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In search of an authentic bowl of PHO

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I’ve finally uploaded all our Vietnam trip pics so I’m almost back on track on our blog but this’ll still be short and sweet. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Early this morning we were awakened by the boat’s generator as they prepared our breakfast and lunch. It was good though so that we woke up and took a shower and were up for breakfast at 7:30. We didn’t have alarm clocks so I’m thinking they may have done it on purpose.

After a simple Western breakfast, we boarded a small boat to head into the grotto nearby. We saw some birds and a couple of monkeys checking us out. We just took a short cruise around the grotto then back out. The junk then took us to another place so the guys could go for a swim. Only three of the guys decided to dive in for some swimming. The water was very salty according to Ron and it was easy to float.

When they were done splashing around, we checked out of our rooms and I wrote some postcards before we had lunch. As we finished up our lunch, we arrived back at the harbor and it was so crowded that we had to climb across five other boats to get to the dock. Our driver was waiting for us there so we drove back to Hanoi.

In Hanoi, it was still early so we visited the oldest pagoda in Hanoi then we took a rest at Sofitel The Plaza hotel. We had some drinks and snacks then our tour guide took us to a place for dinner. We were craving some authentic PHO so we ended up at PHO 24 which is open 24 hours a day. In US, I always order “#1” which is combo everything so some of us wanted that same thing in Vietnam. The menu wasn’t labeled that way but when we asked for the combo pho, our tour guide said just to ask for “#1”. So it ends up being the same thing… but about half the price, I think 2USD a bowl.

We had our fill of PHO before heading to the airport which took about an hour. Once there we also searched for “weasel coffee”, aka CHON coffee. It’s famous here apparently as these weasels only eat the best coffee beans and when they poop out these beans, they’ve also been fermented a bit. The beans are cleaned, roasted, then ground up. If you brew it, it’s supposed to be a really good cup of coffee. Anyways, we did find it in the airport and are going to try to brew it when we get home.

Our flight departed a bit late so we’re set to arrive back in Singapore around 1:30AM. It’s my (Jen’s) first day at work tomorrow so hopefully I won’t be too tired.

To check out our pics, click HERE!


Journey on Ha Long Bay

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I’m still getting caught up with our blog so this’ll be short and sweet with lots of captioned pictures 😀

Today we left our hotel after breakfast and headed to Ha Long Bay. It’s approximately a 3 hour drive so since we left around 8:30, we were to have lunch on the boat. The drive itself wasn’t very exciting, quite a bit of countryside with corn fields and banana tree groves.

When we arrived to the harbor, it was packed full of people and other ships returning from their journeys. We had to climb across 2 other boats in order to reach our boat since it got stuck near the back rather than near the dock. We settled into our rooms and set sail before we had lunch. The cabin rooms were actually very nice with wood paneling and complete with your own bathroom and AC unit. Even though the AC didn’t work, it was nice to have a fan and electrical outlets for recharging batteries.

We had a nice lunch on the middle deck, including lots of fresh seafood. After lunch we all went on top deck to relax and bit and take in the sights. We saw the famous “kissing chicks” rocks. We were headed towards some caves which were discovered I believe by the French. It was a trek upwards then into the caves then back down. There were very interesting rock formations.

We headed quickly to a floating fish farm to check out their fresh seafood: fish, crabs, shrimp, and squid! Then we rushed to a site called Titop which is considered one of the most beautiful places to take a picture of Ha Long Bay. It was a steep and difficult climb up those stairs but it was worth it for the view and cool breeze.

The sun had already set so we headed back to the boat for dinner. Again, wonderful seafood for dinner. Since we were docked for the evening we decided to try some night fishing. We were actually trying to fish for squid using these special squid hooks, the have 6 prongs. The squid are attracted to your boat by a bright light that shines underneath the water and once the squid swims by, you’re supposed to yank the hook to catch them…

Unfortunately, none of us were successful but at least we tried. The moon was beautiful as it was recently the full moon but there were few stars out in the evening.

In the morning we would be heading back to Hanoi and then leaving for Singapore. It was so peaceful being out in Ha Long Bay, it’s hard to leave.

For our online album, click here!


Hoa Lu, Van Lam Village and Tam Coc Caves

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I know I’m behind on my blogging so these will be mostly “photo blogs” and I’ve captioned all the pics. I’ll still try to write a little summary 😀

Today we had breakfast in the hotel dining room before being picked up by our tour guide and driver to head out of Hanoi to Hoa Lu, which is the ancient captial of Vietnam during the 10th century. Hoa Lu is also known as “Ha Long Bay on land” due to it’s beautiful rock formations.

We first visited the Dinh and Le Dynastic Temples which are not the orignals from the 10th century but I think our tour guide mentioned they were rebuilt in the 15th century, following the same style as the originals. The first temple was for the king and the second temple was for his younger brother.

We then drove to Van Lam Village to have lunch at the local hotel. Lunch was less than $10 per person inclusive of the drinks. The restaurant was clean and had clean bathrooms (always important). It was a short walk down the street to the water and boarded a sampan to cruise around the water and into the Tam Coc Caves.

It’s really peaceful out their and our boat crew of 2 people were very nice. They said they were husband and wife and tried to speak to us in broken English. They pointed out things to us like the goats, birds, statues, and temples. They even took pictures for us! But in the end, of course they try to sell you things before leaving. They showed us pictures of their family doing embroidery and so we ended up buying some items to give as gifts. But overall, it was a nice 2 hour cruise then we headed back to Hanoi.

We had trouble finding a place for dinner but we ended up at this nice restaurant called Wild Rice and had a prix fixe menu for $20 per person, not inclusive of drinks. The restaurant was pretty fancy looking and actually reminded me of SF homes with all the crown moulding and coordinating paints. The food was pretty good, I think the garlic peanut prawns were the best.

Sufficiently stuffed we headed to the night market which runs on Fridays and weekends from 7pm onward. Mostly stalls of silk purses, some clothes, and some food. It was all pretty cheap but we didn’t buy anything. We were all pretty tired so headed back to the hotel to rest up before heading to Ha Long Bay in the morning.

It’s been very interesting for me to see that Cambodia and Vietnam so readily accept US Dollars as their currency, it seems like they prefer it over their own currency.

So here are the pictures, to see the album online, click HERE!


Arrival in Hanoi, Vietnam

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Today was the start of our trip to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. We relaxed and slept in today since our flight was not until 4pm. Plus Ron needed to recuperate from lack of sleep during exams. We ordered in McD for lunch because we were too lazy to go out. We had a taxi van take us to the airport which we found out was a bit more expensive than taking 2 taxis, at least for a flight at this time in the afternoon. The taxi van holds 7 passengers and it cost 42SGD while a taxi holds up to 4 passengers and it costs about 16-20SGD depending on traffic.

We took Tiger Airways for the first time and it’s in the “Budget Terminal” at Changi Airport. At SFO there are so-called budget airlines but they don’t have a separate terminal, they are just usually farther away from the main entrance and exits. Tiger Airways is actually in a separate “Budget Terminal” complete with purple sign touting “BUDGET TERMINAL” and yellow painted walls. Inside was warehouse like and Tiger was the only airline. But after the check-in counters, the terminal is like any other airport terminal fit with shops and eateries.

Of note, I think all public bathrooms should have these:

Boarding our flight:

The flight was about 3 hours and the time in Vietnam is 1 hour behind Singapore. We arrived a bit late because we were delayed at Changi for about 20-30 minutes so it was around 7:30pm. We had booked a tour sometime last week so the tour guide Handetour was coming to pick us up at the airport.

We had an hour ride into Hanoi and they just dropped us off at the hotel, Chains First Eden Hotel. Our tour wouldn’t officially start until the next morning but the guide advised us to walk a few blocks down the street to the “old quarter” and around the lake to find a place for dinner.

We got settled into our rooms then decided to venture out to find dinner. It was a bit crazy because you’re trying to cross the street but there is a swarm of motorbikes coming your way and they don’t really stop, they just swerve to avoid you. You’re risking your life to cross the street… but surprisingly no one seems to get hit as the bikers have pretty quick reflexes.

We ended up having dinner at a place above the Visitor’s Center near the lake. The restaurant was called “Bunta: Everything is Bun”. “Bun” meaning noodles! We had a fantastic dinner, except maybe the portions were small but I filled up at the end with a three color drink dessert, one of my favorite things to get at a Vietnamese restaurant.

The menu:

Bia Ha Noi (Bia = Beer):

Spring rolls with pork:

Spring rolls with pork and shrimp:

Yummy dipping sauces, one ginger-like and the other peanuts:

Bun Bo (spicy beef noodle soup):

Additives for my soup (the green curly things are “morning glory” and the yellow strips are “banana flowers”):

Ron’s dinner of Bun Thit Nuong (grilled and shredded pork dry noodles):

Three color (actually four…) drink, from bottom to top: yellow bean, green and red gelatin with water chestnuts inside then topped with coconut milk and ice.

We had a pretty satisfying meal for less than 10USD per person.

We took a walk partially around the lake and then hailed a cab home. The cabs here fit 7 people. It was a nice car actually and the cab driver was funny, I don’t think he really understood us well so we’d ask him a question and he’d turn up the stereo. We were blasting “Missing” by EBTG until we got to the hotel. It was 58,000VND (less than 4USD, the conversion is 16,000VND to 1USD).

We had breakfast at the hotel included for the morning and our driver with tour guide was picking us up at 8am, so we headed straight for bed.

Just some other travel notes if you’re interested in travelling to Vietnam:
Our flight cost 380SGD RT per pax from SIN to HAN.
The visa took about a week to get and cost 70SGD per pax (we had to go to embassy, they don’t have e-visa applications yet).
The whole tour was 173USD per pax (not inclusive for all meals but did include all accomodations, transportation, and tour guide) and you’ll see in the next few posts what we did on our tour.
Dinners cost approx 10-15USD per pax depending on what beverage you had.
They expect tips! but you don’t need to give much, a few USD is enough. Be nice but don’t be conned.

For slideshow including a few other pictures, click here or see below.


End of the 1st Period (P1) celebrations

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So today was Ron’s last day of finals and they were celebrating the end of the first period (known as P1) with a champagne party. Their class has this program where if you’re late to class, ask stupid questions, or fall asleep in class, you’re required to pay a $10 fine. Members of the student council tally up the fines per person and they collect them at the end of each period to buy champagne and have a party. In just this one period I heard they collected $1600! Quite a lot of sleepy heads! But all the better for the rest of the class… Ron had to pay $40 for being late to class.

I happened to be on campus to bring Ron his phone that he left at home and also to do some printing in the campus library (we don’t have a printer at home) so I helped some of the other partners with setting up the party. The student council had already reserved the tables, glasses, ice boxes, etc with the INSEAD cafeteria so they started setting up around 2:30pm. The finals was to be over at 4pm but the students were told that the champagne was to start at 3:30pm so some people were finishing up early to have champagne. Oops!

The outdoor patio where the party was being held has a nice koi pond.

Let the party begin!

The champagne served was Drappier and a sparkling wine called Cafe De Paris. I finally learned how to properly open a bottle of champagne (and without breaking any windows) and pour without overflowing the glasses too much. The students were having a great time and thoroughly relieved that exams were over. They finished off about 9 or 10 cases of champage (approx 60 bottles).

I had a great time with the girls in pouring the champagne and someone had the good forethought to have orange juice so we could make mimosas.

This is the almost all “Taiwanese” crew. And Yes, Ron is a dork!

Afterwards, I went to dinner at Cafe Brio’s in the Grand Copthorne Hotel. Alex had invited me because there was a special french buffet only available for 2 weeks plus he had a special 1-for-1 deal with his credit card. It is $44 per person so with the deal it was only $22 per person. My flatmate Justine came along with me because Ron went to dinner with his classmates. I stuffed myself with 3 plates of food but only remembered to take 2 pictures 😀


The above picture is my first plate of food, piled a bit too high but I ate every bite! Starting at the top near the blue water glass and going clockwise: smoked salmon, pork, potatos au gratin, duck terrine, squash, some sort of chicken, rice “cake”, beef, fish, eggplant, pickled cucumber, and in the middle was a peppered lamb shank. So good. I had oysters, shrimp, and sashimi for my 2nd plate. Now here’s my plate of desserts:


Starting with the two shot glasses: fresh mango and cream, chocolate pudding with crunchies, alcohol drenched chocolate cake (did not like this one!), red bean gelatin, strawberry and vanilla ice cream with wafer, behind the ice cream bowl are 2 special local desserts (a pudding and coconut mochi-like thing), lemon meringue tart, and dark chocolate fondue (marshmallows, fresh strawberries, and dried apricots). My favorite was that mango thing but they ran out 🙁

Boy was I stuffed but it was a good meal and really inexpensive for the amount and quality of the food we ate. The place also has Sunday Brunch so it may be fun to go back there and try that. I’d go just for desserts!