The Old Quarter in Hanoi Slideshow

The Old Quarter in Hanoi Slideshow: "TripAdvisor™ TripWow ★ The Old Quarter in Hanoi Slideshow ★ to Perth and Hanoi by The Nesbitt Family. Stunning free travel slideshows on TripAdvisor"

Spanish Tapas at a seaside destination for West Australians

Yummy pan seared scallops on pork-belly with chorizo

                                        

    Chickpea coated prawns on  guacamole with a  garlic aioli   

                                                     
 

    Spicy venison and pork balls very tasty

                                      
                                    

Field mushrooms in sherry cream on sourdough toasts

                                

spicy chorizo mussels

                                         

A Classic Spanish dish a potato omlette

Oven baked rainbow trout stufffed with bacon and served with a pepper almond salad

Grilled squid on a bed of smoked lentils

The Mojito

Caramel Bananas- looks too good to eat

I was home alone as in the movie. My husband was away for my birthday so what to do? Get a group of girls together and head to Rustico Tapas Bar and Restaurant on the Rockingham foreshore.
The place is extremely busy on a Friday night but we had booked well ahead of time. Some of our party had been there before but for me the birthday girl it was my first. We arrived at 8pm and were seated immediately. That is impressive I must say. We had a booking for 8 people but at the last minute we gained one more. No problems the waitress said and organised an extra bar stool. We were seated at a high table one of two that resemble a bar . The table top was made from a slice of a tree , highly varnished and fitted well with the Spanish-Moroccan decor of the restaurant. The stools we were seated at were very comfortable.
Despite the fact that the restaurant was full we had excellent service from our waitress . In fact I was amazed how little front of restaurant staff there was & how smoothly the place ran. The only hitch was that some of the blended cocktails took a while to be served. That was most likely due to only two barmen and a limited number of blenders.
Being a tapas bar the idea was to order a number of dishes and share between two to four people. The menu is quite extensive and available on their website at

http://www.rusticotapas.com.au/


along with the drinks menu too.
Well our table gave the menu a good tasting we tried a long list of dishes including;
* pan seared scallops on a bed of pork-belly and chorizo
* sauteed field mushrooms with sherry cream on toasted sourdough
* bbq squid on braised lentils
* chickpea coated prawns with guacamole and garlic aioli
* whole baked rainbow trout stuffed with bacon and served with an almond and pepper salad
* classic Spanish omlette with potatoes
* chilli mussels
* potato bravos with salsa and garlic aioli
* tomato and basil pizza
* lamb koftas with chickpea puree
* spicy venison and pork balls with salsa
* lamb croquetta
Of course we all had a variety of items off the drinks menu including Spanish cava, mojitos, daiquiris of many flavours, soft drinks, coffees and the famous Pedro Ximenez a dark Spanish sherry or port depending who you talk to.

Hanoi, Vietnam- 69 Restaurant in Ma May St in the old quarter

Neils bbq Pork Steak with chips and a nice salad

Sesame coated squid. The outer coat was crunchy and I was amazed the sesame seeds stayed coated onto the squid . The squid was tender inside and beautifully cooked.

This is Pho Ga in Vietnamese . Chicken Pho Soup. It also comes in beef as well.  This to me will always be the signature dish of Hanoi I'd say. Along with Bun Cha it is on every Hanoi restaurant menu and also available on every street corner as a local dish too. We even had it included on our breakfast menu at our hotel. It is so different to any other asian noodle soup that I have tried. The reason is the soup base has a distincly different group of flavours. Ginger that has been bbq'd and peeled, cloves, star anise and cinnamon. Fresh corander and spring onion greens along with beansprouts are added last as a garnish. The broth is light and delicate but is bursting with so much flavour. A good place to find the recipes for these vietnamese classics is   http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/2007/06/chicken_pho_noo.html                                                                                   

The decor is restored back to it's 18th century character

Crazy narrow stairs up to the second floor

Cold beer and old shuttered windows

The Best Fried Spring rolls in the world

Amy enjoying the chicken thighs 69 style

We were very fortunate indeed to be staying in a hotel in Ma May Street in Hanoi's old quarter.  The very first day my husband discovered the 69 restaurant which unsurprisingly is at 69 Ma May St. Being so close to our hotel we did end up using it on many occasions . For lunch and  dinner both dining in and taking away.  I can say that every meal we had was beautifully cooked and the staff were extremely attentive. The drinks were cold and in the really stifling heat of the Hanoi summer they sat us upstairs in front of the air-conditioner, that was much appreciated.

Some of our favourite dishes included their spring rolls, chicken thighs 69 style, the Cha Ca fish ,sesame coated squid.

Hanoi Streets

Nice airconditioned Lobby for us to wait in while our room was still being cleaned

Elegance 2 now known as Elegance Emerald. See how narrow the hotel is. All the buildings in the old quarter are like this. You even see properties in the countryside that are only one room wide. This has to do with the way they tax the land form the olden times. Next door to our hotel on the right of this picture you can just make out the tourist attraction in MaMay street . It was restored in 1999 back to it's original 19th century style where there is a garden on the ground floor between the two downstairs rooms.

These ladies wander the streets of the old quarter. Their baskets are filled with all manner of things. They deliver food to the locals even raw meat. My daughter and I felt the weight of one of them . For tiny little women they can carry a heavy load. 

This is the ultimate Hanoi street food. You see this type of cooking go0ing on all over the old quarter. It was lunch time and the old man had set up a smokey charcoal bbq right opposite our hotel . He had what looked like pieces of marinated meat in the wire basket. Chicke or pork was my guess. Loads of smoke filled the air. The food smelled good but it wasn't worth the risk of me getting sick again as I had already had an episode back in Bangkok.

You can see the little plastic stools all the locals sit on while they eat in the streets. You weren't gonna get me down on one of those fragile looking things. I'd need on for each butt cheek!!

Baiyoke Sky Hotel

View from Breakfast

    Baiyoke Sky Hotel, 222 Rajpraprop Rd , Rajthevee,     Bangkok . Thailand
    Tel: 66(0) 2656 3000, 2656 3456
    Email: baiyokesky@baiyoke.co.th
    Website: http://www.baiyokehotel.com/

Room:    Our room was 5905 a deluxe room with extra bed. We paid  3899Thb ($150) per night for the four nights which included Amy’s full-size single bed & her buffet breakfast.  It was a large room with a massive super clean bathroom .The shower was large with clear glass doors and it had a separate big bath , hairdryer and three bathrobes with slippers. Towels were large and seemed new .There was a separate dressing area more like a large walk in robe with mirror. The room included a seating area with two tub chairs, desk dressing table area with spotlight, mirror and they even had a double travel adaptor for our use. Internet was 600 thb per day or 300thb per 30 minutes.

 
Two windows overlooked  the curling freeways of the city , the Victory Monument and round about. We could also see the sky train and the new but yet to be completed airport link  sky train. The taxi driver said another two months.
    Our room was so high that the first morning we were in the clouds & saw the lightening & thunder first hand. The view from dinner & breakfast was to die for. The staff at the hotel are faultless from the ones who monitor the weird elevator system to the guest relations desk, restaurant and room staff. You really feel most welcome and safe.

Meals:    Buffet Breakfast at the Crystal Grill: 82nd floor
    This was a fantastic full option buffet. From freshly cooked omelettes, fried and  3 minute boiled eggs to all sorts of  International food. You can choose from American cooked, Japanese (sushi, mixed pickles, teriyaki chicken)  Indian,(curry, rice, dhal, red beans .)Asian congees and dim sum selections. Freshly made juices including a delightfully bright purple dragon fruit juice .
Other options included:  Fresh fruit, cereals, yoghurt, bread, rolls, pastries, donuts, croissants, muffins, roti, pancakes, noodle soup, tea and coffee served at the table, chicken sausages, fish, salad bar, mashed potato, hamburgers, potato cakes.

    Buffet dinner 470thb at The Sky Buffet 78th floor.
We were so tired we did not appreciate it as much as we normally would. There was a huge choice for all tastes . Pizza, spring rolls, chips, fish, squid, sushi, Japanese noodle and stir
fries, grilled meats, fresh prawns , steamed river prawns, mussels, clams, crabs, curry, rice dishes, hamburgers, sausages, pad Thai noodles, salad bar, deserts, fruit, cakes, ice-cream that you serve yourself, pancakes, banana murtaba and all you can drink soft drink.

Shuttle Bus;
    The hotel offers a free shuttle to MBK shopping complex three times a day at 10am, 11am and 4pm.  We spent 5 and a half hours shopping in MBK and also looking at Siam Centre and we caught the sky train one stop 15thb and then walked the rest of the way to the hotel.  MBK has 5 floors of shopping and food . We bought sandals for Neil -500thb $19.50 , black pants 199thb $8, Amy  handbag 199, strengtheners 1100thb $42, shoes 199, emery boards 30thb. 
Lunch at Sante Fe steak house : Neil had a steak with pepper sauce, I had a baked seafood spaghetti, Amy had a chicken spaghetti  Bolognese style with two cans of diet pepsi it came to 455thb .

For dinner Amy had room service a nice fried rice with BBQ pork , came with a cucumber Tomato salad and a fried egg. It cost 117thb after tax.

We were just going to phone the tour people from Wednesday when at 8.30 they phoned us . Pick up time on Wednesday was going to be 6.45am . We need to be super organised & go straight to the lobby from breakfast.



After the stormy start to our Tuesday the day ended up quite fine, either the temperature wasn’t as hot as the previous day or we were more used to it.  As we walked back to our hotel after the shopping there seemed to be a bit of a breeze coming and not as much humidity.  Need to find somewhere to connect to the internet so we can contact home to make sure all is well. Eventually the best place to connect to the internet was at KFC. You buy a card that has a password to log into the wireless internet in the store. The connection was fine for the net-book and i-touch but you can only log on one device per session and you have one hour from your first connection. I can't remember the price for the card but you did get two pieces of kfc chicken along with the card.