I’m writing this while Louise is snoozing in the lounge of our mobile home at Camp du Pylon on the southern coast of France (Cote d’Azur) near Antibes between Cannes and Monaco. Having a sleep in the early afternoon is one of the many “norms” we have adapted to.  The French typically eat lunch for an hour ort two so it is understandable that no body wants to do anything between 13:00 and 15:00 every day. Instead all the shops are closed, the roads are dead and all of the sun chairs are full. What a life.

After a whirlwind tour of Central France for a week with our friend Yoann, we have been ready to lie back and soak up a bit of coastal French life. The irony of it is that our campground, which Jesse Pirini recommended to us, is full of more Kiwis, Aussies and Brits than French. So ordering a beer, getting directions and listening to the radio is much easier than it has been Further North. Yet signs that we are in France are everywhere we look: we eat baguettes and cheese, olive oil and wine, chocolat chaud and croissants daily. We haven’t swum in the camp pool because French standard is to wear speedos, no shorts allowed in there. On the street cars try their hardest to run you over, pineapples are called ananas while bananas are still called bananes.

Yesterday we caught a bus up the coast because Italy is only an hour away (only costs €1 to get there). We drove through Nice where the rich and famous stay, through Monaco where they are setting up for next weeks Grand Prix. We almost made it to the Italian border when the temptation of driving past all these perfect beaches in full sun became too tempting for us so we got off early and explored the town of Menton for the afternoon. Well ‘exploring” consisted of finding food which was difficult at 1:30p.m., during siesta time of course. The surprising thing about Menton is that the main streets are lined with mandarin trees in full fruit, that you can just help yourself to! I’ve never seen that anywhere before. Eventually we found some sweet and tasty breads and took them straight to the beach. Such a nice, hot beach of smooth pebbles. These beaches are all on the Mediterranean Sea, which is somewhere we never thought we might one day be swimming! At Menton there were loads of jellyfish who scared us out of the crystal clear water at first, but the temptation was too much so we braved it. Once they saw that we were not being stung, many sun-baked (and topless) bodies were soon up off the stones and swimming as well.

We got the train back to camp, without our Italian passport stamps, but happy to be back in our mobile home where we have a nice selection of French food to cook up for dinner. Yes, we sure do love it here. We are the only young people not taking our CVs into town each day to try and get a job on one of the super-yachts, and we are the only people here purely to relax who are not retired.

Earlier in the week we ventured down the road to visit the old village of Biot. The journey up there by foot was treacherous because of the lack of footpaths and accurate signage (a characteristic I think the French brought back from Vietnam) but it was well worth it. We stopped at a Bonsai museum on the way which blew us away (not really, but it was unique). Biot is a hilltop village where the steep labyrinth of alleyways are lined with pebble mosaics and its hard to tell what is a shop and what is a home because everything is decorated brilliantly.  The town is full of glass-blowing tradesmen who kept us amused for hours.

That excursion was typical of what we have so far seen of France: always hidden around the corner is another ancient village, not far from a beautiful beach or the border of another country. Always a nice surprise that takes skills to find, and good timing to avoid waking up those grumpy locals in the early afternoon.

Well Louise is stirring now, might be time to head to the beach at Anibes before the sun-downers are poured!

Ben.

What’s different about us here?

A.      Louise is standing on wood while Ben is on metal

B.      Ben is carrying the backpack, Louise is not.

C.      Louise is in the sun, Ben is in the shade

D.      Ben in Switzerland while Louise is still in France.

Answer: All of the above. It’s true; we walked over the Swiss border on this bridge!

Shame nobody was there to stamp our passports.

We have had a busy week in France since we left Paris (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023727&id=1274843828&l=d481b24e77 ) with our friend Yoann. We caught our first French train (very modern after Vietnam, and left 5 mins early – luckily we were in French time as we’ve discovered this is normal) and headed to Bourges in the Centre region. Yoann’s family welcomed us with open arms, and fed us all weekend on delicious wines, entrees, mains and desserts! We felt very lucky to be living the French life and it was so nice and cosy to be staying at home after more than a month in hotels. Every meal was a new taste adventure, and here we have Yoann’s mother’s recipe for clafoutis aux pommes which she has given us:

Clafoutis is a custard-like baked French dessert that is typically made by baking fresh fruit (traditionally cherries) and a batter, somewhat similar to pancake batter, in a baking dish. Originally from Limousin.

4 eggs

9 tablespoons of sugar

4 tablespoons of flour

2 tablespoons of corn flour

250mL of milk

30 g of butter

3 or 4 apples

2 teaspoon of rhum

one pinch of salt

Preheat the oven (180°C).

Peel and cut apples in fragments, and place in a buttered mould.

In a salad bowl place and mix flours, sugar and the pinch of salt.

Form a cavity in the flour and add eggs inside, add 15 g of melted butter, then beat slowly by incorporating it little by little into the flour until you obtain a uniform pastry.

Slowly mix the milk and rhum into the batter.

Pour the batter on the apples.

Cook in the oven until the top begins to brown (nearly 20 min).

You can replace apples with fruits of your choice, for example cherries or strawberries…

I’m not sure how to describe all the sights we’ve seen but I will try in a not-so- exciting listing way. First stop was a tour of Bourges, which has really old houses from the middle ages. This is probably normal all throughout Europe, but it was so interesting for us, when most structures in NZ are only 100-150 years old. We discovered the top levels on the old houses stick out with a bit of a lip on the floor above, so when the bedpans were thrown out they didn’t land on the window sill of the floor below!

On day 2 we visited two castles in the Loire Valley, the first was Chambord, initiated by King Francis I when he was just 25 years old. It was a fairytale castle with many spires and steeples but very cold. The second castle of the day was Chenonceau which had a much cosier pretty feel, though it was still huge.

Chambord

On day 3 we left Bourges and the Centre region for Besancon, in Franche-Comte. We have discovered each region has its own specialties and way of life, and is almost like a country itself. We road tripped across France in Yoann’s car, and discovered old villages, mustard in Dijon, and some beautiful old sights. In Besancon we discovered their citadel, which has a zoo inside that Ben loved. It did look cool having the animals inside the old fortress with old fortifications all around.

On our final day with Yoann we drove to Saut du Doubs on the Swiss border to get a boat along the canyon and see the French ‘Niagara falls’ – not exactly huge but it was very beautiful in the Alpine Forest. We then drove over the border into Switzerland to see the Alps, and Lake Geneva. It was strange to just drive into another country but common in Europe, and apparently a lot of French people drive there daily for work where they can earn more money. Swiss people come over the border into France to go shopping as it’s cheaper. It was beautiful and though it’s well into spring here we saw snow on the side roads! That night we topped off our Swiss visit with fondue for dinner, we each had a pot and it was slightly sickening after a while, but delicious. We even had boiled potatoes to dip into the hot cheese. Today, j’ai la patate (Lit. I have the potato aka I’m full of beans), but Ben is v tired and is sleeping while I write this.

Yesterday we left our French friend and caught the train to Lyon, where we are staying for 2 nights before heading to Cote d’Azur, aka the French Riviera, for some sun, sand and relaxation. We decided to stay 1 more day in Lyon as we have only walked around Lyon a short while but we love it already – it seems very metropolitan but more friendly and relaxed than Paris. We are off now to buy a corkscrew – red wine is cheap, but bottle caps are not as common here as in NZ. Til the French Riviera… a bientot.

Coming off the motorway - 130km speed limit

3 days in Paris… and our first few hours were a sensory overload, it felt typically Parisian, more than what we had imagined! We left customs without picking up our luggage by mistake, so once we had gone back in for that we were ready for France! We found our way onto the train that took us into the city and our hotel, and were almost out of the subway when my pack on my back got jammed in the ticket gates, while I was stuck on the other side. I was laughing hysterically while B tried to lift it over the gates, while the ticket guards were watching from behind the mirror glass. For half a second I thought I would be stuck in the subway forever, but then it was all over and we emerged into watery sunshine, crisp spring air, ornate lampposts, brick cobbles, and the Notre Dame! There were large groups of tourists everywhere taking photos and tours, so we took a few snaps as we walked across Ille de la Cité to our hotel on a small lane, one  street back from la Seine, in the Latin Quarter.

We were straight back out and wandering around Paris, deciding to head to Place de la Concorde which our Paris book said had a 360 degree view of the monuments. Unlike Vietnam, everyone here walks and although there was no welcoming party for us, we felt free and happy wandering around. We crossed back over the river, and followed a large group into a huge old courtyard, and suddenly emerged in the courtyard of the Musée du Louvre, with the large glass pyramids, fountains and old palace buildings. It was a bit cloudy and cool, so we had a relatively peaceful time there and sat down for a bit by the pyramid, before heading through the jardins des Tuilleries, which were beautifully manicured lawns with some central fountains.

 We bought two baguettes for lunch, but think we committed some French sin as we noticed no one else was eating. Oh well! We sat down on the green chairs by the lake but it was so cold we kept going to Place de la Concorde. From here we could see right up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, look left to la tour Eiffel and back through the jardins to the Louvre. It was unreal to see so many famous monuments in such a short time, and we took lots of photos and tried to take it all in.

By now it had started raining and we weren’t used to such cold weather, so we hunted down a close salon de thé called Angelina, as recommended by our Paris book. It had a yellow and ornate interior and sold beautiful cakes and chocolates. We ordered their speciality, African hot chocolate, which was dark melted chocolate in a jug with whipped cream in a bowl and two cups. It was hot, creamy, chocolaty heaven, and after one cup we felt warmed and drunk on chocolate. After 2, we felt a bit sick so headed back out into the watery sunshine.

We have decided to try to do Paris on the cheap (hot chocolates excluded) so headed up towards the free perfume museum. On the way we stopped at the beautiful Greek style Eglise de la Madeleine, and the Opera, where the phantom is supposed to have resided. We wandered back through our morning tracks, and as the sun had come up noticed the large queues outside the Louvre. We went down through the carousel entrance, which was quiet, and wandered around the shops and cafés underneath, before seeing the upside down pyramid inside. Apparently it would take 9 months just to glance at every piece of art held here, so we decided with only 3 days we wouldn’t go into the actual museum to see the Mona Lisa this time.

We found our way back to our hotel les Argonautes, and collapsed on the comfy bed. After our overnight flight from Hong Kong where we didn’t really sleep, it felt so soft and cosy that we fell asleep to the sounds of the Paris lane below us.

Back in Hong Kong! We know how it works, we look forward to the modern technology and efficiency, and the not so boiling temperature! Coming back into Hong Kong, we hopped on our bus and got a taxi to the United Services Recreation Club. This is a members club in the middle of Kowloon, a little green haven in the middle of the hustle and bustle. Our stay here for 2 nights was organised through Greta and Gordon, who used to live next to B’s dad on the farm in Hikutaia.

They were very generous with their time as Prof Gordon made some free space on Monday to take us out to an island up near the New Territories, which we reached by speedboat. It was another green oasis in the middle of Hong Kong, and we had possibly the best lunch of our trip so far. First we were served fresh prawns, which we de-shelled and dipped in soy sauce. This was followed by fried cuttlefish, in a kind of tempura, which we dipped in sweet chilli sauce. Then we had what I thought was the piece de resistance, a scallop on the shell, covered with fried garlic, some fine noodles and delicious sauces. This was topped off with seafood fried rice and fresh greens! After lunch we wandered around the green island, it’s small fishing village and walked to a nearby temple, before being taken back to the mainland.

The next day we explored more of Hong Kong by ourselves, including the ladies market where I did a bit of cheap shopping! (Before we get to Europe where we can’t afford anything).

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.