Recommendations in Vietnam

Here are some recommendations on places in Vietnam, from a trip my wife and I took April 28-May 12, ’05.

We found three good eating places in HANOI.

At the Cyclo Bar restaurant and garden (38 Duong Thanh Street), you sit on barely converted cyclos (3-wheeled bicycles that carry passengers). The food is Vietnamese with a strong French flavor. Figure about $5 for a beautiful steak.

Under the same management is the Green Tangerine (48 Hang Be), where we dined the following evening. This restaurant is a beautifully converted old French house. With a menu similar to that of the cyclo bar, it had the same young French chef, Stephane Yvan (his business card had both restaurants’ names on it). Mme Chirac, wife of the French president, prefers the Green Tangerine; she was photographed with the chef.

Another eating place we enjoyed was the Little Hanoi, a little downmarket from the others but popular with the older Europeans. We had enormous sandwiches, chicken and salad plus two soft drinks for 80,000 dong (near $5), but there were fuller meals on the menu for not much more.

If you still have that book you bought to read on the plane, get down to The Book Exchange (35 Hang Giay Street, Hanoi) — a tremendous selection at rock-bottom prices.

I bought a book by American historian Barbara Tuchman, first published in 1957 and about 500 pages long, for 60,000 dong ($4). My wife bought “Memoirs of a Geisha” for about the same price. They had two floor-to-ceiling shelves eight meters long, at least, the vast majority in English.

In HOI AN, try the cookery classes at Hai’s Scout Café. For 100,000 dong ($6), you get a hands-on cookery lesson and the full meal (www.visithoian.com).

We stayed at the Cua Dai Hotel (www.hoianhospitality.com) — downmarket, perhaps. $25 for two, breakfast included. We really enjoyed sitting on the rattan chairs on the balcony sipping the free tea, available 24 hours a day. Really friendly staff.

While you are in Hoi An, you may wish to buy a ticket ($5) to visit the Old Town; there are ticket kiosks all over town. It gives you admission to five of the following: three museums, four old houses, three assembly halls, a traditional music concert, a handicraft workshop and the Japanese Bridge. You can buy as many tickets as you wish and thus see them all! The money goes to maintain this UNESCO World (Cultural) Heritage Site — a real haven of peace, I assure you!

You might also like to take a trip to MY SON, another World Heritage Site. Admission is 60,000 dong. It is best to be there at opening time, 6:30 a.m. You will be almost on your own and avoid the heat of the day.

At My Son you can see, in a luxuriant jungle setting, some magnificent Hindu temples built by the ancient Champa people. Some of the temples were destroyed in the war of 30-odd years ago, but what remains is worth the early start.

In HUE, there’s the Citadel, of course. Much of the surrounding area was destroyed in the war. But you can also take a trip up/down the Perfume River to visit temples and palaces — a trip not to be missed. For one temple visit, a final stage had to be taken on the back of a motorbike.

We do so agree with ITN reader Ted Mullet (June ’05, pg. 36). The Vietnamese are so friendly — as well as helpful and charming.

DAVID GLASS
Laree, Gascony, France