First Week of ISP - Restaurant Internship

I have been in Hue since last Monday, almost one week. To get to Hue, Eliza, Molly, and I took a night bus.  Remember how cool the night bus seemed in Harry Potter?  Well, this ride wasn't quite the same (though for $15 it was definitely the cheapest way to travel to Hue). There were three rows of very narrow beds with top and bottom bunks.  For once, I was really glad that I'm short.  Eliza couldn't stretch out her legs without hitting the guy in front of her.  Luckily, we were one of the first people on so we claimed some bottom bunks. We were suppose to leave at 6:30 p.m., but I think it was closer to 8:30 by the time we left Hanoi.  For some reason there were really old TVs playing a channel straight out of the seventies, bell-bottom wearing singers included.   The TVs eventually turned off and I actually fell asleep for most of the trip.  I only woke up when we went through a torrential rain storm sometime during the night.  We arrived in Hue after 9 a.m. on Monday, November 12. 

Eliza and Molly on the night bus.

We spent Monday getting settled into our hotel and figuring out our schedules for the next week.  I emailed my adviser and confirmed that I would report to the Duy Tan Hotel restaurant for my internship at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.  I ended up going to the restaurant from 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday.  The first two days I just observed, but then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday there were multiple wedding receptions and lots to do.  I was able to help with prep work (chopping veggies, thinly slicing pork...), plating, and tasting of course. 

Being in a kitchen in Vietnam is almost like one in the US.  There are lots of prep tables, sharp knives, gas burners, giant metal pots and pans, freezers, refrigerators, and a pantry.  However, you can tell you are in Vietnam when you look in the pantry and see an entire wall devoted to fish sauce, soy sauce, bags of MSG, and hot sauce.  On one wall there's a Buddhist shrine with incense, flowers, and fruit.  There are also giant steamers and rice cookers and no actual ovens in the kitchen.  The only two ovens are in a separate room and I only saw them used once the entire time I was there.  

Each day there are about 42 people who work in the kitchen.  On Saturday, there were two weddings at the same time and over 20 chefs in the kitchen, not to mention all of the waiters and waitresses that were in and out.

Hue use to be the capital and home to the royal families.  When chefs cooked for the emperors they had to focus on food texture, taste, color combination, and presentation style. This chef is carving dragons out of pumpkins to decorate a dish.

All of the ingredients are delivered fresh to the restaurant each morning.  This is the man who delivers the fish.  He brings them when they are still alive then kills, scales, and cleans them for the chefs.  

One of the many wedding receptions I've crashed.  Each wedding is a huge presentation.  Some of the waiters and waitresses at the hotel dress up in traditional Vietnamese clothing and dance before the bride and groom make their entrance.

Giant tiger prawns.

Tomato roses as decoration.  Lemongrass ribs were placed around the plate right before they were brought out to the wedding guests.

Every dish is topped with fresh herbs.

Seafood rice with a crepe topped with fresh parsley.

Waiters ready to take the food out.

Getting ready to plate.

Vietnamese seafood salad.

Pork with kimchi.

Vietnamese preserved raw pork and Vietnamese sausage.

Seafood soup.

Red snapper.

End of the Grand Excursion - Ha Long Bay and Hanoi

Returning from Sapa, we had a free day in Hanoi.  Then on Saturday, November, 8, we drove four hours to spend the day at Ha Long Bay.  Ha Long Bay is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site composed of thousands of islands.  We had lunch on a boat then we were able to go in doubles kayaks around the islands for an hour and a half.  It felt like we were either on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean or the edge of the world; it was a really cool place.  But, like most places in Vietnam, it is becoming extremely touristy.  Near the floating village, there was a lot of trash in the water and there were a lot of resorts being built on the mainland.  Hopefully, there will be more regulations to protect the area. 

Floating village.

Co Thanh, my professor, looking like she could become a pirate.

Tourists kayaking and riding in boats.

View from the front of my kayak.

Eliza and Molly racing in their kayak.

Ethan steering in the back. 

The entire class with Vy, our program assistant, and our professor Co Thanh.

The crew.

Me and Vy, our assistant program coordinator.

A cave at one of the islands.

Sunset on the boat headed back to the mainland.

Sunset at the harbor.

After seeing thousands of islands (well almost), we drove another four hours back to Hanoi.  Usually, tourist spend the night on a boat instead of making Ha Long Bay into a day trip.  The next morning, November 9, my class had breakfast and a discussion together.  Then we started to split up because our ISP period officially started that afternoon!  Where has the time gone?!  I spent a few extra days in Hanoi with my friends at a backpacker's hostel before we said our good-byes.  We met a lot of cool travelers from New Zealand, Australia, and England.

 Last night, I took a night bus to Hue with Eliza and Molly.  The bus was straight out of the seventies.  There were three rows of narrow, tiny beds, top and bottom bunks, with two aisles.  There were really big old tvs that were playing some tv channel that featured people wearing seventies clothing and singing weird disco remixes.  Luckily, the tvs turned off after we started (which was at least an hour later than planned).  We arrived around 9 a.m. Hue, where we will be living during our ISP period.  I will be studying Hue cuisine, Eliza is studying sex education and helping to teach a class, and Molly is studying fortune telling.  Out of all the places we visited, Hue is one of the quietest and rainiest (maybe besides the Mekong Delta).  I miss the hustle and bustle of Hanoi already, but I'm sure we will find some fun things to do here.  My internship at the restaurant starts tomorrow morning so that will be fun!

Grand Excursion - Sapa

View from our hotel in Sapa.

 The night train to Sapa was an adventure by itself.  None of us got much sleep since the train was really loud and very bumpy so the next morning we were all pretty exhausted. We left around 8:30 p.m. and arrived around 6 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3.  Following the train ride, we had an hour-long bus ride into Sapa along a very windy path.  Luckily, we were able to pile into two hotel rooms and nap for an hour before hiking through the neighboring villages.

Sapa is located in northwestern Vietnam, close to the border with China.  Most of the people who live in Sapa are from four ethnic minority groups of Vietnam: Hmong, Dao, Pho Lu, and Tay.  There are 54 total ethnic minority groups in Vietnam.  Each group has a very distinctive style of dress and specific cultural traditions. 

After our nap, we explored the market then hiked for four hours to reach a small village where we all stayed in a home stay together for the night.  We walked on dirt roads, through rice paddies, above waterfalls, and through a bamboo forest so the scenary was spectacular!  Sapa is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! Our home stay was basically a large building with twelve mattresses and mosquito nets on the second floor.  We were all really tired and actually had one of our best nights sleep in Vietnam.   The next morning we trekked back to the main city in Sapa, stopping along the way to have lunch with a shaman and his family.

The following day, Nov. 5, we hiked for an hour to reach an elementary school where we passed out sweatshirts and pants to the kids.  Many of the kids did not have shoes and they were really excited to get their new clothes. The classrooms looked similar to those in the US.  They were covered in colorful posters and each student had their own desk, which was surprising to me since it is a really poor area.  Some of the students were practicing their penmanship and their handwriting definitely put mine to shame.  Vietnam has a staggeringly high percentage of the population that is literate, the number is somewhere around 95%.  But, the school only went up to the fifth grade and still did not have a sanitary toilet.  Buying and constructing the toilet costs about $1,000, which is most people's yearly salary in Vietnam.  Some of the students from the school we visited will continue their education in neighboring towns, but many will just start working after they finish.  A few students from Sapa go to Hanoi for university, but it is very rare.  

In the afternoon, we explored more of the markets in Sapa before heading back to Hanoi on the night train. 

A quick note about the weather, it was wonderful.  On average, it has been 90 degrees Fahrenheit with about 100% humidity everywhere we have traveled: hot, hot, hot.  In Sapa it was 57 degrees at night, which at first was a shock.  People were buying scarves, hats, and North Face gear to stay warm, but I thought it finally felt like it was fall.  It was a tease though because Hanoi was boiling when we returned.  (My season's are really going to feel messed up when I return home on Christmas Eve in Northern NY to (hopefully) tons of snow.)

Enjoy the pics below:

Market in Sapa.

Mother and daughter.

This little girl is sewing!

Anna looks truly scared, but I think she was just about to sneeze.  Trying to bargain in the market was chaotic to say the least...

This woman was 21 years old and had a one year old little boy. She was a tour guide, but also made and sold handicrafts at the market.

Dying fabric.

Our hiking companions.

Rice paddies.

Eliza on our hike.

Mother and child.

Tom, me, Libie, and Ethan

Passing by a small village. To the left you can see a child sitting in the front of a motorbike.  That is how everyone rides with their kids.  Sometimes, if the vehicle has space in front of the seat, there will be a plastic seat for a baby to sit on while they are riding.

The guys with traditional hats.

Libie, Eliza, Molly, and me on top of a waterfall.

Lunch at a shaman's house. The purple and yellow food in the lower right corner is sticky rice. The purple potatoes are yams and the meat in the middle is pork with lemongrass.

This woman is 22 and wearing her wedding outfit.  She was engaged to be married. Most of the women marry between the ages of 17-22, which is a lot older than in the past. 

Outside of the shaman's house.

The guys casually trying to touch a water buffalo that was walking down the street.