In many ways this place inspired my visit to Vietnam. Last year when I was travelling, I was also following a friend on Instagram who spent 4 months living in Hoi An. He is a complete foodie and would post the most wonderful photos and videos of the food he ate while there and I thought to myself that I have to visit Vietnam! And now I’m here.
After a walking tour of Hoi An visiting various temples we had dinner at the Morning Glory restaurant. Lots of interesting local dishes and 2 for 1 on all drinks except beer. That included bottles of wine and we weren’t actually able to finish it all so got take away boxes for the wine (not the food). First time for everything, I guess! We returned to the hotel by eTaxi. This is a new initiative in Hoi An and much welcome. They looked like big old-fashioned golf buggies and we used them several times as the hotel was a bit far to walk from the old town but the local taxis weren’t interested in taking us for some reason.
This is the classic overnight boat trip that a lot of people take when they visit Hanoi. It’s a 4 hour drive by bus so you need 2 days really to do it. We had our own boat which was much more luxurious than any of us had imagined. The cabins were en suite with air conditioning. One of the big advantages of this tour was that the single supplement was very low but there were a couple of nights where we had to share one of which was on the boat. The Vietnamese government strictly controls where you can go to in Ha Long Bay so all the tour boats end up in the same place which means it’s a bit like travelling to a big car park. This was at the beginning of the high season so there were only around 100 boats staying overnight but at its peak you end up with over 500 in the same place. It doesn’t really give you a great feeling of discovery but it’s still very beautiful. There were a couple of onshore excursions – a cave and a hill to climb – all done with hundreds of other tourists. Certain places in Vietnam are definitely suffering from over tourism. It’s also quite interesting to reflect on what the Vietnamese think foreigners want to see. The biggest tourist groups are from Asia and they definitely have a different take on this. Luckily our group was there mainly there for the food and that did live up to our expectations.
The food tour started in Hanoi where I met the rest of the
group – we were 14 – with a wonderful guide called Khoa.
The first day was a marathon of food tasting which ended with a cooking class at KOTO (Know one teach one), a social enterprise which trains street kids to become chefs, waitresses and kitchen managers. We start off with Pho Bo – traditional beef noodle soup for breakfast at a very simple café where we sat on plastic chairs – it was delicious – and set us up for the rest of the day. We wandered around old Hanoi through the streets competing with motorbikes and cars although it wasn’t as bad as Saigon. On the way we tasted Bun Ca (small pork patties), rice noodle rolls, doughnuts, tea ceremony, egg coffee and various other things which I have forgotten…
The cooking class at KOTO was done in small groups which was interesting as we all had very strong opinions on what to do and what order we should follow…
We made a green papaya salad, fresh spring rolls, marinated pork and Bun Ca. We then ate all the food or as much of it as we could as portions seem to be very big. Of course we had to buy the cute aprons and we were given a Vietnamese peeler which looks like a lethal weapon – one for checked luggage then!
The Vietnamese sure do have a sweet tooth! Breakfast provided by the hotel consisted of
a cheese roll with what tasted like very sweet cheese cake inside and
Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk – another really sweet experience. I had lunch at a really great place –
basically a tiny café where they only served rice paper rolls. They were delicious and lunch came to 55k
which is less then £2.
I had read about a restaurant in Saigon called Vietnam House
and thought it looked good so made a reservation on a Saturday night way in
advance. The restaurant is owned by an
Australian/Vietnamese chef called Luke Nguyen.
When I go there it was a very upmarket corporate style restaurant and it
was half empty. The menu looked
interesting but the waitress refused to let me order what I wanted saying it
would be too much food for me. I have
never ever experienced that in a restaurant before. She recommended a starter (squid) and let me
choose the main course (twice cooked duck) although she tried to get me to
order something different. I ordered
rice with the main course and also a gin-based cocktail called Taste of
life. The cocktail and the starter were
delicious. The squid was grilled and
there was pomelo with salt and chilli dipping on the side. The combination was interesting in a good
way. The duck arrived and turned out to
be whole duck breast with mashed potato – no need for the rice. Although the duck was well cooked it was very
bland even by western standards. There
was no Vietnamese influence at all in this dish. The portions were also very large and
possibly meant for the American tourist?
When the waitress asked me for feedback I did say that I thought the
duck was very bland and that I had thought that was the restaurant was called
Vietnam House all the dishes would be Vietnamese. She insisted on offering me a free dessert
even though I didn’t want one after all that food. That said it was a very tasty coffee mousse
with fruit which was just the right side of not too sweet.
I think I need lessons in where to go to eat while in
Vietnam…street food and cheap and cheerful seem to be the way to go
Arriving at Ho Chi Minh City Airport was great after flying from London via Oslo and Doha. However, I wasn’t quite prepared for the taxis in Vietnam. The Vietnamese Dong (VND) currently stands at 29.000 to Pound Sterling – yes I know lots of zeros. A taxi from the airport to the hotel I was staying at (about 20 minutes away) should cost about VND 150k which is very reasonable. Long story short but I ended up with a taxi driver who tried to scam me for 886k showing me an app that had this amount on it as well as claiming that the hotel was on a street closed to cars – load of rubbish of course. I refused to pay and and said that I would call the hotel to get their view. I ended up paying 250k which was still too much but he wouldn’t stop the car so I had no choice. This was not a great start. I did confirm the price again with the hotel as for all I know prices may have gone up but they said no, 150k was the correct price.
After a bit of research, I downloaded an app call Grab which is used locally to book taxis of all kinds including bikes. I added my prepaid card for payment as it’s easier than walking around with lots of cash. The first time I used it I booked a taxi which at first confirmed the price as 55k but then lowered it to 1k – probably a gift from Grab as a first time user! I thought it must have been a mistake as this is like charging 3p for a 15-minute trip. When I checked the payment, it really was just 1k! The next couple of trips using Grab cost what I would expect for driving around Saigon. I used the app again to get to the airport to fly to Hanoi. Once again, the cost quoted was 98k which was very reasonable but then immediately lowered to 9k! I asked the people at the hotel about this and they were very surprised but said that as that was the quoted price that’s all I had to pay. I’m still quite mystified by this.
I made a special detour via the ferry from Wellington to the South Island in order to visit the Marlborough wine region. This is New Zealand’s biggest wine producing area by far – 70% – and it would have been a shame to miss it. It is a sea of Sauvignon Blanc however and although I like it you do need to be aware of that. The rest is mostly Pinot Noir and then some Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and assorted others even including Montepulciano.
I treated myself to a wine tour as I was getting a bit sick of driving and having to spit everywhere…Hop’n’Grape was definitely worth it and highly recommended. Cameron is a wine maker of 20 years standing who now runs this company and has special access to the winery he used to work for – Mount Riley. Since I was the only one who knew anything about wine I got to pick 2 of the wineries we visited –Fromm and Cloudy Bay. The tour of the Mount Riley winery was comprehensive to say the least and it was only because the wine in the stainless steel tanks were too low for Cameron to reach to get a sample – using a special wine sampler – a large plastic jug! – that we didn’t get to taste the wine in the tanks.
Our nextstop was Framingham which was a completely different experience. Their main grape is Riesling but they do others as well. Sauvignon Blanc is the cash cow everywhere and they all make a typical Marlborough one. Then onto Wairau River for tasting and lunch. The food was really good and the wines pretty good as well. After lunch we headed to Fromm which is a tiny organic boutique winery which concentrate on Pinot Noir but as everywhere else also do Sauvignon Blanc. They are also one of the few places which still use corks. Everywhere else it’s screw cap apart from a few bottles at Clos Henri. I was really impressed by their personal service and honesty about what they do. We tasted a 2016 Riesling Beerenauslese which seems to have come about by accident. It was really yummy and of course I didn’t have to spit!
Then onto Cloudy Bay which is on another level – very corporate and slick but still excellent. The setting is lovely with Australian gum trees and eucalyptus being planted by the original Aussie owners. Now it’s owned by LVMH. We ended the day there sipping their Pinto Noir on bean bags on the lawn.
The next day I visited 3 more wineries before getting on the ferry back to Wellington. Saint Clair had the added benefit of coffee in the morning and as you know that’s really important to me! This is a family owned winery and I particularly liked their sparkling which is called DAWN Methode Traditionelle Vintage 2013. Dawn is apparently the who is almost 104.
Clos Henri is another organic boutique winery wholly owned by Henry Bourgeois of Sancerre fame. All the staff are French and the tasting room is a tiny deconsecrated church which they had bought and transported from 40km away. They also sell their Loire wines but you can only taste them if you are a large group. This one also impressed with their attention to detail and is the only place I actually bought wine – Bel Echo Pinot Noir 2016 at NZD33. Their top wines are also still corked although I’m not sure how much of a sign of quality that really is as it’s quite risky these days especially as UK consumers expect NZ wine to be screw cap.
Last one Highfield Terravin – also a boutique winery with a very nice restaurant and a tower you can go up into and see all of the Wairau Valley vines.
Some thoughts on the Marlborough region. The last 2 vintages have been challenging and there are vineyards for sale as they probably took their eye off the ball relying on the region being bone dry and warm all the time. People are moving away from that punch you in the nose Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and towards a subtler style. They are also showing Sauvignon Blanc which has had more attention than just stainless steel and quick bottling experimenting with wild yeasts, old barrel ageing, on the lees and if they can afford it keeping it for a few years before releasing it. Te Koko 2014 from Cloudy Bay is an example of this. Te Koko means Cloud Bay in Maori.
This is an interesting wine region which has it’s streets laid out in the shape of the Union Jack – didn’t get the story behind that. It’s also a great place to cycle or even walk around as the vineyards and small and close together. I decided to walk and I have to admit it was further than I expected. I struggled to get lunch as well as it was a Saturday and the place was littered with hen parties. The weather was pretty good though after all the rain. The main grape is Pinot Noir but they grow everything from Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and some odd ones like Tempranillo.
Margrain had a huge list for tasting. You could go on and on. The winery is small and they only sell at the Cellar Door. They also claimed that you cannot put bottles of wine in your luggage when you leave NZ so the only way to take wine with you is to buy it at Duty Free. This is of course complete rubbish and I have no idea where that came from.
Poppies had been recommended to me by Dale from Sileni both for the wines and for the lunch. As it was a Saturday it was completely booked out and they couldn’t even squeeze one person in after I asked. I did stay to taste the wines which are excellent and Poppy is even a real person. My favourite here was the Pinot Gris.
Luna was the winery next door which did have room for me for lunch. The food is Asian fusion and I had the Okonomiyaki which is a Korean kind of vegetable pancake with a glass of Pinot Gris. By the time I had eaten the hen party sitting next to me (very fancy ladies in summer dresses and a cut out of the famous rugby star who was the groom) were doing their tasting and there wasn’t really room for me. I avoid being a singleton taster in such situations as you get ignored…
Stone Cutter is a tiny boutique winery only selling at the cellar door and the only place in NZ I didn’t have to pay for the tasting. I was the only one there and the lady was very welcoming and asked me lots of questions about myself. This is always appreciated as we all know.
Palliser is a well-known winery in the UK and their wines were very good but by this time I was exhausted from the walking.
All in all a good place to visit – I didn’t really have a favourite – so you will just have to go yourselves.
Well this was a different experience. A weekend in Ponsonby – one of Auckland’s most popular neighbourhoods looking after Arthur (English bulldog aged 8) and Claudie (French bulldog also aged 8). Once again quite spoilt dogs in my view at least. They were fed raw meat mixed with tripe daily and Arthur had a probiotic added to his feed due to the high protein content which was causing him to be very constipated. Well what about not feeding him such a protein rich diet then??? Only saying.
They were also used to sleeping in the bed with their owners. This was something I was not prepared to do mainly as Arthur was very big (32kg) and had festering sores on his paws (apparently normal for an English Bulldog his age) which wept all over the place – yuk. As you can see from the photo he survived without sleeping in the bed with me and did perk up once I took them out for a very sedentary walk. Both Arthur and Claudie were great dogs to look after. Unfortunately I managed to loose all the other photos of them. The house was a very cool former butchers shop. It was a mixture of being done up and falling apart including a leaking ceiling. The owners were very welcoming and let me stay 2 extra nights to make my journey around North Island easy. I really appreciated that as well as the wonderful Central Otago Pinot Noir they served me when they cooked me dinner on the first night. Living the dream!
Here are some musings on difference between Down Under and the UK.
Blackout blinds are standard everywhere in Oz at least. For someone who likes to sleep in total darkness and wake up from my own alarm it was a blessing in disguise. The worst place for blackout blinds I have ever come across in Norway – I guess it’s got something to do with the lack of daylight in the winter…
Public toilets are everywhere in Oz – amazing never having to worry about where to go next! Bins on the other hand are far and few between. Recycling is big business and you are encouraged to take your rubbish home with you – what if you don’t have a home as you’re travelling around???
It’s not cool to have a tan…coming from a culture which values a tan it’s strange to be in Western countries where being being pale is good. Sun cream only comes in factor 50+ and everyone wears hats all the time even when the sun isn’t out.
Petrol prices in Oz were a pleasant surprise. When I arrived they were AU$1.60/litre and when I left AU$1.24/litre. I’m not sure whether this was because the oil price dropped quite a lot or if a price war broke out on Sunday 18th November? In NZ prices were a lot higher at NZ$2.30/litre in Auckland vs NZ$2 in the country side. It was still cheaper than in the UK.
You would have thought that OZ and NZ invented coffee from the way they go on about it. It doesn’t actually grow in either country…Anyway you can get a decent coffee anywhere – even at motorway service stations! Mine is a flat white in a Keep Cup.
Being a beach bunny, I decided that it would be nice to spend some time on the coast south of Sydney. I settled on Moruya Heads as it was an easy 4 hours’ drive on my way from Melbourne to Sydney. It was a great idea but I hadn’t factored in the weather which did not cooperate. In fact, it was freezing and it rained a lot. Moruya Heads is a beach suburb of Moruya which is a bustling little town as these things go. Quite a few shops including an absolutely amazing quilting place called Steph’s, some restaurants and cafes.
My AirBnb was on a hillside with a view of the estuary. It was a brand new very spacious studio with a balcony. Everything was catered for except a cooker – now why that had not been installed in a studio with a kitchen was beyond me but people do strange things. Instead there was a microwave and a plug-in frying pan. I wasn’t really prepared to learn how to cook rice in a microwave on this trip but needs must.
One of the things to do locally is take a trip out to Montague Island to watch the penguins come ashore after feeding for 4 days to see their chicks that are hatching. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad that most of the trips were cancelled but on Friday there was a brief respite in the weather and we had a glorious boat ride out to the island in the sunshine at lunch time. At least I got to see the island – no penguins though!
Market day in Moruya is Saturday and it was a very enjoyable experience – a proper local market with stuff from local farms and businesses. People had obviously travelled in from all over the hinterland and the coast and that made for a lovely time.
Anna's Travels 