food – Seite 2 – A travelling small human

Day 21

Today we ate at the hotel our free breakfast which was included in the price. It was okay but it really was a package of instant noodles with an egg and some pieces of broccoli inside^^

After that we went to clean out room and pack everything for the tour. But as it turned out there were some issues with renting the motorbikes. Because of our big tour through other provinces, the renting fee would have gone way up, from 2$ a day to about 15$ 🙈. That would be too much so we decided that we would drive the long part with a bus and rent the motorbikes then at our next destination because it would be cheaper again. Two of us decided to buy a motorbike, which is pretty common to do in Vietnam, you buy a motorbike at the beginning of your journey and going to sell it at the end of it. Me and two others went then with the bus to Buon Ma Thuot which took about 6h. The bus ride was pretty good, it was a normal sitting bus, the view a really awesome because you could really see that you were driving into the jungle, but sadly I couldn’t make so good pictures 🙈 When we arrived here we went to the hotel to leave our bags there and then straight out again because we were starving like hell. We ate two different Banh Mi and I ate additionally a Bun Bo (I think it’s called), which is a big piece of steamed dough filled with ground meat and quail eggs. The dough tastes a little bit sweet but all together it tastes really good, just watch out for a piece of paper which sticks on the bottom of it^^ it’s also pretty filling, you should definitely try it out if you’re in Vietnam because it’s also a local food.

Allgemein

Day 20

Today we just relaxed, we slept in, two of the French guys went with me in the city while the others were still sleeping. First we went to a small café to drink an iced coffee with milk which is like the typical Vietnamese coffee and it’s really sweet and very strong.We walked then around and searched very long for a cheap restaurant, because we somehow got to a place were all the high-class hotels were and therefore the prices of the restaurants were all a bit higher. But we finally found one and had a pretty good lunch there. I just forgot to take a picture of it, it was like the bad food from yesterday in waay better, rice with a bbq chicken and it was warm and very tasty 😍
After that we walked some more around the lake we went back to our hotel to meet the other two. We bought a bubble tea on the way home which was really yummy.

We met the others and decided to eat dinner at the hotel because they had a special offer with a great variety of food and free beer for 70k. The food was very delicious and we got some fresh Mango too. The thing with the eggs you can see on the picture is a omelette rolled with seaweed, it sounds strange but was really tasty! And the curry with the eggs had some great beef in it, you can see see the transparent fat pieces on the meat, they were really delicious and the meat was really tender and the sauce was kinda sweet, it tasted great!

After the meal we just went to our room, chilled and talked. I can really recommend the hotel we’re staying in, it’s called the “Vietnam Home Hostel”. It’s a bit hidden but the guys at the reception are really nice and help you with everything and the rooms are clean and nice too.

Allgemein

Day 18

Today Bon picked me up and invited me to a great feast with a part of his family, not his wife and kids, but his brother and his brothers and sisters in law and more. It was very nice to see how they all eat together and the food was really really great. Before the big meal they burned some papersuits as well as paper money, Thao, the girl I rented the room from tolde that they burn all this stuff as symbolism to gift it to the dead ones so they have new suits and money and stuff in the Heaven. They also print iPhone and really everything on paper so you can burn it 😀
As far as I noticed eat the woman and kids separate from the men, but they still came over some times and talked with them. They also all drank beer, so there’s no separation there^^
After the great meal we sat there some while and then went to Bons home. I talked with one of his daughters, her english name is Alice, and she could talk very good English, especially for a 13 year old!
She had to translate everything for the others and had to ask me everything the others wanted to know 😅🙈
But is was very nice to talk with her/them and to spend just some time with a normal Vietnamese family 🙂
After that Bon drove me back to my hotel where I booked a ticket for the night bus to Da Lat and went to a nearby shop to get a new belt because mine broke apart.I had an hour until the belt should be ready and before I had to be back at my hotel, so I went to the city to buy some last souvenirs.
After that I got my belt and went to the Hotel where a small bus picked me up and brought me to the place where the sleeping bus would pick me up.

Allgemein

Day 15

Today I went to a Hill full of Temples called “Chùa Non Nước”. I went there by bicycle which I could use for free from the Hotel as I said. It’s very nice to ride the bike to this place, the street is very calm and it’s only about 15 mins away. At the hill there are many shops who offer you to park your bicycle/motorbike for free in exchange to look through their items when you’re back from the Hill. At the hill is a elevator which can bring you up to the temples if you’re to lazy or can’t climb the stairs, it costs 15k VND. The Temples at the mountain are awesome a hell! There are also some big caves which cool you a little down from the sweating climb up and there’s a way to the “Heaven Gate” which is one of the highest points of the hill,the view is awesome! Although you have to really climb to get there because at some point there are no more stairs. But it’s pretty fun to climb up there and the view is really worth it. There are about 5 Temples or so and they are all so beautiful, you really wonder how the managed to get all the statues and everything up there. The climb itself costs 40k for adults, which is pretty good. If you go there and want to see everything and take your time, you should plan at least 3h. I had about 2½ h and I had to kinda hurry because I had to be at my hotel at time so I won’t miss my bus to Hoi An. It wasn’t like I had to rush through the temples but if you want to see everything with calmness and walk slowly through the temples you definitely need some more time.

After the climb down I drove back to my hotel, packed my stuff and went to the place I booked a shuttle bus to Hoi An, which was like 5 min away. I can really recommend my Hotel, the owner is very nice and helps you with everything, you get a bicycle and laundry service for free and the location is also pretty good, with 10 min to the beach and 10 min taxi drive to the city. And it’s really cheap.
The drive to Hoi An was pretty fast with nothing special on the way.
Hoi An itself is awesome from the first impression! The small river through the city looks very nice, the streets are full of local markets and souvenir shops, there is a pretty nice nightmarket and at night there are so many colors! Also at the time I’m here there’s the “international food festival” with stands of countries from all over the world with chefs who cook awesome food for you! *-*

The festival goes until the weekend and everyday they cook a different national food, it’s like heaven for me!
I ate fried seafood noodles from the Malaysian stand and a Russian fish soup called „Ukha“ stand, both were really tasty! Sadly it’s a little expensive with 60k per plate and the plates are not that big^^ which is okay because you want to try everything but it makes it a little more expensive. But it’s totally worth it to spend there some money 😋😍

Vietnam 2017

Day 14

Today I ate a chicken noodlesoup in a Restaurant next to my hotel, as you can see the noodles are a bit different than the ones they used in Hanoi, the soup itself tasted a little bit different, a little fresher I think.

Next I went to the Cham Museum in the city. It’s a small museum about many statues they found buried in the ground. For 30k VND ( ~1,20$) it’s nice to see them, not really a must, but if you have 15-30 minutes time go ahead and check it out.

Almost the rest of the day I wandered around the city with no real destination and looked at all the small market stands. I went for a break in the Wind Café which was very calm and nice. I then walked to the river that divides the city and watched it at the nighttime, it’s really beautiful with all the light mirroring in the water and at the street lights there are small speakers which play calm music, which gives it a even nicer and relaxing touch.

I finished the day with some fried noodles at the same place I had breakfast. Those noodles were also different, they were almost transparent and had a little different texture than the white ones, a tiny bit more chewie, but anyways very tasty! 😋

Vietnam 2017

Day 13

Beachtime! When you’re in Da Nang you should definitely go and check out the awesome beach! It’s really clean and you just go and jump into the water! Or better said walk, it doesn’t go very deep^^ but the waves are coming towards you and some of them are really strong, so it’s quite fun to spend a few hours in the Sea. Also there are volleyball nets and frisbees you can borough from the bars at the beach. You can also get up in the sky by getting dragged by a motorboat while you have a parachute on, like you see on the picture. And jet-skis are available too.
Together with the awesome weather you can spend there a very nice day.
You can also eat something at the beach bars but I just took a little bit of money with me so I could just afford some French fries, the prices at the beach are a little bit above, but I think that’s normal.

In the evening I went this restaurant called “Lam Vien” which I can really recommend going to, the staff is very nice and the food was really good! I didn’t ate anything big though, just fried rice with salted fish and salted duck egg and for desert a flan cake with coffee topping. Both were really delicious and I think the rest of the menu is too. The restaurant was also completely full, not only with tourists but also with many natives, which is also a sign that this restaurant seems like a pretty good deal.

For Breakfast I was in a small stall near my hotel which was filled with locals. It looked like they were all working people coming there for lunch. The restaurant was a porper local restaurant where you would go up to the counter tell them what types of sides you want with your rice and they plate or pack it for you. It was super cheap and incredibly yummy! The locals all looked at me, was probably very unusual that a foreigner would come and eat there^^

Vietnam 2017

Days 11&12

The ride on the sleeping bus was really nice, it’s not the comfortablest thing in the world but you can really sleep in it, I can really recommend it. Especially for the price of 25$. You could also fly, if you’re lucky for about 35$, but because you drive in the night you don’t real waste your time on the bus.

When I arrived I went to the hotel I booked a day earlier, it’s a little outside, by foot you would have to walk about an hour to the city centre but because of that it’s pretty cheap, I’m spending about 13$ for three nights. It’s called “V Wander”. The owners are really nice and help you I you have any questions. You can also take a bicycle for free and the rooms are also very clean.
As you can see I ate a last time the noodlesoup with the marinated pork in Hanoi, because it tastes awesome *-* I also drank a lychee iced tea which was really good.

The other noodles you can see are from a restaurant next to my hotel. You can already see the difference between northern food and the food here, the noodles are different and also the greens on the side are others. It tasted anyway very good although it was pretty oily.

For lunch I had some shrimps and frog which I had to grill myself. They were really tasty and grilling by yourself is also fun. I forgot how the place was called but I’ll look it up and edit it. I can really recommend it, it has a big variety of foods you can try and they looked all very good on the menu.

After that I asked the owner where a good café is and he told me about the “Cong Caphe” which was really nice. The service was good and the Vietnamese green tea I drank too.

On the last picture you can see the river in Da Nang at night which looks pretty nice with all the reflecting lights in it 🙂
As far as I noticed on the first night now, there’s a little nightlife going on in Da Nang, but I didn’t find really big party locations or touristic bars, maybe I’ll find them the next days.

Vietnam 2017

Day 9

After a week back home I finally flew back to Hanoi. The flight was very good and this time i really had no problems with my visa or anything. The food was pretty good this time and besides that, nothing eventful happened during my travel back to Vietnam.

Because the other hostel I stayed was full I had to look for a free one. My travel guide had also a list with good hostels in Hanoi in it so I started to go to them and ask if they have anything free. I’m now at the May De Ville Hotel in a six-bed dorm with 4 other peoples. The price is very good, 6$ a night and the rooms are really clean, I think they get cleaned daily. The bathroom is as you can see in your room but besides the unfortunate acoustics and the fact that the walls are made of glass it’s alright, it’s also pretty clean and everything works.

At the evening I got the best fried squids I ever had and went after that to two bars I promised I would come around when I’m back in Hanoi, it was a pretty nice first day back here and the night went way longer than expected^^

Vietnam 2017

Day 1

Today was the first day after the landing, I slept well and was ready to go. The flights were all good and the dinner on board was pretty good for a plane meal.

I started today with a huge bowl of noodle soup with beef in it. I tastes great! The restaurant“ was just a small stand on the sidewalk were an old lady cooked the noodles an filled everything in the bowls. Next to the stand there were some very small tables and stools. Another women who ordered the soup too, got it about 2/3 minutes earlier than me but she ate it so extremely fast that I still ate on it while double the time passed. I noticed this also the other times I ate today, Vietnamese people don’t just eat very much but the also eat very fast! I don’t get how they can eat so fast while still looking very calm and relaxed^^

The soup was delicious af especially after the exhausting flights and everything. On the table were also some sauces and limes to enhance the meal. I took a red hot sauce, some chili and the juice of a piece of lime. The broth was at the and very spicy and it really helped to get my nose free 😅
After visiting a lake and getting some good drinking water from a store nearby, I met some guys and we went into a café. They ordered a coffee for me and told me that the Vietnamese love their coffee. They also ordered a balloon full of laughing gas, which is somehow a thing down there, they said it would make you feel the music^^
The guys also brought me to a very small hotpot restaurant a bit away from the tourist center. The broth was very good and you could really taste the lemongrass out of it. The meat was pretty chewie and as I learned after the meal, it was tiger meat O.o
It was also pretty expensive, so if someone wants to go eat with you, better ask what he wants to order an how much it’ll cost^^
After some more sightseeing in the citadel of Hanoi and learning some historical background of the city, I went to a café to get an ice crushed green tea. After that I went back home to get my insect spray, it got slowly darker and the mosquitoes were starting to fly (>.<)