The French were here first

Haven't talked about the food yet,
and as everybody knows that's a big issue for Reut and I both.
Reut being vegetarian an picky, and I being the food lover I am.

Fortunately Hoi An is the best place in Vietnam so far, for having wonderful food
whether it's dinner or just a snack on the way Hoi An has it all.

Small history lesson

During the colonial stage, the French ruled over the immense area of what then was: India-China.
Then under the cold war influence - the soviet union tried to undermine the western ruling in the area.

after years of war Vietnam remained divided into two,

the communist-supporting north - leaded by Ho Chi Minh,

and the south - who kept relying on France and the USA.

led by the formal general Nguyen Van Thien.

what does that have to do with food?

During all that time French officers wanted a place where they could
use their army vacations some where with nice beaches, good weather

and most important - good food!
 

Hoi An being under western ruling  

suited these desires perfactly

and under French influence (and with officers' monthly army salary)

restaurants, hotels and beaches thrived.

White table cloth, menus' displays, candles and soft music by the river

probably won't confuse it with the Chanselise,

but some similarities exists,
judge for yourself   

Hoi An special dish is the Cau Lau

rice noodles with special rice croutons, pork (or chicken) and some cold green vegetables.

very light and fresh
and when bought on the street
costs less then 1$ for a small bowl.

also restaurants specializes in White Rose

shrimps covered in very thin rice-paper

and Won Ton soup.

I'll finish with a question:
how does 'Hasake' look like in Vietnam?

answer like half a coconut ^

Sleeper to Sapa

 Taken from a latter to a friend:

we're writing to you from Hanoi - which is Vietnam's big city in the north 6.5 mil. people (wow),
probably 6.4 has a motorbike, what makes the streets here crazy - and crossing the street mission (- impossible).
we've been to Sapa which is a small town near the Chinese border, it took us 12 h. by bus to get there - the buses the Vietnamese people use for these long ride are 'sleeping buses' or in short - 'sleeper'.

Each person gets an almost laying down seat and a blanket, you have to take off your shoes before getting into the bus, so it means that everybody is in socks, but you get used to the smell - and on the way there we slept quiet well.

Sapa is wonderful, beautiful and unique. the most magical rice fields terraces picture are from there.
we we're a bit disappointed to get there when it was extremely foggy and misty.
but when we traveled to the near villages to see the local tribes (a descent of a couple hundred meters) we were under the clouds that surrounded Sapa, and the vision changed from good to very good as time past and the sun came out.
we enjoyed trekking by ourselves to faraway villages, away from the other tourists and "commercial villages".
this we did the first day, the second day we took a guide (tribe woman) that explained about many interesting facts about the nearby tribes and took us through a muddy trail up and down the mountains and villages.
of-course every tribe has it's own clothing and language, and different funny hat.

When we started the Trail ~10 village women stocked us and tried to sell us souvenirs.
they followed us for hours.
at the beginning it was annoying, but when we got to the muddy adventures part they became helpful saved Reut from dipping in mud
(Reut: "and all the other women in the tour as well!")

Got great picture to prove it also.

Organized mess

Hanoi is Vietnam big city in the north.

thousand of motorbikes run across the street with complete chaos,

traffic-lights are held only as a recommendation.

closing your eyes might make you think
that your standing in the middle of a massive and busy beehive.

almost

this would be exact if bees could honk

The noise fills the city 

and crossing the street in Hanoi 

is considered to be a tourist attraction.

separating  the fearless locals from the visiting tourists.

crossing is done one step at time 

but instead of being angry or impatient

people are calm

even the honking is not done with aggression as in Israel

but as part of the driving culture.

no accident were seen by us

and in-spite of all  

the preferred place for Vietnamese to have breakfast / lunch /dinner 

is on a small stall on the pavement

(its probably going to be a noddle soup)   >>> "Pho"    

Journey to the east

It got really emotional  leaving my family and friends behind,

but as soon as I got on the bus everything changed -
the view outside the window of Jordan was calming
and thoughts running  through my mind
finally - slowed down until they made a complete stop
and I fell asleep

From Israel to Jordan.
from Jordan to Doha - there we spent the night wandering around eating free (disgusting) food in the transit terminal that we got from Qatar airways our airline company.





we went to the quiet room in the terminal dark stuffy and feet-smelling room where body scents from places all over the world and the body combine.

- good for your body - 

- bad for your soul -

then after a long wait and some sleep we arrived at Bangkok.
Took a taxi out of the airport and got a tiny taste of Bangkok night market and food - it was exciting to finally eat Asian food - I got a small pile of sticky rice and chicken with kashiu nuts and lemon-grass.
took the train to the airport and after another long wait - the final flight to Hanoi.
I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as we sat down - wasn't awake during the lift off.


checked in - and showered
boiling water made me alive again and conclude that the entire experience,
was fun and exciting
but also
power draining as hell!

 like "bney Israel" in the desert it took 40 hours for me to get to my destination -
H a n o i

מחול החפצים המקופלים

לוקח רק את ההכרחי ביותר
הכל על הגב אז אין מקום למיותר
על הדרך מנסה את המצלמה החדשה
בטח יהיה מוזר ללכת עם כל החפצים
שיהיו איתי חצי שנה
על הגב

תחושה נהדרת להיפטר סוף סוף
מכל המשקל העודף שבחיים
ולהצטמצם לתיק אחד גם אם הוא 65 ליטר.
מעניין מתי אני אתגעגע לכל השאר.