Christmas in Hoi An

Happy Christmas! Buon Natale! Feliz Navidad!

We are celebrating our Christmas in Hoi An this year. The city is so so pretty, with Chinese temples, lanterns and old houses.









By pure chance, it was also a full moon on the 24th of December so, in Buddhist tradition, most of the businesses and houses had little altars with offers outside.



We celebrated Christmas's Eve with a bit of DIY dinner: mackerel hotpot! They cook it for you but you have to add your own vegetables and noodles, we also had roll-your-own shrimp and pork spring rolls!



Christmas day was spent on the beach - about 6miles from Hoi An, lies An Bang beach... One of the most beautiful one we have seen in Vietnam. Fried rice on the beach makes an odd Christmas dinner but we were able to sunbathe and go for a swim...

More beaches, fruits and costumes

Our second stop on the Vietnamese itinerary was the costal town of Mui Ne.

The town is brimmed with Russian tourists and big resorts but we managed to find a small hotel and have some quiet time by the pool. The sea is pretty rough in this area, very windy also so popular with kite sufers and wind surfers.




After Mui Ne, we took a bus up to the hilly town of Dalat, stopping on the way for some funky-looking fruits. The pink ones are dragon fruit and the green ones are huge mangoes.



At 1475mt above sea level, it is about the chilliest place we have been so far (I guess it makes a good taster for the English weather in January), we spent some time mooching around the market and the lake.

This is the view from our 4storeys hotel:


We also visited the Bao Dai's summer palace - Bao Dai was the last king of the Nguyen dynasty who died in 1997. The palace needs some restoration but in one of the rooms you have the opportunity to dress up like a Vietnamese princess... And I just could not say no?

A holiday within the holiday

 I have not been updating much as there has not been much to report. Currently on the south coast of Cambodia, on a beach called Otres just outside the town of Sihanoukville.

We have not been doing much at all. We planned to go to some islands, some villages... but the truth is that we hardly left the beach. We have been staying at a nice hostel, with our own little bungalow just off the beach. We met some new friends and the beach has got a very relaxed vibe which kind of sucks you in.

Our days have been filled with pizzas (there is an authentic Italian place our here where we have been celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week) and buying fresh mangoes and seafood from the ladies that are walk up and down the beach. They also offered massages and how could you say no to a cheap massage on the beach?

Moved onto Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia today. We already have a visa for Vietnam and we are going to be get a bus from her straight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) on the 8th.

Last few weeks of this adventure!

Khmer cooking class

Another country, another cooking class.

We spent a few hours today cutting tumeric, smelling lemongrass and eating sticky rice with mango.

I made papaya salad and himself made chicken amok, a typical Cambodian meal served with rice.

Here's some pictures of us having a great time cooking and a couple of recipes.










Amok Chicken

Ingredients- Ngor leave or broccoli leave ................. 2 pcs cut thin
- Mushroom ................. 100g pick thin
- Onion ................. ¼ pcs sliced
- Amok paste ................. 2 table spoon
- Fish ................. 200g finely sliced
- Swiss chard leave ................. 3 table spoon clean and slice
- Coconut milk ................. 4 table spoon
- Sugar ................. 1 tea spoon
- Salt ................. a pinch
- Fish sauce ................. 1 tea spoon

Amok Paste:
Lemon grass ................. 1cut thin
Turmerice ................. 1 cut thin
Finger root ................. 2 cut thin
Shallot ................. 1 pcs
Galic ................. 2 pcs
How to cook:( Amok paste: Lemon grass, turmeric, garlic muss altogether put shallot and finger root) 
Heat the coconut milk in a pan and put amok paste, sugar, fish sauce fry until brown just put chicken and mushroom, onion, ngor leave, 1 ladler of coconut milk, ½ spoon of chicken powder, 1 spoon of fish sauce.

Sabaidee from Luang Prabang

We are currently in Luang Prabang. A Unesco heritage site with 33 Buddhist temples, French bakeries, waterfalls, a cracking night market and 2 river sides.

The main temple is the Phu Si: standing on a hill 100mt-tall, with its many Buddhas is a good spot for a view over the rivers.

The other temples are a golden gems, with colourful murals and stunning statues. Here's a few selection:

 Lao cuisine is not the most famous of South East Asia but, with Luang Prabang being high on the tourist hit list, some riverside restaurant have really stepped up their game and this is what I got for lunch today. Don't ask what it was ... But it was delicious!

Wat Pro: Buddha in Bangkok

 One of the biggest temples in Bangkok is Wat Pho.

Its most famous feature is the Reclining Buddha: 46mts long and 15mts high, this pose signifies the Buddha's passing into nirvana and it is a very impressing (and shining) statue.

Inside the structure there are 108 monk bowls. For less than 50p you can buy some very small coins to be dropped in the bowl for good luck. All you hear in that side of the room is the 'ching ching ching' of the monies being dropped... So I had to do it too :-)

Me and the husband in the temple

Aside from the reclining Buddha, there are many more rooms and small the temples. The one that impressed me the most is the one with rows of Buddhas in their meditation pose, all in shiny gold colour.

Outside the Way, there are the ever-present street food vendors. I love being in Asia for the fact you can get really cheap and nice fruit you would not be able to afford in Europe. The lady here is selling sliced mango, watermelon, pineapple, papaya and a local apple. Mango definitely gets my vote!

We briefly stopped also at the Royal Palace but the queue was long and the ticket pricey so we just walked around the gardens. The Thai King has his own ATM and noney changer in that area :-)

Tired and hungry, we made our way back to Khao Sarn Road (the backpacker area of Bangkok). We stopped at a local side street café to get some food. Pork noodle soup and duck with rice went down a treat - though I think we were being served Chinese food, not Thai :-)