails. The bar girls, in between orders, tonged their hair with implements plugged into massively overloaded sockets on the wall by the bar like a scene from a health and safety video (the 'do not do this' version, obviously). We also watched as some idiotic french men tried to drive off on a scooter under the influence, and listened to gasps and honking of horns as they nearly came to grief.

Next on the agenda were foot massages for both of us. These were similar in price to the Bangkok ones (in the 200-300 baht range) and decent enough, but probably not quite as stellar as the Chinatown rubbing. I don't think it helped that we both had blisters - or that I'd worn capri pants that didn't roll up far enough for my masseuse to get as high up my legs as she would have liked. But they were perfectly ok massages and its always good to get away from the bedlam of any asian city centre for an hour or two. A nice touch was the ginger tea we were given to drink afterwards.

Tentatively easing our shoes back on, we headed for the Sunday market on Walking Street, starting out at the food stands, passing vendors juicing sugar cane, gutting fish, ladling out curries and bagging up sticky sweets. We tried coffee ice cream - sold in little blocks wrapped in waxy paper, dispensed into a paper cone when you purchased and a somewhat dodgy version of the famous banana pancake, in which a raw banana was wrapped in a crepe and smothered in nutella (the inside is meant to be cooked too!). The sign over the stall pronounced 'Only Banana in Chiang Mai!' and this became a standing joke for the rest of the trip whenever we saw a banana pancake vendor elsewhere in the city. Tommy bought a coconut to drink the water from and some thai sausage which was meaty and coarse. We tried to look at the stalls of silk goods and lacquer but the street was rammed here, and we ended up ducking out to go to a wine bar, sitting on a balcony at first floor level, watching the street below. My tummy wasn't feeling great at this stage so we headed back to the hotel, which I felt bad about as I know how much Tommy loves night markets, but as it turned out, similar venues would figure later in our trip, so it wasn't the end of the world. 'I told you to take Imodium' was Mr M's one and only comment as I nipped in and out of the bathroom at regular intervals during the night!

And photos:-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...57673541563414

Thank you everyone for your kind comments :-)

I love Chiang Mai! Even though I go there twice a year, I love "getting back to the city I love" by hearing other people's experiences. The Saturday and Sunday walking markets have been so crowded. The Art in Paradise museum is reallllly fun-not your normal museum. Try River Market restaurant. It's a beautiful, relaxing, peaceful setting with great dishes. Even though it's more expensive, it's worth it.
http://therivermarket.com/wp-content..._menu_2015.pdf

Day 5: Chiang Mai

After a mediocre breakfast at the hotel I took a prophylactic Imodium, and we made our way back to the city centre to explore further. We were planning a temple fix, visiting Wat Chedi Luang, and the adjacent Wat Pan Tao. Wat Chedi Luang reminded me somewhat of an Aztec pyramid with almost impossibly steep steps leading up the sides, and impressively large stone elephants looking forbodingly down from the middle tiers. Huge stone snakes guarded the staircases. Although the temple dates to the 14th century a certain amount of restoration has been carried out in the last couple of decades with UNESCO funding – the level of restoration has been somewhat contraversial. Just next door we found Wat Pan Tao, completely different in style, this time recalling a Norweigen stavekirk with its staggered rooves and dragon like prows. In and around Wat Pan Tao, banners and lanterns were being erected in soft pastels and pale golds. These flapped gently in the lightest of breezes, as tuk-tuks queued in the courtyards and feral but benign dogs roamed the grounds.

We left the temple complex and found a small café – Jario Coffee – on Prapokklao Road – very modern in design, with a good choice of cold drinks and smoothies, and techy types sat at a long bar by the window gawping at their Macbooks. I had a blueberry smoothie and got lots of seeds in my teeth which Tommy didn’t tell me about, but luckily I needed the loo so was alerted to my purple mouth in the bathroom mirror. We then headed to the north of the city, looking for (another) IT mall to continue the cable search. This was again unsuccessful. Tommy bought some sort of hard drive storage thingy instead which was also not quite the right thing as it turned out when we checked the connections, but I soothed him with promises of beer later.

Because of my dodgy tummy we had western food for lunch just to be on the safe side – I think some sort of club sandwich and fries which was ok but felt like a cop out with all the great thai food on offer. Then back to the hotel, passing interesting looking shops and eateries that we mentally bookmarked – for example a great little gift shop full of tiny earthernware cups and teapots, plus a number of café come art galleries – café/coffee culture is huge in Chiang Mai.

We got back to the Thannattee mid to late afternoon for a brief rest – this would become standard practice on our trip, allowing us to cool off a bit after the midday heat, and recharge any electrical devices that were flagging using Tommy’s ‘Tower Of Power’ – a gadget that had about half a dozen USB ports. Sitting in our underwear(!) to chill a bit quicker we’d compare photos and post updates to Facebook to torture colleagues at work back home.

We had big plans for the evening as our trip to Ching Mai coincided with the Loi Krathong festival, in which lanterns are launched into the sky, and krathong (little floats made of flowers and candles) are set adrift on the river. As soon as it got dark we headed back into town following the crowds thronging down the main street as they turned west toward the river. Stalls were set up along the road selling krathong, trinkets and food. As we got closer to the river the crowds got denser and denser, until we could barely move. Luckily, at the this point we were able to break off to the left and head down some steps to the river bank. From here we could see many krathong already floating along with the current and hundreds of lanterns being launched into the night sky from a bridge over the river. The krathing and lanterns illuminated against the dark water and dark sky looked magical.

The main krathong launch point – a wooden pier leading out into the river - was about 100m to our left. Most people were releasing their krathong from here. However, a few intrepid (read ‘daft’) individuals had chosen to launch their krathong directly from the river bank, and these were now trapped in weeds by the bank, unable to get out into the main navigation. One guy was teetering on the edge of the riverbank, using a long stick to try and free his krathong. We waited gleefully for him to fall in though sadly it never happened. Equally daftly, a small group of westerners were trying to launch a lantern from more or less the same spot down at water level, rather than on the bridge. A combination of tree branches overhead and inexperience with how long to allow the lantern to warm and inflate before launching meant it came plunging back to earth almost immediately, initially accompanied by giggles and then screams as it disintegrated showering everyone in the vicinity with embers. We enjoyed the more successful lantern and krathong launches for a fair while, before slowly heading back into town.

Our late evening entertainment was a trip to the ladyboy cabaret, located in a building tucked round the back of Anusan night market. Truth be told we weren’t expecting a lot from this, having heard the shows can be short and badly choreographed, but it was absolutely brilliant - 2hrs of bird of paradise-like costumes, music and dancing. All lip-synched/mimed but this didn’t matter one little bit, as it was all about the colour, energy and camp. Think Abba, Rhiannon, Patti Labelle. There was a fair bit of audience participation, for the most part with volunteers rather than ‘victims’, and ‘spare’ ladyboys served as waitresses during the show, fetching drinks and snacks for nominal tips. Tommy tipped quite well so I got a lot of candid shots of the ladyboys as they came in and out of the dressing room or bar area. We had a great time here and so did the rest of the audience judging by the noise level!

On our way back to the hotel we grabbed kebabs from a street vendor and they were honestly the best kebabs I have ever eaten – chicken rather than the more usual unidentifiable pinkish brown lump of flesh, with tomato, great Asian coleslaw and mayo. The roti type wraps were flamed briefly before the meat and other goodies were encased, then handed to us perfectly folded like origami. We ate as we walked, passing rowdy bars with hookers perched on stools or leaning against pool tables, massage parlours, restaurants and bars with customers seated outside in the humid night air, and residential properties – a little thai girl of no more than four or five years of age putting down a bowl of food for her cat in the open garage, batting away flies before she’d let him eat. There were stil thousands of lanterns in the sky, even at this late hour, and the city was bewitching.

oh, RM, how the phrase "prophylactic Imodium" resonates with me!

lovely descriptions of the krathong which I'd never heard of before - thank you.

As for the cabaret - like you I'd have had qualms but you've converted me!

keep it coming.

I'm not sure I would have risked kebabs while full of immodium... but they sound good! As does the street theatre you walked through.

Stichintime - the Rivermarket looks really good - I wish we'd known about that when we were there.

Thank you again Ann and Gertie. I ended up using the Imodium as a bit of a security blanket tbh - taking one most mornings before we went out, for most of the Chiang Mai portion of our trip and into Vietnam, though eventually managed to wean myself off them. Since I never had any nausea or stomach cramps, only mild diarroeah, I think the heat was the culprit rather than the food or water. Imodium figures again in Hanoi so stand by for that exciting episode :-P

Enjoying and learning from you!

What is a PPI refund?

PPI is payment protection insurance. A lot of UK banks miss sold it when people took out loans with them. The banks have been made to pay back the PPI, in some cases with many years worth of interest on top. :-)

Great trip report. I am really enjoying your perspective on CM, a place that many here Are not that keen on. I like the place a lot. Looking forward to reading of your experiences in Vietnam, probably my fav, country in SE Asia. Keep it coming!

Day 6: Chiang Mai

For our last full day in Chiang Mai we started with a trip to Doi Suthep, the mountain that looms over Thailand's second city. To get beyond the city limits we had to hire a songtaew - a converted pick up truck with bench style seating that normally ferries people short distances around town for a few baht. I was a bit apprehensive about this as the sides and the back of the vehicle are partially open, again with no seatbelts to restrain you, but it was actually fine, our driver proceeding at a perfectly reasonable pace, and the bars on the inside of the roof providing something to hang on to if things got a bit hairy.

Our dusty red Isuzu zig-zagged up the mountain confidently, via a seemingly never ending series of hairpin bends, and from time to time we got glimpses of the city spread out below, continually receding as we climbed ever higher. After about half an hour, the songtaew stopped at a makeshift carpark near the top of the mountain and we scrambled out of the vehicle and down a short muddy bank, through some trinket stalls, to an area of steps that lead up to Wat Phra That. Actually, I am underselling it a bit - there are 300 or more steps up to the temple with incredible jade coloured dragons undulating either side of the staircase all the way up (or down, depending on your viewpoint). Being lazy, we opted for the funicular railway to the top instead though.

When you get out of the railway carriage, despite the large numbers of tourists, it is to a wonderfully tranquil scene of multiple terraces, temple buildings with emerald buddahs, temple bells and golden spires, and entrancing views of the mountain falling away below. Cobalt blue skies, and a bizarre mixture of pines and palms complete the picture. We wandered fairly aimlessly just soaking up the atmosphere. An umber-clad monk sitting contemplatively on a terrace with a book stopped reading to answer his smartphone. We bought coconut ice cream (Tommy) and passionfruit sorbet (me) and sat on stools hewn from old tree trunks in a cafe teetering on the edge of the mountain, people watching and admiring the view. Tommy told me that the royal family have a residence slightly higher up the mountain and I can well see why they chose the spot - it's beautiful.

Before long it was time to head back to the songtaew (our driver had been waiting patiently whilst we explored the temple) and make the journey down the mountain returning toward Chiang Mai. We asked to be dropped off on the outskirts of the city rather than in the centre, in a district not far from the university, so we could look for a cafe we'd read about online - 'Catmosphere'. In Catmosphere your coffee and cakes are accompanied by feline companions happy to be petted or sit on your lap while you eat and drink. Unfortunately no amount of searching, even with the assistance of Google maps, could reveal where 'Catmosphere' was located (I think we'd been dropped off a bit too early tbh), so we finally plumped for a complex of cafes and bars which were built over a series of lily ponds, with wooden walkways accessing the various seating areas. Some of the cafes had huge floor cushions, others more traditional seating. Our cafe made excellent iced almond lattes - we had a long wait but they were so worth it.

We than had the task of trying to flag down a songtaew to take us back to the city centre, and this was not as easy as it sounds, since songtaews turned out to be relatively few and far between on the outskirts of the city. We thought we'd suceeded as one finally pulled over, only to see the driver usher all his passengers out as the pickup truck overheated and then refused to restart! Eventually we managed to get one to stop and climbed in to be taken back to the Tapae Gate. I'm trying to remember if we had lunch when we got back to the old town but I honestly can't recall - I think we must have , and probably more drinks, possibly at John's Place again, and then it would have been back to the hotel for some more rest and relaxation before another night out.

That evening there was a second round of Loi Krathong festivities, centering this time on a parade of floats through the streets of the old town. When it was announced shortly before our departure that the king had died, it had looked as though most of the Loi Krathong festivities were going to be cancelled; however the mayor of the district later stated that celebrations could go ahead as long as they were low key. A particular feature of the festival was that lanna and floats were to be decorated in what were deemed appropriate colours - white or black, and I think also navy and red - basically funereal colours in Thailand. As we left the Thannattee, white lanterns were being hung over the door by staff in line with this new policy.

We crossed the busy road, heading for the old quarter, seeing monks lighting candles along walls fronting the street. Then into the city centre proper where all the floats were neatly lined up ready for the off. Almost all were decked out in a simple silvery white colour palette, with occasional accents of pale blue or lilac from the lamps illuminating them. The themes were very varied - a tableau with floaty oriental clouds, elephants, aeroplanes, and even white lotus flowers with young children sitting in them holding parasols. Parade participants sat around the floats checking their phones as they waited to get going, or stood shuffling their feet, keen for the off, holding elaborate banners in thai script.

We nipped around the corner to a bar (sorry didn't manage to get the name) and sat down for beers (Tommy) and 'Kahlua milk' (me) - exactly as it sounds, a shot of coffee liqueur in a glass of iced milk. I managed quite a few kahlua milks as they went down very easily (!), and whilst we were drinking we had the added bonus of seeing the floats go past - the parade had started and had handily turned down the same street as our venue, again making for the river.

Once the last float had gone by we headed for the Anusan night market again, deciding to eat at one of the restaurants in the covered area. Something I noticed here was that many young children accompanied their parents to work - some sleeping under the trestle tables that their family were selling goods from, others playing in the shelter of the market, with balloons or footballs. One group of young children were absolutely fascinated by the fish spa, crouching by the blue tanks watching the fish nibble away at customers feet, transfixed for all the world as though they were watching cartoons on tv.

We ordered a whole duck (complete with innards), rice, morning glory and mushrooms. The duck came on a tin platter, hacked expertly into mangeable pieces, but still largely on the bone. Stuffing our faces, we talked about how much we'd enjoyed Loi Krathong. Lanterns still floated overhead, visible from the moment we left the market, all the way home to our hotel.

wow, what an adventure [though I felt a bit let down when you said you took the funicular!]

Chang Mai sounds like somewhere I could like.

We did walk back down using the steps Ann - does that count?

Chiang Mai is definitely less hectic than Bangkok and also a good base for getting out and seeing the national parks and places like Chiang Rai. Tbh the whole country is easy to travel around because they have budget airlines with similar costs to our budget carriers. Think we never paid much more than about £20 for any of our internal flights. And there is a railway route north.

Day 7 : Saigon

I had a last quick breakfast at the Thannattee – just toast, fruit and tea really - Tommy was sufficiently underwhelmed by what had been on offer the past two days not to bother coming down, so I left him packing. There weren’t enough tables in the restaurant and I had to sit in reception with my toast but it was probably a good thing as it stopped me lingering too long.

We checked out and asked reception to call us a cab – they helpfully (or unhelpfully – you decide!) informed us that they had a free shuttle service that runs people to the airport and when we said ‘oh great we’ll take that’ they said ‘no, you have to book in advance’. Which left us thinking well call a bloody taxi then like we asked – they didn’t, so we just shoehorned ourselves into the hotel shuttle when it came round. I apologise now to the other passengers who were inconvenienced by us squashing ourselves on but if we hadn’t we would have missed our flight.

Most of day 7 was taken up with onward travel as we had two flights in actual fact – one from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok, then a second straight onto Ho Chi Minh city, which I shall henceforth refer to as Saigon as it is quicker to type. There is nothing much to say about these except that they went smoothly, with a very quick and easy transfer at Bangkok (on foot, adjacent terminals) and we think we saw the Mekong Delta from the air and it was huge and we were impressed.

After getting some cash and buying a sim card at Saigon airport we grabbed a taxi for the transfer to our next hotel, Paradise Saigon Boutique. The hotel was quite modern and non-descript on the outside but had decent rooms, a huge bed with USB charger ports in the headboard(!)and a smallish bathroom with a shower. There was a bar downstairs in the foyer, a nice restaurant on one of the higher floors that did excellent food, and the reception area had a strange but effective canopy of glass parasols across the ceiling which looked quite mid-century modern. The staff were very helpful and friendly and there were bell boys or whatever you call them operating the lifts.

We headed out for a bite to eat (it was evening by the time we arrived) and found a bbq type restaurant not too far away – I think it might have been called TNT - where we had pulled pork – or rather I did (Tommy had beef brisket), and very nice cornbread, and fries – except they were actually crinkle chips like you’d buy at the supermarket and reheat in the oven, which we found amusing as it was quite a pricy place by Vietnamese standards. After the meatfest and on our way back to the hotel we stopped at a little café for coffee. I have to say now that we totally fell in love with Vietnamese coffee in all its many incarnations – hot, cold, with condensed milk, black, egg coffee, cheese coffee and so on, but more on that later.

We were probably the oldest people (40s) at this café, which was quite young and funky, with lots of students pulling up and leaving on mopeds. We sat outside at comically low tables on tiny chairs that were arranged in a huge tangle on the pavement. Every time someone new came along they had to weave their way through the chaotic seating to find an empty spot, staff occasionally rushing out to help rearrange furniture and people. It was good coffee and it bode well for future imbibing :-)

We did walk back down using the steps Ann - does that count?>>

not really RM - but it can be hard on the knees!

<<We checked out and asked reception to call us a cab – they helpfully (or unhelpfully – you decide!) informed us that they had a free shuttle service that runs people to the airport and when we said ‘oh great we’ll take that’ they said ‘no, you have to book in advance’. Which left us thinking well call a bloody taxi then like we asked>>

NOT helpful, RM.

a friend has just come back from a trip to Vietnam so I'll be interested to see what you have to say about it.

Well RM67, I didn't recognise Chiang Mai at all! I guess 40 years is a long time.
But Saigon is already feeling very familiar. And I too loved the coffee. Looking forward to seing what you did next.

Day 8: Saigon

The day started with a great breakfast at the Paradise Saigon. Alongside the usual bacon, eggs, fried potatoes, pancakes, Asian pork dishes, fruit, pastries, breads and yoghurt there were slices of cake and even little pots of home made crème caramel. Tommy was appalled at my selection which he said looked more like pudding than breakfast - I didn't care, and even went back for seconds of the crème caramel :-) The restaurant was at the top of the hotel and had oblique city views, staff gliding serenely between tables topping up cups of tea and coffee as everyone ate.

Tommy was keen to see the War Remnants Museum so after breakfast, we headed off on foot, passing apricot-coloured government buildings flying ubiquitous red and yellow flags, colonial villas with wooden shutters and gardens full of palms, modern glass box offices, narrow old residential buildings with striped awnings over pot plant strewn balconies, and boldly coloured advertising hoardings dotted everywhere. The traffic was at least as intimidating as Bangkok, with giant swarms of mopeds encircling Japanese and Korean cars. It was already hot and sticky even at this relatively early hour.

The War Remnants Museum was fascinating. On the forecourt were planes and tanks left behind by the US or captured by the Vietnamese, and inside the main building, a lot of pictoral information about the war including photos of atrocities, Agent Orange related birth defects and elegant silver nitrate images of rice paddies and river gorges, serene before the outbreak of hostilities. There was even a small exhibition of posters from around the world pledging solidarity with the Vietnamese during wartime. It was a brief but moving visit.

A few minutes walk from the museum we stopped at Café Oto seating ourselves at one of tables along the pavement, with humidifiers pumping out a spray of cooling moisture overhead. Tiny lizards intermittantly ran up and down the exterior walls and round the door and window frames. We had iced coffee with condensed milk which was utterly delicious - I think I had three in fact, but it's not quite as excessive as it sounds because really it was only a single shot of espresso over a glass full of ice and just a smudge of milk. All the same, I got raised eyebrows from the proprieter at the third one. We sat people watching for a good while, discussing our next possible ports of call. Tommy let me decide and I eventually plumped for the Jade Emporer Pagoda. It wasn't the longest walk to the Jade Emporer Pagoda but it was so hot that we stopped en-route again for more cold drinks. One of our time-outs was in a funky modern café (high stools a bit like the thrones in Pan's Labyrinth, lots of polished concrete, and bottles of San Pelligrino in the chill cabinet) that was playing Christmas music which seemed incongruous in the humidity.

Escaping Walking in a Winter Wonderland we continued to head north toward the river and finally came upon our destination, through a gateway and into a coutyard, traffic noise diminishing almost instantly. The jade pagoda was not in fact jade at all, but scarlett. Inside the pagoda there were a number of chambers with oriental statues of warriors, dogs and horses, and a real dog lay snoozing in the pressing heat in one of the siderooms. People were lighting candles, and bowls of grey ashes with spent incense sticks were dotted about here and there, giving out a surprisingly fierce heat. Outside there were ponds full of carp and turtles. Both the ponds were being drained to be cleaned and we saw gasping fish in a few inches of water at the bottom and disgruntled turtles making their way up an escape ramp. We spent a little time sitting on the benches in the courtyard surrounded by ancient gnarled leafless trees, enjoying the break from the melee, before making our way back to the hotel.

I don't recall eating any lunch so I don't think we did, saving ourselves for a visit to the evening market that was just a couple of minutes walk from our hotel. That night, we circumnavigated the entire market looking for bahn mi, but there didn't appear to be any on offer. There was a decent looking seafood stall with tables set up out front, and tanks of blood cockles, and ice lined trays of scallops and lobstery looking things with their claws tied, but we weren't in a seafood mood. It didn't help that there were very few empty seats and we were too hungry by now to queue, so instead we plumped for a small restaurant on the road adjacent to the market, ordering from a photo menu. Over-ordering in fact - most of the dishes were a lot bigger then we expected, each being a full main rather than the asian style tapas we'd been anticipating. I had a vietnamese omlette which came stuffed with chicken and crab, and then a bahn mi (yay) with grilled pork and lovely crusty fresh bread and a ton of coriander, and Tommy had some sort of spring roll loaded with prawns and herbs, and belly pork with a dipping sauce. I know there was more but can't for the life of me recall what.

With the aid of Google maps, Tommy found a cocktail bar for us to finish the night in and we moved onto 'Shine' on Ton That Thiep for an array of mojitos, daiquiris and shorter drinks, served trendily in mason jars. The alcohol content in everything was high - we reckon free pour not measured - and there was a nice ambience with low lighting and decent music playing. Smartly dressed front of house girls bought occasional snacks and kept an eagle eye out to ensure nobody left without paying (we saw one customer being chased down the street after leaving without settling up). Then back to the Paradise Saigon after a relatively sensible number of drinks, as we had to be up fairly early the next morning for onward travel.

Photos attached:-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...57677838228495

Day 9 and 10. Train Journey from Saigon To Hanoi

Partly due to my lack of enthusiasm for flying and partly due to the fact that it was meant to be very scenic, we took a train from Saigon to Hanoi for the next part of our trip.

We were a bit concerned about getting to the station in time for our earlyish departure (9am) having seen much of the city choked in traffic as we explored Saigon on foot, but actually on the day we were very lucky and had a trouble free taxi ride of no more than about 15-20 minutes. We arrived in time to do a quick bit of provision shopping (water, crisps, Oreos) before the train set off. Our sleeper compartment was very simply furnished with 4 bunks, 2 power points, a fixed table, a bin and some lights. The trains are ex-Japanese stock, I would guess 60s era, and although many have been refurbished I don’t think ours was one of the refitted ones. We had what was called a ‘soft sleeper’ for the 35 hour journey – basically that means the bunk has a mattress, pillow and coverlet.

The views from the train were wonderful. You initially spend about half an hour or so making your way to the outskirts of Saigon, seeing the familiar tall narrow houses with shops and stalls below, dozens of mopeds filling the streets, livestock being carried in crates on motorcycles, occasional churches and temples, and then the city finally gives way to countryside. In the south this meant agricultural land, pineapple, banana and sago palms grown in perfect straight lines, and unexpectedly, what looked to me like art deco houses or outbuildings in many of the fields with ziggurat rooves, and walls painted in ice cream colours of mint, pink, cream and lemon.

As we got further north the land became wetter, with bamboo-hatted workers toiling in rice fields, using hoes or casting seed in a somewhat biblical fashion. Buffalo drank at water holes or even swam in them. Everywhere there were buffalo there were also beautiful white oriental cranes. Further north still and the wetlands briefly became jungle – palms and wooden cabins replacing the pastoral scenes. For most of the journey mountains were also visible on one side of the train, or the other, or both. Occasionally we got close enough to the coast to see white sand beaches, fishing villages, and less aesthetically pleasing, refineries, rigs and power stations. Many muddy rivers were also crossed. Sometimes we caught sight of a sampan being slowly rowed or paddled along in the brown water below us.
Occasionally we passed stations where uniformed staff would feebly wave flags to mark our passage.

I thought the views were fascinating all the way from Saigon to Hanoi, and if this is not considered one of the world’s great train journeys, it really should be.

Every now and then staff came up and down the train serving coffee (your choice of hot or iced) and simple meals of chicken drumsticks, rice, cabbage and tofu – presented in prison style plastic trays. Another vendor had corn cobs which were cooked to order in a huge plastic bucket, and in the same vat of boiling water, something that looked like fishballs. For the less adventurous there were also occasional visits from a trolley with crisps and cans of Pepsi. It became a standing joke than whenever you fancied a Pepsi or some crisps and heard the rumble of the trolley it would inevitably be the guy with the corn or the prison chicken.

Sleeping was initially ok but the beds did feel a bit hard toward the end of the night and the aircon was so efficient we were both freezing by dawn. The people in the bunks above us changed a few times – one guy had the most horrendous cold and was sniffing and coughing and choking on phlegm all night above poor Tommy. He wasn’t there by morning so either got off during the night or died!

There was a little Vietnamese girl in the next cabin of maybe five or six and she kept coming to visit us. She was fascinated by everything we were doing and mimicked it. So when we were on our phones, she borrowed her mums phone and started playing with that, when Tommy was on his tablet, she again borrowed one from a family member, and when we took photos she started doing the same, sitting next to one or the other of us on our bunks. On some of her visits she came tripping in in her mums high heels. She also practiced her English on us, announcing ‘Hello Neighbour!’ every time she came into our cabin. Before her family got off she came rushing up to me in the train corridor where I was watching the view out of the grubby windows and threw her arms round my legs and hugged me. Other less welcome visitors included one of the concierge staff who found it necessary to sit down on the bunk pressed right against me when taking coffee orders. But in mitigation it was very very good coffee! Another cultural shock occurred when I visited the toilet at the end of the carriage, only to find a young man hosing down a large cardboard box over the loo, which presumably contained something live. I dared not ask what.

We arrived in Hanoi about 8pm on Saturday night, tired and stiff, but full of memories of the 1000 mile journey north. Slightly unnervingly, we had to cross the tracks to exit the station, with the lights of an oncoming train visible in the distance(!), and our cases catching on the rails and slowing us down. Bypassing touts at the exit trying to direct us to the reputedly less reliable taxi firms, Tommy managed to find one of the recommended services like Vinasun which guarantee to use metered fares for tourists just as they do for locals, rather than on the spot arbitray rates.

Our next hotel was Essence D’Orient in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, and the area was quite literally buzzing when we arrived. The streets are pedestrianised at certain times, and cafes and bars let their clientele spill out into the roads when they are free of traffic. Everywhere was a riot of colour – shops selling silks, coffee beans, Chinese herbs, Christmas decorations, and pretty much anything else you can think of. We saw stalls selling pho, donuts on sticks, fried fish, and all manner of other culinary goodies. However being tired and grubby we decided to let exploring wait till morning and opted to spend the evening in our hotel.

Our room was really lovely – on the fourth floor with a big balcony overlooking the melee. When you shut the triple glazed door however, there was absolute silence – so the best of both worlds really; atmosphere when you wanted it, peace and quiet when you didn’t. We had a huge bed with a mattress topper (which was a revelation to both of us), high threadcount sheets, a silk throw, a small sofa, decent minibar, and even a hotel supplied laptop in case you had problems with the wifi. We ordered room service and within about 20 minutes tempura sea bass with tamarind, clam soup, chicken, rice, noodles, banana spring rolls and crème brulee were delivered to our door, together with two huge Singapore Slings. It was one of the best meals we had all trip. Although we’d only been in town about two hours we decided we liked Hanoi :-)

Apologies for the lack of updates in the past few days - busy at work. Here is the next set of photos - these are all from Hanoi, possibly our favourite city of the entire trip. More ramblings to follow soon :-)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...57674113697044

Well RM67,It is so good to see the beautiful pictures..and thanks for sharing your experience with us..it is quite exciting!!

Day 11: Hanoi

We didn’t take breakfast at the hotel on our first full day in Hanoi, preferring to head out for a bite to eat once we were up and showered. Essence ‘D’Orient was only about two or three minutes walk from Hoan Kiem, a picturesque lake in the city centre, and this was the area we made for. At the head of the lake we came across The Note, a tiny café on two floors serving very good french style pastries and a variety of vietnamese and western coffees. I had a pain au chocolat and coffee, and Tommy had an egg coffee which was fabulously creamy – the top is a bit like zabaglione – and a pastry and some tiramsu. The tiramisu although decadent-sounding was very light and airy and not at all naughty but really delicious (I know because I nicked a bit). We ate on the first floor having navigated some twisty stairs, in a small room where the walls were covered in post-it notes. It seemed everyone who had every visited had left a note or a doodle, and there were blank post-its on the table so you could add your own musings if you wanted to. Tommy’s coffee also came with a handwritten note attached which said, somewhat fittingly, ‘Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer’. I wouldn’t let him stick it on the wall but told him to take it home as a souvenir. The manager came upstairs to chat to us – a really lovely guy – asking where we we from and taking a photo of us on his phone and offering to take ‘selfies’ for us in return.

Leaving The Note we decided to circumnavigate the lake anticlockwise. It was a Sunday morning and everyone was out enjoying the calm of the traffic-free streets. We passed waterside restaurants and smart hotels, then at the far end of the lake saw the famous turtle pagoda, built on a small grassy island, and named after the turtles which supposedly inhabit the lake but are now rarely seen. Tommy bought donuts on a stick from a very persistant vendor and she shovelled a whole load into a plastic bag over-generously. We soon found out why – they were stale! I laughed quite hard until Mr M pointed out that he’d paid for them with 100,000 dong that he’d borrowed from me!

Carrying on further round the lake, on the east side we came across an entire area devoted to children’s activities – balloon sellers, tiny motorised cars for hire, and those funny things that look like a segway but without anything to hold on to. Small children were expertly whizzing around on the handle-less segways like rocket-powered ice skaters, whilst the even younger ones drove mini fire engines or teeny pink porsches erratically. A group of youths in gowns and mortar boards were assembling near the lake to have their graduation photos taken. Further along, some young women in long satin dresses were posing by the water in what looked like a fashion shoot. At the top of the east side of the lake was a red wooden bridge that lead to another small island – Jade Island – where there was a temple dedicated to philosophers – The Temple of The Jade Mountain. We didn’t go in due to the large crowds but we did cross the bridge and get far enough to see the stone entrance gate, wooden buildings beyond with higgeldy piggeldy red tiled rooves, and delicate smoke curls eminating from the incense burners dotted here and there.

Back on the mainland we spotted a large theatre on the road adjacent to the lake which offered water puppet shows, planning to come back later on in our trip, and also a large slightly more modern building with staggered outdoor terraces (a bit like a cruise liner) that provided great views all the way up the lake and served coffee and patesserie. We nipped in here for iced coffees on one of the upper terraces, though unfortunately the seats with the best views of the lake were all taken. There was still plenty to see on the road below us though (fruit vendors carrying wooden poles with metal pans suspended from either end, piled high with papaya or oranges, toy dogs running furiously to keep up with their owners, old women standing around in their moped helmets for all the world as though they were Philip Treacy’s latest creation). It was actually a chain I think – called Highland Coffee - but a zillion times better than Costa or Starbucks. Or maybe it just felt like it because we were somewhere exotic and colourful and balmy. :-)

I fancied lunch by this stage, so suggested a place I’d read about on Trip Advisor – Bahn Mi 25. Tommy looked it up on Google Maps and it turned out to be only aboout 500-600 meters away, back in the old quarter, so off we went. Bahn Mi 25 was a small kiosk with some streetside seating. You placed your orders at the kiosk window, then sat down and waited for your food to be prepared. Waiting with us were a mix of tourists, sunburnt, and carrying backpacks and copies of Lonely Planet, and locals, on their lunchbreak doing their accounts at low tables, with bamboo-handled oriental teapots and earthenware beakers set before them. The bahn mi arrived wrapped in brown paper bags but we were allowed to sit and ‘eat in’ anyway. Mine was pork and Tommy’s was honey roasted chicken. (I could have had pate with mine too but declined). They both came with coriander and a light coleslaw-like salad in small but very fresh, very crusty baguettes, and there were bottles of chili sauce on the table if you wanted a more firey hit. Again the owner was lovely, coming to chat with us as we were leaving and shaking hands with Tommy.

After this we made our way back to the hotel for a brief siesta - but there was one more stop for booze en-route. The hotel was literally just a few meters from an area known as ‘beer corner’, where several roads intersected, with a multitude of bars and pubs at the junction. We found one bar with first floor seating on a sort of jerry-built wooden platform which wobbled when you walked on it, but was a great vantage point for watching everyone coming and going on the street below. I had Pepsi and Tommy had various beers as rickshaws passed back and forth and more fruit traders wandered slowly along, carrying their heavy yokes.

Our evening comprised a revisit to the lake to see the turtle pagoda and Jade Island bridge all lit up – both looked beautiful, with white lights on the red wooden bridge, and lasers shooting skyward from the pagoda (much more tasteful than it sounds – honest!). Then back to the old quarter for our evening meal. We’d spotted a restaurant diagonally opposite our hotel and decided to eat there as it always looked pretty busy and we took that to be a good sign. Actually, it turned out that there were two adjacent restaurants, not one, and I think we unwittingly picked the slightly less stellar one because the food was a bit hit and miss. Sitting at low outdoor tables elbow to elbow with other customers we worked our way through some very good salt and pepper chicken which looked like wings or legs that had somehow been flattened and grilled on skewers, some good fried rice, and some average belly pork and beef pho. Poor Tommy has been on an almost eternal quest to find a decent pho with real depth of flavour to the broth. This wasn’t it!

I can tell from my Flickr photos (is it bad that I can’t actually remember unaided?!) that there was some cocktailing next. I think it may have been at the Prague Pub, which was just round the corner from our hotel and the restaurant with the meh pho. We sat outside (we love people watching) and Tommy had a variety of different czech beers, entirely for research purposes you understand, and I had a Singapore Sling. I love Singapore Slings and I do know this was a good one – I use them as a barometer of a pub or bars cocktail-making ability before ordering anything else. I can’t remember what I had next – it may have been more of the same or it may have been Mai Tais. I do know we went back home to bed at a reasonable hour because next day we had to be up earlyish for a trip to Halong Bay!

Thankyou Bilirandell.

Lovely trip report RM. I almost feel like I was there. I don't like that Tommy guy though.

Wait till you hear what he got up to on our last day in Hanoi...

Day 12 and 13: Halong Bay

For the next portion of our holiday we’d booked a 2 day/1 night cruise around Halong Bay with Greyline, a company recommended by our hotel. Originally, we’d reserved a cabin with another tour operator via Booking.com, but the plethora of reviews on TripAdvisor for many of the tour sellers revealed a lot of gripes with these cruises (people being put on the wrong boat, crap food, hard sell of souvenirs on excursions etc etc) so we decided it prudent to go with a company that our hotel had used previously and could vouch for. We had breakfast at the hotel as there wasn’t really time to go out and get fed before the coach arrived to pick us up – it was a great breakfast with a choice of western and Asian cuisine and a similar selection of puds and cakes to the Paradise Saigon hotel, which delighted me! Aside from the buffet you could order bespoke eggs, pancakes and French toast, and the bar was open for freshly squeezed fruit juice and smoothies.

We had a slight hiccup before the off in that the hotel had originally told us it would be ok for us to leave our stuff in our room (we had another 2 nights booked there after the cruise) but as we were waiting in reception for the coach we were instead advised that we should pack everything up after all. Tommy raced back upstairs and threw anything and everything that was lying around into his case (mine was locked and he didn’t know the combo), then bought all the luggage down for it to be stored by the hotel until we returned. He was a bit hot and bothered since it meant we were late for the coach which had to wait outside for us to sort the luggage issue, and all this after we’d smugly remarked coming down in the lift earlier how well organised we were and how we wouldn’t be the annoying people running late and keeping everyone waiting.

We got on the bus (apologising to those already on board), which then completed a brief tour of old quarter hotels picking up other customers for the same cruise. Our guide imparted interesting snippets of information along the way – everyone gasped at the revelation that the rickety narrow houses of the old quarter average 3 million US$ in value. We also learned that the green crops we saw being ferried about by motorbike (often piled up so high that the rider was completely obscured apart from hands and feet) were the tops of sweet potatoes, destined as pig feed. Piggies love sweet potato tops! The drive was long (about 4 hours once we’d finished the hotel pick-ups) and the road conditions decreased in quality the closer we got to the coast. Roadworks were ubiquitous. Drivers of all vehicle seemed quite dare-devil, with lots of dodgy overtaking. We passed many construction sites – lots of half finished houses and a number of public buildings with huge communist-style posters alongside showing ‘comrades’ punching the air victoriously in celebration at the new infrastructure. We had one brief stop at a craft centre where a lot of the goods are produced by the disabled, and the quality of the items here was very high indeed – lots of lovely silks, lacquerware, stoneware and fine jewellery.

I think we got to Halong Bay around 12.30pm and boarded our boat a short time later. There was a welcome drink, a brief run through the itinerary, and then cabin keys were handed out. We had gone for one of the premium cabins with a private terrace, loungers, table and chairs, and it was lovely. Quickly dumping our bags, we returned to the restaurant area for lunch, which was served as we sailed out into Halong Bay. It was a 5 or 6 course menu, which was quite a pleasant surprise as I’d been expecting buffet style meals. Instead we had fish soup, (slightly gelatinous but good flavour, lots of crab, shrimp etc), then a papaya salad with shredded pork on top, then I think there was some stir fried chicken, several more courses that escape my memory, then fruit, and finally Vietnamese coffee served in those little drip/filter thingies that fit on the top of the cup.

After lunch we got changed into swimwear and lazed about on our terrace enjoying the views of the thousands of limestone kasts that we passed slowly by. These were incredibly varied in size and shape, jagged or domed, rocky and barren, or thickly covered in greenery, often with tiny palm-fringed beaches nestling at their bases. Black and yellow butterflies the size of sparrows flitted above the emerald green water, and tiny silver fish leapt in arcs alongside the boat. We heard, but could not see, goats bleating as we passed one of the larger, rockier kasts. All afternoon, fishing vessels, old-fashioned junks (some under sail), and tiny tenders from the larger boats passed back and forth in the distance.

Every now and then our boat would anchor for people to go ashore on excursions. These included a trip to Titov island (named after the soviet cosmonaut) where you could swim from a pale yellow apron of sand, or climb hundreds of steps up to the peak to admire views of the bay, kayaking around the fishing villages, and a cave exploration. We actually passed on these as the privacy of our own terrace and the views from it were so good we wanted to make the most of them before the sun went down. The tender putt-putted away, leaving us alone on board apart from the crew, to enjoy the peace, blue skies and warm sun. Shall I tell you another advantage of staying on board? You get to be first up on deck for Happy Hour, with the best table and the best view of the sunset!

Before dinner there was a group cookery lesson. I’d read about these on some of the tour websites during our research phase and thought it sounded a bit cheesy, but it was actually great fun making Vietnamese spring rolls from an array of ingredients beautifully set out for us, wafer thin pancakes, huge prawns, salad and herbs, crispy fried onions and strips of warm omelette. Being a scientist I knew to watch the demo like a hawk and listen to the instructions properly, so my spring rolls were excellent if I do say so myself. Tommy agreed mine were the best, so that's virtually an impartial adjudication.

We then had another meal of 5 or 6 courses. I can’t remember them all but I know there were oysters grilled over the bbq, some chicken cooked the same way, big prawns, and then a lovely mango mousse which I could have eaten buckets of. I don’t think we went to bed that late - I do know that we deliberately left the blinds open so we could see the sunrise next morning. Moored in a quiet bay with just a few other ships, their lights twinkling golden against a dark navy sky, it didn’t take long for us to drop off.

Next day was more of the same – gentle cruising around the bay before slowly heading back to port, a buffet lunch being served en-route. We had to go up on deck for the last hour or so as the crew clean out the cabins ready for the next group of visitors whilst you are still on board, which wasn’t ideal as the midday sun was pretty hot, but we managed to get seats under one of the awnings where we read until the boat docked. The journey back involved more hair-raising driving and we were right at the rear of the coach this time on seats that seemed especially bouncy, so it was not unlike a rollercoaster ride at times, but we were both pretty chilled after our two days at sea and didn’t even get cross at the people in front of us reclining their seats almost as low as dentists chairs.

We got checked back into the Essence D’Orient – new room, higher floor – then headed out for dinner. Actually, there was a brief but essential shopping trip just before dinner. On board the boat I had found it amusing to clamp bits of Tommy with my hair grip whilst he was dozing on the sun lounger and as some sort of divine punishment for this, on the third or fourth clamp, the grip broke. I was upset by this as it meant I had to go round with untidy beachy hair for the rest of the cruise, but Tommy promised we could look for a new grip once we were back in Hanoi. The only place within a reasonable walking distance that sold anything remotely suitable was a very posh designer mall at the top of the lake full of Louis Vuitton and Cartier. The mall was depresssingly empty, making me think it’s not really what the locals need. It cost about a tenner for the new grip, 95% of which was probably to cover the ground rent, and it stung a bit as the exact same thing would have been about £2 in Boots. Well, it stung Tommy cos he paid for it :-P But, as I kept telling him, he wouldn’t want to go round with me looking a total state and it did double duty as a souvenir of the trip. So win-win really.

Tommy was on a pho quest, and after hairgripgate I wasn’t about to argue with him, so we duly found a teeny place back in the old quarter, just along the street from our hotel that fitted the bill. Think formica tables, old black wire fans, a single hotplate and age-old bottles of chili sauce with peeling labels. A woman was wrestling a huge joint of boiled beef which she artfully cut into thin ribbons, depositing them in bowls of steaming broth, replete with herbs and onions. We sat at a bench eating our pho, cold sodas helping wash it down. Then we wandered the night market for a bit and Tommy bought fridge magnets for him and ice cream for us both. I had mint and it was lovely and refreshing after the hot broth. We almost certainly had more beers and cocktails after this – I truly can’t remember but it is inconceivable that we would have headed back to the hotel without something boozy first!

Halong Bay photos attached below and I have thoughtfully spared you any of Tommy's hairy chest.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/494523...57676721306180

great pics, RM - I've looked at these cruises but was worried about the quality, so it's good to know that some are ok [or more than ok, by the sound of it!]

Shame no pics of Tommy's chest though.

Thanks Ann - I think we paid about £270 for the cruise (so £135 per person) and that included coach transfers and all meals. Drinks were extra though. Our hotel also recommended the slightly more expensive Paradise cruises (which looked lovely too) and a cheaper option which escapes my memory.

That looks pretty good, RM. Would you care to post the name of the cruise company? There is a remote chance that we might do this and the info would be good to have.

This is the company Ann - I think we got a small discount for booking through the hotel:-

http://www.graylinehalong.com/

Just a wonderful trip report. Though we have been to some of the cities you describe, your writing gives new light to them and I'm enjoying as if I have never been. Great photos too. Thanks!