Vietnam Part II - Mui Ne

Day 2

Woke up early as we had a cooking class to attend. We were reminded not to have too much for breakfast since we will be eating our way through the cooking class. But that didn't stop us from checking out the food provided by the hotel. Anyway, it was just some simple fare that you will probably won't mind missing.

sidetrack: my hair was soooooooo long!!!!

 And because we were feeling adventurous, we decided to walk from our hotel to the cooking class despite hearing from the receptionist that it will take about 45mins or so. Why we so siao?!? In the end we rushed like mad cos we were running late. Got there to realise that we were the only 2 "students" for the day. AWESOME! Cos they will make sure I won't burnt my food while cooking :)

That's right! We had our cooking class right at the beach. The cooking class include a guided trip to the local market and this is probably the highlight of the class! We love going to local market :))) 

The lovely guide brought us to try different food in the market and also showed us the different things sold there. First was the Vietnamese pancake and it comes with garlic and chilli sauce. YUM!!! We also tried some kueh and stuff along the way which I didn't managed to capture much. Too busy eating... ...

 Towards the end of the tour, we went for some fresh sugar cane juice. They add lime/lemon to their sugar cane juice (not like in Singapore, which you have to top up for it) and I love it! So we just sat on the stools and enjoyed our cup of ice cold sugar cane juice alongside the local aunties. They also have this special powder that can be added to the juice to give it another dimension of taste.

 The last stall before we left the market was a fruit stall and boyfriend had to get his favourite jackfruit because it was so so so CHEAP!!!

 

happy kid!

 Back at the cooking class, it was time for some hands-on cooking! We made beef pho (they overlooked the fact that I did mention we do not take beef. But it was just boyfriend who doesn't so end up I had all the meat which was delicious!!!), Vietnamese pancake, Vietnamese spring roll and prawn salad.

Dish #1

Dish #2 - and the pretty rose i made from tomato!!!

Dish #3 - this put Pho 24 to shame

taking a picture together with our Dish #4

Stuffed to the brim and absolutely pleased with our cooking after the class. It costs us USD30 each inclusive of tour to market, not the cheapest thing to do but we were most willing. Details of the class here:

Mui Ne Cooking Class
82 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street
Mui Ne, Phan Thiet
Email: atasteofvietnam@gmail.com


With another 2 hours to go before our 1/2 day tour, we decided to walk back (siao again!) to our hotel and find a convenience store along the way. Mad idea to walk under the hot sun at noon but we still did - things we do during a holiday.

Anyway, our 1/2 day tour was also pre-booked with Sinh Tourist and the outlet was too far for us to walk to so we asked the receptionist at our hotel to hire a taxi for us :) which I remember wasn't too expensive either. The tour will bring us to Mui Ne Fishing Village >> White Sand Dune >> Red Sand Dune >> back to Sinh Tourist. There were only 4 groups of us and all Asians. SURPRISE! Many of the Caucasians prefer to hire a car for private tour instead, which we saw many along the way. And because ours was prebooked, we did not go around asking about other agency's prices. Ours cost USD 12 for both of us which to me was pretty reasonable.

Were back at our hotel by early evening and because it was Christmas eve, we decided to indulge a little and had another feast for dinner. Stuffed to the brim at the end again. Deja Vu Seafood Restaurant was just few units away (21 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Road) and it was highly recommended on Nam Hai's agoda page. 

 

LOBSTER FOR US!!! The garlic one was really yum!

With that we ended Day 2 which I doze off super early again, leaving boyfriend to spend time with the television. Will start blogging about Day 3 & 4 as soon as I can. Have an interview tomorrow morning and just hope it goes well...