Oh My Janey

Vietnam Food Diary

vietnam food diary

Four months after I visited Vietnam, I’m still not done blogging about it. And believe it or not, there’s still a few more posts queued for writing. I took a lot of photos that time, maybe because it was just Jinky and me. Traveling in small groups allows for more leisurely time. We spent a lot of time just walking around Old Quarter, and it was definitely one of the best things I enjoyed in Hanoi.

And of course, there’s the food. Suffice to say, we ate a lot of good food for really cheap price. Pigging out in Hanoi, specifically, was inexpensive. We opted for traditional restaurants with huge crowds. After all, it’s not the interior that people try again and again but good food, right?

Dining is truly a unique experience in Vietnam. I love how it’s so low-maintenance and unpretentious. Most restaurants have wooden interiors, a very basic menu, and seating that extends to the sidewalk. Yes, every store has little chairs and tables outside where customers can eat. But being shy people (heh), Jinky and I usually sat inside.

It gets kind of awkward because they thought we’re Vietnamese, too! They end up asking for our orders in the local language, and we didn’t know how to respond. Haha. I guess Filipinos and Vietnamese have the same facial features and skin tone? 🙂 [Read more…]

Hanoi Diary: Its People and History

It has been almost three months since my trip to Vietnam, but I’m not yet done blogging about it. I have a few more posts queued for posting, but I can’t seem to find the time to write it. I’ve been so busy with life lately that blogging about a trip that happened a few months ago doesn’t call out to me to hurry up and tell its story.

December is about to end, and the only thing I’m thinking of is how I’m going to fit my budget through all this Christmas shopping and monthly bills and expenses. But every now and then, I long to be on the road again, traveling to someplace foreign, or just someplace unfamiliar. On mornings that I feel grumpy, I miss the coffee I drunk in Hanoi for four days. On afternoons when I feel tired, I think of the sunset at Hoan Kiem Lake and yearn for that calmness again. On nights when I’m nostalgic, I wish to be on a plane heading to my next destination.

Tonight is one of those nights. Or maybe I just really want to finish all my Hanoi posts before the year ends.

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Ninh Binh in a Day

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Ninh Binh is three hours away from Hanoi, and it’s situated in a mountainous part of Vietnam. We basically spent our third day in Vietnam traveling for 6 hours, but that sounds a little compared to the 8 hours of traveling to and fro Halong Bay. I slept mostly during the duration of the trip, so the hours passed quickly.

If I have to choose one word to describe this day, it’s calming. For our Ninh Binh day tour, we visited the Bai Dinh Temple and the Trang An Grottoes and were welcomed with utter calmness. The most people we saw that day was during our stopover in the morning. Just like in the previous day, we visited a souvenir station where they sell clothes, potteries, art works, and whatnot. After that stop over, we visited places that seem to be vacated except for us.

This time, we joined a traveling group of mostly Vietnamese from Ho Chi Min City. There’s also a mother and daughter pair from Chile, and we talked mostly to them.

Our first stop is the Bai DinhTemple and was astounded by the vastness of the place. Everything about it is huge. The temples were humongous and so were the Buddha statues. It was pretty solemn since it somehow felt like we were the only one in the place.

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Gloomy Day in Halong Bay

For our second day in Vietnam, we went to Halong Bay! It wasn’t part of the plan because it’s supposedly very far, but the travel agency gave us a really good discount. Besides, it’s apparently the number one destination in Vietnam, said the travel agent. It’d be a pity to pass up the chance.

Apparently, it is also veeeeery far from Hanoi. And when I say far, I mean four hours to and fro Halong Bay! Yes, we were on the road for a total of 8 hours that day, and my butt seriously hurt. REALLY HURT. But you know, it was worth it. Thank you dear travel agent from convincing us to take the Halong Bay package.

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Jinky and I were part of a tour that’s entirely Japanese. Seriously though, we’re the only Filipinos and the rest were Japanese! Our tour guides was also separate from theirs. So it was weird that Jinky and I had a separate tour guide. It somehow felt like we should have paid more. Felt so exclusive! Hehe.

It was drizzling when we reached Halong, so I was a bit afraid of what we’re about do. After all, we would ride a boat, a big one but it’s still a boat. I don’t know how to swim! It’s just really lucky that it really didn’t pour. It was gloomy the entire time but not that nauseating enough to be  crazy to be out in the sea.

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