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So last year I became a travel agent, it made sense to us as I am always planning things for others! Expedia offered excellent training and I was certified within a very short time. Now the fun begins. Planning, which as you know I am very good at, budget travel, oh yes! And working on how to get from here to there by ship – why not?

I surprise myself about the knowledge I have acquired about the many places we have visited around the world and I love to share things to do and see.

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Halong Bay

Vietnam – Not to Miss

(in our opinion, which we think pretty highly of)

Places we have seen and enjoyed.

All of these places can be reached easily from Hanoi. Halong is a few hours by van to get to – but sooo worth the trip.

You need a visa BEFORE you an travel to Vietnam – its easy to do this ahead of time. I found this place http://www.myvietnamvisa.com/ for visa on arrival. Quick and fast – but make sure you have it done before you leave.

Hanoi Hotel Review – Hanoi Lake View Hotel

Link: Hanoi Lake View Hotel

The first thing that comes to mind about this place is…Five Star Service!

We stayed at this hotel for several days and then took a side trip and came back for a few more days and so enjoyed our stay there. The staff is absolutely fantastic and ready to help you with anything you need.

Rooms are clean and the food at the breakfast is good too. But the great staff, everyone of them, is what really makes this place great. We could bore you with details of what they did to help us and take care of us but why waste the space with details you can find out for yourself if you stay there. I know we will be staying there the next time we go to Hanoi.

Halong Bay Sunset

Vietnam – Halong Bay

I know another tiny picture – but it is a Panorama. Look at it do you think you could get a sense for this place with a regular shot? I don’t think so.

After climbing up to “Tippy Top” I felt like Mount Everest would be a cake walk. There were many that turned back, to faint hearted to make the climb to the top. But fear not, this roving reporter will go to great lengths to let you know what is going on and what is worth the effort.

Even with a panorama shot this place really isn’t shown like it should be. What a pretty place it is to see.

Yes the elements were endured to stay up on top to give you a view of the sunset. I think it was worth it too.

Enuf said 🙂

You need a visa BEFORE you an travel to Vietnam – its easy to do this ahead of time. I found this place http://www.myvietnamvisa.com/ for visa on arrival. Quick and fast – but make sure you have it done before you leave.

Bangkok Hotel Review – Lebau

Link: Lebau

Not sure how to describe our stay…and I so do mean that in the best of ways too. Let me give you a quick sketch of our experience…

Lebau employees met us at the airport and took our bags to a waiting car. The car was a new Mercedes sedan, top of the line, and the driver gave us refrigerated towels to cool ourselves with and cold bottles of water. For those that have been to Bangkok, you know how much that was appreciated, for those that haven’t been yet, trust us, you will want it no matter what time of day it is after flying there.

When we arrived at the hotel a team of people opened the doors and by the time we got out of the car all of our bags had been removed and they handed us a receipt.

We were escorted into the lobby and provided a comfortable seat. We were asked for our passports and less than 90 seconds later a Thai lady was in front of us with the passports and kneeled down in front of us and checked us in. She then escorted us to our room, and by the way, they upgraded our room. She walked us around the room explaining things and letting us know how things worked.

We had a front room with table and couch; it was a large seating / dining area, a kitchen with a 2 burner stove and full fridge stocked with soft drinks and water, at no charge. We could have had a water party in the bathroom either with the walk in shower or the oversized tub. Then into the bedroom, king sized bed and what you would expect, that is until you walked out onto the balcony…We stayed on the 57th floor, with a river view. If you saw the picture on the main part of the blog from when we arrived you saw the view, if you didn’t, go look, it is amazing. While we were there we spent time out there looking and found ourselves smiling no matter what time of day it was.

Ok, so you are thinking, cool it was a great room but what about the dining…Since you asked…

The breakfast was buffet, but what a buffet! It consisted of European, Asian, American, sushi, eggs/ omelets to order, 5 or 6 kinds of juices. What more could you want? Don’t think it was the normal buffet, because it wasn’t. The food was excellent and far better than what you run into in a buffet. The staff was very attentive and there weren’t mountains of food on the buffet, it was small quantities that they refilled it very often.

Other meals were top notch too. We had dinner at the Breeze while we were there. We had a table with a view of half of Bangkok I think. The food, the service, the view, everything was wonderful. The only criticism was with one dish, and they made that right when we told them about it. The dish was my weakness, abalone, it was a whole one from Australia I believe, braised, and was over cooked. To be fair it was slightly over done when it arrived, so I enjoyed a bite, but turned to rubber shortly thereafter. Abalone is tricky to cook, I have cooked more than my fair share and know that a few seconds to long you can use it as a tire and get more miles out of it than you can a high end Goodyear tire. This was the case for what I was served. They apologized and took it off of our bill when I pointed it out. Having said that they should have taken more off as it really put a bad note on the whole meal and left me without a main course. But that was their call and I am letting you know what was done.

Except for that one dish, this was a wonderful stay at a hotel. Now remember it is a 5 star hotel and one should expect 5 star results. But don’t forget 5 star prices too. Compared to 5 star hotels in Europe and the states it was excellent overall, price wise, but none the less pricey. So shop around and look for deals to stay if you can find them, we did
Bottom line is I don’t think you would be disappointed staying at this hotel, based on our experience. Let us know what you think of your stay when you are there.