Day 14 - April 30

Hochiminh City - Cambodia

After breakfast, we had a tour day of the Anglor Wat temple ruins. With the tour group on their way home, I was with my wife Mimi, my dear friend Chef Lawrence Chu and his wife Ruth. We stayed at the French-influenced Hotel de La Paix, where we feasted on such items as pineapple ravioli, soup of catfish amour, pommello salad, grapefruit with orchid and spaghetti noodle. We enjoyed cocktails and beautiful, modern sculpture in the hotel lobby.

Day 13 - April 29

Hochiminh City (formerly Saigon)
Last Day

The last day of the formal tour was a leisure day in Ho Chi Minh City. We played golf and sampled street food. The farewell dinner was held at the fabulous Com Neu-Saigon. Here we feasted on exquisitely prepared seafood, beef, pork and quail, prepared in Traditional Clay Pot.

Day 12 - April 28

Hochiminh - Cai Be - Hochiminh City

We took a car to Cai be Town. From there we took a boat cruise on Mekong river. We visited the Cai be floating market. This is the age - old agriculture implements of wet rice civilization of the Mekong Delta. We visited local houses, and a brick forging and husking factory. We enjoyed tropical fruits and some local products, such as sticky rice wrapped in coconut leaf with banana and black bean. Also coconut jam, rice wine and honey while listening to the "Tai Tu music" - the typical traditional music of Mekong Delta. We ate lunch on the island and then returned to Ho Ch Minh City. We then drove to Binh Quoi village for enjoying traditional show and dinner. We stayed at the Continental Hotel.

Day 11 - April 27

Nha Trang - Hochiminh

After breakfast, we took a flight from the Cam Ranh airport to Ho Chi Minh City. Later that day, we took a tour to the Vinh Ngheim Pagoda, the History Museum, Unification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Post Office. We then took a boat to Binh Quoi village where we enjoyed a traditional Vietnamese show and dinner.

Day 10 - April 26

Nha Trang & Chef's Hometown of Dam Bay Island

Day 10 brought us to my hometown of Dam Bay Island. After breakfast in Nha Trang (at hotel), we took a boat trip to visit Dam Bay Island. A taxi boat took us to Dam Bay by private charter. It was a one-hour trip, the group really enjoyed it. Taken by pedicab around the island, we visited the lobster farm on the island and saw how beautiful it is.

My sister is also a chef. We were welcomed with a drink to our Island. She had beautiful orchids and flowers tied to trees. There are sandy smooth rocks on the beach. It is here we had an unbelievable lunch and dinner on the beach. My sister created from family recipes, a 15 course meal. All local Nha Trang chefs came to cook this meal. We had cognac fermented with scorpions and snakes for after-dinner drinks.

The group all said that this was a "once in a lifetime experience" and would never forget the beauty of the island.

Day 9 - April 25

Hue - Hoi An - Nha Trang

Hoi An is Asian - lots of Japanese settled there hundreds of years ago. It is also a UNESCO Heritage site. We had lunch in Hoi An Pho restaurant, it is very upscale.

After breakfast we departed for Da Nang by road, through Hai Van pass, Lang Co Village. We visited in Da Nang before departing for an evening flight to Nha Trang. We had an incredible dinner on the beach of Nha Trang at Bien Ngoc Restaurant, known for its fabulous seafood.

We stayed at the Saigon Nha Trang Yasaka hotel that evening.

Day 8 - April 24

Hue

After breakfast we took a cruise on the Perfume River to visit the Thein Mu Pagoda - the symbols of Hue and to contemplate Minh Mang Mausoleum. We then visited the Dong Ba market.

We had a fabulous "Emperor Dinner" for royals at the Royal Restaurant. Everyone was fitted in elegant royal silk with headwear. It was a lavish affair.

We stayed the night at the Saigon Morin Hue Hotel in Hue.

Day 7 - April 23

Hanoi - Hue

We took a noon flight to Hue. Hue is recognized by UNESCO as "World Heritage Site". From 1802 - 1945 under the Emperor's of Nguyen Dynasty, Hue was Vietnam's political capital. We visited the Splendid Royal Capital - Imperial Palace which is surrounded by high walls and deep moats. While cruising on the Perfume River we enjoyed traditional Hue music and artistic food platters created to look like animals-- roosters, dragon, hens.

The Hotel Saigon Morin greeted us with a large banner. We dined at Tink-Gia-Vien. The female chef has prepared dinners for the King of Bao Dai.

Day 6 - April 22

Halong - Hanoi

We ate a European style buffet breakfast aboard the boat in the Emeraude restaurant in Halong Bay. On our return to Hanoi we visited Ngoc Son temple and the Hoan Kiem Lake Museum of Fine Art. We had lunch atCha Ca la Vong, it is a 100 year old restaurant that serves only 1 item, grilled fish (seats only 50).

We took a pedicab tour around Ancient Town and enjoyed a theatrical genre reflecting the agriculture civilization of thousands of years ago named Water Puppet Show. We had dinner in Hanoi at Wild Lotus, a beautiful restaurant, fabulous food. This was Chef Khai's second visit to Wild Lotus.

Day 5 - April 21

Hanoi - Halong

On arrival in Hanoi, we ate breakfast in the hotel. After breakfast we departed to Ha Long. Ha Long means "where the dragon descent into the sea." When we arrived in Ha Long, we boarded the Emeraude Classic Cruise (chef shots) where we ate lunch.

Ha Long Bay is recognized as "A World Natural Heritage Site" by UNESCO. The beautiful Ha Long bay covers an area of 1,500 km with over 3000 islands and inlets, innumerable beaches and grottoes created by the wind and waves. We passed some of the most scenic locations including Yen Ngua, Con Coc Mountains and a floating village. The movie, "Indochine" with Catherine Deneuve was shot here.

We had a fabulous dinner prepared by Chef Theil on board and then turned in to our cabin for the night.

Day 4 - April 20

Sapa - Hanoi

After breakfast of fish and sticky rice at the Sapa Market , one of the H'Mong ladies was selling huge bundles of mushrooms. We then visited the Cat Village of the H'mong. After lunch, we visited Taphin village. The H'Mong are one of the minority peoples of Vietnam. They are known as the Red Giao and the Black Giao and often wear large hats in red or black. We visited the Sapa temple built by French in the 1800s. I sat with some of the local ladies in front of the Sapa temple in the fog.

We then boarded the night train to depart back to Hanoi. On the way, we stopped for dinner at the International Hotel. After dinner, we continued on the Victoria Train to Hanoi.

Day 3 - April 19

Sapa

Due to a derailed train traveling in the other direction we did not arrive at the Lao Cai Railway station in morning as planned. We had honey-lemongrass pork with purple cabbage and rice on the train for lunch. It was good, because we were hungry. We arrived in SaPa in the evening and
checked into the Victoria Hotel. All my guests were very impressed with the hotels. We ate French food at the hotel for dinner. It was a nice change of pace. The thick fog that rolled in late night early morning reminded us of a San Francisco night. In the high land, Sapa is about 1,600 meters above sea level.

Day 2 - April 18

Hanoi - Train to Sapa

We ate breakfast at the Gouman Hotel. We then visited Ho Chi Minh City Mausoleum and One Pillar Pagoda, West Lake, Tran Qouc Pagoda, and Literature Temple. We had lunch at QUAN NGON. The tour was impressed by the cuisine and the extensive selection of Tapas dishes (photos coming). In the afternoon, we visited BAT TRANG VILLAGE. The village is well known for their beautiful china wares. At night, we went to Vietnam's famous Emperor Restaurant in Hanoi, where both the food and the service were superb. We then took a beautiful old French Victoria night train from the Hanoi Rail Way Station to Lao Cai..

Day 1 - April 17

Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi and took a tour of the city. We went out to a beautiful restaurant, PHO VUON on Ngo Thoi Nhiem street, for a quick lunch before we headed back out on our tour of the city. We all enjoyed Pho (beef soup). After the tour we went back to Hotel, where we checked in and relaxed. At night, we ate dinner at WILD RICE. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was very good. The tour group enjoyed their meal and their first taste of Vietnamese cuisine in Vietnam. A great first day was enjoyed by all.