ewh9

I stumbled upon this online community about a year ago. I've learned a lot, especially from the trip reports. Recently, I completed a trip that might be of interest to others, so I've decided to try my hand at writing a report.

I plan to cover the following:
-Brief stop in Bangkok;
-Thai VietJet Air SKYBOSS from Bangkok to Da Nang;
-Da Nang and Sun World Ba Na Hills;
-Vietnam Airlines Business Class from Da Nang to Hanoi;
-Out and about in Hanoi;
-Dinner at Hibana by Koki, a one Michelin star restaurant in Hanoi; and
-Ha Long Bay.

ewh9

We flew through Doha with a ten-hour layover, so we had been traveling for thirty hours by the time we arrived in Bangkok. Still, it was nice to break up the trip, and we exited the airport to visit my wife's friend's family, who recently moved to a development in The Pearl.

We stayed at The Athenee Hotel, which was excellent. The Athenee and Bangkok generally have already been thoroughly reviewed, so I will post a few pictures and move on.


Royal King room at The Athenee


Gaa, perhaps the best meal of my life. Check out SFO777's review from last year.

AJ Travel provided an entertaining and informative private tour.

We had lunch at this Michelin one star restaurant across from the Democracy Monument. Order the pandan leaf fried chicken.

Relaxing post-tour

Tropic City is a tiki bar, Thai-style. They have interesting infusions, delicious cocktails, and good music.

ewh9

From my Google Flights search, there appeared to be two options for non-stop flights from Bangkok to Da Nang, Vietnam: Bangkok Airways and Thai VietJet Air. Honestly, I tried to buy tickets from Bangkok Airways first, but their site would not accept my credit card. But I consider this to be failing up, as I have long dreamed of being called a SKYBOSS.

Flight VZ960
​​​​BKK - DAD
Departure: 10:50
Arrival: 12:30
Seat: ​​​1C

We had an inauspicious start to our SKYBOSS experience, as the priority check-in lane was blocked.


Really cool uniforms

No matter, we proceeded to the normal check-in lane and were promptly issued boarding passes and provided information about the lounge and other SKYBOSS benefits.



Missing from the list of SKYBOSS privileges is access to the priority security/immigration lane. Perhaps we should have attempted to access it, as here our experience became considerably less SKYBOSSY--we waited for about 25 minutes.

The SKYBOSS lounge is the Coral Lounge in the D concourse, at the end of a long row of lounges. This is a surprisingly good contract lounge, with a tasty breakfast spread, what appeared to be a full bar, and massage services. The downside was that it was about as far as possible from our gate in Concourse E (almost a twenty-minute walk). Perhaps Thai VietJet generally leaves from closer gates, but if not, I am sure that one of the many other Priority Pass lounges would be a better option.








We arrived at the gate just before boarding started. Boarding began with a gate agent holding a SKYBOSS sign aloft. We were the only two passengers who identified ourselves. The gate agent asked us to wait, as the van had not arrived yet.

After about five minutes, we were beckoned to approach. We were apparently the only two SKYBOSSES on the flight. The agent scanned our boarding passes and escorted us to our ride. A fellow foreigner took umbrage at us cutting the line.



We had a pleasant ten-minute drive to what I believe was an A319, where we were the first to board.



We were seated in the bulkhead, which had a comfortable amount of legroom. It seems as if the first three rows are designated SKYBOSS seats, as the rows were otherwise empty. However, I'd assume that Thai VietJet would be more than happy to move the (invisible) curtain back if demand existed, as there appeared to be no difference between the seats. Also, no seats in the first three rows are blocked, so it's conceivable that you could be sitting next to two other SKYBOSSES.


Once seated, the purser introduced himself, thanked us for choosing SKYBOSS, and gave us a pre-departure cup of water and moist towelette, both SKYBOSS-branded.


We took off on time, and the purser presented us with SkyCafe menus. My understanding is that you can order as much as you want from the menu. I ordered a curry, which was better than anything I've had on a US airline in recent memory, and subsequently snacked on a bag of mango crisps.








We soon began our descent into Da Nang. We landed on time, disembarked via a jetbridge, and were through immigration within ten minutes--just in time to grab our bags off the carousel (the first ones out).

All in all, we had a very pleasant experience on Thai VietJet. I wouldn’t hesitate to fly them again, but I wouldn't pay extra unless I had a front row seat.

ewh9

We spent two nights at this hotel, which is about 20 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes from downtown Da Nang.

We were upgraded from a premier to an executive suite.

The pool and beach are beautiful, and while the hotel is large, it never felt crowded. We had no trouble getting a chair at the pool or beach or a table at breakfast.

We spent our first afternoon at the pool and our last morning at the beach, before getting a massage and lunch prior to our 4 pm checkout.

euromannn

Da Nang has Big Buddha statue you should visit.
Check out the bowl shape boats to get out to fishing boats...amazing how viet rock the bowl to get out to bigger boats.
Try a seafood restaurant in Da Nang...all live in tanks from alligator, snails, stingray, shellfish --- ate it all and still a live.

Hanoi --- get tourist map...all places on map same as food tour which costs $25.....egg coffee, bun cha, etc.
Egg coffee is better taste, full cup, and cheaper in Hanoi than in SGN.
Hanoi walk the neighborhood to see how very poor live...wath them cut neck off a chicken and add blood to a salad.
Koki--let me know prices. Japanese restaurant.

ewh9

Thanks for the recommendations. We have already finished the trip but did do a good number of the items on your list. I will post the review of Hibana soon.

euromannn

Did you see the shoeless Viet climb a coconut tree in DaNang? It's amazing!

Best part of Da Nang was going to Hoi An about 20 miles away. I rented a motor scooter $4/day.
Hoi An was my favorite part of Vietnam. Great restaurant bar scene along a river with numbers Viet lights strung along river for great view.

Sand in Da Nang and Nah Trang is very coarse......undertow is incredible in winter no wading in Da Nang into the water(december when I went).
Flew Viet Jet econ class $15-$25 each leg 5 years ago......prices seem to be much higher now.
Did Saigon-Nah Trang-Da Nag-Hoi AN- Ha Long Bay-Hanoi.
\
Most amazing thing I did in Vietnam was in Saigon

Củ Chi tunnels

. Must see!

Viet food in US so expensive now...I really want to go on a foodie tour in SE Asia again.

ewh9

Sun World Ba Na Hills is a tourist trap par excellence. Part amusement park, part Instagram backdrop, part kitschy replica fantasy land, it's also a place only accessible by one of the most impressive cable car systems in the world. And most importantly, once you get past the initial crowds, it's weird and wholesome fun.




We booked a tour to take us to the park, which is what most people seemed to have done. We found the tour through Marriott Activities, but our tour was a hodgepodge of couples and small groups staying at other (non-Marriott) hotels. The guide spoke (at least) Vietnamese, English, and Korean. We paid $85 each, which included transportation from our hotel and lunch; given that the park admission itself was about $40, this wasn't a bad deal.

After you obtain your ticket, you join the line for the cable car. While it's no longer the longest cable car track in the world, I believe that Ba Na Hills retains the cable car titles for longest nonstop single-track (5.8km) and greatest elevation gain (more than 1300m). It's a breathtaking, twenty-minute ride that takes you through and above the clouds. To me, it's worth the price of admission by itself.





Sun World consists of several discrete areas that are joined by cable car and funicular. The first stop for most is the site of the famous Golden Bridge. At this time of year, most people go first thing because it is more likely to be rainy/cloudy later in the day. While crowded, if you are patient, you will easily find a suitable spot for a memorable photo.


From there, we bought the add-on ticket for the "wine tunnel," the surviving remnant of the French colonial presence in the hills. The wine barrel dioramas were interesting, the paid actors wearing 17th or 18th century costumes were appropriately ahistorical, and the red wine wasn't bad.


Next, we parted from the group to head to the mountain coaster. It was well worth it to pay the 70,000 VND to ride the coaster without the line.



After eating a buffet lunch, we explored the rest of the park. Outside of the Golden Bridge, the flower garden, and the area around the replica Louvre glass and Notre Dame Cathedral (the "French Village"), it was strangely deserted. We did have the good fortune to chance upon the in-house dance troupe performing some sort of harvest-themed dance, complete with roller skating and pumpkin heads.






Around 3:30 pm, we rejoined the group and took the cable cars back down. We were back in Da Nang by 4:30.

ewh9

The Dragon Bridge is a 666m bridge spanning the River Han in Da Nang. On weekend nights at 9 pm, it puts on a fire-breathing show. My understanding is that the show takes place on Saturdays and Sundays year-round, and on Fridays as well during the summer.


You can watch the show from the banks of the river, or you can take a riverboat cruise. We connected with a boat company through our tour guide earlier that day. We were lucky to get tickets, because the boat we boarded was the last to leave, and every boat was full.

After visiting a few bars in Da Nang, we arrived at the ticket booth at 8:10 pm, as instructed. The booths are located near the Novotel hotel. We got our tickets and joined the designated line. Most of the boats had already boarded by the time we arrived. There were ten or more riverboats double parked along the bank.



While I believe each booth sells tickets for a particular boat, the product and experience on each boat are identical. We crossed another boat to get to ours, so I wasn't able to see its name.

Because our boat was the last to depart, we had the worst position to view the show.

At 9 pm, the show started. I was very excited for this, but it was a bit underwhelming. The dragon breathed fire a few times. Several minutes later, it blew smoke a few times.






Our captain had difficulty bringing the boat in, so we were also the last to disembark. The ticket wasn't expensive (about $8), but if I did it again, I'd probably skip it and watch the show from the riverbank.

ewh9

Flight VN170​​​​
DAD-HAN
Departure: 19:05
Arrival: 20:25
Seat: ​​​2C

We arrived at the airport about two hours before our flight. There was no wait for the business class check-in desk, and we were checked in and through security within ten minutes.

Vietnam Airlines has a Lotus Lounge in Da Nang's domestic terminal. This was a fine place to spend an hour, with a small but adequate food selection, including noodles. Unusually, the refrigerator was stocked with Rockstar energy drinks.





We headed to the gate for boarding around 6:20 pm. There was a separate line for business class, and we boarded a separate bus. The bus turned around, and we drove about 100 feet before stopping in front of the plane.


We boarded quickly, and business class was full, so I wasn't able to get a great photo of the seat. It was pretty comfortable but quite narrow.


The flight attendant served us a pre-departure spa water and a noodle bowl after takeoff. The only alcoholic drink option was beer. I should have taken the offered ice, as the beer was warm. The noodles were tasty.




The entertainment included aquarium footage.
As soon as we finished the meal, we began our descent. We had a quick bus trip to the baggage claim area (again, there was a separate business class bus). Our bags were out within five minutes, and we headed to our hotel.

ewh9

We started our day at The Temple of Literature. This is one of several temples in Vietnam dedicated to Confucius. Originally constructed in 1070, it hosted a university from 1076 to 1779.






Next, we went to Train Street. This is a collection of cafes along an operational train track. During the week, the trains only come through at night. Still, it was a fun place to get a drink. The way it works is that you go to the entrance of the street. A proprietor will invite you to visit an establishment and then will lead you through a store and then along the track to a cafe.



From there, we went to the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum. This museum is well worth a visit. I found the lacquer and silk painting collections to be especially interesting.





We then prepared our palates for the meal to come by eating and drinking around Hanoi.

First up was Banh Mi 25. This spot is popular with tourists, and for good reason. It was delicious.

After that we went to Cafe Giang, an iconic egg coffee cafe. I don't drink coffee, so I had an egg beer. I do not recommend it.



We moved on to Bun Cha Huong Lien. This was also excellent. The table where President Obama and Anthony Bourdain ate is now covered in plexiglass.




With an hour to kill before our dinner reservation, we went to the Bamboo Bar at the Sofitel Metropole, which is across the street from the Capella. This is an impressive pool bar. The bartender shook and poured the Graham Greene cocktail at the table. The drinks were great.

ewh9

We had a 6 pm reservation for Hibana by Koki, a one Michelin star teppanyaki restaurant. Koki is located in the basement of the Capella Hanoi. The concept contains Hibana, a separate restaurant, Izakaya, and a bar, Akio.

I believe that Hibana does two seatings per evening, at 6 and 8:30 pm. I made our reservation the day before. There are about twenty seats around the teppan, but only one other party of two joined us. So, we had our own server and chef.

After we were seated, the chef proudly displayed the filet of beef that we would be consuming later that evening, as well as a certificate attesting to its provenance. The steak cooked for much of the meal, moving from low to high heat before being finished on the charcoal grill.

The meal was incredible--creatively designed and precisely executed, and the chef's craft was on full display. I don't like seafood, but my horizons were expanded by several of the courses. The steak was the best that I have ever had.

I liked the menu cards that were changed with each course. The dessert was served in an adjoining lounge area (presumably so that diners don't linger around the grill). It was a truly memorable meal. My only critique is that the wine selection was pretty boring.

The cost was 5.5 million VND per person for the normal tasting menu, or about $220. This is obviously extremely expensive for Vietnam, but many of the ingredients were imported from Japan. I thought it was well worth the cost.

After we finished dessert, we stopped by the bar. This was an outstanding experience. We were the only guests at the bar. My first drink was made with melon infused whiskey. The bartender then recommended the second drink, which was gin-based and accompanied by a wasabi crema. Between those drinks, he gave us an absinthe palate cleanser. He also gave us a pour of a Sampan dark rum, which was not for sale. When I expressed my admiration for that rum, he made me the smoothest daiquiri I have ever had using a Sampan white rum.





















After dinner, we stopped by "Beer Street." I saw beer advertised for as little as 10,000 VND (about 25 cents). Advocates for the various beer companies, dressed head to toe in brand apparel, roam the bars and attempt to persuade new customers to choose their product. We ordered two 30,000 VND Hanoi beers, more for the experience than that we wanted to drink them. I sipped on mine for about 20 minutes while we observed the street, and then we were ready to return to the hotel.

ewh9

On our last day in Vietnam, we took a full day tour to Ha Long Bay, located about 2.5 hours from Hanoi. There ended up being only two other people on a large boat.

The company picked us up around 8:15 in a comfortable van.

We drove for 2.5 hours to the Ha Long Bay cruise terminal.


We sailed for about an hour and a half and had a tasty six course lunch. Only the dessert (a donut) was a miss.











The boat had three stops, where we took a tender to various activities. The first stop was a dock where you could kayak or take a boat into a sheltered area. There were monkeys on this island.



The next stop was Surprising Cave.



The third stop was Ti Top Island, where we just hung out on the beach.


We then had tea on our way back to the cruise terminal. We arrived as the sun was setting.

ewh9

This hotel is located in a relatively quiet part of Hanoi, about 25 minutes from the Old Quarter and 40 minutes from the airport (depending on traffic, which is often terrible).

We didn't spend much time in the hotel, but I liked it. The service and food were good. We ate one dinner and breakfast in the executive lounge. There are about five or six restaurants and a jazz club in the hotel, but we didn't have a chance to visit them other than The Lounge restaurant, where we ate dinner our last night.

We were upgraded to an Executive Suite.

ewh9

After a fun seven-day trip, it was time to head home. I'll let a few pictures cap off the report. This was a great use of 440,000 of our American Airlines miles.

Thanks for reading!








I wish more planes had this feature.



"Formula 1 menu" had one original item--I'm not sure what about racing inspired the cheesecake, but I didn't try it.