Happy 2010!

Ok, we are sometimes a bit slow, but we wish you all a Happy 2010!

For the new year's party we decided to head again to Kuala Lumpur. After a nice Indian dinner with Thosai Masala (the large rice roll below, filled with potatoes) and cottage cheese we headed to the Petronas Twin towers for the party.

Ah, after this we were pretty full...

But Indian desserts (which had to be savoured) awaited our full stomachs!

The park at the twin towers was full of people and a nice water and light show made the time to the new year delightful and short.

Evelyne can't await to open our bottle of sparkling grape juice

Fireworks

We wish you all the best for 2010, may your wishes come true.

Biking instead of skiing on Christmas

Christmas we spent in the mountains in the north of Vietnam in Sapa. Instead of skiing we tried something new on Christmas. We did a mountain biking tour.

First, we had to cycle up a steep hill to the highest pass in southeast asia. It is 2000 meter above sea level.


Cycling up to the pass....


... still not there...


Finally enjoying the view

From top we had a wounderful view across the mountains and valleys. Mount Fansipan is 3100 meter high and is also the highest mountain in southeast asia. Sometimes it get some snow but not as we where there. So no snow for us this Christmas.

Afterwards, we cycled down to the valley on the other side of the pass. It was a long way down on a dirt road. We had to leave 2000 meter altitude behind us. Down in the valley we where glad that is was over because our hand where hurting from breaking and shaking all the way down.

Then in the valley the way continued on dirt roads through rice paddies, rivers and small villages.

Cycling through rice paddies disturbing the buffalo


Crossing the river (yes I made it)

In one of the villages we saw that a local familly is producing cellophane noodles. They invited us to come in and see how they produced them. It was very interesting so see how they made them. Here you go....

The raw material: the canna/cassava root

Then they make powder out of the root and have to wash the powder lots of time until they have the white starch paste

Then they put cooking water to the white paste and stiring it at the same time until they get a clue like paste.

Quickly they fill the warm and sticky paste into the press.

Then the pressing of the paste starts onto the bamboo mats.

Here the noodles comes out of the press onto the bamboo mat

After that they lay the noodles into the sun for drying and later hang them into the wind.

Mhh, they are fininshed and ready for packaging

This familly is producing 100 kg noodles a year which they sell to China and Hanoi. For 1 kg noodle they get 2$

Christmas in Northern Vietnam

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

Here in Vietnam we saw the most christmas trees of all the countries in Asia. Somehow the Vietnamese seem to like to have a reason to take a day off... but probably it has to do with the fact that 7% of the Vietnamese population are christians.

For the holidays we left Hanoi and headed up to the mountains in Northern Vietnam, just at the border to China. The mountain 'resort' is called Sa Pa and it feels a little bit like in the Swiss mountains: we could look down onto a sea of fog and there is even a small lake.


Leaving Hanoi, Sea of fog in Sa Pa


Lake in Sa Pa, View from a little mountain

Being in the mountains in Sa Pa it got cold and this added quite a bit to the Christmas feeling. Unfortunately, the rooms did not have a heating, so we already thought, it's going to be a COLD night. Lukily, Evelyne found the magic switch: we had a bed with a built-in heating! So although the room was cold, our matress was steaming hot and we had a very cosy night. The next day, to top it off, we even found a Christmas tree in the grocery and decorated our room so we had at least a little bit of a Christmas atmosphere.


Our christmas tree ;-) (thanks to 'Merci' chocolates)

We miss you back home and send all the best wishes to you!

Hanoi and Halong Bay

Hanoi is a very noisy city with all this moterbikes on the street but it is also an interesting city because there are lots of communist sites to visit because Ho Chi Minh ruled this country out of Hanoi. So we visited his former house and his mausoleum. His house is very modest and simple (as it has to be for a communist) we also could see his former cars he drove.


Ho Chi Minh museum and mausoleum


Ho Chi Minh house


Ho Chi Minh car


House of Literature


Hanoi market

Then we headed for Halong Bay a world heritage with thousands of islands in the sea mostly sharp rocks. We stayed on a boat for 3 days and enjoyed the nice view. But it was very cold also when we kayaked through the bay.


Halong bay


Floating village

Junk boat we stayed on

Kayaking in the bay