Ian Louis Harris

Vietnam Holiday Day Four: Mekong Delta Boating And Home Stay, 13 February 2012

Up and out early for our breakfast cruise on the (lucky) Lady Hau [depicted above] boat, with other hotel residents, to the start of the Cai Rang Floating Market.

Then switched to our own boat where we meet Hiu and Hoa (Captain Birdseye). Captain Birdseye is a very good sailor when there are no other vessels around.

Unfortunately, the floating market has rather a lot of vessels, so we end up in tangled in someone’s anchor and Captain Birdseye goes under about three times failing to release us. He ended up cutting us loose, going under a fourth time and then sailing round finding a replacement anchor for the aggrieved boat.

Eventually we move on to Binh Minh village specialising in dried tofu…

…where we walked around – this village is only aspiring to be cultural and only a minority of households have achieved culture. We met some children and gave some pens. We also picked up Dhi Bay – (Mrs No 7) who prepares a lunch on board– Very tasty – pork stuffed courgette flower, spring rolls, chicken and some river prawns.

Daisy helped Dhi Bay with preparing luncheon

We then stop at Phước Hậu – a cultural village thank goodness [don’t ask how the dictate app imagined that village’s name is spelt], where Daisy cycled with Hiu and I walked with Binh. Very pleasant.

Daisy met this elegant lady on her cycling tour

Ged met this wonderful old-timer on his walking tour

We saw people growing mint and families playing cards – everyone was very friendly.

Comedy moment as Captain Birdseye crosses to the wrong side of the canal as Binh and I cross to meet him but eventually we pick up Daisy and Hiu and go on to Ut Trinh.

Short stop at touristic nursery opposite (too long for Ged) and on to home stay, greeted by a rather sad/sickly looking Mrs Ba.

Soon we meet Rowan and Cindy from Belgium and Manuel the German from Tokyo. Also Parisian Globetrotters Eloise (eight) and her parents.

Cooking class, dinner with our own freebie Park Hyatt wine and chat about the world afterwards.

There is a placeholder with links to all of the photos, itineraries etc. for this Vietnam holiday – here.

Vietnam Holiday Day Three: Saigon To Can Tho, 12 February 2012

Left Ho Chi Minh City for Can Tho by car after splendid breakfast of soup noodles (chicken) and bacon on the side.
Civilised hour of departure (11 o’clock) and arrive [at the Victoria Can Tho] shortly after 1400.
Enjoyed foot massage (extended in Daisy’s case)…

… On returning from a foot massage, Ged got into the lift with an elderly German couple and asked "where are you from"?  "Germany" came the reply. "Which part of Germany"? asked Ged, at which point the woman lectured Ged on the fact that there is only one part of Germany now, that they haven't been "two Germanys" for over 20 years and that North, South, East and West is all "Germany".  Ged replied by saying that he was enquiring which town.  "Münster", came the reply, at which point this couple became The Munsters in Ged's mind – especially the gentleman: "Herman the German" Munster.  Later of course, Ged & Daisy kept bumping in to those two all around the resort, with the German couple being overbearingly jovial and friendly – presumably to make up for the unwarranted tetchiness on first meeting. We even saw them on the floating market the next day, where the German couple looked none too happy on their [unfeasibly] little boat.…

…then Daisy hammered Ged at tennis.

Washed and then enjoyed excellent meal at the hotel – starter of Bon Bon salad, pork with O Mon noodles and roast duck Vietnamese style (whatever that might be!). A sort of coffee ice cream dessert to finish – very enjoyable.

Click above to read more about the Bon Bon salad at the Victoria Can Tho Hotel – photo from that hotel’s website

There is a placeholder with links to all of the photos, itineraries etc. for this Vietnam holiday – here.

Vietnam Holiday Day Two: Saigon, Then Dinner With Ky & Family 11 February 2012

Early start. Ged’s 4:30 attempt at making Vietnamese coffee didn’t go so well this morning – half the coffee ended up outside the cup. Perhaps it was the teacups Daisy put out with the coffee device that wrong footed Ged. Ged’s Vietnamese coffee improved as the days went on!

5:30 met by Binh who is to be our southern guide.
We go to Tao Dan Park and try some aerobics with the girls and walk around watching people play badminton, shuttlecock with feet & doing Tai Chi etc.

We take a coffee at the bird club (Daisy doesn’t like the caged birds) and then stroll some more.
Then we take beef noodle soup at Pho 2000 and a quick whizz round Ben Thanh market – little changed since last time.
Back to hotel for coffee, rest, swimming, R&R and then out to dinner with Ky, his delightful wife Tui and children Ken and Andy.

I explained the story behind this in my Day One piece – Ky was our guide in Central Vietnam when we visited in 1996. I discovered that, coincidentally, our 2012 holiday was arranged through the local agency, Vidotour, as our 1996 holiday had been and that Ky – a newbie guide in 1996 is now National Director of Marketing for company.

It was lovely to see Ky again and meet his family. It was also heart-warming to learn from him that he had remembered us fondly because my letter of praise for his services had helped him progress his career.

We went to Nha Hang Ngon restaurant – mostly local people, tried many starters (fried spring rolls, soft spring rolls, salads et cetera with fish and crab noodle to follow). Very enjoyable evening (see email exchange)

Here is a link to that e-mail exchange/correspondence.

It really was a special and very memorable evening.

There is a placeholder with links to all of the photos, itineraries etc. for this Vietnam holiday – here.

Vietnam Holiday Days Zero & One: London To Saigon Via Bangkok, 9 & 10 February 2012

There is a placeholder with links to all of the photos, itineraries etc. for this Vietnam holiday – here.

Incident free journey from Daisy’s house to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Saigon via Heathrow in Bangkok.
The only remarkable thing about the journey was the lack of remarkable things.
The food on Thai Air was excellent. We set the scene for South East Asian food with green chicken curry as a main and some noodle soup as our breakfast and some chicken and pineapple rice as a second breakfast on the Bangkok to Saigon hop. Good wines and more sleep than usual – still not all that much!
Met by beaming rep (Thien?) who reminded us a bit of Ky!

I need to explain. Ky had been our wonderful guide in Central Vietnam when we first visited the country in 1996.

Me, Ky & A Luverly Bunch Of Coconuts, Outskirts Of Hue, 1996

Quite by chance, it transpired that Ultimate Travel – which we used for this 2012 trip – used the same local agents, Vidotour, as Asia World – which we had used in 1996. I sent the Ultimate agent some of my images of our guides from 1996 and it transpired that Ky, who had been a young guide starting out in 1996, was now Group Director of Marketing for the local agent. He was keen to meet us and for us to have dinner with his family. More on that story anon.

Our room was made available to us immediately, for which we were grateful. We slept a while and Daisy enjoyed a swim.
Then later in the afternoon we ventured round the block to a couple of big malls full of posh shops and eateries but not too well endowed with customers. First Vincom, then Parkson.
Then a relatively early dinner at Square One, the Vietnamese and Western restaurant at the Park Hyatt. We tried pork spring roll wrapped in mustard leaf, river prawn in beans sauce and slow cooked short rib of beef (like my Guangzhou brisket dish). Amazing medley of chocolate puddings and chat with Aussie chef afterwards.

Travelling Light by Nicholas Wright, Lyttelton Theatre, 28 January 2012

We both found this piece charming and entertaining. It is about the birth of the cinema in the late 19th early 20th century shtetl.

It doesn’t get full marks for historical authenticity and it is a very sentimental piece, but that’s not always so terrible.

Superb cast, very well directed and some wonderful effects with the use of film.

Nicholas Wright has previous on these history-based imaginings. We loved Vincent in Brixton for example. Also Mrs Klein – click here or below for that one:

Mrs Klein by Nicholas Wright, Almeida Theatre, 24 October 2009

Travelling Light got mixed reviews – click here for a search term that finds them. Several critics really liked it. Others felt the sentimentality and stereotypes were not for them.

We very much enjoyed our evening, while recognising that this is an entertaining play, not a great play.

Below is the trailer…

…and the following vid has mini interviews with the key cast and creatives.

The Trial Of Ubu by Simon Stephens, Hampstead Theatre, 20 January 2012

We normally love Simon Stephens stuff…

…but this was a stinker.

Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi re-imagined as an International Human Rights trial.

Technically it was very clever – the video/special effects were very innovative. Good cast too.

Great writer but this piece just didn’t work.

The subject matter is so grave that the arty, post-modern “trial of the fictional character” idea just didn’t work for us.

Nor did it work for the critics – click here for a term that finds the reviews. Don’t click if you were involved in this play/production.

The trailer is embedded below:

Constellations by Nick Payne, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 14 January 2012

Just occasionally we don’t have enough positive adjectives to describe how we felt about a play/production.

Constellations by Nick Payne was such a show.

Here is a link to the Royal Court resource on this production.

Upstairs, but with a stellar cast – Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall, this was a stunning piece of theatre that genuinely wowed us…

…and by 2012 Janie and I were not easily wowed.

In fact Janie doesn’t usually go for these “science meets love” type plays, but this one is truly exceptional, making her feel neither dumb nor condescended.

Here is a link to a search term for the reviews, which were pretty much universally rave ones – deservedly.

Charles Spencer’s rave review in The Telegraph includes a short vid interview with the stars – click here.

Collaborators by John Hodge, Cottesloe Theatre, 7 January 2012

I think I liked this play more than Janie did.

It was a fictionalised…somewhat fantasised account of encounters (which did occur to some extent in real life) between the writer Mikhail Bulgakov and Joseph Stalin.

We were blessed with Alex Jennings as Bulgakov and Simon Russell Beale as Stalin, with Nicholas Hytner in the director’s chair.

In truth, I don’t think it was a great play. It was a very good idea for a play with some very good scenes within it, but as a whole it didn’t quite work for me as an entire play.

But there was enough really good stuff going on to please me plenty, on balance. Whereas I think Janie found it a little drawn out and confused/confusing.

The reviewers were more with me (on the plus side) than with Janie (on the “a bit muddled) side – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.

Below is a link to the trailer: