Holidaying in Vietnam

We have just returned from a fabulous 17 days in Vietnam. I will post the wonderful dishes we created in Hoi An during our cooking class later, but first I'd like to do a review of our trip.

View of pool from hotel room

There was a lot of searching the Internet and discussion with friends on where to go and how long to stay there. Unfortunately, we lost a day due to the volcano erupting in Chile which caused plane delays due to the ash cloud circumnavigating the southern hemisphere. We began our trip in the south - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon to the locals).We stayed at an amazing hotel - The Majestic Hotel. We chose it as it was not just another 5 star hotel, but one with history and character, and were not disappointed. By the way, we booked all of our hotels on Hotels.com.

Memorable moments of Ho Chi Minh City:
* Breakfast on the rooftop of the Majestic Hotel with the view of the River.
* Crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels
* Dinner with friends at Hoa Tuc Restaurant - the best food we had in the whole of Vietnam
* Trying to cross the road outside our hotel - and deciding not to!
* Sheltering in a torrential downpour in the old Post Office.

From Ho Chi Minh we flew to Danang and caught a taxi to Hoi An. The taxi took about 30-40 minutes and cost less than $20. We booked our flights from home on the Vietnam Airlines and they were really reasonable. We had heard so much about Hoi An and really were not disappointed. It has an old town that is closed off to cars. The place is famous for getting clothing made (which we did) and cooking classes (which we also did).

Memorable moments of Hoi An:
* Eating our first Vietnamese style Wonton's at Ms Ly's restaurant
* The wonderful photo opportunities in the old town and market
* Our bicycle tour into the countryside in 40degree heat - Heaven and Earth
* The fabulous half day cooking class (check out the Vietnamese food entries) at Morning glory
* Watching the world go by at the Mango House restaurant

After 5 days in Hoi An we took a tourist bus to Hue. In hindsight this 4 hour trip could have been more plesant if we had hired a driver as they were so cheap. But at $6 each we could hardly complain. Hue is a World Heritage site, and is famous for its Citadel.  But the best thing about our stay here was our hotel. A complete oasis away from the hustle and bustle and heat of Hue. To be honest, the township of Hue reminded me of Kuta Beach in Bali more than 10 years ago and that is not a compliment. Luckily, our hotel was situated 5km out of town, with free shuttles into town. With 40oC heat we were happy to have the beautiful pool, and after 10 days of travel and being tourists, we needed a bit of rest from all the sight-seeing. I so wish we had booked for longer!

Highlights of Hue
* The Citadel - a must visit
* The swimming pool in the stiffling heat
* The yoga class in the tranquil spa
* Hotel - Pilgrimage Village  - a complete bargain for a 5
star hotel.

Our favourite restaurant in Hue would have been La Carambole. This is owned by a Frenchman and his Vietnamese wife and serves both cuisines. The food was excellent and it was amazingly cheap.

 Moving on from Hue was a flight to Hanoi. After such tranquility I don't think we were prepared for the energy and pace of life of a population bigger than NZs total. We stayed in the Old Quarter which has a population density of over 50,000km2 - and you could tell!

Our hotel was Hanoi Elite Hotel - number 1 on Trip Advisor when we booked. at $50 a night it was a great deal, clean and comfortable for a very small hotel and the best part was the customer service. The staff could not have been more helpful and friendly. We booked out trip to Halong Bay through our hotel and were not disappointed with the Indochina Sails trip we took for two days and one night.

This trip was really a highlight of our trip and a great end to a wonderful 17 days.