Back to real life

Hi everyone. Just thought I'd drop a quick note to let you all know that Mark and I made it home safe and sound. Now it's back to the real world - back to work to make some money for the next trip!

Our last night in HCMC

Hello friends! This will, I think, be our last post. We left off in My Tho, avoiding the monsoon. Well, the weather improved, and although it was a sleepy little place, we did indeed find something to occupy us. Our favorite pastime, eating and drinking!

We went to the "best hotel in town" to enjoy beers at their bar. The beers were cold, but the hotel could take a lesson in decorating from a few of our friends. The location was great, right on the river, but maybe white painted cement walls and really bright lights aren't such a great idea when there are open windows and a lot of bugs out.

Dinner was a tiny hole in the wall that is "in the book" (this means it is in the Lonely Planet guide to Vietnam, and Mark will hunt it down like a dog! It's good that he has an amazing compass in his head and a talent for reading maps, because the Lonely Planet guys are not always too accurate!) The food was a local specialty, a type of soup that was decorated with plenty of fresh greens - delish! Then to the locals hang out - outdoors (with much more pleasant garden setting and lighting than the best hotel) for a little after dinner libation, followed by the jewel in the crown: the new jazz bar (with no live music, sadly) where I enjoyed iced Vietnamese coffee with Bailey's for just under $1.00! It was a wonderful way to end the day.

After breakfast at the market the next day (where we were the only tourists, I swear - the way they laughed and pointed when we ordered breakfast you'd think they'd never seen foreigners before!) we joined another tour to visit some of the islands in the Mekong near My Tho. The weather was trying very hard to be sunny, and my spirits were up.

We boarded the boat with about 10 other tourists, and lazily meandered up (or was it down?) the river. The Mekong is the 12th longest rivers in the world, starting in Tibet and winding it's way through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam before dumping into the China Sea.

Our tour included a stop to try assorted fruits from an orchard (a tasty selection of dragon fruit, jack fruit, longans, pineapple, and papaya) with an accompanying live traditional band. I don't think we'll buy the cd anytime soon, but it was enjoyable for the 15 minutes that it lasted.

We also took a horsecart ride across the small island. Poor little creatures. Having to haul around 5 or 6 big non-Vietnamese people must be hard on them.

Then we got on a very little boat where a skinny little old Vietnamese lady paddled 6 of us around for 15 minutes or so. We went down a very narrow channel that was very green and jungle like. I was watching for monkeys and snakes, but none appeared.

Finally, to the coconut candy making plant. Easy recipe: 50% coconut milk, 25% rice syrup, and 25% cane sugar. Boil it up until it turns into carmel. Very tasty! We bought some (of course) and also bought some banana candies. We tried "banana wine" which wasn't half bad, but Mark wouldn't let me buy any. Tasted kind of like whiskey.

Back on the bus for the 2 hour drive back to Ho Chi Minh City. It was fun to be back in the hubbub - traffic honking, loads of motorcycles, and many many choices of places to eat and drink. We strolled down backpacker alley looking for trinkets to pick up for those of you we left at home to keep the Canadian economy thriving, but in the end, really haven't bought much. Did buy a painting, well comissioned it actually. It should be dry just before we head for the airport tomorrow! I'm not sure that I mentioned that they are amazin copy artists here. Does anyone need a Mona Lisa for their living room? Speak now, or forever hold your peace!

We went to the Temple Club for dinner last night, but sadly they were fully booked. We did stop for a drink or two in their lovely bar though, and quite enjoyed the atmosphere. By the time we left, our second choice restaurant was closing (it was only 9:30 but the Communists keep a lid on late night partying) and so we ended up at the night market. Food is never in short supply here!

Today we spent most of the day wandering the ritzy part of town, looking for a meaningful souvenir for moi. I did see a lovely leather purse, but in the end, it was not quite right. I also saw a lovely CK watch that was $400.00, which was a little pricey for an impulse buy. Something may turn up yet, or maybe it won't. It really doesn't matter. I do have my eye on a cute dress across the street.....

We tried to do some cultural stuff today too, like visit the Reunification Palace. But, like the last time we were in town, it was closed. Apparently there are some dignitaries in town using the place, which would explain the police motorcycles escorting black Mercedes sedans around town. We did manage to go to Pho Binh, which was a noodle shop that was the secret headquarters of the Viet Cong in Saigon during the "American War" as they call it here. For lunch we headed around the corner to the best Banh Xeo place (a kind of crepe/omlette stuffed with veggies and shrimp - it's in the book!). We would have taken a picture but we were so hungry we gobbled it up instead.

Oh, I almost forgot. I have discovered my new favorite thing here. Custard Apple juice!!! It it AMAZING!! I was feeling reckless when we returned to the jazz restaurant in My Tho yesterday morning, so I just pointed at the name of a drink on the menu and waited to see what would arrive. Man, did I point in the right direction! Yum yum yum. My only regret is that I didn't discover it earlier.

Must go. It's getting late in the day, and I need a shower before I have my sundowner at the Sheraton!

See you all soon! We arrive back in Lotus Land Monday afternoon and hit the ground running. Thanks for coming along on our trip!

Cheers,
M and m

Mekong Delta

Hello everyone. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself here, but we cannot view our blog and it is pissing me off! I usually read what I wrote last so you don't have to endure the same story twice (I am getting on in years and my memory is not so good).

Hmmm, I do remember looking for a beer afterward our quick post yesterday, and not finding one. Go figger. Internet, no problem, but beer??? What is UP with that?

We went to a cafe of sorts where I had Yellow Elk Energy Drink which tasted suspiciously like Red Bull. I like Yellow Elk better.

It was a very long walk home, and we made it just before dark. We were out from 1:15 - 6:30, just wandering around watching local life. It doesn't move quickly here. The children all came out in their singsong voices "hello hello!" and I played a great game of scare the children. In a good way of course. They shrieked away laughing. I guess I make a good monster.

Yesterday morning we started our 3 day Mekong Delta tour with a boat trip from Chau Doc to a nearby Cham village and saw how they did weaving (all by hand), and saw the flood levels that were registered on the side of a house - it gets mighty wet here! There were, of course, a small horde or children waiting to sell us stuff, but at least this time it was food. Something useful! "Mister - 2 2 2 2 for one dolla!"

Next we went to the floating-house fish farms. Many people here live right on the river and most raise fish in pens under their houses. We visited one such house and saw how crazy the fish go when you drop a couple of handfuls of fish food in the pen. The fish food looks like dog chow, and the fish go absolutely mental for it. There is a trap door in the floor, and you open it up and drop in the food. And then, stand back to avoid a fish splash shower! One pen can have 80,000 hungry fish in it!

From the boat trip, we jumped on an air con bus to take us to Can Tho and our home stay.

A word about our tour: We have done a bit of a mix and match tour. I'm not sure how this has been communicated to all parties, but so far so it's gone surprisingly smoothly. It's been interesting.

So, back to the homestay. We arrived at Can Tho where Hung met us with his trusty motorcycle. He and a friend dropped us at another dock where we got on a boat and went to the Hung Homestay. We arrived at about 12:30 and were ravenous (due to the very minimal breakfast in the a.m.)

The homestay was not what I expected. There was not a lot of interaction with the family, and we were left on our own most of the time (thus the 5 hour walk). Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Thankfully there was cold beer at the house on our return, and a couple from New Zealand had just arrived, so we had someone to swap stories with over dinner. There was much laughter.

This morning we visited the floating market which was interesting, but it appeared to be mostly wholesale transactions. To determine what a boat is selling, one must simply look at its mast. If you see hanging pineapples - it sells pineapples. Watermelons, potatoes, jicamas - you get the picture. Not a lot for individuals to buy though.

We then went to see how rice paper and rice noodles are made, and finally, a stroll through a village to see how the people live (as if we didn't do this enough yesterday!!) We found a monkey bridge to traverse which was kind of fun - how do they do this with a load of stuff?

We are now in My Tho, avoiding the monsoon at the comfy internet shop. Doesn't look like this town has many options for a night out, but I'm sure we'll find something to entertain ourselves.

Stay tuned - we're nearly home. Back to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow for some last minute shopping on Sunday, and back home on Monday. I can't believe it's nearly over.....

Cheers!

Unbelievable!

Hi folks. We just have time for a very short post. Mark and I are at a homestay just outside of Can Tho in the Mekong Delta. We took a moto (motorcycle taxi) from where the minibus dropped us off in town, then took a 1/2 hour boat ride through the canals and arrived pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
We had a very sustaining if mediocre lunch provided by our hosts, and headed out for a walk, since there is little else to do. We wandered for about an hour down a single track dirt path following the canal, saw a couple of "stores" (a few candies, or chips, or cans of sweetened condensed milk at the front of a house), and saw a lot more of nothing. All the kids at the houses along the way are very friendly though, all shouting "hello!" to us. For that matter, the adults are quite friendly as well.
We did eventually find the "village" including a market, a cafe, and the beauty salon where I got a pedicure for $0.60! That was a good way to kill 40 minutes! Honestly, I was counting down the minutes - this is a very sleepy place.
But, imagine my surprise when we saw on the other side of the canal - a real market! How to get there? Trusty Mark with his great sense of direction found the way, and double surprise, there's actually an internet cafe here!
We don't want to linger long as it will be dark in an hour and usually we can quite easily take that long to post let alone get back, but since I saw this place, I really felt that we had to put it to good use. Who knew? Also surprising is that this teensy backwater spot has the best monitors I've seen yet, and, in larger places we've had trouble viewing our blog. Here, no sweat. Will wonders never cease?
We are headed for the floating markets tomorrow. Should be fun as markets are my favorite places!
Sorry, no photos this time.
See you!

Back in Vietnam

Hello everyone. We are now back in Vietnam, the land of delicious coffee. Not that the coffee in Cambodia was bad, it's just that the Vietnamese coffee is so incredibly good!

We took the 8:00 a.m. bus out of Siem Reap and hit the road for Phnom Penh. We had heard that you don't need much time there, and as our vacation time is ticking away, we wanted to get back to Vietnam and the Mekong Delta.

The 6 hour bus ride was a treat (not!!) It was air con, kind of, but it came with a tv and blaring Cambodian music videos. I was glad for my ear plugs!

We stopped after about 3 1/2 hours for a 30 minute break. I had just pointed out to Mark a description in the guidebook of a town in the vicinity of the bus route that specialized in the cooking of big spiders and other insects. Sure enough, all around the bus, were swarms of people with huge trays of deep fried spiders and grasshoppers and I'm not sure what else. Funny, they didn't really "bug" the tourists to buy!

There were many people selling all sorts of other things though, like pineapples, palm fruit, and sticky rice with beans. First we tried the palm fruit. It was pretty dull. The rice stick snacks were not bad, and the cute little pineapple seller worked so diligently at selling us the pineapples that Mark finally gave in after the 30 minutes and bought some from her.

We arrived at PP at around 1:30 to find hordes of tuk tuk drivers ready to take us "anywhere in the city for $1.00". I kept a close eye on my bag with my wallet in it, as I was sure that this had potential to be prime pick pocket territory. We escaped unscathed, and headed to the very pleasant, zen-like hotel. And then, lunch! We were starved (the pineapples are small here.) Our hotel (the Bodhi Tree) had a great restaurant, so Khmer red curry with pork was it for us. As usual, very, very yummy. Emily, a lone traveller from Washington DC joined us and we had a good time trading travelling stories. She was lucky enough to go to the circus (from Guinea!) the night before!! Sadly, it was only in town for one night.

Off to the travel agent to book our tickets for our Mekong River trip. After about an hour of discussing options, purchasing tickets, and waiting for said tickets to arrive, we were free to explore PP. I was feeling a little short of money, so it was time to cash that last traveller's cheque. A local referred us to "Lucky Motorcycle" - they cash them apparently. We couldn't find it, so ended up at Western Union beside "Lucky Supermarket" (sorry Mom, still no cochineal. We're trying!)

Fully loaded with more cash - we went for Happy Hour by the riverside. After 2 mediocre mojitos at the Riverside Bar, we went to the FCC - Foreign Correspondent's Club. It was hopping with all sorts of folks: tourists, ex-pats, and locals. There were a number of haunting photos in the stairwell on the way up. This is a country that has seen more than it's share of violence and suffering.

We ended up at a Khmer restaurant for dinner after happy hour, and ordered frog's legs. They do taste like chicken.

This morning we had our first ever 3-up scooter ride. I think it was actually better than taking two separate scooters. We went across town to the Imperial Palace to see the Silver Pagoda. The floor is covered in silver tiles (each weighing in at 1kg) but sadly, they have covered most of it up. There is also an emerald buddha sitting atop a high pedestal (kind of hard to see) and a 97kg person sized gold buddha studded with thousands of diamonds, the biggest reportedly weighing in at 25 carats.

Culture completed, it was time for the Russian Market. After some yummy food, we strolled around and saw lots of familiar brands of clothes. Calvin Klein, Gap, American Eagle anyone? Either copies or "fallen off the truck", it was there by the truckload. Of course, I'm size 2XL, and there were limited supplies of that. Sadly, there were some really cute Puma shoes, but not in size gargantuan.

Time to head off to the boat. The boat was nothing special - very utilitarian and good to move people quickly from point a to point b. We motored down the Mekong river out of PP and I was soon lulled to sleep by the repetitive sound of the engine. It was way better than the loud music on the bus, that's for sure! It was interesting to clear customs by boat. We got off the boat, passed through Cambodian customs, got back on the boat for 5 minutes, got off the boat, passed through Vietnamese customs, waited in a holding area, went back to the boat, picked up our bags, put them through an x-ray machine (did I mention we were in the middle of nowhere?) and put them back on the boat. We were headed for a little town called Chau Doc.

Now that we've checked into our hotel, arranged our 3 day Mekong Delta tour (including a homestay with a family) had a snack at the market (I had the BEST EVER sandwich! Nothing like fried wontons and fish balls on bread with some magic sauce!!) and updated the blog, it is definitely time for a hard earned beverage. I'm sure we'll find some cheap beer in this town somewhere!!

PS The weather has changed, and it appears that rainy season is upon us. At least, at the moment. It's been raining for the last few hours, and although it's not monsooning, it is wet. I'm not complaining in the least. I hear the weather in Vancouver hasn't been so nice lately!

Cheers!

Our last day in Siem Reap

Hello! Lest you be concerned that we fell into the crocodile pit, we felt we had to send another blog quickly.

The Dead Fish Tower is the craziest restaurant ever. I swear, it's a law suit waiting to happen. There are multi level platforms with both regular tables and low table seating, and many of the platforms are without railings. A few too many drinks here and you might end up in the middle of someone else's table on the lower level.

Food was good, no surprise, and as an added bonus, we got to see some traditional Khmer dancing. Mark's favorite is the coconut dance. He wants to go back tonight for happy hour (I think he has a crush on the cute dancer, personally.)

Yesterday was another guided day filled with ruins. At the first temple we ran into a couple that we met in Halong Bay, Kenneth and Maureen from Washington DC. Since you kind of get on the ruins circuit, we continued to bump into them throughout the day. We ended up at the same place for lunch, so had a nice time catching up with their trip thus far.

Lunch was very exciting. There was a lot of thunder and lightning, and then the monsoon hit. We could barely hear each others words as the rain pounded on the tin roof. It rained so hard that the cars drove right into the restaurant to let the tourists out (lest they get drenched). Totally funny. The storm lasted for about 45 minutes, and we were on our way. The best part was that the temperature dropped about 10 degress after the storm passed. Very refreshing.

That evening we ended up back at Blue Pumpkin for happy hour with Kenneth and Maureen, and then had dinner at a Khmer place. We made it a relatively early night because we planned to get up at 4:30 to ride bicycles to Angkor Wat (8 km away) for sunrise.

4:30 came awfully early! Our two bicycles were somewhat mismatched. One single speed and one fancy pants "21 speed" mountain bike with suspension (It was so rusted up that only 2 gears kind of worked.) The single speed was WAY too small for me, and the mountain bike made strange sounds, but you take what you get around here, so by 5:00 a.m. we were off.

Sadly, we were about 10 minutes too late for the spectacular orange sunrise that we saw from our bikes. But, we did enjoy the quiet of the temple once we got there. Not that there weren't very many people, because there were, but everyone seemed quite quiet and contemplative (or still asleep.)

We hung out at the north side of the temple facing a gate for a good 1/2 hour. It was lovely to just sit there and listen to the sounds of the jungle - lovely bird calls, and wait, was that a monkey? Not just one monkey, but suddenly we saw several of them running and playing on the roof of the gallery directly across from us. One seemed to get chased away from the group, and took off down the wall and up the stairs directly at us. They are cute and all, but I beat a hasty retreat when he bared his teeth at me. No cavities!

Since there were so many other monkeys on the other building, we decided to explore over there. Down the very steep stairs we went, only to find a family of monkeys with a tiny, tiny baby monkey. They were not very cooperative for the camera, but I'm sure that I'll remember their antics for some time to come.

We rode our squeaky bikes to Bayon Temple where we saw people getting on elephants for a tour. They are such large, lumbering, gentle beasts. We continued our ride alongside the elephants for a bit - it was a little surreal.

Finally we made it to Ta Prohm Temple, poked around there for a while, and headed off. The crowds seemed larger today for some reason, and by 10:30 or 11:00 I was ready for some lunch and a nap! Wouldn't you know it that this was when the trusty mountain bike derailleur came apart. It's kind of a necessary part of the bike, and thankfully Mark's a good bike repairman, so all was not lost. After a couple of stops to macguyver the thing, we made it back to the guest house. I suppose that I shouldn't expect much for $2.00 for the day (although we didn't get charged for it in the end.)

Not sure what our plans are for our last night here. Dinner of course, and likely the night market. We leave by bus tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. for Phnomh Penh.

Thanks to those of you that are leaving posts. It really is great to hear from you!!

Ciao for now.

Angkor

It's difficult to even begin to describe the magical place that is Angkor. I'll do my best, but photos and words cannot convey what it is to be here.

We decided to hire a guide for our first day here. It's far too easy for the many ruins to come across as pile of rocks without one. So, through our friendly guesthouse, we booked Sokiem and a tuk tuk to take us to the ruins and try to explain the history to us. We both think that we are very lucky as Sokiem is actually a college grad - in archeology! It costs $20.00 to book him for the day, likely a very good wage here.

Cambodia has had a history of war with both the Chams (Vietnamese) and the Siams (Thai). Although many of the ruins are well preserved, they have seen war and fighting, and of course, damage. Also, the plunders of war have taken many of the treasures.

7:00 a.m. was our chosen departure time. We were hoping to beat some of the crowds that we have heard about. Our first stop was Ta Prohm. This temple was built by King Withaverylongname in AD1186 and dedicated to his mother. The actual room with the statue of his mother in it had hundreds of thumb sized holes in it. Apparently they were filled with precious gems to help light the area.

It also was the site of the movie Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie (interesting side note, it is not a tomb at all, but Hollywood artistic license and all makes this irrelevant). This site is quite well preserved even though the roots of gigantic trees seem to be taking over. As mentioned, we were there quite early, so the crowds we were worried about did not materialize and it was a very magical place to be.

The foundation and walls of the buildings are built with volcanic rock, and then they are covered with sandstone so that they can be easily carved. And carved they are!! The detail is truly amazing. And with a guide to help us "read" the bas relief, it made it all the more meaningful. When I think about how much work was involved with building these incredible temples, I am awed.

Angkor Wat was the next stop. More people here, but still not the crowds that we expected. It became difficult for me to appreciate Angkor Wat, truth be told, because it was around 35 degrees, I was hungry, and sometimes I feel like I have A.D.D. The stories that Sokiem told us were very interesting though. There are huge walls carved to tell an ancient Hindu story, and I certainly wouldn't have made it without Sokiem.

Lunch break was at a local place by the entrance of Angkor Wat. I was concerned that we might not have great food, as it seemed it might cater to tourists. But, as it turned out, our amok fish served in a coconut was delicious!!!

After lunch there were more sights, but you'll all have to wait for the slide show. I don't want to bore you with all the details here. Suffice it to say, second only to a safari in Africa, people need to visit here.

And, I can't possibly sign off without telling you about our meal last night at Blue Pumpkin! We had delicious mojitos (did I mention that they overpour as a rule here?) and some deep fried wontons with spicy chili sauce and a fish ravioli with the most divine yellow curry sauce ever!! The best part though was that the restaurant had a modern minimalist design with a bank of very deep couches, more like beds, and they served your meal on a bed tray. This restaurant would not have been out of place in Miami - we were quite happily surprised to see it in Siem Reap.

Tonight's adventure takes us to a restaurant called Dead Fish Tower. It apparently has a live crocodile pit! If you don't hear from us, we might have fallen in. Send help!

Cheers!

The Kingdom of Cambodia

Hello again! We are now in Siem Reap, Cambodia. If you don't know where that is, you're forgiven. I didn't know until I started researching for this trip. But, I know you'll know where we're headed from here - Angkor Wat. We just arrived a couple of hours ago and will send an update after we've experienced our first day exploring the temples. However, suffice to say that so far Cambodia's made a good impression.

Since writing last, we stayed in Hanoi's Old Town. It was really great to stay with friends in the sticks, but staying in central Hanoi is where the action is! Besides, our ever gracious hosts are rather busy with finishing a school year (which of course means report cards) moving house in 1 1/2 weeks, and packing for their summer holidays in Europe. They're currently more than a little busy! Hang in there guys, summer holidays are coming!

Our hotel was in the heart of Bia Hoi - that's draft beer, very cheap ($0.25/glass) and plentiful! A different bia hoi place on every corner just down from our front door. I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in Hanoi. At lunchtime, small sidewalk restaurants open up and serve amazing local food. If you don't want that food at that particular moment, 2 bad things can happen. One, you can't find it again. Two, it packs up after lunch, not to re-open until the next day. So even if you can find your way back, well, it just might not be there. It's a great way to mess with your mind.

I mention this because the bia hoi places were something else in the day. But in the evening, the beer starts to flow. And, as mentioned, one on each corner (kind of like Starbuck's at home, but different.) We went to one, which we didn't really like as it was a bit stinky and had lots of tourists at it. So we went to the local's place which was kitty corner and we had pots of fun there. We sat next to a group of 4 youngsters that could really pack away the beer. Amazing, considering they were of average Vietnamese size (read: tiny!) They kept ordering food from various places: the lady who walked by with her long pole with baskets at each end. She pulled a scale out of somewhere and sold them 1/2 kg of some kind of fish cake. The bia hoi place provided peanuts. They bought a banana leaf wrapped thing (which we think was shredded meat of some kind) and wrapped bits of the meat in a different kind of leaf and dipped it in chili sauce. And, best of all, they offered us tastes of everything. I think it might have been my puppy eyes staring at their food - Woody and Pesto have taught me well. Mark and I staggered away after only 4 beers - lightweights that we are.

This morning we took a cyclo ride to Ho Chi Minh's masoleum. Wouldn't you know that Friday's the only day that it's not open? To be honest, I didn't really have much interest in going inside. I feel kind of sorry for him, he wanted to be cremated and spread in the 4 corners of Vietnam, and instead he's gets gawked at by all sorts of folks.

We also went to Temple of Literature. It is the site of the first university in Vietnam, and operated from 1074 until 1802. It seems that one had to be pretty darn intelligent to study there. Nothing like having the king himself give you an oral exam for your PhD. Impressive.

Unfortunately, we missed seeing the water puppet show in Hanoi. But, at the Temple of Literature, we did see the retired water puppets for sale. Are they really retired or just old looking? We'll never know. Cute little fellas though.

Our flight from Hanoi to Cambodia was uneventful, but arriving in Siem Reap was amazing. First, you get to exit the plane via stairs, and walk the short distance to the building which is styled after a temple (wat). Then, the customs guys were actually smiling and joking, dare I say flirting with me?!?! What is up with that? Cheerful smiles? Customs? They could teach our guys a thing or two. A very pleasant experience in all.

Upon exiting the "terminal" we expected to be mobbed by touts offering taxis and hotels, but instead found a quiet and orderly taxi queue with an official ticket counter. We asked for a taxi car and the ticket seller convinced us that two motos (motorcycle taxis) were cheaper than one car so we each hopped on for the 7 km ride into town. You know, it's a great way to get around.

Must go and find dinner soon. More on Angkor Wat tomorrow (should be easy to blog as the internet cafe is directly across from our guesthouse.)

Cheers!

Hanoi to Halong Bay and back

Hello friends. It's been a while since we've last written, and we've experienced much.

Mark did indeed get his French pastry with coffee before we left Hue. The restaurant was very interesting - it's a French sponsored organization that provides work skills to street kids. Once they graduate from the pastry chef program they go on to get very good jobs at hotels and restaurants. The food in the little place that we ate was all made by the apprentices, and boy, if it's this good while they are apprenticing, I can only imagine how good it will be when they graduate!

The flight to Hanoi was pretty uneventful. We were fed a lovely boxed lunch with mystery meat on a bun, a cup of water, and a rather stale chocolate bar. It made me kind of sad, but I had to have something in my belly in order to take my doxy (anti-malaria drugs). Total waste of calories.

Once in Hanoi we went to Marjet and Reinier's place. They are teachers at the UN International School, and graciously hosted us in their home. They live in a very nice house about 10 - 15 km from the center of Hanoi with their 2 children, Rui (7) & Rebca (11) - oh, and their cat. After hanging out for a bit, we headed into town and had food, food, food.

First lunch at the local expat place called Kitchen. Quite delicious and a nice change from Vietnamese food. It reminded me of something you'd find on The Drive. Then, off to the center of the action.

Hanoi's old town is a crazy maze of traffic clogged streets. Heck, all of Hanoi is full of traffic clogged streets, but the old town especially so. Each street is named after the wares that it originally sold though they've changed over the years. So, there's silk street, sewing goods street, motorcycle seat cover street, toy street, shoe street, sheet metal street, etc. etc. Plus, interwoven with all these are tourist shops selling "Good Morning Vietnam" t-shirts, Ho Chi Minh hats, and all manner of other tourist things.

We came across chopped-fruit-drink street - I apologize if I explained them to you before, but they are now my new favorite. Chopped fruit (jackfruit, dragonfruit, mango, papaya, pineapple, dashi pears, sapodilla, avocado) with what else, sweetened condensed milk and coconut cream. Add some jellies (kind of like the jellies in bubble tea I think) toss in some shaved ice, and voila. Instant refreshing drink. You can see by the photos I'm getting a little larger, but heck, I'll diet when I get home. Food here is too good to pass up on!

Over to the other expat place with Marjet for a coffee - and of course, for Mark, something with his coffee. A little chocolate mousse anyone?

Marjet took her leave to get some of her chores done, and we continued to wander through the narrow streets. Lots of noise, lots of pollution, and definitely, LOTS to look at! Found more streets. Musical instrument street, headstone street, sadly, no cochineal street (yet! fingers are still crossed Mom).

We booked our trip to Halong Bay. Mark's childhood friend who has spent much time in Vietnam advised that it was "not to be missed", so we took his advice and booked it. Not an inexpensive venture, but completely worth it.

We spent 2 nights and 3 days on a very beautiful Chinese style junk along with two other couples. One couple was a Vietnamese couple on their honeymoon. They were very, very cute. The other couple were around our age and from Austria. A very fun duo, Stephan works for an auto manufacturer - can you guess which one? and Corina works for "a travel agency" (Expedia). We shared a table and many stories and laughs with Stephan and Corina, and remembered that one of the things we love most about travelling is meeting new people.

Some highlights of Halong Bay include: kayaking through the caves - it really is spectacular, drinking gin and tonics on the deck (it was hell!) the abundant seafood meals, swimming in the bathtub warm water, swimming into a cave only to have to battle the current to get out (all that swimming practice when my back was out paid off) teaching some of the other kayakers how to balance a paddle on their head, the amazing scenery, squid fishing at night and being the champion squid fisher, and of course, the company on the voyage. Great fun was had, and we have some new friends as an added bonus.

We are back in Hanoi now, and will be here for a couple of days before heading out to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. Time to try some bia hoi!!

PS I forgot to add that we had some bun cha (noodles, spring rolls, bbq'd pork and a pile of fresh greens) at a very busy street restaurant. It was delicious, but my stomach did a little flip when I looked closely at one of the mint leaves. There was a chubby little green caterpillar on it. But, like a good local, I chucked the leaf, checked the next one, and kept eating. After all, the grub was fat and happy. If he was dead, well that might indicate the food isn't healthy.......

Ciao for now