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The Vietnamese certainly do like their dogs. They look generally well cared for and seem to belong to people. Most of them have collars and you don’t see any packs of dogs roaming around. You do see quite a few on the beach but they do appear to belong to someone even thought they are running around playing with each other. A lot of them have curly tails just like my dog Scarlett and some of the puppies could be mistaken for buhund puppies who look like little bears. The dogs are invariably short haired. You don’t seen many cats and if you do they are tiny and run away the minute you get close to them. I do wonder whether it’s because cats are considered unlucky? The Vietnamese zodiac has a cat instead of a rabbit as in the Chinese zodiac. Being born in the year of the cat is considered unlucky. The best year to be born in is the year of the Dragon or the Monkey.

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So what do you do in a tropical paradise when it’s raining? We had tropical storm Matmo which meant I didn’t go out for 24 hours – had to order pizza as they were the only ones delivering locally. The narrow lane outside the AirBnB floods very easily and even some of the major roads which made going out quite difficult on the bike. Anyway, I had my nails done for all of £8. I had been tipped off by the nail place in Muswell Hill (who of course are Vietnamese) that the thing to do was have patterns on my nails so that’s what I did. The beauty salon was recommended by Katie the landlady and was down a narrow lane in the old town. The owner was the only one working there and she claimed she had staff but I don’t think that was true. I left my bike there to go into the old town and when I went back to pick it up I realised that she actually lived in the salon behind a curtain she had hung up over the back of the room – a tiny space where all she had was a bed.

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It continues to rain and rain so much that the lane outside the BnB is flooded above ankle height every day. It recedes quite quickly but it’s not surprising there’s so much flooding with all the development. Even if they sorted out the drains the rivers and rice paddies are completely saturated and would struggle to absorb all the rain water from the streets. I still cycle around on my trusted pink bike and my bright green raincoat that the landlady bought for me and wearing the flip flops that she also thoughtfully provided. It’s still very warm so it’s almost pointless wearing the raincoat as you just sweat like crazy anyway.

In a break in all the rain I managed to make it to a local bar called Havana where there quite a few people at least. There are so many bars and cafes here but most of them are empty. You do wonder how people survive in this place as there are only so many people who go out. Most bars have very long happy hours with 2 for 1 as well which makes drinks cost very little. I drank so many passion fruit mojitos that I actually became an expert on which bars had the best one – Morning Glory and White Marble. This is not something that I’m particularly proud of…

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I travelled from Hue to Hoi An by bus stopping at several touristy places. It took over 6 hours due to those stops when it normally takes about 4 even though it’s actually not that far. The traffic and the roads makes travel slow. The most interesting stop was at Marble mountain which is just outside Da Nang. It was used to quarry marble which was carved into statues but now the mountain is more valuable as a tourist attraction and the marble statues which are on display in large workshops around the mountain are carved from marble imported from China. While waiting for the bus to take off again I had probably one of the best meals so far in Vietnam – a noodle soup made by an old granny in a tent for the princely sum of £1. The guide on the bus also ate there and told me he had had 2 bowls – obviously the best place to eat at that location!

I had already booked a beautiful AirBnB called AN Retreat. It’s out in the suburbs overlooking a big rice paddy, so very quiet. It’s only been open for 2 1/2 months so everything is brand new and the owner has thought of every detail as far as the rooms and furnishings go. It’s very Scandi looking and they play soft jazz in the living room which has a small pool next to it. I’ve only been in the pool once so far as the weather isn’t exactly conducive to swimming.

I went to the rugby world cup semi final – England v NZ. where I met up with Nic the midwife from Hamilton, NZ. I’ve never been to a sports bar before so it was a new experience for me. They had about 20 large screens so no matter where you were standing or sitting you could see. It was fun – especially as England beat the Kiwis! I went out for dinner with Nic after that and cycled home late at night – that was a bit scary as it was the first time I did that in the dark but actually it’s fine even down our little lane.

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I booked a homestyle cooking lesson through Airbnb with Phung and her family. This was a new experience and as it was just me they had decided to keep their kids at home – 2 girls aged 5 and 18 months who they claimed were very noisy but to me they were just normal kids that age. Phuong took me to the market to do some last minute shopping. Most Vietnamese shop daily and it’s usually in the morning between 6 and 8am. As this was 5pm the market was mostly closed but there were a few stalls open. We bought mushrooms, fresh noodles and home made fish sauce. It came in a small water bottle and was much better than the factory made one – it certainly smelt very pungent!

Then it was back to the house in the pouring rain for some hard core chopping. Phuong’s husband Hai is the cook in their household and in contrast to the professional cooking lessons I had attended this time nothing was pre-prepared. On the menu was deep fried spring rolls (made with beef, noodles and lots of vegetables), Bun Bo Hue (a lemongrass scented broth made with pork ribs and beef served over noodles which is traditional for Hue), mushroom salad and mung bean pudding. While we chopped and stirred Phuong and Hai told me about their lives with their kids and how they had run an AirBnB Homestay but had moved to a smaller house so that Phuong could be closer to work. She had just quit her job as an auditor for the Export Import Bank to start preparing for a Masters in Banking. Hai worked as a civil engineer on big infrastructure projects. The cooking lessons were just for fun and also because they wanted to practice their English. The daughters could speak English as well even though they were so small. I really enjoyed this as I felt like I was a treasured guest at their house and having dinner with their family – highly recommended!

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Our last cooking class on the tour was at the Spice Garden which is owned and run by a well-known Vietnamese chef called Phuong.  It’s far out in the country side near the Cu Chi tunnels. It took almost 2 hours from central Saigon not helped by the fact that it was absolutely tipping it down.

It’s a beautiful modern place with a garden full of 100% organic vegetables and fruit.  Everything we cooked was from the garden.  By now we all had a favourite vegetable – morning glory – which 3 lucky people got to pick.  Once again we were cooking individually and started off with squid salad, followed by stewed chicken with lemongrass cooked over a tiny charcoal brassier.  The chef made a very simple tomato and egg soup for us, as well as morning glory sauteed in garlic and for dessert, we were given sweet soup with lotus seeds which we had picked earlier.  Coffee was made using the drip method in a single cup – a very cute way of making the excellent coffee which Huong had blended with 10% cocoa. Vietnamese coffee is made with condensed milk and I have to admit I haven’t quite taken to that given that I like my coffee without sugar.

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Finally travelling on my own I headed off to Hue by plane from Saigon.  I stayed at La Paix, a very nice Airbnb overlooking the Perfume River.  Beautiful peaceful place where breakfast on the terrace was a highlight.  The breakfast menu was a mixture of western and Vietnamese and the staff were very worried that I wasn’t eating enough.  The one day city tour with lots of tombs, trip on a dragon boat to a pagoda, Royal Palace, Conical Hat Village (which has now turned into the Incense village as they no longer make conical hats) and lunch.  The Royal Palace is situated within the Citadel which is the walled part of old Hue. Almost all the buildings are reconstructions as the Palace was completely destroyed during the Vietnam War but due to the weather conditions is looks way older The tombs escaped the fighting so are the original buildings and definitely lived up to their description. These were built by various kings as Hue was the seat of the kingdom of Vietnam up until 1945 when Ho Chi Minh deposed the last king. It was so hot there that I ended up with heat stroke. 

Dinner at Madame Thu was a disappointment as the set menu seemed to be just different types of spring rolls which didn’t taste of very much.  The staff also thought I didn’t eat enough so took my drinks off the bill.

I decided to look for restaurants where there weren’t so many tourists and went for one which was full of Vietnamese shouting Mot Hai Ba Yo (1,2,3 Cheers!) and thumping house and techno.  The food was pretty good and finally offered up a bit more spice.  The cuisine of central Vietnam is known for being very spicy so I was a bit disappointed that what I was given was pretty bland.  The waitress tried to stop me from ordering some dishes as she claimed they would be too spicy for me.  I don’t like a lot of chilli but the steamed clams in lemongrass and bok choi fried in garlic were very tasty and well within my comfort zone.

We flew from Danang to Saigon in the morning and followed up with a city tour – the biggest impression was the War Remnants Museum, previous called the American War Atrocities Museum…Vietnam is a communist country and the media is strictly controlled so the museum did not offer anything but the Vietnamese view of what they call the American War.  This is disingenuous to say the least but I guess it glosses over the fact that it was a civil war between the Communist North and the Capitalist South.  The North was fighting both the South and their proxy the Americans.  There’s no doubt that the Americans didn’t behave well but according to this museum the (North) Vietnamese didn’t do anything wrong.  The Americans pulled out 2 years before the war officially ended and history is of course re written by the victors – just some food for thought.

Dinner at the Lantern Restaurant was actually a disappointment for quite a few of us and service was so slow they ended up taking lots of dishes off the bill.  A small low in an otherwise flawless foodie experience.

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This was one of the highlights for me.  Even though it was still quite touristy it felt authentic and the food was absolutely wonderful and different from anything else we had tasted.  We had a very funny local guide with us called Tam – this is a male name in Vietnam but her name reflected the Vietnamese preference for boys leaving the country with a male female ratio of 129 to 100 which is not great for future generations.  The population is still growing but at some point, it will start to taper off due to smaller family sizes and the above ratio.  Tam told endless jokes on the boat mostly about husbands and wives not getting along.  After a wonderful lunch of grilled elephant ear fish, the boat broke down as the propeller hit the bottom of the canal as the tide was so low.  We had to be towed to our final destination – a bit of excitement!  Our homestay (Ut Thrinh) was based around a typical old Mekong house which had been sympathetically extended to include around 30   rooms with air-conditioning.  There was both an indoor and outdoor shower which I couldn’t get to work so had to have a wash from the big pot of water outside.  It was very refreshing nonetheless. 

We were invited to help cook dinner in the very roomy kitchen and set to making deep fried spring rolls with taro all from scratch.  They tasted like cream cheese.  The rest of the dinner consisted of large grilled prawns, fish rolled in rice paper with fresh herbs, soup and as usual followed by fresh fruit in season – water melon, dragon fruit, mango and passion fruit.  Rambutan and longan are also in season and you see longan in particular growing everywhere along the canals and rivers.  We slept under mosquito nets which somehow felt very tropical and cozy.  After all there were loads of mosquitos around.  I don’t like putting on loads of bug spray as I keep thinking that if it melts plastic what is it doing to my skin?  I did get bitten but the bites only itched for about a day and then not very much.