January 2012 | Travel'nLass

Monday, January 23, 2012

Happy (Lunar) New Year (Tết) from Vietnam!

2012 "The Year of the Dragon"

Based on the Lunar calendar, today is the first day of 2012 - the Year of the Dragon. Short for "Tết Nguyên Đán", Tết is a HUGE holiday here in Vietnam.

Indeed, rather like Christmas-combined-with-Easter-combined-with-4th-of-July... on STEROIDS! There's weeks of preparations, cooking, cleaning, buying new clothes, flowers, special foods, candy, little red "lucky money" envelopes given to children, etc.

The streets are lined with vendors selling "Easter" baskets of candy and treats, and displays of special fruits (like watermelon, grapefruit, mango, etc.) that each have a propitious meaning. Special foods are cooked and offered to the kitchen spirits, and home alters are adorned with food, fruit, flowers and incense for ancestors and the Buddha. Then as the new year draws near, flower festivals spring up in all the parks, lanterns and lights twinkle in every tree, and fireworks fill the sky at midnight on New Year's Eve.

But that's not the end of it - it goes on for a week or more, as most every blessed Vietnamese heads back home to their childhood village for reunions with their parents and relatives. It's a mass EXODUS, leaving HCMC verily deserted. The usual cacophony of gazllions of motorbikes zoom, zoom, zooming like locust in the streets - today it's so quiet you can hear BIRDS CHIRPING! Indeed, this may well be the only day when one can SAFELY CROSS THE STREET in Saigon!

I don't presume to understand but a smidge of it - the religious significance, the many nuanced family customs. But I can tell you this: Tết in Vietnam, makes New Year's Eve in the States look like a vapid play-date with your Uncle Leroy (you know, the one who drools while slurping his Campbell's tomato soup.)

That, and I can at least drop a few pics of some of the highlights, plus point you to a full gallery of images of the flower festival at my eye-candy site: Through the Eyes of TravelnLass.

A little pre-Tet party w/ a few of Hang's English
classmates (my old CELTA students!)


Some of the yummy eats that we all helped prepare

My Vietnamese friend "Hang" and her youngest son, "Ben"


Hang's husband and oldest son "Bi" fishing at the flower festival

The TravelnLass tries to land "The Big One"

My first Nibbling Foot Massage (they exfoliate your feet!) Something I'd been wanting to try

here in Asia. Just 20,000 dong ($1) at the flower festival - tooooooo fun!

View all my pics of the 2012 Tet Flower Festival at Through the Eyes of TravelnLass

P.S. Curiously, I had to wait more than an hour to post this live 'cuz - while it's already Monday, the 23rd (New Year's Day here in Vietnam), this blog's server apparently is set on U.S. time (thus the post date was still showing Sunday, 22 January).

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures...

Foodie-wise that is. Though I don't presume to be a consummate foodie like my dear big sister (blogger at the scrumptious "Good Deal Meals"), after nearly 3 months now of eating out for every blessed meal here in Southeast Asia - suffice that I am DESPERATE for a home-cooked meal.

And the good news is... upon my return to HCMC from Sumatra, I moved (temporarily, til I find my own private apartment) into a most lovely rental (owned by my new Vietnamese friend "Hang") with no less than 4 large bedrooms (each w/ private bath) plus fabulous spiral staircase, huge dining room, and best of all a FULL KITCHEN! Presently the place is vacant until Hang rents out all the rooms, but she's kindly agreed to let me stay here gratis until I find my own place.

Hang has also been a tremendous help in ever so many things here, taking me to the local (HUGE) supermarket (a short walk from the apartment), inviting me to join her at the "English Club" (a gaggle of expats and Vietnamese that meet at a coffee shop 2 evenings per week to babble in conversational English/Vietnamese - great fun), translating for me at immigration (whilst I struggled with getting my visa extended - long story, worthy of its own separate post) giving me tips on Tet, the culture, Buddhism, etc. Indeed, such a wonderful guardian angel here for this newbie expat in Vietnam!

My homemade faux "pho" - glorified Top Ramen ala hot dogs!

ANYWAY, about that KITCHEN... So far I've only used it to dabble in rustling up some glorified Top Ramen (albeit creatively adding my own fresh cilantro, butter lettuce, fresh bean sprouts and lime.) But today I went to the supermarket all by myself (it was a MADHOUSE 'cuz everybody here is scurrying around preparing for Tet (the Lunar New Year - a VERY BIG DEAL here in Vietnam), and...

I suddenly had an urge to try making myself some "Western" fare, good ol' BACON & EGGS!

Somehow in the chaos of the supermarket, I managed to grab a half dozen eggs (hoping they weren't the kind w/ the embryo chick in them!) and even a small package of bacon.

Ah but once back at the Vietnamese kitchen actually making an omelet proved a tad tricky. Oh I found a frying pan, and happily chopped up some green onions and cilantro, along w/ a sliced tomato. Whisked three eggs with a spoon (I've yet to see a Vietnamese home with a f-o-r-k), dumped the eggs in the frying pan, topped 'em with the veggies, and finally - in a reckless moment of inspired culinary abandon - globbed on a couple of wedges of "Laughing Cow" cheese (hey, it's très French!). Simmered it all a bit, but then...

Omlette-in-a-Bowl

Uh, spatula? Apparently the Vietnamese likewise never heard of such an instrument. Indeed, though I searched high and low in the kitchen, I could find utterly NO utensils other than soup spoons and CHOPSTICKS!

Clearly chopsticks wouldn't prove useful in flipping an omelet, nor getting it to the plate.

Oh yeah - about that PLATE...

Once again, I could find nary a single flattish dish of any size in the entire kitchen. Plenty of rice bowls mind you, but a plate? Nuh-uh. I was going to have to eat my omelette and bacon out of a rice bowl, with a spoon and chopsticks.

Ah but nonetheless, oh my - my 1st home-cooked bacon and eggs suuuure tasted good!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Lake Toba, Sumatra: A Lesson in R.E.L.A.X.A.T.I.O.N.

Sunset on Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia

Rolling into my 9th day here in the little village of Tuk Tuk on Somosir Island in the middle of Lake Toba, Sumatra - the largest volcanic lake in the world. Surely a record for me to hang out so long in one spot when I'm on the trail. Ah but after a lifetime of flitting like a hummingbird whenever I dropped into a new land, I'm reveling in the simple pleasures of "slow travel". Staying put awhile, and learning to spend day after day, doing pretty much nothing at all.

Well o.k., I did hire a motorbike driver to whiz me to the north side of the isle for the weekly Wednesday "market" at Panguruen on the west coast of the island - a dazzling schmorgasbord of exotic tropical fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and... brassiers!

Another day I visited the local Batak museum and bought myself a most interesting (and for this minimalist backpacker, rare) souviner. A hand carved bone inscribed with the fascinating Batak calendar.

Vroom... vrooooom!

And of course there was the monumentally amazing day when dear Gaol, the manager here at the Samosir Villa Resort kindly took me out to a grassy vacant playfield on his (automatic) motorbike and... though I was scared to death, within minutes, this ol' lady was zoomin' (albeit a bit shakily) round 'n round ALL BY MYSELF!

But that's about as energetic as I've gotten here in more than a week. Mostly - I've just been spending my days in crushing toil requiring the most arduous executive decisions about:

A. What shall I have for breakfast? And more importantly, at which sweet little outdoor cafe shall I choose to loll away my morning? This morning it was a "Banana Taco" but more often than not, I favor the island museli with fresh, homemade yogurt, crispy coconut and a HUGE bowl full of chunky tropical fruits.

B. What shady corner of my delicious Samosir Villa Resort digs shall I curl up in and read my Kindle? The chaise by the pool? The mahogany swing by the edge of the lake? A cushioned perch overlooking the water?

C. Where shall I stroll for lunch (and what delightful new Indonesian delicacy shall I order?)

D. Shall I take an afternoon nap? or splash in the swimming pool? And furthermore, what tropical milkshake - papaya? chcolate avocado? tamarind? watermelon? pineapple? banana? shall I sip as I sun after my swim? And finally,

E. How shall I while away my evening - playing dominos and sipping homemade palm wine with the locals? Chatting with a few of the more interesting foreigners scattered about (two likewise ol' lasses from Denmark, a couple of Aussies, etc.)? And of course the most arduous chore of the day: will dinner be "gado-gado" (a traditional Indonesian concoction of vegetable, tofu and tempeh smothered in peanut sauce)? blackened grilled fish, freshly caught from Lake Toba? Aubergine Curry? Cap Cay (Indonesian stir-fry)? Chicken Satay? or... how 'bout roast suckling PIG?

I tell ya, it's a culinary bitch.

Worse, the room is a mere 15 bucks per night, a meal's under $3, and the wifi here by the pool - strong and reliable. I mean seriously, it would be easy to drop out here for months on end.

Ah but soon all this lovely decadence will be behind me, and I too shall be truly toiling like everybody else 'cuz... ILA in Saigon did indeed offer me a teaching position. And although I wrestled with whether or not I should take it (for I'm reeeeeeealy anxious to settle in my beloved Dalat) - in the end I accepted the job (a 6 month contract that I can break with just 30 days notice, teaching about 12 hours per week, and likely at least a class or three of little ones). ILA is one of the best schools in Veitnam and it will be excellent experience for this brand-spakin' new Teach. Besides, Dalat will still be there in 6 months so there's no rush...

Meanwhile, today I ferry across the lake to Parapat, then a taxi to Medan (about 4 hours), a final night at JJ's guesthouse, and tomorrow I fly back to HCMC via KL. As my new teach job starts on 1 February, that gives me about 3 weeks to find a new place in Saigon (hopefully with a KITCHEN!!) and settle in for the next 6 months.

Lots more pics of my holiday here in Sumatra. Once I get them all edited, I'll upload them to my "Through the Eyes of TravelnLass" gallery.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Pulau Weh, Sumatra - at the tippy-top of Indonesia

Goodness but I could peck 1,000 words for every blessed HOUR of my little holiday here in Sumatra. It seems each day there's a myriad of little interactions and misadventures that could easily fill a tome.

Ah but I'm now dangerously behind in my tales here (already post-Indonesian hospital stay, New Year's Eve Sumatran-style at the KFC, the-ride-from-hell mini-bus on New Year's Day, and now happily settled in for 9 days in J. R. R. Tolkien Land - Lake Toba), so will merely post some pics and peck a few mots so you can see for yourself what my 7 day stay on this tropical isle was like.

Quick flight from Medan to Banda Aceh, where I shared a tuk-tuk to the ferry with new Aussie pals Marcus and Alicia.

Ferry from Banda Aceh to Pulau Weh (the seas uh, a bit rough...) ;(

My little "Sugar-Shack" overlooking the Indian Ocean (ironically, it was the LAST room "at the inn" on Christmas Eve)

Waking up on Christmas morning (veiled in requisite mosquito netting) But... uh, where's Santa???

Who says you can't bring a little bit of "home" no matter where you roam?

Ah yes, Santa DID come to Sumatra!

(leastwise one of his elves managed to smuggle my original childhood Christmas stocking into Indonesia - along with a 40 year-old Christmas card from my parents, and a postcard of my beloved Seattle)

Hey! There was even a single tangerine (my childhood tradition) in the stocking on Christmas morn!

(mighty diligent little elf!) ;)

My new digs...

"Charming" rustic sugar-shacks all well 'n good for a desperate Christmas Eve, but after 2 days I found a much nicer place for just $7 more per night.