by Chris Caldicott
A two-night pre-cruise extension in Bangkok’s Shangri-La hotel offered a welcome buffer to the new time zone and tropical climate as well as a great introduction to Thai cuisine in the hotel’s Salathip restaurant. My taste buds were tantalised by a menu of zingy citric pomelo salad, coconut creamy lemongrass infused green curry and local favourite Pad Thai of sweet and sour stir fried noodles with chargrilled prawns, crunchy peanuts and beansprouts. After a good night’s sleep, it was time for the included city tour.
We visited Wat Phra Kaew, a vast temple complex next to the city’s opulent Grand Palace, crowded with images of gold leaf buddhas, demons, stupas, pagodas and a highly revered, if rather small, Emerald Buddha. Then the 17th century Wat Pho, Thailand’s oldest and largest temple and home to a magnificent giant 150-foot-long reclining Buddha. Our buffet lunch was a plethora of more Thai treats. A free afternoon included posing for passport photos for my Cambodian visa, in an old-fashioned studio up the backstairs of a local camera shop.
In Jack’s bar, a friendly neighbourhood tavern on a bank of the Chao Phraya, I sipped a super cold Singha beer while watching the busy water traffic, then moved onto the Bamboo Bar of the Mandarin Oriental. To celebrate being a location in the latest TV series of White Lotus, they were launching a new ‘White Lotus’ cocktail laced with the juice of a fruit I had never tasted before called salak.
After boarding Viking Venus, the shore excursion the next morning was to a tropical fruit farm. Among the more familiar mangos, coconuts and jack fruit I was pleased to find salak: encased in a spiky skin, the flesh around a stone inside was succulent with an agreeable sweet and sour flavour.
On a balmy evening, we set sail across the Gulf of Thailand towards Sihanoukville in Cambodia. Here, as in all ports ahead, I booked a shore leave tour with a culinary theme, eager to experience local cuisine in each region.
The Don Bosco Cooking School experience began with a market tour in the company of chef Dara to see displays of ingredients like galangal, lime leaves and turmeric, which we were to use in our recipes. I was glad we would not be using the crickets, tarantulas and water bugs from other stalls which Dara dismissed as ‘peasant food’!
We cooked Khmer classics like an Amok of fish steamed in banana leaf bowls of coconut milk broth infused with galangal, garlic, lemon grass, lime leaves, chilli paste and turmeric, and crispy Banh Xeo savoury pancakes with a spicy dipping sauce.
The following day’s city tour took us to Wat Krom, a hilltop monastery still being restored following its destruction during the 1970’s Khmer Rouge era, into a peaceful community of orange-robed Buddhist monks in a serene setting of forest foliage. Our guide Thi Kim shared moving stories of surviving the Khmer Rouge genocide, and her optimism for her grandchildren’s future in a new era of prosperity. Swimming in the clear warm water on the palm-fringed Independence Beach of our next stop, the future of Cambodia certainly felt brighter than its past.
On sea days I browsed the extensive and eclectic floating library of travel books and art collections that are a feature of all Viking’s Ocean Ships. Informative insights into the local histories, cultures and economies of the places we were to visit were delivered daily as Enrichment Lectures in the Star Theatre. I booked a deep tissue massage and haircut in the Liv Nordic Spa, and a cooking class at the ship’s state of the art Kitchen Table Cooking School. Here, Chef Ashish taught us definitive versions of the Wild Mushroom Risotto, Romana Style Saltimbocca and Tiramisu served in Viking’s excellent Italian Restaurant Manfredi’s, as a contrast to all the spicy Asian dishes we had eaten on shore and on the destination-inspired menus of the ship’s Restaurant. There had also been special food events up in the World Café, consisting of outdoor stalls set up on deck serving authentic Asian street food like Pho Noodle Soup.
As Venus sailed up the Saigon River delta towards Ho Chi Minh, we passed sampans laden with local produce emerging through the morning mist. Our city tour revealed a thriving modern city with remnants of elegant French colonial architectural gems like the Opera House and Post Office between traditional Asian street food markets, atmospheric Buddhist temples, and cutting-edge emporiums of modern fashion.
Located in a courtyard, and once a colonial-era opium den, Hoa Tuc Cooking School was my venue for creating contemporary versions of traditional Vietnamese dishes, under the guidance of Mai. With an infectious sense of humour, she flitted between our personal cooking stations to give hands-on tuition. We ate the resulting Cha gio Sai Gon spicy spring rolls, a chilli and fresh herb leaf combo of tom thit papaya salad, and Pho Bo beef noodle soup for lunch.
Our guide to Da Nang, named Nam, made a good decision to only give us half an hour at the Lin Ung Pagoda featuring a modern statue of a giant female Buddha, so we could enjoy more time relaxing at a cool beachside lounge cafe on My Khe Beach, and swimming in the sea that was once a favourite spot for R and R among GIs during the Vietnam War. The highlight of the day was visiting the Museum of Cham Sculpture, with its collection of sandstone temple ornamentations depicting Hindu images of Shiva and other deities from the 4th century, proving an early link between the Vietnamese Cham dynasty and India.
My expectations of Halong Bay could not have been higher and were already met as Viking Venus carefully navigated her way between a maze of dramatic limestone ‘dragon tooth’ karst islands towering vertically out of the Gulf of Tonkin as we approach our dock in Halong City.
After a day exploring the bay by launch, I booked a Hai Phong City tour that included an irresistible Banh Cua crab noodle soup lunch. Once the Buddhist temple and a photo-stop of the colonial French Opera house were ticked off, the lunch in the busy local street Ba Cu cafe was superlative. Few tourists ever visit this industrial city – whose only claim to fame is the size of its container terminal – while it’s a place of pilgrimage for Vietnamese foodies.
Haute cuisine versions of Asian classics were served on themed nights with wine pairing at The Chef’s Table. ‘La Route Des Indes’ featured warm spices like cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika, pepper and ginger in dishes of a picante Tuna Tataki, and melt-in-the-mouth tender Beef Tenderloin.
Hong Kong port authorities celebrate a ship’s maiden visit by sending a pilot tug with its firehoses turned on to full power as a special welcome. Viking Venus qualified on her way to Kowloon’s Ocean Terminal, right next to the Star Ferry Pier.
Watching the iconic craft scurry across to and from Hong Kong Island packed with morning commuters, while the golden light of a rising sun was reflected in the glass of the towering skyscrapers which crowd the shores of this urban jungle. was deeply nostalgic.
I had fond memories of several past visits to this dynamic city over the last few decades, so it was a special moment to be back. After a city tour, I escaped the city by ferry to Cheug Chau, one of the traffic-free outer islands of quiet fishing villages. As my flight back to London was not until almost midnight, I headed to a barefoot beach cafe for an early supper of chargrilled Chinese seafood treats.
Next steps
To plan and book your next culinary adventure cruise, call Silver Travel Advisor on 0800 412 5678.
