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Tuesday 21 January 2014

Vietnam!

I am finally back in the country!
I have been holidaying solidly/drinking my own weight in beer for 5 weeks which has been so amazing but resulted in a savage cold!
Im in Perth now at my parents house so hopefully lazing around the pool for a week will help my recovery.

After Xmas 5 of us hired a 4WD and drove up the west coast of Australia for 9 days.  We fed dolphins from our hands, swam in lagoons and spent new years even in Coral bay! It was pretty nice!

2 days after arriving back in Perth we flew to Vietnam with my boyfriends, Jim's family!!



Vietnam was really beautiful but Im really sad to admit that I was disappointed with the food. After being to Thailand and Cambodia and eating the most amazing curries and salads, vietnamese food was WAY bland.
I eat Pho in Melbourne twice a week when I'm home and I LOOOVE it. It was basically impossible to find "ang chay" (vegan) Pho in vietnam and the rest of what I ate was pretty tasteless.



The one thing that was amazing was the sweets!! We ate fried banana and coconut buns and moon cakes. OH moon cakes are just amazing. These super sweet cake logs made from nuts and pumpkin. They cost 3000 dong for a packet which is about $0.20 We bought about 10 packs to bring home.



My boyfriends Mum and I did a cooking course in Nha Trang which was really great. I got to FlambĂ© some mango with banana rum!
 They were amazing with the 'vegan' thing. I didn't even have to mention that I couldn't have fish sauce in the dipping sauce. They just bought me soy instead. Instead of prawns in my rice paper rolls I had a whole plate of fried tofu.


Here is a picture of a ridiculous rooster/pinapple/lantern!



My first ride in a cyclo on the way to the market.


I want to live in here! So much amazing produce and so much variety!



 See that pile of white things on the right? Anyone know what they are? I saw heaps of them but couldn't figure out what they were.

This lady was very unhappy I took a photo of her. She stood up and yelled at me just as a went to walk away.






 Sugar cane juice! So super sweet but when it is ice cold it pretty delish.









We went for a 14km trek in Sa Pa. It was incredibly beautiful but super muddy and very slippery in a pair of nikes. At the beginning of the walk about 8 of the women from the Village began following us down the hill. At first I thought they were selling something but they didn't offer anything. They walked with us for about 4 hours, holding our hand when we needed it and saving us from sliding on our butts! It was a beautiful day.


This is my boyfriends brother Alex!



The Hmong women dye their clothes with Indigo leaves which dyes their hands.









Aren't the rice paddys beautiful? 




This beautiful little guy ran out of his house and waves to us as we trekked past!


My boyfriend taking photos!




Next on my list of places to visit is Nepal. Any one got any good info about Nepal?


xxxx

6 comments:

  1. how super awesome! I have to make the pineapple rooster, that's just ace.

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    1. Haha. Some of their garnishes are so over the top and hilarious!!

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  2. Fantastic photos! They really show it as it was. Just missing 'sound and smellavision'!

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  3. Great photos Annie! I agree about the food in Vietnam, we had heard rave reviews about it before leaving but it wasn't fantastic for the most part. There were some really nice places in Hoi An and Hanoi but some really average stuff in between.

    Rita and I went to Nepal many years ago, it was great. Much poorer than South East Asia but a great spot with a really cruisey vibe. We did a tour with Intrepid which was a great way to see a wide range of things. It's not as easy to travel around as somewhere like Vietnam would be so a guide can be invaluable. We didn't do Everest basecamp but went for a 2-3 night hike in the Annapurna ranges which was great. It is a must to get amongst the Himalayas and see how massive they are.

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    1. Yeah thats wierd about the food. I thought it was just because the vego food was bad but I guess not!
      Thanks for the info. I found the english in Vietnam to be really bad, probably the worst of any country I have been. How is it in Nepal? The vegan thing can be made pretty hard when you can't explain to them what you need.

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  4. Yeah we really struggled to get anything nice to eat. We spent one day in Malaysia on the way home and were blown away with how delicious our meals were compared to Vietnam.
    I do still love a good bowl of Pho though!

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