Tick Tock Transit

So by the time I got off my flight from Hanoi until my flight to London was scheduled to depart I had a whole 6 1/2 hours in Singapore. As much as I love the global hustle and bustle of an airport, I didn't particularly want to spend all of my 6 1/2 hours in one.

I dropped my bag at Left Luggage. This is normally a really quick and easy process, but today I was behind an Australian who was being a bit gormless.

Bag eventually dropped, I managed to time my arrival in the Immigration Hall just as a flight from Sydney was making its way through. My time in the queue was made longer by more more gormless Aussies who hadn't filled out their Landing Cards properly.

Slowly my time was ticking away......

I got in a cab bang on the dot of 6pm (just as the evening peak charges start - great!). My destination was the Swissotel Merchant Court hotel from where I could easily walk to Brewerkz.
The journey took 20 minutes, but cost me $26. Cabs in Singapore are no longer the bargain of the past. Still not a rip-off like at home though.

Tick tock......

I ordered my first beer at Brewerkz at 6.25pm. The place was nice and relaxed when I got there, but seemed to get mobbed with young children and their slack parents soon after I sat down. I should've sat at the bar instead of outside.

I had one other beer before paying up and setting off for a bit of a power walk to Lau Pa Sat.
Time now 7.10pm.......

I knew from looking on the internet that Lau Pa Sat was closed for renovation, but the street serving Satays was still going full swing. I sook a seat at Best Satay at 7.25pm. I ordered an XS Set (20 sticks) and a glass of Tiger. I think I must have set a satay consumption record as I finished my 20 sticks and beer by 7.45pm.
I was running a bit low on SGD so decided that I'd take the MRT to the airport - similar duration but much cheaper.

The train arrived at Raffles place at 7.50pm and I got off it at Changi Airport at 8.25pm.

I cleared immigration and that sort of ended my transit time. The rest of the time until until departure would be spent having a shower and in the dull surrounds of the KrisFlyer Gold lounge trying not to boredom eat.

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Civilised Hanoi

I put a week of sitting on miniature plastic chairs whilst eating off tables barely above the floor behind me last night. Civilisation does exist in Hanoi!

My evening started with a Charlie Chaplin Martini at the Le Club Bar at the Sofitel Metropole. I then had an exquisite 'menu dégustation' at a fairly refined French restaurant, La Badiane.

Normally I would probably consider a 'menu dégustation' a bit of a con as the portion sizes are quite small and it is more heavily geared towards flavour and presentation (I like flavour and decent sized portions!). Anyway, this was perfect tonight as I'd been on a 3 hour lunch time food tour around the Old Quarter of Hanoi earlier in the day and really didn't need 'filling up'!

 

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Food

Today has mostly been about food!

I want on a lunch time 'Food on Foot' tour which took us around the Old Quarter - so pretty much on the doorstep of my hotel. The tour lasted about 3 hours, so it makes for one of the longest lunches I think I've had.

There were 3 other people on the tour (all Australians) and we ate a ton of food!

Some of the restaurants we went to I'd either already eaten at, or had the dishes that they specialised in. However, that wasn't a negative thing at all, and I did get to try a lot of new stuff. I think the highlights were:

• Trying frog (Vietnamese jumping chicken) for the first time. Tastes like chicken.
• Sampling food from Hué - very different to food from Hanoi.
• Having bia hoi with a group with proper snacks.
• Trying some lethal rice wine with all kind of infusions (though not snake).
• Having ca phe with whipped egg yolk and condensed milk. Sort of a Vietnamese sweet cappuccino - I'm surprised Starbucks aren't all over this.

I think the only real negatives were that we ate to much, and also because a lot of food in Vietnam has fresh rice noodles at its core - we had a lot of noodles!

In a complete change of tack, for dinner I had a fantastic meal at a French restaurant called La Badiane. No little plastic chairs and tables here! I had the 5 course 'menu degustation' and it was fantastic. An extremely civilised way to end my Vietnamese eating experience for this trip.

 

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Ha Long Bay

I'm now back in the chaos/mayhem/madness (delete as appropriate, but all apply) of Hanoi after my couple of days on Ha Long Bay.

The reality is that, taking into account the four and a half hour bus journey there and back, it was about 24 hours actually spent aboard a junk cruising around limestone karsts (this did include one night). My experience was good and it was well worth it, but frankly one limestone karst is very similar to another!

The actual 'cruise' experience, rather than the geography, was the thing that was interesting/amusing/annoying (again all three adjectives applied).

First of all were the meal times. We had 3 meals on board - lunch, dinner and a late breakfast. The food was pretty good with, understandably, a heavy seafood focus. However, I sort of expected some kind of communal dining experience with everybody around a shared table so that you could actually talk to a variety of people. But no, as there were two single travellers we were expected to eat together on a table for two. Me a (very) late thirties Brit, her a later middle aged Canadian from Ottawa. Not a great deal in common beyond travel!

Thankfully by dinner time I'd got talking to two young, female English doctors, one at Southampton General Hospital and the other currently living and working in New Zealand (friends from Newcastle University, holiday sort of in the middle). We had much more in common so we made a table of three for the rest of the meals. The Canadian had hooked up with a group of three other Canadians who were retirees.

The next thing that was interesting was that of our group of 14, 2 were vegetarians and 1 was coeliac. How the hell do you survive in this part of the world with 'strange' eating preferences/disorders?

The final thing of note that was amusing was seeing Americans play up to my own personal stereotype. The couple in question were on a 3 day/2night cruise, so we saw them when they'd been out on the bay for a day and a night already. Talk about loud, and in the case of the woman, dumb! One of the other people in their group was giving them an iPhone tutorial which was comedy gold. Stupid people and technology should not mix!

 

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Dark

Off to Ha Long Bay tomorrow for an overnight cruise. I have a hunch that there might not be any wi-fi on the the boat I'll be on!

It will be interesting to see what nationality my fellow cruise passengers are. Aussies and Brits tend to be at the backpacker end of the spectrum, so maybe the cruise I booked will be out of their budget (hopefully). There are plenty of random Northern Europeans about, but most of the French I've seen appear to be part of big tour groups (the boat I'm on is hopefully too small to accommodate them). Then of course there are the Americans..........

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Diplomatic Incident

For lunch today I had a delicious bowl of pho ba (beef noodle soup) accompanied by a bowl of quay (fried light, fluffy breadsticks, to dip into the broth).

All was going well except I made a couple of school boy/naive tourist errors. First of all I should have paid when I ordered and before I sat down - I only realised this when I was sat down and watched the steady stream of people coming in. Never mind.

My second error happened when I went to pay on my way out. I was sure I gave a 100,000 Dong note, and this was reinforced when I got 45,000 Dong change. I hung around to try and take some pictures of the kitchen area (a fascinating production line of broth, noodles, beef and vegetables). I was then asked to pay again. I was a bit dumb and handed over 100,000 Dong despite protesting that I'd already paid.

100,000 Dong is £3, so not a massive scam (if at all). I huffed and puffed a bit and loitered outside, mainly to try and take some pictures. However, the owners of the restaurant realised I still wasn't happy and they enlisted someone who spoke a bit of English to try and explain what was going on. I still couldn't get my point understood and didn't understand what they were trying to say. I walked away.

Only as I was thinking the 'incident' over in my head as I walked down the street (trying not to get run over by mopeds) did I think maybe I'd handed over a 10,000 Dong note instead of a 100,000 Dong one. Too many zeros and a very similar colour. Silly tourist!

 

 

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Woolen

Before I left home, the last thing I packed was a blue jumper. Very much a last minute thought, but tonight I got to wear it.

The weather here has been pretty pleasant during the day - warm (as in shorts and t-shirt temps) and not humid at all. In the evenings it does cool down a bit - very much on the cusp of the seasons changing.

The forecast for the rest of my time here is a bit patchy with some rain predicted. Hopefully, it'll just be light/short showers rather the marathon rains they get during the proper wet season. I might get to use my rain jacket (I didn't pack an umberella).

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Money

I have millions of Dong still to spend. Things are just too cheap - my average meal is costing about £2.50!

After tonight's water puppet show I decided that I'd splash some cash at Le Club Bar at the Sofitel Metropole Hotel (think of a French interpretation of Raffles Hotel).

I had a Charlie Chaplin Martini (he visited her on his honeymoon), a croque monsier sandwich (as a light post dinner snack) and three Hanoi beers. My total spend was 965,000 Dong, or about £30. Still pretty good value I reckon. I might come back to try one of the restaurants - need to choose between French or Vietnamese!

 

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iPhone Pest

I went to watch a water puppet show this evening. I could describe it, but you'd be better off doing a search on YouTube. That's because so many people were filming the show on their various devices - phones, cameras, handicams etc.

The woman in front of me (late middle age, possibly German, but could've been from further north in Europe) was a right pain. She insisted in holding her iPhone up in the air whilst recording large chunks of the performance - this was more often than not right in my line of sight to the stage. I tapped her shoulder and asked her to put her phone down several times, but she just seemed oblivious. I also resorted to kicking the back of her chair in a childish protest. The lady sat next to me also wasn't too impressed.

When the lights came up at the end of the show I gave her a very withering, British style stare when I caught her eye. That'll teach her!

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Experience

Right so my first full day in Hanoi is almost over. I'm starting to form an opinion of the city and by default Vietnam. I have to admit I'm slightly underwhelmed, and in some cases unimpressed. So here is a list of things that have lodged in my mind and started to mould my opinion:

• It is dirty. There are no litter bins and people just chuck stuff on to the street. 'Keep Vietnam Tidy' obviously doesn't exist as a concept.
• The city has a few genuinely interesting sights, but lots of places just seem very rundown/careworn. A consequence of recent history?
• Lack of public toilets. Lots of peeing in the street going on. Not great when Bia Hoi is 16p a glass.
• Miserableness. This is harsh as the British aren't renowned for a 'sunny' disposition. However, compared to the Thais and Cambodians, the Vietnamese just seem slightly cold.
• Traffic mayhem. Walking the streets is hard work. You have to concentrate 100% to avoid getting run over by a moped. Crossing the road is an acquired skill and not for the timid!

Things in Hanoi's favour are that it is very cheap and the food and beer is good -- but there of lots of places in Asia where that can also be said.

Maybe my opinion will change over the 5 remaining days I'm here!

 

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Bia Hoi

Unfiltered, unpasteurised, fresh beer. Not particularly strong, but at 5,000 Dong (15p) for about half a pint I don't think anybody is complaining. Tastes alright too.

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Scam?

I arrived at the hotel I booked in Hanoi and started the process of checking in. I even got my welcome drink.

But I never got to my room.

Apparently the people who had been staying in my room, and were due to leave today, were at the hospital because one of them had food poisoning. Consequently I had the pleasure of a short taxi ride to a 'sister' hotel of the one I'd originally booked, as this would be where I'd be spending my first night in Vietnam.

For all I know this could be a totally genuine issue, but I'm on full alert in this part of the world as there are plenty of stories of people being scammed.

Tomorrow the plan is to check out of my substitute hotel early and go to the one I actually booked to check in properly and then have breakfast (I was told the breakfast in my proper hotel is better than the substitute). Hopefully it will work out fine, but my sceptical nature means I can't help thinking it won't be totally trouble free!

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