It’s the end of June and I am now spending 2 nights in the
city of Hanoi, Vietnam – a city that is still trapped with the nostalgic
feeling and reminders of the yester years.
My 2 nights stay was in Crown Plaza, West Hanoi, a very good hotel at the price of USD 91 that
comes with breakfast. The breakfast was good, a mix of the Asian
with the west and of course, the Vietnamese.
It is not exactly in the center
of the City, for it is near to where I
need to spend my time.
The room is superb, thrown in with WIFI, although I did not
manage to make it to use although I managed to sign on the network. I was told subsequently that perhaps using
the cable to connect direct to the port,
I would be able to use it.
Opposite is the supermarket,
house in the ThienSon Plaza, and
over the other end, a couple of food
court where you can try out the local food.
For dinner, I was
lucky and been able to savour the local flavours at the Restaurant Spectacle
hidden with the lanes of the city where local and western food flows along with
wine and liquor. Service was good with
the waitresses trying to explain what the dishes are and how to savour them
with their hard to understand accent.
There were plenty of the variety starters to go with the main
course. I chose the Lobster which was
well served, my all time favorite.
In between time, I managed to squeeze in some time to wander
off to a place the local call the Old Quarter with its adjacent “Hoan Kiem Lake …”, another amazing maze of back lanes of
shop houses, shops selling all sorts of branded product, shoes, handbags, luggages, etc…
The 2nd night dinner was at a Vegetarian
Restaurant, again a small outfit tugged
into the narrow maze of lanes of the city center… they called it the Kim
Ma area.
The food was good, and for all 9 our us hugh guys, the bill came to about USD50. What more do you ask for?
