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Euro Year
  • Darcy B
May 2023 – May 2024

Euro Year

Spencer and darcy on another whirlwind adventure Read more
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  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Cherry blossoms, shinjuku and shibuya

    April 4, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Yesterday I arrived in tokyo at 6am having not slept the entire night. I caught the train into the city and got some corner store sushi for breakfast (it was so delicious) and then went to the imperial palace park to see some Cherry blossoms. I was hoping to lay down and relax at the park until I could check into the hostel but it was raining so had to roam around a bit more than I planned. There were a few Cherry blossom trees but nothing too breathtaking. In the afternoon I went and got souffle Pancakes for an early dinner. I was so shocked when my plate arrived because the serving was enormous, each pancake was the size of my fist!!! The gigantic portion size made me laugh a bit coz it reminded me of the time in primary school when i made my japanese foreign exchange student a big bowl of icecream for dessert and he wouldn't start it because he knew he couldn't finish it and he didn't wanna be rude. I didn't want the people at the restaurant thinking I was rude so I forced all mine down.

    Today i was on a mission to get new shoes. My current ones are so worn out the soles are basically entirely disconnected and it rained yesterday which meant the insides of my shoes were wet when I went to put them on this morning. I roamed around shinjuku for ages trying buy new ones but no shops stock my size, just like Singapore. Eventually I gave up shopping and walked to see the meiji jingu temple. The temple is surrounded by a huge forest with a tall, thick canopy that completely covers the paths going in and out. The forest entrance made the temple feel very mystical because it was like I'd walked through a scene from totoro to get there :)). After the temple I went to shibuya to see the famous busy street crossing and joined in with all the other tourists walking through it over and over taking photos. After that I stopped by a one piece shop which was sick and then went to a sushi place called uobei for lunch. Uobei was so dope, you order on an ipad and then your food comes to you on a sushi train. It felt like a proper japanese experience. The sushi was delicious and really cheap too! I only spent $5 and was stuffed. After lunch I roamed around shibuya a bit more and then went to shinjuku gyoen on the way home to see more Cherry blossoms. This time I got a proper Cherry blossom experience, they were everywhere and it was sooo pretty. I hung out at the park for an hour or so feeling very happy about my first full day :). Had some ramen for dinner from a place near the hostel which was fab and then hung out with some other guests until bed.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Sumo, night out and pig cafe

    April 5, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    I was up at the crack of dawn on Friday because I had tickets to visit a Sumo stable and watch a training session. A sumo stable is a place where a sumo master and all his lowker ranked apprentices live and train. The tour I went on was really lucky because there was a high ranked sumo there which doesn't always happen. Only the top 70 sumos in the world are considered high ranked, they wear a white belt instead of black at training and don't live at the stables, they get to choose whether or not they attend training sessions and are also allowed to get married while the lower ranked sumos can't. It was so cool watching the sumo train, there was lots of slapping and grunting and sooo much sweating. The training was like a winner stays on type thing where a sumo will stay in the ring and choose opponents to wrestle until eventually they lose and get kicked out of the circle. The tour guide kept stressing that sumo are in peak physical condition and despite their size theyre actually extremely fit but I don't think that's really true because each match only took about 5 seconds and the sumo seemed to be completely exhausted after about 3 matches. The white belt was a bit of an exception, he was in the circle for ages and was destroying everyone.

    After the sumo stable I got some Chunko nabe for lunch. Chunko nabe is a very calorie rich meal that sumo eat lots of to get fatter. It was pretty bland and I didn't enjoy it that much if im being honest but the overall dining experience made up for it. The restaurant I went to was very classy and traditional with a lot of people wearing kimonos n stuff like that. Each table in the restaurant had a stove and a big bowl of boiling water in the middle. After you order a waiter comes and dumps a bunch of raw meat and greens into the water to cook. I waited for what I thought was an appropriate amount of time and then bit into a chicken meatball only to find it was still raw in the middle, I panicked and had to quickly spit it back into the soup which was so embarrassing. God knows how many other faux pas I committed in there coz I had no idea what was going on but it was quite a vibe nonetheless.

    Next I went to a katana museum which was alright and then went to Senso ji which is a Buddhist temple with an amazing market out the front. I had a great time exploring the market and enjoyed lots of delicious sweet treats (the macha Mochi was my favourite).

    That night I met a group of Norwegians and a canadian at the hostel and went out with them for some drinks. First we went to the Tokyo metropolitan building to see a view of Tokyo at night (it's free to go here and it was awesome!!). Then the Canadian took us to a batting cage to play baseball. I was maybe a bit too drunk for this and got lots of bruises. After those two activities we ended up at the Golden gai Bar district which is the main party area of shinjuku, it has the highest concentration of bars per square metre in the entire world!

    For breakfast today I tried a dish called Takoyaki which are savoury balls filled with seafood and weird sticky white and pink goop. It was quite different to what I was expecting but still really yummy. Next I went to check out the gotokuji temple which is famous for having lots of goodluck cat figurines, and then to the Tokyo tower which is like a Tokyo version of the eiffel tower because i wanted to see a view of Tokyo during the day.

    Everyone in the hostel has been talking about the weird animal cafes here so for the evening I went to a pig Cafe. I think Cafe is a strong word for what it was, they had a few options for drinks (tea, coffee or coke) and then you sit on the floor for 30 minutes with some pigs. Everyone had to set up a little eating area next to them for a pig to come eat at and idk if I just did a crap job or if my pig was just a really messy eater but the floor next to me ended up being covered with pig food which meant once the other pigs had finished their food they all came over to my area :)). It was a bit awkward coz I was reluctantly hogging everyone's pigs and all the other guests were just staring at me while I was playing with them all. All in all it was a pretty weird experience but I had to try it. On the way home I checked out the shibuya crossing at night and then had a delicious ramen for dinner. The food here is unreal!    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    1

    Biggest fish market and go karting

    April 8, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Yesterday was a big fish day. The first thing I did was go to visit the Toyosu Fish markets, which is where they hold the auctions for the huge frozen tunas every morning. The tuna auction happens at 430am so I didn't actually see that but I checked out where it all happens. More fish are traded through the toyosu markets than anywhere else in the world, the biggest tuna ever sold there was 2.88 metres long, 2.36m in girth and weighed 496kg. They have a model of the biggest tuna and it was astronomically big, I couldn't believe it! The markets have loads of stalls where you can buy all kinds of stuff like vegetables, fancy fish knives, tea, veggies ect... There're also a ton of food stalls including a bunch that do omakase, which I've been dying to try for years. Omakase is where a very well trained sushi chef hand makes you sushi one piece at a time and then personally hands it to you, tells you what it is, and then bows, it's all very respectful and awesome. I went to a place called sushi bun for my omakase and it was brilliant, easily the best sushi I've ever had. All the sashimi was so soft and sweet and I even loved the sea urchin which I usually don't like. I chose Sushi bun because they're renowned for doing the best eel ever and I'd never tried eel before. It was quite meaty, like chicken or beef and was incredibly tender and sweet. I really enjoyed it but can imagine I might not if it was cooked by someone else. I didn't really know what I was doing again but there was a very cheerful old guy sitting next to me who gave me a few tips :).

    The toyosu markets have only been operating for a few years, before it was built the main fish market was the Tsukiji fish market, which is only a kilometre or so away. I checked out the tsukiji markets afterwards, it's just a very busy street market filled with food stalls now. There're so many interesting and bizarre meals being served in this place and I had a great time checking everything out but I was so full from omakase I didn't try anything except for a sample of dried out fish which tasted a bit weird.

    For dinner i tried Okonomiyaki, which is a pan fried noodley omelette type dish. The sauce was quite rich but it was still nice.

    This morning I did the mario kart go-karting thing through the streets of shibuya! It was absolutely bucketing down with rain which I was pretty bummed about but honestly it didn't ruin the experience at all, in fact, all the spray and slipperiness ended up being my favourite bit :). Everyone on the tour pulled out except for me and some other guy, we were the only Aussies in the group. The tour guide said Aussies never pull out if it rains lol. 

    For lunch I went to try omurice, which is supposed to be the big oozy omelette pocket that spills out everywhere when you cut it. I was so keen to get a cool money shot vid of me cutting it open but when I did I was horrified to see that my omurice was filled up with rice :/. I'll have to try again another time.

    Gonna have a chill one for the rest of the day to let my shoes dry out coz they're soaked!    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Pt2

    April 9, 2024 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    11

    Mt fuji, shuzenji onsen and bullet train

    April 10, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    I think I mightve accidentally picked one of the best days of the entire year to see Mount Fuji, it was the first clear blue sky in almost 2 weeks and the cherry blossoms were still in full flower! The scene was picture perfect the only problem was that every other person in Japan decided to come to Mt Fuji with me which meant the buses in the Mt Fuji town were so full and delayed they were essentially useless, the queue to get a photo at the iconic Pagoda spot went for miles and the train from Tokyo was so full I had to sit on the floor again like in Germany. I did my best to capture the perfect Mt Fuji day but a sad reality of travelling in this post spencer world is that all my pictures suck and apparently no one understands how angles work (I was supposed to be taking a bite out of a Fuji apple smh). I went to a Shrine near Mt Fuji that was very quiet and had lots of lovely tall trees like that part of caves road near Red gate. I think it mightve been the highlight of the day :).  I stayed in a capsule hotel for the night which was really nice, so much more comfortable than the hostels I've been in. I strongly recommend!

    The following day I went to shuzenji onsen, which is a small village known for inventing wasabi and having a bunch of natural warm springs (onsen). The village had a very calming quality to it, it was surrounded by hilly forests and had a beautiful stream running down the middle which made light water noises that you can hear everywhere you go. For lunch I went to a restaurant that served wasabi soda! Wasabi soda is literally just soda water with a clump of wasabi floating in the middle that you stir through, it tasted pretty bad but there was something to it which was a bit morish. After lunch I went to an onsen and sat naked in a warm bath with a bunch of other dudes which was actually way more chill than I expected but I stayed in too long trying to get my moneys worth and now i feel like ive got heatstroke. In the afternoon I started to go on a nature walk but almost stepped on a snake so I went back and just read at a spot overlooking the village instead (which is what I wanted to do anyway I just felt obligated to do the walk because it was there ahaha).

    Today I caught a bullet train to Kyoto! It was very cool, especially when we passed another bullet train going the other way because it would push us to the side a bit and tilt the train. I spent the ride wondering what would happen if a person jumped and then two bullet trains passed at exactly the same time on either side, I reckon they'd spin so hard they'd turn into a long thin tube ahaha.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Kyoto

    April 13, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    I had a pretty relaxed first couple of days in Kyoto, just aimlessly roaming around the city checking out markets and reading in parks and by the river. Kyoto is quite a bit smaller than tokyo but it seems like there're just as many tourists which means everything always has a queue. Ive started to really lose my patience with the crowds recently so ive been getting 711 food for the majority of my meals. One of the photos I've attached shows my go to 711 breakfast, kelp sushi triangles and maple syrup Pancakes. The 711 cakes have been totally blowing my mind, they're the softest, lightest, most decadent little fluffy pieces of perfection, theyre actually the best ever. My favourites are the Malay sponge 4 packs and the Pancakes.

    On Saturday night I went to a record store and the person working there recommended I go to an opening party for a film festival being held in Kyoto. It was a fun event but just a normal clubbing experience, no weird or interesting japanese stuff (I was super curious about that). There were some people who performed live and then a bunch of DJs who were doing some pretty eclectic world music type mixes.

    The following night I went to check out a spring illumination night at the To Ji Shrine. It so magical walking around the grounds while the cherry blossom petals were falling off. Every now and then a big gust of wind would blow through and loads of petals would fly around everywhere, it felt like I was in that Kung fu panda scene where the turtle dies and is carried away by peach blossoms.

    There're shrines literally everywhere in Kyoto and I've been doing my best to see a bunch of them. On Monday I caught the bus out of the city centre to visit a couple shrines I was hoping would be less crowded. Unsurprisingly the shrines further away were still stupidly busy but while i was out exploring I pulled into a sake museum which was brilliant! It was an exhibition on the history of Gekkeikan which is one of the oldest and biggest sake producers in Japan. I learned how sake was made and how the process has developed throughout the years and then at the end there was a free sake tasting. All the sakes I tried were so smooth, it was like drinking a light, subtle but slightly volatile juice. My favourite sake from the tasting was one called Horin Junmai Gingo, which tasted a tiny bit like banana. I liked it so much I bought myself a little bottle :).

    Yesterday was a big samurai and ninja day. First I went to the samurai and ninja museum where I got to hold a real katana and gun from the samurai era as well as throw some ninja stars! One of my throws went dead on bull's-eye which felt pretty euphoric ahaha. After that I went to a samurai class, I didn't really read what the class was when I booked it but figured we'd be learning how to chop through logs and doing fruit ninja type stuff. Turns out it was actually a samurai dance (kenbu) class which was a bit weird. The instructor was a no nonsense type of guy and there was quite a big emphasis on respect and tradition, so no mucking around. The class was still really fun, we got to do a bunch of stabbing moves and dress up. It was easy to tell who was good at slicing because the sword would make a nice whoosh sound if you did it right and let me tell you I was getting some crazy loud whooshes. I could tell everyone was super impressed ahahaha. There was an interpretive japanese fan dancing section of the class where we learned how to do the actions to portray rain, wind and fire. At the end of the class the instructors did a show for us which was a bit boring in parts but there was a super full on sepuku scene which was actually quite enthralling. For dinner I finally went back on my renunciation of restaurant queues and went to a popular Tempura place which was soo delicious.

    Today i went to the Nishiki Market for breakfast where I got some fish cakes, prawn Tempura and then a big tray of Takoyaki. Then I walked to Sannenzaka road which is a super well maintained old style japanese road full of restaurants and gift shops. I got a macha spider which was super yummy. I followed the  Sannenzaka road all the way to the end which brought me to the Kiyomizu temple, its in the jungle that surrounds Kyoto. The views of the city from Kiyomizu were spectacular and it was so nice walking through along all the jungle paths around the temple. Kiyomizu was easily my favourite Shrine/temple of the trip but that didn't last long because for sunset I went to the Mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi which was wayyyy better. The Mausoleum is at the top of a super long path of mossy stairs that go through a part of the jungle that has super tall trees with a thick canopy. At the top of the stairs theres an amazing view of the city and the Kiyomizu temple. The best part about the Mausoleum was that it wasn't crowded at all, no one knows about it somehow! I sat there for two hours finishing my book, drinking my special sake and watching the sunset. It was a perfect end to my Kyoto visit :).    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler
    1

    Kyoto pt3

    April 17, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Walking up all those steps and then reading with that awesome view at Hokokubyo (Mausoleum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi) was my favourite bit of Kyoto

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Osaka n kobe n nara

    April 23, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    I dont really have too much to say about osaka if im honest, its just another big japanese city where you can do the same sort of stuff i did in tokyo. The hostel im staying at has been pretty social, there've been lots of beers in the common area and we did karaoke the first night i got here. Everyone went out on saturday but i ran off to do my own thing because theres this super cool record store / club called compufunk in osaka that ive been obesessed with for ages and they had an event on. I pulled up to the club just after 12 and to my horror it was completely dead, there were like 10 people in attendance which sucked because the trains stop working after 12 and i was stuck there till 5. Huge dagger but i guess you cant win them all ://. Other than that the first 3 days in osaka were filled with food markets, busy streets and lots n lots of okonomiyaki (the noodly egg fritters). Osaka and hiroshima are the capitals of okonomiyaki and i could totally taste the difference, wasnt much of a fan in tokyo but ive had it almost every day here! Ive been frequenting a place that puts pineapple in it which is phenomenal.

    3 days in osaka was more than enough so i spent the last two days doing day trips to Kobe and Nara. I spent my day in kobe at Nunobiki which is one of the mountains that surrounds kobe. I took a gondola up to the top where there was a nice herb garden and shop. You can get the gondola back down too but the view was amazing on the mountain and theres a cool jungly hiking trail that you can take so i walked down instead. I ended up aborting the hiking trail halfway because the steps were ridiculously steep and the trees were covering the view. They had an icecream stand and a bunch of hammocks halfway down. I got a lavender soft serve and chilled on a hammock for ages until it was almost dark. I stayed in kobe for dinner and got a crab red curry ramen bowl from a place called crab noodle, it was so delicious i think it might be the best dinner ive had in japan!

    Theres a shrine in Nara that is believed to have been discovered by a deer god and as a result, deers are treated like gods there and they all just fleely roam the streets getting pats and treats 24/7. I love the deers in nara, theyre so majestic and nice and not bothersome at all. I was expecting them to be like big menacing seagulls harassing everyone for food but they were just delightful 😊. You can buy crackers to feed them which i initially wasnt keen on coz u shouldnt feed the wildlife but it looked like so much fun so i ended up doing it ahaha. If a deer is hungry and sees you walk past with some crackers it will bow to you to let you know it would like one. Apparently back in the old days (9th century) the nobles of the clan that resided in nara would bow to the deer and through generations of interactions with humans the deer have now learned to bow back.
    My favourite places to visit at the moment are japanese gardens, something about how they arrange the plants and streams is so satisfying to me, i just walk through and think "wow everything here is in just the right spot". The pictures attached are of the yoshikien garden, which was exceptional, its my favourite garden of the trip so far. There were a bunch of temples n shrines that i visited but im pretty over that kind of stuff so i didnt pay much attention, im a full on garden guy!! Kasuga taisha was also really nice, it was a thick, mossy forest area that i really liked because it made the deer seem even more majestic. They looked so in their element grazing on grass and leaves in the forest. After i had finished wandering around the lovely gardens and forest i walked up Mount Wakakusa (not a mountain just a big grassy hill), it was the perfect place to chill out for the evening and get a good view of the city.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    A night in a buddhist monastery

    April 25, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    I stayed at a monastery in koyasan last night which was pretty neat. Getting there was awesome, i had to take a train and a funicular which went really slow through an amazing mountainous forest. I had a very thorough explore of koyasan before i could check in because i woke up at 5am and just went with it so i arrived at the monastery at 830 with nothing to do until 3.

    Again, there were a lot of shrines and temples that werent particularly noteworthy but walking through the okunoin cemetery was fantastic. It was a 400m path through giant Pemberton esq trees with moss covered shrines and the sound of gongs donging every now and then in the distance. It was a very peaceful stroll.

    Honestly my first impressions of the monastery werent great. Mainly because it was $165 a night and the room was literally just a mattress on the floor. They redeemed themselves with the food which I think is where a majority of the price comes from because dinner had about 20 different types of vegetarian monk dishes that i could tell were all prepared with a lot of care. After dinner i went for a nice warm spa in the monasteries onsen and then fell asleep nice n early with my belly full and my heart content ahaha. In the morning i woke up at 630 to take part in the morning prayer which was lowkey boring af and then had another great meal for breakfast (same as dinner just less dishes) before leaving to take a bullet train to okayama.

    The monks in japan kinda have it all figured out. Hyped up tourists pay them a ton of money to provide the most basic accommodation imaginable and then all they do everyday is just tend to their gardens, meditate in dope temples (the insides are super extravagant but youre never allowed to take photos) and turn the veggies theyve grown into amazing, healthy meals for them and their guests to enjoy.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Okayama and hiroshima

    April 26, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Okayama was kinda refreshing, just in the way that it felt a bit less full on japanese than everywhere else ive been so far. They have loads of vietnamese and Italian restaurants here and therere no tourists or queues to get into the places i want to go to. I was incredibly slack here and only saw a park, a castle and the statue of the peach kid with the off centre penis (https://youtu.be/hshz2LhxuPY?si=dBAfRKU3WSFYVuTP). The highlight of okayama was the sashimi restaurant i went to, they serve a kind of deconstructed okayama style sushi (bara zushi) which is pretty much just a heap of pre sauced/seasoned sashimi pieces all heaped on a rice bowl but they put a bit of orange zest on the rice which makes it taste sooooo nice! The place was called fukuzushi and i ate there for both dinners coz i loved the orange zest thing so much ahaha.

    After okayama i went to hiroshima. The first thing i did when i arrived was go see the peace museum. It was filled with loads and loads of horrific photos and stories from survivors of the stomic bomb. The stories were heavy and some photos were super graphic. There was a section of the museum dedicated to objects that had been fused together from the heat of the blast which was really interesting. For example there was a clump of glass that used to be a tray of milk bottles sitting on someones porch, the blurb under them said they were sitting about 1km from the explosion and they were explosed to a heat of over 1000 degrees. Everything in the museum did a really good job of showing how insanely insense it all was. There was also a section dedicated to sadako sasaki, the paper crane girl we learned about in primary school. Some of the paper cranes she made were on display in the museum. I was really surprised how tiny they were, apparently she grew so weak she couldnt do big folds so she used chopsticks and made tiny ones instead, which seems way harder but idk.
    By the time i left the museum i felt a bit numb and tingly so I stopped for a beer at a park overlooking the atomic bomb dome and the T bridge. The T bridge was what the pilot was aiming for when he dropped the atomic bomb. It was pretty surreal sitting there knowing that the most destructive force ever used was deployed right above were i was sitting. For the rest of the day i just roamed around and ate okonomiyaki. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is probably just as good as the osaka style, its more like a crepe filled with lots of vegies and egg. They forgot to put kimchi in my okonomiyaki and were super reluctant to take it off my bill so i had to fight the waitress about that for a bit lol.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Fukuoka (baseball and surf beach)

    April 29, 2024 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Fukuoka was a perfect place to end my month in japan. Thereve been a lot of times this month where ive gone somewhere to eat or do something only to abort my plans because of a huge queue or the thing being sold out. Not in fukuoka!! ive been able to go around doing anything i want because there arent any tourists here :)). First day i went to a baseball game which was very interesting. I was a little concerned that the atmosphere at the game would suck because it was on at 1pm on a monday arvo but i needntve worried because the stadium was packed and full of energy. Goes to show how crazy Japanese people are about baseball. The actual game got off to a slow start, i didnt realise how rare it was for batters to actually hit the ball in baseball but in the first hour i think maybe 3 people managed to do it. The game picked up heaps towards the end tho, the fukuoka hawks had been down by 2 runs for most of the game but ended up winning because a guy hit a home run when two people were already on base. Baseball is so exciting when people get on base, everyone in the crowd was on the edge of their seats whenever it happened (super rarely). Two other things that i thought were cool were the beer girls that walk around with big kegs of beer on their backs and that everyone in the crowd blows up balloons and then lets them loose at the same time when the hawks win. The beer girls pour a super frothy pint but I managed to sneak in two big cans of gin and soda so it was fine.

    The next day i got souffle pancakes again. Id been dreaming about getting more pancakes all trip coz the ones i got in tokyo were soooo good but id completely given up hope because every time i went to a souffle cafe thered be like a 2 hour long queue ... Cheers fukuoka!

    On the last day i took an hour long bus to go check out a beach i thought looked cool and to my surprise there was surf!! The spot was called palm beach and its on the coast that faces korea so it probably never breaks but its been pretty stormy here lately so there was probably a pretty big swell. The waves were kinda like metams which was nice coz it meant i wasnt bothered that i didnt have a board. I was freezing as soon as i got off the bus because it was windy and rainy but i forced myself to go for a quick swim anyway coz i hadnt been for a swim in japan yet. For my last dinner i got sushi and splurged on some expensive bits of fatty tuna which were so soft it was essentially just paste, idk if i prefer it over normal tuna but it was good.    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    Hanoi with mum and dad!!

    May 3, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Ive officially reunited with mum and dad after over a year! It been great to see them again, so much has happened this year and theres been lots to catch up on. Weve been in hanoi for the past 3 days which has been super fun. Our first day was spent roaming around the old quarter where we're staying, we went to an egg coffee cafe (i got an egg beer which was quite weird but tasty), checked out den ngoc son temple and st joseph cathedral, and then had a really nice street bahn mi for lunch. On the way home Mum fell victim to the classic backwards blue direction radar on maps which meant we got to experience the cathedral a couple of times while we walked around in circles. After a year of that little blue thing sending spencer and i the wrong way constantly it was funny to see mum and dad struggle with it for the first time ahaha.

    For dinner we went to an alleyway bar where you sit right next to a train track! The alley is really narrow, probably only 5 or 6 metres wide so when the trains came through they almost completely fill up the space. The bars set out tables and chairs over the tracks and then 5 minutes before a train is scheduled all the waiters frantically pack everything up and make everyone squeeze right up against the wall, it was very crazy. Id love to meet the maniac local that decided itd be a good idea to open the first restaurant there, everyone mustve thought they were completely daft.

    The next day mum and i went for lunch at a restaurant thats very famous because obama and anthony bourdain had a meal there together. The restaurant is very busy and they have loads of copies of the same photo from anthony bourdain's instagram up on all the walls.

    In the afternoon we went on a guided walking tour around the old quarter which was very interesting. The guide was really informative and took us to loads of intersting places including the cho dong xuan markets, "the best street donut stall in hanoi", some deep dark alleys where poor locals live, and a rooftop bar. We had no idea about the rooftop bars before the tour but ended up going to several more during our stay coz they were amazing! We also learned all about the billion different times vietnam has been invaded during the last 200 years, theyve been at war constantly which i never knew. For dinner we went to the insanely lively beer street and had a lovely time people watching from a bar with a balcony.

    Our third day was spent largely just retracing our steps from the previous day because mum and dad saw a shop on the walking tour they really liked but couldnt remember where it was. We never found it but the day wasnt a total waste coz we got to see a digger driver put his digger back on a truck using a technique thats going to put all ramp makers out of business. At night we went for a fantastic dinner at a michelin selected restaurant called highway 4, which we all absolutely loved. We ate crickets and ants and all kinds of weird stuff and it was delicious! I think well probably go back it was so good, we tipped the waiters and everything ahahah (jks mum does this everywhere).    Read more

  • Darcy BEuro YearTraveler

    What Sapa dude

    May 6, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The drive from hanoi to sapa takes about 6 hours but it flew right by coz we were on the best bus ever! It was a bed bus so instead of seats there're two rows of bunk beds and you get to just lie down and sleep the whole time. The Sapa town centre was very different from how i expected it to be, it felt more like a european ski town than anything youd expect to see in asia. The train station was massive and looked like a polish cathedral or something (coz its yellow), the trees were all tall pines and the rest of the buildings were either huge modern hotels or wooden hillside cottage type accommodation, it was a pretty discordant vibe but quite cool. The coolest thing about sapa is the clouds that waft through the town, they come out of nowhere and move fast with super whispy and defined edges. It was like we were in that poison smoke area from hunger games two, very mysterious and ethereal. There are also often clouds obstructing the view of the valley floor below which made the town feel like it was a floating magical sky land. We spent our first afternoon exploring. We went to a nice lush mossy garden where we got to shoot a crossbow and then went for a drink at a bar that had a big statue of moana.

    The clouds that i initially loved ended up having quite a large impact on the trip, they never went away so we never got to see the mountains properly and it often rained. On our second day we braved the rain and went for a guided walking tour into the valley to check out some of the local villages. It was ok but it was mostly just people hassling us to buy things the whole time. On the third day the weather wasnt good enough to see fancipan (the building on the top of the mountain - sapas main attraction) so we just roamed around and got harassed by a crazy local hawker girl the whole day. I eventually got fed up with the girl coz she was saying stuff like "im just going to keep following you around until you buy something" so i yelled at her and then she got real mad and said i was a mean boy and no one would ever marry me (ya hate to see it). We took taxis for the rest of our excursions coz we didnt want to run into her again lol.    Read more

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