Sometimes you just get hints that you’ll like a country. For example, I knew that I’d like Vietnam when I learnt that the lunch break in that country lasts for two hours and that includes nap time. I should add that I also learned the hardest way that saying the word “Yummm” apparently that means “I like sex”. You can imagine how many times I said this and was given quizzical looks by locals before I was told what I was saying!
Reclining seats
Today I am flying business class to Vietnam with Vietnam Airlines. Daily flights to Vietnam have commenced since June 2011 and there are two types of configurations to the business class area. For our flight to Ho Chi Minh city we have the two year old configuration that has three sets of two seats next to each other. Seats are wide and each seat reclines at a slight angle and seats also have an automated foot rest that extends flat so that you can feel like you’re lying on a lounge seat. There is a privacy screen that you can put up to give a little privacy between the two seats.
Amenity kit
Once seated we’re offered a choice of orange, apple juice or champagne and trying to be good I choose the orange juice (I know, who am I to refuse perfectly good champagne, clearly I need my head read!). The business class in flight amenity kit is comprehensive and features Clarins products including a moisturiser, shaving set, dental set, earplugs, comb, socks, shoe horn, shoe shine box and eyeshades. It’s an eight and a half hour flight to Ho Chi Min city and like all business class flights, the highlight is the ability to recline and sleep and the food.
The business class area is relatively small at less than 30 seats so we don’t have to wait very long for service which is gentle and deferential with the female flight attendants wearing the traditional Ao Dai tunics. They offer us seats towards the front of the cabin but as we’ve settled in we stay put. Each business class seat has a USB port and a power point. The luggage allowance for economy passengers on Vietnam Airlines is 30kg and for business it is 40kgs.
We check out the in flight entertainment which is audio visual on demand (economy too) and with business class they give a set of noise cancelling headphones. There are 21 movies to choose from including the latest Harry Potter film with mostly Hollywood movies. The television section is minimal though with four episodes of Just F0r Laughs and a couple of documentaries. The music selection is also quite narrow so take your iPod if you want to listen to your favourite music.
We are given the menus which list a four course lunch with choices and drinks are frequently offered. They lay down a tablecloth and a tray featuring metal cutlery and little salt and pepper shakers.
And did you know that your sense of taste is depressed during a flight so food tends to lose its sense of taste? Which is why I always choose drinks like a spicy Virgin Mary or curries as they tend to have more flavour. With my Virgin Mary comes a three part amuse bouche which is a delicate crab on a toast point, smoked salmon pocket with cream cheese and dill on a toast point and a cucumber filled with a thinly sliced pork salad, all delicious and I particularly like the crab toast point.
Hors D’oeuvre: grilled prawns, jellyfish salad with chili and cucumber
We are offered a selection of bread which includes dinner rolls, wholemeal rolls, white scrolls and garlic bread along with our entree. It is three grilled prawns accompanied with a sesame jellyfish salad with its slightly crunchy texture and a dab of mayonnaise, chilli, lettuce and cucumber although the chilli is fairly mild. The prawns are nicely cooked and the jelly fish salad a satisfying accompaniment with its sesame flavour.
I use the Italian dressing on the green salad which is a little simple and reminds me of those salads that you used to get 20 years ago with a hard tomato, lettuce and onion so I’m not particularly taken by it. The asparagus cream soup is flavoured strongly with asparagus, a lick of oil and a foamy cream and is good to dip the garlic bread into but I’m saving room for the main.
Stir fried beef with lotus root, red chilli, fried rice with egg
The stir fried beef has a good flavour although the beef is quite dry. I don’t seem to have any luck with beef on planes. The vegetables are also on the soft side but the rice is flavoursome and has a good texture to it.
Dessert tray
Have you ever been tempted to say, when greeted with a dessert tray, “I’ll have one of everything!”. Well apparently you can here and they won’t bat an eyelid. I tried a brie and a gouda and crackers, lots of fruit, a coconut white chocolate and a delicious mini apple frangipane tart.
Stir fried chicken with black pepper sauce, stir fried udon onodles with oyster sauce
After a sleep and a movie there’s another meal two and a half hours before landing. There is a choice of four dishes (although none are vegetarian so vegetarians will need to ensure that they order ahead of time) and it’s hard to narrow it down. I go for the chicken as I like udon noodles and although the sauce has pooled to the bottom, once mixed, I like the mild black pepper sauce, crunchy Asian greens, large, slippery shiitake mushrooms and soft chicken thigh pieces. There is also fruit to finish, bread and a salad this time with some green beans and a balsamic and olive oil dressing. Tea, coffee and wine and cocktails are offered as are those wonderful hot, wet hand towels that I wish every place had!
I’m completely stuffed and a flight attendant asks “Are you full?”
“Oh yes, definitely” I say. “Then we are happy” he says smiling. Oh yes, me too. I couldn’t agree more…
We arrive eight and a half hours later and it must be said that we were feeling very civilised indeed. Of course flying business class has ensured that we don’t look like we’ve been come out the other end of a rinse, spin and dry cycle. We make our way to our hotel for the next few nights, the Hotel Majestic in Ho Chi Min City. It is one of the city’s five star historic properties and has boutiques in the ground floor lobby and has a bit of glitz to the decor. The hotel has been open since 1925.
I am offered a room on the fifth floor in the new wing but then there is another whispered offering us the President’s Suite if fellow travel writer Jenna and I want to stay together. We ascertain that there are two bedrooms and two bathrooms and really,who ever gave up an offer for the President’s Suite? It’s room 331 and there are two rooms and the living area is a lovely decorated room with old world charm including the very cute working telephone below!
There is one bathroom with an ensuite and a spa bath and the other bathroom is well equipped with an excellent amenities kit and some divinely fragranced aromatherapy lotions and creams. Coffee lovers have quite a range of coffee to choose from although tea lovers like myself there is just Jasmine tea.
The next morning I rise and skip breakfast because I always do (I find that my stomach can only really take a cup of tea or in this case coffee) until a few hours later. We are picked up by our guide and he takes us to the Reunification Palace which has a very interesting history as it was where the President of South Vietnam lived and worked and today stands preserved in the same fashion.
Nowadays cabinet still meets here every Wednesday. The outside of the building, rebuilt in 1966 after a bombing partially destroyed one side of it, has beams representing bamboo on the outside.
Inside there are colour schemes of yellow (the colour of the king) and red and there are portraits of Ho Chi Minh or “Uncle Ho” as he is known, a well loved figure. The palace stands as a symbol of the reunification of north and south Vietnam and was formerly known as the Independence Palace. Downstairs there is the war and map room and it’s an extensive palace with four floors to see as well as the basement levels.
Credentials Presenting Room
Hi kids!
Young rice ice cream 29,000
After walking round the palace for a few hours we are all in need of a break so we just stop at Highlands Coffee for an ice cream. I try a young rice ice cream only because, well you don’t tend to get this flavour in Australia. It’s a very mild flavoured ice cream, like rice pudding flavoured without the nutmeg so essentially it tastes a bit like grainy milk.
I take the chance to check out the convenience store to see what snack foods they have and the first thing that catches my eye are the wafer Tim Tams-and you can bet I bought a packet to take home with me!
Notre Dame
Post Office
Our next stop the Notre Dame cathedral in the city centre. Alongside this is the Post office which is an example of the blend of Western and Asian styles. It was built in 1891 and features European scientists and the face of Louis the XVIth on the front but there is also the lotus, the symbol for Vietnam. It’s a working post office and also a place where you can pick up some cute books for around $25 like these.
A book just on breastfeeding
Ahhh lunch time! And I’m starving, did I mention that? Although it is winter here the weather is hot and humid and whilst I love heat, it can be sapping of energy. So we enter Hoi An, considered to be one of the best restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City serving classic Vietnamese cuisine on the pricier end of the scale (although even this is very reasonable for Western standards). Inside the setting is very elegant and distinctly Vietnamese.
Spring rolls Sai Gon Style
We start with the spring rolls “Sai Gon” style which are a real surprise. They are filled not with vegetables but a creamy fish and seafood filling-the outside is deliciously crunchy but the inside is flavoursome and creamy with soft, tender white fish and prawns. Each plate comes with these fantastic vegetable carvings-we were all very fascinated by the fisherman and fish made out of carrot!
Lotus with shrimp and pork salad
The lotus with shrimp and pork salad came with prawn crackers which you pile the filling on. The filling was made up of halved shrimp, pork pieces, lotus root and vegetables and was crunchy and satisfying.
Sauteed chicken with lemongrass
The chicken came out aflame in a little clay pot although a modest serving, it was absolutely divine, the pieces tender and the flavour redolent in lemongrass but balanced enough with other flavours. There were still slender rods of lemongrass at the bottom and the sauce had the perfect foil in a little cup of steamed coconut rice.
Sauteed baby bok choy with oyster sauce
The sauteed baby bok choy gave the meal an additional crunch and flavour from the oyster sauce and perfectly cooked baby bok choy.
Fruit plate
I love exotic fruit but my full stomach gets the better of me as I had eaten quite a bit of the lemongrass chicken so I slip a little piece of dragonfruit into my mouth and wish I had room for more pineapple.
There are times when you wonder about the first people to discover something. Case in point is the weasel coffee where weasels or civets ingest coffee beans and the poo them out and then you wash and roast and grind these beans and serve it as coffee. This action is said to remove the bitterness from coffee. If you’re squeamish about eating something that has seen the digestive system of an animal, there is another coffee called Legendee which is a simulated weasel coffee where they use enzymes to mimic the action of the stomach of the weasel. This weasel or Legendee coffee is comparatively more expensive per cup but for many of us, it is around what you might pay at home for a coffee at 73,000VND (about $3.40AUD while regular Vietnamese coffee costs 20c a cup).
Vietnamese coffee filters through a mesh sieve and then drains
We are at Trung Nguyen coffee. Vietnamese coffee can be drunk black or combined with sweetened condensed milk and I choose the latter. I take a taste and the flavour is incredibly rich and evocative. I’ve had regular Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk and that is very addictive but this Legendee coffee is another thing all together and has such a spectrum of flavour and is like having more senses awakened.
Crushing the sugar cane
Sugar cane juice -20,000VND (about $1AUD) without ice, 10,000VND (abour 50cAUD) with ice
We’re not done with street food! When I was on one of my hunts with Tiger (haha I just wanted to say that) for Banh Mi, the stall has just closed for the day and we walked past this place. He tells me that when guides wait for their group they often have a sweet soup made with ice but this isn’t recommended for us as there is ice in it. However this dish is also a popular one for lunch and we watch as a lady makes up a styrofoam container full of food for us for the sum of 20,000VND ($1AUD).
Noodles with pork 20,000VND/$1AUD
The rice noodles are paired with a nuoc mam type of chilli sauce, fried shallots, bean sprouts and mint as well as pieces of a spongey crunchy deep fried pork meat roll and the whole dish is very tasty with freshness from the mint and chilli and texture from the slippery noodles and crunchy and spongey pork balls.
I got a little bit excited when I saw this Banh Mi stand. And they really are everywhere unless of course you are looking for one in which case they will all suddenly disappear . I ask for a banh mi pork roll with everything and a few minutes later I am holding one in my hot little hand. According to Tiger they range in price from 15,000-20,000VND (70c-$1AUD) and this one was 15,000VND.
Banh Mi 15,000VND (70c)
The banh mi comes with pork slices, tomato, cucumber, spring onion and pate. The pate taste for this one is stronger and there doesn’t seem to be much mayonnaise on this one. The bun is also softer as the stall is out in the street so humidity plays a part in it. And although it isn’t quite as filled as I would like, it is still utterly delicious.
Tiger points out these women who carry food on two sides of the bamboo poles. He says that they represent the North and South of Vietnam held together by strong bamboo.
War Remnants Museum
Our next stop is the war remnants museum which is a sobering place. I don’t know if words can adequately describe how moving and sad the images are and there are constant reminders that the effects of the war are still being seen in today’s generation. All I can say is go and visit it, you will be moved terribly as I was, and seeing it all up close is certainly confronting.
On our way to our next stop, I become fascinated by the people on motorbikes that negotiate the streets smoothly. Everyone going a different direction and among the countless motorbikes you see the occasional bike and car. I see a man going at speed with his young son looking fearless at the front while dad smoked a cigarette. I see a pretty young mother on the back of a bike holding tightly onto her son while the father drives the bike. I could watch them for hours.
I try to get the hang of crossing the road-the trick is to put your hand out in a stop signal, walk at a steady pace, don’t make any unpredictable moves and go! Easier said than done as stepping out into oncoming traffic is against your instincts.
Lighting a coil with your name attached to it
We stop at the Holy Lady temple where we buy a wish and write our names down on a piece of paper. They then attach the piece of paper to the top of an large incense coil and when we light it on the candle we make a wish. They then hoist it up high and the incense burns and hopefully the holy lady will grant your wish! My wish is complicated but I must admit a bit of it included staying here for longer!
So tell me Dear Reader, what makes you most fall in love with a country? The people, food or the history or something else? And what’s your favourite street food?
Hanging up the incense coils with wishes attached to them
NQN travelled to Vietnam as a guest of Vietnam Airlines
Hotel Majestic Saigon
1 Đồng Khởi Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tel: +84 (08) 3829 5517
Hoi An Restaurant
11 Le Thanh Ton Street District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
+84 8 823 76 94
Trung Nguyen Coffee
587 Nguyen Kiem, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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79 Comments | Add your own
Wahhh that’s so nice!!! I’ve never been to Vietnam and would love to
Love the food~
The airline seems great!!! I love the reclining seats and the cart of food looks SO delicious why cant we get served like that every day
Are you back in Sydney now?
Wow, that is a country i’d love to visit! Wonderful food, especially the one served on the streets.
Cheers,
Rosa
This looks like fun! I would like to go to Vietnam. If I become lost, I know all the right phrases; ‘I am cold’, so that someone will give me a blanket. ‘I am not cold’ so someone will give me a glass of water:) I may get hungry, so I know ‘I like sago, pho and chicken feet’. Ohh and I also know ‘I like specials’ so someone may be able to point me in the right direction of some bargains:)
The street food there looks so tasty and it is so cheap:) The hotel is so beautiful!
Am I the only one who thinks TimTams are overrated? I think I am! Scotch Fingers in my opinion are far yummier:)
Wow, what a trip, Lorraine! Looks like it was amazing from the very start (I would have been all too tempted to order one of each of those sweets on the airplane, lol!). The hotel is stunning and the food looks fantastic…I could walk around eating street foods all day!
I love traveling vicariously through your posts. It will be some time until my adventures will match up to yours ie my kids grow.
What a lovely flight,you are so lucky! And everything in your pictures looks so beautiful!
my oh my – what a wonderful experience.
and ps – that business class fare looks pretty damn good!
Vietnam is a country that is so untouched by the western world. Went there 2 years ago and was thoroughly amazed! Some parts even looked like Paris! Dinner cost us $5, yep, 2 chicken pad see ew, and 2 drinks. And the coffee is amazing:)
We didnt to business class or a 5 star hotel but everything else in this story brought back so many memories of vietnam, all fabulous. The food and the people were what won us over in Vietnam, I think your interactions with the people always set the tone of your memories of a place.
Once I overcame my fear of eating streetfood the pho was fantastic and my husband was always in search of sticky rice in banana leaves, we would watch kids darting out of cars picking up warm parcels of rice from the street stalls en route to school in the morning.
Although sydney does produce great vietnamese food there are some things that we have never found again, like lotus root salad, your pictures reminded me how good it was.
Great photos, I remember the ‘family’ motorbikes and loaded up pushbikes well, furniture, pigs, chickens…incredible.
Way to travel in style! Vietnam is so on my wish list! Any street food the locals flock to has got to be the place to go. Lucky lucky you!
Looks like an amazing trip! I love Vietnamese food and would love to visit Vietnam one day. Thanks for the heads up on the meaning of ‘yummmm’ over there!
Lucky you flying business class. I’m too mean to pay for it. I do have my own Bose earphones though. When you fly a lot they are great. I love the look of the local food.
If I could only go to one more overseas destination in my lifetime it would be Vietnam, in fact I think I’ll start saving today!
I was thrilled to see this post Lorraine, I have organised a conference in Ho Chi Minh city for April 2012 and I am off for a short trip in February to finalise all the details. I can’t wait and reading your blog has only made me more excited. I am looking forward to trying Pho, and I know where to take my hubbie and me for dinner on the Friday when we arrive for the Conference! Its almost like fate seeing this Blog this morning.
Thanks for all your great blogs over the year – makes my day!
Big Hugs Rozzie Kaye
I got a vicarious thrill from the part about the business class plane experience. Nice. I’ve not yet visited Viet Nam, though I would love to, but I do love the food. And each dish you described looked perfect! The breast and the baby made me smile, but the chicken-covered motor scooter really cracked me up. Loved the old style charm of the hotel as well. Nice post.
Ah, that brought back some wonderful memories. i’ve been several times to vietnam and it is my favourite place in the world. if you like ho chi min your going to love hanoi and hoi an the restaurant might be good but hoi an the town is the best place in vietnam… try the fresh beer!
Yet again I’m jealous! I’ve never been to Vietnam which I’ve always been wanting to do, especially after watching all the Luke Nguyen shows! And I love Banh Mi and pho, oh and spring rolls. The carving on the spring rolls dish is so cute
A country would like to visit, TRUE!
Love enjoying foods like the locals do,
Of course for me is a combination of the atmosphere,
Learning more about the history and yesteryear!
WOW what an amazing trip! My husband is Vietnamese and as I type this my mother in law(fantastic cook) is there visiting family. I am looking forward to the day that I can travel there and experience the culture and food. Great photography, fantatsic post.
Both the food at the restaurant and the street food look amazing :>
Hi,
I’m off to Vietnam in January so this was great! (travelling Vietnam Airlines business as well, so even better!)
Thanks so much for the insight
xx
Fantastic post NQN. I’ve never been, it looks amazing.
Vietnam….*sigh*
I have always had this on the top of my travel list….This makes me want to go even more now. Thanks for this post, oh and the tip about ice…
Oh btw there is a woman on the plane, in the background of the dessert tray pic, kinda looks like she is picking her nose. That still wouldn’t stop me from wanting the whole tray!
I’m so envious, I’d love to go to Vietnam. The food looks delicious. This is definitely on my list of places to see. GG
You’ve reignited my desire to travel to Vietnam, it looks wonderful. Love, love, love the lack of plastic packaging with the airline food – do you know if that’s standard for the airline or just for business class? We got so annoyed with the amount of rubbish we generated on our recent trip
I think the people first, then the food and the surroundings. A place has to have a good balance of each of those.
My mum said the same thing about crossing the road there. Take a deep breath and walk at a steady pace.
Oh, I adore Vietnam – the food, the buzz… not so much the traffic…
Lucky you to travel to Vietnam. I tell ya, I could eat Vietnamese food every day. I had to chuckle at your mishap with pronouncing that Vietnamese word. I used to work with a reporter who had learned Vietnamese — not an easy language by any means. He told me how one word can be pronounced with five different tones and each would mean something different. I can’t even imagine!
I love these marathon posts! Thank you for sharing your trip with us in great detail.
Oh wow this looks absolutely fantastic, I plan to go on holiday to Vietnam this year while my friends are living in Hanoi. I don’t think I’ll have the luxury of flying business class though
The thing that makes me fall in love with a country is the people you meet, not so much the tour guides but the locals who you chat to while shopping or visiting a special place. I went to Cambodia and while sitting in the Angkor Wat temples a group of children can over to me and asked me questions to practise their enlgish skills (they all asked my name, age and how many brothers and sisters I have!) and they were just the cutest things ever and have inspired me to do a masters of public policy and development so that I can go back and help organisatinos in Cambodia!
Thanks for so beautifully sharing you adventure in Vietnam.
Chloe
Brings back memories of our wonderful 16 days in Vietnam last year. We fell in love with the country primarily because of the fabulous food but taken into account the people, the landscape, the history and so much more we can’t wait to return
Oh, lady, what a wonderful blog! I have wanted to wake up being able to say ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ for the longest of times!! Thank you for giving us a ‘little bit of everything’: from the street food to fine Vietnamese dining
! Streetscapes, history past and present: quite a trip for us too! Your lovely hotel still has vestiges from the Indo-China days . . . a feeling the French had been there . . . Thanks 
!
Oh, you have made me so jealous -I fell in love with Vietnam when we first visited three years ago and again when we went in August this year! Such an incredible country with amzing food! Would be interested to hear your experience travelling Vietnam Airlines back from Vietnam!
All those dishes make me nostalgic! Although I wasn’t raised in Vietnam, I have visited it twice and those photos made me drool. It reminds me of all the food my Mum used to make for me (I no longer live at home so constantly miss “real” vietnamese food).
The pork noodle dish you had is called “Bánh cuốn Thanh Trì”. The fried pork meat is known as “chả lụa”.
Also the sticky rice with chicken dish is called “Xoi Ga” – which was the name of the restaurant you took a photo off. (Vietnamese are very creative with their restaurant names!)
The sauce you had with the rice paper rolls was likely hoi sin sauce mixed with some grounded fresh chilli and a peanut paste (my mum uses peanut butter) and sprinkled with chopped peanuts. There are a few variations though – but that’s my guess!
When you kept saying yummm what did you really mean?:)
And in one of the photos it looks like the passenger is picking on her nose – she isn’t but it looks like it anyway. Priceless:)
I did not know about sense of taste being suppressed in the air! How interesting.
I fall in love with a country based on so many things: how I feel walking down the street, the natural beauty (or lack thereof), the quality and availability of the food, and most of all, the people I interact with.
I hope you’ll post more about Vietnam tomorrow, I’m heading there next week!! I can’t wait to eat everything I see on the street and take my fancy!
I absolutely love love love this post! I’ve not even been back to the place where my family came from (ie Vietnam!) It really makes me want to go..
I was just there couple of weeks ago! For me, I fall in love with a place, after meeting it’s people, learning about their culture and most important of all, when there’s good local cuisine! Favorite street food- too many to choose from but I do love a good banh mi
What a great post! It brings back some great memories of being there even though it was only for 3 days. The people, the city’s vibrant energy and the food are what I miss the most. Once you get out of the airport you are immediately immersed in to the city moving along seamlessly.
Crossing the street is definitely an experience but once you get the hang of it its fine and even a great thrill the first 10-20 times. You would definitely NOT be able to do that in Sydney and not get beeped at or sworn at.
It is definitely on my must-go-again list and soon I must say. I say go with a local or a vietnamese speaker and you will discover the country even more.
I LOVED Vietnam – went there a few months back and travelled north to south from Hanoi down to Saigon. Liked HCMC, but actually preferred Hanoi a little more.
I cried at the War Museum despite my husband’s warnings that it was confronting and graphic. The saddest place…
But would go back to Vietnam in a heartbeat
The coffee!! The food!! The beer!! and oh my lord….the pho!
The long blogs today enchant and teach! And a Yuletide ‘thank you’ to Minh for his ‘hoi sin + chilli + peanut [butter] sauce’!
Fantastic post Lorraine! I’m glad you had a fabulous time! x
We are going to Vietnam for the 1st time in March, though will be flying “cargo Class”
Reading your blog and looking at the pics just gets me more excited and I can’t wait to try all the street food!
I hope you will be posting more on your travels to Vietnam.
I didn’t kn
I didn’t know that ones sense of taste will be slightly off in a flight.
I’ve never thought to visit Viet Nam… you certainly make it seem appealing. I do love their food and those incense cones have always fascinated me… I’ve wanted one for ages. Great reporting job, Lorraine. You even make an 8+ hour flight sound good.
What a great trip! All the food looks delicious (even the airplane food). I’m forwarding this on to my friend who went on a school trip to Vietnam last year and STILL can’t stop talking about it.
Lucky you, Lorraine. Vietnam is on my list of places i want to go to and your photo’s just made me move it up a few notches on that list!
Vietnam is on my “visit soon list”. I fall in love with the people, the food and the landscape. What a wonderful trip!
The pork and noodles looks like the best street food! Plus lap cheong sausage in a fresh roll is an awesome idea! Also love the gorgeous carrot carving with the fried spring rolls. Such an amazing place, cannot wait to get to Vietnam.
OH I would love to visit Vietnam – one day! I’m glad you tried food from the stalls, it’s always a bit scary but how else can you have a truly authentic taste of the food?
I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear that today is a day when your travel posts fill me with happiness rather than burning envious sadness
One day, onde day I hope to experience the business class flight life! It’s fun to at least see it through your eyes, though 
My boss just had to cancel her flights to India, which she was meant to leave on tomorrow, because of issues with her daughter’s passport. I feel so sad for her! I’d be devastated.
—Ohhh, Lorraine,
what an adventure for you…so much history, lush food,unique people, & a completely different culture.
I have heard that Vietnam is Stunning…
Thank you, dear, for taking me there w/ you.
—Even the flight looks Grand!!
I love the lovely plate w/ the flower petals!
—I just wrote a long comment…. where is it!???
Hi, i had a dog baguette when i was in vietnam. Baguette du chein
I eat half of it and suddenly realised what the french word for dog was! It was delicious though. It was one of my best trips to Asia. Great night food markets every night in Ho chi Min
Peter
Business class and Vietnam are on my bucket list.
Even more so now.
Sounds like a great trip. Big fan of Vietnamese food. Would love to visit. Gosh the cover of the book about breastfeeding… you definitely wouldn’t find a cover like that in Aussie book stores. haha.
We went to Vietnam in 1996, when there were only 2 five star hotels in the country, and Vistnam Airlines used scary Russian planes. We loved the country – and the people were so lovely. The food was excellent too. The changes since then are extraordinary.
Fancy a dessert trolley on a plane! Love it. Great hotel accommodation and beautiful food too.
Seeing your trip took me back to the fantastic time I had there too. I love that country
What an incredible trip! Gorgeous photos, and great story as always. And I agree, anywhere that has a 2 hour lunch break including a nap must be good!
I will love to visit Vietnam and Cambodia.
I went to Vietnam in 2003 and loved it. The food, the people, the scenery – especially in the North. We had some amazing experiences like kayaking in Ha Long Bay & trekking in Sapa & staying with remote tribes in their homes. Nowhere i’ve travelled since has managed to surpass it, i’d love to go back
Oh…what a travel experience,while reading you I had transported to Vietnam, it’s so far far away from my country, and I only be able to see it on TV and it is absolutely not the same thing.
I think that the better way to feel a country is just eat their original food, take long walks and try to understand their people and their culture.
Dear Lorraine
Beautiful photos and the Hors D’oeuvre on flight looks pretty good. I’ve been to Hanoi and Ho Chih Minh city quite a few times and I’m glad to say the best pho and Vietnamese food is in Sydney
I also experienced the embarassment of saying yum and then being told what it meant in Vietnamese when I travelled there in October. I loved eating Banh Mi in Vietnam, it was different from what you could get in Australia but a lot of other dishes you could find versions just as good in Australia.
Vietnam is one of countries I dream about going and this post only made me sure that I need to visit one day. I enjoyed staring at every single photo. You make such a great post Lorraine. I appreciate your hard work on writing this long informative post.
You’ve finally made it to Vietnam! I miss it so much after reading your post. The food, the crowd, everything! We also stayed at the Hotel Majestic when we were in Saigon, it’s such an extravagant hotel.
A little of all of the above. And your photos and your descriptions are so intoxicating. Makes me want to jump on a plane right now. As long as I get to fly business class!
I am sooo jealous: South East Asia is my dream, especially Vietnam.
You must be really careful eating the street food,delicious but the night we spent in a Vietnam hospital wasn’t much fun.please stay away from the ice cubes,bottle water every time.
Vietnam is a beautiful country i visited about 10 years ago the food dis divine your post brought back many memories Cabramatta is a good place to evoke the memories if a trip to vietnam is out of the question
Wow! You have taken my breath away! My husband has long wanted to visit Vietnam and has even suggested we move there. I’ll save this post after I show it to him. I did read him your opening paragraph
Just fabulous – but would I have the luck to be pampered like you were? And the food looks as good as husband says it must be! Great, great post!
The plane trip alone sounded like an exciting adventure, but Vietnam- how fascinating! I never realised what an interesting place it was nor how beautiful the food is.
Oh great post. I spent my 40th Birthday in Viet Nam in September. I really fell in love with Hoi An. Its situated half way between Hanoi and HCM. We ate our way through and I did a cooking course. I too kept saying YUUUUMM, the chef said it meant you are horny. Woops. They didnt see me blush because it was so hot anyway! For me its the people, then food a very close second. I gorged myself on rambutan & mangoes for brekky! Everything is incredibly fresh & cheap. Avocado shakes are very popular too!
What a great post! My brother is heading to Ho Chi Minh city next year and I’m going to send this to him.
I really must visit Vietnam, it’s such a beautiful country with fabulous food. Been intrigued ever since I watched Luke Ngyuen’s Vietnam series.
p.s. I love weasel coffee, as you say the aroma/taste is so much stronger than in regular coffee. They have something similar in Indonesia called ‘kopi luwak’ but I haven’t tried that before.
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[...] long enough for the amount of traffic. The weather here is perfect-lacking the humidity of Ho Chi Minh city and a few degrees cooler. It is a popular destination for tourists and some Americans stay for as [...]
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