Hue and La Vang - Part 1

We're back! The first day was spent getting there. Ho Chi Minh Airport is a nightmare. Right. Now that I've said it, we can move on to pictures! 

Banh Mi and a packet of Lay's 'beef pho' flavour! With salted cream coffee. Yup, you heard that right. Our first meal in Vietnam.

We found out the next day that they upgraded us to a suite. That's the passageway linking the sitting / dining area to the bedroom.

Hue night walking street. Bars galore. Music was blasting and locals and tourists alike were sitting along the street enjoying local cuisine and beers.

An assortment of Hue Cakes. Mostly tapioca starch with savoury fillings, altho there was a sweet corn one (the crumbly yellow one).

What remains of the original church in La Vang. 

Our lady of la vang shrine

Found this gem at a local corner shop. Banh Ep. Delicious crunchy 'pressed cake' or crackers with bbq shrimp pressed into it. Crispy, savoury, so good we bought 10 more packets to take home with us.

Vietnamese pizza... we had some in Da Lat previously but it WAS yummy so we decided to have another. Crunchy rice paper toasted over coals, with beansprouts and spam and an egg on the inside. They fold it in two and stick it in a paper bag, and off you go with your savoury pancake thing.

Banana fritters. We have them here too but these ones had sesame seeds in the batter. 

Delicious, hot, crunchy. 

Francis Savier Church where we attended mass in Vietnamese.  That's not a typo.

Trang Tien Bridge

A busker playing a traditional flute (BIKSS was so impressed he stopped to give him some money. This is not typical for him, I'm usually the one who'll put money in their hats.)

One of the buildings on the grounds of Gia Long tomb. It was so quiet we could hear the nearby cows chewing! Not something a city girl like me sees or hears very often. Or. At. All. 

One of the buildings that make up the Minh Mang Tomb complex.

Stairs leading up to Khai Dinh tomb. This was by far the most straightforward and "prettiest" of all the tombs. 

Each of the warriors is of different heights and sports different faces. It's not just a rinse and repeat situation. There was another row in front of this one, and a few of those had what looked like wings on their backs.

top - Fig salad with rice crackers

bottom - two types of fried spring rolls (one was like a mayo thing, and the other the more traditional spring rolls with shredded veggies and mince pork)

Incense village. There are at least 20 shops on either side of the road making and selling incense.

We bought some to stick in the urns at the churches we were going to visit. They use these instead of candles in their churches.

After a few 'wrong' tombs we finally found the right one. The grounds of the Tu Duc Tomb are really really expansive. 

Phu Cam Cathedral

Holding up two joss sticks to stick into the urn at the statue of St Anne

Dinner at the hotel - Hue flavours... that's imperial fried rice (tastes like regular fried rice), steamed veggies with shrimp sauce, and shrimp and pork belly in a sweet sour sace. Bottom right is a yam pudding. More like a paste... but the coconut cream made it pretty good!

Gac fruit. We google image searched. And no, we didn't try any cos this was at the market and we didn't see any being sold in a shop / cafe / restaurant.

Hue Citadel. By now we were just too tired to climb any more stairs but we did manage a walk-round, covered maybe half the area. Most of the buildings look the same tho.. this temple to pray to this person, that temple to that person... and so on and so forth. 

Got this for the sister cos she LOVES coriander. She tried some today and fell in love with it.

And I got me a bottle of their shrimp sauce or Mam Tom Chua. I still haven't figured out how and what to eat this with... but I'm sure I'll be able to find something on the web.

And now I'm tired. I'll post more in the days to come. I still haven't quite gotten over the fatigue of all that stair-climbing. 

Meanwhile, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Silver and Gold, Things New and Old

 

My first ever silver coin. Given to my by BIKSS for my birthday. It's really pretty.

BIKSS' first silver coin - given him by me for HIS birthday. (And I got myself one too.)

And also, this 2024 Kookaburra coin. Because I wanted the changeover coins. 

BIKSS has also picked up some more gold coins. Another Canadian Maple for each of us and some other bars for himself. 

There's an ongoing Gold Magnet joke between us at the moment.

And it's happening! 

We're flying to Vietnam today. Again. This time to Hue (Central VN) and then to spend a day back in HCMC before coming home. Where we have already made reservations for our favourite pizza place for lunch once we arrive there on Wednesday. 

And I found some new restaurants near the place we're staying so we might pop in. Altho I don't know how we'll find that many mealtimes with being there only one afternoon and overnight. I said even if we eat 3 hourly that's just 3, 5 and 8pm. BIKSS pointed out there's 11pm too... supper?

And I intend to buy a bag of Marou chocolates for friends and colleagues. And cashews! I will take photos! 

The plan in Hue is to visit the LaVang Basilica, Cathedral, 2 churches and a Monastery. AND find a driver who will take us to all the 7 royal tombs! 

BIKSS is organising a cruise for us with Hue Cakes and Tea down the Perfume River and then we'll probably spend a day around the Historic Citadel and Palaces. There will be markets and night walking streets to explore too.  

I'm excited and eager to get going. But here are some pics of the last month. 

Took a mini vacay on the first 2 days of CNY - there was a lion dance troupe at our hotel.

Also caught this diabolo act at the mall!

(Some of my) loot - Grey knit top, navy striped tee, black pants, grey pants. Because I'm worth it.

BIKSS took me to dinner for my birthday, a French place we enjoy but don't go to very often

(Burrata + salad + fried shallots /mushroom croquette /grilled veggie salad /grilled fish, salsa, mash)

And that's that for now. See you when I get back! 

My Year of Black and Gold and Going Places

We're planning a trip to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang, about 58km west of Hue, Vietnam. If everything goes according to plan, it'll be happening second week of Feb. We plan to get back into Ho Chi Minh a day before the trip ends so that we can shop a bit at our favourite markets there.

If everything continues to go to plan I might tag along with BIKSS to Thailand when he heads there in March for another work trip! Looking forward to visiting the Cath Kidston Teahouse again! Mmmm such delicious scones! But that's a ways away yet.

My current obsession is gold. And since I've always loved earrings, I figured if I'm going to spend money on shiny ear ornaments, may as well make 'em gold. At least they'll be worth something when I'm old and grey. The result of my quest for sparkly baubles is two pairs of earrings, one an 18k mixed yellow and white gold pair off Etsy, and the other a 24k yellow gold teardrop from a reputable jewellery chain where I live. 

On the actual gold front, I've also been wanting to get a 5g bar of investment gold, but was planning on waiting for some of my cash deposits to mature mid-Jan before doing so. 

However BIKSS reminded me that the last time Trump took office gold prices jumped. And advises against waiting too long. 

He has recently become interested in gold as well, so we went to my bullion shop of choice last week for him to pick up a bar. And then he bought me one by way of a Christmas present! I love it!

Anyway, he's going to spot me some dough before it's too late, so that we can buy more this Friday. And when my funds come rolling into my bank I'll return him the moola. With time deposit interest rates dropping 30% I've decided to take a larger than previosly intended portion of that cash out of the bank and put it into a Canadian Mint Maple Leaf coin. And before you tell me that coins cost more than bars, this one is only 1.9% over spot, making it cheaper than all the other options right now because, like every retailer in the world, my bullion trader is not unaware that they, too, need to dangle promotional prices in front of their clientele to entice people to buy more stuff.

Since I looked at prices 3 days ago it's already gone up a little bit. I only hope it won't hike up too much before we manage to get our pieces on Friday.

The other thing I've decided to do is just forget about all that fashion advice I've been hearing about re: stepping out of your comfort zone and trying out colours in your palette etc. I know I'm comfortable enough with some of the more neutral offerings in my autumn palette, but dammit, I've found myself staring at the wardrobe in the mornings more times than I would like, holding out a top and thinking why didn't I get this in black instead! I have since remedied that. These are some of my latest adds.

1. Flare fit V-neck top. Had it in White & Forest Green. And now I have it in Black.

2. Sleeveless V-neck top. Had it in Dusty Blue & Olive Green. And now I have it in Black. 

3. Knit top. Had it in Beige. And now I have it in Black.

4. Cotton tank. Had it in Camel. And now I have it in Black. 

Plus 2 bonus tops not previously owned in a different colour. 

A very decent one that I could wear for work, or to more conservative events... 

and another for fun date nights! 

Oh, and because I've always thought knits look just a little bit more dressy, I got me two knit tops. Not in black. Cos they didn't have THIS one in black.

And cos this one looked better in the beige.

I've also been on the lookout for a leopard bag, so I picked this up for 1/3 the original price on sale!

And because I don't have a pair of actual button up long black trousers, I got myself a pair. 

And those were my 10 pieces for under a hundred bucks. I think it might be something like 60-70 USD for the lot. Not a bad haul, I must say. It should last me the whole year. I don't intend to spend money on clothes and bags and skincare/makeup this year. Unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. I just have way a lot of this shit and I don't really need more. 

UNLESS I'm on holiday. That's the only caveat. In my defence, I only buy stuff when I'm on holiday if it's terribly cheaper than back home, or if it can't be got back home. And those are pretty good reasons imo. 

And so begins my 2025. 

I shall be baking like there's no tomorrow come mid-Jan as the Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year aka CNY) comes earlier than usual (end Jan iso Feb) this year. 

I will be having the traditional reunion dinner with the sister's family in their house this year, instead of here where mum was. Then on the first 2 days of CNY (national holidays) I'm going for a little R n R with CG1 to Malaysia! Just chillin', hangin', and not doing anythin'.  Being my first CNY without mum, I didn't think I should be sitting home and staring at the walls, as we will be without the usual stream of visitors since there's no more matriach in attendance for the family to visit / pay respects to. Instead I will be hosting a family lunch on the 4th day of CNY. 

Am I excited about the year to come? Yes. I can't explain it, but it feels like I'm on the cusp of something solid. Something true. Something that feels like a "let's go!" instead of a "just keep swimming." 

Perhaps because this is the first time, in a long time, I'm not stepping into a new year wondering if this will be dad's / mum's last.