So after our glorious start to the year in Vang Vieng, which Iaki will aptly inform you about, we left the country of Laos behind us and moved onto the next one. Vietnam is probably the country I was looking forward to most, and thus far I am far from disappointed. To get here we had to prove ourselves though, well we went through a serious character test if you will. Since we are men, and want to travel like men, we bought our bus ticket to Hanoi from a friendly vang vieng travel agent. Sounds good, and to be honest it really wasn't bad at all, the thing that got to, especially iaki was the continual and suttle lies embedded in the sales talk. What they promised was a comfortable "VIP" bus... what we got was a haphazard 31 hour haphazard stop go ride in a well weathered rustic Asian Hyundai monster. It could have been way worse, and as always way better. To be fair though, the bus was pretty empty and we all got some sleep.

blessing the bus - vientiene

So we got to Hanoi! In rush hour. Hanoi is a city of about 4 million people and of those about 2.5 million have a scooter. The city is also pretty small, so this made for one massive mess. There seem to be no rules, and so many scooters that you wouldn't be able to walk across a road if the scooters were waiting for a light change. There is just people on scooters everywhere, but we haven't seen one accident yet! We were discussing that it would probably make one hell of a movie if you unleashed all these into London central...

But, and this will make no sense at all, even though there is utter and complete chaos on the roads, I felt really peaceful in the city. It is relaxing somehow. A place that I look forward to seeing again!

Hanoi street scene

hanoi is also the place where i turned 23! To celebrate I wanted to do what I have never done before or even thought about before. I wanted to eat a snake. It just so happened that Le Mat, a place just out of the city is famous for this "delicacy"! So at around 7 after I had a good chat with Sophs, mam and Aims we got ourselves a Taxi. Really excited we were taken to the little suburb, and started to shop around. Every place has a wide array of them ranging from constrictors to cobra's. The place that we eventually settled on was one that had not only snakes but also a badger, porcupine, cat and who knows what else. We were actually gonna do it! Now getting somewhat nervous realizing what i was about to do we watched as the handler selected a decent seized snake from its cage. What he had settled on, and was fine by me was a medium sized constrictor.

It started with a bit of teasing, and then followed by his assistant holding the head and tail. The snake now stretched in full length above a tin bowl an incision was made alongside the heart. The heart was pulled out and detached. There was now a small beating heart in a ceramic bowl, also the reason why I had the nervous feeling in me. The snake now motionless was once again cut, but now to get the bile out, this was placed alongside the heart. Then after the handler had drained enough blood for 2 decent sized shots we were shown to our table followed by the tray carrying the "snake"

the Heart

The shot

Time to celebrate. Our waiter filled the glass with some rice whiskey, cut open the bile and shared it between iaki and my glass and then took the still throbbing heart and dropped it into my glass. The moment of truth had come. I had a glass of rice whiskey, snake bile and a beating heart in front of me... after a brief toast it was time. It slipped down easily. A rush! Now, thinking it was over, the waiter poored another glass, this time dividing the blood he so cunningly sqeezed from the snake and divided it between Iaki, Nora's and my glass. Another toast and boom! Something I am really glad I did, but wouldn't do again that quickly. Within minutes I was light headed, there is no denying that.

So the drinking part was over... now the feast could begin! We ate like kings, 11 courses!

snake rolls

boiled snake meat

fried meat

liver omlette

I have a photo of each meal, but the PC here is pretty slow so that will come shortly, I also have a video of iaki and I taking the blood shot... Ill try YOUtube it, a classic video!

1. Fried snake fillet
2. Snake Rolls (spring Rolls)
3. snake filled deep fried in basil leaves
4. Spicy mince with rice bead
5. omelet wrapped liver
6. Deep fried snake skin
7. Fried snake fat rice
8. boiled snake meat
9. kidney dumplings
10. soup
11. Green tea and clementines

What a meal, a birthday meal that I will never forget. One of the best things was that Daniel didn't want to eat snake, so he ordered chicken. sounds good right? Well minutes after he ordered they came back up with a hacked up chicken, seemingly uncooked, piled onto a plate garnished with two big black scaly chicken feet. Refusing to eat it he brought it back to be cooked... They returned with a Kernel browned meal, but this time garnished with a deep fried chicken head with a gaping mouth. The chicken, im told was very tasty though! A definitely memorable food day!

Thank you to Iaki, Nora and Daniel for an excellent birthday! It was excellent! Unforgettable!

23rd

Thank you to all of you who sent me messages! Good to hear from all of you! And to the rest of you! I knew you were thinking of me haha!

I hope that everyone has an excellent year!

We are now in Ha Long bay, a brilliant place with thousands of islands. Paradise if you will. Once we get back you will get a full report back.

written by  ourindochina on January 5, 2008 from Hanoi, Vietnam
from the travel blog: The Indo China Adventure (incl Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia)
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URGH! that is DISGUSTING!!!! how/ why the hell did the heart keep beating like that after it left the body! i'm disgusted pd! SIFF!! i'm not ordering chicken when i'm there either - i'll stick to lettuce or something! :P
love soph
x x x

written by  Sophie on January 7, 2008

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