Everywhere in Vietnam, we found Banana Pancakes on the menu. The first time was in Nha Trang, where slices of the small sweet bananas were tucked into a thin folded crepe, which was covered in chocolate sauce. This was my favourite kind, but B preferred when the bananas were placed in the pancake mixture as it was frying in the pan, or the fat crispy fried pancakes.

So, choose your favourite pancake recipe and serve folded over with sliced banana inside, covered with chocolate sauce, and a slice of lime!

Tam biet Vietnam! We made it to Hanoi airport this morning, the taxi ride was a piece of cake after landing in Ho Chi Minh City 18 days ago.

Halong Bay

 Our last few days have been packed as we’ve really settled into and started to love Vietnam, now feel like we haven’t had enough time! We only left a few days for Hanoi, and spent one day in Halong Bay (“Bay of the descending dragon”). This is the most visited place in Vietnam, by international tourists. A day trip wasn’t really long enough, as the bus ride there takes 4 hours, then there’s another 4 hours back. It is a beautiful emerald green bay full of limestone islands with huge caves inside. The first cave called Sung Sot means ‘the amazing cave’ and had rock formations that looked like draped silk, and lots of animal shapes (if you had a good imagination!). It was only discovered by a Vietnamese fisherman during a storm in 1993. The second cave was apparently the oldest, but also the ‘ugliest’ as too many tourists had been there… but we still went to see it. I was expecting to walk through a small, dark cave with dripping water and mud and dirt. But they are very dry, with white limestone formations, and bigger than a huge cathedral.

We had booked in to go kayaking around the islands, but as we were the only two out of 20 other people on the tour, and they would have to wait in the minivan while we went, we decided to spare them the wait so didn’t kayak in the end. The ride on the junk was beautiful enough anyway, and we met a Welsh couple who are doing what we are doing, in reverse. They are trekking around south-east Asia then heading to Australia or NZ to find some work! It was good to discuss all our travel adventures so far, and we realised EVERYONE feels the same culture shock, the different value system to what we know, tiredness with the heat, difficulty with the food and language… and also the beauty of the country, the interesting people you meet, and the fun adventures you have. It was also cool to meet two new people who were doing it all on the cuff – they have some contacts but no jobs set up yet, they know their next country to visit but aren’t sure of the places they’ll go or where they’ll stay. The four of us shared our last cheap, noisy and colorful Vietnamese meal together in the middle of Hanoi.

We are looking forward to returing to the luxuries of Hong Kong this afternoon, yet suspect we will miss the comapny of strangers approaching us 24-7.

Song Sot cave

Hoi An lanterns

More than ever we’re now in the rhythm of Vietnam. After a 12 hour sleeper bus ride from Nha Trang we arrived in Hoi An, a town that charmed us from our first walk around in the sleepy morning.  The sleeper bus was a great adventure, with a broken toilet, grumpy bus driver and very, very short beds. With bunks two high and three wide, the beds are not huge, and the whole event felt like being on school camp. Discussing overnight transport is a great way to bond with other travellers though!

From dawn it was another great view of the country side, with bright green rice paddies, bright colourful street front houses and shops. Getting off the bus we felt 10 times more comfortable than when we arrived in Nha Trang because we had our hotel booked and a pick up organised.  Pre-booking accommodation and transport is a number 1 tip for happy travelling, as at 8am in the morning it is too hot to walk anywhere and too hot to bargain with the rowdy welcoming party of taxis and cyclos.

Beautiful Hoi An is full of small cobbled streets and lanterns that hang like brightly coloured flags. It had lots of hidden shops and stalls, and pretty restaurants overlooking the river. We joined our first organised tour in Hoi An, for a trip out into the wops visiting temple remains thousands of years old amongst the forest in 37 degree heat. Though it was impressive, we probably enjoyed the boat ride home eating fried noodles and vegetables the most. We spent three nights exploring the small town, and had most fun at our cooking class where we met some fellow travellers. We rode bikes to the most idyllic beach we have swum at yet.

Hoi An is easily our favourite place in Vietnam, but if you are planning a trip there do it sooner rather than later. Crossing one of three  bridges in town, we got over to the restaurant strip to go out “clubbing” Vietnamese-style on an Island where less than six years ago there was only lush forest and only access by boat. Tourism is moving in faster than you can say “Oh my Buddha!” Even the two suits we had tailor made in the village for a total of US$150 was an average deal, a few years ago we would have been the laughing stock of Hoi An for paying that price.

We’ve since travelled into the Hamilton of Vietnam – Hue. Using this stop to wander through another maze of temple ruins (the Citadel) and to plan our Parisian holiday.

Our short stay in Hoi An has left a lovely taste in our mouths, so maybe we can share some of the flavour with this recipe from our cooking class:

Grilled fish in banana leaves

½ kg fish – we used mackerel steaks with skin on, but would probably be nicer with snapper, gurnard or terakihi

2 tablespoons lemongrass – finely grated

2 tablespoons shallots (small red onion) – finely chopped

1 tablespoon garlic – minced

 3 teaspoons coriander leaves (or parsley) finely chopped

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt OR 2 teaspoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 tablespoons rum (for moisture – can substitute with water)

4 or 5 banana leaves – can substitute for cabbage or lettuce leaves, with silver foil

Wire – to tie up banana leaf package

Lime or lemon sauce (see below)

·         If using whole fish make 2 or 3 diagonal cuts across the body

·         In a bowl, combine lemongrass, shallots, garlic, coriander, pepper, sugar, salt or fish sauce, oil and rum or water.

·         Place fish in softened banana leaves (with spine removed and blanched in boiling water) or lettuce or cabbage leaves.  Cover fish with half the mixture, and if using whole fish fill the cuts with mixture. Turn fish over and cover with remaining mixture.

·         Fold the leaves over the fish envelope style and make a tidy package. If using cabbage or lettuce leaves, wrap package in silver foil. The leaves keep the fish moist.

·         Tie wire around to secure package and place on barbeque OR in oven at 220 degrees Celsius.  If cooking on bbq, cook banana leaves for 15 mins each side, or silver foil for 12 mins each side. In oven, cook banana leaves for 50 mins and silver foil for 40 mins – turn over once during cooking.

·         Slice leaves open and cover fish in lime or lemon sauce, and serve with steamed rice and cold beer! Follow with fresh fruit for dessert.

Lime or lemon sauce – served with fish

3 limes or small lemons – juice only

½ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

·         Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly until sugar is dissolved.

·         Pour over fish just before serving.

Retreating to the shade in Hue's citadel

Last night we finally felt at home in Vietnam. After checking out of our hotel where we’ve been staying for 1 week, we met up with our new friends – Hien and Hanh. Mr Hien is the host / Maitre-D at our restaurant where we ate most days over the week. He was always so cheery and smily, and very chatty and proud of his town, Nha Trang. Every day he hoped we would head out and explore, but we just wanted to relax by the pool or beach at the resort. Finally on our last day we made plans to meet him after work – he arranged for his friend to meet us outside the Sailing Club on her scotter. Uncertain if it would really happen, we were happy to get out of our taxi and have Hanh approach us – we were strangers to her, as although she is a waitress at the restaurant, we didn’t recognise each other. Here was this friendly person meeting two strangers! We waited with her for Hien in the shade, and practised speaking the tones of Veitnamese (appartenly you don’t learn to speak Vietnamese, you sing it). And she practised our names and we shared some stories.

When Hien arrived, the adventure had just began as we each clambered on the back of their scooters, with our two massive packs, which they drove to the bus station so we could leave them there while they showed us their beautiful city! It was my first ever time on a scooter, in the country where the horn rules, so I gripped on the bike for my life. Once on the bike I learnt to let go and enjoy it, even though to cross the street, you literally pull out into the traffic, idle perpendicular to all the traffic coming at you, and hope it goes around, instead of smashing into you! Hanh had on tiny little high heeled shoes, but she was a great driver.

(see the white buddha at the top of the picture)

We fed the catfish and terapins in the lake, climbed up to see the giant white buddha facing east and looking out over Nha Trang, stopped for some sugar cane juice at a roadside cafe, and then headed to an outdoor resturant where we ‘tucked’ our own springrolls. This is real Vietnamese food, which inolved filling the rice paper with meat, noodles, greens, pickled carrot or onion, cucumber, thin sliced green banana, mango, and deep friend rice paper rolls to make it crunchy. Finding out I don’t eat meat, Hien rode off on his scooter and came back with some fresh seafood pancakes, fish sauce and more veges for the spring rolls! Our friends were so happy and fun, and generous with their time and their city, and we hope we can be like them. They saw us onto our slepping bus, where we curled up and I slept pretty well considering we were driving all night over pot holes and sometimes overtaking trucks three wide on the narrow windy roads. We have now arrived in Hoi An which is a charming and pretty town by the river, although with it 35 degrees outside we hinding in our hotel room trying to keep cool during the middle of the day – might crack into our welcome bottle of wine soon! Tam biet.

A delicacy on the menus here, the most expensive food on offer so we haven’t tried it yet. Here’s the recipe in case anybody wants to give it a go in there own home for a fraction of the cost:

Ingredients :
2 ounces Bird’s nest
6 tablespoons Crushed rock sugar
2 cups Water

Method :
Prepare the bird’s nest by soaking it in cold water for several hours or overnight.
Rinse well.
Go over the nests and pick out any loose feathers or dirt with tweezers.
Bring a pot of water to boil and simmer the bird’s nests for about 5 minutes.
Again rinse well and squeeze dry.
Place the bird’s nest in the pot and add 2 cups of water.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the bird’s nest is quite soft.
Add the rock sugar, stirring to dissolve.
Serve the soup hot.

Note :
This nest of a tiny bird that lives in cliffs mostly off the coast of southern China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Borneo is considered a major tonic food. It is light gray regurgitated seaweed mixed with swallow saliva and needs extensive attention to pick out extraneous items before washing, soaking, cooking, and serving. This hand labour and the fact that it is difficult and dangerous to gather nests make them very expensive. Bird’s Nest is said to nourish kidneys, lungs, heart and stomach, and to regulate circulation.

Everything here is “same - same, but different”.  It’s a catchphrase in Vietnam – B and I think it means ‘sweet’ – like I understand you, that’s cool, I get you. It’s even on t-shirts here.

This morning we experienced our second trip to the markets (good photos on this website http://homepage.mac.com/devinsilloway/PhotoAlbum54.html) – we’re not getting any better at this bartering. The first time we walked up to the Dam market from the beach, which is about 2km in 30 degrees heat. We looked like hot sweaty tourists who desperately needed hats and bags and new t-shirts and food and drink – so it makes sense that B bartered his cap up from 25.000 to 35.0000 dong! We went back this morning and got dropped off in the air conditioned luxury of our taxi, and stumbled across a vietnamese woman who started showing us around. She was a great tour guide explaining the exotic foods and showing us the best stuff, and we eventually found our way to her friends shop where B bought a new singlet. Vietnam is a developing country and after primary school, education is not compulsory – this woman said that they have to pay for their kids to go to school. She seemed onto it though, and spoke good English. B keeps talking to Vietnamese people the same way they talk to him, instead of talking slowly, he talks quite stilted and drops words – surely this won’t help people who want to practice their english on us? 

This time we walked back along the beach, and had to dodge the cyclo drivers who all want to give us rides somewhere – it’s true no one walks in Vietnam! Even at our hotel, they keep offering us rides on the golf cart or the bikes to go 100m. After the markets I was in a bartering mood, so tried to get a cheaper price for our baguettes which they sell on every corner. They can cost around 4.000 dong, and I was trying to get a better deal. But why was I trying to get a deal on a 40 cent bread roll? It wasn’t worth it for us or them, and you obviously have to pick your barter deals as we didn’t get any bread today.

There is a strange fairground next door to our hotel – called Wonderpark. It looks like it has all been set up and used in the past, but is very quiet and empty now – with empty ticket booths and unused rides. It is a bit creepy and we can’t find out why it is so empty – it’s hard to discuss in english with the staff and they probably wouldn’t want to loose face by explaining the emptiness. The creepiest thing is a small zoo they have, with deer, peacocks, some huge eagle type birds, and some monkeys.  Everything looks clean and they are fed and watered, but it is really sad because there is no point for them being in captivity. If you think zoos exist to share a message about animal and environment conservation, then what is the point of this zoo with no visitors? We also saw some photos on some Russian tourists camera of their visit to Monkey Island. It is quite popular here to go island hopping for the day, and their photos showed their day on the islands with elephants and bears in a little circus and on see saws. To top it off this morning in town there was a monkey tied up on a chain on the street. He wasn’t there the other days.

PS B wants to take up smoking because everyone does it here! They are on restaurant menus, along with an ashtray on every single surface.

We have made it in two pieces safely to a tropical paradise in Nha Trang Bay, Vietnam. It hasn’t been easy though…
 
we got to our Hong Kong hotel alright. We had pre-booked it before leaving Wellington, and it turned out to be perfectly located in the hub, 10 stories above a train station and very flash. We were buggered though and spent 3 nights there until we had our bearings right and enough energy to try and get to Vietnam. We made it to Ocean Park in Hong Kong and had a good day out there on the rides and in the aquariums, even saw Giant Pandas! (Louise was a bit trigger-happy with the camera and it broke at Ocean park, so we only have photos for the first two days.) And we got the hang of the ferries, trains and locals well enough to get around the city and enjoy ourselves. We had a bit of a love-hate relationship because although it was fun and exciting to be in a new exotic city, it was exhausting and all we wanted to do was rest. There was nobody we knew anywhere, which I know is obvious but it makes a difference when you are in a brand new place, because sometimes you need advice and reassurance that you are doing the right thing. It was difficult to find cheap food that was good enough to eat.
 
We were keen as to get away and have our relaxing week long holiday that we have been looking forward to for so long, so we had Vietnamese Visas urgently processed for us at the embassy while we were at Ocean Park, and that night we booked flights to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The next day we were on that pane and landed in Saigon at about 5p.m. The thick heat was a real shock to us.  Excited to get to a beach, we knew we should get a train out of the city to Nha Trang as soon as we could, so we grabbed a taxi at the airport to take us to the train station.  This is where it all went a bit crazy and we were wishing we had never left Hong Kong or even NZ!  Within a minute of being in this taxi with a driver who can’t speak any English, we were going flat out up both sides of a mental 6-lane road with millions of scooters and bikes carrying crazy loads of things like beds or gas cylinders, and we couldn’t get our seatbelts to work. I thought we were going to die for sure but I told Louise it was all good and I think she believed me.
To get through the traffic our driver just puts his foot down, and goes straight into the motorbikes coming towards us, with his hand on the horn, which makes no difference because everybody has their horns blaring. That ride definitely took years off me!
I’m surprised we made it through without seeing any accidents. Good because half of the motorbikes have a small child sitting in front, totally relaxed, without a helmet. The motorcyclists even talk on their cell phones while they are in this mayhem! Anyway, so that’s a Ho Chi Minh taxi ride through rush-hour. Never again!
 
After eventually arriving at the train station we booked tickets on the overnight train straight away so that we could arrive in Nha Trang at 6:30a.m. The train didn’t leave till 11p.m. so we had to hang out in the station for the evening. This was ok except we had all our gear, two new currencies to work out (American dollars and Vietnamese Dong are both used) and we had to buy water for 12,000 dong a bottle. we had no idea what was good. The station was grotty as, and lots of dodgy looking characters hang round, and the toilets (we were lucky there were any at all!) had a lady outside selling little pieces of toilet paper for about 5000 dong a square.
 
We were way to scared to go out into the city with all our gear so we sat tight there. We didn’t even know if the train we were waiting for would come, or if it was going where we wanted to go. Not even the shop keepers spoke English and when we went outside we got our first taste of hawkers coming up to us to sell us little packets of beans, or cigarettes. every so often a tour bus of foreigners unloaded to get on a train, but they were always ushered through as a big mob, so really it was just us and the locals. Looking back it was probably not that scary, but we were so buggered and it’s nerve-wrecking when you are in an unfamiliar place and nobody you know knows where you are.
 
But the train came, it was a real nice night ride, looking out at the strange scenery, and sharing the 6-bunk cabin with some nice guys, one of whom spoke some English.
When we got off at Nha Trang we knew from our map that we wanted to get towards the beach where the hotels all are. We braced ourselves for another dare-devil taxi ride but it turned out to be only half as mad because of the early hour. (What we’ve noticed in Asia is that they sleep in real late, especially in Hong Kong where none of the shops open till 10 or 12 a.m. They stay open real late though, which is nice for some but doesn’t suit us because we are still on NZ bodyclocks!
 
When we got to Nha Trang beach we were immediately surrounded by half a dozen hawkers trying to get us to come on a “tour”, into their hotel, into a taxi, onto a motorbike, onto a sun chair, to buy sunglasses, cigarettes, bread, chips, EVRYTHING you don’t want! But we let one of them talk us into a hotel that was cheap and right next to us. This turned out to be a good move and we had a nice room for the day and night. somewhere to leave our bags while we had a wander around.
 
Too hot to sleep, too weak to be hungry, too tired to find water to drink, or negotiate the prices, and too slow to cross the road to the beach till late that afternoon, we were useless! The worst thing when your tired is to be constantly harassed by hawkers trying to sell you things, or lead you somewhere. If you stand still they just stand in front of you asking you questions. They know some English, so you can tell them to get lost, and they go away. But you feel real mean and its depressing. That night though we made it across the road to a bar well set up for tourists and half a dozen Saigon beers in the sand later we were much, much happier.
 
Our cheap hotel has wireless intenet for free (just like everywhere in Vietnam, NZ is so far behind with that) so we could use this laptop to book a luxury resort. Next morning (yesterday) we spent sitting under coconut trees (until I realised the coconuts can fall down and we might die so we moved out from under them). Then we bargained the price of a taxi (lots of yelling and pointing and arguing, not very skilled bartering) to take us to the Diamond Bay Resort about 10ks from where we were in the city centre.
The driver couldn’t speak English, and he dropped us off in a huge empty car park in the middle of nowhere, just next to a sleepy motorway. We had just passed a Diamond Bay Resort sign so we were hopeful. I went into an unmarked building and found an interpreter who told me I have to walk up the motorway for a kilometer. So I grabbed the hot, worried and frazzled Louise, and all our gear and we hiked in the direction we had been pointed. This is when we have been the most scared, being in the middle of no where, only trucks driving past, no houses, and no cell phones (they are not working in Vietnam) we were worried we would not know where to find our next drink of water, or be that night.
 
Thankfully, we made it to the gateway of the luxurious resort. We were welcomed by a bunch of bellboys who took our packs off us, and they gave us “Welcome Drinks” and nice cold wet flannels to wipe off our dripping sweat! We had made it finally, to the resting place we have been striving for for the last month! It just took a week longer than expected to get here.
 
The Miss Universe competition was held here last year, and that is their claim to fame. I don’t think anybody has stayed here since then, as we are two of about 10 people staying in this massive resort. I guess that’s why we got it relatively cheap. Heaps of staff here though, and they are real attentive. You just make eye contact with one of them from the pool, and they come straight over to see if there’s anything you want. At dinner, they stand there watching you eat, just in case your salt and pepper shakers need straightening up, and if your glass empties, four waitresses at a time work together to get your beer topped up. The rooms are flash as and it has a private beach with real warm water, loads of straw umbrellas and a massive swimming pool.
 
Louise and I are spending all our time trying to cool down: in the pool, cold drinks, under an umbrella, having a beach swim. What a life.
After just one day of this, we are already feeling a million times better. Now I feel like when we go back to Nha Trang city, I will have no trouble getting around and negotiating with the hawkers. It’s good to have a base, and our energy recouped.
 
No rush to go back to town though, for now we are going back to the pool for a late afternoon swim before dinner in one of the restaurants. Soon we might even be feeling good enough to chat with the other foreigners!
 
Tan biet.

Ben.

Lost in Hong Kong and wandering the tightly packed stalls off the metopolis of Nathan Road last night, I was intrigued with the people queing in an orderly line for the bus – taking up a small lane of the wide footpath. There was no haphazard standing around, it was ordered and very neat – with noone pushing in. This seems to be how Hong Kong works – it is so efficient that there never seem to be long waits, and the modern escalators in every mall, park, street etc help move people along. We thought we had seen a lot of traffic, but at least there were traffic lights and places to cross the road.

This afternoon we arrived at the train station in Ho Chi Min City, sweat soaked, bedraggled, exhausted, scared… after a half hour taxi ride from the airport to the train station. The plane was a 2 hour flight and it was a nice modern plane. We landed in Vietnam and the sweltering heat was the first thing that met us. We scooted off in the taxi, and words cannot describe the chaos of thousands of scooters pushing and shoving along wtih cars and even bikes. The horns were constantly on, and while at first it felt like a fun ride, I zoned out after a while as it was too much! Eveyone is used to it as there are little kids on the back, well dressed woman in high heels, someone carrying a vase… it’s just so different to what we know, nothing like scootering to uni in wellington! I wanted to take a video but our camera seems to be broken, you have to see it to believe it. (but maybe look it up on youtube if there’s a video there)