Fullboy - China - Yunnan Province - Goat's Cheese, Hash Browns and Prostitutes!

Hekou

Next stop China. We'd been looking at maps and scratching our heads for quite some weeks before arriving at this colossal country and now we were finally here. The border crossing was smooth, efficient and very friendly, the immigration officers even gave us maps of the border town Hekou where we spent our first night in China. We didn't plan on staying but we missed the only bus of the day to the rice terraces, so Melissa waited at the bus stop while I found us a hotel for the night. I noticed that every hotel was offering an 'hourly' rate but didn't let this put me off and chose a fairly nice looking hotel close to the bus stop at a heavily discounted price . Our first meal in China was a breakfast of delicious wheat noodle soup with a fiery chilli oil condiment that gave it a real kick. It was cheap and delicious, everything a backpacker could need!
















As light faded, our hotel was giving up a few of the areas 'secrets' and we could see from our window the row of 'hair salons' that magically changed into mini brothels with scores of women standing around enticing men to enter for a 'special' haircut. It was all quite surreal, especially when we started to receive strange phone calls in our room and knocks on our door from scantily clad young women. I apologized to Melissa for checking us into a brothel hotel and we went to sleep.

Yuanyang Rice Terraces

The next day we managed to catch the bus to Yuanyang Rice Terraces, a bumpy, windy 8 hour ride into the hills of the Yunnan Province, deep in the Southwestern Chinese countryside. We found a much nicer little establishment to stay in upon arrival at Yuanyang with views over the hills to die for. The town was populated with Hmong people, a small ethnic minority group that dress in very traditional colourful garments, even the babies have nice clothes!















Our dinner was superb, a great selection of fresh vegetables, meats and salads, expertly cooked and extremely plentiful (probably enough for 6!). The stir fried pigs liver was delicious, and the 'twice' cooked pork had intense salty and spicy flavour. The pick of the veggies was the refreshing crunchy pickled cucumber that accompanied the strongly flavoured meat dishes well.


























We woke very early to catch the sunrise at the rice terraces, a spectacular insight into the sheer vastness of the country that lay before us. This remote, sparsely populated corner of China offered us some magical panoramic vistas of never ending rice fields and it was great to see such natural beauty in a country so often portrayed as the 'factory' of the world.





































Kunming

After one more night we caught the night bus to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan Province and a bustling, modern city of over 1 million people. The bus was not pleasant and was full of people smoking and hacking up the contents of their lungs. We took a sleeper bus and arrived very early in the morning. Kunming couldn't have been more different from the countryside as the narrow country roads gave way to wide, paved dual carriageways and the small shack like buildings were replaced by large concrete blocks. We had pre-booked accommodation a hostel to save the hassle of finding a hotel in this relatively large city and we were located very centrally near the main square. The 'Hump' hostel was great and gave lots of helpful information about the area and how to get around. We were beginning to find that China could potentially be quite difficult to navigate with no knowledge of Chinese as the level of English spoken amongst the locals seemed very low. The locals that did speak English however were always more than happy to help.

The food in Kunming was fantastic and in the public square downstairs from our hostel, they had a great restaurant selling the speciality noodle dish called 'across the bridge' noodles, named after an interesting Chinese folk tale which you can see here. It was a new and great way of making and eating a noodle soup. The broth was really tasty and the bowls were humongous, increasing in price depending on the amount of side dishes you chose to put in. Our selection of sides consisted of a raw egg, greens, shoots, pork, chicken and a mountain of thick rice noodles, costing around Y18, (about 2 quid) a bargain because it was like breakfast and lunch in one delicious bowl.






















Another tasty local snack was the ganbei yangyusi, or put more simply, the Yunnan hash brown, fried, shredded potato covered in a unique sichuan peppercorn flavoured salt. These were sold at a bus stop on our way to one of Kunming's temple and it was the only place we saw them. They were fried on a griddle and placed in a plastic bag which made it easier for us to hold and grab pieces off. MMmmmm...














Goat's cheese is common in Yunnan Province dishes and one evening in a large food court, we tried it in an unusual deep fried form. It was almost like a thick, crispy, goat's cheese poppadum, with sugar on it!! It was interesting but I much prefer it in its original form. Still... we were pleased with ourselves for even finding goat's cheese after we were presented with about a dozen Chinese menus!! (at least we think it was goat's cheese???)



















We had a fantastic time in Kunming and the 'Hump' hostel was kind enough to let us leave our big backpacks there while we went on an adventure up into the mountains. Next stop... Tiger Leaping Gorge!!

Fullboy - Vietnam - Full of Pho!!

HOI AN

We arrived at Hoi An just as the sun was rising and managed to find a budget hotel (with a pool!!). We sat down and ate breakfast at a little cafe next door and tried two of the Hoi An specialities. I tried Cao Lau, a soup of thick rice noodles with a generous helping of sliced roast pork and fresh herbs. Melissa had the shrimp wonton soup. An authentic Cao Lau can supposedly only use water from a special well in the city!! Both were incredibly good and Hoi An was certainly living up to its reputation of having very high food standards.

































Walking around Hoi An's crumbling old streets was a wonderful experience and reminded me of Melaka in Malaysia, remnants of colonial architecture standing tall and proud, their weather washed pastel walls radiating Mediterranean ambience as the midday sun beat down. We took a break and tried yet another Hoi An delicacy, 'white rose', a plate full of delicately steamed rose shaped shrimp dumplings topped with shavings of crispy (onion)?, and of course an ice cold midday beer to wash it down. :-)
































The evening times were spent doing pretty much the same as we did in the day, strolling up and down the beautiful old streets. We ventured over a bridge crossing a river and found a large number of restaurants that looked unnervingly quiet. We were hungry though so we sat down at one of them and then, there was a power cut!! Staff brought candles to the table and we looked over the menu and ordered a selection of fried wontons, the lovely steamed 'white rose' wontons, and some succulent steamed squid with chilli and lemongrass, cooked in banana leaf. The staff were very attentive and kind, he had to go off on his bike to get the squid!! After a quiet, pleasant evening, it was time to go home and we walked back, via some stray cats that Melissa decided to look after (as happens in every town in every country we go to!!).























































HUE


The next few days in Hoi An were spent strolling around the streets and relaxing by the pool. Our next stop was Hue, a short bus ride away. Hue was more built up than Hoi An and not as pretty but there were some impressive tombs and remnants of old palaces that took a full days worth of exploring. The local noodle soup, Bun Bo Hue was a spicier, more robust stock with chilli oil and slices of roast beef, unfortunately no photo as our battery ran out! Hue is famed for its imperial cuisine which is noted more for its presentation than its taste. Food would be cooked and made to look beautiful for the old emperor and would be served in many courses. Knowing this prior to our meal at the fancy restaurant, we were looking forward to the spectacle of the meal more than the taste. Thin Gia Vien is one of the more famous restaurants serving this type of cuisine and we were treated to many courses of wonderfully presented food. Take a look at some of the 'not so great' photos, unfortunately our third camera was starting to pack up now, probably all the greasy fingers taking food photos!!






























































HANOI

The next bus journey was a long one... 12 hours!! The sleeper bus was dirty and overcrowded and people were finding whatever space they could to sleep. We had people on the floor next to our bed, backpacks in the aisle, a French man moaning constantly behind us because the bus 'wasn't what he expected'. We'd learnt to expect the unexpected and just got our heads down and went to sleep, hoping at least that our bus driver wasn't drunk and would get us to Hanoi safely! We got to Hanoi in one piece but both of us were feeling a bit under the weather. Melissa had the beginnings of an eye infection and my tummy was doing somersaults again. We had to get our visa for China processed here so we ended up staying for a week. We got some much needed rest and relaxation and ate countless bowls of beef and chicken pho to make us feel better, some of the best pho in all of Vietnam!!






























































SAPA


A week later and feeling well rested we headed up to the Chinese border on the train from Hanoi to Lau Cai. It was a peaceful journey in a clean ,comfortable sleeper carriage and we got a decent nights sleep. We got off the train as the sun was rising and found a mini bus to take us to Sapa. We sat on the mini bus and I reached to get some money out of my money belt.... where was it??? OH NO!! "Melissa" I panicked, "I've left my money belt on the train!!" Melissa's response was not what I wanted to hear... "ME TOO!!" she said. Now bearing in mind our money belts had our passports, cash cards and the bulk of our cash in them there was definitely reason to panic. I ran off the mini bus and back towards the station platform, looking like some sort of tall, demented, foreign mad man to the bemused locals looking on. One scruffy man decided to take it upon himself to help me in my mission to get our money belts back. I got to the platform and to my dismay, the train we were on was slowly moving away. I started running after the train, not really knowing what I'd do when I reached it, and then someone stopped me and asked me what was wrong. "MY PASSPORT'S ON THAT TRAIN!!" I panted. "Don't worry" said the station attendant, "the train is coming back". Relief was not the word as the train slowly moved back towards the platform. Me, the station attendant and the scruffy man found our sleeper carriage and waited for the train to stop moving. The scruffy man asked me to wait outside while he went in to get our money belts.... hmmmmmm, I was starting to suspect his motives for helping me. As we opened the door he somehow managed to trap his finger in it and break off his dirty fingernail, yuck! The attendant lifted the pillows where me and Melissa decided to 'safely' put our money belts and they were under them, with everything still intact!! I've always loved the 'lost and found' feeling and this has to be up there with the most ultimate. I returned to the mini bus followed by the scruffy man who was angrily demanding money for his broken fingernail. After giving him a quid for his troubles, I got back on the bus, happily showed Melissa the two money belts and we set off for Sapa. I was a very happy man but we learnt to never leave our important belongings under a pillow again!

Sapa was beautiful and we enjoyed the fresh mountain air for a few days before we headed back down to cross the border into China. We ate lots of fresh vegetables and found a unique stand selling purple potatoes that were actually purple on the inside! Chicken with bamboo shoots was one of our favourite meals but as a whole, the food we had in Sapa was very simple and nothing extraordinary. We had a great time shopping at the local market, buying from the local Hmong tribe people. Daytimes were fresh, temperate and a pleasant change from sweaty Hanoi. At night times we would look out of our window and watch the most spectacular lightning storms over the mountains. We soaked up our last few days of calm and prepared ourselves for.... China!

Fullboy - Mui Ne, Dalat and Nha Trang - Escape From The City

We kicked back and relaxed at Mui Ne for a few days after a busy week in the city. The beach was quiet, clean and sandy and would have been perfect except for the strong winds that were great for kite surfers but not so great for sunbathers! Our bungalow was right next to the beach and we could hear the sea from our bed. We ate lots and lots of shellfish and seafood including a wonderful bbq red snapper, scallops, clams and jumbo prawns. I enjoyed fish porridge for breakfast every morning which may not sound so appetising but was actually a lovely rice soup with flaky white fish and a light, salty fishy stock.




































Apart from relaxing on the beach we saw some really cool sights in Mui Ne including a mini desert complete with rolling sand dunes!! After a few days of chilling out we were ready to move onwards and upwards, into the mountains of Dalat.




























Upon arrival in Dalat, we immediately noticed a dramatic dip in the temperature. The climate was fresh, the air clean and the produce in the markets plentiful. We arrived late and sat for dinner in a stuffy restaurant as we were feeling lazy and it was next to our hotel. The food was good but the star of the night was the Dalat wine, a very drinkable, light, 11-12% vol wine that came in white and red. We brightened up the atmosphere in the restaurant after a couple of bottles, a great discovery! After all that wine I was still a bit peckish and on my scouting mission that I'd conducted as soon as we arrived I managed to find an old lady hiding down an alley cooking some sort of Vietnamese pancakes. Hoping I could still remember where she was, I persuaded Melissa to walk up and down the steep streets. We found her, grabbed a couple of plastic stools and sat down. We ordered one of the pancakes to share and they were like a cross between a crepe and a poppadom. She basted them with an eggy mixture, put them on a hot grill and then topped them with freshly chopped spring onions and beansprouts and folded them over. They had a wonderfully fresh, crunchy texture yet the pancake dough still retained a slight soft, egginess. Combined with the super hot chilli sauce, the pancakes were a great after dinner snack and given the choice of eating in an alley on plastic stools that look like they're meant for toddlers or eating in a stuffy restaurant with faux European ambience, I'd take the alley any day!


































The next day we explored the pretty hilltop town and sat down for many glasses of Dalat wine and Vietnamese coffee in some of the many cafes dotted around the streets. At night we found the market and got to see the range of freshness of the ingredients in this part of the country. It must have been avocado season as there was an abundance in the market, never did get to try the local avocado ice-cream... maybe next time! With the vast amounts of vegetables, there also seemed to be a large number of vegetarian restaurants, or at least restaurants with copious amounts of vegetable dishes on the menu. We ate at a couple of these over the 5 nights we were in Dalat and had some interesting vegetable soups, crunchy cauliflower dishes, some wonderfully sweet peas in pods and a delicious fried tofu with lemongrass, chilli, beansprouts and shallots.













































Our stay in Dalat was probably a little longer than we needed but we decided to extend our visa for another month here and it's cool, mountain climate was a nice escape from the heat of the cities below, it was a good 15 degrees cooler than Saigon. One of the more interesting sights in the city is the Hang Nga guesthouse otherwise known as the 'Dalat Crazy House'. It's a stunning architectural anomaly, Alice in Wonderland meets Gaudi, I'm pretty sure it's been voted as one of the worlds most bizarre buildings. Our final evening was spent relaxing on our balcony, sipping Dalat wine and taking in our last breaths of fresh, alpine air before we ventured down into the stifling heat of the plains.


































Our next stop was another beach stop, Nha Trang. We are on holidays after all! We found a nice hotel that had views of the sea from the balcony and pretty much lazed on the beach for another five days. Our first night we had Japanese food!! Locally caught fish we presume. Fresh sushi and warm sake, mmmmmmmm, say no more.

























The next evening we tried one of the local restaurants and had our first taste of beer on tap. So cheap!! About 30p a pint, and not bad either. The restaurant was called Tan Vuon Pho and was situated just off the main road in a large courtyard with outdoor seating. We ordered a garlic rice, greens, an incredibly fresh squid salad and some meat that claimed to be oven baked venison.... not sure myself but it was tasty nonetheless. The food was plentiful, fresh and so cheap and we had a lovely evening downing glasses of probably the cheapest beer in the world and taking in the buzz of the lively Nha Trang.


































On our final day we tried another local restaurant called Quon Linh and ordered a steamed fish. The idea was that you made your own fresh spring rolls at the table with rice paper, various leaves, herbs and salad and the succulent, fresh, flaky fish. Eating this way is fun, healthy and relatively cheap and the rolls are delicious, if somewhat messy (when I'm making them!) Our beach days were finally over and we said goodbye to Nha Trang and hopped onto our sleeper bus for the 12 hour journey ahead. Our bus was so quiet we managed to snag a bed each!!