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!