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Monday, December 31, 2018

Vietnamese Wine from Ladora Winery at Hungry Hanoi Restaurant, Hanoi

Vietnam Flag.

We ordered white sparkling wine at Hungry Hanoi Restaurant in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, in the north.

Hungry Hanoi business card. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Sparkling white wine. Sweet finish (that's the technical term for after-taste). Very pleasant.
Wine educator Trevor Sharot is pleased with his purchase. A passion fruit lassi.

The menu tells you more about the Ladora winery. The lines of vines could be anywhere in the world, France or Chile, but you know this is Asia because the vineyard workers are wearing Vietnamese circular straw hats with points.


I preferred it to Prosecco (Brut - meaning dry). (Sparkling white wine is hard to find in Asia. The Chinese think red wine is a man's drink. The Prosecco we bought a bottle at the Balduzzi showroom - price about ten pounds sterling, which would have cost about six pounds in a supermarket in London, England.

Travel information
Restaurant
www.hungryhanoi.com

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vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What to do in cold weather - how to turn a scarf into a hood as I did in Hanoi, Vietnam


Flag of Vietnam.

Problem
In Hanoi in the north of Vietnam they have four seasons. In December 2018 the temperature dropped from one day to the next, from 6o degrees f to fifty. The local Vietnamese people had donned padded jackets with imitation fur edge hoods.

We were still wearing two or three layers of summer clothes. We did not want to spend on another, heavy jacket which would not fit in our suitcases and would be too hot to wear in tropical Singapore.

Cold Neck
Standing at a bus stop, we had a cold wind on our necks. Those sunhats which cover the neck are also handy against breezes.

Silk Scarf
I had with me a silky scarf. ('Thai silk' which is a good imitation of real silk). Unfortunately, the silky scarf kept slipping off my head and neck.

Hooded Scarf design
I remembered how I had turned a scarf into a hooded scarf a few months previously in London, England. I had looked at a hooded scarf and realised it was hardly more than a scarf doubled over, seamed from the middle a few inches.

One version had the point cut or folded in diagonally, secured with just a couple of stitches. Another had stitching rounded to fit the head. If you don't mind having a point, you can just leave it oblong on top.

Scarf - Sew
You could buy a cheap scarf, or do as I did and sew up the scarf you already have. In an emergency, when cold, just sew one line of stitching quickly up the straight seam and never mind about shaping it.

Sewing Kit
How? Where do you get a sewing kit?

With luck, and planning, you or your partner will always carry a sewing kit. If not, sewing kits are cheap from cheap shops, sold in lots of supermarkets UK and worldwide, and novelty shops in Hanoi, Vietnam.


Hotel Sewing Kit from Sunline Paon Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Our hotel the Sunline Paon supplied a small sewing kit in the room. The needle was so tiny that two of us struggled for ten minutes and could not get the thread through the tiny hole. We tried widening the hole with the end of a safety pin. Still no luck.

I went downstairs to reception. The girl on reception struggled for a few times. Eventually she did it!

Now, what do you do?

Seam from top right of picture. Scarf folded down on right to show where seam ends.


How To Seam
Fold the scarf in half horizontally. Sew a simple seam a few inches down from the fold, long enough to cover your head.

Scarf sewn into hood. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Success
That will keep you warm until you can find a beanie hat to buy or fly back to a warm country. The part which covers your neck can also secure a second scarf as a neck warmer.

I now appreciate an upright mandarin collar. you could do lots of other things. For example, sew the scarf hood to a jacket collar, or even a blouse collar. Add a pom-pom.

Or sew another scarf inside for extra warmth and contrast lining. Tie the lining scarf under your chin whilst leaving the long tasseled end hanging.

But, back home, you are now without your favourite scarf. You have a winter item and you are back in summer weather.

Unpick
In theory you can unpick the thread again for summer or warmer weather. How securely should you sew it? Double thread would be more secure. I sewed a simple running stitch, but back-stitched every inch or so to prevent it tearing open.

The sign outside St Joseph's cathedral says no baseball hats. However, I imagine my scarf would be allowed.

Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

The challenges of speaking Vietnamese and understanding them when they speak English

Vietnam flag.

Problem
First, where can you learn a few words? I was disappointed not to find a list of common words and phrases on the VietJet plane from Singapore's Changi airport to Hanoi. They missed an opportunity.

 I looked at Wikipedia (too complicated).

I tried Duolingo which is useful on easy languages such as Italian and Spanish. But Duolingo starts teaching words you rarely need such as bat and horse.

The Hanoi book cafes have books in Vietnamese, no English. Great for local students and schoolchildren. Not for tourists.

The bookshops and souvenir shops don't seem to offer phrase books.

Solutions

After a week in Hanoi we had dinner at Gourmet Corner restaurant. I picked up the house magazine of the hotel group. On the back inside page was what I had been looking for - a list of handy phrases.

The first thing I needed to learn was the greeting.  I needed a way of remembering it. Sin chow, sound like sin and a chow dog. So I imagined seeing a chow dog which was doing something naughty and shaking my head and smiling and saying to it, not 'naughty doggie' but 'sin chow'.

That is how you pronounce it. Go into Google translate and type in hello in the English and in the other box after you type in Vietnamese it gives the correctly written version, xian (like the Chinese Xian is Shan or She-ann). The sound chow is written Chao and has a downward accent on the a. I reckon if I learn only one word a day, at least I can speak half a dozen words at the end of a week.

When you make even the most basic attempt at learning to read signs, you need to understand the writing.

I stood waiting for a hotel lift and read two emergency exit in fire signs in Vietnamese. I was hoping to see a repeated word such as 'please' or 'don't' but could not spot any.

I noticed that some of the letters have underlines as well as signs above. Some of the letters have not one but two dotty signs above.

However, I did pick up one interesting and vital piece of information. In emergency for the fire brigade you dial 114. I noticed that in the longer vertical notice. Then on the other horizontal sign
I spotted the number in the middle of the old-fashioned phone symbol.


On closer inspection I see a repeated word which without accents is chua chay.

In google translate I went forwards and backwards until I found for
fire
fighting
fire fighting

ngọn lửa trận đánh chữa cháy


More Information From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph's_Cathedral,_Hanoi
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
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vietjetAir.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology - Delightful

I thought this would be dull but the building and presentation were ultra-modern.

I went straight into the two shops inside the entry gate by the ticket booth, in case they were closed by the time I returned. I bought one of those neck purses which I used to buy for my passport when travelling. Now I need it for my mobile phone to keep it handy ready to take photos.

The main mauseum is on two floors.

Highlights:

Funerals.

This is a funeral scene. White is worn by the mourning son of the deceased. Red is worn by the daughter-in-law.


Musical instruments.

Slash and burn farming for crop rotation.

Models of communal longhouses - and the big reproductions outside.

We were about to leave when we asked the way to a caffe. We passed another large modern building with people inside and went to see what it was. Another hidden museum in the same complex.

The Second Building

Highlights:
Paintings.
Costumes.
A giant drum.

What more could they add? Some statistics on life expectancy. We have romantic ideas about primitive people having natural food and long life expectancies.

I was going along with the romantic idea of cultures which should be preserved. Then a couple of things made me question this view.
Sacrifice of a bull. Looked very cruel to me.
Witch doctor type medicine.
Killing elephants.

The elephant display was fascinating, as elsewhere in the museum, a combination of excellent photos with comments, and videos.

More Information From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph's_Cathedral,_Hanoi
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

English service (mass) at St Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi, Vietnam


In St Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi, Vietnam, we saw this sign.

More Information From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph's_Cathedral,_Hanoi
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Watch Your Step On Uneven Pavements in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam


Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Watch your step on the uneven pavements in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam. 

High heels are not a good idea. You want shoes which are flat with a good grip. Not for old people who shuffle feet forwards in flip flops. 

Other hazards are tree roots, missing stones with planks across the hole, so watch you don't trip over the planks. Also watch out for the projecting and muddy noses of motorbikes and scooters parked on pavements. (Americans say sidewalks.)




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vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport around the city
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Taking A Bus In Hanoi, Vietnam


The number 14 bus in Hanoi. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

We took the number 14 bus to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology from Hanoi's old quarter. The fare was a modest amount. The conductor sold us the ticket. Years since we have seen a bus conductor.

The return was less happy. We waited ages in the freezing cold in December 2018 at a bus stop which had no shelter.

The bus lurches and brakes suddenly, hard. I fall over the feet of the person on the end of the row of seats as I try to reach the middle. Now I could use the word sorry, from the translation in the booklet I picked up in a Hanoi hotel.

The seats are around the edge of the bus, not many seats. Mostly standing room, we presume.

In the UK you don't have standing on buses permitted. Too dangerous with the lurching.


More Information From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph's_Cathedral,_Hanoi
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
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For airlines
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vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Gau Again - a Hanoi coffee shop with cakes and pastries baked on site

We went to Gau in the old area of Hanoi, three times, on our way to and from the lake and St Joseph's cathedral.

Once we had the chocolates which we didn't like.

Once we had croissant.

And once we had hot panettone. Panettone is the Italian come shape sweet cake bread,originally from Milan according to Wikipedia, also popular in European neighbour Spain and over in Venezuela, especially at Christmas in Italian restaurants and Italian cafes in London, England, and Tesco supermarket in the UK.

Only a couple of tables for two are downstairs. There's more seating upstairs, and out on the balcony.

The kitchen is upstairs, which happens so often in Hanoi at restaurants and coffee bars. The ground floor is needed for the shop and seating.
Dog in Gau, Naoi, Vietnam. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Singapore has a cat cafe, two cat caffes. In Hanoi, Gau has a cat-size little dog. In December the dog is wearing a coat. A dear little dog. The dog's name is Cappucino.

Don't call out the dog's name or you may find you have ordered another drink.

More Information From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph's_Cathedral,_Hanoi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panettone

Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Is this the world's most wonderful white cathedral? St Joseph's in Hanoi, Vietnam

On the forecourt is a statue of Our Lady, Queen of Peace.
Behind and to the right on the wall is a panel showing the last supper of Jesus, with the disciples.

The twin tower exterior reminds you of Notre Dame of Paris.

Inside it is all white, with red lines. Stained glass windows which were made in France show the saints. Probably not all the saints. I believe the Roman Catholics, The French (and Italians and Spanish) have a saint for every day of the year.

A surprise was that the service on a Sunday morning was in French, not the local Vietnamese language.

A sign said that an English language service will be held early January 2019.

I liked the jewellery sold in cases at the entrance, but nobody was around to take our money. A woman did come around with a hat for a collection.

I recognized internationally known features of the mass, the response from the audience, and later in the service the wafer offered to those congregants who went forward to receive it.

The singing echoed around, amplified by slim Bose speakers attached low on the pillars.

More Information From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph's_Cathedral,_Hanoi
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

What to do In Hanoi, rain or shine

Sunny Weather - Outdoors
Fortunately we had taken the advice of our hotel reception and taken the outdoor trips to Halong Bay in sunny weather. you can take a one day trip, an overnight trip - two days one night; or three days, two nights.

We also walked around the outside of the lake. In the evening we sat at a top floor open to the air restaurant admiring the view. (Avalon BBQ.)

By day we visited the historic pagoda a few steps along a causeway into the lake. Small entrance fee. Stop to buy a ticket at one end, the start, because you will be stopped at the other end if you want to continue into the pagoda. Inside all lush red and gold.

Open Top Bus Tour
On the hop on hop off bus I suggest you start early, get a whole day ticket.

On a fine day we were able to do the temple of Literature, a series of exhibitions in successive courtyards. Again an outdoor event, although you could try to keep to the walkways.

Opposite it is another paid for attraction, so allow time to buy a ticket and make use of it if you want to do two places in one stop.

Indoors
We took a short hop on off bus tour, ending at the prison museum near home (our hotel). Glum and grim. Not the ideal place for honeymooners. It does explain the Vietnamese point of view,  of history anti ('colonial' French, and anti-American). By the time you reach the end, about reconciliation, you are too tired to read and too overwhelmed by the emotion of the first half. (The alternative, opposite view is given in Wikipedia when you look up Vietcong.)
Ho Chi Minh statue in museum.

If it drizzles, you can take the lower, enclosed deck of the open top bus.

You can also do tours in mini-buses. Find out about your so-called English speaking guide and whether they will point out landmarks on the way. If not, get a map and do your own research and ask about the route.

On a dull and drizzly December day we looked for museums offering indoor experiences. We looked at the top ten things to do in Hanoi and The National Museum of history was one of them. It was easy to walk to it in the old city where many hotels are situated.

I have been on a training tour for London tour guides  in London, England. They are extremely well-trained. They known the history of every building and statue and bridge you pass. If the bus is stuck in a jam, they have a series of card index card reminders of British songs, songs about London, anecdotes to keep you entertained.

However, leaving Hanoi for Halong Bay, our pick-up guide was busy organizing the route and checking off people being collected, including a couple missed.

We then switched to another guide who gave us a complicated history of a bridge and lake, with unpronouncable and unmemorable people and dates, in one ear and out the other. If we had read up on the Hanoi history and lakes and bridges in advance it might have made sense.

Your combined ticket takes you into two adjacent museums. We did the modern one first. (See earlier post.)

(more text and photos shortly.
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Beef in Bamboo at Gourmet Corner in Hanoi, Capital of Vietnam



Part of the set dinner in the high floor Gourmet Corner restaurant in La Siesta Diamond hotel in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam.

Service With Smiles
This place wins on service. The hotel receptionist greeted us immediately and phoned upstairs to the restaurant. She escorted us to the lift. At the restaurant we were met by somebody who was expecting us and showed us to our table. The menus came up immediately.

Oh - and near perfect English. Nothing special in London. But in Hanoi we have endured tour guides who had to say everything twice or three times.

The set meal made life easy for me. As soon as I announced that I was allergic to prawns in the salad, the waiter suggested the avocado salad.

I asked for toothpicks and paper serviettes and both appeared immediately.

My starter was chicken soup. My companion had French onion soup. They packed up my leftover soup so I could take it home.

The dessert was the weak point. First, two different desserts looked identical. Both had a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a chocolate half bowl. You have to make vanilla ice cream really taste of vanilla for it not to be just a lot of unnecessary calories with no flavour.

The chocolate was the waxy tasteless chocolate which Americans like, the sort which stays brittle in hot countries. Not the milky, silky chocolate made by Lindt, the Swiss, the Belgians, the French and British Cadbury's.

They asked what I thought of the beef after I took my first bite and choked on one of the black peppercorns. They brought me a free pot of tea to soothe my throat - I chose ginger tea which came with a small jug of runny honey.

Afterwards they asked if we would like to see the Sky bar upstairs. Yes. It was partly open air.

Breakfast is served in the upstairs restaurant with the view of the lake to one side. Our hotel, Sunline Paon, had a ground floor restaurant with no windows, but a rooftop swimming pool.

Hanoi also has several hostels equally conveniently placed. So Hanoi offers food at all prices, and rooms and restaurants at ground level and one up for the nervous, or you can dine at dizzy heights.

(more text and photos shortly.
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Grim and Glad moments at the National Museum of History, Hanoi, Capital of Vietnam



Fortunately we had taken the advice of our hotel reception and taken the outdoor trips to halong bay in sunny weather. On a dull and drizzly December day we looked for museums offering indoor experiences. We looked at the top ten things to do in Hanoi and this was one of them, easy to walk to in the old city where many hotels are situated. Your combined ticket takes you into two adjacent museums. We did the modern one first.

'Vietnam's History from the mid-19th century to the present day - in the museum's building at number 216 Tran Quang Khali Street.

 It's pretty grim. About the fight by Ho Chi Minh, first for freedom from the French, then against the Americans.

You might be surprised to hear 'against' the Americans. Having visited America in the Sixties, when some young Americans were trying to avoid the draft and / or opposed to the war in Vietnam, I somehow expected the sort of argument you might get in Wikipedia, or from the BBC, giving both sides. Silly of me. As somebody once said, history is written by the victors.

The Americans thought they were fighting the Vietcong and the Russian and Chinese communists. Now the country is united, the story is different.

(I started to look at all wars, from both sides. The Romans, The Greeks, WWI, WWII. The British have a romantic view of Lawrence of Arabia. I don't. But I am getting sidetracked.)

This museum is all about Vietnam.

Famine
First, famine was a surprise. I was not expecting that.

But, on reflection, war tends to bring famine. China had famine. Stalin had famine.
France also had famine.  We are led to believe the poor were starving, unable to afford bread, and Marie Antoinette was so unaware of how the poor people lived that she said, 'Let them eat cake'. Previously somebody else had said that and it was later attributed to Marie Antoinette. In WWII the Dutch in Amsterdam were starving. In the UK the civilians had rationing of food, which continued until 1952.

French Guillotine
A guillotine is displayed. the French introduced the guillotine as a method of quick death, less prolonged than hanging.

I enjoyed the other museum about the previous years.

Americans
The French and Americans were not the only people involved in war. The Americans did not think they were at war with Vietnam. they thought they were helping the people in the south against the communists in the nort

Also many people, politicians and civilians, are against any war and every war, not only the pacifists.

For a complete change of mood, go to the other museum.

At the second museum, what immediately struck us was that Vietnam has been at war with somebody or other for centuries. The Chinese. The Mongolians. Who were their friends, their allies?

For a moment, I was tempted to advise tourists, don't visit the recent history first, start with everything chronologically. However, you might argue that you want to end on the happier note.

I loved the art and the statues.

For me, the absolute best part was the museum shop. Pretty silk scarves and necklaces, ten dollars (American dollars) or less.

Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.


Best hot croissant in Hanoi, Vietnam - Gau Coffee and Bakery

Flag of Vietnam

Vietnam has many good things to eat and buy. We were in Hanoi. The second city.

Gau
We went to Gau bakery. Yes, Gau. The bakery is upstairs. The takeaway and ordering counter is on the ground floor. You pass the bakery if you decide to sit in the upstairs room which has a balcony.

What do I recommend? The hot croissants are great. 

Is everything great? Or were we just undiscriminating diners? No. Neither. Avoid the chocolates.

We went upstairs but didn't sit on the balcony. By the end of December, Hanoi was getting chilly. The small dogs were out in the street, wearing coats. So was the dog owned by the owner of the shop.

We were so impressed by the tiny white porcelain jugs with just enough milk for an espresso coffee (double espresso) that we asked for the source.

The Market.
"Take a photo of the jug!" suggested the cafe assistant. How helpful.

The market was only about four blocks away from Gau. En route we passed the landmarks we recognized:
1 The Blue Butterfly Cooking class and restaurant,

2 A couple of temples adjacent to swags of telephone and electric cables.

In the market, we found the white jugs in various sizes. We bought the tiny one - at under two pounds sterling. It will always remind us of Gau in Hanoi.

email: gaucoffeeandbakery@gmail.com
tel:+84 915.493663

Travel information
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Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Smart table and stools in Hanoi, Vietnam



l

Smart tiny tables and stools in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

These are smart wooden stools and the table, with varnish, and even a little plant. Plus a wastebin. Typically, in Hanoi's old quarter the stools are toddler size and backless. Most other places have battered wood stools. More have scratched and dirty plastic stools. You perch to drink coffee or eat street food such as deep fried items on sticks.

Travel information
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booking.com
Comparison site:
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For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Motorbike parked in shop, Hanoi, Vietnam


Yes, even the smartest, cleanest, most modern shop might have a motorbike, or scooter, or two.

This is Hanoi, capital city of Vietnam, the old quarter.
Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
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travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Blocked by bikes in Hanoi, Vietnam

Around the old quarter of Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, the pavements (which Americans call sidewalks) are blocked by bikes, motorbikes and scooters.Pedestrians are forced out into the roads where more bikes with their headlights blazing at night charge towards you, weave towards, back ut in front of you or do a u-turn to pick up a friend or paying passenger.



Photo by Angela Lansbury.

In the smarter areas with wider pavements there may be a gap between the bikes and the shops.



Bikes in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by Angela Lansbury.


Bikes on this corner blocking the way. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Life Is too Shirt!


We were amused by the slogan on the Ginkgo clothes shop: life is too shirt. A pun on life is too short.

Notice the hart above the shop name. Also the white lanterns in round or tangerine shape as well as the inverted cone style. I have shown coloured lanterns in another post.

You might also note in this photo other features of Hanoi in 2018-9, the uneven square paving stone. the motorbikes are parked on the pavement. The Hanoi coffee shops are every few yards, either ground floor or upstairs.

On looking at the photo again carefully I see that to the right of the shop is one of those dark alleys, which I mentioned in my post on the food tour and toilets.



Life is too shirt, in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Travel information
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Lovely coloured lanterns in Hanoi, Vietnam


Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I presume these lanterns are paper or reinforced paper. You see them strung across the fronts of shops and restaurants. Another design has paintings of flowers or other patterns on the coloured background.
In Hanoi, capital of Vietnam.

In the UK we most often see the circular, collapsible lanterns, mostly in plain white, sold in cheap stores. These lanterns in Vietnam are more like a teardrop design.

For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Khazaana Indian Restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam



In Vietnam my first choice of restaurant would be Vietnamese, not French, Italian, Chinese or Indian However, after several days of Vietnamese food our lover of Indian food insisted that we try out an Indian restaurant, and this proved a happy find.

Like most restaurants in Hanoi, the ground floor was better than the upstairs room (except for those with fine views over a lake). I loved the tent like feel.

A new friend from Laos was one of our number and she had not tried Indian food before. Surprise. (We have eaten Indian food about once a week in London, England for decades.) So we had a lot of explaining to do.

Halal, for example, means no pork.

We ordered plain rice, stuffed paratha (bread) korma chicken (supposedly with nuts - couldn't find any or notice any but the flavour was lovely. We had enough left over to take away for lunch the next day.

With bottled water and one dessert shared between three, the total was the equivalent of about nineteen pounds sterling.

Any room for improvement? Yes, the gulab jamun centre was not solid but too liquid. One of our number who is a keen cook said it must be under-cooked.

Apart from that the food was lovely.

We were too busy chatting to each other to talk to the staff so I never asked the menaing of the restaurant name and I checked their website but could not find it. A google search revealed that it might mean treasure in an Indian language.

www.khazaana.vn

VN of course stands for Vietnam.

Hanoi Vietnam Tuong Theatre, Acrobatics and a song about mother's love


Vietnam Flag.

In Hanoi we booked seats for the Vietnamese show My Village (Lang Toi in Vietnamese), which is at 6 pm and lasts an hour.

Opera House & Vietnam Tuong Theatre
The show is confusingly at two venues, one of which is the Hanoi Opera House. We were looking forward to seeing the opera house. We were surprised when out taxi driver took us in another direction. Our taxi driver fortunately knew that the show as on at the Hanoi Vietnam Tuong Theatre.

So we missed out on seeing the grand Hanoi opera house, built by the French in 1911. However, instead we got to see a smaller Vietnamese-style theatre with masks on the walls.

Free Tea
The event starts with a pre-show free drink of lemon grass tea. You walk through an alcove into a side room and pour yourself your tea from an urn made of porcelain.

The theatre lobby has red pillars and masks on the walls.


Colourful pillars at 'Hanoi Vietnam Tuong Theatre'. Photo by Angela Lansbury.




Masks in the lobby of the theatre. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Birdsong
We can hear birdsong recordings. The show was delightful, although it had no programme, no translation, no discernable plot.

Acrobatics And Poles
The main props are giant bamboo poles used to create x shapes which agile girls and boys climb. Feats of acrobatics. One girl must be double-jointed. She bends backwards and forwards. The most amusing moment was when she scratched her forehead with her toes, from a leg up her back!ll u

The later part of the show included some amusing juggling with three jugglers. Plus some singing.

Song of Mother's and Father's Love
Luckily we were with a friend who speaks Vietnamese. She was able to tell us later over dinner that one well-known traditional song was about a father's love being as high as Vietnam's tallest mountain. The mother's love is deep as the sea. Apparently this refrain is repeated many times.

You were not allowed to take photos during the show. but afterwards the performers came into the foyer.

Cambodia Show Plot
In Cambodia we saw a show with dancers and singers, much more colourful, with a plot, boy chases girl, girl rejects boy, rival boy courts her. he abandons her. Girl is consoled by attention of first true love. He marries her. Happy end with much joyful singing and dancing.

I can't help thinking that this whole show could be so much better.

We walked back to our hotel in the old quarter via the night market.

If you go to Hanoi, do see it. The other big show in Hanoi is the water puppets. The Lune Production group also has performances in Saigon (also now known as Ho Chi Minh city).

www.luneproduction.com
email reservation@luneproduction.com
tel:+84 1245 18 11 88
For reviews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City#Museums_and_art_galleries
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g293925-d4542125-r195747380-A_O_Show_Lune_Production-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html

For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Friday, December 28, 2018

Absolute beginner guide to Vietnam



Problem
Where to start?

Answer
The country is in three sections, north, middle and south.

North and Hanoi
In the North is the capital, Hanoi.

South and Saigon
In the South is the alliterative Saigon. The city of Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh city after the hugely popular leader who fought to gain independence from the French.

Vietnamese names start with the surname, like Chinese names. So Ho is a common surname. As in Chinese, the personal or given names reflect good qualities. Chi means will. Minh means bright.

Language
The language is similar to Chinese, with some French and English vocabulary. Fortunately it is written in what looks like the Roman / Latin alphabet which we use in English. However, they add a few accents above, or below, (called diacritics) to help you with intonation and pronunciation. Like the French accents, your voice rises or falls or falls and rises again.

Months
The months of the year are simply the numbers one to twelve with the word month added.  So, if you learn the numbers one to twelve, you will also recognize the months of the year.
Photo in public domain from Wikipedia.

Ho Chi Minh
The major character to know is Ho Chi Minh. His mausoleum and adjacent museum are in Hanoi, featured on the two hop on hop off bus tours (red and blue) and maps of the city (from your hotel or a tour agency shop). Also see his statue in Ho Chi Minh city, named after him, other Communist countries and several other cities of the world.

Ho Chi Minh lived all over the world and changed his name several times. If you find the account of his life on Wikipedia too long and complicated, try simple wiki.

Hanoi and Halong Bay
From Hanoi a major day trip is to Halong Bay, which I recommend.

Start Learning the Language
Wikipedia gives an overview of the Vietnamese language.

Viet Nam (Add the pointed hat symbol, called the circumflex in French, above the e to show you that you pronounce the e.) 
Mo to, for motor  auto or car - the hats are added above both letters o show the oh pronounciation.

You can also learn Vietnamese on Duolingo. The pronunciation used is that or the north, Hanoi, according to the comments from people living in the USA and elsewhere who are learning Vietnamese to talk to their family in Vietnam.

Places To Visit
1 Hanoi - the capital, in the north. Many boutique hotels in the old quarter.
2 Side trips to Halong Bay.
3 Central region includes the coast and Crazy House, a museum cum hotel with only ten rooms and walls at all angles, like Gaudi's buildings in Barcelona.
4 Saigon, also called Ho Chi Minh city, in the south.
5 Major attraction is the Vietcong's Cu Chi tunnels.

Useful Websites
Travel Tips
For reviews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City#Museums_and_art_galleries
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g293925-d4542125-r195747380-A_O_Show_Lune_Production-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html
For hotels
booking.com
Comparison site:
https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)
For transport
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language
Duolingo.com 
(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Fabulous food, egg coffee, dated decor and terrible toilets on the walking food tour of Hanoi


Flag of Vietnam.

We booked a walking food tour of Hanoi, Vietnam's capital.

Problem Solved
The guide asked straight away about any food restrictions. Apparently the company which organizes the tours has a list of places of each type of food. The guide of each group must select from these but decides which route and which restaurants according to the dietary restrictions of the diners.

Our set of foods went like this:

1 White rolled rice 'pancake' with lettuce and vegetable filling. Not new to me. I am not keen on other people handling my pancake to demonstrate how to roll it. (After six months of having a member of my family with low immunity after chemotherapy - we had to walk out of any restaurant where even the fork tines or inside of the glass was touched by a waiter.)

Our group includes a couple from Melbourne, Australia which has many Vietnamese restaurants. The couple are familiar with the Vietnamese rice paper spring roll, but are used to buying it ready-made, like sushi.

A really grotty little place. Disappointed.On to the next place. Will they all be like this? Yes.

2 Bread roll with minced chicken and tasty sauce. 
Part of a chain.
Things are really looking up.

3 But the decor quickly goes down again. Upstairs, up spiral stairs, four-level place. Great minced pork in a soup with optional ground garlic.

I feel the need of a toilet. 'Next place,' says the guide, so, I presume, she has something in mind.

4 At the next little corner shop restaurant, before being served, rather than keeping people waiting at the end, I ask for the toilet at the start.

Our guide leads me across the road, down one of those filthy narrow alleys where people disappear to the back of buildings on motorbikes. We pass a room where a woman of about 110 years old sitting bent double on a darkened double bed counting money which I presume she is about to hide under the mattress.

I am reminded of the London of  Dickens time. The word Kidnapped jumps into my mind. Can it get any worse? Yes.

My guide is hunting on her phone, either looking in google for a toilet or phoning for a friend. She  asks somebody at the back.

The toilet is one of two darkened doors, askew, at the dark end. I glimpse a hole in the ground. No light.

'Is there a light?' I asked.
She asks.

The answer is: 'No light.'

I was very pleased because this was my excuse to leave.

'Is there a hotel nearby?' I asked.

'Yes.'

Back out of the unlit alleyway.  Only a couple of shops away on the corner is a brightly lit hotel with a neon front and a spruced up man on reception.

She asks the receptionist for the toilet location and permission. He shows the way.

At the back, a toilet with pedestal seat, a light, a washbasin, even a soap dispenser. Under normal circumstances I would have given it only 3 out of 5. However, compared with a minus 5 toilet, it was good.

It turns out the guide knows the owner.

Why wasn't the tour of five eating places, ending with coffee, arranged with toilets in mind?

Back at the 'restaurant', because of the delay, our group has not had the guide to explain that the soup does not go onto the minced chicken and minced nuts, a kind of satay without the skewers. Very tasty.

4 Fruit
Across more side roads of motorcycles. We survive.

We reach the fruit caffe. Great, fruits we recognize such as mango and jackfruit with tiny black seeds (new to some of the others) plus a transparent cube of jelly, and tasteless green balls of something or other, solid jelly, and milk. Mostly fruit. Very refreshing.
Vietnam invention.
5 Egg Coffee
I imagined we would end at somewhere smart with proper toilets, the Vietnamese equivalent of a Starbucks, trying something new. We did try something new. Egg coffee.

But first we had to go upstairs, up filthy black stairs. Back to Dickens. At first I refused to go up the stairs.  I did not want to hang onto the filthy grey stone banister which was far too low.

I would never run a tour like this in the UK or the USA. Or anywhere.

Up at least one level. I sent the others up first to report back to me.

The guide offered to take me somewhere else. No egg coffee. Just a drink.

I hear my friends. 'Come on up,' they said.

The upstairs room is filled with animated young people and long-haired older people perched on the usual backless low stools. It's like a student freshers night combined with alumni.

The egg coffee arrives looking terrific, with a pattern on top, like at Starbucks and the best coffee shops. You could have a passion fruit juice if you are afraid of being kept awake by coffee late at night.

I asked for decaffeinated coffee. This has either not yet reached Hanoi or not reached the guide's vocabulary.

The egg yolk mixed with sweetened condensed milk is underneath and you stir it together. The guide proudly tells us that this place is where it all started.

The owner used to work in one of the five star hotels. (I thought, what a pity their standards of decor and cleanliness never had any influence.) The owner started something uniquely Vietnamese, unique to Hanoi, which has now spread throughout the city. But it all started here.

Frankly, if they are so well-known, why can't they, or the national tourist board, spruce the place up a bit? You go to Warsaw\s old quarter which was razed in the war and it has all been built brand new.

I don't know what the fastidious Japanese think. I could not ask because none of them had come here.

I did not ask for a toilet. I asked to go home to my hotel. Yes, to the lovely Japanese-owned Sun Line Paon Hotel, which has brand new toilets with two water jets to clean you and gleaming white sinks with soap wrapped in little packets.

When you see the Hanoi streets festooned with electrical wires, and the paving stones up ended broken or missing, it should not be a surprise if some places are like that inside.

However, I was not expecting to be taken to a place like this on an organized tour filled with people from the UK, Australia and the  USA.

Fine for hippy types who want to see the 'real' Asia.

For anybody with bad ankles, vertigo, or the least bit fastidious, sorry, not for you.

My companion loved the food tour. He sleeps in a tent on Everest, treks around volcanoes, rides motorbikes. he charges across the road through the motorbikes saying, 'they won't run you ove'r.

They might not run him over. But a car ran me over in 1984. He retorts, "because you were looking the wrong way."

So what of the food tour? I have told you the best and the worst of it, as I saw it. A picture tells a thousand words. I will add pictures shortly so you can judge for yourself.

Lastly, our hotel said we had to pay cash. But other people on our tour had paid with credit cards.

Travel Tips
For hotels
booking.com
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Food walking tour of Hanoi - white wearing walking guide


Our first guide walked us to the meeting point. There we met the evening guide.

Problems
 It is hard to understand a guide whose first language is Vietnamese. Our guide explained the Vietnamese learn grammar in school but have little practice in conversation, like the Brits in the old days learning French at school but unable to speak a word.

Pleasures - wearing white walking guide
Our two walking guides led us safely across the mad motorbike roads. They held out both arms horizontally. I noticed one of our guides was wearing a long white jacket. When a shop tried to sell me the traditional robe of a long white tunic with mandarin collar and matching white trousers, I rejected it on the grounds that it was hard to  keep clean, especially as many of them say dry clean only or wash in cold water by hand.

However, from the point of view of road safety, where white at night used to be the slogan in the UK. That white dress could be a life saver. At least it sets you up conspicuously like a lollipop lady when marshalling a group across the zebra crossing.

Our first stop was rice paper rolled around vegetables. We'd seen something smiilar before on the ship to Halong Bay.

Our guide solved one mystery. I asked: Why do restaurants and cafes have the tiny chairs?' (I didn't say, like footstools for toddlers in toilets or toddler seats.)

She explained, 'The rental for buildings in old Hanoi is so high that the narrow-fronted, long back buildings extend upwards, as far as five or six storeys high. The restaurants use tiny seats to cram in as many diners as possible. They spill illegally across the pavements. Every now and then the police come around and make the restaurant retreat behind the front doors.'


Grab a moped in Hanoi, Vietnam


Flag of Vietnam.

GRAB Hanoi

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Motorbikes and two wheel vehicles go down the side alleys of Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city. You can also park them anywhere, on the pavement. 

You can do motorbike and bicycle tours of the city and the country. I've heard the two wheelers will be phased out by 2030. So, hurry along to Hanoi.


Travel Tips
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/
For hotels
booking.com
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.