HK Independent Traveller Blog

When speaking about food in Hanoi, one cannot skip street food. Our first street food in Hanoi was spring roll. Our guide took us to Hang Bac . A man was sitting in front a big pot of hot oil and frying only spring rolls. A woman helped to wrap it to guests. Wow, hot and fresh. Very tasty and we were happy. 有關於河內美食的話題，一定離不開街頭小食。 我們在越南第一道街頭小食是春卷，導遊帶我們去了Hang Bac，一個中年男子坐在一大鑊滾油前面，唯一的工作是炸春卷， 旁邊的婦人幫助包裝春卷給客人，哇，又熱又新鮮，非常熱！ 但好好味，我們很快樂。 In the two weeks we tried various snacks in different cities. If you would like to enjoy them in a more elevated environment, Quan an Ngon  is a good choice. The restaurant is ancient architecture with mainly earth-tone colors. Such building can only be in the memory of the original Hanoi, in books and artworks. But it reappears in the reality.  Quan an Ngon is a big restaurant with a spacious garden. There are many food counters.  Each serves one or a few specialties. Many tables are available to serve guests. But it is always full at...

Nem Lui , Madam Thu We took a private car from  Stop and Go  between Danang and Hue . We were not fortunate with the weather. It was foggy at  Hai Van Pass  and cloudy at the other two sightseeing points,  Lang Co Beach  and  Lap On Lagoon  (Dam Am Cu).  No worry, the atmosphere was romantic and we had a nice ride.  Our driver told us that locals like the  Hanh Restaurant . To have a great view of the city, one should go up to the  Sky Bar  at the top floor of the  Vinpearl Hotel . Very valid recommendations! 我們在 Stop and Go 租了私家車和司機由蜆港出發至順化。在天氣方面我們不是很幸運， 離開蜆港後一路上是密雲，位於高處及可俯瞰海灣美麗全境的 Hoi Van Pass 很大霧，而在其他兩個觀光點 Lang Co Beach 和 Lap On Lagoon 也是烏雲密佈，但是不要緊，氣氛很浪漫， 我們有一個非常輕鬆愉快的旅程。 司機介紹我們當地人都喜歡去 Hanh Restaurant， 如果要見到一個美麗的城市夜景可去Vinpearl Hotel樓頂的Sky Bar。 After we have checked in at The Scarlett Boutique Hotel , we had a walk along the Perfume River . A lot of people were enjoying nice moments with familie...

In Vietnam , there are many choices of food: street food is the most typical, small restaurants serving one food, tourist restaurants serving different kinds of food, upscale restaurants for the middle class and tourists, French or fine dining restaurants. In this post, I will share my food experience in Hoi An .  Restaurants and snack places in other cities will be shared in separate posts. Not all meals were nice. I will be very open to tell what's good and what's so so. Hoi An We followed a friend's advice to visit Pho Xua for a quick lunch.  At TripAdvisor , its rating was 4.5.  We ordered pho (beef noodle) and bun cuon (steam rice roll).  They were OK but did not 'wow'. Price was unbeatable.  2 snacks and 2 drinks for less than USD4. A cool drink is indispensable under the big heat in Hoi An in early March. We had a beer at Mango Rooms Restaurant . It is located next to the river. Nothing is better than to escape the heat both sheltered and c...

Our hotel, Adamo , is located next to My Khe Beach . Naturally, dinner choice is the nearby area.  We walked around, One seafood place was packed.  It looked appealing to me.  But my friend did not like the low table and stools. I warned him not going to restaurants with Chinese characters.  They were most likely not authentic Vietnamese. But I could not stop him and we settled down at Tucana Restaurant . The steam fish was eatable. The fresh spring roll was totally rubbery. It would not be served this way in any genuine Vietnamese restaurant. We were luckier for lunch on the next day, after the Cham Museum .  We had mi quang at Quan Mi Quang Ba Mua and banh xeo at Ba Duong .  Both were very good.   Mi quang is wide rice noodle served with a broth infused with turmeric.  Often shrimp and chicken are added. Ban xeo is savory fried pancake made of rice flour, water and turmeric powder. It is stuffed with meat, shrimp, bean spr...

Vietnam is the second biggest coffee producer in the world.  Local people love filtered coffee dripping on condensed milk. It is stronger than the normal coffee.  If you don’t like sweet, just don’t stir to dissolve the condensed milk at the bottom.  Iced Vietnamese coffee is excellent. Café dots Hanoi here and there. If you are on the coffee street ( Nguyen Huu Huan ) in Hanoi, you will find a café every few steps.  Most of them serve local coffee.  Signs of egg coffee appear every few seconds. Cafe Giang Egg coffee ("cà phê trúng" ) was found in Hanoi.  It is a creamy soft, meringue-like egg white foam perching on dense Vietnamese coffee. It is said that Nguyen Van Giang invented the recipe while working as a bartender at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in 1946. At the time, there was a shortage of fresh milk in the country so whisked egg yolk was used as a substitute. All foreign and local guests in the hotel liked it. So, he...

In this post, I will share my mode of transfer to/from airport , transfer between cities, and within a city in Vietnam. I put prepaid sim card information in the same post as internet connection is indispensable, especially in a country that English is not a common language.  With internet access, we can at least use online translation tool to ask local people information. 今次我會和大家分享 在 越南 往返機場、城市與城市之間及城市之內的交通，我將預繳流動數據卡資料放在本貼文是因為互聯網連繫在今天已經是不可或缺，尤其是在一些英文不是主要語言的國家，最少可以用網上翻譯工具去問當地人問題。 Airport Transfer After some research, we fixed the types and companies arranging our airport transfers. You can find relevant information in the row of ‘Our Choice’. Cost and time required are listed for your reference.  You can request your hotel to book airport transfer for you.  It is more money out of your pocket. I read from a Taiwanese blogger that it costs USD6  per passenger to take airport shuttle from Da Nang to Hoi An . Shuttle bus will depart when getting full. I t...