US: (877) 2GO-LUXURY (877-246-5898) UK: 020 8133 3450 AUS: (07) 3102 4685 Everywhere Else: +1 530-562-9232
US: (877) 2GO-LUXURY (877-246-5898) UK: 020 8133 3450 AUS: (07) 3102 4685 Everywhere Else: +1 530-562-9232
– Avalon Myanmar – Myanmar River Cruise – April 2017
Avalon Waterways – Myanmar – Part VI (Kya Hnyat to Kyauk Myaung)
Avalon Waterways – Myanmar – Part IX (The Ship: Avalon Myanmar)
Avalon Waterways – Myanmar (Burma) – Reflections: “Isn’t This Amazing!?”
*Azamara Club Cruises – Azamara Journey – Singapore to Dubai (April 8, 2018)
* Azamara Quest – Southeast Asia and Japan (February 2015)
– How Close to Luxury Can Celebrity’s Smallest Ship Get? – Part I
– How Close to Luxury Can Celebrity’s Smallest Ship Get? Part II
– How Close to Luxury Can Celebrity’s Smallest Ship Get? Part III
– How Close to Luxury Can Celebrity’s Smallest Ship Get? Part IV
– How Close to Luxury Can Celebrity’s Smallest Ship Get? – Some Final Observations and Thoughts
– The Prologue to the Travelogue
– The Adventure Begins…With a Bump or Two
– Settling In Made Easy
– Luxury Touches Here, There and OK, Not, Everywhere…But There Are Lots of Them!
– Asian Flair Onboard and On Shore
– Private Tours, Israel and Conflicts in Perceptions and Perspective
Celebrity Equinox 2009 – Egypt…Impressive and Depressing
– Dining With the Captain and the Reidel Wine Seminar
– The Last Dinner (Tuscan Grille) and Disembarkation
– What Happens When A Class Act Meets Highly Discounted Cruise Fare
– Lisbon to Monaco: Crystal As a “Move Up” & “Move Over” Luxury Option – Part I
– Lisbon to Monaco: Crystal As a “Move Up” & “Move Over” Luxury Option – Part II
– Lisbon to Monaco: Crystal As a “Move Up” & “Move Over” Luxury Option – Part III
– Lisbon to Monaco: Crystal As a “Move Up” & “Move Over” Luxury Option – Part IV (Food & Wine!)
– Princess Cruises Doesn’t Treat You Like Royalty; Celebrity Cruises Does! Which is a Better Value for the Upscale Cruise Guest? Part I
– Celebrity Silhouette vs. -Royal Princess – Which Is A Better Value For The Upscale Cruise Guest? Part II: The Standard Veranda Staterooms
– Celebrity Silhouette vs. Royal Princess – Which Is A Better Value For The Upscale Cruise Guest? Part III: Treating You Right From The Start
– Celebrity Silhouette vs. Royal Princess – Which Is A Better Value For The Upscale Cruise Guest? Part IV: The Wine Lists Speak Volumes (As Do The Beverage Packages)
Regent Seven Seas Voyager – August 2017
– Italy and Corisca 2014 – Part I
– Italy and Corisca 2014 – Part II (Getting There, The Stateroom and First Impressions)
– Italy and Corisca 2014 – Part III (“You Can’t Teach Five Star Service” and Bonafacio, Corsica)
– Italy and Corisca 2014 – Part IV (Calvi, Monaco, Portofino, Porto Azzurro…and Stale Bread)
– Italy and Corisca 2014 – Part V (My Last Day…and How The Chef’s Team Makes It Happen)
Ha Noi is a city of conflicts and, as such, it is difficult to either get your head around it or to truly feel comfortable with. Because of this the AmaWaterway’s pre-cruise land extension is a bit of a mixed bag…but only because of the nature of the city. In other words, “Ya gotta work with what ya got” and, I think, AmaWaterways is doing a very good job.
However, you really need to use that free time to get out on your own to have a true sense of travel and fulfillment. And we have done our best (considering the long flights and short time we had to deal with).
Ha Noi is really a very manageable city as it is small and the roads are well laid out with traffic signals, crosswalks and good signage. There is much hype about the traffic (thousand and thousands of motorcycles), but it is actually very polite. And the streets seem quite safe in the areas a tourist might wander as well, so be a bit adventurous.
Last evening we found our way to Quan an Ngon, a rather famous restaurant about a 20 minute walk from the Sofitel Metropole hotel visited by locals and tourists which has a great way to introduce you to street food. The center is filled with tables (choose inside or outside) and it is surrounded by food stalls with each one having a specialty. Our group of six decided to opt for a bit of air conditioning (just a bit!) and sat inside. The menu has a huge variety of foods.
I opted for a starter of Salad with Sparrows…which wound up being sparrows with a little bit of greens. I really had no idea how they would taste or really how to eat them, but it wasn’t hard to figure out and they were very tasty; smoky and tasting a bit like pheasant (stronger than quail). I am sure I left bits that the Vietnamese would eat, but I chalk that up to a lack of technique.
This was followed by an absolutely delicious freshwater Crab with Tamarind Sauce. It was presented picture postcard beautiful and then the waiter did all the work cracking the crab open for me.
After dinner we took rickshaw (peddle taxis) back to the hotel as the walk seemed just a bit too long after a great meal and, of course, after our 27 hour trip. It seemed a bit pricy at $4.00, but I was happy to overspend by local standards and get back to the hotel with little effort. A gin and tonic in the hotel bar and it was off to sleep; knowing the pre-tour meeting was scheduled for 8:30 a.m.
It was then that it hit me a bit hard…and it grew on me throughout today (the next day). Ha Noi has for centuries had two worlds living in tension with each other. The posh privileged few and the Vietnamese. Even in just a few hours in this city you gain a bit of perspective about the resentment and disdain for the French imperialism and colonialism and the “American War”. But I do not want to get ahead of myself.
After a truly fantastic breakfast with just about anything you would want (Vietnamese or Western) it was time for our orientation meeting. Our group is just short of 40, but it is broken down into two smaller groups; each with a dedicated local guide. The whole group, however, has a tour/cruise director that follows the group through the entire 15 days. As my kids say, “I’m not going to lie”. The orientation meeting was not my favorite thing, but I also understand why it is both necessary and painfully repetitious: The guests. Some are seasoned travelers and are ready to roll. There are some others that make you wonder how they were not advised that this trip might be a bit too difficult for them either logistically or physically or both.
With the meeting done it was time to head off.
Our first visit was the Hanoi Hilton prison. It was as interesting as disturbing and as eye-opening as propaganda-filled. While the majority of the prison was demolished to make room for two modern high rises, what remains leaves you with strong emotions. Built by the French to imprison non-compliant Vietnamese, the conditions were horrific and just to underscore the terror of the place, one of the two guillotines remains with a couple of very graphic photos.
But then the propaganda started with how the prison also housed American airmen, but they were not treated the same way showing us two rooms with black and white marble floors (rather than the concrete in the rest of the prison), an allegedly typical bed (rather than concrete with common foot shackles) and, of course, a small church display…along with photos of American politicians and a video describing the American bombings, etc. (Whispers of the torture were noted, but those areas were described only as torture by the French.) The conflict arising out of the similarities between the atrocities of the French and the atrocities to the Americans just cannot escape you.
After that it was off to the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum which was, fortunately, closed without notice for the filming of a documentary. (It was interesting to see from the outside, but I did not want to stand in line in 95 degree extremely humid heat to see his mummified body for a couple of minutes.) After that it was a short walk to the One Pillar Pagoda where we heard more propaganda about what a talented and wonderful person Ho Chi Min was. I am no scholar on the man, but speaking 17 languages, being a talent in all of the arts, etc., etc. was a bit over the top, though expected.
What you readily can sense is the failure to understand the difference between indoctrination and true patriotism. The English love their queen, but can criticize the royal family. Americans can blast their presidents, but be loyal to their country. Here the message is not quite the same.
After that it was off to a Confucius temple and a discussion of education before returning to the hotel.
So after the frenetic pace and charming meals of our independent explorations, followed by a rather sobering, but important, morning…and the conclusion that Ha Noi is a “one day, two night visit” and not one which you could really appreciate isolated by tours from a cruise ship (after a 3+ hour drive), it was time to decompress at lunch time.
For some reason I did not get the memo that passport photos were needed for Cambodia so we needed to get some organized. The AmaWaterways representative was very helpful, but I didn’t want to wait around in the middle of the afternoon to get them done, so we were told of a place ironically right next to Pho 24 so it was an easy short walk from the hotel. Because this is Vietnam, instant passport photos take 30 minutes, so it was off to a recommended restaurant, City View, on the 5th floor of a building on the far side of the lake.
The view was nice, but the food unremarkable. It is a reminder that while my wife and I are ready to dine “local” and I am willing to give just about anything a try, most people are neither that adventurous nor able to do the same thing. So while I had squid and my son had duck, my daughter has penne pasta and our friends had a pizza (which, most certainly, would not be found in New York!). My wife went with beef with garlic sauce; sort of American-Asian. While I might have been a bit disappointed, the view and comfortable food might be perfect to many travelers.
It was then back to the photo shop and then the hotel for our 45 minute “cyclo” (bicycle rickshaw) ride through the Ancient Quarter of the city. With incredible traffic which was always moving and never gridlocked we weaved our way through the back streets and main streets getting quick glimpses of daily live for many of the residents of Ha Noi. If one had more time and a strong desire to spend more time in this city, walking would be more effective. But for the time we had, we covered a lot of ground and it was both stimulating and relaxing. (I do wish the driver could say more than “temple” or “market”, but frankly there were too many changes in what you could see to have a substantive discussion about what you just passed.) So, settling in doing a “tourist” thing worked quite well.
We then were shown a monument to suicide bombers who attacked the French tanks during the first efforts to break away from France before heading across the street to a Buddhist temple (just a little more propaganda about an American bomb killing a 300 year old turtle which was mummified and on display) and then to a Water Puppet Show (which I could have easily missed) before returning to the hotel to collapse both physically and mentally.
Knowing we have to be up and our luggage out for 6:30 a.m. before we head to the beautiful, tranquil and much anticipated Halong Bay, it was an early night.
Goldring Travel LLC
12177 Business Park Drive, Suite 6, Truckee, California 96161
US: (877) 2GO-LUXURY (877-246-5898)
UK: 020 8133 3450
AUS: (07) 3102 4685
Everywhere Else: +1 530-562-9232
Email: info@goldringtravel.com