SQ 772ER to Hanoi in Economy: A Taste of Vietnam

[yflyer]

Last month, I spent two days in Hanoi. This was my 3rd trip to Vietnam's capital city, but it was the first visit where I actually had time to look around (And run around...).

I flew there and back on SIA in Economy, with both flights operated by refitted 772ER's.

I stayed at two different hotels: The Hotel de l'Opera on the first night, and the Hilton Hanoi Opera on the second night. Why did I have to stay in two different places? The hotels that week were chock full, and I could not book the Hilton for the whole stay.

Apart from business and leisure travellers (Lots of tourists this time of year), Hanoi hosted official visits from several different countries in the week I was there, including a delegation from Singapore which included our Prime Minister.

Regulars on SQTalk will know that I am a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain. When he was in Hanoi, he had dinner with President Barack Obama at a bun cha restaurant there, while President Obama was on a state visit to Vietnam last year. It turns out this restaurant is not far from the Opera House (Less than a kilometer away). How could I not take the opportunity to go there...

Barack Obama probably flew to Vietnam on Air Force One, but since Singapore doesn't have an equivalent aircraft, our PM and the Singapore delegation flew commercial on SQ. More on that towards the end of this TR...

[yflyer]

My flight to Hanoi was a 9.20am departure on SQ176.



The flight was operated by 9V-SVM, a 14 year old 772ER with a 2-class cabin, comprising refurbished Y and 2006 long haul J.

Longhaul business class on this flight is pretty much state of the art, with the 2006 J seats in 1-2-1 layout. The Krisworld IFE is an older version on the 772ER, but otherwise, this is a very strong J product.

In the economy cabin, what we have is the older generation Y seats with new upholstery and a slightly larger 4:3 Y screen (Compared to the original Y screens, that is.).



While I would not want to be on a long haul flight on this Y seat, for this 3+ hour sector, the Y hard product was ok. And of course, SQ has so far resisted the commercial pressure to reconfigure their 777's to 10-abreast, and this plane still had very wide Y seats at a 9-abreast 3-3-3 layout.

Economy cabin ambience on this aircraft was pretty good, mainly attributable to the 9-abreast seating.





Two choices of main course today, a Western selection and an Asian selection: noodles with chicken. I chose the Asian.



The noodle dish was tasty, as was the starter and dessert.

It was great to be served a proper Y meal on this sector: starter, main and dessert, with metal cutlery (Although beverages were served in plastic cups.)



IFE was on a large 4:3 screen, with full AVOD. This was an older generation of Krisworld, with a smaller program selection than the latest SQ Y IFE.



Picture quality was on the fuzzy side, nowhere near the high-def widescreens you had on the latest Y IFE.



Sound quality from the IFE was very good, as long as you used your own headphones with airline 2-prong adapter, and not the earbuds provided by SQ.



Does SQ realize how much the poor earphones detract from passenger experience of flying SQ? Why spend so much on IFE only to ruin the experience with terrible headphones?

[yflyer]

Overall this was a smooth flight to Hanoi...





An interesting tidbit of information: While Hanoi is far to the North, Ho Chi Minh City, in the South, is actually even close to Singapore than Bangkok.



We landed on time in Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport...



...and disembarked into their gleaming modern international terminal.

[yflyer]

From the airport to the city, you first drive through highways past rural farmland...



...and then across the Red River...



...before entering the bustling city, with narrow streets, greenery sprouting from every nook and cranny of the buildings, and roads full of motorcycles...



...brightly painted buildings, overflowing with shrubs and vines...



...and a French Quarter, with historic buildings like the Hanoi Opera...

[yflyer]

Hanoi is a city of contrasts...





It is making a rapid transition to the 21st century...







...but for many, their way of life harks back to earlier days...

[yflyer]

My first hotel was the Hotel de l'Opera, part of the Accor group.



This is a compact, upscale property located in the historic French Quarter, close the the Hanoi Opera and other attractions.

Stylish public areas...



Large inner atrium...



Complimentary beverage on check-in...



My room was compact, but beautifully styled...







Marble bathroom with shower stall.

[yflyer]

I didn't have a lot of time between checking into the hotel and heading to the office, so I decided to have a quick room service lunch. I ordered the beef pho (Boring I know, but what better meal to start a trip to Vietnam?), which was delivered to my room in 20 minutes.



For a room service meal in a hotel, this was outstanding... some of the most delicious pho I had eaten to date (Although I admittedly have not sampled the best that Hanoi had to offer, either on the street or in restaurants...)...

Thin, and very tender, slices of beef, served with noodles in a hot broth...



It came with a side of the Vietnamese equivalent of "keropok".



I also got my caffeine fix from a cup of traditional Vietnamese coffee, served with condensed milk.



And then it was off to work. But work always goes better on a full stomach...

[yflyer]

The next day, I checked out and wheeled my luggage along the pavement on the short walk to the Hilton Hanoi Opera, located right next to the Opera House.





The Hilton has very impressive public areas.



Complimentary bikes for hotel guests...



The room itself was large, but unexceptional.







Large bathrooms with both tub and shower stall.



I preferred the room decor at the Hotel de l'Opera, which was a lot more stylish. That said, I suspect many people would appreciate the added space of the Hilton rooms, even if the decor was more staid.

Internet access at the Hilton also seemed a lot quicker.

[yflyer]

The breakfast at the Hilton was very impressive.



Apart from the usual international dishes, there was a range of local breakfast cuisine to sample.

Local fruit...



A noodle station...



.. cooked to order with your choice of toppings, broth, and a full range of condiments...



As well as a sandwich station, for the local Vietnamese sandwich favourite, Banh mi...



...in this case made with chicken thigh slices and/or chicken liver pate...



..quite delicious...

[yflyer]

Another memorable meal I had on the trip was in the Food Hall of the Lotte Center in Hanoi, where there is a large Lotte Department Store.



This was Bun Bo Hue, a noodle dish from Hue in Central Vietnam, comprising, among other things, pork trotter, coagulated pig's blood and thick rice vermicilli in a spicy broth...



A very richly flavoured dish, which I really enjoyed.

[yflyer]

My one run of the trip started at the Hotel de l'Opera, just before I checked out and headed to the Hilton.

From the hotel, I headed to the Hanoi Opera, just down the street...



...and headed northwest, past the Metropole Hotel, to Hoàn Kiếm Lake...



...where a group of local ladies were doing their morning aerobic dance routine...



I continued past the lake to Lê Thái Tổ and then Hàng Bông...



I maintain that the best way to explore a city is on foot, and a great way to see a lot in a limited amount of time is on a run or jog, in PT kit...

Maybe because of the historical French influence, there is a bit of of Parisian cafe culture in Hanoi. To achieve the Vietnamese derivative of the Parisian sidewalk cafe, just substitute condensed milk for cream in the coffee, and cut the legs off the chairs (everyone seems to sit on low stools in Hanoi), and put a cellphone in everyone's hands...



A very lively street scene, whether it is food, haircuts or other services, all conducted along the sidewalk...



I continued my jog to Lenin Park...



...and the Vietnam Military History Museum...



...which I regrettably did not have time to visit on this occasion.

And from there, I headed back to the Hotel de l'Opera along Tràng Thi.

Total distance on this occasion was close to 6km, which was about all the time I had to spare for a run and a look around.



After that, it was a quick shower and checkout from the Hotel de l'Opera, and a short walk to the Hilton to check-in for the 2nd night of my stay.

If you are staying near the Opera House, this is a running route I would recommend. You get to see a few of the sights, and get a taste of life along the streets of Hanoi. A far more interesting jog than just doing laps around the lake.

[yflyer]

Late last year, I posted an article on SQTalk about Anthony Bourdain and then President Barack Obama eating bun cha in Hanoi during their visit in May 2016.

Not long after their meal there, fellow SQTalker alian also visited the same bun cha restaurant and gave it a thumbs up.

Now that I was in Hanoi, I looked up the restaurant (Just Google "Bun Cha Obama"), and to my delight, I found that it was quite close to the hotel where I was staying at, so after work on the first day, I hopped into a Hanoi Taxi and showed the driver the address of the restaurant "Bun Cha Huong Lien".

"Obama!" he exclaimed, with a big smile. Apparently everyone knows where this place is.

I strongly recommend the taxi's in Hanoi. They are plentiful, relatively inexpensive, and use the taxi meter. And all the taxi drivers I met were pleasant and honest.

After a drive through the evening rush hour, the taxi driver deposited me at this now famous restaurant.



It is a popular but fairly unassuming multistorey restaurant in central Hanoi...



It was quite busy with both locals and foreigners.



There were a few large photos on the wall commemorating that evening last May when Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain dined there, but apart from that, this was just one of many popular eating establishments in Hanoi, even if this place now gets a constant stream of tourists and visitors.



While this is a popular restaurant, turnover is quick. I heard that lunch hour was very busy, but at dinner time, it is usually quite quick to get a table, and at the time I went there, there were tables available right away. I plonked myself down at the table for two and glanced through the menu.



Hmmm...not a very large menu, but how did this dish work? Bun cha is a recognizably Asian dish, but it is completely Vietnamese in nature, with no equivalent in Chinese or Singapore cuisine that I was aware of.

I pointed at a few items at random and hoped for the best.

Soon the dishes arrived. A large plate of vermicilli, and a bowl of broth with grilled meat and patties, along with a huge plate of greens. You could also order fried crab rolls, fried seafood rolls and meat skewers to go with the meal. Sauces and condiments (vinegar, chilli slices, raw garlic) were added to taste.



The verdict? Quite delicious! And as I mentioned, unlike any other Asian or Oriental dish that I had tried before.

It was such a memorable dinner that I actually headed there again the next night, partly because I flubbed the order on the first night, and ordered just one fried crab roll. The waitress looked at me in a strange way and humored me with my order. ("One crab roll? No-one orders just one..." she must have thought...).

It was only later, when the small crab roll appeared that I realized my folly, and ordered two more right away. The meat skewers were already sold out by that time, and I had not tried the large seafood roll.

So I headed there the next night to sample the seafood roll and meat skewers as well. Once again, when I got into the taxi and gave the driver the address, he smiled and replied "Obama!"...

So apart from the vermicilli and broth, one should also sample the crab rolls (two on the left of the plate below), the meat skewer (in the middle), and the large seafood roll (on the right)...



...the full works below...



...a filling, and very satisfying, dinner!



All for VND 104,000, about SGD 6.50, which you paid on the way out...



Some other friends and colleagues who go to Hanoi say that there are even better places for Bun Cha in Hanoi, but this was a wonderful dinner which I would highly recommend, and not just because Anthony Bourdain and Barack Obama previously dined there!

[yflyer]

On the morning I was due to depart Hanoi, this was on the front page of the newspaper: coverage of our PM's visit to Vietnam.



Given what I had seen in Hanoi over the past two days, this was a country developing very quickly, with huge potential for growth -- the more economic cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore, the better!

When I first arrived in Hanoi, I received a phone call from SQ, with a request that I get to the airport early for my return flight, as the flight had been randomly selected for additional manual security checks.

I initially misunderstood this to be a test of manual check-in procedures, but realized they meant security checks for luggage.

Selected at random? Yeah, right.

Reading the article in the news on the morning of departure, you did not need to be Sherlock Holmes to put two and two together.

"LHL may be on my flight later", I WhatsApped Mrs yflyer.

All that said, the additional security was quite low profile. While other pax at the airport noticed the additional security and luggage checks, a surprisingly few pax indicated that they had any inkling of why there was all this additional security. They had no idea, or just assumed it was just because of the increased risk of terrorism in general.

As my taxi arrived at the airport, I noticed the airport VIP complex festooned with Singapore and Vietnamese flags.

[yflyer]

Check-in at the new international terminal...



Quite an impressive facility.



I arrived very early (As requested by SQ) and was through to the airside area very quickly after immigration and security checks.

[yflyer]

The lounge in the international terminal is, in Singlish/Hokkien parlance, a "bao ka liao" lounge, operated by VN, and serving a whole host of international airlines.



I doubt you will see a more impressive line-up of flight attendant cardboard cutouts in any other airport.



The lounge itself is large and airy...





...with good tarmac views...





A decent bar...



And a smallish F&B selection...



...including...