a koto christmas
When travelling in Vietnam, Express reader Pam Shackleton enjoyed a special Intrepid real life experience that embraced the spirit of Christmas…
“We were travelling on the Reunification Express from Saigon to Hanoi. It was late evening and next day we were to have a celebratory Christmas breakfast when we arrived in Hanoi. We were delayed by several hours, stopped in the middle of nowhere during the night. We realised that our breakfast would not materialise and it was changed to lunch. Our guide Dave didn’t tell us too much about where we were going for our Christmas Day dinner, but we knew enough to be expecting a lot!
We were introduced to a restaurant called KOTO. This is an acronym for Know One Teach One. Here is a training scheme for disadvantaged young people who are given hospitality training. The trainees learn life changing skills and can graduate to become competent cooks and chefs. It is a wonderful concept and our Christmas dinner was a mixture of oriental and mediterranean. It was delicious!
We were so privileged to be able to dive into this culinary adventure and to feel that we were helping sustain a venture that was bringing so much good to the city’s underprivileged adolescents. We were so taken with the restaurant that we went back there twice – but this time for breakfast! It was certainly an amazing way to spend Christmas and we will never forget Hanoi and the wonderful people we met there.”
Tour Vietnam with Intrepid on trips like these great small group adventures:
The Reunification Express – 15 days Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City
Spirit of Vietnam Southbound – 10 days Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City
