Wrap up

I recently received a couple of pictures from a classmate who shared the wonderful cooking class I took in Hoi An, Vietnam. One picture shows our instructor with us in the market, talking to us about the different fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices we will be using. In the second picture I am enjoying the fruits (and meats) of my labor--a wonderfully marinated piece of barbequed chicken and a mango salad. I'm in the process of sorting through our pictures from Vietnam, so this is a nice reminder of that trip and the good food we enjoyed both there and in the Philippines.

Next trip coming up is to Mexico, for me, at the end of March. I'll be participating in a food and wine festival in Ixtapa, then spending a couple of nights in Zihuatenejo, with my friend Pat Owen, whom I have visited in Mexico, and several of her friends. Looking forward to more great food!

Farewell to the beach

These last two pictures are our goodbye to the beach. Yesterday we took bicycles and rode down the only road, towards the fishing village of Mui Ne. Our intent was to go to the village and have lunch there, but I gave out before we had covered the 7 km. It proved to be surprising hard work pedaling on even ground but into a 20 knot wind, in 90 degree weather. So we stopped short of that goal and found a nice seaside restaurant where we enjoyed some good fish.

Fish is the order of the day here. Every morning we see the fishermen out in their boats, just off the shore. There are white fish, lobsters, squid, prawns, and crabs plus more we probably don't know about. So we've had seafood at lunch and dinner for the last several days.

Now we're headed back to Saigon for our last day in Vietnam. We'll be celebrating the Tet New Year's eve there--though we'll be in bed long before the New Year begins. It's the year of the cat here and the year of the rabbit everywhere else in Asia.

Enforced relaxation at the beach

We are in Mui Ne, an extended beach resort on the east coast of Vietnam, about a third of the way up the coast. There are wall to wall resorts along this stretch, and the atmosphere reminds us of a mix of Surfers in Queensland, Australia (nice sandy beach to walk on and warm water, though less upscale and no high rises), and the Oregon Coast (lots of cheap souvenir shops).

We have a lovely room, and this picture shows me on our balcony, with the beach behind. It was great sleeping to the surf. There was quite a wind in the afternoon - about 20 mph or more, and the kitesurfers were having a holiday. The wind disappears to a gentle breeze in the morning. This morning we're going to explore some interesting sand dunes.

The strangest thing was to find nearly all the signs posted in Vietnamese, English and Russian. There are even permanent and neon signs in Russian. And, no surprise after seeing that, there are LOTS of Russian tourists here. We have no idea how this corner of Vietnam came to be so popular with Russians. Elsewhere we have seen a mix of Aussie, British, American and quite a number of French tourists. But no Russians.
Just a puzzle.

Traveling home for Tet

Yesterday we came by car from Saigon to our beach resort on the coast at Mui Ne, about a 5 hour drive. One of the most entertaining sights was watching the loaded motorcycles of families heading home for the Tet holidays. Here are a couple of our favorites. Note the luggage piled whereever you can fit it. Everyone here typically wears masks while riding, in addition to the helmets that are required for everyone six and older. Women often also wear long sleeves and gloves, because here having dark skin is a sign that you work outdoors and of the lower classes. So keeping your skin as light as possible is the goal. The theory is the same for us, just the method is reversed--we like to be tanned because that shows we have the leisure to do it.

Can Tho, biggest city in the Mekong Delta

We are staying this evening in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. A large branch of the Mekong River runs through the middle of the city. Our hotel is situated right near the river with a beautiful view of the river and all its traffic. Life is very lively now, because the upswing to the Tet holiday has begun. Children are out of school, people are shopping for gifts and for the flowers and food they will take home and share. We're told that Tet is like Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's rolled into one holiday. We walked to a restaurant down the street to night and the streets are jammed full of individuals and families, out looking at the many flower vendors with chrysanthemums, bonsai of various sorts, and little apricot and mandarin orange trees, among others.

If it will load, I'm sharing the view from our hotel window, plus a picture of some river boats with a somewhat challenging gangplank to get on one of the boats.

Mekong Delta Day 1

Today we headed southwest of Saigon to see the Mekong Delta. We went to the first of the two very wide branches of the river to take a boat trip out onto the river, exploring the floating markets (which were closed down by the time we got there, so we just saw the boats) and then more of the river. The primary boat we used was a long, narrow boat with an inboard engine. We were the only people on board along with our guide. Midway through the trip we transferred to a smaller dugout style boat propelled by a woman using two oars, rowing standing up and looking forward. This picture shows Phil sitting in the boat with the rower behind him. For this part of the trip we donned the local hat, which we learned is quite practical. Gives you a good view from underneath, is very light and stays on the head easily. It can be also be upended to put fruit, vegetables or even water in.

I am on a rather slow computer so will try to load only one picture. If it works, I'll do a second posting with a picture from Can Tho, where we are spending the night before heading back to Saigon.

Moving your goods by bike or motorbike

One of our favorite occupations while walking or driving is to be astounded at the things the Vietnamese can pile onto a bicycle, scooter or small motorbike. Here are a couple of examples. My personal favorite was in Hanoi, where someone was carrying a five foot mandarin orange tree on the back. You see small children asleep, complete with crash helmet fallen forward on the cycle. Merchants carry all sorts of goods and the only limit seems to be your ingenuity in tying the load on and balancing it so you don't fall over.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Yesterday we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, the famous network of tunnels just outside Saigon that was created and used by the Viet Cong to supply their attacks on the forces in and around Saigon. They dug out, by hand, using farmer's hoes and small baskets to carry away the dirt, about 400 kilometers of tunnels, at differing levels, and designed to foil the attacks on them by having booby trap entrances, twists and turns, ways to deviate the smoke from cooking, and to cover the smells at entrances in order to foil tracking dogs. A very impressive feat, and small wonder the American forces went crazy with these. Most notably, they were dug in a size to fit Vietnamese bodies, not big american ones, so most Americans would not fit. Guess who they used to go into the tunnels--Filipinos! Come to the rescue of their big American brothers again!

Todays picture is of a woman lowering herself down into one of the tunnel entrances. You can see that it is quite small, and also well disguised.

Traffic in Saigon

Traffic in Saigon is all everyone promised. It is as crazy as Hanoi, but the streets are wider and there are more cars, along with even more motorcycles, so crossing intersections offers a significant challenge. We have learned that cities here are not pedestrian friendly, even though there are lots of pedestrians. Vendors and parked motorcycles take over the sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to walk in the streets, and even when there are stop lights at the corners, vehicles run through them all the time, especially around corners.

For you entertainment, here is a picture of the traffic we faced walking to the restaurant we went to last night. It was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, but involved crossing a couple of very wide boulevards.

A delightful discovery is that the city is decorating itself for Tet, which officially begins on February 3. Much like we decorate for the Christmas holidays, the major boulevard near here is full of lighted flowers, peach and apricot blossoms being the preferred decorations for Tet. That makes walking at night a real pleasure. There is also a portion of one of the boulevards that has been closed off and is being turned into a street full of flowers. We should see that just before we leave, so we will try to get a picture of it to share.

We saw a few of the major old buildings in Saigon yesterday, including what was the presidential palace when the South Vietnamese government was installed here. We also went to the war memorial museum, just as disturbing as you would expect. I think the worst part of it was the section that dealt with the effects of agent orange--deformities that continue into generations past the person exposed. Up until this year, when Obama approved a token amount of money to come to the country to assist in dealing with the people impacted by agent orange, none of our governments has acknowledged any culpability in helping Vietnam deal with its impact. Regular war injuries and practices are bad enough. Using something that continues to deform people through successive generations is unconscionable.

Today we head out into the country to take a look at the complex of tunnels used by the Viet Cong to support their attack on Saigon. Hopefully after this one final look at the war, we will have more cheerful things to see. I must say the people themselves have put it past them. Most of our guides are in their twenties and were born after the war. They have no hatred of Americans--it is something in the past for them and gone now, though most have a father or grandfather who was involved on one side or the other.

Landed in saigon

Just a quick note to say we have landed in Saigon. a big, bustling city with a much more western feel to it. and the first sunshine we have seen in vietnam. More later as we explore.

A Great Cooking Class

Today is our third day in Hoi An, a small, but bustling old city on the coast of central Vietnam. This morning I took a 3 1/2 hour cooking class with the Morning Glory restaurant--recommended by our guide. Both the instruction and the foods cooked were superb.

We began with a tour through the local market. The picture shows one of the vendors with a variety of herbs and onions. Vietnamese food uses LOTS of fresh herbs and greens, so the preparation takes quite a while. I learned how turmeric looks when it's fresh--a bit like ginger, along with small and regular sized garlic, a couple types of ginger, Thai and other mints. It's unending--or so it seems. I have no idea whether I'll be able to pick any of these things out in our local Seattle markets, but it will be fun trying.

This was a combination observation and hands on class, which was great. We watched a pho soup being made, got our hands mixed up in making a very complex marinade for boned chicken thighs, put together fresh spring rolls (that means not fried), learned how to use a very peculiar looking grater style knife to peel a mango and then slice it into strips for a green mango salad, and made thin rice flour pancakes that we then rolled around a bunch of meat, fish and vegetable stuffing. The resulting food was the best I've eaten in Vietnam. We were given all the recipes for the class, plus others we didn't do, plus a little version of the grater knife. Later I went shopping in the market to get a larger version of that same knife. It will be entertaining to show my friends, even if I don't use it much.

We plan to go back to this restaurant tomorrow to have a grand lunch. Phil decided not to take the class, so I want him to share in some of the good food.

Balmy weather again--at last!

Here's a first view of the River Beach hotel where we are staying outside of Hoi An.

Today we drove south from Hue through DaNang and on to the seaside town of Hoi An. Just north of DaNang we went up over a high pass, which is the dividing line for weather. And change it did. On this side we are enjoying a balmy 70 degree day. It's not sunny, but it's warm enough to sit outside comfortably and it's not raining. That's good enough for us!

We are staying in a lovely hotel, medium sized, that is located with a river on one side and a seaside beach on the other (just across the road). Our room looks out on a charming little bridge surrounded by grass, with the pool and river in the background. We're about 6 km outside of the city, but the hotel runs a shuttle into town, so we won't be stuck. We had a walking tour of the town today with our guide, who has been with us since our arrival in Hue. He (and the driver of the car that brought us) will be with us again tomorrow, showing us a few more of the sights, and then they'll return to Hue while we have two more days on our own.

I think we'll enjoy the relaxation combined with the shopping bustle of the town. Hoi An is known for its many tailors who will custom make clothing. If I only needed any! They also custom make shoes. Interspersed with those shops are many others full of goodies for the tourist. I see shawls and purses similar to the ones I found in the fishing village. Another change to get things I missed--but at a higher price.

Cooking classes is another specialty for tourists and we plan to sign up for one--a four hour class that includes a trip to the market, then preparation of the ingredients and eating them. All for around $20/person. That should be fun.

Hue & the Nguyen Dynasty

We arrived in Hue, in Central Vietnam (just north of DaNang) two days ago. Yesterday we spent touring three tombs of kings of the Nguyen Dynasty, the last dynasty of Vietnamese kings, ruling from the early 1800's to 1945.

The kings would select the spot for their tombs, and often the designer. Two of the three tombs we visited were actually small palace compounds, copies of the larger palace compound in central Hue. One of the kings actually built his "tomb" before he died and used it as a retreat from the city. Only one of the tombs was more like a tomb ediface, in that it functioned solely as a memorial. The other two were set in large, lovely parks, with wide moats that functioned as lakes or canals on which the king would hold parties.

If they load, I'll share a picture of one of the lake settings, and another of one of the gates.

It has been raining here since we arrived in Hue, so we have wet and somewhat muddy feet from our touring. We have yet to see the sun since arriving in Vietnam. I take that back--we saw a little bit of blue sky here and there when we visited Halong Bay. It is getting warmer as we move south--up to about 16-18 degrees (low 60's). Today we move to Hoi An, which is south of the mountain range in mid Vietnam that divides the weather systems, so it will be even warmer - low 70's. But rain still predicted for the next few days. Still enjoying ourselves, though.

Fishing Village pictures

That post worked, so here are the two pictures of the fishing village trip.

We arrived early this morning in Hue, catching a 6:10 am flight, so will post more later when we have actually seen something of Hue. Hue is a little north of DaNang, about halfway down the coast of Vietnam. It is a few degrees warmer than Hanoi (about 16 - so closer to low 60's), but misty an overcast, as it was in Hanoi this morning. Winter weather,apparently.

Pictures - try no. 2

I'm trying again to post the pictures of us eating on the sidewalk.

A visit to a White Thai village

Yesterday we took a side trip into the mountainous area southwest of Hanoi, to spend the night in a small village where the White Thai people live. These people are not Thai now - they're Vietnamese, but considered an ethnic minority, descended from Thai people who moved to the area about 1000 years ago. They brought with them a cultural tradition of building houses on stilts, with an open ground floor where the tables and sometimes farm animals are outdoors. Other living and sleeping occurs upstairs.

These villages live from farming and fishing, but now with help from the government, they are making a living from tourists too. Tourists visit for the experience and buy the local crafts, primarily weaving of silk scarves and traditional blankets and dresses. We spent an interesting, if uncomfortable, night on the floor sleeping on cotton pads without any give to them. We were plenty warm, though the temperature was in the low 50's, and had a mosquito net over us (without any mosquitoes in sight--too cold). But just not comfortable. We were served interesting and delicious food--as always, too much of it. It seems impossible to get across that we don't eat much.

After dinner, we were treated to a music and dance performance put on by the villagers. These are young farmers who are working in the fields all day, but have learned to do traditional dances amd play the instruments and created the costumes. One of the dances was the bamboo stick dance, where long bamboo rods are clicked together in pairs and the dancer skips in and out of them. After they danced, they invited us to join them. Only two takers - the two women in the group.

If my pictures will load, you will see the village house where we stayed, and me dancing. Darn - no success with this one either. Will try another time.

Tomorrow we fly to Hue--leaving VERY early - 4 am. So we are moving south. I'll be glad to get away from the smog here. Hopefully it will be a little better in a somewhat smaller city on the coast.

Sidewalk adventure

Two days ago Phil and I had our first sidewalk eating adventure. He had noticed that at noon a throng of Vietnamese was inhabiting a tiny eatery about 4 doors from our hotel. The only seating was on the sidewalk--typical of these small eateries. We had little idea of how to order so asked the hotel staff to write out that we wanted a bowl of pho (the universal Vietnamese soup). When we handed the request to the serving girl, she said - no pho. Stuck! So we pointed to the large bowls of soup in front of everyone and said one for each of us. Shortly a steaming bowl arrived, chock full of vegetables, small chicken or pork slices, and meatballs. Extremely tasty. And it went down without incident. It was a bit uncomfortable eating with our knees nearly up to our chins (the stools you sit on are about 1 1/2 feet high), but we did it. First sidewalk eating experience survived! And enjoyed!

Sorry - I can't get the picture to load. Will try with some others in the next message.

Ha Long Bay - Candle Island

Here's one of the dramatic islands with its base eroding. It's called Candle Island, not hard to imagine why.

Ha Long Bay

We have just returned from two nights and three days in Ha Long Bay, a beautiful area about 4 hours northeast of Hanoi. We were taken there by bus and boarded the boat around noon, worried that we wouldn't see much of the islands because of the smog. But as we got closer, we got to see plenty. There are nearly 2000 of these islands, ranging from small rocks to very large islands. What makes them startling is that they rise up very steep and tall from the water. Since they're of limestone, there's also lots of interesting erosion, carving out arches and cutting away at the base of some of the islands, making very dramatic structures. Here's one shot of the islands, and I'll post another of one of the more dramatic structures.

We were on a very nice boat, with a quite luxurious cabin--full queen sized bed, and our own bathroom, with very modern fixtures and a generous shower. The food was superb and generous. One habit for serving the food is to create roses our of tomatoes and beautiful designs with various fruits and vegetables. We've seen doves carved out of pear apples, and a junk made out of a cucumber with rattan sales of carrots. Quite dramatic, and also very tasty.

We're in Hanoi for a free day tomorrow, and then take off for two days up in the mountains west of Hanoi.

Traffic in Hanoi

First a quick post to show you a little about what it's like in the streets of Hanoi. The biggest challenge to a newcomer is to get the courage to cross the street. You just step into the flow of traffic and let it make its way around you. We're told the idea is to look straight ahead and keep moving slowly and steadily. Don't stop--because then the vehicles can predict what you'll do. We're working on it!