Day 1 - Walk in Hanoi, Vietnam

For the year 2011, it seemed that we are visiting more country around Asia, and would like to end 2011 at the high note by visiting the country which boast magnificent food, culture and the re-known Unesco World Heritage of Halong Bay. We headed to the beautiful capital city of Vietnam this time round - Hanoi!

For all this while, I presumed that Ho Chi Minh is the capital city of Vietnam, but it is not. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and there lays the great Ho Chi Minh, great Vietnam's revered leader. I will blog more about him in the next post.

So, we departed from Singapore Changi Airport to Hanoi using Tiger Airways. It took us about 4 hours to reach Noi Bai International Airport.

Prior to our arrival, we have pre-booked the airport pick up service from the hotel we are going to spent our night at - Hanoi Elegance Diamond Hotel. The airport pick up service is USD18 per car per trip. So, if you are going in a group, USD18/car is a very reasonable price. The distance from Noi Bai International Airport to the hotel is about 45 minutes depend on the road conditions.

Upon reaching Hanoi Elegance Diamond (HED), we were given a great welcome by the staffs. We got a nice welcome drink to quench our thirst and a cold tower to freshen things up, while they got our room ready. We were very lucky this time as we got our room upgraded from deluxe room to family room, without any extra charges! 

This is our room - 808.

The room is spacious and the ambience is comfy.

2 big beds were provided and the most exiting part was, it is furnished with a mini jacuzzi!

Free wifi service and a small laptop is provided in room. I would say, hospitality at its best!

After some rest, we got outside to have a short stroll along the streets of Hanoi.

We didn't stay too long outside, as it got colder as night came. Undecided where to have our dinner, we finally walk back to our hotel and had our dinner in the hotel and never regret it. Believe me, this in house restaurant in HED is one of the best restaurant in Hanoi.

The restaurant is located at the top most floor of the hotel and it offers marvelous food while enjoying the night scenery of Hanoi City. Furthermore, if you stay in the hotel, you got an additional 10% off the bill and no service charge or tax applies.

As the festive season is around the corner, we could see Christmas decorations in the restaurant which added even more feel to the excellent ambience the restaurant possessed.

We started with a Sesame Falafel - USD4.00

It is ground chickpea balls stuffed (separately) with spicy Japanese tofu and lotus seeds, and served with delicious tahini based sauce.

I got a Pho Chicken Noodle Soup - USD4.80

Must try this house favourite. Fresh rice noodles soup served with chicken, and the soup is enhanced with spring onions and herbs.

Connie got a Cha Ca La Vong - USD7.90

Another typical Vietnamese cuisine which served chunks of Snakehead Fish, with is marinated with turmeric, galingale sauce, condiments, and were fried and served in clay pot.

It is best eaten by rolling up with fresh vermicelli, peanut and fried spring onion, fresh vegetables and some special sauce, in a sheet of rice paper. 

In short, we call them as self made "Po-piah".

The dinner was a filling and enjoying one. I have no complains of the service we got from the staff of the restaurant. They speak good English provide a 5 star service to the customer.

After dinner, we went back to our room and have a good rest.