We sailed out of Victoria Harbour in chic style aboard our good ship Seabourn Spirit one balmy Saturday evening.
From the panoramic sky bar on the sun deck, we watched the neon lights of high-rise Hong Kong shimmering in the water as the sun set over Victoria Peak. Serenaded by our yacht's jazz band, we enjoyed champagne and canapés at a cocktail party inaugurating our cruise through the South China Sea.
Our sleek luxury yacht headed for the Hainan Straits, gliding past an antique sampan under red sails. It was an auspicious time to undertake a cruise with The Yachts of Seabourn along the coast of Vietnam. While the locals chased dragons at the start of the Chinese Year of the Golden Ox, we celebrated the magical journey which lay ahead from Hong Kong to Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City.
With alternate days at sea and ashore exploring Vietnam, we had lots of time to indulge in the leisurely luxuries of Seabourn Spirit en route to Hanoi, our first port of call.
With only 104 luxury suites and 208 passengers, our floating cocoon offered a sumptuous sense of intimacy and exclusivity - and a privileged ratio of almost one crew member per passenger. Yachts of Seabourn won world's best small ship cruise line honours in Conde Nast's Reader's Choice Awards 2009, one of many awards.
We were tempted ashore at every port by excursions to exotic destinations led by expert local guides. The day-trip to Hanoi, ancient capital of the kingdom of Vietnam, was one of the highlights of our Vietnam cruise.
Our enthusiastic young guide Anh lived up to the meaning of his name, "little brother". "Ho Ho means I'm fine" he told me "kind of like your name - and Uncle Ho is our nickname for Ho Chi Minh".
Anh compared Vietnam to a bamboo pole with huge baskets balanced at either end, symbolising the fertile deltas of north and south. We passed through a timeless landscape of villages and fields. You see rice paddies to the horizon in a fertile country which is one of the world's biggest producers of rubber, coffee and rice, harvested three times a year.
We were there during the season of sticky rice, used to celebrate Chinese New Year. Spring was already on its way, season of the long grain.
Crossing the Han, the mighty red river which gives Hanoi its modern name, we spotted Gustav Eiffel's strategic steel bridge bombed during the Vietnam War.
Anh explained the Vietnamese call the last war the American War to distinguish it from occupations by the Chinese, French and Japanese over the centuries.
Hanoi, "City of the Soaring Dragon" founded in 1010 has survived many invasions, and celebrates its thousandth anniversary on 10/10/10. Our guide says the Vietnamese are very superstitious about numbers, and will celebrate this auspicious day in a big way.
Today, Hanoi is a bustling city of elegant tree-lined boulevards, lakes, gardens and pagodas. Crossing the road in Vietnam takes a leap of faith and nerves of steel, but an invisible passage opened up among the buzzing fleet of scooters for us.
The moral of the story is that in a country of 90 million people, everyone makes space for you. It's a way of life. You wouldn't want to get knocked over in Hanoi. The buzz bikes are heavily laden with passengers (I counted a family of six hanging off one bike), chickens, egg trays, bamboo baskets, pet dogs, televisions, computers, floral displays, bonsai pot-plants, beer and soda crates, rice, fruit and veggies. The motorbike is an all-purpose conveyance in scooter city.
Who needs gas stations? Street vendors sell petrol in recycled whisky bottles. Don't confuse it with the local rice spirit and take a swig.
The Chinese New Year was in full swing in Hanoi. We followed the throng of worshippers across a bright red footbridge festooned with silk flags to the Ngoc Son pagoda set on a tiny island in the Lake of the Restored Sword.
We lit incense in a fog of smoke. The locals prayed for prosperity and longevity at the shrine of turtles, and stuffed dong banknotes and written prayers into a display case containing a well-preserved two hundred year-old turtle, ancestor of the sacred living turtles in the lake.
New Year in Vietnam is a time of turtles. At the Temple of Literature, the seat of Confucian learning founded in Hanoi in 1076, we watched children rubbing the heads of the stone turtles which symbolise a long life. The turtles guard the rows of tablets which commemorate the achievements of the sages and scholars of Confucius who passed through the doors of Vietnam's oldest university.
