Food for Thought

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Darren and I like to eat.  I mean, our blog title and our blog address both reference food.  We've had numerous conversations with friends and fellow travelers about how we think it's only right that people eat their way through the countries they visit.  "Half the experience of a country is in its food".  We're not the only people who think this, but somehow I feel like we do WAY more eating than other people.  Especially in small towns like this.  

Mui Ne is one of those small beach town destinations.  One of those places that locals come to for a weekend getaway.  In places like this, there's not a lot to do.  We did a hike up the "Fairy Spring" and today we went sliding down the sand dunes; but otherwise, when we're not sitting by the pool soaking up sun or playing dominoes, we're planning on where to eat our next meal.  Breakfast is always the same once we find somewhere we like, but we sometimes plan 2-3 days worth of meals at a time.

Mui Ne has everything.  There seems to be a large Russian/Czech population so that's something different to choose from.  There's an excellent selection of "international"/western food and local Vietnemese food, and the best part of a beach town are the beach side fresh seafood barbecues... I'm drooling just thinking about it all.

Darren and I are particularly fond of Indian food, and you can seriously get that stuff (in varying degrees) anywhere.  We were on a slow boat for 2 days in Laos and when we stopped in a tiny river town called Pak Beng, there were Indian restaurants everywhere.  So of course, we had no problem finding a fantastic Indian restaurant here in Mui Ne.

I'm pretty sure that anyone watching us eat tonight would think we hadn't eaten in weeks.  The waitresses were actually watching us in utter amazement.  We've noticed over the last couple days that when food is placed in front of us, we destroy it.  We eat like a couple ravenous dogs, but when the food is as good as the food at Ganesh, we can't help but turn into animals.  I think Darren once timed us, and it took us 5 minutes to polish off several plates of food.  Tonight was probably a record.  Darren was even eating the left over sauce from our butter chicken by the spoon-fulls.  No naan, no rice, nothing.  Just spoon-fulls of creamy, buttery deliciousness.  If the waitress hadn't come to clear our plates I don't doubt Darren would've licked the whole platter clean.  We astonished even ourselves tonight.

(Not a word of a lie: I just realised I have a little butter chicken sauce stuck under one of my nails, and yes, I did wash my hands.)

So here I sit, with a wonderful little quote I heard on "Friends" stuck in my head:  "A moment on the lips, forever on the hips."  I guess it's a good thing Darren and I eat so fast that sometimes the food doesn't even touch our lips!  (Yes, we've put on some weight.)

Beautiful British Columbia

As I was basking in the first bit of sun we've seen since we got to Mui Ne and listening to some good tunes I found myself missing a luxury of home.  It may seem absurd to miss anything whilst lying in the sun with the pool to your left and the ocean to your right, the sun and wind in perfect harmony to still get a tan without getting too hot... but I miss driving.  Yes, of all things.  I miss driving with the windows down and the sun shining, singing away to my favourite driving songs.  Whether it was driving from Coquitlam to Abbotsford for school, or just the fifteen minute drive to work.  I enjoy those few minutes of solitude with me and my music and the coolness of the wind (our vehicle is simple and does not have AC).  That is of course on an agreeable traffic day when I'm not running late or being postponed by dense traffic or an accident, but on good days, I really do enjoy a good drive.  We rent motorbikes on occasion, but it's not the same (helmets ruin my hair and there's no music).  The drive up to Prince George is a regular thing for us and the summer drive is just beautiful.  Nothing quite compares to the feeling of a loaded IPod and the beauty of the canyon on a summer's day.  That's one thing Darren and I can fully agree on when we're reflecting and comparing: there is no beauty like the beauty of BC.  As the days roll by we can't help but think about how soon it'll be before we're home.  There are things I don't want to leave, but I do look forward to taking that breath of fresh BC air and enjoying a long, music-filled drive.

"Tropical Tastes and warm breezes"

Read this in a menu at an art cafe yesterday.  It sums up what we're feeling, about these last days, perfectly.

"Whatever You Like We Do For You"

Okay.  So the only person who actually said this to us did not deliver, but that's beside the point.

Hoi An.  The city of tailor made... anything.  Aside from the fact that the city is quaint, beautiful and picturesque it is most well known for its surplus of tailors.  You can actually get anything made in this city.  Belts, shoes, purses, suits, dresses, shirts, ties... "whatever you like".  It's unreal... actually!  In a lot of ways it's like a living dream.

There are so many shops however, that it can be a little overwhelming.  There's a tailor next door to our hotel, and one right across the street, beside that is a restaurant and beside that is a shoe shop, then another tailor, and another, and another, and... well, you get the point.

We were not wholly unprepared!  We had met a delightful couple in Cat Ba who were doing Vietnam in the opposite direction as us and had already been to Hoi An and done the tailoring thing.  Since they already knew what a nightmare trying to find a good tailor could be, they recommended one to us.  Her name is Bee.  Her shop is one of the less prestigious ones, situated in the "Cloth Shop" market, but she could not have been more fantastic.  Despite spending three hours in her shop the first day, we started small.  She did such a fantastic job on that first order that every time we went back for a "fitting" we ended up ordering more... and more... and more.

To give you an idea, we were only going to stay for a maximum of four days, we've been here for six.  Our six days consisted of (between both Darren and myself):
2 suits, both with an extra pair of pants
4 pairs of jeans
7 men's dress shirts
4 blouses
2 blazers
2 winter coats
1 fall/spring jacket
2 pairs of sandals
2 pairs of casual shoes
1 pair of dress shoes
1 pair of stilettos
and a bunch of ties.

To sum up... we're broke, but we look good!

Okay.  So not everything we purchased HAD to be "tailor-made".  But it's hard to stop when everything is custom made to fit you.  You pick the design, you pick the fabric, the details... EVERYTHING!  Go figure, I like to be in control ;)

Bee is far too amazing for words.  There is another woman (from Vancouver) helping Bee establish a website so she can continue business with her clients overseas.  We basically assured her that we were adding ourselves to her list.  I can't say enough wonderful things about that woman's work!  (Okay, so she doesn't actually do the sewing.  It's a family run business and she's the face, the middle-man, but she's darn good at her job.)  She's also about 4 foot nothing and the teeniest, cutest thing ever!
The website is in progress: The Sewing Bee

It's All Relative

Today, Darren and I enjoyed a wonderful day of motorcycle tourism, exploring the ancient city of Hué, but more on that soon.
A report recently came out (viewed on MSN) rating the most expensive provinces to live in Canada. As you might guess, BC was the top province on that list. Along with that report was also a list of the most expensive cities and Vancouver took the top spot as the most expensive city. According to that report homeowners in Vancouver required approximately 75% of their incomes to provide for their average living expenses; while, the homeowners of Toronto, which came is second, required approximately 50% of their incomes.

This evening we met a young man (23 yrs old), a waiter at a restaurant, who looked extremely exhausted. After having invited him to sit down with us (we were the only customers in the restaurant) we got to talking and discovered that he (like so many) is working “part-time” while trying to continue his university studies. His version of “part-time” was working 10 hours a day, every day. Most days he starts at 5 am and ends at 2 (working for a tour company), and he makes 50,000 VND a day (about $2-3). One month of courses for him, is 1 million VND ($50). (If he were to go to school full-time, it would take him 3 years to finish his studies in tourism.) His rent is 300,000 VND ($15) for a small room. On top of his rent, he also has to pay utilities and all the other expected living expenses we all incur. Basically, at the end of the month his “money is very small. Not so good”.
We did a little comparison. For one semester of school in BC, Nghia could go to school for 4-5 years; for one month of rent in Vancouver Nghia could go to school for over 1 year. (Education in Vietnam, by the way, is not free. Children/their families even have to pay for primary school.)
People in BC have long been advocating to raise minimum wage, claiming that the current $8 at full-time hours isn’t enough to pay for a person’s basic needs; and, with the latest numbers, that’s probably true. I wonder if anyone is advocating for the people in Vietnam, since they don’t have the opportunity to vote and choose their own government. Or, like our friend Nghia, maybe they’ve come to accept their only option and work like dogs to get by. In any case, how is it that our one city has become so expensive, while cities on the other side of the world could survive for an entire year on what we do for a month? There are a million and one things to consider, but it all just seems rather amazing to me.

34 Hours.

On Monday, October 4th at approximately 1500 hrs Darren and I boarded a bus from Cat Ba to the port.  At 1600 hrs we boarded a boat from the port to Haiphong.  At 1645 hrs we got off the boat and onto another bus which was to take us to the long distance bus station.  At 1730 hrs we arrived at the long distance bus station.  After watching a man pee in a canal and then continue to wash his face, hands, and feet in the same place he had just peed we boarded a bus to Hue at 1930 hrs-- expected arrival time:  0730 hrs Tuesday, October 5th.  At 0500 hrs Tuesday, October 5th, the bus stopped in the middle of Ky Anh (which we discovered much later).  At 0730 hrs everyone got off the bus, washed their faces, brushed their teeth and ate breakfast.  At approximately 0900 hrs, we re-boarded the bus.  At 1100 hrs after I had finished my book and the bus had not yet moved, I got off.  At 1130 hrs everyone (our bus plus the other two that had arrived) ate lunch.  At 1200 hrs we figured out what was going on.  Flooding (at this point it had been raining for 6-8 hrs).  At 1400 hrs we watched "I Love You, Man".  At 1600 hrs we finished watching "I Love You, Man" and tried to see if we could hire a car or find a flight from a nearby city.  At 1630 hrs, after many "do you speak English"es, no luck.  At 1700 hrs we began watching "How To Train Your Dragon".  At 1720 hrs, we got back on the bus.  We proceeded to drive through what can only be described as small lakes, while watching people push their cars and motorcycles through the waist high water.  At 2300 hrs we stopped for dinner (20km away from Hue).  At 2330 we got back on the bus.  At 0005 hrs we and are soaked bags arrived in Hue.  At 0010 hrs we straddled the backs of some strangemen and their motorbikes.  At 0025 hrs we arrived at a hotel and the driver of one of the bikes proceeded to shout and wake up the guard.  At 0100 hrs we unpacked our wet bags, hung up our wet clothes and went to bed.

What does it all add up to?  34 hours of my life I will never get back, and 10 minutes of your life that you'll never get back!

"I Feel Like A Pirate"

One of the staple things to do in the Cat Ba/Halong Bay area is to take a boat around the bay, either for a day trip of kayaking and swimming, or for an overnight cruise amongst the karst cliffs.  We opted for the overnight cruise.  2 days, 1 night, and not five minutes from the dock and Darren said, "I feel like a pirate".  It was a great experience and we definitely lucked out with some amazing weather and managed to redeem our fading tans.

The two days consisted mostly of sitting on the top deck of the boat, riding from one location to the next.  Stops would include kayaking amidst and under the karst cliffs, swimming on empty, white sand beaches and, having dinner with Vietnemese naval captains!

Throughout the bays there are all of these small fishing villages that live entirely on the water.  Many of them also double as small fish farms, and these small floating communities are clustered all over the place.  It was on one of these small fish farm living spaces that we docked for the night.  The "captain" of our boat, also a former captain of the Vietnemese Navy, invited us to dine with some of his friends.  Our company for the evening consisted of 2 naval captains from Haiphong (a nearby port city), a captain from Cat Ba (the island we had been staying on), amongst other naval officers.  Before we even started to eat, the captain (from Cat Ba) began pouring us shots of the local whisky.  Not wanting to be rude or refuse we kept with their customs.  Unfortunately (but not detrimentally), it seemed their custom to take a shot with every new comer to the table.  This wasn't weak store bought liqueur they were pouring us, it was home made rice whisky which was contained in any sort of bottle (there was a bottle of green tea, a bottle of vodka, and small jug that said "milk" on it).  By 715 I was already asking them to pour me half shots, and by 730 and I was asking to be poured nothing.  It all happened so quickly and before we knew it, all our friends were red and flushed and I was feeling quite free to giggle in excess.

Once we finally began eating (more to balance out the ratio of whisky in our stomachs) something similar happened and food seemed to be in endless supply.  The food our "captain" had cooked for us was already laid out on the table and more than enough (squid, egg, spring rolls, cucumber and tomato, rice, fried potatoes...).  The first strange thing was when the Cat Ba captain began to feed us.  At first he just put a spring roll in our bowls, and then rice.  But then he did something very odd happened.  When what I assume were the suboordinate/younger officers brought out some fish, the Cat Ba captain removed a piece with his chopsticks and held it above my mouth.  He didn't just put food in my bowl but was actually putting food IN MY MOUTH!  And then, just when I thought that was strange and uncomfortable (especially since I was the only woman on this floating accomodation) the Cat Ba captain proceeded to do the same to Darren, and eventually got around to doing it for everyone at the table, and more than once as the pluthera of seafood continued to expand.  By the end of dinner we had been fed (amongst other things) fried fish, mussels, and barbecued prawns--all excellent!  It was some of the best seafood we've had since Malaysia.

Despite having eaten and drunk as much as was humanly possible, and despite being more than content, the fun was not over yet.  No fun-filled Vietnemese night could be complete without a round of karaoke and dancing, and I'm sure it would have been more than rude to decline.  The great thing about Vietnemese karaoke (or any Asian form of entertainment for that matter), is that the television is often an old, small model-- in this case it was probably about a 19" television--but the stereo system takes up an entire room (and there isn't really any to spare when you're leaving on a floating house).  The amp alone was bigger than the tv.  So, with BLARING sound and a tiny tv the evening got started with some Vietnemese tunes!  (At this point, our Cat Ba captain had gotten the hiccups quite badly and gone to sleep.)  They were more than insistent that Darren and I be the main act and the songs they most longed to hear were "My Heart Will Go On", "Hotel California", "Hello", "Get Down" and anything by Michael Jackson (to name a few).

The night also included a friendly match of arm wrestling between Darren and one of the buffer naval officers.  Poor Darren didn't stand a chance.  The guy looked like he was barely trying and Darren looked like he was struggling vigorously.  I think it was 930 when Darren and I finally gave up and when our Haiphong captain began dancing blissfully by himself.  They all wished us a "happy" night and sleep and they place suddenly became very quiet.

The whole trip was pretty fantastic and getting to party with some high ranking locals was a treat.  Our trip may have been a little more luxurious than that of a pirate, and there was no pillaging or treasure hunting, but Darren did scope out some good places to hide treasure if we ever find any.