Vietnam top 10: Vietnamese food

Vietnam top 10: Chowing down on Vietnamese food

It may not be a sight, but the Vietnamese food deserves a blog entry in its own right. I believe it's one of the world's best cuisines and we didn't have a bad meal once. Here is a list of my favourite Vietnamese nosh:

1. Fresh rice paper spring rolls with sweet salt, pepper and lime juice (the fried versions are good too!)

2. Traditional Pho Bo (noodle soup with beef)

3. Marinated pork on steamed rice

4. Cau lau, a noodle dish specific to Hoi An with slices of stewed pork

5. Barbequed fish flavoured with a sauce cooked in a banana leaf

6. 'White rose' - shrimp wrapped in rice paper and steamed

7. Banh xeo (won tons) - crispy pancakes with herbs

8. Fresh fruit including pineapple, mango, lyche and jack fruit

9. Do ngot - Vietnamese sweets sold by hawkers on the street

10. Marinated pork on skewers, served with steam rice

Here are some food (and drink!) related shots from our trip:

Duck in a coconut sauce in Hoi An

Alex mixing herbs in our cookery class

Fresh produce in the Hoi An market

Our cookery class teacher

Fried rice with veg, simple but tasty

Pork on steamed rice and veg

Dinner at the last night in Hoi An

Alex's roll-your-own-spring-roll dinner in Hanoi

Tasty Hue beer

Lunch at our homestay in Mai Chau

Fried spring rolls, green beens with garlic, chicken in a coconut sauce and more in Mai Chau

Vietnam top 10: Mai Chau homestay

Vietnam top 10: A night in a Mai Chau homestay

One of the best things we did on our trip was spend a night in a traditional Vietnamese hut on stilts that belonged to a hill tribe 'White Thai' family in Mai Chau. As it was low season we had a huge hut to ourselves, ate the wondeful food cooked by the wife of the owner and enjoyed their warm hospitality. In the evening some White Thai women performed a traditional dance in the hut which we joined in with at the end!

The atmosphere at night is fantastic. I loved going to sleep to the sound of crickets outside our hut and waking up to a beautiful sunrise the next morning. Highly recommended!

Sunset from our Mai Chau homestay




Bedtime!









 



Delicious food cooked by the family we stayed with



Drinking sticky rice wine with White Thai dancers

View from top of a hill on the way to Mai Chau







Lunch on the first day







Chowing down on dinner!



Us dancing with the White Thai performers



Me in our hut on stilts

White Thai hill tribe woman weaving

Sunset in Mai Chau





Me relaxing by our stilt hut in Mai Chau





Alex in our hut

Vietnam top 10: Hanoi

Vietnam top 10: A day in Hanoi

I was not expecting to like Hanoi at all. The Lonely Planet calls it a "cauldron of commerce" and "relentless", with a "constant tide of motorbikes". Despite this, I loved Hanoi and the bustling atmosphere only made it more appealing to this city girl.

We spent a lot of time exploring the Old Quarter, a warren of streets and alleys that are full of shops, cafes and restaurants, with hawkers selling fruit, sweet buns and souvenirs. We fell in love with some of the (expensive) original art, Alex bought a (cheap) orginal political poster that originated during the time of the Vietnam War, ate scrumptious food in some of the many restaurants, drank cheap Fresh beer with the locals (18p a pint!) in the bia hoi junction, visited the old city prison and more. I wish we could have stayed longer!

A motorbike laden with wares, a typical sight in Hanoi

Trying to avoid Hanoi motorbikes!

Hanoi cafe

A motorbike that doubles up as a shop!

Street sellers in Hanoi


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An old merchant's house in Hanoi

 

Vietnam top 10: Halong Bay cruise

Vietnam top 10: Halong Bay cruise on the Paloma

Towards the end of our trip we splashed out on a two-day cruise round Halong Bay on a boat called Paloma. We spent two nights on the boat and enjoyed some more delicious Vietnamese cuisine, sunset parties, swimming from the boat, watching the sunset, Vietnamese spring roll cooking class, early morning Tai Chai on the top deck, visiting huge caves and enjoying the views of stunning Halong Bay itself.

It was one of the most luxurious boats in the bay but it was worth the treat. Our cabin was very comfortable and spacious and the food was heavenly!



Alex swimming by the boat





Halong Bay at sunset from the Paloma

Cavernous cave we visited in Halong Bay

Me posing with an election poster in a traditional fishing village

Alex and I in Halong Bay

Vietnam top 10: Mai Chau boat trip

Vietnam top 10: Mai Chau boat trip

We spent a night in a traditional stilt hut in Mai Chai, north Vietnam and spent the next day exploring the local area by boat before hiking along the river. The boat trip itself was a real highlight - the fact that the old rickety rowing boat felt like it was going to give up on us any second! We sailed down the river and watched the local fishermen who live in huts on the river's edge, as well as women working in the fields nearby.

When we hopped off the boat we passed by the home of a dam builder who was living by the river with his colleagues. He invited us into his home for some green tea, lychees and a chat!

Me on the Mai Chau river

Alex on the boat

The dam builder who invited us into his home for a natter!

Vietnam top 10: My Son

Vietnam top 10: Sunrise visit to My Son

My Son is an area of Hindu temples that were built between the 4th and 14th century AD by the kings of champa. Now they are partially ruined - mainly due to American bombings during the Vietnam war - but are still well worth a visit.

We set the alarm for 5am but the painful early start was well worth it. My Son is set in the jungle and visiting at sunrise is very atmospheric, although it still managed to be very hot! You can go inside a couple of the temples and see the Hindu symbols on the walls and at that time of the morning, we were the only tourists there. After a couple of hours at the ruins we hopped on a boat back to Hoi An.

Alex bleery-eyed at the first My Son temple

At the entrance to one of the temples

Sun is coming out!

One of the temples that collapsed in the Vietnam War

On the way back to the bus through the jungle

On the boat on the way back to Hoi An

View from the front of the boat

Stopping by a village where they build boats

Pulling up into Hoi An on the boat