Tag: Ninh Van Bay

25 February 2012

Another glorious day. We skip tennis on grounds of Ged’s sore throat and full itinerary for the day.

Arrange to take Dinner On The Jetty.

At breakfast we chat to Daisy’s German friends from the earlier yoga class – they turn out to be medical academics from Heidelberg – still we get confused about whether or not they are joining our class later.

After breakfast we do a Vietnamese massage workshop – Ged acts as a model and Daisy learns the techniques. We meet some young sunburnt Hong Kongers there.

Then back to our villa for a last day of resting and reading by a private pool.

Ged read the end of The Marriage Plot, a couple of Alexander MacLeod short stories on the Kindle and starts A Visit From The Goon Squad.

I have a dreadful feeling I didn’t quite get going with nor did I finish Goon Squad. I’ll need to dig that one out again.

Later we take our complimentary sunset cruise (gold star to Ân for remembering to switch wine for bubbly) and then get ready for dinner.

Dinner on the jetty (see menus) was excellent – Ged found opportunities to tip most of the people who been looking after us – chef Basha Ched Tuong, Leo (food and beverage), Ân… Gary the GM joins us for quite a while and helped us to get through our bottle of Alsatian Tokay/Pinot Gris. Excellent meal.

26th of February 2012

Another glorious day, but sadly we are leaving. After some early morning R&R we pack.

23 February 2012

Glorious weather today. Played tennis at 9.00 a.m. – I won 6-2.

After breakfast we try Reiki self relaxation class – Daisy probably gets a bare pass – I get an epic fail.

Then we enjoy the sun and Ged starts The Marriage Plot...

…by Jeffrey Eugenides…I enjoyed this novel but not as much as I had enjoyed Middlesex on an earlier holiday.

We go to cocktail party at the gallery and then on to Dining On The Rocks. We wait nearly an hour for our first courses which turn out to be our second courses blah blah – all resolved in the end I suppose but £300 plus dinners shouldn’t be that way.

Ged has “Aromas” and Daisy has “Rock” (see enclosure) both with wine pairings.

When we get home housekeeping has left us no water which irritates Ged further.

First world problems, I know, I know…

24 February 2012

Glorious weather again – we play tennis early on but Ged still wins 6-2 and it is still O-T-‘ot.

Staff queue up to apologise for yesterday’s misdemeanours and Ân brings a bottle of wine for our troubles, which will do nicely for dinner.

While Ân is with us, we spot and photograph an amazing blue headed tree agana [depicted above] which changes colour rapidly once it realises it’s on show.

We enjoy our sundeck and take a snack lunch of a club sandwich to share.

Stroll the beach & some R&R before dinner.

Then we try whole fish (grouper) cooked in banana leaf with all sorts of gooey goodies inside the leaf, served with rice paper and stuff. Preceded by beef in lalot leaf starter. Excellent meal.

20 February 2012

Rose/breakfasted a bit earlier on a brighter day.

After breakfast (Ged tried chicken with egg noodles today), Ged cracked on with Sense Of An Ending and even gets to start Exit Ghost today in the sun.

I am a great fan of the novels of both Julian Barnes and Philip Roth. I do recall very much enjoying the Barnes (Sense) whereas I found Exit Ghost a little below par for Roth.

Daisy does Tai Chi class and both [of us] enjoy some sun on our deck and some beer.

Play tennis just before dusk to avoid the heat – Daisy won 6-3 – pleasant at that hour.

Then back for a late siesta and then on to dinner where Basha [chef] has specially prepared the five spice duck for us very well it’s good isn’t it. We also enjoy a starter of dry spice beef salad and additional main teriyaki tuna – best meal at Six Senses so far for sure.

21 February 2012

Woke to a misty rainy morning – rain will not relent all day sadly.

Ged goes off to do some work on the photos before breakfast and then again after, while Daisy does Tai Chi.

Finish off the photos and chat briefly with German couple who wanted our villa and wanted to use the PC – they must hate us but they don’t show it!

Then decide to have a satay nibble & some wine in the room – very nice.

Then attempt to play tennis but the court is waterlogged so we switch to badminton, Ged pulling off a surprise two nil win 15-8, 15-11)! Good fun.

Went to a “cocktail Martini” event in the bar and chatted with a nice Israeli couple.

They were a very interesting couple. She was in publishing and seemed a lot older and more high falutin’ than her man. We felt a bit sorry for them as they were only at the Six Senses for two nights; that wet day was their only full day there.

Then went home for an hour and then went to dinner to try caramelised pork belly done properly – uber-fatty but good with morning glory and tasty brown rice – more like red rice. Starter of cabbage chicken salad.

22 February 2012

Rose to another wet morning. Rested in and took late breakfast.

But then someone turn the lights on and it brightened up in a jiffy.

Soon the resort dried out – we enjoyed our sundeck round our own pool and read (finished Exit Ghost in my case) and had tea in the library with sandwich nibbles.

Played tennis in the evening – I won 6-4 – and thus met Françoise who sorted us out.

After tennis we got ready for dinner and had enormous ribeye steaks after a duo of tuna starter.

Very good meal.

Our first couple of days at Ninh Van Bay were not blessed with good weather. Still, there were plenty of compensations at the Six Senses Ninh Van Bay even when the weather was not so good.

18 February 2012

Rose quite early to a rainy day. Potter then rush to get into breakfast in time!

Straight after breakfast Ân shows us a couple more villas – we fall in love with the one-off beach bungalow villa.

We look through photos while waiting to move and then we move into our new bungalow.

Unpack, potter and finish reviewing the photos.

Then Ged goes to the library to sort through photos for several (successful) hours, Daisy joining him for a while.

Then get ready for dinner and go down for a meal of mushroom ravioli with prawns (highlight) followed by poor mains of Thai seafood curry and caramelised pork belly, followed by ice cream.

Comparatively late night after following cricket and catching up on the news.

19 February 2012

Take breakfast in better time today. Ged had beef pho noodle soup, Daisy chicken egg noodle soup.

The weather is a bit better but still not good so we arrange to have our complimentary spa treatments this evening before dinner. Also chose to have a Vietnamese barbecue dinner.

Potter for much of the day and get used to new villa and such – look at shop.

Borrow a couple of DVDs and chat with Gary the general manager from Lichfield!

[Parenthetically, it was that conversation with Gary that persuaded us to try Six Senses Zighy Bay a couple of years later. The property had poor reports from its troubled launch but Gary convinced us, having been sent there to sort out the difficulties, that the property was now very special indeed and well worth trying. Gary was right.]

Play tennis – Ged wins six four – mid afternoon (it’s cool enough). Have some siesta and then a complimentary treatments. Daisy has a foot massage and body scrub, Ged has hand (arm) and body scrub. Very nice.

Then Vietnamese barbecue. Lots of spring/hand roll things (variations on a theme) plus salads and barbecue tuna probably the highlight – also grouper and a mackerel type fish. Could’ve pigged out but as usual we didn’t. Tried various desserts with limited success.