Thursday 20 December 2012

Halong Bay - Paradise cruise

Through our hotel, we booked onto the Paradise luxury 2 day 1 night cruise at Halong Bay.
http://paradisecruises.vn/itineraries.html

A shuttle bus picked us up from the hotel early that morning to the port.
It was a VERYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY bumpy and unpleasant ride.

Here's our cruise:

Itinery: 
(sorry, you have to rotate your head to read it because I couldn't rotate the picture here and I can't be bothered to reupload the photo) 

We were warmly welcomed :) 
(with rose petal thrown onto us as soon as we entered the cruise lol )
and we got upgraded to "Paradise suite" - with our very own jacuzzi 

Here's the ship plan

The room is very nice and clean
comfy bed, spacious
(not sure why there's a TV because we cannot watch any channel while we were there) 



At the top deck :) 

Floating snack shop 


The Buffet lunch was one of the best meal we have had during our stay
It gives a great taster of Vietnamese food


 so as usual.. I tried a bit of everything ..

there were quite a wide range of choice


I can't remember what exactly each dish was  ...  but they were good! 
I remember the stewed caramelized pork was particularly nice

Pretty Dessert :)

First stop was the "Surprising cave"
It was truly very magnificent.   Though as expected it was packed with tourist... 
luckily it IS a mega sized cave .. so it is forgivable 




 

bumped into this little monkey on the way back to the cruise



We walked up Titop island after that
 - which was packed with tourist again ..



view from the top (excuse the finger on the left ... )

in the evening.. we had cookery class - making Nem - Vietnamese spring roll 
and we got try some Vietnamese herbal shot - which was disgusting ... 

Dinner 
- was "fine" western food which was disappointing... 
maybe it was good quality western food (in Vietnam standard) 
but we were more interested in trying out more Vietnamese food given we are there... 







lots of cruises everywhere

Early in the morning, we got transferred into little bamboo boat
and we rowed through Luon cave



 into this lagoon :)
apparently sometimes there are monkeys here...
didn't see any though ...

some people doing kayaking... 


Breakfast : 

International breakfast was served after that 
- sticky rice, stir fried beef noodles, shrimp dumplings and pho 

and that's the end.......
We really enjoyed our short stay there. It was a great "escape" from the hustling stressful hanoi .
Halong bay was truly beautiful :)

we were dreading to get back on the shuttle bus for another 3 hours bumpy ride..
unfortunately we had to ... :(
(and it became a 4 hour ride because some random farmer decided to block the road)

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Hanoi - Street food

We went to Hanoi for 5 days the week before Christmas.  
We have always loved Vietnamese food - light and flavoursome.  

We stayed in a hotel on the edge of the Old quarter called Hanoi Moment II. 
Very friendly and helpful staff.  Clean and have everything you need.  
We landed late on the first day - knackered. 
so we try out the restaurant at the hotel  - which happens to be its first day of business!
and it's offering 50% off on food bills :)) - bonus! 

They serve international food as well as Vietnamese food.  
They are more expensive then local restaurants but with the offer, it's very worth it!

Hanoi style fish - Cha ca  Thang Long = Vietnamese Dill Fish with Tumeric
Served with rice paper

We also had Bun bo there (beef rice vermicelli salad) - very nice too. 


Banh Cuon Gia Truyen
- Vietnamese steamed rice roll with minced pork and black fungus, served with deep fried garlic and coriander on top.  
We had that as breakfast on the next day :) It wasn't far from our hotel. 
We also ordered some Vietnamese "sausage"
yummmm 


Pho Gia Truyen (49 Bat Dan)
- Beef noodles soup served with deep fried doughnut
It was very busy with an efficient production line - one taking the order, one slicing the beef, one assemble it with noodles and herbs, the 3rd man pouring hot broth onto it
It is not the most hygenic place (but it's definitely not the worst) 
saw them just put big chunks of meat (unwrapped) from a fridge sitting in the corner of the dining area
Locals have pho as breakfast but I think I would fall straight into food coma everyday if I have that before work


Deep fried dumplings off the street
It has different fillings .. pork/ shrimp/ crab etc
didn't really dare eating the fresh herb though... not sure about how clean they are
( we saw people chopping herbs on the floor while walking around the old quarter )
but it was quite an experience - sitting by a busy seat on a tiny plastic red stool
watching all those scooters pass by ... 

eating like a local lol 
(we later saw another street stall cleaning dishes with brown coloured water... we haven't eaten on the street after that.... :S)

BBQ Beef on 50 Ma May street
a bit like korea bbq I guess... but with a vietnamese dipping sauce. 
I think it's salt/pepper/chilli + kumquat juice

Quan An Ngoc
- this place is great.  clean and with English menu. 
you are spoilt with choices and things are cheap! 
It's a must go.  

Summer roll

"Hue" Steamed rice ravioli with Vietnamese sausage and crotons in a flavoursome broth
- my favourite out of all. 
This is something I have never seen in London.  

Prawn cracker
- very crispy but a bit heavy after the first one .. 


old steamed rice dumpling with peanut served with bean sauce
not nice at all - don't order ! :p
very blend and stodgy

bun bo


stewed beef with vietnamese baguette (which is dryer and lighter than the normal ones)
They called it banh mi which I expected it to be served as a sandwich but as you can see.. not quite what we expected but it was yum anyway. 

Vietnamese spring roll

Crab noodles soup

Overall, I really enjoyed the food in Hanoi. 
We are very glad that we have no tummy problem given how brave we were on the first few days.  

Sunday 18 November 2012

Paparoti, Beijing - Kopi roti - Malaysian Coffee Bun

They are soooo goooood (and very fattening I'm sure.. ) 




 I tried it out in Beijing - along  Nam luo guo xiang.
It's crumbly at the top and MEGAAAA soft in the middle
it costed 10 rmb and it was a complete delight..
you have to try it out!!!