Studying and traveling in the far east

In the middle of our studies we have something called study-week which basicly means a lecture free week, and a lot of travelling. Me and my girlfriend decided to take the train from Da Nang to Hanoi and relax a couple of days before we met up with some friends and went to Hal Long Bay.

We payd 50 USD for our ticket to Ha Long Bay. The ticket included food, admission, transport, one night at the boat and one night at Cat Ba island. Sunny weather was NOT included. When we arived at the dock the whole of Ha Long Bay was covered in fog. But we had already paid for the trip so we where going on the boat no mather what.

First we went to one of the many caves in the bay. All the islands is made up of limestone, so the water carves out beutiful caves and formations of the stone. The cave was somewhat tourist infected though. The cave ground was covered with bricks, stairs had been buildt, the ceiling was covered in some sort of cement ( reminded me about the stuff used inside tunnels) and everything was luminated by colorfull lights. But stil in was impressingly big and worth the short stair climbing to get up there.

Later we went kayaking. The kayak was somewhat unstable and we almost tipped over sevral times before whe got the hang of it. We went trough a rather smal cave wich led to a bay on the other side. On our way into the cave we of course ran into a speed boat wich almost tipped us over. On the other side of the cave there was suprisingly a little shop. The lady in the boat sold cigarettes, wine, beer, chocolate and anything else hyou could think of. I also went for a short swim, but the water was very dirty and smelly.

After al the kayaking, swimming and tipping over it was finaly time for dinner, dellicious seafood. After dinner we drank loads of overprizes beer and went to sleep. Tomorrow we go tracking.

The next morning we went to Cat Ba island to do some tracking and sleep in a hotel bed. The road to the top of the montain was loooong and steep, and in 30 degrees the sweat was pouring out of me. But when we finaly got to the top the view was breathtaking. The way down was nice, but a bit slippery.

After the trecking it was nice to find a good and soft bed, I thought I could finaly get som rest, but no. The guide announced during the lunch that we where goint to visit Monkey Island in 20 minutes. Spite what the name idicates monkey island is not crawling with hundreds of monkies ( like i thought). There are only 14 monkies living on the island, and if you are lucky you might just see one. Also here we went for a short trecking/climbing trip to the top of the island. After an hour or two we went back to Cat Ba for dinner and rest.

The last day in Ha Long Bay the weather cleared up and we got to see Ha Long Bay in all its glory. I wish we had a couple of days more to see more of the bay,but maby next time. No I was soon finaly going home to Hoi An and my own bed.

When you go out to eat in Hoi An you are most likley to end up in one of the many western cafès or restaurants, and the food is splendid. You can either choose the safe way, and eat western food like pizza or pasta, or you can try some vietnamese food. In most restaurants in Hoi An you also have a own section of the menu dedicated to local dishes.

On of the local dishes that i find very interesting is the Cao Lao. First of al it tastes fantastic. It is a kind of noodle dish with som slices of pork, bean sprouts and gravy. But what is more interesting is the history of Cao Lao. Hoi An is a mixed city, a melting pot of chinese, vietnamese and japanese culture, and the big question is; where did the dish Cao Lao come from. There are many different theorys about the origins concerning the symbolism of the gravy, the meat and how it is made. I wil not try to give an answer to this because it wil be impossible for me to know. One of our lecturer dedicated a big portion of his study in vietnamese food to answer this question, and he never found a clear one.

Further on what makes Cao Lao so interesting is that almost none local people eat it. Every resturant or cafè have menues with local dishes or local specialities. So how is it that the number one local dish which is a symbol of Hoi An food, is not eaten by the locals? Instead locals eat Mi Quang. This is also a noodle dish, but with cheaper noodles, more gravy and som shrimp and eggs added to the pork. So if you want to eat the real local dish, you should try the Mi Quang, but i prefer the Cao Lao.

Another local speciality is the White Rose. This is of course not the real name of the dish, but some tourists thought it looked lika a white rose, and so it was named. The white rose looks very much like a smal gellyfish, but it isn't. It is a shrimp or sqid wrapped in something that only can be described as rice-pasta. It is very tasty, especially if you dip it in soya sauce.

The most dramatic food related experience I have had so far is eating snake. Our field manager decided to take the few boys here out to dinner and beer, no gals allowed. Snake is considered a extreamly expensive an luxurius food here, so don't expect it to bee on every menu. The resturant was situated on the riverside with green mambu and all kinds of ants everywhere. After some time the resturant owner came out with a live snake. It was wiggeld around and had his gap wide open, I guess I would behave like this if I knew tha I was the main dish. The owner strapped it to a tree and brutaly sliced it open with a siccor ( Why noty a knife you might be asking) and tapped the blood into a glass.

The blood and the gaul from the snake are mixed seperately with local spirits to make a rather strange drink. Unfortanly he was not able to retrive the gaul-bladder from the snake before it bursted, so we got the turtle gaul. The first dish was the snake skin, deep fried. Hadn't it been for the shells or the snake pattern, it could just as wel have been bacon or chicken-skin. It was considered to bee a kind of beer snack, so the second dish came quickly.

The second dish was spring rolls filled with snake. It was delicius. It didn't taste like chicken, or pork...but somewhere in between. Then came the third snake dish.

It was snake wraped in lilly leafs with a hint of mint, also delicius. And then, when i thought the dinner was finish, the owner fished up a turtle from his little pool and slaughtered it. Poor turtle you might say, buth it made a fine vodka-blood/gaul shot. The dish altough was rather bad. It was boiled turtle legs and deep fried turtle legs, where did all the turtle meat go?!

We finished up the legs, beer and blood and took aim for one of the nightclubs in Hoi An, Tam Tam. There I drank some beer.

Each morning 07.00 I eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Then I head out on a 3km bicycle tour trough the rice fields on my way to school.

The study center is situated comfortably a couple of kilometers outside town, on an artificial island with its own restaurant and library. I can't think of anywhere else I would rather spend my day than at the studycenter. Since it is outside the city there are almost no trafick or pollution. The island is covered with palm trees and shrubs and have a artificial pond in the middle. The lecture room is a bamboo construction with electricity and removable walls if it should get to hot. Half way in every lecture one of the very nice staff brings coffe, tea or lemonade to the lecture room.

The campus is just 200m from the beach, so when we got time we take the provisional ferry ( the bridge was destroyd in a tyfon last year) over the lagoon and walk the last meters down to the beach. At the beach I usually rent a beach-chair under a bamboo parasol and consume a pineapple bought from one of the verry manny, but very nice, vendors. The sea is a bit salty, but nothing is like a swim after a long day at school.

When I arrived here in Hoi An the 9th of february I thought I was a bit suprised over the massive amounth of tourists. Therer where withe faces and people talking french, swedish and german all over the place. Although i knew this city was a big tourist attraction i did not know that the streets was filled with tourists, but then again, I am a tourist my self.

From my stay in Bangkok the last couple of days i had gotten a terrible cough and a runny nose from the AC, so everythin seemed a bit foggy. But as soon I had gotten my luggage up to my room in the beatiful Hai Au hotel, i bought some liquid tigerbalm( for drinking) for the throat and headed out in the streets.

The street picture in Hoi An could seem a bit chaotic in the beginning. There are some sense of traffic rules, the do tend to keep to the right, and the shops usually use the pathway to display their goods. So you have you have to carefull dodge chargig motorbikes and pushy shopkeepers.

One of my first days in town I went on a walabout in the marked area. The marked area makes out the central Hoi An and if you could protect yourself against the extremly agressive tailor-shop keepers you might just have a good time in the marked. If you take a short walk trough the first part of the marked which is mainly filled with cheap souvernirs and shoeshops you get to the food marked. Here you vil fine anything in fruit and vegtables that is grown localy. One of the fruit that i found very interesting was the dragon-fruit. It was pink an had a whitish pulp with black seeds, and it tasted like a watered-out kiwi. You can also buy everything fresh from mango to ginger.Somewhere inbetween the dusins vegtableshops you can find some live chickens. If you get into talking with the old ladys who sells them, you can bargain a chicken down to a couple of dollars. I bought a live one, although I donated it back to the shopkeeper after taking some pictures.

If you go even further into the heart of the marked place, down by the river you enter into the fish-marked. Boats from the river and the coast comes in to this marked early in the morning to sell ther catch of the night. I was there mid-day, but still boat-loads of fish where coming off the docks. There where everything from small oneman-river-fishing boats to big coastal boats unloading fish bigger than me (and I'm almost two meters tall). I bought an half kilo of mackerel and took som pictures, and then of course donated it back the the fisherlady. I am still a bit suprised over the quintity of shopkeepers which are women. Although, the men could do the nightwork for all i know.

After a long day stamping around in fishguts and chicken droppings i took aim for a opening in the marked out to the street. I found a quiet little cafè near the Japanese bridge, just east of the marked. I sat there while i was waiting for my girlfriend and her friends to take lunch. While waiting I got into talking with the owner, Ngang, who is a really nice guy. He is the owner of this cafè ( which by the way is named Bananasplit club) which serves cheap western food as wel as local food ( they serve a splendid Cao Lao), but he also owns a more local resturant acrossthe street, where me and some friends celebrated lunar new year (Tét). After a couple of bottles of the local brew, Larue, we agreed that I was to take cooking classes with him to learn the way of Vietnamese food.

The days is very distinct here in Hoi An, each day is a new chanche to discover something new about the town. Either you go to the beach or just ride youre bicycle on the countryside the area is filled with exciting people who always is glad to see you.

It is hard to describe Hoi An in words, and even harder to capture the life in a picture, but i will trie to do my best trough different enteries in my blogg over the next two months of my stay in this beatiful town.

Finally in Thailand, we landed on Bangkok international around 12.00 in the night. I was looking forward to seeing a new big famous town in the east, an I was also looking forward to enjoy a bit warmer climate. Different from our arrival in Hong Kong wee hadn’t booked a hotel in front, so we trusted the taxi driver to find a good one. After about one hour in the car we reached the city center. The hotel looked alright at first eyesight and not to expensive either. First they demanded 2000Bath, but wee bargained it down to 800. I went up to look at the room first, but since it was in the middle of the night I just wanted to get to bed. When we got a closer look at the room AFTER we had paid, we had some regrets. It was smelly, the bed sheets was stained and Oda found loads of hair on the madras. We managed trough the night. I kept my clothes on and a close eye on the luggage.

The next morning we checked out on our way out the door and went for an internet café to find another hotel. We found a nice hotel a bit outside the town with cheap rooms and a rooftop swimming pool. After a two hour trip with an autoricshaw and a driver who didn’t exactly know the way we found the hotel, Bansabai International Youth Hostel. Well, this is not what I relate to as a youth hostel, more like a luxury hotel. We booked a room for four nights for only 3000 Bath. It was already afternoon so we just went for dinner and afterwards we relaxed poolside until the sun went down.

The next morning we went into town to see the Grand Palace. Wee took a taxi from a mal nearby. Before e entered the palace grounds I had to cover up my legs, so I had to borrow some pants. After I had pulled on my very fashionable blue pants we went into the palace. It was filled with golden sculptures and stupas. It reminded me of the Forbidden City in Beijing somewhat, although smaller and with more gold.

We also went into the temple in the palace center to see the Jade Buddha. Before we went down to the river to take a boat we had lunch at one of the many snack bars around the palace.

The longboat trip from one of the docks was a bit to pricy for us, 800 Bath, so we just took the regular river ferry. We hitched a ride up river and jumped of close to a big park where we relaxed and had something to drink. On our way back to the hotel we also tried out one of the smaller boat taxi, it was kind of confusing since we didn’t know where our drop of was, but we got some help and after a while we found the Sky-Train and went back to the hotel after a long day.

We didn’t really do very much the rest of the days in Bangkok. We just relaxed by the pool, ate good dinners and did some reading. A friend from our study time in India also dropped by on her way to Vietnam, so we went out for some drinks. I found out that it was practical impossible to empty a pint of beer. As soon as I was about to take the last sip someone came and filled it up, which of course resulted in an empty wallet and a full belly. I also tried out some of the local beer snack, maggots. Soya fried maggots that is. It didn’t taste much, it was kind of a nutty and soya flavored. Although it wasn’t all bad I think I will prefer peanuts and pretzels in the future.

The next day played out just like I was afraid of, dry throat and headache. I took a quick swim in the pool before flattening out on the bed. The next day it was of to the Socialistic Republic of Vietnam for studying.