As I expected, waking up in our bed on our cruise ship facing the immense picture window that offered us the most serene sight imaginable, was worth taking this entire long trip to Ha Long Bay. In the soft light of dawn, with Llew sleeping softly besides me, the rest of the world still seemed deep in slumber as I crept out of bed and grabbed my camera to take a few pictures. The air was rain-scented and soft (reminded me so much of similar dawns in Hawai’i), fragrant with a salt tang (no wonder Jo Malone has a perfume called Sea Salt and Wood Sage), the earth was quiet as if holding at bay the sounds of another new day. I was thoroughly enchanted. So enchanted was I that I slipped out of our room, walked a few steps to the door that led straight to the back deck and standing on the prow took some selfies of me, a la Titanic. I breathed in the purity of the air while surrounded by limestone karsts—conical rocks—that stood like silent sentinels to protect me. It was an inexplicably peaceful feeling of knowing in the back of my head that God’s in His Heaven, All’s Right with the World.
But then it was time for Llew to awake too and for us to get ready for a very early breakfast—yes, at 6.15am, we were all assembled in the restaurant to have breakfast. Strong coffee and juice were provided as were Danish rolls, chocolate muffins, toast with preserves and fruit—an excellent Continental breakfast. We helped ourselves quite liberally as we had another boating excursion ahead of us.
Boating Excursion to Dark and Light Cave in Lan Ha Bay:One of the things you notice about the limestone karsts at Ha Long Bay is that they have natural caves in their base. Visiting these caves is, of course, only possible by small rowing boat or kayak and almost every overnight cruise operator includes a visit to at least one cave as part of the program. Our operator, La Pandora Cruises, went the extra mile, literally. Instead of taking us to a cave in Ha Long Bay itself, it took us to another bay—Lan Ha Bay—which is on the outer rim of Ha Long Bay and is a part of the Cat Ba National Park.
So, of course, each of us jumped from our cruise ship to the small boat attached at the back and sailed at dawn, in the quiet light of the morning, to Lan Ha Bay. There, we found ourselves surrounded by the same limestone karsts as the sky brightened. It was still damp and drizzly—which made Kevin provide each of us with one of those flimsy, plastic, disposable raincoats—which only I seemed to actually wear (I hated getting wet as raindrops spatter my eye-glasses and make it hard for me to see).
From our small boat, we were directed into a pontoon that served as another boating pier. We were shepherded into small rowing boats—six people in one boat—and off we went deep into the heart of Lan Ha Bay. We were heading to Dark and Light Cave which we saw ahead of us. Our boatman was a sweet young lad who directed us to switch sides in order to keep the boat in balance. He provided us with the bamboo conical Vietnamese hats as the drizzle got more persistent. But soon we came to the mouth of the cave that rose in a wide arch ahead of us. It was clear to see that the middle of the arch was pitch-dark while light streamed into the cave at the other end. Several boats were in the sheltered bay at this time and many of the boaters were singing songs as the closed walls of the cave-tunnel provided fine echoing acoustics.
Slowly, very gently, the only sounds being the swishing of the oars, we were rowed through the cave. Up above us, we could see the naturally varied colors of the granite rock and the slight vegetation growing out of them—wondrously. Some of the rocks hung down like stalactites and made for a really beautiful scene. Once we passed through the tunnel, we were on the other side of the bay where light streamed down upon us as a good hour had passed since we had first set out on our dawn excursion. Other than describing the set-up as ethereal, I simply cannot find a word to describe what I was feeling as I took in the scene.
We were rowed around the other side of the bay before we made our way back to the pier and into our boat. While going through the tunnel this time round, I asked my boat companions to sing—to hear the echo of our voices as we passed through it. I began singing ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’ and my companions joined in and I followed it with ‘Michael Row The Boat Ashore’. I had a bunch of game companions (especially the Malaysian family) plus Thomas and Brenda who were part of our fun. Thomas then entered into a long discussion with me about Bollywood songs because, as it happens, he is a Lata Mangeshkar-Asha Bhonse fan! Who’d have guessed it? A man from the Czech Republic, partnered with a gal from Mexico, now living in Singapore and vacationing in Vietnam was a Bollywood music fan! It reminded me so much of the time I was on the train from Tashkent to Samarkhand in Uzbekistan sharing the wagon with a bunch of big, burly, elderly Uzbeks drinking schnapps and eating pierogi who, seeing that I was an Indian, burst out into Bol Radha Bol Sangam song from the Raj Kapoor film Sangam followed by Mera Jhoota Hai Japani from Raj Kapoor’s Awara! It was one of the most amazing experiencing of my life and I felt like it was deja-vu all over again when Thomas began to hum the tune of a Lata Mangeshwar song and then the Malaysian lady said she knew a Hindi song called Jago Re! My goodness! You can just imagine what an out-of-world experience this was for me.
Return to the Cruise Ship for Brunch:A little later, leaving the delights of Lan Ha Bay behind us, we were steered back to our cruise ship at Ha Long Bay. Kevin directed us to finish our packing and leave our bags outside our doors to be picked up by the crew. I took Llew to the prow of the ship so that we could take the mandatory Titanic pictures together—just for fun, of course—before we returned to our cabin. There was time for showers and a quick change before we were all to meet again for dinner in the restaurant. Kevin called it Brunch, but it turned out to be a full lunch indeed.
Brunch was a wonderfully warming bowl of tomato soup with toast croutons, a starter of grilled shrimp with an accompanying coleslaw, a brilliantly done bit of beef steak served with broccoli and roast potato and a delicious pepper sauce, braised chicken with vegetables served with a rice cake and gravy and dessert of fresh fruit (dragon fruit and pineapple). During lunch, we joined the Australian ladies at their table and Eman pointed out a mountain goat to me on one of the islands—it was tiny, and its white back was all I could see. They called it brunch because it was just 11.00 am, but it was a full five-course lunch indeed and it was scrumptious. It totally filled us up for the long journey back to Hanoi that we would undertake as the rain came down.
Journey Back to Hanoi:So we said our goodbyes and thank-yous to the ship’s crew leaving our tips for them of course, as they had been exceptional in the service they had provided. We boarded our smaller boat and were steered through the Bay in the rain that kept streaming down the window panes and required us to shut them as we were well sprayed by it.
We did arrive at the harbor and returned to the chaos of the general world after being cloistered from its worries, care and anxieties for a good two days. About fifteen minutes later, our coach arrived and Lelw and I were fortunate enough again to get the two seats right at the front that offered us a great view of the road ahead of us. We made one rest room stop at a rest area where we picked up chocolate popsicles studded with roasted almonds—delicious.
Once in Hanoi, a good two hours later, we were the last ones to be dropped off at our hotel. Most of the others had alighted before us as they reached their own hotels. Llew and I checked again into the Flower Garden Hotel and made ourselves comfortable. Throughout the time we had been at Ha Long Bay, we had been in touch with Dat, our travel assistant, to book a Walking Street Food Tour of Hanoi that my friend Delilah had recommended. As it turned out, Dat came through for us quite splendidly and, by the time, we checked into the Flower Garden Hotel, our tour for the evening was confirmed. We would be meeting our tour guide at 6.00 pm in the lobby of our hotel. This left us with about an hour to relax and even take a short nap.
The Absolute Delights of a Walking Street Food Tour in Hanoi:When we went down to the hotel lobby at 6.00 pm, we found our guy Kenny waiting for us. He turned out to be an absolutely lovely fellow, who (thank heavens) had perfect English and was effortlessly communicative. We had paid $21 each for the tour and it included a taxi ride which took us to the heart of Old Hanoi from where we would go from one place to another tasting a variety of Vietnamese foods.
During the course of our time with Kenny, we discovered that he was 21 years old, learned English as a child from his mother who used to be an airline stewardess, that both his parents today run a Vietnamese restaurant in which he also works, that he has a girlfriend whom he would be meeting for dinner at the end of the evening and that he has been doing these tours for the past couple of years. Well, he was just splendid and we had a fantastic evening in his company.
Kenny started us off by taking us for Bun Cha (Rice Noodles with Grilled Pork in Pork stock) served with Salad Greens and Herbs. We told him that we’d eaten Bun Cha at the “Obama Place” where it was superb but he assured us that this version, in a place actually called Buncha, was far better. And indeed, Kenny was right. The Buncha here was to-die-for. When we discovered that we had four or five more places to go and foods to try out, Llew decided to go easy, but I was greedy enough to finish my whole bowl—it was that good. We also told Kenny to take us walking to the rest of the places so that we could get some exercise before we tucked into the next course. Unlike Hueng Lien’s (aka The Obama Place), this place is a modern restaurant with a lovely upper storey where you sit at long wooden communal tables. The décor is very elegant and very homely at the same time, and we enjoyed just being there.
En route to the next place, when we were actually passing through a street market, I asked Kenny if he could find me dried shitake mushrooms that I could take home with me to India. He did not know what they were. I used Google Translate to help him find the Vietnamese word for them and he knew immediately what they were. He then led me to a grocery place where he spoke in Vietnamese to the saleswoman and got me a whole lot of shitake mushrooms. I will use them in soups, stews, spring rolls, etc. just as I did in the US where I would buy them in plastic bags. Just next door to this shop was another that sold Fermented Ready-to-Eat Fish & Seafood for the local population. There was whole fish rubbed with spices that would be taken home and fried and a number of tiny shrimp made into pickle-like concoctions which Kenny told us are ready to eat.
Our next stop was at a place called Nom Thit Bo Kho where we sat on small plastic stools, in traditional style, to enjoy another one of Vietnam’s contributions to global gastronomy --Steamed Beef & Beef Jerky Salad w/Raw Papaya and Roasted Peanuts, another absolute winner. Llew, who does not eat papaya, was doubtful he would like the dish. But I assured him the salad was made of raw papaya and he would not even realize he was eating papaya. I turned out to be correct. Llew loved the dish. The roasted peanuts on the top, two kinds of beef (steamed and jerky) and the delightful dressing combined to make for a marvelous dish. Kenny explained that the dressing is very simple to make if one has the right ingredients: sugar (sweet), lime juice (sour), soya sauce (salt), chilli flakes (hot/spicy), fish sauce (emami) are combined according to one’s taste and poured over thinly slivered vegetables all over Southeast Asia to make these amazing salads. Because there is no added oil, they are also light and healthy. We sat down on the stool inside and merrily tucked into the salad bowl before us.
By this time, we were near the periphery of the lake—so we requested Kenny to walk with us around a bit so that we could digest each course before moving onto the next. He obliged and, in a short time, we were at the next port of call: Nem Nuong Nha Trang Que Hoa for Vietnamese Summer Rolls—you fix your own with the provision in a large tray of Rice Paper Wrappers, whole lettuce leaves, grilled pork, sticky rice, raw mango, cucumber, fresh herbs… eaten with a satay-style peanut dipping sauce. They were just amazing. You have the added joy of making them on your own and experiencing the variation of texture in your mouth. The sauce was simply superb and again, we could not quite get enough of it. We could have eaten two rolls each (at least), but we stopped at one each as we were certainly beginning to feel really full and Kenny kept reminding us that we still had Pho to go through. As we know that Pho involves another big bowl of noodles in broth, we were hesitant to eat any more. And good job we didn’t!
The next stop on our agenda was a place called Pho Ga (Chicken Pho) with rice noodles, chicken broth, lime juice, herbs. We had to dodge really bad traffic to get to the little place which was tiny and contained the little plastic stool on small tables once again. Kenny explained that this Pho would be different from the vast bowls we had been consuming, This Pho would be dry, he said, but would contain the same flavor. When our big bowl arrived, we found that it looked like a large bowl of flat, thick, cooked rice noodles thickly sprinkled with fried onions, bean sprouts and coriander springs. The broth was provided in a smaller bowl on the side. If you found your noodles too dry, you were free to use the broth to moisten them—which was entirely what I did. They were amazingly good, but the thought of going through another whole bowl of noodles was just too much for us. We ate a quite hearty portion of it and decided to call a halt.
Kenny then took us to the next place: literally a street-side shack (not even a restaurant or a shop) where a woman provided what Kenny called dried Dracontomelon Juice. This came in large plastic glasses with lots of ice. It was super refreshing. Neither one of us had heard of this juice before and we were glad to learn and taste something so out-of-the-ordinary on this trip. It’s a small, light green stone fruit (like an apricot) but is called a melon (a real misnomer, methinks) and is native to Southeast Asia.
Finally, for our last stop, which Kenny called “Dessert”, he took us to Café Giang to taste Egg Coffee. Now this was an item that I found advertised in so many of the coffee shops all over Vietnam. I had not known, before I arrived in the country, that Vietnam is the world’s second greatest consumer of coffee after Brazil! Who knew? It turned out that coffee plants are grown on the hills of the north on huge coffee estates. The Vietnamese have varied ways of serving coffee—the best known are with condensed milk and with coconut milk (they call it Coconut Coffee). What has really soared to fame, however, is Egg Coffee, thanks to Mr Giang, who in the 1940s, ran a modest coffee joint in Hanoi. One fine day, he ran short of milk and simply substituted an egg yolk inside (leaving out the white). He beat the yolk till creamy and made it the base of a strong coffee—and thus was born the famous Egg Coffee. It is a sweet, creamy, very unique concoction that is absolutely delicious. When the coffee proved to be such a hit, Mr, Giang created Egg Chocolate—hot chocolate made with the same creamy beaten egg yolk--and we enjoyed both of them very much.
Mr. Giang’s Café, the one we visited, is the original cafe from where the first Egg Coffees were made. Tourists kept trooping in with large walking tour groups and we were absolutely delighted when one of them brought our friends Natalie, Cate and Eman with it. We had tried all evening to connect with them as it was we who had told them about the food tour and had invited them to join ours. It turned out that even though they joined a tour by the same company, they were assigned another large group while Llew and I were on a separate tour, completely private, with just Kenny and us.
Well, by this time, we were well and truly full. Our friends’ group was heading off for dessert—they were going for Vietnamese ice-cream, which I would have dearly loved to taste. But Kenny told us that the Juice stop was on our tour and not on their’s. Hence, they had ice-cream and we did not. Apart from this disappointment, it was an incredible experience! The food was absolutely scrumps! The entire walking tour was in the atmospheric warren of narrow streets in the Old Quarter of Hanoi (a bit like Bombay’s Bhendi Bazaar but much cleaner!) The many tourists we saw taking the food tour made us feel really thrilled that we had taken it. It is a unique and absolutely delish gastronomic experience and a Hanoi Must-Do!
All that was left was for us to call a taxi (Kenny did it) that would take us back to our hotel where we reached in ten minutes, to take our showers and go off to sleep.
It had been another incredible day and we were so pleased with the many cultural experiences we had enjoyed in this busy city that never seems to sleep.
Until tomorrow…
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