So I’m off to visit my folks for Christmas now. And in the rush of finishing last tasks and getting ready, it’s been amazing how much easier packing has become for me. Admittedly, it’s a lot easier going from my own home to mum and dad’s than packing to go from one unfamiliar place/country to another, of course. But also, I recognise just how skilled I’ve become at packing, through practice. I know the dimensions and capacity of each section of my suitcase inside out and back to front now! And I know how many clothes I need for 2 weeks. (It’s pretty much the same amount as for any length of time.) And I know that it’s really worth limiting the amount of footwear you take to save space in the suitcase. (I also am able to be more realistic about what footwear I will find useful.)
I’m hoping I’ve not forgotten anything, having said all that!… Ah. Tights. I forgot those. But if I really want to wear them, I can buy some new ones. (Always useful.) This is another perspective I’ve come to through travelling. It’s really not the end of the world if you forget something or leave something behind. Saying that, I don’t think I actually lost anything on my travels. (Or if I did, I’ve forgotten about it already, so it can’t have been that serious.)
The worst forgetting of things I did was accidentally leaving a pile of currency behind at my Aunt and Uncle’s place in New Zealand, when we went travelling for three and a half weeks! That was a boo boo. I wasted a lot of time and energy mentally berating myself about it, before realising that I could just spend the money using my bank card and then do a transaction with my relatives when we got back where I gave them cash as they transferred the same amount into my account. It was a faff, and I really should’ve listened to my Uncle and got him to take the cash out and give it to me as then I’d have avoided the bank charge and the hassle for all of us of doing an international bank transfer. But then the lady in their bank was so nice, it was a delight to give them some business, actually. (Can’t believe I just said that! Normally I hate banks on principle. [Sorry if you work for a bank!])
That story gives you an indication of just how systemically culturally lovely people are in New Zealand. Even bank employees at work! Nothing too much trouble, and a lot of chat about our holidays and hers while we waited for the hamster to run around its wheel on her computer. What a breath of fresh air!
Things I learnt while travelling #256 (there must have been at least that many): there’s not a lot of point wasting time and energy mentally berating yourself when you make a mistake. Better to think, ‘Oh well, I could’ve done that better, but I didn’t manage to’, let it go and move onto more useful questions like: What is the situation now? And how can I move forwards in it?
The thing is, while ever you’re mentally berating yourself, you are not able to be fully present. You are living in a very negative version of the past, rather than noticing the gift of the present moment. I set out on my travels knowing that I wanted to be fully present in all the wonderful places I would go to, and with all the people I would spend time with. I hope I can carry that sense of presence with me now, even when I’m not travelling…
And this splendid offering was my hostess Carol’s banana bread, which I can testify is indeed a wonder and delight, especially when dry fried and slathered in butter, as recommended! 😋:
Vietnamese coffee. Very nice:
This meal (below) was from a very good restaurant in Hanoi, except the only veggie option I could find on the menu turned out to be off. I gave in and had these Hanoi special prawn things and a chicken noodle soup dish:
Tam Coc (near Ninh Binh)
Smoothie:
Delicious tofu and papaya salad dish, with a characteristic sweet chilli type sauce. Really really tasty!:
The waitress gave me a couple of little bananas, I think as an apology for having muddled up my drink earlier. These little bananas (green and yellow) were growing everywhere in Ninh Binh.
Breakfast at Mai Spa Homestay – the best banh my Vietnamese sandwich I had. With pork here and omelette. Nice coffee too:
Our meal prepared with lots of teamwork at the Homestay was a real highlight of my whole trip:
And the 🥇 veggie pho I mentioned in an earlier post for breakfast on my last morning at Mai’s place was just beautiful 👌🏼😋
This was the hot meal they were serving on the night train if you paid extra for it. They somehow managed to wheel a trolly containing all this down the incredibly narrow corridors and dish it up right outside your carriage:
Aubergine and tofu dish cooked in the claypot slowly. This was another contender for the 🥇 best meal I had in Vietnam. It was heavenly!
Iced coffee I think (though it looks a bit big?):
Tra Qué Vegetable Village. This whole tour was remarkable… I think qualifying as the 🥇 best tour of my trip. It ended at the restaurant, which uses the vegetables grown in what is essentially an enormous community allotment on really rich fertile soil in the area. Here are all the dishes we tried as part of the tour. They were all delicious. As you can see, we got to see one of them being prepared as well:
Best Street food experience definitely in 🥇 Hoi An – these are in a previous post too, but just to have them all in order here:
I don’t seem to have eaten very much while in Penang (or at least I didn’t think it worth photographing). But this vegan salad was exactly what I was after. I remember it was unusually late finding somewhere to eat after a long day of sightseeing around the island. I was grateful they stayed open for me! The drink is a fruit smoothie, and I had salted edamame beans with the salad, and vegan fruit jelly for afters 😋:
South Indian dosa pancake with potato curry inside and various dipping sauces next to it:
Young coconuts minus the shell. I frequently saw people drinking coconut milk with a straw from these:
The pink things below are dragon fruit. I’d only ever had one of those before in the UK and it was horrible! But in Singapore, they’re riper and sweeter as well as spectacular to look at. Inside they have white flesh flecked with black seeds throughout. All of which is edible and tastes slightly sweet. They were so much nicer here. I had been so disappointed with the one I had in England years ago. It was tasteless and had a texture similar to boiled potato, which was a massive let down having admired the look of it!:
There are some really artistic cakes on sale in the malls in Singapore:
Japanese style mochi (a kind of pastry filled with a delicately sweet bean curd, I think):
You do get westernised food in Singapore, too, though it’s often more expensive. This was my smashed avocado on toast with lime, chilli flakes, toasted pine nuts and poached egg. Very hipster!:
From a traditional outdoor hawker centre this was mushroom noodle soup. They sprinkled fried anchovies on top:
The best veggie curry ever. Served on what I guess is a banana leaf. Ooooh it was gooooood:
Calamansi juice. (A type of green skinned sweet lime, that tastes more like orange to me):
The following 4 pictures were all elements of the same meal…
Chicken roasted in some very tasty way. I guess it must be a marinade? (And a little bit of pork too at the top of the picture):
“Nonya style” Achar pickles (also delicious);
Chilli sauce. Shiv said if the chilli sauce was bad, it could ruin the whole dish. This one was goooood:
Then there was the rice to go with all the above, which is the classic Singaporean dish, chicken rice. The rice tastes amazing, cooked in the juices from the chicken. But it just looks like normal rice, so I didn’t bother getting a picture.
Hawker Chan’s Michelin starred chicken rice, with seasonal green veg. And the unfeasibly small bill:
Kopi a kind of coffee made with condensed milk. Which tastes surprisingly nice:
Some more western food. This was my treat following braving the high swing bridge type thing at the super tree skywalk at Gardens by The Bay:
Veggie bento box. Including soup, green beans, chilli sauce, potato curry, rice:
Veggie gyoza (dumplings):
la perle 