Happy Thanksgiving y'all!
Celebrating for the first time today with a turkey cranberry and stuffing sandwich (with a dunking pot of gravy of course) and pumpkin pie. I am definitely thankful for food! Family, friends and food, thank you for that. Never did gravy taste so good.
This week we stocked up at the supermarket and recreated the Ayurvedic curries from our cooking lesson. I've got to say, pretty damn good. They're gonna be on my regular list when I settle down again I think! We also treated ourselves to my favourite dish of Mango Curry at the Hanoi Social Club and that did not disappoint either.
But obviously the best food to indulge on is the local cuisine, so we were thrilled when Hoai and Linh (colleagues from my Friday school) offered to take us out for some Phô Cuon and Vietnamese coffee. This soon became our favourite dish and we had a great evening with them learning about everything Vietnamese and making them giggle at random snippets of our mundane lives back in England.
Day 174 - Thursday 1st December 7.24pm
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Whilst everyone sends snaps of their freezing car thermometers back home I'm sitting cosy in a cafe in Hanoi writing Christmas cards over my turkey stuffing cranberry and gravy sandwich (yes that is the second one since Thanksgiving but it's just too good) and a massive slab of the most delicious chocolate cake I've had in the world, with Christmas songs floating along in the background. It's December 1st already!
This also means that tomorrow is sadly our last day living in Hanoi. We've had a busy week cramming in all those "yeah let's do that one day"'s and trying all the street delights we come across (obviously the majority of our Hanoi Bucket List revolves around food).
One of our favourite street treats was when we randomly stumbled across Bánh Cuon, peering curiously into the cooking pot when a French Vietnamese guy offered to help and translate. Best decision ever - little steamed rice pods stuffed with pork and mushroom and all sorts, with a chilli dipping sauce. Another lady was also frying something that had intrigued us for weeks, which turned out to be banana fritters and some weird battered potato things, needless to say the banana ones went down a treat.
Our other local favourite was a stall down the road with Bánh Xeo & Nem Lui; the first is rice pancakes fried with prawns beansprouts etc, wrapped up in rice paper with herbs and dipped into a light chilli sauce, the latter is minced meat barbecued on a lemongrass stick. We've invited Hoai and Linh out again for more Phô Cuốn (and other dishes I couldn't name) and packed in as many home cooked stir fries as we can.
For the rest of our final few days we've walked down to the lake for a coconut cone when the sunset looked good, continued counteracting the food with jogging to yoga and the occasional pilates and even attended a slightly odd but relaxing meditation session. Who knew squeezing out the gooey aloe leaf flesh could make such a great foot treatment too?
I've tried to visit Phuc Tue as much as I can too to spend time with my old students before I say goodbye once more. It's been fantastic to see them all again all grown up and I hope this won't be the last time too, especially for the beautiful Anh and my lovely teacher Nhien.
One thing I wanted to tick off the list living here was playing badminton in the Botanical Gardens (a must do in Hanoi!) and walk to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum at night time, to see the building lit up in its full glory. I'd driven past so many times and thought it looked beautiful at night, but it only took us three months to actually pay a visit.
My love of tea has grown too, I really enjoy a dainty little cup of iced Vietnamese tea and my favourite finds so far have been kumquat tea with watermelon and peach tea with passion fruit. Surprisingly Megan and I have also jumped on the beer bandwagon, making the most of the freshly brewed barrels of Bia Hoi that are cheap as chips (well cheaper than water in fact). Last week we enjoyed an evening making friends over beers, boogying and burritos, the latter was highly recommended to any passer by so I think I deserve a tip.
This morning I had my last yoga class and health-filled smoothie, and my instructor Thuy very kindly gave me a mini session of simple techniques to continue on my travels and to strengthen my dodgy back, my favourite being a head stand using just two chairs and a wall, head hanging in limbo. Let's see how that one goes!
We have had some free time to plan our next steps into Asia too, over egg coffees and avocado smoothies. After spending some time with my Mum and Stu in Bangkok next week, we'll be choo-chooing to the North to explore Chiang Mai and Pai, before jetting to Myanmar for Christmas. It's going to be pretty strange without the frosty mornings and mince pies, but I am excited to celebrate my time abroad in a new way! Then the plan is head to South Thailand to see in the New Year, spend a few weeks island hopping then casually fly to the Philippines to top it all off... I've worked hard for this I promise!
Day 177 - Sunday 4th December 12.14pm
After six long months of Asian life, I'm reunited with my beautiful Mum and Stu under the Bangkok blue skies for a few days. After a manic flight and long delays they got to our rooftop hotel and it felt great to have a big mummy hug again. I'm very lucky to have such supportive family and friends around me joining me on my life overseas!
Packing and early airport buses have provided us with minimal sleep this week so it's now time to sweat, swim and sunbathe with my favourites.
Friday was our last day in Hanoi, packing up our flat, squishing everything into our rucksacks and not quite sure how to feel about everything. We had one last Bùn cha, my favourite Vietnamese dish (vermicelli rice noodles with mini burgers and bacon in a delicious broth), said another round of goodbyes at Phuc tue and my last lesson with my lovely fun students at Educap. To celebrate we found the little rooftop gem of Trill Cafe for a mojito and surprise dinner watching sunset over the city, getting something completely different to what we ordered!
Saturday presented us with a 5am start, unable to keep my eyes open, and the long journey to Bangkok begins. Twelve weeks in Vietnam complete, it has been an absolute pleasure, now it's time to settle into Thai life again. Sawasdeekaaaa.
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