Goodbye Vietnam

Time to move on to another country, but before I go, some thoughts on Vietnam. It's a very interesting country and I got the impression that you can't see behind the curtain and that's all intentional.

Vietnam is gorgeous, and it is complicated. There was such a stark difference between the north and south. Not only did everything look different, but the people looked different and behaved differently. In the north, everyone was a bit on the thin side and seemed nervous or closed off. In the south, people were not heavy, but they had some extra flesh and an easy open smile. In the north, the infrastructure was nonexistent, and it looked like they were rebuilding it from the foundation up. In the south, everything was westernized with big buildings and bright lights.

I did not understand their history, and I was amazed at their ability to forgive - Chinese occupation, French occupation and then a civil war. They seemed to have put this all behind them and they are proud of the things each country has done to make it up to them - pointing out the new terminal that the Japanese built and the infrastructure improved by the French. I could not help but try and imagine, if we would be that forgiving and I just don't think we could or would let it go, so have they - I mean really, let it go - how could you?

They have a lot of biases and all of the guides talked about this. There are still issues with marriages between the north and the south. There are also issues with marrying a Chinese. They covet pale skin and talked through how you can tell if someone has better blood by their coloring.

When I was on my own and talking with people, they had this way of looking at you - like really looking at you and considering. Often the women would say, you are really pretty, but they always managed to say it like they were a bit surprised - like, "you are so pretty?!?" It was very effective.

The food was gorgeous and plentiful. Everything was a complex layer of flavors with sweet, salty and bitter featuring in each bite. Lots of the sauces had a very strong (like molasses) sweet component and this surprised me - in a delightful kind of way.

I really had only one regret while leaving Vietnam, and it was that I wished I brought my father with me.

Unsupervised in Ho Chi Minh City

After a fitful night, I got up, went downstairs and told Sue I was going to skip the trip out this morning. She gave me the name of the place to meet them for lunch and said to ask the concierge to help me get there. I then had a very lazy morning at the gym, then a bit of yoga, shower and a very leisurely breakfast. I had pho and I had a seafood soup, which was a lot like pho except it had wheat noodle and octopus - excellent!

Out I went into the city unsupervised. I wandered around the streets and checked out the post office and the cathedral built by the French during the occupation. Since it was Saturday, there were lots of families out and they were all dressed nicely and either shopping or enjoying the park. The park is called Paris park and was renamed when the French and Vietnamese patched things up after the occupation.

There are lots of fancy shops and families seemed to like getting their pictures taken in front of them. I thought this was really the scope of it, but later in the day I went in and downstairs. Two floors down were the real shops and people were buying - there was housewares, grocery stores, toiletries and electronics - all hiding under Louis Vuitton.

I did some shopping, as I found the place I was looking for in Ha Noi and I got some cute things for Gill and I. Then it was time to go for lunch. I had asked the concierge for the address giving him the piece of paper that Sue gave me. The guy was confused and said there were many places with this name, then he added an E to the end assuming it was spelled incorrectly.  

Knowing this was a fruitless pursuit, I continued on. He called the number on the paper even though I told him the person did not know the address, she had given me the paper - he confirmed this to be true. Then he googled it and said there are two and gave me the addresses. So looking at the map, I went to the one closest to the hotel.

When I got to the address, there was a restaurant, but it was not the right one. I shrugged my shoulders and went back to what I was doing. I ate some street food, my favorite being these little triangles of dough. They were sweet, only a little bit. She had a bucket of hot coals and a grate over it and was cooking them and some waffles on an iron. She had me try everything before I purchased.

By late afternoon, I was ready for a rest so I stumbled into a salon and asked for a manicure and pedicure. They were very excited about this and 4 women sprung into action; a small argument erupted when another girl tried to do my pedicure, but it shortly resolved and all was calm.

I went to the hotel and had an hour long foot massage. It was very good and just what I needed after my day of walking through the streets. Then I met up with everyone for a drink and they told me about their day going south and seeing the tunnels that the Vietcong used during a couple of wars to hide from the soldiers, survive the bombs and move around in a stealthy manner. There were 3 levels and hundreds of miles of tunnel. When they cooked underground, they waited until evening and then only let the smoke and steam out a little at a time to ensure they would not be detected.

Once happy hour was over, everyone scattered. I went and packed my bag and got an early nights sleep. I made a picnic of things I'd picked up throughout the day then I had a very long sleep.

ho chi minh city

Argh - early morning and really only so we could put the luggage out by 0630, which means you pretty much needed to be ready - right? After I had everything crammed back into my bag, I went off for breakfast. Everyone raved about the breakfast the day before, I had forgone the breakfast for yoga.  

I had an omelet as the noodle soup guy did not understand the phrase - noodle soup or pho. Apparently Vietnamese is all about inflection and the word pho actually has 8 different meanings depending on how you say it - varying from noodle soup to old ladies to shoe. Omelet was fine and my green tea was actually chamomile. This very beautiful hotel has some issues. We were told that Hilary Clinton had been there last week and I assume she had hot water in her shower.

Then we were off to the airport and settled ourselves into executive lounge, which was just as nice as the hotel and I could have had noodle soup, but I was full. Crammed onto the plane, I switched places with Dallas and sat next to the young Philadelphia's. An hour later, we were in Ho Chi Minh City (aka. Saigon).  

We met our local guide, Kiet, pronounced Kit. I liked him immediately and he proceeded to tell us his life story. He's 6th generation Chinese. He did not know his father because he died young, but when his father had been 14, his mother sent him with his younger brother to Saigon because their village in the Mekong Delta was controlled by the VietCong and she did not want to lose him to them. His father became a doctor and worked with the Americans to set up hospitals and was killed when he was just a little. He cannot always remember him, but he goes to the shrine to remember.

After a short break (where almost everyone - not me - went to the Hard Rock cafe), we got back in the bus and headed to a 10th century Chinese shrine. It was like a system of courtyards and all along the edges were these incredible 3 dimensional ceramic figures depicting village life, as they were all homesick, and this was a place to remember.

We all got to put up our own curly wurly incense and our secret wish. The wish paper only lasted a day or so, but the incense takes over a week to burn down and they believe that standing under them and being hit by the ash is good.

After this, we went to a market and it was insane! But we all managed to stay together AND no one got run over, by a scooter or a lady carrying a bowl of hot soup. Ho Chi Minh City is amazing, there are lights everywhere and it is beautiful. Since it was 

Friday, lot of families were in the park or hanging around watching the lights.

For dinner, we went to the best Vietnamese place in Saigon. It was down an alley and up some stairs - I did not see an actual name on it. The Canadians asked me if I wanted to do family style, and we proceeded to order spring rolls, fish cooked in banana leaf, pork hot pot in caramel sauce, shrimp hot pot, beef with lemongrass, stir fried vegetables, and chicken curry. It was all very good and probably the best food we have had so far and that is saying something.

One more trip through the streets in our giant bus and then it was time for bed. We were told to be downstairs and ready to leave at 7 with old clothes, a hat and bug spray on - I immediately knew, I was NOT doing that.

Curly Wurly Incense

We are staying in this completed tricked out hotel called the Intercontinental perched on the side of Monkey Mountain. We arrived after 9 pm at the same time as another group, and there was lot of chaos. You can't walk to your room and you can't walk to reception, everything has to be done in the Buggy.  

The room was completely gorgeous, but when my butler came, it was obvious that nothing worked - no phone, no TV, no internet - I would find out in the morning, no hot water in the shower, but hot water in the bath. This flummoxed them and two guy talking rapidly crawled under my bed, crawled under the tables...they did not fix it. At 11, I suggested they leave and try in the morning.

I had a great night's sleep, but morning came too soon. I opened my curtains and did an inspiring hour of yoga looking down at the sea. Then it was time to meet in reception.

We got in the bus with Dan with some vague ideas for stops, which seemed a bit made up. First we stopped at a fishing village, which wasn't a village at all and was just some guys on the beach in their funny saucer boats, which we had seen the night before lighting up the sea. We got some information on the Americans that were stationed here and stopped at China Beach, most things in this area were names by the American soldiers.  

We stopped at a place that made silk lanterns and quite hilariously were put to work to make our own. This was extremely funny as we were quickly covered in glue and silk threads. The guys were very ginger at first and then just went for it and produced some very ugly lanterns. We each had a monitor at the table who corrected all of our mistakes and often said, no no no. I will never look at a lantern quite the same way again.

After lanterns, we went to a silk factory and learned about the whole lifecycle of the silkworm and then how silk is made. The factory not only made fabric but also had young girls doing embroidery, which you would have sworn was a photograph when it was finished and custom made clothing. I loaded up here and got everyone to do the same.

Our ultimate destination was the village of Hoi An. There were lots of facts given to me today, but I must admit that I zoned them all out - it had something to do with the Japanese and them being so close to China, I think - there was a map and a highlighter used. The village is closed to cars and was fun to walk around.  

We went to a Buddhist temple - 95% of southern Vietnamese are Buddhist. The temple had these incredible hanging incense that spiraled down and most of them had a card inside that was a wish for someone. We saw one for a lady in Oregon hoping she would get better. I suspect it takes days to burn each one - that is how big they are.

We had lunch at the 'best' bakery. We had these weird pancakes that we had to be taught how to eat, wrapping some green, herbs, and green bananas with it into a rice paper - tasty but a bit greasy. I had Cha Ca for my main, which turned out to be fish served sizzling in a hot pot and then they mixed in fresh rice noodles, fish sauce, herbs (dill and basil) with peanut and fired garlic at the table. It was so good. I had a real lemon tart for dessert, and it had little bitty meringues on the top.

After lunch, we went to an old house that has housed 7 generation and they showed us how many times it had been under water, including the last typhoon and where the hatch was to pull the furniture up to the second floor - 'this hatch is a good idea.'

Then we were given an hour of free time. I wandered through the markets and then sat and watched this guy pull a net out of the river. First, he pulled himself and his boat across the river, then he climbed up onto this platform and started spinning the wheel, which pulled a net out of the river. A big group gathered on the side to see his catch, everyone was so excited. Once the bottom of the net was revealed, it had a 3 -4 inch fish in the bottom and everyone laughed and he laughed, and he dropped the wheel and the net went back into the water and headed on his way.

I had decided to skip group dinner tonight as they were eating in the hotel restaurant and eating a set menu of western food. I planned to eat at the seafood place by the sea, but then I got so comfortable in my wicker disk that I asked for the menu and ended up ordering a wagu beef burger with a fried egg. It was served on a soft sort of sweet bun with lots of fresh herbs - it was incredible. I would find out in the morning that dinner had been a fiasco and the dinner was not edible to most and the choices were even more limited than we had been told. I am thinking this was all about the iPad/kindle karma from the twinky lady going to Burma.

bye bye Halong and hello Danang

Sunset on Halong Bay

Christmas morning and after only a few hours sleep, it was time to get up - could not quite figure out the obsession with raising and lowering the anchor. Everyone else seemed to sleep fine, so may it was just me being all sensitive

Sunrise on Halong Bay

Everyone did tai chi and I did my yoga and then we were off to a nearby island. We climbed to the top for the views of the bay. It was not an easy climb and a lot of the kids and people were fairly rude, following too close, passing, not making way. The views were worth it though.  

The Canadian had brought their suits and all took a swim, which most of us thought was a bit crazy. They said it wasn't too bad once you go in and they didn't really look cold, but the water did not look inviting.

We had Christmas brunch when we got back. I had a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of Pho - noodle soup. I had chicken with great blobs of hot sauce and peppers, and it was so good I went back for another bowl, but this time had beef with great blobs of hot sauce and peppers. They were both good, but the beef was better. A bit more time on deck, and it was time to leave Halong Bay.

We got back in the bus and retraced our steps from the day before. We stopped at a pottery place, one of the Canadians bought a ceramic 'pipe.' And then we went onto the 5 star happy rooms and had lunch in the restaurant. It was preordered for us and decidedly average - we had fried spring rolls, fried chicken and fried noodles.

Back in Ha Noi, we went to the airport and said goodbye to Quyh. Our flight was slightly delayed. Once through security, we all scattered. I went off and bought a beer and a noodle soup for $4. I shared a table with a Vietnamese guy who gave me a welcoming smile and then went on to slurping his soup. For a long while, all you heard was slurp, pause, slurp.

Once on the plane, we had an hour flight and it was packed. I sat next to one of the Philadelphia Four and a very tiny guy that sat cross legged in his seat and did not touch me; he promptly fell asleep.  

Before we knew it, we were in Da Nang and it seemed like a completely different world. Whereas Ha Noi had this - we-are-going-to-start-all-over feeling, Da Nang had personality and our new guide, who asked us to call him Dan because that would be easier for everyone, was very vocal (positively) of the influx and influence of the American soldiers during the war.

Blog note: I am blogging next the the ocean in a giant wicker basket suspended from the porch ceiling, drinking white wine and eating fried peanuts. It doesn't seem necessary to fry peanuts, but I have to say they are so so good - and you can't hate happy hour two for one.

Off to Halong Bay

Tonight, our last night in Hanoi, we had our welcome dinner. The group consists of me and 4 families all with older or adult children, except one-know-it-all 8th grader. All of them have toured with this company before and many of them have just worked through the entire menu of options and have a tradition to do these trips for Christmas. They are from Toronto, Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia, and they compared and contrasted all of their trips and lamented that they were running out of options.

My bicycle rickshaw incident has earned me special attention from the QC monitor as they've decided that this may have been my fault - major sigh. For dinner, I had crab soup, assorted spring rolls, red river fish with glass noodles and an interesting creme brûlée made with green rice. It was very good a combination of rice pudding and creme brûlée; it was rich with ginger.  

I sat next to one of the college students who had just finished a semester abroad in Tanzania. She was very interesting and poised and made me laugh until I cried over the creme brûlée, which we could just not wrap our mind around. During dinner, we were serenaded with Christmas carols, sung in English, Vietnamese, and French; they were good.

After a fairly good night's sleep, it was time to pack up and get on a bus to Halong Bay. They said it would take 3 to 3.5 hours because you can't drive faster than 40 miles per hour. It seemed to take quite a bit longer; there were two accidents on the road; one was pretty nasty. 30 people die in road accidents every day in Vietnam; I am actually surprised it is not more.

We stopped mid-way for a 5 star happy room (toilet). There were all kinds of handicrafts, jewelry, clothing, painting...there was also a large group of young girl embroidering away. They did not seem unhappy, but there was no chat and they were quite intent, as we were leaving I realized they did not use the 5 star bathrooms and instead used ones that were outside, and I assume not quite 5 star.

The road was not much of a road and was completely dirt in some places. They are widening it because it it the only way to get to Halong Bay over land, and the Bay has 5000 to 7000 visitors every day. Once we arrived, we were taken to a jetty boat and out to the Halong Jasmine - our home for the night. There were other people on the boat, but our group took up about half. After a tasty lunch of spring rolls, grapefruit chicken salad, banana blossom salad, noodles, fried fish and marinated squid, we all went and found a spot to watch the bay. It is amazingly gorgeous and sort of defies description - many pictures were taken.

Late afternoon, we got back on the jetty and were taken to a floating fishing village called Cau 

Gen. Once there, we got into row boats and were taken around, the 'buildings' eerily floating on styrofoam and blue barrels. Some were just a single building, some had out buildings, many had TVs that were powered by a generator.  While we were there, the water boat came along and filled up barrels and the grocer was doing her rounds selling everything from pampers to Pringles to melons.

There was a school that has 92 students, ages 6 to 12; the community has only had 1 girl go on the further education. The government is forcing them to all move inland in the name of protecting the environment. I get it because there was lots of rubbish and I have to believe all effluent goes into the sea and the area is a UNESCO site, but it's a complete loss of a way of life and that doesn't seem right either.

Dinner was in cave called Tien Ong. I can't imagine the time and effort it had taken to set this up, but they had gone to a very big effort. It was all Christmas themed and there was live music and dancers. Dinner was buffet and I had green papaya salad, noodles, and barbecue seafood - fish, octopus and prawns. The prawns and octopus were unbelievable. I also had some pork ribs and after watched everyone daintily eat theirs, I just picked them up and went after it.

I headed back early with a dream of a long nights sleep but between the partying Canadians and dropping and pulling the anchor, I didn't get much sleep, it was a very nice Christmas Eve. I did not miss the oyster stew, but a tamale might have been nice.

This One's for Ho Chi

A full day in Hanoi. We had a very busy day planned and started with our orientation, which gave us entirely too much information, and every time it seemed like it was over, someone would ask a question that had already been answered. I am not judging - it was a lot of information and my listening skills are so great that I ended up at the wrong place. Oriented, we climbed on the bus with the intent to go to Ho Chi Minh's tomb, but when we got there it was closed for a dignitary, so we went off to a 10th century shrine.

Vietnam seems in some ways to have combination religion - mashing together Buddhism, animism, Taoism, and Confucius(ism). The temple is in use and there were some cool things inside. There were these things that looked like grave stones, but they were actually used for people to inscribe their achievements and each stone was on a stone turtle because turtles are magical - hear that dad?

There were also these cool cranes at the entrance - standing on a turtle - that everyone rubbed for luck and a long life. I did watched horrified and amazed as a guy rubbed up and down the leg a bit vigorously with a very intent look on his face.

After the temple, we went back to Uncle Ho's place and walked around the mausoleum and then the palace and the places he actually stayed. The mausoleum was on the same place where he declared Vietnam independence, and interestingly, he died on the same day as he made that declaration, but several years later at the age of 79. Uncle Ho wasn't into the snazzy palace and instead lived in some little huts in the back. It was at this point that the guy from Chicago piped up and said where is Jane Fonda's hut; this flummoxed Quyh, but made everyone laugh.

Quyh said the majority of Vietnamese would like to have democracy, but they know they cannot afford it. And I thought well that hasn't seemed to stop the rest of us - can't you get a loan from the Chinese.  

I do find the land system by interesting, every 3 or so years, there is a lottery. And you pick out of the lottery and the place you pick is yours until the next lottery - even if you just got the place you are currently at, just how you like it.

We headed off to the art museum and did a quick run around. They are famous for the multi-hand Buddha. The theme of much of the art was centered around the war; this bothered some of the people on the tour.

Now it was time for lunch - like an hour late in my opinion. We went to a place in the French quarter and had spring rolls - cool and tasty and then got to order off of the menu. I had fish stir fry with tamarind and spicy sauce. It was tasty. All the entrees came out at different times so the first person that got their meal was done when the last person got theirs. It didn't really matter, but Tour Guide Sue did not seem happy.

Fed, we went off to the Hanoi Hilton where John McCain was held during the war. Interestingly, the vast majority of the exhibit was not about America and instead was about how the French used the building to house people that tried to promote independence. They even used a guillotine and the conditions were horrendous, particularly for the women. There were two small rooms about when the building was used to house American prisoners, and from their perspective, they did their best to take care of them. They had McCain's uniform on display and an interesting photo of several guys fishing him out the lake he fell into - he didn't look so good.

After this, we went back to the French quarter and each got a bicycle rickshaw, this was very comical as it took a long time to get everyone to understand we needed 17. Once we had the right number, we all picked one and headed off. It was hilarious, up and down the streets, the traffic, the noise, the people - loved it! My guy was sort of slow, and we got passed by several in the group. He would only speed up when we were at an intersection and that was only to use another one as a shield.  

Then he pulled over and told me to get out and I said out? And he said yes, so I got out and off he went. My group was nowhere to be seen. I thought huh? And then walked over to the lake because we were supposed to see water puppets. When I didn't see anyone, I lingered for a bit and then I headed off to the hotel stopping for Moshi. I called Sue so she wouldn't worry, and then I went down for a glass of wine.

Blog note: Everyone seemed very puzzled by my choice to go to Vietnam so I always told them the same thing, which was I had this great cat as child - no childhood memories without him - and his name was Ho Chi Minh. I loved this cat even though he was the cause for my first and only spanking. This resulted in puzzled looks and always made me smile because it's all true.

Santa's On His Way!

Ho means River and Noi mean interior/inside

My hotel is awesome! The Hanoi guide (Quyh -pronounced like a combination of queen and Quinn, but really high and tight) said it is the best hotel in Vietnam; it was built by the French in the early 1900s. I did not know that the French were in Vietnam (occupied) for almost 100 years. The hotel has been recently renovated, and it's completely gorgeous. I have my own butler, her name is Ha!  

The two people we were waiting for on my plane were the overall guide and what turned out to be the quality control monitor - she hoping for no complaints this trip. This made me laugh and cringe inside. She tells me there are 15 or 16 people joining us, and it is a very young group this time and a couple of families - I think how could a family afford to take a holiday like this?

As we drive the 45 minutes from the airport, I got many facts, but the best bit of advice I got was how to cross the road. The secret is to commit - do not zigzag, do not change your mind; the other thing is to walk slowly across and believe that the vehicles will drive around you. I thought - okay!?!

After a shower and a read, I went down and got a jetlag treatment from Tang, which Ha! had arranged for me. The spa was rated well in my book, but it said that the service was inconsistent. Well, my service was awesome. After filling out my paperwork, I got to choose my oils by sniffing bottles, choose my music and then flopped face down in a warm room with special pants on - these pants were so special that if I knew where to get them I would wear them every day. I almost put mine in my bag instead of the bin.

Then I got a great massage - hard and pinchy - almost too much at times and she didn't even mention the big bruise on my bum and the old bruise on my hip - from the dresser incident.

After my treatment, I wobbled out of the hotel headed toward the lake. The guide had said it was wedding season, and I would see lots of brides getting their picture taken. This turned out to be true - I saw at least 20 brides on the way to the lake - some in the process of dressing, like standing on the sidewalk in their pants having someone lace them into their gown. It was a bit odd. The lake was fun and everything was crowded. I got a chance to practice my street crossing technique, and it generally seemed to work.

The light was perfect and I took some amazing photos.

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped for Moshi, which is difficult to explain but is a sweet. It looks like a steamed bun and there are a variety of fillings; I got coconut and mango. They are ice cold and the exterior has a strange chewy gelatinous quality. They were luscious, and it was all I could do not to go back for more - I did go back for more but ONLY so I could take a photo for you.

For dinner, I sat in the executive lounge and had a variety of strange things brought to me along with a lovely white wine until the waiter said, you really should go outside and I thought outside, I'm exhausted, you are lucky I am not sleeping in my plate!

Santa's Warming Up Over Vietnam

Good Morning Vietnam!

It was finally here - time for my Christmas break and another adventure. I tried to get prepared since I was doing so many other things and I prepared by placing everything I thought I would need on the guest bed, until I had a fairly large pile. Then I jammed it all into my suitcase and I still had a whole side free, which was lucky and just as I planned!

I watched the weather and fretted a bit because I was worried about the flight from Wick, but evey thing looked okay. I even decided not to go into work on Friday and instead, I got ready to go. I did my usual routine and woke up early and hit the cross trainer and then did my yoga. I had put some laundry in and after my shower I popped out to the garage to put it in the dryer. As Maggie and I were scurrying out - her in her fur coat and me in my bathrobe, slippers and towel on my head - we discovered that something strange had happened while I was showering. Everything was frozen and I slipped and I slid, seeing Maggie doing the same out of the corner of my eye, then both feet swooped up in the air and I landed on my butt with wet laundry flying around me. I laid there a minute and decided I wasn't too hurt and then gingerly got up and fulfilled my mission. I'd scrapped my hands up - who knows how - and my butt was on fire!

But there was no time to think about it and instead there were chores to do, so I did them. At 11, my taxi arrived and whisked me to Wick and the flight went without a hitch - I even squeezed in a piece of carrot cake. The flight to London also went without a hitch and I arrived at Heathrow, and wandered over to the hotel, which is in the terminal. I got all situated, ordered room service - love that - and had an earlier night.  

In the morning, I reconsidered my packing and decided I should try and send my carry on home and just use my tote bag, which I'd packed. You see the carry on is canvas and it is sorted of heavy before you put anything into it, which is just wrong. I had to take the train to terminal 3 and managed to check in, being very grateful I was in business class because the economy line was INSANE!

I went upstairs and found the post office and bought the biggest envelope they had. The lady said it will not fit, and I said I think it will, it's squishy. I squished it for her as a demonstration. She was dubious and made me pay for the envelope before I tried it. I did work up a bit of a sweat, but I got it and a sweatshirt into the envelope and with one knee on the package, managed to get it sealed and mailed to myself - she had the good grace to be impressed by this.

Through security, I did my shopping for an extra camera case and memory card and then bought some Pringles - traveling tradition - and an O magazine and waited for the gate. We were late boarding, but they eventually figured it out, and I got onto the double decker - I was upstairs and everything was purple. An older lady, off to Burma, sat next to me and she couldn't decide whether she was going to be nice or whether she was going to be a twink.

We were served a 5 course meal, and it was completely impressive. I had chicken satay, mini crayfish with herb pate and salad, Thai beef with chili and basil, fruit and cheese, and a mango soufflé - seriously!

I watched a movie during dinner, slept 6 hours and woke up watched another movie and ate my Eggs Benedict - Seriously! Then we were in Bangkok. I kept my seat companion from forgetting her iPad and her kindle as she was getting ready to walk away from them and then I kept her from going down the wrong concourse - I'm nearly a saint. I had a very short layover and then I was on another plane; before 10 am in the morning, I was in Vietnam - I know that is totally crazy.

The visa line was mini riot and I was glad I paid extra to have someone do it for me. He felt bad that it took so long and pulled some favors to have me scoot two lines through immigration - I checked in as a diplomat - Ha! I found my driver and then we waited for the other two people on my flight, which took about 45 minutes, but I didn't mind because I was on the right side of crazy or was I?

Captain's Galley - a Christmas Party

On the lead up to this year's Christmas party, there was much discussion about last year's party and the infamous inside-out cooked egg yolk and herring broth with haggis foam.  

I spent some time thinking about what to do and I made plans and changed them no less than 3 times, but finally I was settled on the Captain's Galley, and I was so excited when I realized it was available, our group would fit and we'd have the whole place to ourselves.  The dining room used to be the ice house, and it sits right on Scrabster harbor.  

The chef and I agreed it would a chef's choice tasting menu.  I did some not so subtle reminders of what we all like: me-spoots; Jason-scallops; and Bo-turbot/monk fish/chicken (this is a joke as Bo has been known to think chicken was monk fish and vice versa).

Christine suggested we all dress up and that's what we did.  Jason wore his tux - second wearing in two weeks and Bo rented a kilt.

The menu started with a crab sandwich, which looked exactly like a crab sandwich on white bread, but it was absolutely incredible.  I cannot tell you why - they serviced this was a gorgeous glass of prosecco.

The next course was in house cured salmon with smoked haddock.  It was all thinly sliced and rolled together with a parmesan crisp - served with a lovely crisp pinot grigio.

Next course - mussel and razor clams (spoots) tossed with creamy herb and vegetable vermouth. Wow, wow, wow: is all I could say.  You know it's good when a rowdy group of 16 all of a sudden becomes quite quiet.

Next course - Scallops with watercress, rocket, creme fraiche, and sweet chili sauce served with a Sauvignon Blanc.  This was the most fragrant of the courses; there were large and small scallops.  It was a taste sensation.

The final savory, and it was turbot with oxtail chinese style and noodles.  As usual everything was perfectly cooked, and it was served with a Pinot.  We had a couple of eaters with us that are standard meat and potatoes - no fish, no sauce, (no flavor).  Not only did they eat everything, but they really enjoyed it.

It was time for us to clean our palate, and the chef is always really good at this here.  Tonight, it was lime sorbet with coconut snow.  

Action shot - watch Jim clean that palate!

Dessert was a hazelnut tasting with praline chocolate tart, kumquats and hazelnut ice cream.  I had a special dessert as a non-chocolate eater.

creme brulee with candied oranges and donuts

Four hours from when we started, we all hugged and kissed, wished each other a very happy holiday with a side of travel luck and then went back into the night.  

It has been a hard, but good year, and these people are very special.

Beware of Palate Cleansers

This week, Christine and I had a quick trip to Edinburgh.  We went down on the noon plane, checked into the Scotsman Hotel and then we did some power shopping around the Christmas market and up and down the Royal Mile.

We stopped at the St. Giles Cathedral, which had always been closed when I had gone before.  It's a lot more square then most cathedrals and had a fairly incredible shape.  There was a guy inside playing the huge and amazing organ, and we also checked out the Thistle Chapel, which was filled with amazing hand carved seats each with different animals and symbols.

How cute is he?

We had dinner reservations at a place called Wedgwood, which had lots of good reviews.  It was a tiny little place with 28 seats upstairs and a party room downstairs.  I had been looking forward to this since I had made the reservations a month before, but when we got to the menu, it was sort of off-putting. 

The proteins were standard, but all the stuff that went with seemed sort of, hmm, gross.  We actually struggled with whether we were going to have a starter, but in the end we picked the main bit we liked the most and ordered it.  Christine has scallops with pineapple and capers to start and I had langoustine, crispy pigtail, fried oyster and sauerkraut.  

It was pretty good.  The super sour kraut cut the richness of the pigtail (crunchy) and oyster.  The langoustine were cooked perfectly.

For main, I had Hake with pea veloute.  Hake was perfectly cooked and the peas were so rich and creamy that I wanted to lick the plate.  The only thing that was a bit of a pause was our complimentary palate cleanser.  This was ginger beer with raspberry and lemon sorbet balls and a single floating raspberry.  

They suggested were eat the floating raspberry and mix it up and drink the rest.  It was disgusting - like medicine or as Christine putting alka seltzer with cough syrup.   I did enjoy watching other people try to drink it - the reaction was universal.

Christine swore that her palate was very clean and she didn't need to drink hers

The next day we had our meeting, which was the purpose of the whole visit and then headed off on the train to Inverness and was picked up by a taxi for the rest of the journey to Thurso.  There was an accident on the A9, so it was shut; forcing a 6 mile detour that added an hour to the travel time...major sigh.