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Today has been the best day, it started with my cooking class at Lanterns Vietnamese Restaurant. It was incredibly nice of them to put on an extra cooking class for me and one other lone traveller who happened to be in Nha Trang the same time as me, it was when I got to the restaurant and discovered the other lone traveller was actually Jackie that I knew we'd have a good laugh today.
The class started with a tour of the local market with the chef and after a short ride in a cyclo we had arrived at the best local food market I'd seen in Asia so far. We went round picking out ingredients for our class and the chef explained how to pick the best ones and what everything was when we asked questions about strange looking fruits or vegetables. The market sold almost everything, one moment you're walking through the fruit section and the next you've walked into the fish section with some of the most random looking fish to which some of them were still alive! We did pick up a couple of extra things that weren't included on the menu such as a Duck egg and a Frog. The Duck egg was actually a Duck foetus egg which the chef asked if we wanted to eat it and I think Jackie and I just looked at each other and agreed no but we wanted to see inside. The frog was because I noticed a bag moving and we agreed to have it with lunch, I will admit my mouth fell open watching the woman kill and skin it there and then in the market but it's probably not the strangest thing I've seen.
Back at the restaurant we started our class by marinating the fish and chicken we had bought in the market. Everything goes into a little clay pot and we chose whether to put the hot chilli in to our dishes or to put the REALLY hot chilli into it. There were so many ingredients and we were talking so much I swear I'd forgotten to put something in. Later I discovered it was any pepper...whoops! The frog went in and it was still twitching even an hour after she'd killed it in the market - kind of creepy...
Whilst that was marinating we started the first course of making fresh Vietnamese spring rolls and having a go at decorating the plate afterwards. It's actually quite simple, the trick really is just to roll them really tightly and not break the rice paper. I joked with Jackie saying she should be good at this after smoking roll ups! I got a little cocky with my decoration and wrote out my name in Arabic script on the plate, I thought it looked good anyway so I don't care what anyone else thought! We also get to eat all of our courses so the incentive not to screw up was slightly higher lol. Cooking the main course took about 25 minutes and was only ready once the onions had caramelised and the sauce had thickened. Somehow (I'm not sure how), my dish was spicier than Jackies and I used a less spicy chilli! It was gorgeous food though and I was starting to feel really full up but we still had pudding to go. Flambe Mango with coconut ice cream in an orangy sauce, a bit sweet but still nice. I thought I was going to lose my eye brows with the flames but it was a good laugh and the usual jokes about fire extinguishers came out!
Then came the Duck egg...the chef left this till last because she said that after most people try it they don't want to eat anything else as they feel quite sick. She opened it up and it just looked ordinary till she started peeling away the outside. You should have seen the faces on the people on the next table, it was a definite Kodak moment lol. I will admit, I have eaten some really random and horrible things in Asia so far but really had to draw the line at a Duck foetus.
After leaving the restaurant with a little gift bag (recipe book, wooden spoon and grater/peeler - going to have to carry that around now till the end of my trip!) I went and did something I said I wouldn't. I wanted to hire a bicycle as walking to the Aquarium yesterday was painfully hot but they said they didn't have any so...I hired a hairdryer. Moped to anyone else of course lol. I had so many questions about how it worked, where to get petrol from etc etc I think it really tested the English of the hostel staff that's for sure. I set off, a little wobbly and once I had gotten over the thought of 'I am going to die' it was actually alright cruising round town. A cool breeze in my face (and all the rubbish from the road...) and the sun shining, I got from A to B in no time at all. I managed to go and see the Po Nagar Cham Towers and the Long Son Pagoda within 2 hours. It took at little longer because not all of the roads are labelled and they change names half way down etc.
The Po Nagar Cham Towers were nice, you got a good view of Nha Trang from the other side of town and they are done in what I can describe as an 'Angkor Wat' style. My only gripe is that I'd gone so late in the day there were just tourists everywhere. The Long Son Pagoda is also nice, 150 steps to the top where there sits a 24 metre high white Buddah looking out over Nha Trang. My only gripe about this place is the rip off merchant outside. He pointed at me riding by and then charged me 10,000 dong to park my bike. Only for me to walk round the corner and discover it's free parking at the pagoda...D'oh! Although I later discovered I wasn't the only person who got done by this!
I came back and got ready to go out, I was meeting Jackie and some others at Red Apple for what was supposed to be a quiet night. Lets just say a couple buckets of Vodka Redbull later, some really bad games of pool and I cannot remember walking back to my hostel! However, sensible me made me it back with everything in tact, nothing lost just a hole in my bag and my wallet where someone burnt me with a cigarette...thank god it wasn't my leg!
Will look at booking my bus for the day after tomorrow but availability is not great if you want to go the following day, ho hum another day at the beach if I cannot get a bus to Saigon *smile*.
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sarah SARAH! DO NOT BE GETTING THAT WASTED! Youll lose your camera/keys/wallet... again.... or end up being roofied!
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