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!!

Fullboy - Vietnam - Saigon - Banh Xeo and Beat Boxin!

We arrived in Saigon, jumped in a taxi and found the lovely Miss Loi’s guesthouse hidden down a quiet alley away from the noise of the main roads. The room had much needed aircon and we were treated to a fresh baguette with cheese and a banana every morning for breakfast in the spotlessly clean reception area. We only had to step out of the door into the pleasant, shady alley and we were greeted by small food stalls cooking up steaming bowls of wonton soup and fruit juice vendors selling refreshing tropical iced drinks. The roads around the district came alive from 5pm onwards when scores of motorcyclists would drive up to the many vendors and pick up their freshly cooked food to take home without even getting off their bikes. On one such evening, we were feeling very tired after a night out partying with a Vietnam veteran music band so I joined the hordes of people picking up their dinner and took home some delicious chicken liver rice and BBQ skewered pork to eat in our room. With takeaway service this good on your doorstep, and so cheap, it would be tempting to do it every night!

































The next evening, we took a short walk down our alley and sampled a local seafood restaurant called Nhat Phuong. There were a dozen or so fish tanks at the front of the restaurant where you could just point to what you wanted. We had scallops, mussels, clams, a variety of vegetables and some wonderful lime, chilli, salt and pepper dipping sauce, all washed down with some ice cold Saigon beer. The pick of the selection were the scallops dressed with peanuts and spring onions, delicious!





















































Before even setting foot in Saigon, I’d read of the Bahn Xeo, a Vietnamese savoury pancake stuffed with pork, shrimp and beansprouts. I’d also read of a legendary establishment to try the delicacy, aptly named Banh Xeo 46A. We set off determined to find the place and, after taking several wrong turnings and walking round in a few circles, we finally found it tucked down an alley off another alley. We sat down outside and ordered a Banh Xeo each. After a short wait the pancakes arrived and were huge yet airy and light. The filling of raw beansprouts, juicy prawns and crispy pork was wonderfully fresh and the pancake tasted delicious with or without the great selection of dipping sauces provided. There were salad leaves you could wrap the pancake in but I preferred to just eat it as it was. The hunt for great food is always worth it!!









































We ended Saigon as we began it, with lots of eating, drinking and fun. We were lucky enough to be around when Kila Kela, a UK beatbox artist was performing at a small club and we had a great night that lasted well into the early hours. The roads were quiet when we left the club and we decided to say ‘yes’ to two motorcyclists who offered to give us a lift back to our guesthouse. We whizzed through the deserted streets , security guards asleep at their stations and the dawn light peeking through the darkness. We'll miss Saigon.