Hanoi

[bunburyist]

Recently spent a few days in northern Vietnam and thought I'd share these two excellent venues:

1) The obvious choice - the Metropole Hotel (run by Sofitel). Beautiful old colonial French hotel and Hanoi's finest. Suitably expensive. Towards the end of the restaurant is the conservatory which is an ideal place to soak up the atmosphere. They have a decent enough selection of cigars, I enjoyed an Epicure no.2 there before we moved on to..

2) Le Club de L'Oriental. Previously known as the Emperor club, this place is possibly my favourite restaurant in SE Asia. Vietnamese streetfood is as good as it gets for a quick bite (bbq chicken in fried rice wraps with fragrant herb salad and cold noodles - oh yeah) but this place has an awesome restaurant. Showcase of modern and old Vietnamese cuisine, and well priced. Fantastic. Again, decent cigar selection to boot. Monte 2 for me here Try the house coffee as well - it's like having 12 espressos reduced into one cup, felt like my teeth were dancing.

22 Ton Dan St., but your best bet is to go to the Metropole and ask the concierge as it's about a 2 min walk from the hotel.

chúc may mắn

[Ethernut]

Sonds like you had a great time, thanks for the writeup!

[thechenman]

Thanks for the info...

[bunburyist]

Absolute pleasure guys. Working in this part of the world for the last few years I've seen a fair few places and by some distance Vietnam (northern part, Hanoi, Dien Bien Phu, Sa Pa) and Taiwan (highlands, east coast and south Kenting) are easily the places I'd return to. If you're into going to destinations off the beaten track where everything isn't easy and you like hunting for the good stuff I can't recommend these places enough. The spots above are just a couple of cigar smoker finds, but there's so much else on offer.

6am watching the morning mists snake over the tea plantations near Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan.....heaven on earth.

[thechenman]

Absolute pleasure guys. Working in this part of the world for the last few years I've seen a fair few places and by some distance Vietnam (northern part, Hanoi, Dien Bien Phu, Sa Pa) and Taiwan (highlands, east coast and south Kenting) are easily the places I'd return to. If you're into going to destinations off the beaten track where everything isn't easy and you like hunting for the good stuff I can't recommend these places enough. The spots above are just a couple of cigar smoker finds, but there's so much else on offer.

6am watching the morning mists snake over the tea plantations near Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan.....heaven on earth.

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Most of my extended family is still there.

[bunburyist]

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Most of my extended family is still there.

Did you live there long? I've worked all along the west coast as you'd expect, as that's where all the industry is. I was just taken aback by Taiwan. All the advertising for holidays is for Thailand, Malaysia, Bali etc. But what an island Taiwan is. The flying fish off Hualien province, the simply stunning Taroko gorges with the hidden temples and waterfalls and mile after mile of untouched Pacific coastline all the way down to the flatter land in Kenting, where I wandered about the villages surrounded by fields of flowers. To cap it off, the Taiwanese are some of the most friendly and welcoming people you could hope to meet. Could go out for drinks with colleagues after work every night if you wanted - they love sitting around a table (with some of those monster garlic prawns served in hot stone pots) and a beer and just talking about everything and nothing, and I don't speak Mandarin...! Ah, I'm rambling...always a good sign

Cherish the memories of that place and can't wait to go back. I can imagine how the ancestral ties pull. Getting away from the post but...who cares! These pics are from my last trip.

the big blue

the south

the local

[b0rderman]

thanks for the write up, it is always fun to hear even a little bit about someone's trip to a place I will probably never get to.

[matt14]

Vine restaurant ,Xuan Dieu st Tay Ho dist., possibly the best restaurant in Vietnam. Also part of the Vine group which has the PCC concession for Vietnam,

Also they have shop in Saigon D1 downtown on Hai Ba Trung st run by my good friend Big John, also opening outlet in the Caravelle hotel and Sheraton looking to open a cigar bar and lounge later this year. Pretty much everywhere is cigar friendly as there is no smoking ban in Vietnam

[g00degg]

Hi, guys I am quite new here. Just need to check with you guys. Is there any extra tax to be payable if I would to buy cigars online and ship it to ho chi mihn city where I will be posted to?

I been buying my stocks from this particular website so I am still be stocking up from there. So I need to check what are the tarrif like.

Thanks in advance. I will be checking out on the Hai Ba Trung St outlet coming 5th October. That one should be new right? Because from PCC website I saw only the one outlet at Park Hyatt.

[Ken Gargett]

Recently spent a few days in northern Vietnam and thought I'd share these two excellent venues:

1) The obvious choice - the Metropole Hotel (run by Sofitel). Beautiful old colonial French hotel and Hanoi's finest. Suitably expensive. Towards the end of the restaurant is the conservatory which is an ideal place to soak up the atmosphere. They have a decent enough selection of cigars, I enjoyed an Epicure no.2 there before we moved on to..

2

spent a couple of weeks at the metropole a few years back doing an aussie food and wine thing (also a few in saigon). great hotel and loved hanoi. a lot of fun. the chef was a good mate of mine and when he turned up at the metropole, the french chef, quite a famous one, spat the dummy and walked out with his entire staff. wasn't having an aussie in his kitchen. so my mate had four young vietmanese kids in the kitchen - none of whom spoke english - to cook for a special hotel presentation for two weeks. never seen a bloke work harder. first had to teach the kids basic english words so they knew what he wanted. then almost had to do the lot himself (i was swanning around drinking wine with ex-pats). it was a phenomenal effort. anyway, seems our frog was keeping an eye on things from afar and was so impressed with what our bloke was doing that after a week, he gave the instructions - all staff back in (he had taken about 6 assistant chefs with him) and all and any support that was needed. and the two have been good mates ever since. he came out and visited us a few years ago.

the two cities blend a bit in the memory but i remember the apocalpyse now bar and the gecko (we ran into the local french rugby team celebrating and spent the night drinking these bailey cocktails - about four in the morning, i asked just how they made them. turns out not baileys at all but home made vietnamese chocolate vodka. rarely have two blokes been so sick. i managed to make lunch but russell couldn't, and then i lapsed and missed dinner and he struggled out for that) and a restaurant near the omni? that served only weird animals.

i really wanted to try snake, tho the choice was much more than this (they brought me a dish to try - turned out to be bear paw - awful and i was not very happy at that). i ordered 'snake and green beans'. the woman kept refusing to serve me this and i kept insisting. she kept saying i would not like it. i assumed i was being treated like some idiot westerner and was determined. finally, said, why won't you serve me snake?

her reply, 'oh you will like snake but you will not like the green beans'! so i had sauted snake and something - tastes like chicken. and some grilled bat dish. you'd need 50 bats to make any sort of meal, they have so little meat.

but i also rememeber something called the blue ginger, i think. and many other wonderful restaurants. veitnam is a great place for anyone thinking of a trip.

[reigndrop]

finally, said, why won't you serve me snake?

her reply, 'oh you will like snake but you will not like the green beans'! so i had sauted snake and something - tastes like chicken. and some grilled bat dish. you'd need 50 bats to make any sort of meal, they have so little meat.

but i also rememeber something called the blue ginger, i think. and many other wonderful restaurants. veitnam is a great place for anyone thinking of a trip.

Haha oh Ken. Typically in Vietnam, those guys are bar food. You'd order like five of them, and like 12 beers to kick back with friends.

The whole entire bat population would be wiped out if they were portioned as a meal, haha.

[reigndrop]

Hi, guys I am quite new here. Just need to check with you guys. Is there any extra tax to be payable if I would to buy cigars online and ship it to ho chi mihn city where I will be posted to?

I been buying my stocks from this particular website so I am still be stocking up from there. So I need to check what are the tarrif like.

Thanks in advance. I will be checking out on the Hai Ba Trung St outlet coming 5th October. That one should be new right? Because from PCC website I saw only the one outlet at Park Hyatt.

I haven't been to the Cigar Place at the Park Hyatt, but from what I've heard, the prices aren't anywhere near Czar's prices. I don't know about tariffs in Vietnam, but you're definitely not going to be charged any tarriffs by Czar.

[matt14]

dont mail order into VN its not allowed full stop. I hot a few boxes in but my wife got such an earbending o dr it and was told i would be fined. Its my friend who run's the cigar shop's in town. Due for a 15% reduction soon but still expensive. I regularly bring boxes go for my buddies to split pm me if you want. I am in town for another week maybe.

[matt14]

hope you where on your toes in Apo Ken, its notorious as not only a pick up joint but one of the *** hangouts in town!

[Ken Gargett]

hope you where on your toes in Apo Ken, its notorious as not only a pick up joint but one of the *** hangouts in town!

granted it is a while ago since i was there but it certainly wasn't a *** anything back then. the entire crowd was ex pat blokes and local girls. local guys were not allowed in.

[matt14]

granted it is a while ago since i was there but it certainly wasn't a *** anything back then. the entire crowd was ex pat blokes and local girls. local guys were not allowed in.

Those local `girls` may not have quite been what they seemed!! I have lived here a long time and it is well known with the long term expats of the orientation of some chicks in there!!

Things where worse in there, that is unless you where looking for that up to a few years ago, now they have moved onto the Q bar! Local guys have never been banned from going in there that came from the fact that unaccompanied girls have to pay to get in.

Apo is not a place most expats go as the prices have got stupidily expensive there a lot of cheaper better joints in town, problem lies with the `Lying Planet` guide book, a bit of back scratching and your gauranteed a good write up, so it attracts a lot of tourist`s and short term buisness guys.

You really need to head into the countryside for decent snake, head off, bled into a mug of Ruou `rice wine` then the, spleen Ithink it is in a shot , and the still beating heart in another shot. Thats kinda freaky as it still beats going down your gullet. I thnk I put up some pics a while ago on ICC when we took my friend as his wife to my Outlaws for Tet and he wanted to try it. Snake is a bit to chewy for my liking, my father inlaw loves it butu only has 1 front tooth left so its off the menu for him now!!