Since we've arrived in Hanoi, everytime I catch up with my dear father he asks me if I've been riding around on scooters. 

On one hand, if you've read this post you would understand how this is a joke in my general direction for previous disasterous efforts.    However on the other hand, I think my Dad is really wanting me to get back on the proverbial saddle and give it a proper go (plus in his free wheeling university day he did zip around Edmonton with a little Honda motorbike).  It's like anything in life - you may fall down, but you need to get up and try again.

That is, unless you're driving in city where the only major rule of the road is that size matters.  Where if you fall down you risk being run over by the hundred or so odd motorbikes in your immediate proximity.  Where the best description of traffic patterns I've heard is it being compared to a school of fish.

So... Dad these videos are for you - yes the traffic is really as nuts as I say it is and Mom please don't worry (I've limited myself to riding in taxis).

Hanoi where crossing the street can be an adventure in itself.  Look right, look left, look up, look down, look behind you then try to forget all that you saw and slowly cross the street.

Later. K

Hanoi is....

... both old and new

...a foodie city ...unplanned and unpredictable

...utterly charming

...the city of lakes

...proud of its history

...a mix of east and west

... lush and green

...full of motorcycles

...my new home.

(our new neighbourhood in Hanoi - Yen Phu Village)

We've had a hectic few weeks of settling in and for me - getting back to work.  We are living in a beautiful, spacious new apartment (two bedroom = space for visitors) on the edge of Tay Ho and downtown. 

More written words after the first week of school is done :)  (It's been back to work for me!)

K.

After a month of bouncing around on the beaches of Malaysia, we’ve worked our way back to Kuala Lumpur for our outbound flight to Hanoi.  KL of course, means good eating (something the islands were lacking) and a few days ago I ate the best dim sum I have ever had in my life.  Ever.  

Din Tai Fung offers other dim sum delicacies besides dumplings (noodles, rice, meat and fried dishes) but where they really excel is the dumplings. I’ve never ate such little parcels of perfection before.  The wrappers, painstakingly rolled and stuffed by hand (you can watch the army of cooks doing this through the glass box at the front of the restaurant), are very thin and delicate but amazingly never break until you bite into them.   This is a big f***ing deal in two ways: it makes them easier to eat; no frustrating dim sum slippage from your chopsticks and secondly; the wrappers ensure that all the moisture from the steaming is kept inside the parcel where all the succulent juices can be enjoyed.

One of our favorites was the xiao long bao dumlings.  This dim sum variant is fairly new to me as we first tried them in San Francisco.  The xiao long bao dumplings are very moist – almost soupy inside – so much that you need to eat them off your spoon or you otherwise risk spilling delectable broth into your bowl, or worse yourself.  Two of our favorite varieties at Din Tin Fung were the ones with crab and pork filling, and the beautiful union of east meets west found in the truffle version.  

I didn’t think my first time trying real black truffle would be at a Chinese restaurant but I’m glad it was.  The xiao long bao was the perfect vessel to contain all the truffly goodness until you were ready to eat it.  Then when you bit in, the steam from the truffle infused broth wafted up and you were rewarded with that oh so beautiful earthy aroma.  The meat in the dumpling had little black specks of truffle throughout, and to top it off a sizeable silver rounded off the whole experience.  The silver of truffle itself tasted like a mossy forest in the most beautiful way.  Six truffle dumplings for $12 – a bit extravagant for dim sum – but well worth the cost.

A few of our other favorites included the drunken chicken, served cold but moist and tasting, well drunk, from a copious dash of rice wine.

In our books no dim sum meal is complete without Shao Mai, and these were the most beautiful ones I’ve ate.  Just look at them!

The fried prawn cake was a tasty way to break up the dumplings but I kinda wish I would have just ordered more dumplings.  Don’t get me wrong – it was very good – it just paled in comparison.

Tomorrow: Santouka Ramen... then off to Hanoi!

 

I feel people may start resenting me as I post about yet another beautiful island in Malaysia.  What can I say?  This country is amazing.

What made our stay at Kapas extraordinary is our accomodations.  We stayed at Kapas Turtle Valley Resort which is run by a lovely Dutch couple; Sylvia and Peter.  All the beach chalets (eight in total) have sea views and are basic (no a/c) but are comfortable. 

Sylvia cooks up a storm feeding her guests and even for our discerning palates the food was top notch.  This may sound lame but after five months of travelling it was a nice change to eat multicultural/western style food.  For example the BBQ night featured Malaysian chicken satays with peanut sauce, Indonesian orange marianted chicken legs, Greek roasted leg of lamb (perfectly pink), stuffed sweet and spicy peppers, blue cheese pasta salad, thai green salad, and malaysian style fried noodles.  All rounded out with a beautiful bottle of Austrailian Shiraz.  The cost $15 each, plus $30 for the wine.  Expensive for Malaysian standards, but perfectly reasonable for western standards and unbelievalbly tasty.  Sylvia, for three days, made me stop yearning for a kitchen to cook in - which says a lot.

Anyways, here's a few video clips I patched together.  This is the first time I attempted to take some video while snorkelling so the quality isn't fantastic but it gives you a better idea of what is swimming around!

After you are finished with the video, check out the "albums" button is the top right hand corner.  I uploaded a whole bunch of pictures from June today.

Off to Pulau Pangkor (back on the westcoast).

K.

 

 

I thought Langkawi was the most beautiful tropical place I've been to - until I came to the Perhentian Islands.  Made up of two islands, Besar (big) and Kecil (little), the Perhentians are the northern most tip of a string of islands nestled in the South China Sea along peninsular Malaysia's east coast. 

The scenery below the water is just as stunning.  Brightly colored schools of tropical fish, coral, giant clams, and spiky sea urchins.  Our underwater photography skills are severly underpraticed but hopefully these pictures help you see the diversity of sealife we enjoyed there.

We also went on a three hour snorkelling trip to various sites around the islands - although these pictures aren't as clear because of the depth you can see two of the big highlights of that trip - giant sea turtles and black tip sharks.  I was a bit trepadatious about the sharks but we were well assured that they were "friendly Asian sharks" unlike the "mean Australian sharks". The sharks ranged in size from just under 1m to 1.5m and swam well below our feet along the coral (20-30 feet down).  It was great to watch these elegant sleek swimmers roaming in their natural habitat (from a distance).

A few days "lay over" in the state captial, Kuala Terrenganu, then we are off to Pulau Kapas (turtle nesting!).

Later.

K.

 

I want to say I've neglected you because I've been having so much fun since my last post.  However, I had a sickness that just wouldn't quit.  Finally, I'm back to being healthy and have found myself the clarity of head to lodge a complaint about the Bangkok tour we went on - so others can avoid a similar fate if traveling there.

The tour company advertised the half day tour as "Damnernsaduak Floating Market" and visit to "Palm Sugar Plantation" for 600 baht ($20 each).  Sounds delightful! 

Instead, what we found ourselves in was a tourist trap from hell; which, to our shame, we fell hook, line, and sinker for it.  We travelled an hour to reach the market, then found ourselves in what might have been a legitimate market twenty years ago, only now the banks and boats were full of cheap tourist souvenirs (and one delightful old lady making tasty dumplings).  We then thought the tour would head over to the plantation only to find out that it wasn't on the itinerary anymore.  Instead we were dumped off at the elephant rides, and when no one in our group was interested in it - shuffled over to the "Cobra Show". 

Apparently "Cobra Show" is Thai for despicable treatment of animals.  As a former snake owner, the conditions in which the snakes were (overcrowded, dirty, and dead animals) disgusting.  Not to mention the poor crocodile who was kept in a 6x8 murky cage (you know the kind of place Steve Irwin used to rescue animals from).  The show, which we did not attend, pitted a cobra against a meerkat. If you find yourself here - please boycott and tell others to do so.

To top things off we were shuffled to a handicraft village to look at yet more souvenirs to purchase, bused back to Bangkok, stopped at yet another handicraft place to look at more things to purchase.  Quite honestly, I wanted to see sights; not souvenirs of the sights I did not see.

By far, the worst and most deceptive "tour" I've ever been on. The only two redeeming parts of this day was that Rob and I picked the half day tour instead of getting stuck on the full day and snapping this picture...

You've been warned!

Our twelve day expedition into Bangkok got somewhat derailed by Rob getting a nasty chest cold on day four and passing it on to me so that by day six we were both sick (and as any couple knows it really sucks when you are both sick - who is going to take care of you then?).  So, we mustered a tour (more on that next post), went to the chatuchak weekend market, ate spicy food, and wandered around the central core.  Bangkok shenanigans somewhat subdued.

Here's a glimpse at this bustling city of 11 million...

Luckily, we are going to be living in the area so I'm sure we'll be back to see some of the sights we missed out of this time.

We were laughed at by the guesthouse worker for paying 160 RM ($50) for the expensive ecotour instead of the 110 RM ($35) for the standard tour.  We were told how many more beers we could be drinking if we went with the less expensive one but sometimes, as was the case with  Dev's Adventure Tours, the expense is worth it.

So what made this tour worth losing our beer money for?

1) Two people: a very knowlegable guide and capable boat man.  The guide really helped us to understand and point out examples of the biodiversity found in the mangroves, discussed at length the role the mangroves play in naturally protecting against tsunamis, and the ways in which the mangrovdes act as a "kidney" or filter for the world.   As for the boatman, his capable steering got us very close, but within safe distance of the animals (especially important when checking out the vipers).  Plus when it was time to head out of the river system towards sea he cranked up the engine and we understood a bit more why "adventure tour" was an apt name. Fun!

2) Quiet areas: aside from the batcaves, we didn't see any other tour boats in the areas we went, including this beautiful secluded beach for a refreshing swim.

3) Sharp eyes and the time to stop and observe: we came within feet of numerous vipers coiled up on trees, watched a white collared kingfisher sit calmly for almost five minutes, saw a poisonous red back spider, moniter lizards that were over 1m in length, and furry faced monkeys digging up crabs.

4) Knowing the weather: we arrived for lunch with one minute to spare before the skies let lost in a torrential downpour.  We then got to check out some of the captive fish at the floating restaurant and feed the baby stingrays!  By the time we finished the sun was shining again.

5) Respect for nature! In other words, no feeding wild animals, in particular eagles: which is a huge problem in Langkawi as its done by all the other tour operaters and disrupts the normal hunting patterns of the eagles.

Great tour and well worth the "loss" of extra beer money (which was really never an issue on duty free Langkawi where beers is only $1).

Next Up: Two weeks in Thailand!

 

Emerald waters, white powdery sands, barely there waves, thirty degrees... What more could one ask for?

Full of heritage buildings and food stalls around every corner, Georgetown was a place we enjoyed lazily exploring for the last week.  Along with Melaka, it is Malaysia’s other UNESCO world heritage city. 

Penang is a bustling island with a population over half a million.  The side facing the mainland is quite developed with highrises sprouting out from the green hills.  We spent most of our time in historic Georgetown soaking in the sunshine and sourcing out the next best place to eat.

We also ventured over to Kek Lok Si – one of Southeast Asia’s largest Buddhist Temples in Ayer Itam.  This perpetually under construction sprawling temple complex is built up a hillside and it’s grandeur is impossible to miss as one is greeted by a soaring Buddha statue.  (The truth: we actually were trying to source out this amazing duck place – the temple in the area was an added bonus, and sadly as it turns out the only bonus as we couldn’t find the duck place).

Foodwise, Penang offers up the best of Malaysian eating: a multicultural mixture of Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian with some local specialities thrown into play.

A bit of a confession: Rob and I are quite possibly the worst photographic documenters of food EVER (or at least for people who attempt to blog about food).

Sometimes we forget to take pictures at all – for instance the Loh Mee we had for breakfast on Carnarvon Street was something completely new.   A mixture of roasted pork bits, soy braised egg, bits of crunchy crackling, thick and thin noodles were nestled in a thick star anise scented clear “gravy”.  One has to eat it quickly while it’s hot or the gravy starts to congeal due to its consistency (just like gravy).  However all you can go by for this is my description since we neglected to take a single photo even though we brought the camera with us.

Other times we remember to take a picture but halfway through eating the dish, as was the instance with Sky Hotel Coffeeshop’s out of this world char siew (barbequed pork).  An order of pork pun fei sau style gives you the best of both worlds: half roasted pork belly with a perfectly crispy crunch and half lean with chewy dark caramelized edges.  Rob got a bit creative in disguising our half eaten plate of food with the following shot. 

At times, we catch pictures in the midst of eating.  Like our visit to the Pulau Tikus market for the Ban Chean Kuih.  The food shot is not great, but as you can see  I’m definitely enjoying these toothsome chinese pancakes made from flour and coconut milk.   The inside has a lovely filling of brown sugar and peanuts, it’s dark color bleeding out into the white dough.  Sorry – no precise picture of that either!

Despite all this sometimes we are on top of our game – like our visit to the New Lane Hawker Street.  By far the best concentration of Penang street food we stumbled upon we sampled three different dishes and actually got three clear pictures (all of which we remembered to take before we started eating)!  The first image is a dish called Chee Cheong Fun, plain soft rice noodles are the vessel for eating a combination of three sauces: chili, hoisin, and a sticky thick prawn paste that is unique to Penang.  The punguent prawn paste was a bit overwhelming, but once mixed with the other sauces made a lovely combination.  The second dish we tried was some of the best chicken satay I’ve ever tasted – cooked to perfection and full of smoky flavor from being freshly grilled over a charcoal fire.  The last image is a dish that one sees everywhere in Malaysia (and Singapore): Char Kway Teow.   A quick stir fry mixture of broad rice noodles (quite soft), egg, bean sprouts, sweet prawn, pork crackling, and cockles.

We also managed to capture some images of a couple of Penang must-eats at the Gurney Drive Hawker Stalls: Assam Laksa and Rojak.  The Assam Laksa is a slightly-sour fish based noodle soup with soft thick udon style noodles with.  It features lots of fresh garnishes on top like lettuce, shredded cucumber, and cilantro.  Not my favorite, but I also think there were better places to try it at that I didn’t get to while visiting Penang.  On the other hand, the more I ate Rojak the more it grew on me.  It is a very peculiar fruit and vegetable salad.  Chunks of white turnip, pineapple, pear, apple are tossed in a slightly spicy, savory dressing (again spiked with some prawn paste).  It’s finished with ground peanuts and crunchy fitters.  The result is a robustly flavored “salad” that balances the sweet from the fruit with the pungent dressing.  Like the Loh Mee, and Chee Cheong Fun; Rojak was something completely new to my western palate.

Penang: it’s going to be hard to beat for food finds.

Off to the resort beach island of Langkawi!