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Oh Vietnam – Being Ripped Off Nearly Everyday
It’s funny and mostly sad how often you will be ripped off in Vietnam. Not everyone will try but the majority will, especially in the touristy places. – the noodle soup place that we had been visiting everyday for the past week had been charging us 40,000 VND each. One day another man served us and charged us 30,000 VND. He also showed us on the menu that it said 30,000 before being told off in Vietnamese by his mother for telling us the correct price. The next day they tried to charge us 40,000 VND again! – the hotel demanding $37 USD for our visa extension even after we…
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Don’t be That Guy (or Girl) to order Crab and then Complain
Don’t be this girl. She ordered a Crab dish at the Crab Market, in a Crab Restaurant (literally called ‘The Crab Kitchen’). When the dish came she complained and asked for the staff to take out all of the meat from the shell as it was ‘too messy’ for her to do it herself. Don’t eat crab then. De-shelling it, and fighting to get to the meat is the best part. Duh.
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Crab Carnage
Made it to Kep, about 30 minutes away from Kampot – depending on how many locals the bus picks up and drops off, and it’s a cute little town. Kep is full of old French colonial villas that are in ruins after the Khmer Rouge era where starving locals looted and picked anything they could use to survive eg. Firewood, any material of value etc. Very cool town, but the main reason I wanted to explore Kep was via my mouth and stomach, as it’s Craaaab City! We’re staying in a cute rounded bungalow owned by a Swiss-Khmer family, Bacoma Bungalows, and my priority for choosing it was its close…
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Kampot Food
Been in Kampot for three days now and we’ve had some great food (and some not so good) – though I cannot wait to try out the famous crab in Kep, our next stop! Sisters II – Bakery/Cafe Basic decor inside but lightly air-conditioned (not the extreme kind that makes you want to put a fleece jumper on) which is great. The woman who runs it learnt how to bake while in an orphanage (according to Trip Advisor reviews from other guests) and makes all of the bread and cakes from scratch. We had a great breakfast here with real bacon (!!!), fried/scrambled eggs, home-made bread, Earl Grey tea and…
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Koh Rong – Eating Sea Urchins
Day 2 on Koh Rong we were planning on hiking the 1.5-2hr journey to find the 7km beach on the other side of the island. As we were packing our cans of tuna and crackers into our day bag, it started pissing down with rain. Hours and hours of rain, so we decided to postpone our beach hike and ended up drinking beer at lunch and then going on a leisurely kayak ride with the other couple, Seb & Evelyn, from Palm Beach. Beast had advised against swimming in the beach outside of Palm Beach Bungalows as the warm weather had brought an abundance of sea urchins into the area,…
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Trang night market
A great way to spend an evening or three in Trang! There is an abundance of really cheap and fantastic food, nice people and a lack of tourists. This is a very charming place, Thailand that is not suffering from Tourism poisoning. Go to the one near the station, there is another one further up near the clock tower, however we enjoyed the one near the station more.
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Jungle Trekking – Bush Bashing
Went for a mini hike on our second day in the Cameron Highlands. We met a very nice French couple at Orchid Lodge, the night before, and ended up going on a hike with Bastien. He and Audrey had taken Path 1 the day we arrived, and said it was quite a difficult trek, so Lionel and I, being the lazy people we are, decided to tackle Path 10 (an easy, non-challenging trek – some would say, stroll). As it rains every afternoon, and mists over after 11am or so (thus, rendering any view you climb for hours to get to, obsolete), we decided to head up early – 9.30am…
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Banana leaf curry by hand
Tonight for dinner we met up with our friend from Uni and she took us out in Bangsar for some really nice banana leaf curry. We ate with our hands as it is supposed to be. Bangsar is one of the nicest parts of Kuala Lumpur that we have seen, even went for a beer afterwards.
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Food in Singapore
Not going to lie, we’ve had some different food here. Mostly at family dinners. For big parties, celebrations, weddings, etc. there’s usually karaoke involved. During the actual dinner! Must be weirder for Lionel to experience these dinners. At least I’ve been to some traditional Chinese dinners in the past and kinda knew what to expect. (Pretty much just copy what everyone else is doing and always let the elder people eat first, and always try everything – mostly so you don’t offend the host!) Hawker Centres on the other hand are pretty amazing. Cheap and quick, just the way I like it. We’ve had 2 x Chilli Crabs for…
