Happy Divali!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I don't know that much about Hinduism. I don't remember learning about it when I was at school, and it's not something I've ever had to teach about during my 13 years as a classroom teacher.

However, I recently visited my first Hindu temples, one in Kuala Lumpur (where we stayed for a night at either end of our trip to Saigon) and one in Saigon.  I found them fascinating - so open, welcoming and friendly... and so brightly coloured too! 

The first thing you notice as you approach the Sri Mahamariamman Temple in KL are the rows of stalls where people are busily making and selling garlands.  The smell of the jasmine blossom and the limes was incredible.

I quickly realised that there's a real focus on food in the temple!  These beautifully presented bananas had - I think - been left as an offering.

Statues of many Hindu gods.

Here's one I recognised (thanks to Darren!) - Ganesh.  Someone had left him an orange and some flowers.

There was a very relaxed atmosphere in the temple.

The building is topped with an amazingly colourful and detailed 75-foot-high tower. It is covered with depictions of Hindu gods and goddesses.

The women were wearing the most beautiful jewel-coloured saris.

As we were walking around, a ceremony was taking place.  It was fascinating to watch.  This is a very poor photo (I felt uncomfortable taking pictures during an act of worship), but I wanted to capture it so I could find out what it was all about...   They were pouring buckets of what looked like juice over the statue of the god.

These people were busily juicing oranges to add to the buckets.  The surrounding floor was also littered with other fruit and vegetables, so I don't think it was just oranges that were being used.

If anyone knows the background behind this ritual I would love to hear about it.

The Hindu temple in Saigon was equally beautiful and brightly coloured and people were leaving garlands and offerings of food and fruit.  The fragrance of incense was also very noticeable as worshippers were lighting incense sticks, praying to the gods and leaving the sticks burning in urns such as this.

This little boy was very interested in me and my camera!

Lighting the incense sticks.

It was only on our journey back to Brunei, when we stopped off in KL once again, that we realised that Divali was approaching - Hindu New Year.  We walked past many banners advertising the Divali celebrations in the city.  We were also intrigued to see these gorgeous designs (Rangoli Patterns) being created around the city (we saw one in the airport, and several in shopping malls) - they were made of coloured rice. 

I'm pleased to say that this week I am also teaching my class about Divali, focusing on the story of Rama and Sita.  The message of Divali seems appropriate to us all - may good triumph over evil, and may our lives be full of light.

A Week in Saigon - Some things we DIDN'T try...

I've already written about how I love Vietnamese food...  but there are some things that I just couldn't face.

Birds' Nest Soup - soup made from the nests of the Cave Swift, a bird renowned for building its nest from its own saliva.  Spit soup, mmmmm!

Weasel 'special' coffee - coffee beans that have been eaten and subsequently pooped out by weasels.  There's just no need for that.

A Week in Saigon - Eating Out

I had a suspicion that I was going to love Vietnamese food, but this was purely based on 2 lunches I had at a Vietnamese restaurant in Alliston, Ontario, when I was about to leave Canada!  However, my hunch was right - I adore Vietnamese cuisine.

It's full of zingy flavours, with lots of fruit, herbs and vegetables.  It's also generally pretty healthy as it often includes very little oil.  I have yet to attempt cooking any Vietnamese dishes at home, but one of the mums at my school who is Vietnamese has told me that she sometimes runs cookery classes in her home, and has said she'll invite me along to the next one - I can't wait.

Whilst in Saigon (which I suppose I should really be calling Ho Chi Minh City, its official name) we ate out every day.  On our first evening there we discovered the Night Market which springs up in the streets every evening as the indoor market, Ben Thanh, closes.  It was amazing watching the 'restaurants' appear - gazebos would be erected, barbecues lit, chairs and tables put out, and within what seemed like minutes they were open for business.

 Baffled by the choice, and basing our selection purely upon which sold the cheapest 'Bia Saigon' (10,000 dong - 50c US!) we settled down for a snack.

We chose Rice Paper Rolls, delicious prawn and noodle-filled rolls which also included a healthy handful of various herbs - Mint, Thai Basil, and others we couldn't identify.  They were served with a gorgeous dipping sauce, a little like the Thai nam prik num, but sweeter - made with fish sauce, lime juice, chili and sugar.  I've found a recipe for the rolls and sauce here (an Australian food site!)   We also ordered some fried spring rolls which were nice, but felt rather unhealthy compared to the other rolls.

The local beer was great.  And at roughly 30p (UK) per bottle, you certainly couldn't complain!  We've got very used to not having an alcoholic drink when we eat out in Brunei, so it seemed like a real treat to be able to enjoy a chilled lager (or 3) with our meal.

Breakfast the following morning in our hotel proved to be a very exciting buffet.  They had attempted to cater to both western and Asian tastes, and Rob did try a great-British-fry-up once...

But of course the best option turned out to be rice porridge with condiments (a new favourite of mine, and something we have started making regularly at home), followed by fried rice and vegetables, topped with a fried egg.

Thus fortified by breakfast we would head out to explore the city.  It was a source of great stress to me that we didn't often eat lunch - what a wasted opportunity!  But we were usually so full after breakfast that we couldn't manage the next meal.  However, it always amused us to see that the locals had no such worries and would stop for lunch wherever they were and whatever they were doing...

It was a great time to wander around the markets as the stall-holders were too busy eating to grab you and attempt to thrust touristy t-shirts upon you.

Of course it wasn't long before we sampled the famous Vietnamese soup, Pho.  Pho shops and stalls were everywhere - this one sold itself on the fact that Bill Clinton ate here on a presidential visit.

We however chose to eat at Pho 24, a countrywide chain of Pho restaurants that came highly recommended in our guidebook. 

We ordered Pho with beef fillet, and watched as they ladled out a dish of steaming broth then dropped in the thin slices of raw meat, which were cooked as they hit the hot soup.  The soup is full of noodles, but was served with a large plate of herbs, beansprouts, chilis and lime wedges to add to taste.

Sluuuuurrrrrrrpppppppp!

Delicious.

During our day out to the Mekong Delta we ate lunch at a great little restaurant that served lots of fresh Mekong-caught seafood.  This crispy-fried fish was shredded for us and piled into rice pancakes.

Pudding in Vietnam was usually fruit.  This stunning array was served with a small bowl of chili-salt in which to dip the fruit.  The sweet mango and pineapple were particularly nice eaten like this.  Note the ubiquitous Vietnam-grown Dragon Fruit.

We revisited the Night Market several times during the week, and soon began to scour the menu for more exciting dishes.  Some however proved a little too exciting, even for adventurous foodies like ourselves...

We settled instead for 'Roof Tile Beef' which we had seen being served on an adjoining table.  It involved being presented with a barbecue-in-a-bucket which was placed on the table, with an earthenware roof-tile on the top.  A small bowl of oil and a plate of thinly sliced beef was then brought to the table, and you proceeded to cook your own beef on the tile.

It was a hot business, but by the time we ordered it a second time another evening, we were getting quite professional!

To serve the beef we were given a plate of rice pancakes, cooked rice vermicelli and an absolute heap of greenery - lots of herbs, lettuce and spring onions, as well as various dipping sauces for the finished rolls.

Greens first...

Then noodles...

Then the beef (perfectly cooked!)...

And roll, dip and eat.

If anyone can recommend any Vietnamese cookbooks, or perhaps have tried some great Vietnamese recipes, I'd love to hear from you.

A Week in Saigon - A Fertile Land

The highlight of any trip to Vietnam has got to be the food.  As a cuisine it's incredibly fresh and full of vibrant flavours.  Vietnam, particularly in the south, in the Mekong Delta, is a very fertile land and large amounts of fruit and vegetables are grown there - not forgetting rice as well.

Fresh fruit was on sale everywhere in Saigon.  There were numerous market stalls full of it, but also many Vietnamese ladies carrying huge baskets of various fruit around, selling it to passers by as they went.

We took a day trip out into the Mekong Delta and saw an amazing amount of food being grown.

 Cocoa pods,

 Jackfruit,

 Papaya,

 Pomelo

 

And fields and fields of rice.  This lovely lady - a friend of our guide - took us across her paddy fields.

She picked us all some longan - the small lychee-like fruit seen all over South East Asia.

And then back at her house she picked us coconuts from her tree and gave us all a drink of fresh coconut water.

It seems that in Vietnam it's very easy to 'eat local'!

A Week in Saigon - Motorcycle Madness

A mere fortnight ago we were still on holiday in Vietnam...  However these two weeks have been so busy that I've been in danger of forgetting to blog about the trip.  It's a task I've almost been putting off as I hardly know where to start.  Vietnam was amazing, an assault on the senses.  Saigon was such a contrast to Brunei - and I say that in a totally non-judgmental way.  I love Brunei, but you do get used to the laid-back pace of life... whereas Saigon is crazy, 24 hours a day! 

The first thing that strikes you about Vietnam, even before the aeroplane has landed, is just how many motorbikes and scooters there are on the roads.  As we descended towards the airport the roads below us seemed to be swarming with them, like thousands of tiny ants.

We spent the entire taxi-ride from the airport to the hotel gasping in horror, shrieking in terror and laughing at the sheer number of motorbikes on the road, and the unbelievable way that they drive.

This was a fairly typical scene outside our hotel.

We soon realised that all the tales about crossing the road in Saigon were true...  the traffic won't stop for you, so you just have to wait for some kind of gap, then start walking slowly and steadily across the road.  Don't run, don't stop, just hold your nerve and keep walking.  Incredibly, it worked!  The motorbikes would just veer around you.  To be fair, the traffic isn't usually moving that fast (the roads are too busy) so the riders have plenty of time to see where you're going and steer around you.

What took us by surprise was that the bikes weren't just confined to the roads...  no, if traffic was heavy there seemed to be no problem at all with just riding down the pavement.  As a pedestrian you had to keep your wits about you at all times!

As the week went on we just began to laugh at just how versatile the motorbike could be.  Think you need an estate car, or perhaps a van?  No problem, you can get pretty much whatever you want on the back of a bike!

There were hundreds more sights just like this, but I didn't always have my camera at the ready.

One day I sat on a bench at the corner of the street at end-of-school time, knowing that I'd be able to catch some classic entire-family-on-motorbike shots, and sure enough...

Carrying your young son on a bike and chatting on your mobile 'phone!

Many of the bikes are pretty beaten-up and battered, but there are some incredible retro-styled scooters around, and one of the highlights of my week was seeing this crowd of yellow Vespas riding across town.  My first thought was that they must be bridesmaids on their way to a wedding (and how cool would that have been?!!) but it turned out that they were employed by Dulux paints, and were on their way to an expo event in the city centre.

We caught up with them later that day.  If I could have fitted a yellow Vespa in my luggage I most probably would have done!