12/01/2012 10:45 AM
So morning 8? I think not really sure. The day seems like its going to be nice and I havnt planned all that much. After the last few days I'm pretty happy hanging around for a day or two. I think I will get on a motorbike later today and see how that goes. I finally found banh xeo place that I am planning on going to after my coffee. Banh Xeo is something like a thick vietnames crepe. Its really crispy because it is made with rice flour and stuffed with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts. You tear it apart at wrap pieces of it in fresh herbs. Looking forward to it. Il probably go there in a little bit.
Having my first Ive coffee this morning, and wow, this is even better than the hot coffee. Its thick and sweet and heavy and so good. After lunch I plan to take a motorbike ride around the old quarter which should only cost about $3 for thirty minutes. I'm am slightly nervous about this but also thinking its going to be really fun. I don’t think I will rent a motorbike in the city as traffic is a bit crazy, but once I get to the smaller towns I will most definitely rent one.
On a different note, if I'm still in Hanoi for tet I have been invited to spend it with a local family who I’ve met on Couchsurfing. I think it would be an awesome experience, but I don’t have much interest in spending another 11 days here. I think I would get board and run out of money too quickly. I am going to start looking for a place to stay more seriously in Nha Trang. I think I have made up my mind that I will head there. I want something warmer and as much as I love this place I think a change is needed. Also, if I am to add Burma onto my list of places I am going, I will have to shorten my stay here.
12/01/2012 12:58 PM
So after my coffee this morning I took my motorbike tour of the Old district. Was pretty awesome to say the least. However, the only problem is, helmets in this country do not fit me. Not to worry, these guys are used to carrying tourists around and are pretty cautious. It cost me 80k, or about $3.5 for 30 minutes. I over paid. Should only have been about 60k, but he was nice and took it slow so I don’t mind. Makes me want to rent my own, but I think I'm going to hold off until I get out of the city and can find a helmet if I'm going to be driving.
So I had some street food for lunch. It was called Bunh Cha. Which translates to, if I'm correct, BBQ pork with noodles. They literally grill the pork on charcoal right on the street, chop up some noodles with sicsors and through it all in this delicious broth. The broth I'm pretty sure was a chicken stock with apples, carrots and a bit of cider vinegar. The stocks here they use are so freaking good! So light, yet so tasty and tangy and sweet and spicy. So good. They serve it with Thai Szechuan peppers and pickled garlic. Was so good, however, my stomach is feeling it a bit. But not to worry, I'm sure itl work itself out. Either way it was totally worth it, just hope I don’t end up regretting it later. I had seen a Banh Xeo vendor last night, but they didn’t seem to be opened for lunch, so I ended up at the Bunh Cha place.
So the hostel/hotel in Nha Trang has emailed me back. Rooms are $12 before the 20th and then $16 for the following week. I'm still waiting on a response from some friends, so I wont book immediately. But I should do it relatively soon.
So I looked into getting a cell phone. They start at about $25 for a basic one and go up to abour $150 for the Iphone that I have now. However, I'm not sure if there is much of a necessity to get one. I havnt decided yet but I like knowing that the option is there.
12/01/2012 3:49 PM
So I'm over my cold entirely and have had a pretty good morning. Checked off a number of things on my to-do list in Hanoi: riding on a motor bike and eating Bunh Cha, etc, etc. Right now I'm at another one of the resto/bars that I often frequent. Its got a terrace on the third floor with a few tables that over look the street, funished with wooden deck chairs and tables, very similar to those in our backyard, as well as some plants and lights. The food here is not so great, but the beer is realatively cheap, about 25k for a big bottle of Hanoi Beer, the local brew that is a pretty standard pilsner of about 4% alcohol, and the pace is relaxed. Back home if one were alone in a bar or a cafe, you would undoubtedly have a book or something to read, here, one can simply relax and watch the people go by, much like the locals do. There is so much going on in this city that there is ALWAYS something to watch. Whether its locals bargaining for their produce, street vendors harassing the tourists, or the Vietnamese just going about their day to day life, not to mention the motorbike traffic. Every so often you see a motorbike carrying goods that one would think impossible unless otherwise seen. Drivers delivering six cases of beer to a bar, five strapped to the back and one in between their legs, chicken in a built in coup on the back of a motorbike or simply and entire family of five off somewhere. There is always something going on. Yet for some reason, things always seem so calm in this city whether its rush hour or the depths of night. I think it is the attitude people maintain here. They are patient, polite, in control. There is no yelling in this country, no disorder of any kind. Even the traffic; at first glance it appears chaotic, but after a relatively short time, one realizes that it is order; even if it is order created out of chaos – isint that the definition of chaos anyways?
I finished The Quiet American by Graham Greene on my second day here and picked up a book called First they Killed my Father. It’s a book about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Its a true story written from the point of view of a five year old who lived through it. Its quite depressing but at the same time fascinating. Its a historical novel. Figured id do a bit of reading up before heading there. It’s a copy I picked up on the street for 100k, but it is a pretty bad printing of it. However, it is readable. I realize that I have started quoting prices in Dong as opposed to dollars; the best way to think about it is that 100k Dong is equal to $5.
More to come later. Battery on my laptop is dying. There are a few new pictures
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