Foot and Fire

              In 2010, my friends and I went to Saigon and it was followed by a trip to Hanoi in 2012. One of the most memorable thing I did on my first day in Saigon is the trip to a grocery store where I spent more than 500,000 dong for food items including rice noodles and rice papers, and another more than 500,000 dong inside the mall for souvenirs which includes a pretty tea set. We were a bit feeling bad because we all spent at least a million dong. Of course, the numbers are just numbers because a dollar then is 20,000 dong.          When we left for home, I was teased by everyone when instead of throwing a pack of rice noodles, I unpacked it and placed the lump of noodles in every pocket of my bags. It was crazy.           In Hanoi, we brought home coffee and condensed milk because the vietnamese iced coffee is worth bagging and carrying back home. Well, what else can y...

By GERLIE M. UY The first fried batch of Lumpia Hanoi 300 g vermicelli 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 onion, chopped 1 canned tuna (about 300g) 1 can green peas 2 potatoes, chopped black pepper soy sauce lumpia wrapper canola oil Sauce: Fish Sauce Calamansi / other citrus chili Place in a bowl the vermicelli. Add hot water and soak until cooked through. Drain. Mix the remaining first 7 ingredients. Wrap in a lumpia wrapper. Heat oil and deep fry. For the sauce, mix all ingredients. Check out other Sauce s here. chopped potatoes solid in water canned tuna Vermicelli, already cooked through The mixture before wrapping The modified Vietnamese Nouc Mam as the original recipe calls for lime juice while I used Calamnsi here.

Tam Coc, about a two-hour drive from Hanoi, is another place which showcases the karsts or limestone formations in multitude. If Ha Long karsts are by the bay, Tam Coc karsts are by the river. One more fascinating thing about Tam Coc aside from the karsts is that one can see closely that the river is  actually  planted with rice. One can also row by the swimming ducks and pass by many temples, even in the center of the river. See our favorite spot in Tam Coc in the above photo, courtesy of our talented rower Mr. Son. (He rows with his feet while taking our photos.) A community of rowers with hundreds of boats... Rowers, ready to row. Fellow travellers went in while were going out.  Tam Coc sampling Mr. Son Karsts with rich green trees... Ducks, peacefully enjoying their swim by the growing rice plant. Quack, quack, quack... Ducks in serene mode. Buddy Bads with her Vietnamese seatmate.. Mr. Ten, you are thumbs up...

I am happy we took the Cyclo tour on our first day in Hanoi as we had a bird's eyeview of the Old Quarter and important sites in Hanoi, especially that he have a very hectic schedule out of the city and we have only a day to do shopping before we leave for the airport just hours before midnight. From the Old Quarter, we passed by the Temple of Literature which houses the studies of scholars on Confucious and other sages. After that, we headed to the far end of the tour, the Ho Chi Minh Complex and One-Pillar Pagoda. After there, we were brought by the ever-smiling cyclo drivers at the Tran Quoc Pagoda where we were amazed of the simple beauty of the red towering pagoda. From there, we passed by the laidback Truc Bach Lake then took a long ride passing again by the Old Quarter and headed to the St. Joseph Cathedral where my friends attended the mass while I laze around, observing the well-dressed iced lime tea drinkers sitting on the dwarf stools on the sidewalk.   ...