WindFlyer

Culture !

With that pedigree, I would also have expected more from the food

^ ^ to the décor though

Jailer

Yes, undoubtedly riding on the coattails of your free flights, upgraded hotels and airline lounges afforded to your superficial, yet elite, lifestyle. All porters should be so well compensated.

l etoile

He's a lovely fellow, but he does a terrible job pressing my clothes and he can't handle more than 12 shopping bags at a time. Good help is so hard to find. <sigh>

l etoile

A couple of quick items to dispense with … paying with plastic was surprisingly easy in Hanoi and Saigon. I fully expected stores and restaurants that sported a Visa or Amex logo to give me the old “our machine is broken” line, but that never happened.

ATMs were also easy to find, and most everyone took US dollars, making it easy for this shallow one to avoid much complicated math. Afterall, who learns to divide by 16,000? I only got 2 million dong (about US$125) and that lasted through the trip.

In the areas I was in (obviously touristy ones), many people spoke English. I had a quick lesson in Vietnamese from my first driver – the basic hello, thank you – and that went a long way. When I would say thank you in Vietnamese, faces would light up. I gather few people visiting learn even that little. The Vietnamese people I met were among the kindest anywhere.

And first massage was at the Hilton. Hotels tended to charge about $25 an hour for massages. The Hilton didn’t have a real spa, but offered massages and other services in the fitness center.

Now … Halong Bay.

Halong Bay is about three hours from Hanoi by car. My driver picked me up at the Hilton about 8:30 a.m. An interesting thing about driving in Vietnam is you just never know what you might see. Motorbikes are loaded down with all sorts of things, including pig crates packed so tightly with piglets that the little guys are jammed on top of each other with no room to wiggle so much as an ear. I saw a few others with puppies packed that way. The couple of puppies that couldn’t fit inside, were tied to the top of the cage. I don’t think PETA’s made it to Vietnam.

Most people on motorbikes were wearing scarves tied around their faces bandit-style. At first I thought this was for pollution, but then I noticed a good many women covered not only their mouth and noses, but also their foreheads. This made me suspect they might be part of the superficial sisterhood and want to prevent sun damage to their skin, which tends to be very beautiful.

About 45 minutes out of Halong Bay we stopped at a large government-run store that employs disabled workers to make handicrafts. It’s a huge place that sells snacks, pottery, clothing, jewelry at higher prices than most stores. In one section there were rows and rows of young people sitting at work stations. They had photographs that they were using embroidery to copy. Each stitch was about a half-inch long and some of the finished pieces were huge. There was a sign saying no photographs, but if I bought one I figured they might let me take a photo, which they did.

We left there and arrived at the boat. Most of the boats that go out of Halong Bay are junks, but I selected the Emeraude http://www.emeraude-cruises.com/halong.html
, a replica of a 1910 paddle steamer. The ship is just three years old and it’s quite lovely. The floors are highly polished wood, the fixtures are all brass and wicker chairs are placed around the bar on the deck and outside each room. There are 36 cabins and two suites (really just oversized rooms). There were only about 20 passengers on my sailing, yet a staff of 45, and no one had booked the suites. If booked in advance, the suites are $200 more for the two-day, one-night cruise, but on arrival, if they haven’t been booked, you can get them for $50-$100 extra. Of course, upon discovering this, I decided I needed a suite. The suite I had was on the bow of the ship and had chains I could put up on outside on port and starboard so no one could walk in front of my windows or where I was sunning. I also received roses, a bottle of champagne and a fruit plate. What more could a girl ask for, except for maybe a massage and a warm breeze as she laid out on deck. So I booked a massage along with a manicure and pedicure. I can’t remember the cost breakdown, but all three services came to $33.

Sometimes I worry that I might get a little jaded and stop seeing the beauty nature offers. Halong Bay put my concerns to rest. This was one of those rare places where I was in awe at what was before me. I stood out on deck and just kept thinking, I can’t believe I’m here. It was truly a time where I had to keep pinching myself to know it wasn’t just a dream. Halong Bay holds some 3,000 karsts of varying shapes and sizes in its emerald waters. Words and even photos don’t do it justice. It’s simply magical. My only regret was that I wasn’t spending more time here. The Emeraude only has the one-night sailing, although some of the junks do go out for two nights.

Next: More time in Halong Bay and then off to Saigon

obscure2k

Thanks to l'etoile's beautifully written Trip Report, I am now eager to visit Vietnam.^

IceTrojan

Wait a minute... am I going to catch up to l'etoile?

Reporting in from The Wing in HKG, T-2 hours before departure for SGN.

WindFlyer

Were you able to book a warm breeze as well?

"Simply magical" sounds about right :-:

Like you, I do worry about becoming overly jaded; thankfully, there usually seems to be a magical place or experience along the way that, once again, takes my breath away.

l etoile

The Emeraude offered a bunch of activities – a cooking class (me cook? ha!), morning Tai Chi, a fishing demonstration, kayaking and swimming – but I preferred to enjoy the bar, the sun and the pampering. Kayaking would have been nice had there been more time, but I wasn’t so sure about swimming. From the looks of the shallow water near the beach, a lot of trash went into the bay and I strongly doubt any of the boats had holding tanks. I did go ashore on one of the karsts to walk through a rather large cave (formations looked long dead) with a boat mate form Southern California. She had just finished up six months of teaching English in Chiang Mai and was now traveling around SE Asia a bit before returning home. We shared a passion for all the same superficial things so, as I’ll be in Chiang Mai next month, she gave me the name of her favorite restaurants, shops, spas and massage therapist there. And I gave her my favorites in Laos.

Back onboard, our meals were all served in a dining room heavily covered in wood. They were buffet style, but, knowing I’m a vegetarian, the chef always brought me out a specially prepared meal from the kitchen.

While the junks, which looked far more backpacker like and less elegant that the Emeraude, seemed to cluster in the same areas and tie up side-by-side, we dropped anchor for the night in a cozy area surrounded on all sides by karsts. Morning came much too soon. A few women and children in tiny boats that were really oversized baskets paddled up to the Emeraude to try and sell us things, although I wasn’t quite sure what. In other parts of the world I have loved these boat-to-boat sellers. There’s nothing like getting a boat-side delivery of ice when you’re on your own boat in the Caribbean and the drinks are in danger of getting warm or having fresh-baked pastries delivered to your sloop in the morning while tied to a buoy off Croatia. On the Emeraude we were quite well provisioned however.

I asked the crew about longer stays on the Emeraude and, while they don’t offer that, the on-board director said some people do book the same trip back-to-back – not ideal, but better than having to disembark after such a short time.

I have little doubt that Halong Bay could become another Cannes with a little infrastructure improvement, some beach cleanup, new hotels and the addition of some charter companies so you could sail on your own for a week or two. Apparently there is a 10-year plan for the area that will bring some of these changes – including an airport to make getting there easier as the drive is far from scenic.

My driver was waiting (along with a bunch of women trying to sell us all pearl strands) and we disembarked and then made the trek back to the Hanoi airport, again stopping for a break at a government-run handicrafts shop. I bought a few replica opium pipes there to add to my collection of real ones. I usually don’t buy reproductions if I can help it, but I liked the shapes on these.

Hanoi Airport

I arrived about 1.5 hours before my flight and spent some time in the Vietnam Airways lounge. There were free papers, Internet access, lots of packaged snacks, water, soft drinks, and beer. I had a juice and snacks. I was on a bit of a quest to find papers with paragraphs blacked out, but despite looking through several, I never saw a one. I also couldn't find an Internet site that wouldn't load, but I supposed if I really wanted to find some I could have.

We had a remote gate so coach passengers crowded on to large buses, while the rest of us had smaller, more comfortable rides to the plane. F was full. I slept my way to Hanoi, so skipped the meal and the drink service.

Finally: Saigon …. And my real shopping finds and indulgences from Vietnam's top couturier.

(Also, photos from Halong Bay coming soon, especially now that my son is around to make my crummy photos look (I hope) halfway decent.)

ShopAround

Oooh, what a tease! I'm loving your trip report and anxiously awaiting the next chapter!

bigasian

Awesome trip report thus far! I can't wait to read the report on Saigon. The report gives me pointers on my upcoming trip to Vietnam.

l etoile

Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum


A tangle of power lines in Hanoi


Store fronts are so small, apparently for tax reasons


Some of the young people embroidering copies of photographs at a government-run center

l etoile

Traveling salespeople in Halong Bay. Notice the boat is really a big basket.


The junks in Halong Bay tended to stay together, while the Emeraude went off on its own.


The dining room on the Emeraude.


Halong Bay

More photos of Halong Bay, and the Saigon installment coming soon ...

birdstrike

Did they give you a trade discount as a courtesy to one in the business?

Excellent trip report l'etoile. I look forward to reading the rest! ^

l etoile

Diannne47: Alas, Goody Goody Bon Bons are made in China. But, I did meet the designer last year and can get some deals. Will email you with info soon.

I didn't even think about that! I should have offered to trade silkworm eggs for clothing and I could have cleaned out my fridge in the process. Of course, there would go my source of protein .... Omelets at my house anyone?

l etoile

Saigon

I used United’s “Three Perfect Days” feature as a loose guide for my three days in Saigon, with one major change: while the story recommended the Caravelle Hotel, based on FlyerTalk reviews I decided on the Park Hyatt Saigon (perhaps 3PD would have selected that too, but the hotel opened after the story ran). I booked a Park King Suite, a two room-suite with a bedroom, living room and large marble bath. The female staff wore elegant deep blue ao dais, the nicest I’d seen so far in Vietnam. I approached the counter and the agent took me up to my suite where we completed the details of checking in. As we approached the suite, waiting by the door was what I gather was the butler, immediately causing me to wonder how many shopping bags he was capable of juggling.

The suite was quite large and attractive although there was nothing very Vietnamese about it (they describe this hotel as being like a “Vietnamese residence” I didn’t quite get that). I received a large fruit bowl that was replenished regularly as well as a bottle of wine. One funny little quirk I found in all my hotels in Vietnam was that they had a price list for most everything in the room, and this was not a W-type price list of fun items, but one that included from laundry bag to the hotel phone directory. Do people really take hotel phone directories? Especially, at something like $60 each?

The hotel is perfectly located for shopping and for sightseeing. It’s near the Opera House and walking distance to Reunification Palace, the War Museum and more shops, restaurants and spas than I could hit in three days.

Worn out, the first evening I ordered a caprese sandwich from room service (I had wonderful tomatoes throughout my trip, and these were no exception) and nodded off early. In the morning I hit the nicely equipped gym, complete with machines with TVs built into them (HBO and CNN were among the selections).

The Hyatt neighbors the Continental Hotel (“The Quiet American” author Graham Greene is said to have preferred room 214 there) and is diagonally across the square from the Caravelle.

After grabbing a pastry at a nearby bakery, it was time to hit the street. I only got about a block and a half from the Hyatt before I found my first favorite shop in Saigon: P&F Silk on Dong Khoi. This little shop is filled with silk dresses, ao dai, blouses, etc., but they also do custom work and have several folds of various silk fabrics. Several pieces off the rack fit me or needed minor alterations and I got measured for a few other pieces. The young women who work here are very kind and helpful. I had four pieces made – they would be ready for fittings the following day – and bought two dresses off the rack that needed shortening and some taking in. The most I spent was $120 for a dress that was custom made and hand embroidered. The least I spent was $10 for a silk dress with hand-beading that they hemmed and altered for free.

Next I hit a little spa across the street for a massage – all that trying on of clothing can wear a girl out. This was not a fancy place, just a basic massage studio where I paid about $12 for a very good 75-minute hot stone massage.

Refreshed, I headed a bit further down Dong Khoi toward the water where I found my next favorite shop in Saigon (don’t worry – I only have three favorites – or maybe four). I don’t know the name, but it’s close to the water and has a very large street-front presence. The inside walls are painted orange. This shop had a little of everything for the home, but they seemed to specialize in tribal pieces. I returned here again and again because there were so many interesting things to find. I bought an older hand-embroidered Hmong prayer shawl. I’ve collected quite a lot of Asian garments over the years, from Chinese foot-binding shoes to Japanese wedding kimono and reed raincoats, and this seemed like a nice addition. Again, I didn’t bargain, and again, I received some nice little gifts from the shopkeeper.

For lunch, I headed down Nguyen Thiep toward Augustine, a reasonably good small French restaurant that seems to be popular with French ex-pats. Along the way, I was stopped by a French ex-pat who was doing surveys for the tourism department to find out why most visitors to Vietnam don’t make a second trip. He seemed to want me to say negative things: You didn’t find Halong Bay crowded with boats? Wasn’t it dirty there? Haven’t you been harassed by panhandlers? What about the smog? No, I didn’t have problems with any of these things. Would I visit again? Sure. Would it be the first place on my list on my next visit to SE Asia? No. It’s not that it’s not enjoyable, but Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia simply are far more enchanting. The competition is tough.

While the survey taker asked me questions, a young boy ran over and quickly started to shine the man’s shoes. The man lifted his foot and shooed him away. These children – along with others selling postcards – are pretty much all over the place. I’ve read different things about them – they’re working for the mafia and get nothing of what they earn, they’re trying to support their families, they live on the street and get beaten periodically – it’s difficult for a visitor to know the truth. Does paying them help them? Or does the money go somewhere other than to food for them? I don’t know. I did buy some postcards for $1 from one (who then asked if I'd buy him some milk) and I hope I made one boy’s day as I had watched him early in the day painstakingly making 3-D greeting cards. I bought pretty much his entire inventory later that evening.

Read the section on Saigon in pretty much any travel guide, or even on one of my favorite sites for Asia info www.talesofasia.com and you quickly get the idea that it’s impossible to spend more than a day out and about without having a bag, purse, wallet or camera snatched by someone on a motorbike or by a band of children. It's a city of criminals, some of the books would make one think. While I didn’t walk around with a camera around my neck and a purse over my shoulder, I did carry shopping bags and I never encountered or witnessed anything like that. I did pass a woman near the Reunification Palace who was lying on the sidewalk with a baby. Another man – apparently a tourist - was rubbing the baby’s stomach and trying to flag down help. The chubby baby looked happy and healthy and whole situation just had a weird feeling to me. I walked past, but kept watching to see what took place. A Vietnamese man on a motorbike rode up to me and told me she was a plant. A couple of hours later I saw the same woman and child bouncing and around playfully in the same area.

While there are clearly con artists in Vietnam, the people I ran into were far more likely to be like the man on the motorbike who cautioned me not to be taken in. Even though I thought I had the hang of crossing the street, random people would see me at a corner and help me cross. Far from finding a city of criminals, I found a city of helpful, friendly people.

Next: The Reunification Palace, the War Museum, my very, very favorite Vietnamese designer and more on Saigon

Also ... I forgot to mention a not-to-be-missed store in Hanoi for anyone who likes table linens and other soft goods for the home. It's Dome Interiors at 10 Yen Tre. I bought some beautiful velvet and silk table runners, one that I put across the foot of my bed as you often see in Cambodia. Hillary Clinton has apparently shopped here too, as they also had a photo of her with the staff.