Sunday, April 19, 2015

Conquering Fansipan mountain

There is one thing I wanted to do for a long time: having a French kiss with my boyfriend on the Fansipan mountain peak. Well I conquered the summit, but I had no kiss since the trekking was right after I broke up with "him". Actually the Fansipan trip helped me busy enough to get over the guy and is one of the most dangerous trips.

Fansipan is the highest mountain in Indochina, the most famous peak in Vietnam. The government is building a cable straight to the peak which totally destroys the meaning of trekking Fansipan mountain, so I rushed to gather my friends and plan for the trip. It was just right after Tet - Vietnam New Year and since holiday is for watching cartoons (kidding, I'm an adult, I watch Mr. Bean), eating healthy things such as popcorn, preserved fruits, franchise.. but not for doing exercises at all, I earned a few kilograms. A little bit worried, but I did just fine. I would never forget the Fansipan trip!

We booked Fansipan tour of Vietdiscovery because of the good review, the cheap price, good quality and quantity of food :) and I like their customer service. (All expenses of the Fansipan trip will be listed at the 1end of this post).

The first day:
20h - 2h: Travelling to Sapa by Hung Thanh bus
My group of 11 people stayed at the hostel of Vietdiscovery (Anh Đào hostel) that night. Well bad place for a pleasant trip: broken bathroom door, slightly mildew odour, no conditioner but still a good enough place for 11 people need to rest for a few hours before "visiting" the lovely Fansipan.

The second day:
The tour began at 8am. We had breakfast, get ready for the Fansipan mountain.


Our team when we still looked cool ..

The first time we took a rest, with big smiles
But smiles did not last for so long..


12pm: Finally we arrived the place for lunch at the height ofn2200 m. We were tired and starved yet we had to wait for the Korean group to finish so that we can have room to eat. It was so crowded, perhaps many people wanted to conquer Fansipan with the same reason as us.
I asked the porter to go first and book a good room for us at the 2800m - where we spent night time. Sleeping outside is fun, but after a day of  keeping climbing up on Fansipan, I need a cozy place to relax.
First lunch on Fansipan - at the height of 2200 m

Fansipan scenery is magnificent 


5 pm - Reached 2800 m.
No electricity. No wifi, no telephone signal. Night on Fansipan was foggy and cold and wonderful.
The H'mong porter carried food and just like the lunch, they prepared food for us. The porter successfully found a good wooden room for us, it was small but we managed it..
That night a friend and I sneaked out, smoked and drank wine in the darkness, cold and heavy wind of Fansipan. We got into a tent where the H'mong porter cooked food, lighted a fire up and talked. A fantastic time.

The third day of the Fansipan trip
We woke up at 2am and climb up to the height of 3143m - the Fansipan peak.
The last part is the harderst, the most dangerous one. We walked silently in the darkness, flashlight in hand. Getting through an edge by climbing over a tree - Checked. Running fast to pass and soil edge without rock or tree to hold - checked. Passing slippery rocks by holding a rob - checked. The closer we got to the Fansipan peak, the more exhaust we felt.

By the early morning, we were there. Wow wow so.... crowded!! People is everywhere! Everybody was trying to take picture with the tiny tiny little pyramid of the Fansipan summit.
All I need was some heating pads to keep myself from being frozen by the cold of Fansipan.


All we wanted was to have a sound sleep when we back to the tent. But it started to rain and we gotta pack up to get down to Sapa asap or we would struggle with Fansipan rough, slippery roads in the rain
I had no idea this part turned out to be the most interesting path in the trip haha. Getting down meaning I could run all the time, jumped through rock to rock, dropped myself through large, wet rocks. I felt as Legolas in "Lord of the Rings" and deeply sorry for myself for having to pass such hard roads.

The most amazing thing I saw was the lovely yard we started the Fansipan trip lol


Expenses:

Tour: 1.150.000VND/person (insurance fee, Fansipan entrance feej, medal fee.. all included. Yes you'll have a certificate and a medal for conquering Fansipan lol
Hostel room: 75.000/person. As I mentioned above, we stayed at Vietdiscovery hostel.
Bus (Hanoi - Sapa - Hanoi): 500.000VND/person.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me by commenting below. I am glad to share :)

Thank you for reading my blog!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Vietnamese food easy recipe: Vietnamese Sweet and sour fried quail egg

Today I tried a new Vietnames recipe and my family loves it, they finished it in no time!
Arg cooking brings so much joy!

Below are the recipe of the easy Vietnamese dish which I found on http://monngonmoingay.com
The website is full of delicious, easy Vietnamese food recipes. Since "Món ngon mỗi ngày" (Delicious meal daily) is also a program aired on Hanoi TV, there is always an instruction video for each recipe. How convenient




Vietnamese Sweet and sour fried quail egg

Ingredients: 
Quail eggs: 10 eggs (5.5k VND/10 eggs)
Onion: 1/4 bubbles
Wood ear (Moc nhi - can be found in any Vietnamese kiosk selling dry ingredients): 4
Red bell pepper: 1 (80k VND/kg - -)
Young corn: 100g
Tomato: 1
Onion leaves
Laksa leaves (rau ram - just ask any greengrocer in market with a charming smile, they will give you some for free. Well if they still charge you, maybe it's because you are not charming enough :)
Sliced onion
Sugar, pepper, chili sauce, oyster oil, cooking oil
Rice vinegar
Crispy fried chicken power (Ajingon - 5k/package)
And how to cook: 
- Boil quail eggs (Tip which all Vietnamese know: start with cold water instead of hot water, add a lot of salt. When the water is boiling, reduce heat, wait for 10 minutes. Remember the key: put boiled eggs into cold water for easy cover peeling)
- Slice onion, tomato, wood ears, onion leaves, laksa leaves, red bell pepper.
- Mix boiled quail eggs, young corn with Crispy fried chicken power
- Heat cooking oil, fry quail eggs and young corn, fish out to dry
- Make sauce: 1 spoon of sugar, 2 spoons of rice vinegar (I used my mom's super delicious homemade chili pepper & garlic vinegar), 1 spoon of chili sauce, 1 spoon of oyster oil and 1/2 cup of water)
- Stir onion with cooking oil for good smell effect (: continue to add tomatoes, wood ear, red bell pepper, then add quail eggs and young corn; pour mixed sauce above. Finally add laksa leaves and onion leaves. Now the Vietnamese dish is ready to serve!









Sunday, June 16, 2013

Lana del rey

I was so happy to find out there is a singer love performing Lana del Rey's songs, in a bar out there. Yesterday Chi and I had a late night out, no alcohol drinks but we had a good time at m7. I've been there for a few times and was in love with the friendly, comfortable atmosphere there. Well I wish I could join their live shows every night (the drinks got cheaper please) The band performing there is always cute and answer all questions from the audience. Last Saturday night, when they was looking for songs, I asked them whether they sing Lana del ray music. Aw I had no idea they do practice her music, and there was a singer loved Lana and had been wishing some one to order them to perform Lana del Rey song.
I just happy.
Saturday! Here I come!

Monday, May 20, 2013

For my pretty and bright future: i am studying toefl

I have decided to take a toefl certificate at the end of this month
I am 23 years old this year, still is regarded as a fresh graduated. Not too late to get a certificate.

I am too bored with my current job -  boring, endless and extremely stressing. i hate waking up every morning, i hate going to work. My days end up with exhaustion. My youth is flying away and away. We are supposed to earn money from what we love to do, not being tortured everyday and have to suffer from work.

I believe toefl certificate can be a good insurance to help me quit this job. And of course, getting higher salary.

After doing a lot of researches, i think i am going to study toefl on my own. Surely i am not a newbie, my grammar is good. I also can chat with a native for hours. I got a blogloving and a pinterest account following many fun interesting, talented bloggers. They are sources for my reading, thinking practises.
My plan is to take trying tests, get neccessary habits and intuitions, read more, listen more. Listening is probadly my most weakness. I am going to ask my friends to join so that the study spirit will be maintained.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Third day of the Snake year

Cứ bảo mình già đi, nhưng đúng là bị truyền cảm hứng sống "hết mình vì người khác" của Tần ca.Truyện hài  hay quá xá, cắn chăn bông cười sằng sặc luôn =))
                                    
                                             Dark things appear. Không muốn nghĩ đến tiếp, nhưng sẽ cố gắng giải quyết. Fighting!

I want to shop! I want to buy some pleasure and happiness!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

I love books

I'm so inspired lately to read books, thanks to http://goodreads.com/ The site lists many many books, from novels to self help ones. They also give a short caption to each book. Whenever I browse the site, I want to have a bookshelf on my own, where I can collect all my fav books and keep them carefully. (My room's too small for that, though ;   ;).
Today I accendentally see the name "lolita" on facebook, and managed to download a pdf version :D Ha ha, so happy, you can have whatever you want as long as you're trying hard, right?
Here's the link. I found it on a blog which I cant find again :(
http://ebookbrowse.com/vladimir-nabokov-lolita-pdf-d324728020#.T-VIFUFbG5g.blogger

I also finished few books lately:

I'm in children novel on these days, and this's such a beautiful story :) I found many commons between me and Sara :)) We both have high self esteem, love beautiful things and be able imagine stories anywhere. But I have to admit, she's much stronger than me :))

I litre of tears. "TRY HARD" is the most common word in the book. I shed tears, smiled with characters.  I really admire Aya, who managed to live through all desperations brought by her disease. 

And I'm reading "Alice's adventures in wonderland" :) yay for the famous story!!!

I love Alice in this picture :)) She looks dynamic and smart. 


Saturday, May 5, 2012

Cooking: corn-chicken cream soup (súp kem ngô gà)

Ingredients
Sweet corn: 1 ear.
chicken: 100gr
milk: 350ml
butter: 1,5 tablespoons
water of boiling chicken: 2 bowls
flour: 1 tablespoon
bột năng: 2 tablespoons, dissolves in water
salt, sugar... (depends)

Directions
Wash the corn properly, grate off the corn kernels.
Boil chicken, tear into small pieces.
Put the butter in a pan, heat it until it's melted. Then add the flour, stir quickly. Add the water of boiling chicken and the corn to the pan. When the mixture boils, add salt, sugar, milk and bột năng, stir for 1 min. Remove the corn soup from the heat, pour into bowls, add the chicken to the bowls and serve.

Nguồn: http://afamily.vn/an-ngon/2008517233738373/Sup-kem-ngo.chn


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Cooking: Mỳ xào bò - Stir fried noodles with beef and vegetables


Ingredients
Instant noodle: 2 packs
Beef cut into thin strips: 200g
Celery and leek: 100g
Onion: 1 bulb.
Chopped ginger, garlic
Salt, chilli, peper
Cooking oil.


How to cook
-      - Slice the beef thinly, marinade with the ginger, garlic, salt and a little bit cooking oil.
-       -Cut celery and leek into 3-4cm pieces.
-       -Stir the beef quickly.
-       -Soak clean chip cabbage in hot water for about 3 mins. Do similar thing with the instant noodle. Drain and squeeze the cabbage and noodle to get rid of the excess water. Put them seperately.
-       -Pour lots of cooking oil into a pan (as much as you want), heat up the cooking oil, stir the noodle with over medium high-heat to make the noodle brittle. Then put the noodle in a separate bowl.
-      - Quickly stir the celery, leek and onion with over medium high-heat so that it’s not over cooked.
-       -Arrange the noodle, celery, leek  and beef in- a dish, add pepper and chilli, and serve!


Another recipe: noodle, beef and chip cabbage. Do similar steps with 1 pack chip cabbage (http://namangrocer.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Cai-chip.jpg) instead of celery, leek and onion.