Its a nice morning, and, as an extra bonus the unheated shower room warmed up & got steamy with the shower left on for 5 minutes beforehand.
Three minutes walk along the clean river with Miss Giang (Zang) to a bustling Banh Cuon roadside cafe for rice pancakes with minced pork and egg in a steaming broth. Pancakes are made on a drum-taught rubber mat over a boiling pot of water.
We waited our turn and were soon slurping away happily. I also had a sausage. Last night what I thought were wild mushrooms were thinly sliced beef-tripe, luckily my heroic Hanoi Ceramic toilet-teeth were up to the chewy-challenge. I think I expended more calories chewing than the offal would provide.
Then it was off to seek coffee and nuok nowum which was my first self-made VN sentence = hot water! The cafe was in the local village wattle and daub style but a tiled roof not reeds.
My first motorbike ride into the market was happily uneventul once I’d mastered the gears. Interesting trip round the indoor market, grabbed some more local baked chestnuts for good measure. Then back to the house where food preparation is in full swing. Tonight is NYears Eve and we will go to the town-centre for live music and fireworks.
