After several days of non-paid internship and driving around by taxi we were desperate to get around ourselves. So we asked some members of my family to teach Moritz how to ride a motorbike. Unfortunately, everybody said: “Yes, of course! In the next days, when I have time.” So it wasn’t helpful at all to get such an answer. But then on Monday, my aunt said: “Let Moritz practise how to dry run first and then my uncle told him how to shift gears and then he practised while the bike was parked. The next step was to drive along the narrow way to the gate. After he got used to it my uncle decided that the whole family was going to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, so that Moritz could drive around there where he had more space. There he drove several circles until a policeman came and told us that the practise time was over and that we had to leave. That evening Moritz drove me home himself. The streets weren’t too crowded and we got home safely. The next evenings we went to the mausoleum again to practise. Here you can see a video from one of the sessions ^^…

After three days we decided to go by motorbike to work and it went out well. Moritz is quite good now and we can get around ourselves without arguing with taxi drivers or waiting for somebody to drive us around.

Last Saturday my aunt made sticky-rice cakes. Sticky-rice cakes are traditionally eaten at Chinese New Year (which is next week) — so we’re a little bit early, but I think it’s okay as you can see it as a “warm up”. Those “cakes” are made from sticky-rice (what a surprise!), mung beans and one or two pieces of pork. You have to layer it carefully: rice — beans — pork — beans — rice, and then wrap it into some big green leaves (And I learned that those are NOT banana leafs). After the wrapping is done and all your cakes are supposed to have sqared form you have to boil them in a really huge pot for around 12 hours!!!

It was some time ago when I saw someone making sticky-rice cakes — as my mom can’t do them — and it was really fun. I also helped my aunt a little bit, although I didn’t try to wrap one myself ^^. And today we could open the first one for breakfast (we made 19 cakes), the majority will be given away as presents, but I think my aunt wants to do a second round. I’m looking forward to it. XD

Anh Thu

After Ralf flew back to Germany last Monday night we mostly attended meetings concerning our internship in Vietnam. So it looks like we can start after Chinese New Year =)

The week before we went on a trip through some cities in the middle part of Vietnam: At first we flew to Da Nang. There we were picked up by our tour guide and after that we were visiting some sights of the city. The sights were okay (only the museum was a little boring), but the beach at Da Nang was great. Too bad it was rainy and windy that day and the temperatures were too cold even for a short dip in the water. However Moritz and I got wet, because Ralf was looking at the picture he shot instead of telling us that the water was coming ^^…it’s your fault Ralf! xD

The next city we went to was Hoi An. Luckily, the weather was nice at this day so that we could enjoy our shopping tour in the ancient city. Hoi An is definitely the place, where you should go if you want to buy good AND cheap tailor made clothes although you only have little time. I bought me a really nice coat, which they tailored within only three hours and delivered to my hotel. Except for shopping and old houses there isn’t anything else in Hoi An, but surprisingly it’s very popular among the tourists.

On the third day we went to Hue — city of the emperor. Here it’s the other way round: Hue has so many temples, pagodas and tombs that we couldn’t see all of them in one and a half days, but we saw the most popular and most beautiful ones ^^.
Unfortunately, my condition on that day was so bad, that I couldn’t enjoy the boat tour on the river accompanied by live music (Vietnamese folk songs).

After a good night (although the hotel was really unacceptable) I got better and so I could endure the four hours bus trip to Phong Nha Ke Bang nationalpark. The view of the park was really beautiful and with little boats we went into the famous grottoes — amazing but sometimes too dark so it was really hard to get nice pictures. On our way back to Hue we visited some other sights which were on our way — but nothing really special. And I think, I was too tired to enjoy them ><.
Our last night we spend in the 3-stars hotel with the other tour members. When we booked the tour we took the 2-stars option and in Da Nang and Hoi An the hotels were okay, but not in Hue. The rooms in Ngu Binh hotel had too many “little roommates”, so that we didn’t want to stay only one minute longer than necessary.

On the last day we went to the Tu Duc tomb in Hue. The terrain is huge and beautiful, with many trees and nature and we really wanted to stay a while longer, but our flight was at noon and we had to leave the group early.

All in all the trip was great, I saw many things of Vietnam I’ve never seen before. They also took us to special handicraft villages or companies, where you could see how they make marble statues or silk embroiderings. Although the time we could spend there (of course proportial to the money we could/should spend) was too much for me. The group members were funny, too. Only the German-Australian couple was sometimes annoying (because everything was “soo BEAUTIFUL” and the American guy who was TOO American (quote: “languages are all about memory and Vietnamese is such an easy language — but I don’t speak any Vietnamese because I’ve got a bad memory”.)…..erm….definitely!
Despite of little things we had much fun on the trip although I would recommend the 3-stars option for those who want to book that tour ^^…it’s really more comfortable for only a little more money.

Anh Thu

After a long time of blogging absence I’m back online and today I found some time to write something about what happened the last days…or should I say the last week?

Moritz and I arrived at Vietnam on December 25th. We were picked up from my father and my cousin. After that I spent a night at my grand-parents’ house while Moritz and my father went to Hanoi.
On December 27th Ralf — a fellow student from Munich — arrived and we showed him around.

On the next day we went to Ha Long Bay, one of the most beautiful sights in Vietnam. Unfortunately, it was winter, so we had bad luck with the weather. It was rainy, foggy and cold — really not the optimal weather to be at the sea and besides of that we couldn’t go to the caves. But we found a ship which took us out to the sea and we could admire the landscape and took some pictures.
My father in the meanwhile had lot’s of fun with his old mates from Germany, they drank and ate the whole time while we were visiting the bay. But we had fun, too. We didn’t see Thomas for a long time and it was our first trip together.

The following days we did sight-seeing in Hanoi. On New Year’s Eve we went to the Sword Lake (centre of the city) and it was so crowded that you had to walk on the road between cars and motobikes. The funniest part was that, because of his height Ralf was one “attraction” among the Vietnamese people. Everybody looked up and estimated how big he was. Some girls wanted to say something, but while they were practising their text, we went away ><.. And slowly the new year arrived and because we were watching lanterns flying into the sky (or staying stucked in trees ^^) we missed midnight by three minutes. And Ralf went into the new year six hours before his parents in Germany =)

Our plan was to go to Sapa (city in the mountains) for two days during the weekend, but then one of us got sick and we had to cancel it. Instead we took a break and went to some places near Hanoi, for example the pottery village Bat Trang. There we found really nice bowls, plates, tea sets and much more. Too bad, that I don’t have an appartment yet -.-

Tomorrow, we’ll start our Da Nang — Hoi An — Hue — Phong Nha trip. Then I’ll write more. See ya.

Anh Thu