An elaborate tourist meal

Part of the day in Hue involved this lunch that was highly talked about. It is called the Ty Ao Garden, and it apparently caters specially to foreign tourists. The lunch is paid for in our tour package, but the drinks are not, and our mineral water that was supposed to be included was not given until after the lunch.

The drinks were definitely overpriced, about 2x the normal price, though they had some interesting drink selections including kiwi juice, which apparently is not very good and passion fruit juice, which was warm!

The first course was this rather elaborate peacock! The body is a hollowed out pineapple with a real flame on the inside. The pork spring rolls (these are the deep fried kind) are on toothpicks on the body. The spring rolls were definitely very good and tasty. 

Course 2 is this carrot and potato soup. The soup like most Vietnamese soups is wonderfully flavored and aromatic (suspect it's a meat based soup). The potato gives this some substance. 

Next up is this slightly skimpy grilled shrimp. I must say overall the meal was extremely filling and definitely more in portion than all other meals I have had so far, but the shrimp in this area tends to be on the skinny side. This was fairly flavorful, though most of the flavor is sitting on the shell. 

This is a Hue pancake. The inside of it looks like:

The inside is mostly bean sprouts with a long meat ball and an even skimpier shrimp. The sauce is unclear what it is to me, as the whole dish was kinda bland and greasy...

Now this! This was my favorite part of the meal! This was a type of salad with pork and shrimp, though the pork seemed like it was more of a paste than actual meat. The salad is scooped into the fried shrimp chips, and the whole thing is absolutely delicious! I could not find out the name of the salad unfortunately...

At this point in the meal, I was too full to enjoy this lotus seed steamed rice. It was rice steamed with broth and the veggies are the lotus seed, bamboo shoots and carrots. Very flavorful, though the rice is a bit soggy for my standards. 

And the meal wrapped up with more elaborate schemes. The mandarin oranges tasted more like the ones I have had in China, which is more ripe and sweet, though I like them more zesty. The left side is actually a fake plant, the dessert is the two fruits, which are green bean filling shaped like a fruit. 

Yep, that outside wrapping is a mysteriously spongy and jello like outer shelled, dyed with some crazy colors... This was way sweet without any flavor and the filling had the consistency of cement paste... I had to spit it out and rinse my mouth out with my own bottled water. 

Overall, despite the poor finish, this was a very delicious and fulfilling meal. My only gripe with this was that for a packed day with multiple activities, the lunch took over one hour as they take time to serve each course, and I felt anxious the entire time knowing our guide was waiting for us outside. 

Exploration Da Nang

Today I learned something interesting about Vietnamese culture. People here seems to not like to communicate their plans or ask you for your opinion. For example, we found out today that the assistant at the hospital actually went to pick us up at the airport. That was never communicated to us. From the email to the local doctor to the phone calls to the attending, no such thing was communicated. And then, when we were discussing our rotation schedule, it was decided for us to go to Nephrology and Endocrinology. Once again, no discussion. Good thing my friend had the courage to say actually no, we want to see the ED and ICU. And then, the issue of Tet came up. Once again, this was not discussed in person and was communicated to us last minute. The plan is no where near set and the only thing that was said about it was "discuss it tomorrow." 

Perhaps it has to do with hierarchy. I suspect Vietnam is a country much like the rest of Asia where there is social hierarchy, and we, being resident physicians and also being female, are placed at a lower hierarchy than our attending. Also, the contributions that we are bringing is questionable, though I hope that we at least do not treat our visiting physicians this way, though now I think about it, I am extremely questionable. 

Having moved and gone through the "new person in town" scenario, I have always been more sympathetic and helpful to others. But this probably is not the standard, and I know many foreign exchange students really rely on the local international community for help for settling in. Unfortunately, I am questioning if such a thing exists here in Da Nang as there seems to be little to none industry and commercialization. 

Speaking of where to find things, we live very close to the Han Market, which is a somewhat large shopping area with a small two story building that sells everything from locks, produce, clothing and beddings. We were able to find a bed comforter, though the price was probably terribly raised up. 

There are also foreigners visiting here, but the sellers definitely don't speak much English. Trying to find a soft bed cover was definitely a trial, though we were able to find it on the second floor. The key to bargaining here is to walk away if you are not getting the price you want. The next stand will have something very similar. 

On to today's food adventure. We wandered around the Nguyen Chi Thahn and Tran Quoc Toan area a little to look for restaurants. This area and the area next to it on Tran Phu is fairly well used to  foreigners and had menus that catered. 

We came across An Thuc Ha Noi 58 by accident. I picked it because it looked clean, and there were quite a number of locals eating there. The staff didn't speak English, but the owner did. Once again, she decided on the menu items for us (probably because we were taking so long). 

This is Bun Cha, which is served with vermicelli on the side with a bowl of broth with various grilled meats in it. You place the bun and the vegetables in the broth and eat it. 35,000 each. It was quite flavorful and the meat in it was delicious. I also love the purple version of shiso, which I presume to be Vietnamese basil. 

This is Nem cua be, which is a square version of Vietnamese spring roll. It is fairly tasty, but it is just a tad greasy. 

For drinks, we tried the tomato water, which I suspect is tomato purée watered down (with bottled or boiled water I hope...). Once again, quite delicious. I may regret this some time later, but so far, GI sickness free. 

A day trip to Hoi An

Being the ambitious hothead, I thought we should spend all of our days off traveling. And first stop, Hoi An. Hoi An is an ancient town that served as a major trading port, especially in spices with the Indonesian trade routes. This sounds awfully familiar to Lijiang, Yunan on China, so I thought, no problem! We can explore this place ourselves! How wrong I was, though more on that later. 

Getting there was fairly easy. There is a yellow colored bus that makes a ton of noise that rampages down the streets in Da Nang, dragging up customers to go to Hoi An, or anywhere along the route. The bus stop we waited at was at the corner of Yen Bai and Le Duan. Given the bus route is a bit mad, the best way to figure out where to catch it should be to ask the locals. The guy hurries you inboard the bus, and maybe help point a seat if there is one, or tell you where to stand in between everyone else's stuff (the locals carry everything from boxes to flag poles to motorbikes on said bus). The bus looks like a fairly standard city bus with some rows of seats in the back and single seats with standing poles upfront. 

This is when I learned that I stood out like a sore thumb as a foreigner. After we have been going for a while, the ticket collected guy came around to ask for money, which for the locals is something like 15000 to 17000, however he was asking for 50000 from me. I had already prepared 20000 for this and refused to give him more. This guy was reasonable and didn't push too hard, the guy on the return bus on the other hand... 

The Hoi An stop is at the end of the line, so there is no mistaking it. This is also the place where people will hound you to take you somewhere. The area of the ancient town is actually just to the east and south of the bus station, so it's a reasonable 10 minute walk. I saw lots of foreigners biking across, but I was not able to find out where bike rentals took place. 

I made the first mistake of following he signs on google maps for the "ancient town". This was actually marked wrong and is actually just a residential area... After trekking for 20-30 minutes in the rain, we arrived at said destination only to find a bunch of houses. However, there was a small scenic cafe right where we realized our mistake with wifi! The name was Cafe Mocda. 

The owner spoke no English, but we were at least able to ask for coffee, which he served us iced coffee as well as some hot tea. 

The ice worried me, so I drank it too fast, but it was very delicious. There was not very much of it, but it was very aromatic and pretty strong! 

After some regrouping and furious online searches, I figured out the semi right direction. We then semi back tracked to the right area where the shops are. 

The yellow buildings on the side are the little shops, quite similar to Yunan. Most of them were clothing shops that offer to tailor clothing. There were also shoe shops that will make custom shoes as well. A few shops sold souvenir products, but soon I realized they were all selling very similar items. Being very similar culturally to China, many items looked like something that I could buy in China, except cheaper and of better quality. The knock off bags were tempting. There was a Hermes wallet that the lady asked for 650,000. $30 is not bad for a brand name wallet, but not for a knock off wallet. One of the first stores we found was a jewelry shop, right next to 2 tran vu. I bought some earrings there, but later realized that their products were definitely the more unique items being sold around the area. I would recommend this shop, though they are horrendously overpriced and bargaining is key! I also ended up buying some lacquered small perfume jars, which was of questionable quality but at least looked pretty. The asking price is 100,000, I was only able to bargain down to 60,000 and that was because we bought three. My goal next time is 50,000, though we will

have to see. It's a bit harder to really bargain in a tourist area as there are so many tourists that they can probably sell it at that price to the next tourist. I will try to take a picture of said bowl later and upload it here. 

Along the way, we came across a lady who sold fried doughnuts and other fried items. This is also quite common around the main area near the river. 

The doughnut was delicious, and I ended up buying a second one. The triangular thing on top had pâté smeared on the other side and is salty, quite delicious as well. The round thing to the left is a bun with coconut shreddings inside.

The coconut didn't have much flavor, so not as good as the other two. Some of the other ladies also sold this bun with peanut and soybean inside. I did not end up trying it. 

The main area also has an area where fresh produce, as well as meat and fish were sold. The pricing once again is a bit ridiculous, but I really have no clue of the standard price of things in the area, so did not make much of an effort to buy anything. 

For some reason, dragon fruit is kinda ridiculously expensive here. The asking price is 40,000 per kilo. I am pretty sure it's $2/lb in the US, but still, not sure I am pleased with said price. Oh, and also Vietnamese coffee is also sold here. 

Lunch ended up in a restaurant that clearly caters to foreigners. There are quite a number of these fancier restaurants. Our restaurant was named Yellow River. 

I am unclear of the reference to China, but they offered Cao Lau, which is a local specialty of the area, so We ended up here. 

The dish on the left is named bahn bao vac or "White Rosé". It is supposed to be Vietnamese dumplings. There was just a little filling inside, and the outside is a chewy rice flour dough. Not too impressive. 

The dish on the right is Cao Lau. This was quite delicious as it decidedly had more flavor. 

There were definitely mint, basil, bean sprouts and basil in it, which is pretty good but definitely a risk. 

I also ended up trying the coffee with fresh milk here, which was very little serving and extremely thick. The fresh milk I suspect is just cream. 

An interesting finding we came across on the way back to the bus station. 

I suspect this is a brothel, probably a high class one. Though if you look at the building to the left, which is the one connected to these pictures, it looks like any residential building, a traditionally styled one at that. 

And at least in Da Nang, motorbikes are everywhere. They are the preferred method of transportation for almost all non-high class people. We stuck out like a sore thumb as only foreigners walk. Like, you will never see any Vietnamese person walk any more than 1/2 block because they would go to the next block on their motorbike. And just to emphasize how important motorbikes are, see below. 

And to finish off my story with the story of the battle between meme vs bus ticketer. On the way back, after we were seated, me in the back row with 5 other Vietnamese locals, the bus person wanted 30,000. Albeit, this is not unreasonable, but after a day of bargaining and dealing with sellers, I refused to feed into this "foreigners are rich and let's overcharge them" mentality. So I said no, I will only give him 20,000. He initially try to collect 30,000 from the locals around me, but as I still refused to change, he have them the change, which was more than 10,000. He then turned around and tended to the other customers. Along the way, he would intermittently look back and demand the 30,000 and refused to accept the 20,000. I, being extremely stubborn at this time, refused every single time. If he doesn't want the money, then fine by me. However, my friend give in half way as she was worried about being thrown off the bus. I was initially worried about it, but then I saw how he walked away rather than persisting on the matter, then I knew he would not throw me off. Perhaps he would not let me off, but he wouldn't throw me off. As I kept persisting for the rest of the 40 minute bus ride, the girl next me try to tell me it's really not much and to just pay. And when I explained that the difference is what pissed me off, she said that it's because they are Vietnamese. I am fine with the extra 50,000, which seems to be going rate for foreigners, but I won't take any higher.

At the end near our stop, my friend had the good sense to get off with other Vietnamese locals and I happily handed the guy 20,000. I won! ^o^V

However, the day in Hoi An taught me several things. One, don't expect much out of the scenery. Two, I cannot avoid looking like a foreigner. Perhaps it's the way I dress, my looks, the way I carry my bags, but the locals can tell from a mile away that I am not one of them. Though the ironic thing is that most foreigners cannot tell that I am not a local either. And lastly, this is not China. I need a tour guide. Figuring out where things are, what to see is actually really hard to do on your own, as things are far less organized and commercialized than China. I fully intent to find tours for our next destinations, which hopefully will include HaLong Bay. 

Scared and homesick

I hate to admit it. I am homesick. While I have traveled out here with great enthusiasm, I was terrified. It is the first time I am in a country where I do not speak the language and do not know the culture without some one to help guide me. 

I don't know where to find things. I don't know how to bargain for items. I don't like being stared at like a foreigner, and I don't like not being able to talk to other people. As we were sitting at the corner of Le Duan eating roasted corn, I am watching the corn lady put incense around that street corner. I desperately wanted to ask her why. I want to learn more about the local culture, the daily life of the people of Da Nang. But there is no one we could really talk to. Most people we meet speak little to no English. Tam, the friend of our attending, seems to want to share most of her stories rather than answer questions, though she doesn't seem to mind the questions. 

I feel unsettled and lost in some ways. This city reminds me so much of my home city all those years ago, yet everything is foreign. I can't read any signs, don't know any shops, and can barely do the basic daily functions. I can't eat in my own room and have to rely on restaurants, where figuring out the food takes a good 15 minutes.

In some ways, I expected it. There is always that initial period where the culture shock kills my enthusiasm, and as I become more settled in a routine, things get a little better. Yet, I also didn't expect the extra frustration that is coming with the sense of nostalgia. I feel like I actually know how things work, yet I don't really know. That is the part that I did not expect and I now miss China more than ever. 

Hello Da Nang!

IIDa Nang airport is a bit of a small airport. Reminded me of a stripped down version of Qing Dao airport. There is a money exchange right outside the exit, with a super nice and helpful receptionist! They also sell VinaPhone SIM card, which I forgot how much it cost, though I believe it came out to be around $5. The lovely part about them is that they have an iPhone 5 SIM card cutter, which I am not sure if that's available anywhere else as I have yet to see any Vietnamese person using an iPhone. They don't have an iPhone 4 cutter, though the lady was able to find an iPhone 4 SIM card. The most important thing about getting connected is the 3G service, which then leads to access to google maps. 

Outside the airport exit, there are a few taxis waiting for customers. Their initial asking price is $10, but I offered $4 or use the meter. The guy decided to use the meter. Unfortunately, he was not able to find where our hotel is, and went too far. Good thing I had google maps! I was able to redirect him back to our hotel, though the total for the trip came out to be 120,000 VND, which apparently includes 10,000 dong for airport surcharge. 

The receptionist for our hotel was a very nice young man who spoke some English. He was very helpful in helping me buy a sim recharge from the lady next door (a small shop that sold some random things). 

My room is a bit small and musty, but there is air conditioning, hot water, and working and clean bathroom, as well as a blow dryer! Water costs an uncertain amount of money (5000 or 10000 per bottle), so I opted to buy water outside (15,000 for 2L bottle). The unfortunate part came in the evening, when a cockroach the size of my pinky finger came out from the other door! I freaked and called the receptionist, who was this young man who spoke a little English. He did not know what I was talking about, but then I showed him... And he subsequently used a piece of tissue, picked it up, and threw it out my window! He offered to change my room, but given that I was already on the fourth floor, I was very skeptical if it would matter at all. Also, I was ridiculously tired to be dealing with this. 

The bed in my room is also terribly hard, which apparently is standard for most Vietnamese places. I ended up feeling very itchy for the rest of the evening, but I was not able to find any signs of bed bugs. Fingers crossed that it's the laundry detergent and not bed bugs! 

The rest of the first day involved some exploring. The city of Da Nang reminds me of Shenyang, 10 years ago. It is very loud, as most drivers and motorcyclist don't follow any rules. The streets are full of tiny little shops that sell various items. The road is dusty. There are various markets that sell the goods you need. There are perhaps a few more tourists, but that's it. 

We initially tried to walk to the beach to find our attending's friend. But that was aborted when we realized that it was likely going to take >1 hour. We were able to take a taxi. She lives in a beautifully quiet ara by the beach (see above). We had the best mango shake there. It was so thick it was like ice cream! 

The shop owner Tam is an interesting woman. She was a young girl during the Vietnam War and worked in an American camp, and subsequently learned to speak English and made friends with many Americans. She loved telling people her stories and love foreigners. She apparently rents motorbikes and have some small tours, but we were not interested in those.

Tam pointed us to Han's Market, which is a fairly decent sized area of shopping, which reminded me of a smaller and dirtier version of Wu Ai market in Shenyang. They sold everything from clothing to food to household items and knock off bags. The prices were a bit higher than what I would expect, but I suppose it is because we were foreigners. I was able to buy a pair of flip flops, as Da Nang is very humid and wearing closed shoes was not very pleasant. Also, this area is where jewlery shops are at, which is a good place to exchange money.

I came across this interesting statue by the river, before hitting the dragon bridge (it's in the background). Don't worry, that's not full frontal nudity, there is a leaf covering the important parts. I am uncertain what these statues are doing by the side of the river without any markings of an exhibit, but I suspect they are related to the fact that Marble Mountain is nearby and these are suppose to sell to tourists? According to Tam, the marble in the area is not actually from Marble Mountain as it really hasn't been used for marble production at all. These are likely imports from else where, including China. 

The beach in Da Nang was somewhat dreary. The waves are very strong, but there is a lot of sand in the waters. There were people fishing in the waves. Are there actually fish in these angry waves?

Last, but not least, the food adventures! Challenge number one was a street corner where lady with cart was selling roasted corn and sweet potatoes.  The corn was 10,000 dong each, and she will roast it again for you. The sweet potatoes were about similar, though it was weight based. The corn is Asian corn, which means it is more starchy but not sweet at all. 

The lady would periodically light up incense and stick it in the corners around her street corner, which I wondered if it was for good luck. Right there and then, more than ever, I wished I spoke some Vietnamese and find out from her what she is doing and why. Alas, no such thing and we wandered off to Bihn restaurant, which apparently specializes in Bahn My. 

We got the Mi Guong (a type of wide rice noodle with different meats and mixed with peanuts mint and greens), the bahn mo Bo ne (a self serving mixed beef bahn Mi?), as well as the sua cha Da (yogurt drink, with yogurt made with condensed milk.)

The food is nice and cheap, and this restaurant looks mildly cleaner and more upscale than the run of the mill shop with the far too low for legs table and chairs. Given how close it is to our hotel, I fully intend to return and try some of the other food. 

The day concluded with the unsettling witness of the gigantic cockroach and itchy sleep. Tomorrow, off to Hoi An. 

One night in Hong Kong

Note to self, taking a flight right after ending a busy night shift is never a good idea. As I hopped off the BART to get into SFO, my brain was working at 10% capacity, and much of the journey was a blur. Cathay pacific food was okay. Watching Another Earth and Letters to Juliet was great. Wished I finished Blue Jasmine. 

Hong Kong Airport is fairly large. The showers were located in lounges, but we could not figure out how to get in. Existing Immigration was a breeze, and definitely HK immigration is the most efficient I have ever seen. From there, the next step is to find luggage storage as I did not want to wander around Kowloon with all my sleeping gear. It took a bit of effort to find the luggage storage, which cost 10 HKD/luggage/hour. They take HKD and visa/MasterCard only, though you pay when picking up. 

From there, we took the airport express train, which costed 160HKD roundtrip. I for some reason expected a faster train, but it was reasonably fast. Kowloon Ed the second stop, and I know I wanted to head to the Temple Street NightMarket, which actually is within walking distance. 

(For directions: follow the signs to Austin Station out of the Kowloon station and shopping plaza. Once on Jordon Road, follow it North and Temple street is about 3-4 blocks down.)

The Night Market was quite bustling with people. As my sights were on food, I don't remember much about the shopping, other than that stuff in HK is expensive! And I can't seem to ever figure out if I should speak Mandarin or English to the sellers. 

However, my first awesome finding came in the form of a fruit. Fresh jackfruit in a cup! 

The actual jackfruit is an odd fruit. I initially thought it was an oversized durian, but turns out it tastes quite different! It lacks that pungent flavor and instead has a refreshing sweet taste. 

We then decided to browse as many food restaurants as possible, which is a terrible idea because things look ridiculous and finding your way back is always more difficult. After an hour of wandering, we finally decided on a dim sum place. Now kids, never ever eat dim sum at night! Worst dim sum EVER! I shall not elaborate any further and forget it.  However, we came across the best grass jelly I ever had.

The store is called Hong Kong Local Snacks, which meant a bunch of fried fish ball, chicken and other varieties. However, their dessert, which is various fruit with homemade grass jelly or various fruit with mini tapioca was quite delicious. 

Behind my grass jelly with dragon fruit is my friend's mango with mini tapioca. Both were quite delicious. I heart coconut milk. 

After that, we stopped by a bakery called King's Bakery (or some variety of it) along Jordon Road. I had the cake roll and pineapple bread the next day (which I forgot to take a picture), but once again, AMAZING~ 

We got back to the airport around midnight as the airport express stops running after midnight. There were sleeping lounges around the airport (we slept at L6's West Side). Of note, the south security gate is closed around midnight, so use the north one. I think showers were located inside the airline lounge, which is on L7 that we could not figure out how to get to. 

The next morning involved breakfast on L8 in the middle of the airport. Choices were McDonald's, which I really wanted, but not for breakfast, Donburi shop and a traditional HK breakfast with Congee and other items. The congee with Kuri and clam is preferred. The turnip cake and noodles were also quite good. 

Atlas, after many extremely satisfying food ventures, we headed off to the unknowns of Vietnam. I truly, truly will miss you HK, especially in this upcoming month... T.T

Reflection

好像最近每天都是看着日出和踏着日落回家的。坐着地铁，每天顺着相同的轨道回家，可每天观望风景的心情却又是不同的。有时的焦躁，望着风景却又退回去了。有时的疲倦，可以望着日落慢慢沉入梦乡。窗外的灯火，可以勾起无限的想象，却因为在继续前行的电车里又有摆脱尘世的潇洒。当我开车时，看到行使中的电车，总是会有奔往遥远无尽的终点的渴望。

窗外的天，只是有点朦朦亮，车窗里的倒影映出了一个渴望无尽旅行的我。