Manic motorbikes topped by riders wearing multi-coloured helmets bob like buoys on a charging ocean. The scene is a pulsation of garish colours, blaring sounds and potent odours that fluctuate between the fragrant pervasions in the luxury malls that surround the historic opera house, to aromatic emanations from Saigon Market.
Ho Chi Minh City officially, Saigon to most, is a sprawling Vietnamese city that blends Oriental allure with French charm and Bangkok buzz. Like a cocktail with too many ingredients, visiting Ho Chi Minh City delivers giddy highs, attested by the number of tourists who flock to the city. A stark contrast exists at the other end of the country. In the capital of Hanoi, time slows down; a city of magnificent French architecture, comparably more organised streets and turbulent history.
Between bustling Ho Chi Minh City and the traditional capital lie smart new resorts that have lately made Vietnam an elite beach destination. Indeed, new visitors would hardly suspect the now luxurious destination was once war-ravaged, brutalised by a long and cruel colonialism. The Vietnamese, in fervid impatience to lure tourists, are coating once bullet-pocked walls with posh veneer.
First impressions
My initial taste of modern Vietnam is experienced in Sofitel Saigon Plaza’s Mercedes limo on the drive from the airport. When “le chauffeur” presents a music menu, I request classical and Madonna begins to sing. Vietnam, it seems, is in such accelerated process of modernisation that 1980s music counts as classical. But vestigial French frivolity lingers in Sofitel Saigon Plaza’s Boudoir Lounge, where the scandalously all-pink Pink Affair Afternoon Tea unfurls with extravagances befitting Marie-Antoinette: rose-lipped raspberry éclairs beckon, nubile strawberry pâtisseries tease and voluptuous marshmallows wink.
More pursuits of the culinary and R&R kinds lie in wait further up the coast in and around the historic city of Hoi An. Anantara Hoi An is a peaches and cream colonial re-creation that enjoys a very tranquil setting along the river. Theirs is no branded spa, I’m warned, but the four-hand Vietnamese massage, with fingers in a fervent dance of synchronised rhythmic movements and elbows pirouetting on pressure points, impresses. Post-treatment, chef Vien masters Mediterranean and Arabian cuisines at French-chic Riverside Cafe. At Lanterns, his Vietnamese pho soup is pho-nomenal.
It’s a similar story a little further north at The Nam Hai, a favourite stop for the groomed and gorgeous. They even dress for breakfast, which is courtesy of chef Richard, who oversees the suave restaurants as well as a vast herb garden.
Villas in dark wood and stark white seem to flow from back to front like terraces; there’s a bathtub by a daybed that flows down to the next level, where there’s a desk appended to the bed, which descends further into the living room. By the bed is a TV, which is superfluous when a typhoon rages outside. Palm trees swirl their helpless arms like windmill blades gone wild as waves charge toward the beach like white steeds as howling winds drown the hissing of battered plants. A live natural spectacle is the least one can expect at exclusive abodes nowadays.
Balance out your encounters with the region’s exciting and unpredictable weather with some time out at Fusion Maia Da Nang. This Healing Hotels of the World member dispenses free spa treatments to guests and offers the help of dedicated “Fusionistas” who customise your experience during your stay.
Everyone announces innovative concepts, but few successfully implement them, so it’s refreshing to know that Fusion Maia does. Their raw food menu is sure to impress even the most highly sensitive epicurean. It’s about C-squared: creativity and colour, which are exhibited in a white plate chequered with shocking-pink beetroot squares sliced to a nanometer, on which cubed almond paté presides, or in a dish of vibrant avocado sherbet reeled in screaming yellow lemon peel. Chef Dung’s inspired Vietnamese Home Kitchen serves up turmeric-tempered Hoi An noodle soup, with coconut-shelled coconut crème brûlé and velvet-lipped Vietnamese coffee mousse for dessert.
Appetite sated, its time to head further north along the central coast to the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, where design aesthetic takes centre stage. The hotel’s celebrity designer-architect Bill Bensley once declared, “I can make something that pleases everyone. But I’d rather make a statement.” His statement cost a stupendous $200 million to build, but the “bijou-box” toilets with plants and lamps emanating from jewellery box-like drawers alone are priceless. Bensley’s Harvard-educated mind flaunts in decorative wit and soaring fancy.
Lofty, luxurious rooms have bathrooms and wardrobes with bird perches for hangers, while the zingy restaurant Citron’s balconies shaped like overturned Vietnamese hats offer thrilling sea views. Quality design must be matched with food of an equal calibre, and Michelin-starred French chef Michel Roux’s $130 a head Chef’s Table at La Maison 1888 certainly draws guests.
Capital gains
En route to Hanoi I make a detour via La Résidence Hôtel & Spa, a hotel in UNESCO World Heritage-listed Hue and part of Accor’s MGallery Collection. General manager Phan Trong Minh enlightens me with some stories about Hue’s fabled culinary heritage: Nguyen Emperor Minh Manh had 300 concubines (and 142 children) who would prepare the emperor’s daily desserts. She who made the finest enjoyed his favours that night. Shortly after, I’m served La Résidence’s speciality, Minh Manh wine ice-cream, quietly hoping that the modern version of the potency-enhancing wine does not contain the same ingredients as the original recipe: bear claws and elephant.
Arriving in Hanoi, I acquaint myself with the Sofitel Legend Metropole; perhaps Vietnam’s grandest address. Resident of the opulent French quarter with its haute-luxe boutiques, the Metropole welcomes royals (including Britain’s Prince Andrew), film stars, literary figures and ambassadors galore, and receives an ever-increasing number of awards. It’s not hard to see why: the airport transfer is a BMW vehicle stocking Ladurée-quality macaroons; the concierge could rival that in the Ritz; and the Historical Wing suites, erstwhile receptacles of Somerset Maughan, Graham Greene and Charlie Chaplin, could easily rival those of Claridge’s.
Mine’s a glamorised newer suite, full of finery and finesse, a marbled bathroom with ornate stand-alone tub and Hermès toiletries. The hotel boasts a brasserie, Le Beaulieu, ribboned in Parisian-style terraces; an Italian restaurant, Angelina, offering authentic Italian pizza; and Vietnamese restaurant Spices Garden, which exudes the languid aura of a bygone era, to be imbibed over multiple helpings of homemade Sapa honey and fresh ginger ice-cream.
Similarly evoking the city’s colonial history is Mövenpick Hotel Hanoi. It’s colonial façade encloses stylish interiors that bring refreshing modernity to the historical city. My plush suite is decorated in sober hues with an enlivening spot of colour here and there, contrasting neatly with the ethnic, chic and effusive hotels around Vietnam. The Mövenpick’s location provides convenient access to some of the finest gourmet addresses in the city, notably celebrity chef Didier Corlou’s La Verticale. But for now, I’m in the mood for food for thought, so I visit the 1000-year-old Temple of Literature, where I’m immersed once again in the epic history of this wonderful and enigmatic country.
Southern escapes
Feeling sated with city life, I head back south for a couple of final beach escapes. Six Senses Ninh Van Bay is rustic retreat lazed on rolling rocks that resemble a slumbering dragon. My butler Tang, recalling Charon of Greek mythology, ferrying souls across the river Styx to the other world, takes me between resort jetty and my Rock Pool Villa, cradled on boulders. The spartan expanse of the villas enhances the private pool, which is sculpted into the rocks. Morning unveils the rugged romance of an almost masculine seascape. No blue-eyed waters and frilly white waves purring coyly; the bay seems more like a benign version of Shakespeare’s green-eyed monster.
For travellers looking for island escapes, Vietnam delivers. One of its most indulgent holiday hideaways also offers travellers a detailed insight into the country’s turbulent past. Six Senses Con Dao is a luxury idyll on Vietnam’s most astoundingly beautiful island Con Dao, off the southern coastline. Bare minimalism accentuates this resort’s natural beauty. Tanned beaches laze like long sun-bathed legs by varnished waters where the Gulf of Thailand meets the South China Sea, and cascading hills are dressed in emerald mantles of velour verdure. Con Dao is better known as Brangelina’s Vietnamese hideaway than for its historically significant French and American prisons, notoriously the Tiger Cages, where 20,000 Vietnamese prisoners were exterminated.
Captivated by the beauty of my surroundings, I consider swapping my prison tour with a nature walk, but my butler Phi Anh insists: visitors to Con Dao must know its horrifying history. Discovering the Tiger Cages and prisoner cemetery, where lotus ponds punctuated by the incoming rain evoke a Monet painting, leave one philosophising over how perversion exists in paradise. It certainly serves as an impressive reminder that Vietnam has worked hard and overcome all odds to become one of the world’s most desirable destinations for a luxury escape.
THE GOLDEN BOOK
Anantara Hoi An
Tel: +84 510 391 4555
hoi-an.anantara.com
Banyan Tree Lang Co
Tel: +84 54 3695 888
www.banyantree.com
Fusion Maia Da Nang
Tel: +84 511 396 7999
maiadanang.fusion-resorts.com
InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula
Tel: +84 511 393 8888
danang.intercontinental.com
La Résidence Hôtel & Spa
Tel: +84 054 383 7475
www.la-residence-hue.com
Mövenpick Hotel Hanoi
Tel: +84 4 3822 2800
www.moevenpick-hotels.com
Six Senses Con Dao
Tel: +84 64 383 1222
www.sixsenses.com
Six Senses Ninh Van Bay
Tel: +84 58 352 4268
www.sixsenses.com
Sofitel Legend Metropole
Tel: +84 4 3826 6919
www.sofitel.com
Sofitel Saigon Plaza
Tel: +84 8 3824 1555
www.sofitel.com
The Nam Hai
Tel: +84 510 394 0000
www.ghmhotels.com
