We were so looking forward to our stay in Osaka not only for the quality time we would spend with my Uncle Shang, Aunt Yukari and cousins Branden and Joshua but also for all the fun comfort food Osaka has to offer.

We met up with Mom and Kathy at the Hong Kong airport for a connecting flight to Osaka on Cathay Pacific. Our relatives picked us up at the Kansai airport and welcomed us into their home, where we would be staying.  The first thing we noticed when we landed in Japan was the gazillion vending machines everywhere.  We loved the novelty of buying canned coffee that came out piping hot.  We also had fun going to restaurants were you would order your food at a machine before they served you-- pretty efficient!

Our first dinner was at a kushi yaki house, a place where you pick various skewers of meat and veggies, batter it up like tempura, and deep fry it in a pot of oil at your table.  You can choose from an assortment of sauces, similar to Chinese hot pot, and dip the deep fried yumminess in.  Branden got us hooked on sweet potato tempura with maple syrup-- he's still a Canadian at heart!

We had our bellies set on the real deal okonomiyaki (Japanese filled pancake) and takoyaki (battered octopus balls) in Osaka, and when we mentioned this to Aunt Yukari, she graciously cooked up a storm of okonomomiyaki and yakisoba in front of us for dinner one night.  Branden has mastered the art of making takoyaki and showed us his skills using a cool takoyaki grill...so nifty, we ended up picking up a grill ourselves!  Branden got pretty creative with the takoyaki fillings and made some with cheese and kimchi, which were really delicious.  We tried to give it a go making takoyaki, but our balls didn't quite quite make the cut.  We'll have to keep practicing when we get back home!

The ramen in Osaka is mouth-watering a-maaaaaaaa-zing, and we thought Benkei and Motomachi in Vancouver were good!  Our relatives took us to this awesome ramen shop, and we had tonkotsu shoyu and shio ramen with fatty pork washed down with some draft beeru.  This place also made some of the best gyoza we've ever tasted.

We went on a day trip to Kyoto and ate soba noodles at this cute little shop.  My soba set came with tofu done three ways, and Felix had salty sweet fish on top of his noodles.  Each set also came with a few side dishes of pickles and veggies.  Everything is presented so beautifully that you almost don't want to eat it.

We wanted our last meal with our family to be fun and casual, so we suggested a yakitori bar-- nothing beats meat on a stick!  I can't remember all the tasty skewers we had, but the standouts were pork belly, onigiri, chicken skin, spicy chicken, pork sausages and meatballs.  Since we were at a bar, we just had to sample the local draft beer as well as some Calpis chu-hi, a yogurt cocktail that contains shochu (tastes better than it sounds).

Even though we spent just a few days in Osaka, we had a blast hanging out with our cousins, filling our bellies and soaking in the sights and culture!

One of the side trips from Hanoi that you just have to do is take a cruise on Halong Bay, even though it's super touristy.  There are tons of junk boats to choose from in all price ranges.  You really get what you pay for in Vietnam, so we made sure we went with a middle of the road option and booked a two day cruise aboard the Amber Gold after browsing through a stack of colourful brochures. 

We were picked up from our hotel, boarded a minibus and met up with our fellow cruise mates-- two couples from Switzerland and a couple from Mauritius.  The journey to Halong Bay took about 3 hours including a mandatory "happy time" rest stop at a handicrafts factory.

We took a commuter boat that ferried us to the Amber Gold and saw the sea of junk boats waiting for their passengers.  The Amber Gold did not disappoint!  The rooms were clean and modern and each had a view of the sea.  The food was plentiful too, including lots of seafood options for lunch and dinner.

The cruise included a visit to Sung Sot Cave or "Cave of Surprises", where our tour guide pointed out various stalagmites and stalactites resembling a turtle, a couple sitting on a ledge, a lion, a dog and even a phallic looking object-- everything's open to your imagination!  After our cave tour, we spent a relaxing hour kayaking and exploring the bay.

We got back on the boat and drank in the sunset with a glass of wine.  Felix and our Swiss buddies decided to go for swim in the bay and even cannon-balled off the top deck of the boat-- yes, Felix conquered his fear of heights!  No hypothermia either!

The bay itself had breathtaking vistas, even with all the other tourist boats in the bay. We were also blessed with amazingly comfortable, sunny weather. Overall a great way to spend a couple of days on the water.

Sapa is a mountainous region in northern Vietnam, famous for its scenery and ethnic minority villages.

We took an overnight train - a fancy sleeper called the Livitrans. It started off well enough - when we boarded the train we were pleased to see that it matched the pictures in the flashy brochure we were shown. We picked a nice one because we knew the trains in Vietnam were well below Western standards. Ours even had Western toilets and tea service!

Unfortunately, when we got close to our cabin, we started smelling something quite strong, and when we got to our cabin, the smell was overwhelming. It was our worst nightmare come true -- a girl bunking in our same cabin had four durians with her! If you're not familiar with the "king of fruits", it's this huge spikey brown fruit that is usually just bigger than a human head. Looks very much like a medieval siege weapon, yes! And man does it STINK. Fresh durian is even more potent than the frozen variety we get in our Asian supermarkets in Canada, and the smell is something like a toe jam mixed with blue cheese concoction that has been cultivated for years. So imagine trying to sleep on a moving train (already not so comfortable) with four of those bad boys! Props to Ange for taking the bunk right beside the offending fruit. I think the girl felt bad because she did try to stuff it in the covered wastebasket before ceremoniously pulling the covers over her head. All that did though, was to put the stinkers closer to Ange's head!

Apologies to Sapa for stinking on arrival -- our clothes must have reeked!

Sapa was freezing cold -- so different from the sticky humid heat of Hanoi. I think the average temperature was about 7C. Before coming to Sapa, we were looking forward to a refreshing change, but this was a bit extreme. On top of that, our hotel didn't have heat! I thought we were going to have a "Calgary in May" repeat (read: trying to sleep in the freakin' cold). Fortunately the hotel had portable heaters for us that we were able to huddle in front of.

The chill air did make for amazing hiking weather. We did two hikes: the first day we visited the Hmong village of Cat Cat, and the second day we did a guided hike through the minority villages of Lao Chai, Tavan, and Sin Chai. The hikes were simply amazing. Muddy, but amazing! Imagine hiking down valleys completely carved with rice paddies, dotted with unique village architecture and villagers going about their own business. Well, almost -- all tour groups get "attached" by village children trying to peddle their wares, but that's almost expected in Vietnam. Anyway, the scenery was spectacular, I think it was even better since there was a light mist everywhere adding to the charm. We felt like we were in a Chinese martial arts epic! It was an added bonus that our tour guide was of Black Hmong origin and grew up in Lao Chai herself.

Luck was on our side on the way back to Hanoi. No durians, just two quiet, normal girls from Saigon. Although they probably thought we stank! Residual durian smell perhaps?

Yes yes we're still alive...

Apologies for the lack of updates, it's been a busy couple of weeks!

<begin_excuses>
We flew from Vietnam to Osaka, Japan to meet up with Ange's mom and younger sister Kathy. We spent a week in Japan with Ange's uncle's family, so it was a super busy week!

We then spent some time in Hong Kong, where we stayed in a tiny tiny place in TST, so there was just no room to type! Apart from that, both Ange's mom and Kath got sick, so we were more worried about them then using the computer.

AND NOW we're in China, where the internet is super slow (something about a massive firewall)!

</begin__excuses>

Fear not though, we will definitely write up some fun stories when we have time, cuz we've got lots!

Hanoi is the bustling big city of northern Vietnam -- quite the metropolis, especially compared to Hoi An and Hue. In fact, whether or not it is the political capital of Vietnam, it definitely felt like the fashion capital, even more so than nutty Saigon. This was even reflected in the fake designer goods all over the city's markets and shops.

We spent a lot of time in Hanoi, and made it our hub for side trips out to Sapa and Halong Bay. There is quite a lot to see, and even just sitting in a coffee shop in Hanoi's Old Quarter is a worthwhile use of time. Not to mention how amazing the coffee is in Hanoi! Here's one of our favourites -- Cafe Nang in the old quarter, run by a cute old lady.

Our hotel was a fantastic find as well, and we can heartily recommend Sunshine Palace Hotel in the Old Quarter. Super clean and modern and the service was spectacular. We had a fruit basket everyday filled with bananas, mango, dragonfruit and apples. The shower had a built in steam sauna, music, body massage jets and disco lights!

Hanoi's Old Quarter is well known for its shopping streets. What's interesting about them is each street is a collection of stores selling the same range of items. All the usual ones you would expect are there: clothing street, shoe street, hat/motorbike helmet street, bag street. What's even more interesting are some of the more, shall we say, eclectic vendor streets. Some notable ones: absorbency street (towels, mops, and feminine hygiene products), religious offerings street (shrines, buddhas, incense, hell money), packaging street (packing tape, ribbon, boxes, styrofoam), bamboo ladder street, party supply street (balloons, streamers, noise makers, grab bag gifts), and cigarette street.

We got to see some interesting cultural venues as well. We caught a water puppet show -- some of you may have seen this on The Amazing Race. It was actually quite a good show, with lots of music and intricately choreographed puppetry. On another day we took a local bus out to the Museum of Ethnology to learn about Vietnam's indigenous population and minority tribes. Along with the normal exhibits, the really cool part of the museum was a huge section in the back with full-scale replica tribal homes, so that you can walk through and experience a slice of each tribe's daily affairs.

Probably one of the most visited sites in Hanoi, by foreigners and especially Vietnamese tourists, is Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. Even though he was so revered as the founding father of modern Vietnam, the people went against his wish to be cremated upon his death, and instead built a mausoleum so that every common Vietnamese (along with curious foreigners) could get up close and get a look at their leader. With lots of restrictions of course! You have to check your bag and camera before you get in, and along the way there's a battalion of guards ready to badger you if you're doing anything remotely disrepectful or inappropriate. This means no talking, no smiling or laughing, no hats or sunglasses. An American tourist in front of me was told several times to keep his arms at his side; the exchange went something like this:

Tourist: standing with arms crossed in front of his chest.
Guard: motions to tourist with a downward sweeping hand movement, intended to make tourist put his arms at his sides.
Tourist: moves from crossed-arm position to elbows out and hands at hips (you know, impatient stance).
Guard: motions to tourist with a downward sweeping hand movement, intended to make tourist put his arms at his sides.
Tourist: moves from impatient stance to hands folded in front of him. (you know, obedient stance, which even I thought would be quite respectful enough).
Guard: motions to tourist with a downward sweeping hand movement, intended to make tourist put his arms at his sides.
Tourist: finally puts his arms at his side!

I almost burst out laughing at this exchange, but of course, I probably would have been shot, so I stifled my giggle and shuffled along.

Seeing Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body was surreal -- he was in large, dark, square room guarded by four guards armed with rifles, I suppose in case anyone wanted to rush the glass case and try to give the big guy a bear hug. He was lying in a glass case in a traditional Vietnamese white silk outfit, and his skin was as white as his beard! Allegedly the body gets shipped to Russia for three months every year for maintenance! Looking good Ho Chi Minh -- perhaps time to wean off of the whitening cream though? I guess everyone else in Asia seems to be hooked on it...

Another fun thing we noticed was how much Hanoi residents like to customize their motorbikes and scooters. Since it's their primary mode of transportation, and it's a fashionable city, this is one way the locals like to express themselves. Ken and Sam, they beat us to the punch! Check out these funky custom seat covers:
We also happened upon some cockfighting in a park! Seemed a litte inhumane, but it definitely drew a lot of spectators. I thought it would be a lot bloodier, but maybe the men were just testing their fighters out and taking them for a spin.

As we've eaten our way from the south to the north, we've concluded that the most delicious food can be found at the northern part of the country in Hanoi.  We're pleased to end our travels in Vietnam with a lasting taste in our mouths (pun intended)!  As we love to walk and explore by foot, our most memorable meals were on the sidewalk alongside locals.  The street food in Hanoi rivals what we had in Bangkok due to the variety of delights available at all hours of the day.  Armed with ravenous appetites and a sense of adventure, we took to the streets by storm. 

Here are some of our favourite delicacies:

Banh Mi - baguette stuffed with pate, mystery meat, pork fluff, pickled carrots and cukes...love the French influence!
Bun Cha - BBQ pork patties soaked in fish sauce with vermicelli noodles and fresh herbs
Doner Kebab - like a shawarma but stuffed in a baguette
Nom Thit Bo Kho - shredded papaya salad topped with beef jerky and drizzled with sweet fish sauce dressing
Banh Cuon - rice rolls filled with ground pork and mushrooms...the lady making them has mad skills to get the rolls paper thin!
Che - grass jelly, longans, lotus nuts and coconut milk over shaved ice
Glutinous Rice Balls - filled with ginger, palm sugar and sprinkled with sesame seeds
Xoi Xeo - sticky rice with mung bean paste, fried egg, fried shallots and served with spicy pickled cukes
Xoi Nem - sweet glutinous rice with ice cream and toasted coconut...my favourite dessert in SEA so far!
Bun Oc - snails, tofu and vermicelli in a spicy sour tomato broth...we didn't know what we were ordering when we had this dish but it smelled and tasted delicious!
Banh Bao - steamed buns filled with ground pork, wood ear fungus and quail eggs
Chao Ga - congee with shredded chicken...comfort food
Custard Apples - looks like an artichoke with a sweet custardy flesh and chock full of nutrients...would love to find these in Canada!

A delicacy we just couldn't stomach:
Thit Cho - dog meat.

Just to clarify a couple of our more interesting observations about travelling through Cambodia...

1. Hair Picking Happens Here Too!

Ok, I think we got this one figured out, even though it's a wild stab in the dark. We originally thought they were picking through each other's hair for hair lice, and then using tweezers to pick out the offending bugger. This could still be the case! But after a night of walking through Hanoi, I noticed these aphids kept flying into us, and by the end of the night, I was picking dead aphids out of Ange's hair! Could it be we stumbled upon the answer here?

2. Rural Whiskey Gas Stations

For awhile we were wondering what the heck a rack of bottles was for, sitting on the roadside every 100 meters to a kilometer or so, and all the bottles had the same coloured liquid -- a whiskey colour. I was thinking, sweet, you can get a shot of Johnnie Walker even out in the boonies! But then we noticed there were racks of coke bottles in some stops with the same coloured liquid -- and it definitely wasn't Coke.

We finally figured out that they were gas stations, after watching our own tuk-tuk driver pull up to one. He handed the "attendant" some money, and with a funnel, she dumped a whiskey bottle full of gas into his motorbike's gas tank, just as I was about to order a round of shots for all of us... ok, scratch that.

Interesting though -- where the gas companies don't deem it feasible to build big gas stations, the locals have found a way to fill the void. Personally, I'd fill up at the whiskey stations over the Coke stations -- seems classier!

3. Touts in Action

You can't really comprehend the competitiveness of the touting market unless you've actually experienced it. Scores of kids with their wares dangling from all limbs attacking your tuk-tuk as you pull up, with all the great catch phrases mentioned in a previous post. Just so you get an idea, I managed to catch this photo of touts lining up to get some turista action!

4. Motorbike Loading

As we've said before, the motos are used for carrying everything -- families of 5, live livestock, armoires, fish traps... here's a snap of one that passed our tuk-tuk carrying a mish-mash of stuff. There were better ones than this, but they're too fast to get snaps of!

5. Face Masks

Since we were taking open-air tuk-tuks around, we thought we'd join the locals in their face mask wearing culture to avoid inhaling some of the dust kicked up on the roads. They love their face masks! They even have ones with designer brands stamped across them, and funky prints and patterns. We just went to a pharmacy to get the novice ones, but as soon as we donned them, even the locals stopped staring as much -- we were blending in!

The fact that they feel like they need to wear them is a bit depressing -- they know they have an air quality problem, but they've decided to take the short-term approach and solve it on a personal level instead of sparking some lasting change that will actually help their pollution problems. Is this going to create a generation of oxygen-deprivation-related afflicted kids?

Hoi An is known for its hundreds of tailors and shoemakers that line the streets beckoning you to come inside and take a look as you walk by.  It can be quite overwhelming to have stuff made if you're not prepared as much can get lost in translation, and you may end up with something that Ugly Betty wouldn't even wear.

You peruse catalogs for ideas and pick out colours, fabrics and all the itty bitty details for your threads.  The tailors then take all your measurements, and you go back for a fitting or two until you're happy.  You can easily go overboard getting heaps made due to the bargain prices.  A custom made cashmere wool suit can be made for as little as $50!  Good thing we still had our flashpacker hats on!

I love Soia and Kyo as their coats fit me like a glove, so I ended up having a copycat trench made, and Felix had a casual sport coat made that he could wear with jeans.  We also had some replica Birkenstock sandals made, which seem pretty comfy so far.  Hopefully things don't start falling apart after a couple wears!

The food in Hoi An is amazing and more than satisfied our gastro tastes!  The town is famous for cao lau, flat doughy noodles topped with croutons, pork slices, veggies and herbs served in a savoury broth.  These noodles are extra special because what makes them authentic is that they can only be made with water from the Ba Le well.  Our hotel served this for breakfast, so I had this dish almost every day!  We also had white rose, steamed dumplings filled with shrimp and topped with a fried garlic and vinegar fish sauce.  Hoi An also has their own version of nachos sans cheese which they make with deep fried wontons topped with sauteed onions, tomatoes and pineapples.  Wash that all down with a glass of draft beer for 15 cents and you're in heaven!

One of our highlights was renting a motorbike and cruising down to Cua Dai beach for some R&R and a much needed escape from the tailors.  Felix really wants a Vespa now!  We sat on beach loungers all day, read, ate and vegged to the max.  We even had fresh tofu dessert served to us from a vendor walking along the beach!

We heart Hoi An!

We decided to take the train from Hue to Hoi An (the closest train station to Hoi An is actually in the adjacent city of Danang).

We definitely weren't expecting 1st class Western standards, and it definitely wasn't... more on that later.

What really shocked us was the behaviour of the locals, exemplified by boarding the train. As soon as the train pulled in, all the locals carrying their bags and grocery baskets rushed the doors, and I mean full on elbows-out eye-on-the-prize pushing and shoving. It was almost as if we didn't have reserved seating (we all did) and it was the last train escaping the apocalypse! Seriously, Ange and I got run over half a dozen times and even as we were trying to push onto the doorway of our coach, people were passing their luggage OVER OUR HEADS to family members that were already inside the doorway, as if we weren't there! Nutso.

The train itself wasn't terrible, but some interesting points to note. The squat toilets just empty onto the tracks (smelled fantastically disgusting even when we were standing outside of the coach). The pockets in front of everyone's seats were full of garbage. The food carts being pushed by definitely did not look appetizing, and each had an air force of flies buzzing around.

Apart from all this, the Reunification Express went through some amazing coastal scenery, which made it well worth the trip.

Hue is located just south of the DMZ or demilitarized zone that separated north and south Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  The city has gone through some tough times, is still being restored and will be for a long time as so much was destroyed. 

We only spent a couple days here and visited the Citadel, which is a sprawling complex of moats, gates, courtyards, temples and pavillions-- definitely a fun place to play hide and seek.  The Citadel is where the emperor dealt with all matters of government and militia.  The Citadel is incredibly massive and even contained it's own forbidden purple city within its walls.  The architecture was a mix of Chinese and Japanese influences.  Felix tells me that we'll see lots more of this when we visit Beijing.

We also booked a day tour that included a dragon boat trip down the perfume river and a visit to the Tombs of the Emperors.  Emperors had opulent grounds that were built for them before they passed.  It was amazing to see lakes, bridges, statues, and pagodas upon entering the tombs.  Back then, emperors had multiple wives and concubines, so they even built tombs and temples they dedicated to their favourites.  One emperor had over a hundred wives and concubines and apparently fathered five daughters in one day!

Hue also has a couple culinary delights that we sampled-- bun bo Hue, a delicious noodle soup with beef and chili broth and hu thieu, thin vermicelli noodles you can have in a soup or dry topped with various meats.

You'll notice in our pics that our hair is shorter, mine more so.  We went to a salon in Saigon and got haircuts (not sure if Felix needed one!) and scalp massages-- totally relaxing after a long hot day of walking.