I'm currently sitting in the lobby of our lovely hotel called Phuoc An in Hoi An, but before I write about Hoi An I should probably fill you in on everything we've done up until now starting with Ha Long Bay.
The tour we took wasn't great, probably because it only cost us $35 US, but Ha Long Bay itself was pretty amazing. It took about three hours to get there. In a minibus. With no air-con. And a mental driver! Mum and Dad can probably relate to this as it was very much like our transportation in Thailand in terms of craaazy driving.
So we finally arrived at Ha Long Bay and set sail out to the central part of it. The huge limestone carsts were similar to what I saw in Thailand, but this time there were far more of them and they weren't quite as large. Once we finally got out there we did a bit of kayaking as the sun set which was really great.
The following day we returned to Hanoi for another treacherous 3 hour minibus ride. That night we ate Fanny's. Yes, that's right. Fanny's is a French-style ice-cream restaurant in Hanoi by the way. In case you didn't know!
We explored Hanoi a little more that night and the following day and then left in the afternoon for Hoi An, which is an anagram of Hanoi but couldn't be more different.
WE LOVE HOI AN!
Basically the entire old town of Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage site and has a big ol' river running through it. The central area is completely pedestrianized and is filled with cobblestone walkways and beautifully maintained old buildings. There are restaurants galore and the food here is sensational. We've been eating things like fried wontons, cao lau (a traditional Vietnamese dish made up of noodles, greens, herbs and spices and pork - with crackling on top!), squid with garlic and onion and all sorts of other really yummy things! The food here is even better than Thailand. There's much more variety and it's actually a lot tastier, which might be because we're eating a lot of street food rather than eating in restaurants.
Our first night in Hoi An we decided to go and have a few drinks and met an Irish couple and a British couple who we hung out with for most of the night. Needless to say we didn't feel too crash hot the next day, but despite this we did our fair amount of walking around and seeing sights.
This brings us up to date with yesterday when we went to the ancient Hindu temple complex of My Son. It out dates Angkor Wat but isn't anywhere near it in size. It was located in amongst thick tropical jungle and the monuments themselves are another UNESCO world heritage site. They were beautiful, and I plan to post photos up as soon as we find a computer with a memory card slot. We took a boat back to Hoi An from My Son along the river which was quite beautiful. In the afternoon we decided to hire a couple of bicycles and rode down to Cua Dai beach, about 5km outside of Hoi An. It was very similar to the beaches we saw in Thailand but probably cleaner and more scenic.
Cam and I are off to get some bikes now so that we can ride down to a boulangerie near the water - yum! Tonight we're probably going to do a cooking class and tomorrow we head off for Nha Trang.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Hanoi, Vietnam
After just over a year in Melbourne I've finally left the country again.
At the moment I'm sitting in the Little Hanoi Hotel in, well... Hanoi.
So far, Cam and I are absolutely loving it. The journey here pretty much completely sucked (except for the NZ wine on my flights) but it was certainly worth it. After about 30 hours of transit I was well and truly exhausted by the time I arrived. I met Cam at the hostel as he had the amazing opportunity to fly with Air Asia almost all the way here. Unlucky. Very unlucky.
We woke up this morning at the ripe hour of 6:30 and began our day at the same time most people normally do. Odd for me waking up before 10am. For brekky we decided to try pho bo, which is beef noodle soup. Something a little different to corn flakes but ten times as good. We ate at a streetside vendor and sat on the smallest chairs at the smallest table - ever. It was great! After that we made our way to Hoan Kiem lake which was beautiful, though the ph level of the water was questionable. From there we took a cyclo, which is a three-wheeled cycle with a seat for two on the front, to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. Unfortunately for us it's closed on Mondays - great. But regardless of that, it looked pretty impressive from the outside.
After that we headed to the Temple of Literature. A Confucian temple built around 1000 years ago. I'll be posting photos on facebook soon but cbf at the moment. Needless to say, it was sensational!
For lunch we ate at Koto. It's a good cause restaurant that hires young Vietnamese people and trains them up to work in the hospitality industry. It was good to know our money was going to a good cause!
From there we decided to walk back to our hostel, getting pretty lost on the way. It didn't really matter though because it was worth it for the sights we saw on the way. The streets here are bustling and motorbikes rule the roads. It's pretty crazy and horns are honking constantly making crossing the road pretty interesting. We took a great video of the traffic which I'll post at some stage. Maybe. Let's be honest, probably won't get around to doing it - takes way too long.
We came back to our hostel and had a nap mid-afternoon and have just gotten back from dinner. We decided to try Cha Ca, which is a traditional fried fish dish. They brought a pan over to the table and it basically cooked in front of us. We were given a few bowls with vermicelli, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, peanuts, chilli and fish sauce in them and a huge bowl full of spring onion and dill. The waiter made it at the table for us, it was pretty obvious we had no idea what we were doing. She threw the dill and spring onion into the pan with the fish and filled our bowls with the other ingredients. They were then combined to create the *BEST MEAL EVER*. It was unanimous, both Cam and I decided it was one of the best things we'd ever eaten, ever, in the world, of all time. Yum!
Off to Ha Long bay tomorrow and really looking forward to it.
At the moment I'm sitting in the Little Hanoi Hotel in, well... Hanoi.
So far, Cam and I are absolutely loving it. The journey here pretty much completely sucked (except for the NZ wine on my flights) but it was certainly worth it. After about 30 hours of transit I was well and truly exhausted by the time I arrived. I met Cam at the hostel as he had the amazing opportunity to fly with Air Asia almost all the way here. Unlucky. Very unlucky.
We woke up this morning at the ripe hour of 6:30 and began our day at the same time most people normally do. Odd for me waking up before 10am. For brekky we decided to try pho bo, which is beef noodle soup. Something a little different to corn flakes but ten times as good. We ate at a streetside vendor and sat on the smallest chairs at the smallest table - ever. It was great! After that we made our way to Hoan Kiem lake which was beautiful, though the ph level of the water was questionable. From there we took a cyclo, which is a three-wheeled cycle with a seat for two on the front, to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. Unfortunately for us it's closed on Mondays - great. But regardless of that, it looked pretty impressive from the outside.
After that we headed to the Temple of Literature. A Confucian temple built around 1000 years ago. I'll be posting photos on facebook soon but cbf at the moment. Needless to say, it was sensational!
For lunch we ate at Koto. It's a good cause restaurant that hires young Vietnamese people and trains them up to work in the hospitality industry. It was good to know our money was going to a good cause!
From there we decided to walk back to our hostel, getting pretty lost on the way. It didn't really matter though because it was worth it for the sights we saw on the way. The streets here are bustling and motorbikes rule the roads. It's pretty crazy and horns are honking constantly making crossing the road pretty interesting. We took a great video of the traffic which I'll post at some stage. Maybe. Let's be honest, probably won't get around to doing it - takes way too long.
We came back to our hostel and had a nap mid-afternoon and have just gotten back from dinner. We decided to try Cha Ca, which is a traditional fried fish dish. They brought a pan over to the table and it basically cooked in front of us. We were given a few bowls with vermicelli, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, peanuts, chilli and fish sauce in them and a huge bowl full of spring onion and dill. The waiter made it at the table for us, it was pretty obvious we had no idea what we were doing. She threw the dill and spring onion into the pan with the fish and filled our bowls with the other ingredients. They were then combined to create the *BEST MEAL EVER*. It was unanimous, both Cam and I decided it was one of the best things we'd ever eaten, ever, in the world, of all time. Yum!
Off to Ha Long bay tomorrow and really looking forward to it.
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