Hello there! We survived the kids' first overseas trip, and we're back into the groove of regular, every day life. Our holiday already seems so long ago, so I guess that means it's time to start planning another one? It honestly went better than I'd imagined. The flights were fine - my kids were quite happy to spend hours at a time with uninterrupted screen time, and quite frankly, I also enjoyed being able to catch up on some movies too. The main downside of flying with kids, for me, was that they are too short to close the bathroom door latch on the plane, which meant that every toilet request required that I squish into the tiny bathroom with them... joys of parenthood.
There are many things I could talk about, describing our holiday. Like, how the kids were amazed at the number of motorbikes over there, and crossing the roads was a case of taking a deep breath, stepping out and hoping that everyone would swerve around. Or, how the kids had to be coaxed onto a bike at first, and then were naturals, hopping on and off easily while joining 5 other people on that same bike. Or, going to the beach and seeing what looked like pirate flags everywhere and finally realising as we left the water itchy after swimming that they were caution flags warning of jellyfish. Or the way my daughter (who speaks no Vietnamese) made friends with a little girl who spoke no English yet they became firm friends and bonded over clothes and that vile baby shark song (YouTube link for you lucky individuals who don't know it by heart).
We spent a lot of time with family over there, doing what Asian families do best of course - eating! It's how I mentally catalog many of my holidays - what I ate, and I think it's a great pictorial representation of a place. When we travel, I like to eat where the locals do, and in Asia, that tends to be street food, hawker style, where the food is fresh, cheap and some of the tastiest I've ever had. So here we go with some highlights!
Pho. A Vietnamese staple, this was from a tiny little store that was so fresh and tasty. Here's my bowl of vegan pho with tofu, faux meats, hoisin sauce and liberal doses of wonderfully spicy chillies on top.
On the topic of fruit, we took the kids to one of the floating markets, where wares are sold from boats. Vendors will motor up, anchor themselves to your boat and offer samples of the day's offering to try to get you to buy. They have scales on board and you pay by weight. On the below boat are fresh papaya, jackfruit (yum!), durian (yum!), mango and avocado. I took special care to try to eat my body weight in jackfruit and durian over there. I can't get the same quality here, and certainly not the same freshness - I'm looking at you stinky durian! I know it's not to everyone's taste, but I love them, even if Mr Fork avoids me after consumption as he says he can smell the durian for ages *shrug*
Rambutan, sour apple, watermelon and longan.
I ate many variations of this filling salad. Near as I can tell, it's got bamboo, tofu, shredded vegetables, banana flowers, loads of fresh herbs and the dressing has citrus, loads of zingy spices and peanuts. It often came with vegan prawn crackers to use as a sort of salad scoop but often the kids ate those plain and I had the salad minus crackers. I recommend.