2nd Tour of Duty

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi
January 14th 2008

Published: January 14th 2008

Cooking up a Storm - Pt 1

As we said in the last blog we were going to spend the afternoon at a Vietnamese Cooking Course. However for the rest of the morning we decided to cook something else - ourselves.

The sister branch of our hotel had a swimming pool, so we decided to plonk ourselves there for a couple of hours. Not forgetting the factor 30 we sat until we could take no more and had to jump into the freezing pool. Very refreshing.

Cooking up a Storm - Pt 2

So after a quick lunch we met at the restaurant where we were split into groups and taken to the local market. Unfortunately for Jan it was not to the clothes and other touristy items, but to show us the Vietnamese ingredients as well as kitchen equipment available from the market.

After a boat ride down the river we arrived at the exclusive restaurant where we would be shown the art of Vietnamese cooking. Our chef had a great sense of humour and reminded the boys that after cutting the little chili not to touch the big one!

We were shown how to make 4 dishes and then had a chance to make three of them ourselves, and under his guidance even managed to make passable fresh spring rolls which definitely tasted better than they looked!

To finish we all sat down and were shown how things should have looked and tasted as proper versions of all 4 courses, along with a surprise 5th one were brought out for us to eat.

The Dress

Hoi An is the Vietnamese tailoring industry capital, and to put it mildly, Jan was getting a little hissy that she did not have time to get a whole new wardrobe made. However, not one to miss out on anything Jan thought she would try on one of the ready made dresses and get them to alter it!

Not once, not twice, but three times she made them send it back to the tailor until she was satisfied with it. The shop keeper must have been relieved that we did not order anything from scratch!

Hue (Pronounced Way)

The next morning we took another of our sleeper busses - yes it was daylight, no we didn't sleep, but it was like sitting on a sofa reading a book and listening to the ipod.

Arriving in Hue, we were (well Stephen more than Jan) convinced that the bus was pulling a scam and dropping us off at a hotel who could confirm our ticket rather than the travel agent. So we walked to the agent only to be told that they were actually a branch of theirs! They really need to work on their corporate branding!

Any Hue, we decided to wonder into the city and have a look at the Citadel and the former Emperors Purple Palace. However, as the Americans had bombed most of it there was less to see than there would have been some 50 years ago.

After that small amount of culture we headed to the local market, as they are always interesting.

All said and done, we were glad that we decided not to spend a night in Hue, and so took our final sleeper bus to Hanoi

No the Driver can not Sleep in my Bed!

The bus arrived, and instead of the old comfortable busses that we were used to, along came a swish new modern bus, where the driver put our shoes in bags to protect the floors!

After trying out a variety of seats Stephen finally found one that he could fit in with some degree of comfort - as they seemed to vary in length.

This new bus had a few tweaks compared to the old one that were definitely not improvements. instead of a small storage area behind the head, the feet of the person behind were encased in an uncomfortable plastic wedge. This also had the effect of removing anywhere to store valuables, as well as anywhere to store the shoes.

As the bus was half empty this did not matter as we kept the bags on the bunk between us as the ones on the side of the bus were the most comfortable. After the dinner stop, the composition of the bus had grown substantially, but still our spare bunk was vacant. However the bus driver was getting very agitated and walked up and down talking on his mobile for a good 20 minutes. In the end some unfortunate couple got off the bus.

We eventually carried on and we think JK Rowling received some inspiration for her Knight Bus by the rest of the journey. However, instead of witches and wizards sticking out their arms and being picked up, any Vietnamese who stuck their arm out was picked up! Unfortunately we lost our storage area to a man who went to sleep in his suit.

For some reason the driver was still agitated and talking on the phone. He also managed to get up off his seat with the bus still in motion and let another driver take his place (good job there was nothing in the way of the bus). Eventually he stood over a barely awake Stephen and offered his mobile phone. The conversation went something like this:

Stephen - Hello
Phone - Hello, I hope you can help me?
S - How
P - Our driver has a Happy Happy trip tomorrow and we would like you to give up your bed and sleep on the floor.
S - Pardon!!!!Did I hear you correctly, you want me to give up the bed that I paid for back in Saigon and sleep on the floor instead.
P - Yes, it would be a big favour as the driver has to drive tomorrow
S - No, Forget it - GOOD BYE

What I had done to warrant such an offer when there were tens of Vietnamese on the bus I don't know. However upon waking up properly in the morning we awoke to find about 7 people sleeping on the floor!

Hanoi

The first culture shock was the climate - it is absolutely Freezing!!! The first thing we did as we got off the bus was look for our coats.

After a short hunt for a hotel, our first few options were not fit for humans we went to find some brunch and think about some tours of the City and surrounding areas.

We knew we were in trouble when the menus started quoting US$ and not Vietnamese Dhong. Eventually we sated our appetite and were told that all of the museums were closed today! We came up with Plan B - we will do a trekking tour for 3 nights to the mountain region of Sapa leaving tonight, followed by a trip to Halong Bay for 2 nights leaving the morning we return from Sapa, (when hopefully the weather will have improved for us to swim in the bay) and will then follow this up by the Hanoi tourism upon our return.

Until we return