James and Jo’s south east Asia adventure

We went down to see what the buffet breakfast was like at the Orchids, mediocre compared to what was served up in Hanoi. No pastries on offer, however tauntingly, they were available for purchase in the lobby cafe adjacent to the buffet hall. 

The weather this morning was much nicer than what we were greeted with on arrival and although it was hot wasn’t quite as sticky as in Hanoi. We went for a wander to the river, stopping for a browse along ‘Book Street’ before enjoying an iced tea overlooking the Mekong during the hottest part of the day.

The traffic is slightly more ordered than in Hanoi with a higher density of traffic lights. The whole city has more of a European capital city vibe, with skyscrapers and shops selling global brands. The pavements are much wider and clearer, with the downside being that some motorcyclists use it as their own thoroughfare.

We skipped lunch as we had a food tour booked for the evening and based on our previous experience we would be presented with enough food for several meals. We met our guide ‘Albert’, who rather than being an 85 year old white man was actually a 20 year old Vietnamese student. He said that many tourists made the mistake of having a normal lunch and then struggling after the first stop. At the end of the tour he said he was impressed with how much we consumed 😎

Jo let Albert know about my aversion to egg and hers to coriander prior to the start of the tour, which we were both grateful for as each would have been faced with our Bete Noire’s otherwise. The first stop involved two different types of pancakes containing beef, prawns and mung beans (and ordinarily an egg), which I wouldn’t necessarily have associated with Vietnam previously. He also went through the 7 or 8 green salad items that accompany the dish and we discovered that Thai-basil tastes nothing like normal basil – it has an unpleasant anise flavour.

We were struggling by the time we reached the penultimate stop of beef with greens and noodles, scallops, shrimp on a stick and VFC Vietnamese Fried Chicken but made a strong effort. Fortunately the last stop was avocado and lingon ice cream which we were still able to eat. We got the ice cream from a long, narrow food market where they were selling almost every kind of food.

I noticed that lots of people still referred to the city as Saigon, I asked Albert which name was preferred and he basically said that either could be used without offence and people just said Saigon because it’s less of a mouthful. I guess this is similar to Derry/Londonderry where Londonderry is the correct name but it’s easier to just say Derry.

The Vietnamese pride themselves on eating almost anything, our guide in Ninh Binh said that when the Americans came to Vietnam they brought 2000 dogs, but when they left there were only 400 – read into that what you will.

Based on the previous day we were braced for getting soaked for the duration of the tour but we were lucky with the weather and the only rain was when we were relaxing by the partially enclosed hotel swimming pool.