Finding Nemo …
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Now I’ back in Saigon where I’ll spent my last few days until I fly home on Wednesday.
And in case any of you were wondering I didn’t abseil down the waterfall as much as slipping and falling, head first, legs entangled in my safety rope, unable to move or get up on my feet, until finally giving up and just sliding down the waterfall, getting back on my feet and, finally, letting go and jumping the last five meters into the river
So … my last post was neither very cheerful nor very pictureful. I promise to change that, but the reason I wrote the post, was also to let you know that: Hey, that’s how I feel sometimes.
I don’t find travelling to be easy, that’s not why I’m doing this. I would love to be more carefree, embrace change and just go with the flow – and that’s why I’m doing this. My theory is that if I get myself into shit 100 times, the 100th time will be much less scary than the first time.
As I also mentioned last time, I recently met a Swedish couple, and it’s very interesting to see the differences in our way of travelling.
They never book ahead. Just the thought of arriving in a new city without a pre-booked hotel gives me the creeps.
They use the internet maybe once every 3rd day. I like to know where I am on google maps at all times, and I use my 3G sim-card a lot.
They gladly give out their passport to the hotel, because they feel it is more safe than having it with them. Mine is kept, along with my other valuables, in a belt bag which I have with me at all times.
God I sound so uptight when I’m writing this – and I am, I will gladly admit to that.
But you know what, I am also brave as fuck. Because if you are not afraid, then you are not brave. That is the important difference between being fearless and being brave. I am afraid several times a day, but I keep on going. I challenge myself again and again, in the hope that I will one day be able to go with the flow, and trust that everything is gonna be all-right.
And for that I applaud myself (yes I do! despite being Danish and all)
Anyway this was not at all what this post was supposed to be about. I promised you food and pictures, so food and pictures you shall get. Chronologically backwards these are some of the more interesting meals I have had the past week or so:
This food tour was one of the things I had most been looking forward to when coming to Vietnam. Canadian born Jodi Ettenberg is a former lawyer who quit her job to go on a 1 year round-the-world-trip. That was 6 years ago, and she hasn’t stopped travelling. She runs the food/travel blog LegalNomades which I would highly recommend you check out – she is a truly inspiring lady.
Lucky for me she is situated at Saigon at the moment where she hosts food tours for her readers. We ended up being just a small group of four – me, her and her American friend Mike along with his Vietnamese girlfriend Anh.
We started out with Banh da xuc hen. A dish from Hue in central Vietnam. The dish consisted of baby clams stir-fried with onions, lemongrass, chilli, ginger and white pepper, with rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) – and it was delish! (though rather spicy)
Next up was Mi quang – turmeric noodles from central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province. It was served with the same rice”bread” as above, which was broken onto little pieces and added to the soup along with the usual abundance of fresh herbs.
Everyone who knows me, know that I am a sucker for icecream .. and yoghurt. So the next little “cleanser” was probably my favourite part of the tour. Yaourt – frozen yoghurt from Dalat, eaten in the park, with aerobic-dancing ladies in the background. Perfection.
(I tried finding it up here in Da Lat, where I am now, but nobody understands me, when I say I want the frozen one…)
The next dish was Goi du du bo – Unripened papaya salad with beef jerky, rice cracker and peanuts with rau ram. I don’t have a picture of this as we literally sat on the side walk in a dark park and ate it. Even though the whole scene screamed food poisoning (at one point a rat came running at us full speed) it was surprisingly delicious.
The last dish was a dessert called Che chuoi – lady finger banana and yam in coconut milk with tapioca balls. It was good, but I must admit that I am not quite used to the whole concept of Vietnamese desserts yet. They are so … different.
The most important part though was the company and you couldn’t have asked for a better crowd. The whole thing felt more like an evening out with friends than an organized food tour, which I loved.
Jonas’ last night was also celebrated with a nice, yet not-so-Vietnamese meal. It was at the rooftop restaurant 27 Grill on the 27th floor of Saigon AB tower. The food was great and the view even more so.
The next day while waiting one the taxi we went to Sozo – a nice little coffee place in the backpacker area, that happens to make a killer passion fruit cheesecake and some mouthwatering Oreo truffles. But it gets better:
Sozo is a café established for the purpose of helping disadvantaged Vietnamese break the cycle of debt, find employment and start a new life. Through your patronage you help the marginalized support themselves, as all profits are used for training, education and facilitation of more jobs for willing workers. (link)
So … you are basically helping people by eating delicious desserts. I’ll be back.
In Can Tho we had Nem Nuong (grilled barbecue pork, noodles, pineapple, green banana and herbs in rice paper), which was freakishly delicious.
On our Saigon sightseeing we had our most beautiful meal at “Vegetarian … hum” right next to the War remnants museum.
And in case you were wondering what my worst food experience has been so far, here is a little slide show to give you an idea:
It’s called “pearl milk”, and I’m never going near it again.
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That’s all for now, tomorrow I’m going abseiling down a waterfall … so much for being brave.
So … it’s just me now. Actually it has been only me for two whole days, and I’m not dead yet – even though I came close last night.
Yesterday morning I woke up with yet another case of the not-so-yummi-tummy (sorry guys, but this shit happens when you travel) I have had this problem on-off since we got here, and I am getting pretty sick of it to be honest.
Yesterday morning was particularly bad timing though, since I was going on my long-expected-and-very-much-looked-forward-to-(and-already-paid-for) food tour with Jodi from LegalNomades. (If you don’t know this girl, check her out, she is the awesomest) Also, the day after (which is to say today) I had an 8 hour bus ride to Da Lat – don’t think that one needs further explanation.
So I ate a Ciproflexocain (a mild antibiotic) and treated myself to a morning in bed equipped with comfort food, plenty of water and a kindl, hoping it would get better come afternoon
It did, luckily, and I ended up having a wonderful time, of which I shall blog some later on.
BUT as it turns out Jodi, having travelled the world for 6 years, knew a thing or two about “Cipro” (that’s what the cool kids call it) Apparently you have to keep taking it even after your symptoms disappear or you could risk immunizing the bacteria. I had actually wondered about this, since that is normally the case with antibiotics, but our doctor hadn’t mentioned anything about it back home.
I didn’t really know if I should take a second one or not, but ended up doing so, just to be sure. Better safe than sorry, I thought. Well I got really sorry.
I woke up at 1.30am with severe stomach cramps. I really thought I would throw up or pass out on the bathroom floor as I felt all blood leave my face. I tried to go back to the dormitory to get some water in the fridge but I just ended up lying down in the middle of the room breathing hard as I pictured myself spending the rest of my holiday in a Vietnamese hospital. I finally got up and decided to wake one of the guys I had spoken to earlier, but luckily at that moment Lee, one of the owners, walked into the room.
He took me outside and as soon as I told him about the pill, he asked if I had eaten anything. I told him yes, two hours before I took the pill and felt kind of foolish as he smiled at my stupidity and quickly found some bread and water for me to eat.
After that I felt much better and was able to get a few more hours of sleep before the bus ride (which went fine by the way)
I read afterwards that stomach cramps is one of the rearer side effects of taking Cipro, so I won’t be doing that again unless I really, really have to!
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For the next couple of days I’ll be in Da Lat, hanging out with a Swedish couple I met on the bus. If the weather (which is colder and rainier up here) permits, we will be doing some sightseeing and some mountain hiking before heading out to Na Trang for some beach bum’in.
Can Tho is the biggest city in the Mekong delta with a bustling 1,2 million inhabitants. It is hot and humid as hell down here which is part of the reason I’m spending the afternoon not sightseeing, but seeking refugee in the shadow on our hotel rooftop terrace, enjoying the occasional breeze.
Today’s sightseeing is already well over as we started out at 6am, meeting our guide Mr. Tom (I am not at all spelling that right, but that was how it sounded) by the river.
We found Mr. Tom because he is a friend of Benoit, who is a friend of the parents of the two girls I used to babysit when I was younger – I love how stuff like this happens, when you travel.
Anyways, as you might know, The Mekong delta in southern Vietnam is especially known for it’s colourful floating markets, the biggest one being Cai Rang 6 km SW along the river from Can Tho – so that’s what we went out to see.
We made one stop at a local noodle factory, where we got to see the whole process of noodlemaking, from the crushing of the rice to the finished 5 kg packages sold on the floating market. The round rice “pancakes” on the picture below are steemed for 1-2 min. then left in the sun to dry for 3 hours. After that they are sliced into perfect, long noodles on the cutting machine
Apart from being a really nice and funny guy, who always made us smile, Mr. Tom also only spoke maybe 3-4 English phrases. He had, however, a special talent. When we met him on the boat I was greeted with a large “flower bouquet” made entirely out of “water coco” leaves.
He won my heart right there and then but nonetheless continued to make every imaginable artwork out of these leaves, all while steering the boat and telling us about the landscape. The fact that he consequently referred to me as “Madam” didn’t hurt either.
Seriously, how could you not love this guy?
Long time, no posting. We ended up spending almost an entire week in Hoi An which definitely wasn’t part of the plan, but turned out pretty good actually. When we first arrived at the city, we almost couldn’t get out of there fast enough because of the massive amount of tourists and the high prices that follow.
But as is the case with I dare say every city (or place for that matter) once you get to know where the good places are, what to do and what not to do, Hoi An is a really nice city.
One of our best experiences, however, was not in the city but a short 1 1/2h boat ride away.
Deserted, white beaches, cliffs with lush jungle vegetation and surrounding it – coral reefs and clear, blue ocean water. If there was ever a paradise on earth, Cham Island is it!
The Hoi An based company “Cham Island diving” with the very fitting slogan “no troubles, make bubbles” offers snorkelling and/or diving excursions with same-day-returns or over-night-stays on the beach of Cham Island.
We shipped out at 8.30am on an old fishing boat gone divers paradise. Fully equipped with wet-suits, snorkelling/diving gear and deckchairs on the roof for in-between relaxation.
Now I have a confession to make. I don’t like the ocean. I had a rather traumatizing experience when I was younger (nothing dangerous, I just got really scared while snorkelling) and since then I haven’t really felt safe in the water. On top of that I got really seasick on the way out, to an extent where I actually started crying with relief when the boat finally cast anchor for our first dive. (classy, I know)
I did get in the water, however, though I have nothing but the diving feet picture below to prove it (unlike all the others who had knowingly brought several Go-Pros)
The water was a bit cold and the visibility wasn’t great, but I made it and felt safe along the way, so I called it a day and spent the rest of the morning in a deck chair.
At noon we finally headed for lunch at the island. It felt like stepping into a scene from LOST.
At 3pm the boat went back and left the island to us and 5 others who were also going to spend the night.
Lucky for us those five others were a really great bunch: Ivan, one of the diving instructors from Cham Diving, Alexander and Erik, Dutch businessmen working on the water plant in Da Nang, and Shann and Julia, expats from New Zealand. Julia teaches English at the international school in Da Nang and Shann owns a cool art shop in Hoi An, called HAYHAY. As it turns out he was an exchange student in Næstved in 92′ so he spoke a little Danish too (among it the worst Danish swearword I have ever head)
They were really cool and we ended up spending the evening with them on the beach, drinking, playing cards and listening to music while watching the sunset.
Of course there was a bonfire involved …
The next day we all went to a local fishing village some 2-3 km away, where among others we saw a horse shoe crap (bottom picture)
Fun fact on horse shoe crabs: They hold the prize for animal to have been on the earth for 4th longest and they have blue blood (now you know)
The trip back was a whole other story, but lets just say we made it and that the pill Erik so kindly gave me for seasickness came in very handy.
We booked our 2-day snorkelling tour through Cham Island diving and paid 80$ each including transportation, free use of snorkelling gear, 2xlunch, 1 dinner, 1 breakfast and a fully equipped tent on the beach.
The costal line from Hue to Hoi An is supposedly one of the most beautiful in Vietnam and after talking to a guy from our hostel in Hue, we found out that plenty of the so-called “easy riders” can take you while also making a few stops on the 100-or-so km ride down the coast.
Being kind of sick of the train after our 14h trip from Hanoi to Hue, we decided that this was the way to go. We booked a trip online and this morning at 8am we were picked up by Tu (not to be confused with the Tu from our Hanoi food tour – in Vietnam the family name is often used) and his companion.
First stop was the laguna a little outside of Hue. Tu explained to us that the people living here were very poor. A whole family could live in one of these boats, fishing at night, selling the fish in the morning and sleeping at day (which was why it was so quite when we came)
He also explained to us that the reason they have so many children is because they drink a homemade rice wine called “happy weather” Apparently “Happy weather” makes you happy and then … well, you know the rest …
Next stop was Elephant Springs which is a natural waterfall a little up the mountain. The place has got its name from a rock standing next to the river which had a slight resemblance to an elephant (and since then has been cosmetically enhanced to look the part)
The place was a true heaven on earth and we even got to take a swim in the clear, refreshing water before heading off again.
I’m kind of ashamed that I don’t remember the name of my driver, but I can say that against all logic I felt really safe cruising up and down steep mountains with this guy as he navigated in and out through the no-rule craziness that is Vietnamese traffic. He was a man of few words (unlike Tu who talked almost non-stop) but a good driver indeed.
Our next stop was for lunch at a seafood restaurant which was located literally in the laguna balancing on wooden poles.
We didn’t know what to get so Tu ordered some squid with tomato and pineapples for us along with some steamed rice and garlic vegetables.
After getting a strict look from Tu when we tried to leave the squid-head behind we went all in and ate the whole thing. It was … good actually, once you got over how weird it felt. But also kind of crunchy at times when you accidentally bit in an eye ball … The rule “don’t think, just do it” was once again applied.
Next stop was an American bunker from the war. Or the remains anyway. There wasn’t really much too see except for maybe a lot of tourists, but the view was great anyway.
Our last stop (officially anyway, more on that further down) was “marble mountains”. Here, marble from mountains all over central Vietnam is carved into any possible figure you could imagine. On the picture below is a guy hand carving a gigantic “smiling Buddha”. Pretty impressive work.
Above the village was a cave with some more Buddha statues and a couple of view point over the city. We didn’t get to see very much of it as we were both pretty tired and dehydrated at that point, so we went back to our two guides who stood patiently waiting for us at the bottom.
We drove the last short way into Hoi An where we made the last (unofficial) stop. Aka. we were let right into the claws of two tailors one of whom spoke better Danish than the prince consort of Denmark. A real tourist trap. Jonas ended up ordering two shirts (you won’t believe how pushy they are!)
Oh well, I guess you can’t go to Hoi An without getting something tailored can you?
Apart from this it was a really nice trip. At 90$ for the both of us (minus the small admission fees and the two tailored shirts) we both think it was money very well spent 🙂
Book your own tour at www.hueeasyridertour.com
A whole, black chicken in a can, a duckling cooked in its own egg or how about deep-fried sea worm cakes. Sounds delicious? Well, I can now with confidence say that it was!
Tu and Matt, co-writes of the blog Stickyrice, host 3- or 6 hour food tours of Hanoi. We chose the latter and Saturday we had the great pleasure of following Tu around for 6 hours as we made our way through Hanoi’s hidden back alleys in search of some of the best street food the city has to offer.
Tu picked us up at our hotel lobby at 9am and immediately asked if there was anything we were allergic too, what we liked to drink and if we were “adventurous”. We said that we were pretty much up for anything and he immediately customized the tour to our needs.
We started out with some fresh mushroom and pork-filled spring rolls which was simply one of the tastiest dishes I have ever had. Sprinkled with deep-fried scallops and dipped in a simple mix of salt, freshly squeezed kumquat juice and pieces of fresh, hellishly strong chilies the result was amazing!
I had read an article beforehand, written by a full-grown American foodie, who had had to quit before the tour ended, so as much as I wanted to finish the whole plate in 5 min I kept some restraint, for the sake of lasting all six hours (which I totally did btw!)
I don’t have the time nor the memory to write about all the dishes we tried, but here are some pictures to give you an idea of how diverse and DELICIOUS street food in Hanoi can be:
At noon we picked up American Kyle who was joining us for the second part of the tour. Kyle works in Malaysia and was vacationing in Hanoi for the weekend. He turned out to be a really cool guy and the three of us ended up spending the evening together eating and drinking at some places uptown that Tu recommended.
Tu being a resident in Hanoi for the last 10+ years knows the city like his own back pocket, and when we asked him how he found all these hidden treasures he replied with a smile: “well, it’s my job”.
And what a great job he did. Tu was funny, kind and full of good stories. Most of them about food of course, but he also seemed to know all the owners of the stalls, he told us about the culture and taught us how to cross the street without dying (“If you feel unsafe just follow an old lady, they will never run over an old lady”) Kind of a reverse-scout-move I suppose.
After the tour he mailed us a list with links to some of the places we had visited as well as some places to try out later on our tour.
As you might have sensed I strongly recommend anyone visiting Hanoi to go on one of these tours and – if you have the time and funds – definitely opt for the 6-hour tour! I could have easily kept on going for the rest of the day with more stories, more quirky, hidden coffee places and more mouth-watering street food. In 6 hours we didn’t even get to try a fraction of what Hanoi has to offer.
So cheers to you Tu! If you’re ever in Denmark, make sure to drop by for some frikadeller and a rudbrødsmad 🙂
Hanoi is a crazy place. It’s been a long time since I’ve feared for my life this many times in one day. I feel like I placed myself at the end of my comfort zone and Hanoi just kind of came up on me and kicked me hard in the butt.
I’ll be honest and say, that I’m not that fond of the city – yet. But I’m also fully aware that it has more to do with me feeling out of control and overwhelmed by the complete change of culture, food and sound level. People have been helpful and nice, but the guidebooks all say to “be careful or be scammed”.
At the same time I feel really bad for going around pouting when I should be happy that I’m finally here. I guess it just takes some getting used to.
In a somewhat failed attempt to calm myself down I’ve been reciting the lyrics from this Frau Frau song from the Garden State soundtrack to myself:
“So let go
so let go
jump in
oh well what you waiting for?
it’s all-right ‘
cause there’s beauty in the breakdown“
I know there’s beauty to be found in this chaos, but I seriously need to be less jet-lagged to see it.
As you can see from the pictures it wasn’t all bad. We had our first authentic bowl of street-pho and went to visit the temple of literature.
Tomorrow we are going on a 6 hour food tour with the guys from Stickyrice and I’m really looking forward to that.
We have decided to head south on Sunday morning. We really wanted to see Sapa and travel around Hanoi and the north for a while but the weather hasn’t been good up here and it looks like it’s getting worse. So instead we’ll get to see some of central Vietnam 🙂