CELEBRITY CHEF DR KAVIRAJ KHIALANI
- Navjeevan Express Food & Hospitality Editor is a wanderlust and life-long student so as to remain ahead of others in this ever-evolving education sector. He shares his tourism and hospitality experience with our readers, which will induce them to pack their bags and venture our with their family and friends to widen their knowledge and rejuvenate their body and mind
- This year Vietnam completed fifty years of independence
- Danang is a great place to visit and here there was a quite a few things to see as well
- Our final city on this tour was Ho Chi Min City also called Saigon!
- Having Indian food in any foreign country is always a challenge and a feeling that hope it suits our system and hope it is worthwhile having it amidst all the travel lined up
Summer of 2025!!! Time to visit a new destination, a new place of tourist interest & a destination to go get some new positive vibes has always been on the charts the moment a year full of routines & work takes a slow down for some time. It is quite a must these days to take off from work for a few days and refresh your mind- body & soul and bring back a new afresh entity back to work & routine lifestyles amidst all that goes on in life all the time.
This summer nothing else but Vietnam worked out to be one of the most preferred and accepted places to visit and after a brain storming session on this one with family friends and associates the buck stopped there. A plan that is usually last minute in my case took up its charge and after comparing a couple of itenaries and detailing the go signal was given. I usually have been going all by myself for international trips and arranging hotels and sight-seeing etc too on my own at my own leisure and preferred timings etc but this time somehow it worked out for going with a group tour!
It was Veena World and after having received some good feedback from close ones I finally made up my mind to go with them. The sales team from Mr. Ritesh & Ms. Sakshi were very helpful and shared an eye for detail all through the planning and understanding phase to the day we actually took off.
Having packed up light this time keeping in mind the amount of movement and walking all through the tour was a good change too. arriving at the airport for a flight post mid-night was a good feel at the same time the anxiety of meeting new people, co-travellers on the same group too was ticking up.
At the airport we met Mr. Akshay Vaidya, our tour manager from Veena World who did his very best in terms of pre-departure check-list being shared via WhatsApp time and again ensuring all was in place for everyone. Upon check in for the flight there was ice- breaking amongst the fellow tour members at the airport itself while the formal one happened little later.
The flight was pretty convenient and after a five-hour journey we reached Hanoi the capital of Vietnam and there we were scheduled to check into our Cruise for a one-night two-day stay. The cruise experience was good, so was the food and the quality offered. We also enjoyed kayaking boat ride there and had a nice evening demo session of Vietnamese food being shown to us by the chefs on cruise. One of the most attractive places to visit in Hanoi was also the train station which has a train track in the center of the road and shops and cafes on both sides where we can sit and enjoy some soft beverages and coffees etc and the trains pass right through the center in front of us every few mins and the sound, visual effect and feeling is just amazing!
Some of the fellow friends and co travellers on this tour I wish to mention here include Harshit Patil & Rekha Kolte mam, Yatish Shaha sir and family, Kedia sir & Rosy mam, Bhisham Karia sir & family, Kiran Sukhija mam, Sheetal mam & Rakesh Punjabi sir, Vijay sir & Tej mam, Vishal Bhosale sir & family and each and every member of our tour was just too good and amazing company to be with.
The sit down pre-set menu dinner was interesting as well since the plates well-crafted and portioned kept coming on the table course by course finally ended with some yummy juicy fresh fruits. The night stay was comfortable on the cruise, next morning we had activities to commence from a golf session, to a tai chi session, nice healthy breakfast on cruise, visit to the local caves there and then we had to leave for our next set of local sight-seeing as listed followed by a flight to Danang!
Danang is a great place to visit and here there was a quite a few things to see as well. On the way we were also served some yummy sugar cane juice and fresh tender coconut water which was just too good and the quantity of water in them was really worthy. Danang had a number of places to offer for us and one by one from museums to gem galleries, from pagodas to shopping areas it was a engaging trip here for all of us. We also enjoyed the under-water puppet show which showcased a lot about Vietnamese culture.
Our days started pretty early here at Vietnam from wake-up calls around 6 am onwards ensuring we all were ready before time and had a good breakfast too and were able to get onboard the coach to ensure that there wasn’t too much traffic on our ways as the journeys here are quite long. Bana Hills was a great place of attraction here to check out, the golden bridge with the hands, just too good to be there by cable car ride and pictures galore! the natural scenic beauty of Vietnam is just too catchy and captures the eyes to level next.
Danang as a place overall was a good one and we all had a nice visit here and as we moved along the group too started mingling more and friend lists increased and by now, we were more like family and extended family too! days were pretty hectic and the list of things to do was ticking by one by one and the guides including the local ones with us from Mary to Nancy & Chin all did a great job by explaining every little minute detail about each place of significance and historic importance. Once we got back to the hotels in the evening post dinner then we would choose between going out by ourselves to the local markets or to stay in rooms- relax and unwind, while some of us also chose to dip into the pool inside the hotel and chill there with conversations and gupshup!
The trip was also special for us as this year Vietnam completed fifty years of independence and there were huge celebrations and parades all over the cities celebrating the special day for all of them.
Our final city on this tour was Ho Chi Min City also called Saigon! This place yet was at level next where we had a number of things to see from the Cu Chi tunnel to the local post office, the museum with the war remnants and a pagoda with Buddhist importance here we also got to see the Lady Buddha- known as Goddess Of Mercy! During these road journeys in our ac coach, we also had some activities like riddles, a magic show, food antakshari and more for adding some value to our time and keeping us all entertained and awake too.
The lunches and dinners planned for us included a mix of Indian cuisine to some Vietnamese local food as well which was good to try out for a change. While the Indian restaurants here like the Benares, Taste of India and Tandoor also served some decent food which not only was filling but was also keeping in mind veg options and chatpata khana to suit our palate and senses. Having Indian food in any foreign country is always a challenge and a feeling that hope it suits our system and hope it is worthwhile having it amidst all the travel lined up. The food included salad, raita, main course gravies, side dishes, dal and roti, naans etc. sweet dish too was a part of the buffets which was good too. while the temptations kept rising as we saw samosas, pakora’s and even pani puri for us during these meals over-eating was something which we all avoided.
Ho Chi Min city was our last city to explore on our trip and all of us were eagerly waiting for the shopping at Ban Than Market area where we visited on the last day of the trip, though we had limited time with us, we all made the most of it and picked up the bare minimum we could as luggage weight too was a concern for the flight back to India. Some of us also visited the Saigon center mall as well to check out some stuffs but nothing like the local markets. All of us made the most of the time available and picked up souvenirs and small handicrafts on the way back as memories for friends & families.
On a concluding note: the last few hours were a little filled with mixed reactions for most of us, while some of us were missing home by now, ghar ki chai etc while some of us just had a few thoughts popping up randomly that wish we had some more time together as in the last one week most of us got free with each other and chats, conversations and gup-shup just wanted some more days to spend by in each other’s company. But as we know that all the good things in the world need to come to an end, so was this trip as well which left us with many good memories to cherish forever and the experience with satisfaction, smooth operations all through the trip and most importantly sober and good co-travellers on the group made it all happen! It was a good trip for me overall and I would love to explore some other parts of the world too in the same manner and similar kind of planned approach and execution strategies. I wish to extend my special thanks to our tour manager, the local tour guides at Vietnam to the wonderful food and hospitality extended to us all the way from start to the end of this blissfully crafted must have vacation to Vietnam!
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