Monday. Our original plan was that Saturday’s Social Studies was to replace today’s school session so that we could start our day at the beach, but there’s no urgency in any of us this morning. The girls finish up the math they ignored on Saturday, and that is our little bit of school/work to start the day.
We actually don’t finish anything until lunch time. I’m getting frustrated with fast and easy options for food that surrounds our massive complex, and it’s hard to know where to go for more good and authentically local food. Joe does some heavy duty googling, and comes up with a destination. I’ve told him I want to wrap food in leaves, and that’s where we’re going, apparently!
On our way out of our building, we see that the staff have completed their Tet setup! It looks beautiful, and I know for a fact each one of the yellow flowers has been hot glue gunned onto the branches, one by one.
Our taxi drops us off at Chuon Chuon Kim Restaurant, and I love it instantly. There is not a single solid wall to the street, just decorative, very open shutters and lace brick patterns, and a curtain of vegetation.
Once inside and whisked upstairs, we sit in a crowded room full of other tourists. There may have been one local table, but mostly Korean travellers. The table right behind Joe is speaking German, loudly, and I try to listen in, feeling like a spy. Too bad they’re not talking about anything of interest to me!
We order juices. Maylin and I pick sugarcane mixes, hers is with strawberry, mine is with lychee and jasmine. Hers is delicious, mine tastes like soap. I think it’s a matter of “three things that are yummy but only when separate”.
Joe picks an apple juice mix, which comes out deep green and very tasty. Téa chose pineapple juice, and is happy with that, although it takes her foreeeeeever to actually finish. She still claims she likes it, she just forgets its there and that humans need water/liquids/juices to survive. If I didn’t remind her to drink throughout the day, I don’t know if she ever would!
The food arrives. Maylin chose deep fried spring rolls, and they are cruncy and warm and flavourful, just perfect in other words. Joe and I asked our server for recommendations between two interesting looking menu options, and she nudged us towards these fish paste cooked on lemongrass sticks, wrapped in leaves and served with rice. I am SO grateful that she made the absolute right choice for us, this is exactly the type of feel and flavour I was craving when we set out this morning! You hold the leaves in your hand, place the fish roll on top, hold it in place and remove the lemongrass stalk. Dipped in spicy hot and vinegary dipping sauce, it’s my ideal taste of Vietnam!
Téa waits such a long time for her summer rolls to come, and when they do, she realizes just how big they are. I feel like each place does them differently. This option has thin slices of shrimp on the outside, and rice noodles and beef sausage in the middle. They’re very tasty, even without the dipping sauces.
After a very satisfying lunch, we head over towards the circular market again, looking for a few items in particular. Markets are such a great place to find everything you could think of, and I’ll miss them after Hong Kong. Norway and France does NOT do things this way…
The intense smell of mounds of dried fish products hit us straight through the doors. We marvel at the stacks and rows of products at each vendor’s booth, and they all fight for our attention. It gets loud and chaotic. Joe and Maylin go one way, Téa and I go another. We’re trying to find more t-shirts for Téa, can’t understand why she has to keep GROWING so much, like how tall is too tall for a 10 year old?? All the t-shirts in this market seem to be very brand-forward, and less cute than the Japanese and Thai varieties. We’ll find the right shop eventually, but apparently it’s not at this market.
We join the others once again on the top level, where we find what we think is the only café in the market. Joe picks a salt coffee (we see it on all the menus, but haven’t tried it yet), and I pick the egg coffee. If you remember our first exposure at Tonkin in Saigon, they sneered at us when we asked for it hot, but everywhere else seems to offer the option of hot or cold egg coffee. Maylin chooses a mango milk with jelly, and Téa has an ice cream instead.
After our little snack break, Téa and I have a store in mind, it’s called something like Crafts and Fashion, and we think we see t-shirts at the back. But first, we see this character outside, and stop to take a picture, of course!
The store is actually wonderful, with hand made souvenirs and wooden handbags with little tiny slits to make the wood bendable. Téa and I take our time browsing, so much so that Joe and Maylin disappear back down to the ground floor. Téa and I pick up a couple of things for ourselves, only to be unwrapped once we get back to Canada, but no t-shirts.
On the ground floor, Joe and Maylin are already flexing their haggling muscles. We pick up a giant bag of dried mango for next to nothing. I then try my haggling skills on some teas and magnets. It sometimes works, other times I have to walk away. On our way out of the market, the very last booth, the lady almost tackles me to the ground trying to get me to buy the magnets I passed up on further back. (Well, not really, but it was funny how eager she was.) The same magnets that the first lady wanted 120.000, then 100.000 VND for, I walk out of the market with for 50.000. So I guess I did good in the end?
On the way home in the taxi, we see some funny looking trees:
At home, the girls have some play time while I take a quick nap and Joe makes dinner. Tonight is fried rice night, after such an elaborate lunch. We all sit down together for dinner, and then the girls and I go for a walk. It’s dark but warm, and so very busy.
The coconut ice cream vendor had such a long line up, we didn’t even consider her treats this evening, but we DID want ice cream. Luckily, our half grocery stores/half convenience stores stock lots of different ice cream, so we all get a treat. I got the chocolate cone, because of course I did, Maylin picked a strawberry cheesecake one, and Téa opted for existing candy in our cupboard instead.
Once back home, we hunker down and watch a movie, and then try to get some sleep. Evenings are quick to drag beyond 10pm, especially with last minute needs and wants. One day I’ll get to bed at a reasonable hour, I just know it!
I love the wink on the bunny character.
I think the girls did too 🙂
Haven`t seen any wending machines ?
They’re back in Japan! Not many here, actually.