Back in Hanoi - Wild Lotus restaurant

Hanoi - arrived on SQ at around 12:20pm.  The flight into Hanoi was smooth but the landing on the Hanoi airport tarmac was far from smooth.   Did not catch any movie or TV series as the sound system only worked on one side of the headphones - it's the seat jack that was spoiled.  As it was a short flight and I was also tired, I did not make a fuss about it.   Lesley flight arrived shortly and we took the same taxi to our serviced apartment.  

This time I booked a servied apartment instead of a Hotel - in fact it's much cheaper.   Somerset Grand Hanoi (next to Hanoi Tower).  Many taxi drivers will not know this serviced apartment but they know Hanoi Tower.    The 2 room apartment is big about 883 sq ft.

Before our meeting, we had lunch @ Wild Lotus restaurant located @ 55A Nguyen Du.   This is an upmarket Vietnamese restaurant.

In the foreground, the soup is sea cucumber soup and background, prawn fresh spring rolls.

This is a delicious dish - grilled eggplant with prawn and pork.

I asked the waitress for her recommendations but I did not select her recommendations except this dish (above picture) - Grilled beef on lemongrass stick.    All my dish which I chose tasted good except this grilled beef - it was very tough like eating rubber.

Delicious Sushi restaurant @ Nihonbashi

Tokyo - After dinner, Terry brought me to a Japanese restaurant in Nihonbashi - about 4 stations away from Toyocho station.   It was a quaint and nice restaurant, as usual we sat around the sushi counter table - right in front of the chef.

Our beer was served in this ceramic mug - supposedly able to retain the coldness of the beer better.  It was actually correct - still cold for quite a while.  

This apetitiser was raw baby sardine with garnishing - very smooth with the sauce in vinegar.

This was perfectly prepared in front of us - the chef placed the sashimi immaculately.   The taste of the sashimi was manificent beyond compare, simply melting in your mouth.  You can taste the suculent texture of the tuna, it was so fresh.   The orange meat is not salmon - looks like red snapper.

The dish is young bamboo with seaweed, very delicious.

This is sushi dish - tuna,  egg, squid, all very delicious and the meat is so fresh.  We ordered hot sake - liquor made from fermented rice.     I took a peek and the bill came up to S$320 for two people - considered reasonable price for a good Japanese restaurant.   A 3-star Michelin restaurant will set you back at S$1,500 for two people.

Spring in Tokyo

Tokyo - Flew the A380 to Narita Airport.  SQ flies to both Narita and Haneda.   I choose the huge jumbo as it's quieter and the seat arrangements are much spacier.    I caught up with my movies and watched 'Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol' - it was the best of the series.    Another movie I watched was Carnage - a satire about 2 parents - worth the watch as the acting was good with star studded actors.  It is a typical Roman Polanski movie.  

The weather when I landed was wet and cold - temperature at about 12c.   Listen to my iphone music whilst on the Limo bus to the Hotel.    After a smooth check-in, I went to my favourite sushi restaurant just next mall - sushizenmai.  I ordered a plata of tuna sushi and a plate of shishamo.  

Need to have my daily fruits and bought a bunch of bananas.

Back to the Hotel for an early night cap.....zzzzz

Sho Noodle Bar

Melbourne - We checked out and had to store our luggage at the Hotel's coin dispensing lockers.  $5 for the 1st 8 hrs, then $3 to continue to 11hrs.  By the time we came back to pick up our luggage it was already 11 hrs of usage.

After we packed up on the last day of the Cisco Live 2012,  we waited for a long time outside the Melbourne Exhibtion for a taxi.   It was a long wait and then decided to cross the road to the Crown casino entrance to hail a taxi - still no luck as most of the taxi had passengers in them.   We decided to cross back to the exhibition area and book a taxi - still no taxi.  Finally, we walk down the road to Crown Plaza Hotel and caught a taxi there.

We walked to Crown casino to have some good noodles which come highly recommended from Lesley - Sho Noodle Bar.  For A$17.50 you can choose the type of noodles you want (udon, cantonese, etc..) and 3 types of fillings (beef, beef brisket, dumplings, etc..) and type of soup base.  The meal comes in a large bowl and it was very delicious and filling.

Lesley and my flight back home is late around midnight and had some time to 'kill', so we watch the latest movie 'Hunger Games' @ 8pm show.   The begining was quite boring and I almost fall asleep but as the plot thickens it became more and more exciting.  By 10pm, we are wondering should be leave or the show will end.  But we had to leave by 10:15pm - so we never knew the ending....

Claypot's Seafood & Bar

Melbourne - We met Armen, and the 3 of us went to St. Kilda for good seafood restaurant - it was my selection - Claypot's Seafood @ 213 Barkly Street, St. Kilda. They had good reviews for this restaurant and when we arrive it was crowded and there were 5 groups of people in front of us waiting for their seats. We had to sit at the bar and waited about 40 minutes before we were called to our designated table. We were very pissed because the restaurant did not tell us that they had ran out of many seafood - ran out of crabs, small prawns, most of the shell fish. So with hobson's choice - we tried what the waiter proposed.

We had Shellfish stirfry with rice, a plata of 3 types of fish and King Fish. The best wass King Fish - it was so fresh and delicious. The seafood was fresh but the service was really bad. It was the attitude of the waiter that serves us that spoilt the whole atmosphere of dining at this restaurant. But I was told that most Australian restaurant service is really bad.

Cisco Live 2012 - Melbourne

Melbourne - I had a booth at a technology exhibition and conference called 'Cisco Live 2012 Melbourne' and it was held at Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.   It is located opposite Crown Casino.   We are moving in equipment today @ around 9am.

For lunch, Lesley and I walk down Chinatown to have some timsum @ Westlake Chinese restaurant.    Melbourne Chinatown even has their own website.    The tim sum was just average.   Chinatown is along Little Bourke Street - a short walking distance from our hotel.

Lygon Street - Australia's Famous "Little Italy"

Melbourne -  Today's weather is very nice around 17C in the morning.  

For dinner we went to Lygon Street which is a very colourful area with many Italian restaurant and cafe.     We went to the restaurant that I was familiar and the pizza is really good - iI Gambero Italian Restaurant.    We had 2 pizzas and it tasted so good - the Hawaian Pizza which is Ham and Pineapple had good quality ham and cheese.   The glass red wine which I ordered did not taste so good and should have order a bottle rather a glass. 

After which we adjourned to Brunetti - the original location at Lygon Street was big and it was crowded with people having Italian deserts and coffee.  The price of the deserts is out of this world - 4 small Macorcoons cost A$10 i.e. A$2.50 per tiny Macoroon.    There is branch in Singapore @ Tanglin Mall.