The Long Fish

In the past few days we've travelled from Nha Trang to Dalat and then onwards to Mui Ne. The Central Highland town of Dalat is a busy, unlovely town surrounded by spectacular hills, lakes, forests and mountains. It's popular with honeymooning couples, so there is a profusion of wedding dress shops and you are never far from a horse hitched up to a cute carriage or a pedalo shaped like a swan. Strangely, we didn't feel the need to sample either of these activities, and opted instead for hiking, mountain biking and kayaking, escaping the communist concrete of Dalat for the beauty of the Highlands. Our guides from Phat Tire Adventures were fantastic and we had a couple of brilliant days getting close to nature - actually face first in it at times.

Mui Ne is exactly as we hoped it would be: the most beautiful beach we've seen yet. A one street strip of resorts, restaurants and those little shops selling tat, a characteristic of every seaside town - reminds us of home....

Any readers who've visited Vietnam themselves will agree that the food here is reason enough to visit this country. All those dishes you thought were familiar turn out to be so much better: light and crispy spring rolls; fried wonton pancakes; noodle soup for breakfast. The more no-frills you go, the better it often is. We don't generally worry too much about what's coming our way if language and ingredients are just too complicated - indeed, sometimes it almost appears easier not to ask, especially as we sometimes think that Vietnamese people working in the hotel and restaurant trade have long ago established that the best way to deal with these foreigners is just to agree with them. Tell the tourists what they want to hear, and everybody's happy.

Example: James orders some "Cantonese Rice" for lunch...
James: I'll have the Cantonese Rice please.
Waiter: Yes.
James: Does this contain beef?
Waiter: Yes.
James: And chicken?
Waiter: Yes.
James: Great, that sounds good.
Waiter: Yes.

Rice arrives, I take a few mouthfuls. We agree that the bits of bacon are very tasty and that the prawns are an unexpected extra.

Why we did not reflect further on this experience, I don't know. Later that evening we went to a seafood restaurant - shack on the beach, plastic chairs, totally packed, all good signs - and thought we would go for the day's special...

James: So, the catch of the day, what is it?
Waiter: We have two. We have eel.
(Look of alarm passes between H and J)
Waiter: Or we have fish.
James: (with relief) Great. What kind of fish is it?
Waiter: A long fish.
James: Maybe ... mackerel? (mackerel in Vietnam are huge)
Waiter: Yes.
James: We'll have that then.

At this point, waiter motions us to follow him to the tanks where the live fish and seafood await their end. We look in the middle tank, note the eel and look more closely at the two very cross-looking Long Fish that are moodily swirling about the tank and intimidating all the prawns. They are grey, about two feet long, with blunt heads and two dorsal fins that stick up slightly above the water. We choose the bigger one. As we make our way back to our table, we have realised that our long fish is no mackerel - he's a shark. Barbequed, and served just with chilli and wedges of lime, he was delicious.

Today we go onwards from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We have just a night there before we get on a plane to Cambodia, flying to Siem Reap. This is the closest town to the Temples of Angkor: a massive and awe-inspiring complex of ancient monuments. Then we plan to make our way by land and hopefully by the River Mekong back into Vietnam, heading down through the Mekong Delta until we arrive at the tiny island of Phu Quoc - a relaxation stop before three days in Saigon and the end of our trip in Vietnam!

Love H&J