Miaminice

A short drive brought us to The Temple of Literature.
 

It was founded in 1070 to worship the Chinese philosopher Confucius and later It became the first university of Vietnam for over 700 years and taught hundreds of renowned scholars and mandarins. Like most Chinese style temples it was very ornate and almost overwhelmingly rich in decor - and fascinating.
 

Next on our itinerary was the nearby One Pillar Pagoda, a reconstruction of a temple originally constructed in 1049.
 

Then we walked to the Presidential Palace just around the corner.

The grand yellow building was built from 1900 to 1906 by the French Colonial Government as the residence of the Governor-General of Indochina. After the withdrawal of the French, the Government of Ho Chi Minh used the Presidential Palace as its base.

However, Uncle Ho refused to live in the palace but preferred to live in a small wooden house on stilts by the pond he had installed in the grounds of the palace.

A little later we met Rose in the lobby and she took us to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum first.
We arrived just in time to watch the changing of the guards in front of the revolutionary leader and President´s resting place across from the Vietnam National Assembly.
 

Celebrity Solstice - December 2023 - Thailand & Vietnam - Day 12 - Hanoi

After ending the last day of 2023 with a bang we woke up early on January 1st of the new year 2024 curious of what the year would bring.

The first thing it brought for us was a good breakfast in the Hotel Anatole´s nice breakfast room.

It was hard not to indulge in the well presented and wide variety of alluring local and western treats. However, we kind of had an idea of what to expect for the day so we limited ourselves to a nice selection of fruit and sweets.

7 hours ago, teach22042 said:

Thank you for the report. Were you concerned about eating street food? My doctor has told me to avoid cold items, and we really want to enjoy the coffees, teas and fruits. 

Also, do the tour operators accept tips in these countries? I know some places don't,  but I'll be there in March and plan to tip in local currency.

No, we weren’t worried at all and had not problems at all. We trusted Rose to take us to places which were “safe”. The places she picked were all very popular. 
 

Yes, guides accepted tips. It’s Japan where tips are not so common but slowly making their way into certain areas of tourism. In Vietnam and Thailand it’s no problem. Rose gave us advice how much to tip.

.

😞 OK, I fully admit this is were the Live(ish) report becomes more ish than live...

I am working on the next and last parts of the report. Unfortunately, after our dream vacation, we are deeply immersed in real life and work again. More than I´d like to be... 🙂 

So please stay tuned... 🙂

Tripplelights and Toursbylocals are my go tos in Japan.

you might like our review(s) for tips.

The latest from October 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2845307-october-24-2023-celebrity-millennium-12-nights-southern-japan/

Japan on HAL

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html

or our first one a few years ago

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

23 hours ago, macaroni said:

Miaminice…

I have followed and read all your Japan adventures. I know you have stayed in both the Tokyo station area and also the Shinjuku area…..which did you prefer? We will be first time visitors. Coming in from a few days in Kyoto, then staying in Tokyo for a few nights before boarding the Millennium for our Japan cruise.

Any thoughts, preferences, opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hmmmhhh, well we did stay in the Shinjuku area again on our last visit. Mainly because we liked the buzz. But in terms of convenient location and getting to places, both areas are great. Maybe Shinjuku station is a bit easier to master than Tokyo Station. Both are not small but Tokyo Station is a maze 🙂

So if you also enjoy a bit of unusual buzz, I´d suggest Shinjuku.
We liked the Gracery Hotel. If you stay longer than a night book a larger room. 

55 minutes ago, vickykay said:

Amazing!  Thanks so much for sharing your amazing trip. Always enjoy your reviews.  Looking forward to your next one.

 Thank you! It’s not quite over yet ☺️

Back at the hotel we thanked our fabulous drivers, and said goodbye. Birgit and I decided to go for a walk along the shore of the nearby Sword Lake. It was nicely illuminated and crowds of young people gathered to wait for New Year, even though in Vietnam the lunar new year (Tet Holiday) is celebrated on February 10th.

We walked along the shore and enjoyed the vibe until we reached Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square. Thousands of young people gathered around a huge stage where a countdown concert took place. We bought a coffee and immersed ourselves into the crowd.

On the stage Vietnamese superstars played their music. The lively atmosphere was infectious so we decided to stay. Rapper Double2T sang an apparently popular hit. And despite the fact that we had no idea what the lyrics were we sang the refrain “À Lôi” along with the masses.

When the female singer My Tam was announced, the crowd was ecstatic - no doubt she’s a big deal in Vietnam.

Time passed and suddenly there was a countdown on the big screens. So here we were - immersed in a young cheerful crowd on a square in the middle of Hanoi screaming Happy New Year. 
 

Birgit and I kissed, wished each other all the best for 2024 and, feeling blessed and grateful for all the amazing experiences, we knew without words that we both felt we could not have had a better day to end the year! Happy New Year, dear friends all around the world.

Filled and happy we drove back to the hotel through even heavier traffic. It was astonishing. To us it looked like absolute chaos. On the crossroads it felt like different schools of fish colliding and melting together. However, even though cars and whole families on two wheels passed each other by merely a few inches, there was no touching and scratching. We had noticed that only very few cars and motorcycles had dents or scratches. Amazing!
 

Our wild scooter ride continued past the nicely illuminated Ho Chi Minh-Mausoleum and the National Assembly Building before we stopped again at a roadside restaurant.
 

We sat down with our whole gang at the low tables and had Bún Chả.

Bún Chả is a Hanoi signature dish. Grilled pork and rice noodles served with a very tasty dipping sauce, more like a broth. Since President Obama and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain had it in one of the restaurants of the french quarter in 2016 it’s also known as Obama Noodles. I am 100 % sure that no celebrity chef could have prepared the dish any better than the one we had. Only our already sumptuous lunch kept us from having a second helping. 

We stopped, got off our scooters and walked a few steps to a small cafe by the railroad tracks to try an Iced Salt Coffee.
 

The chairs barely fit between the wall and the tracks.

While enjoying our coffee we were asked to sit sideways and not to move. And sure enough, just when we turned to the side we heard the deafening blast of train horns and saw the headlights rushing towards us. A few seconds later our laughter was drowned out by the roar of the train speeding by just inches away from our seats. Did I call the scooter ride hilarious? 🤣 

Still laughing about the experience and eager to take some group shots we had to sit down again after a few minutes. Train approaching from the other side…

We paid for the coffees thinking that the few Dong didn’t just include a good coffee but also a priceless experience. 
 

After a while our group turned into a winding tunnel in between houses. Barely wide enough for one scooter it was a two way traffic route - and it included merchandise  from shops and parked scooters along the way. Beep, Beep… here we come.
 

Celebrity Solstice - December 2023 - Thailand & Vietnam - Day 11 - Part 2 New Year’s Eve - Hanoi

After freshening up we went down to the lobby of our hotel where Rose met us with her team of scooter drivers. After short introductions we soared off into the traffic of Hanoi. Minh, a lovely young lady, was my personal race driver 😁 

Like a pro she expertly zoomed through the myriads of scooters, some with families of four on them. While doing so we casually chatted and I really admired her perfect English. Getting to see Hanoi in a way millions of locals see it daily from their motor scooters was just hilarious.

9 hours ago, louise1955 said:

I was mainly wondering about bed, balcony, cleanliness, etc.

No problem whatsoever there. Clean she was ! You could always see staff cleaning the stairs, glass etc. And it seems some staff live in the restrooms - there’s always someone in there keeping it clean 😁

Our balcony was fine. Our fabulous stateroom attendant Faniry took good care of everything. And we never ran out of water - two new bottles a day. Regardless if we drank the previous ones or not.

We also very much appreciated, that she followed our decision to clean the towels or not. She only took them when we really put them on the floor. I really don’t need fresh towels twice a day. On previous cruises most stateroom attendants took them no matter if we had the on the rack or put them on the floor. 

On 1/3/2024 at 7:04 AM, mahdnc said:

We get to the front of the line only to find out the taxis here in modern day Hong Kong take cash only, no credit cards!

Hi David!

Hope you and your wife are doing well.

We are back home and busy catching up with things here.

FYI: In HK you can use the uber app for taxis. Small booking fee but then payable via the app. That’s what we did because I didn’t want to exchange any money just for the day. 
Oliver

Rose had made some suggestions for Hanoi hotels in suitable locations during our planning phase. We had picked the Anatole Boutique Hotel because it looked good and offered a very good rate.
 

When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised. It looked even better than online and the hotel staff was very friendly.

The rooms were also very nice and the glass partition of the bathroom even had a magic switch to block the view - cool 😎

We freshened up a bit and changed for the next part of today‘s adventure. I will tell you about it in another post - so stay tuned!

Then it was time to work off some of that fabulous food. We stopped at a pier and had the choice of kayaking ourselves or taking a sampan ride.
 

Birgit and I decided to kayak while the rest of our cruise family chose a sampan. I swear, our kayak would have not been so low in the water on other days. A tribute to the magic lunch table.

We paddled through the emerald green water and entered two beautiful lagoons through caves. The lagoons were once used by fishermen as shelters from the typhoons.

Besides the singing of the ladies rowing the sampans to entertain their passengers, gliding through the waters was almost serene.

After this post lunch activity we sailed back to the port and started our drive to Hanoi in yet another clean and comfortable van. 

We were so absorbed by the food that we hardly had time to admire the landscape outside.

However, Rose pointed out some interesting rock formations like the one depicted on the 200,000 VND bill.
 

When we went back on board of our ship it was time for lunch. We sat down and Rose presented what she and the ship’s chef had prepared. One delight after the other filled the table and food kept appearing as if by magic. Rose brought spring rolls made by her mother, salads, potato fries, oysters, shrimp, fish, pork and and and… unbelievable! Everything was delicious. When we couldn’t possibly have any more, fruit from Rose’s parent’s farm was served as dessert. To call it a feast would be the understatement of the century. We felt truly blessed!

After a short while we reached Thien Cung “Heavenly Palace” grotto.
 

Thien Cung grotto is vast and covers thousands of square-meters. Its complex structure consists of many levels, many with high ceilings and walls. Before entering the underworld of the cave, Rose expertly told us about its history and its legends.

Everywhere in the grotto, there are countless stalactites and stalagmites with unique shapes.

Rose pointed out a few which looked like dragons, lions and even Santa’s face. Look at the photos. Can you see them?

The massive halls of the grotto appeared to us like a museum of Mother Nature’s fascinating artwork.

Once the ship was cleared, we took a shuttle to the port terminal where we met Rose. 
 

From there we took a van to the port of the Halong Bay cruise ships and boarded our ship, the Nam Cuong.
 

It didn’t take long and we sailed out into the bay. Halong Bay is famous for the unique formation of nearly 2,000 thousand limestone islands and islets in an emerald ocean. We made ourselves comfortable on the upper deck and admired the uniquely shaped islands floating by while Rose disappeared into the galley of the boat. When I say we, I have to clarify that I really mean just us - the six of us had the whole ship to ourselves!