James and Jo’s south east Asia adventure

It was a 15 minute walk to our meeting point for the food tour and I could feel the sweat streaming down me by the time we made it halfway. Apparently the temperature was just average for this time of year, c.34 degrees. The roads were like nowhere I’d been before with either no pavements, or any place where there had been pavements covered in mopeds or with shopkeepers’ wares that were spilling out of their shops. Whilst there were zebra crossings, these appeared to be purely decorative and people crossed the road whenever they were feeling brave or the traffic was slightly lighter.

The food tour promised 8 stops culminating with a beer along train street. We met our guide Elena who kicked off the tour by handing us a small shot of apricot rice wine. The first dish was just round the corner and was rice noodles with river crab meat and a pork/mushroom sausage in a broth. I said to the guide I was quite good with spice, however after adding the garlic and chilli accompaniments to the dish I was scrabbling for the water as I inhaled a chilli. This dish seemed sufficient for a meal in its own right and I knew we’d be up against it to finish another 7, even if we hadn’t eaten anything since a small pad Thai on the final plane journey.

The rest of the stops were a mixture of sweet and savoury and included a stop for bun cha (beef and noodle broth) at a Michelin recommended bistro, and coconut ice cream with fresh mango and pandan sticky rice. The French influence could be seen at some of the stops including the egg coffee (Vietnam is the second biggest exporter of coffee beans) and banh mi, which has pate as one of the 4 essential components.

We had a couple of beers on train street so we experience the train going past. There are about 8 a day, mostly in the evening, and the next one was about an hour after we arrived. It’s a tourist hotspot and probably a Mecca for influencers but when we went on a Monday afternoon is probably as quiet as it gets with almost an even hawker to tourist ratio. Jo bought a couple of nice fridge magnets from an elderly lady. The train eventually roared past within a couple of feet of where were sitting, it’s a real wonder that’s a whole row of bars allowed to operate in such a potentially dangerous area. Unique and remarkable given trains are ubiquitous across the world.

The lady running the bar put the caps from our beers on the tracks, which were flattened by the train to create mementos (since lost).

Jo had a neck and back massage when we got back to the hotel. Apparently not relaxed enough she used the walk to the city’s lake as an excuse to get a foot massage. Massages seem to be one of the main industries here. As the massage was 30 mins I also had one, rather than just waiting. My previous experience of a massage in Asia was a cheap 15 minute head and neck massage in Hong Kong that was excruciating and was carried out by someone who I’m convinced was seconded from the enhanced interrogation branch of the Chinese red army. When this started with the masseuse attempting to dislocate each of my toes in turn I worried that this was heading the same way, however from then on it was actually a pleasant and relaxing experience.