Kia Ora Vietnam

Beer and Bar Snacks

2005-12-16T17:59:00.000+07:00

Our sons, Simon and Matthew arrived here 2 days ago for a month long visit. Today, after an enjoyable afternoon wandering around Van Mieu (Temple of Literature) we dropped into a Czech beer restaurant that we had noticed just last week. We should have realised that this was something special when the waiter sought clarification that we really did want to order 4 large glasses of beer. Check these out - 1 litre glasses that almost require 2 hands to lift them!

As we sipped our way through the beer, and broused our way through the menu, we noticed some of the special delicacies on offer - fried scorpions, crickets and grasshoppers. At the same time the staff began preparing some scorpions - we just had to try them! A little apprehensive at first, and seeking an assurance that you could safely eat the stinger, we set to and found them to be really very tasty.

So we had to follow these up with crickets which are also very nice. Unfortunately they didn't have any grasshoppers today - we'll have to return for these some other day.

Value for money!
Yellow beer, 1 litre 38,000VND
Fried scorpions 7,000VND each
Fried Crickets 5,000VND each

Restaurant Bohemia
47 Quoc Tu Giam
Hanoi

Jazz Icons Perform in Ha Noi

2005-11-29T23:40:00.000+07:00

Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter & Nnenna Freelon

Tonight we enjoyed the very best of international Jazz right here in Ha Noi.
Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter & Nnenna Freelon, with 8 talented young musicians from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, performed at the intimate Tuoi Tre Theatre here in Ha Noi. We were fortunate to obtain the very last "invitation only" tickets from the US Embassy. And it was all free! The US Embassy in Vietnam, sponsored the tour by these outstanding Jazz icons as part of their commemoration of the 10th anniversary of normalised U.S. - Vietnam relations.
The music was outstanding! We consider ourselves very fortunate to have seen such great exponents of the art of Jazz performing here.

Teachers Day

2005-11-21T19:49:00.000+07:00

November 2oth is Teachers Day in Vietnam. It is traditional for students to give their teachers small gifts or flowers. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of some of our students.

Ba Vi National Park

2005-11-17T09:15:00.000+07:00

Ba Vi National Park is about 50 kilometers west of Ha Noi. After leaving Ha Noi, the road to Son Tay is undergoing a long overdue reconstruction, making for a rough and dusty ride on our little Honda Wave.

But it is well worth the ride to finally escape the noise, heat and dust of Ha Noi.

In the middle of a plain rarely exceeding 30 metres in elevation stands Ba Vi mountain, a three-humped peak that rises steeply out of the surrounding plain. The three summits are Vua, the tallest at 1,296 metres, Tan Vien 1,227m and Ngoc Hoa 1,131m. Because of the mountainous topography, the climate at Ba Vi varies with altitude and fog enshrouds the peak's upper slopes on most days.

As we enter the park we enjoy the fresh air, and as we ascend the mountain the air cools and we enter into the clouds, taking in the smell of the damp forest.

We finally walk to the summit of Tan Vien, where there stands a shrine built in the 11th century to commemorate the Mountain God. Even today Vietnamese still make the pilgrimage to this sacred place. Surprisingly this group of old people asked for us to take their photos.

And then as we ride back down the mountain we take in the views of the surrounding landscape. And then sadly for us it's back to the bustle of Ha Noi - but what a great day out!

Roast Potatoes - Eat Your Heart Out!

2005-11-10T22:17:00.000+07:00

With winter approaching, and a yearning for good old roast potatoes, we purchased a small oven for 890,000VND (US$56). Sticky Rice may blog the best food in Hanoi, but the authors can't bake their own potatoes - eat your heart out!
(was this worth waiting for?)

Oops... didn't think of that!

2005-10-09T22:44:00.000+07:00

Celebrating the 995th anniversary of the ancient citadel Thang Long, ordered to be built by King Ly Thai Tho, and situated in what is now considered Ha Noi, the week-long festivities ended with Dragon Dance festivals at Hoan Kiem and Truc Bach lakes. We joined friends at Truc Bach where we ate fresh spring rolls, drank a few beers (with ice, of course) and enjoyed the entertainment.

There were floating candles in the lake, hot air balloons in the sky, and for the finale, a large dragon, suspended by 4 large balloons, raised above the lake. And then of course, there were fireworks.

Unfortunately nobody thought about the consequences of firing skyrockets directly at hydrogen-filled balloons! The accuracy of the projectiles were superb, and the resultant fireballs from the balloons was quite spectacular, but alas the dragon could not remain aloft without the support of those balloons. We only hope that a fallen dragon doesn't bring bad luck

Birthday celebrations

2005-09-29T21:00:00.000+07:00

Today was Gaylene’s birthday. Originally she had planned to meet a small group of friends for lunch, after which they would have Ao Dai fittings in preparation for Kate’s wedding celebrations. But the numbers rapidly expanded when news got out that it was Gaylene’s birthday. So, thirteen of us went for lunch at Au Lac House, a very nice Vietnamese restaurant located in a wonderful old French colonial house.

Unfortunately some people had to leave before the "official photograph" - sometimes work, which is what we do to support our lifestyles here, gets in the way of our social lives!
Many thanks to all who came, and to those bearing gifts and flowers. And a special thanks to Kate for organising the venue and awesome cake.

....and they never did to get to the Ao Dai fitting.

For more details about the food at Au Lac House, check out Kate and Mark's "must read" Sticky Rice food blog.

Hanoi to Sapa by motorbike

2005-09-19T13:25:00.000+07:00

The road from Hanoi to Sapa winds its way for 670 kms into the northwest of Vietnam, towards the border with Laos and China. Together with our friend Rachel and her Vietnamese friend Do we hired a couple of Minsk motorbikes and set off on a 4 day ride to Sapa. After relaxing for 2 days in Sapa we returned by overnight train to Hanoi.
The scenery is possibly the most spectacular in Vietnam, and the journey provides many opportunities to see something of the lives and colourful costumes of the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam.

Day 1. Hanoi - Mai Chau

(150 kms, 5 hours)
After the first hour riding out of Hanoi amongst all the traffic, and getting used to a different bike, it was a pleasure to reach quieter traffic and settle into a rhythm. It was nice to see green fields again, but nothing spectacular until we crossed over the mountain pass and descended into the beautiful Mai Chau valley which is home to predominantly Black Thai minority people. On the recommendation of Richard, fellow teacher (and the person who inspired us to undertake this journey) we stayed the night at a Guesthouse in Lac Village, just out of Mai Chau. Facilities were basic but comfortable, the hospitality very good, and the environment absolutely fantastic. We immediately decided that we’ll be returning for a longer stay before too long.

Day 2. Mai Chau – Son La – Tuan Giao

(265 kms, 9 hours)
From Mai Chau onwards, the traffic became less, and the scenery and ethnic minority villages more spectacular. Children started waving and calling out “hello” as we rode by, and stopping for a drink or meal became an opportunity to meet the local people. Having Do with us enhanced the experience as he could interpret for us.

After the standard 2-lane roads we had travelled, the road into Son La was a bazaar 8 kms of 6-lane highway with essentially no traffic except for the occasional wandering buffalo. I think they must be anticipating some future development!
From Son La the road narrowed as we climbed over several mountain passes, eventually arriving at the otherwise unspectacular town of Tuan Giao, with just one Hotel, where we stayed the night.

Day 3. Tuan Giao - Lai Chau
(90 kms, 5 hours)
We started the day with breakfast at an eclectic café where we ended up drinking tea with the owners in their home. The direct road to Lai Chau is the last part of highway 16 (highway is somewhat of a misnomer) which was once sealed, but a very long time ago. The road was rough, and included a number of river crossings. On these rough roads the Minsk’s really came into their own with good suspension and soft seats.
Travel was slow, but it enabled us to take in the sights and be welcomed by the Black Thai and White Thai villagers along the way. It has to be said that the further you get from the beaten track, the more interesting the sights, and the more open and friendly the people are.

Day 4. Lai Chau – Sapa
(165 kms – 6 hours)

The road follows the river valleys for much of the way, and once again whenever we stopped we had wonderful experiences meeting the local ethnic minority people, including a wonderful half hour spent with some Miao people.
The last part of the journey was a steady climb up past Fansipan (the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143 metres), and the weather was noticeably cooler as we approached Sapa (1,650 metres). Today we experienced the only wet weather of our journey, but this only lasted for a brief 20 minutes.

Day 5. Sapa

After passing through so many ethnic villages which see relatively few foreigners, the development and tourist nature of Sapa was a marked difference. We simply took the opportunity to relax after the previous 4 days of travel.
We last visited Sapa in January 2003 – being winter the fields were bare, and the weather extremely cold. This time, however, the terraced rice fields surrounding Sapa were a magnificent green. This truly is a beautiful part of the country.

Day 6. Sapa – Lao Cai – Pho Lu - Hanoi
On our previous visit to Sapa the road down from Sapa to Lao Cai was unsealed, and hundreds of manual workers were toiling to rebuild the road. The result is that now this 35km stretch is one of the smoothest roads of the whole journey.
Unfortunately the railway line approaching Lao Cai had been damaged by landslides, so we had to ride an extra 35kms to Pho Lu where we were able to put the bikes onto the overnight train to Hanoi.
It seemed all too soon that our short holiday was over, but it must rate as one of the best road trips we have done for a long time – we highly recommend it!

Moon River

2005-08-21T17:30:00.000+07:00

How do you start to describe such an amazing person as Tu (alias Godknows). He is a special friend, full of energy, and always doing things for other people.

Recently he organised a special dinner for 20 people at Moon River, an exclusive retreat on the banks of the Red River on the outskirts of Hanoi. The setting can only be descrbed as stunning, the food exceptional, and being in the company of good friends made this an evening to remember.

For more on this night visit Vietnamese God and Sticky Rice , the 2 best blogs for details of food and happenings in and around Hanoi!

Apartment living

2005-07-25T16:07:00.000+07:00

After 2 months living in a hotel room, we finally moved in to an apartment just a little way out from the tourist area (the old quarter and Haon Kiem lake).

We are still within 20 minutes walking from the old quarter, but more importantly it is only 5-10 minutes walk to work, many good restaurants, bakery and a market (and even a western style shopping plaza with supermarket). We have a large living room, with kitchen facilities at one end, and at the other end a small balcony overlooking trees and the street below. The bathroom can be accessed from either the living room or the large, quiet bedroom. To celebrate our moving into the apartment we threw a party for friends and colleagues. Only having a small fridge was no problem – a bath full of ice soon chills the beer and wine!

New Friends

2005-06-01T17:05:00.000+07:00

Meeting people and making new friends is an integral part of starting a new life in a different country. We have been very fortunate in that we have met so many wonderful people. One of these was Luke, a young fellow Kiwi teaching at the same school as us. We soon established our presence at a Bia Hoi (draft beer for 2500dong or NZ25cents per glass!) on the nearest corner to work a couple of days a week. Unfortunately Luke has now moved to Korea, but in the short time that we shared he introduced us to so much. Luke, we miss you and hope to see you back here in Hanoi one day.

What's a little rain?

2005-05-31T12:40:00.000+07:00

When it rains, it's not like Auckland's annoying drizzle - the skies open and give their best. A couple of Sundays ago was one of those days. I had two morning classes cancelled (due to a power blackout), and Gay managed to do one of her afternoon classes before the power went off again. By the time she got back to the Hotel, I was sitting on the upstairs balcony at one of our local drinking spots (yes, you guessed it, Bia Ming) .… and then it started to rain!

Gay decided to wait until the rain eased off a little, by which time the water was ½ metre deep in the street below!
Well, she didn’t let that deter her – better to wade through the water in search of a beer and company than sit alone in a dark, hot room. It shows how much she has settled into our new environment.

I never cease to be amazed at the resilience of the Vietnamese people. It rains, their shops or homes flood, the rain stops and the water levels to go down again, and within no time at all life is back to normal as though nothing had ever happened. It's all just part of life. We in the affluent west could learn a lot from their example.

Arriving in Hanoi

2005-05-30T12:30:00.000+07:00

We arrived in Hanoi on 30th April, which was a public holiday in Vietnam (Liberation Day). Being the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Saigon, this Liberation Day’s celebrations were bigger than usual, and coincided with Hanoi's international tourism festival.!)
For 2 days all the roads around the central lake in Hanoi (Hoan Kiem Lake) were closed to traffic, and there were market stalls and outdoor entertainment stages all around the lake. All this was within easy walking of our hotel. Since the holiday weekend continued right through to Tuesday, we had no choice but to be tourists for 4 days, exploring our new city.
We had booked a hotel room for the first 3 nights, and spent those first few days finding a more suitable hotel which would better serve our needs while we found jobs and then an apartment. The hotel that we had booked was costing US$25 per night. We needed to find something cheaper, and also with less stairs to climb (we were on the 5th floor, and these places don’t have elevators!)

We settled into Bamboo Hotel in Hang Bac Street in the old quarter of Hanoi, where we have a large, quiet, air-conditioned room, with only 2 flights of stairs to climb, and for just US$11 per night. So this was our home for our first 8 weeks.
It was easy to get an interview at one of the better language schools, and basically all they said was that we would be given our teaching schedules a couple of days later. From that we presumed we both had jobs – it just seemed far too easy! So we both had jobs, and started teaching within 2 weeks of arriving in Hanoi.

Why are we here?

2005-05-01T11:28:00.000+07:00

In January 2002 we came to Vietnam on holiday and fell in love with the country, the food, and especially the people. A chance encounter at Bia Ming (a favoured meeting place for travellers and low budget working foreigners alike) with a young New Zealand couple who had arrived here and found work teaching English started us thinking about changing our lives. We had a comfortable life in New Zealand, nice house, good corporate job etc. But is that what life is about? We soon made a plan to return to Hanoi in 2005, by which time our 2 sons would have left home and found their own independence. Prior to coming to Vietnam we both gained CELTA English language teaching qualifications which would help us to get good jobs here. So early 2005 we sold off, gave away, or packed up all our worldly possessions and set off for Vietnam with a backpack each, ready to start our new, comparatively simple and relaxed lifestyle.