Vietnam - Snake Restaurant

I'd read about the hype surrounding the famous Snake Restaurants of Hanoi, so I was determined to try it.

Snake Balls

After a long taxi ride to slightly outside of the city, and then down to a dimly-lit street, with hardly anybody around, I started thinking that it probably wasn't worth it.

But then we stumbled across a restaurant serving everything from: pigeons to pork, snakes to turtles.

I ordered the Snake Banquet, which was $40 Australian Dollars - by far the most expensive meal of the trip. The waitress - who spoke no English whatsoever - returned with a LIVE King Python and two other waiters.

The waiters held the snake with its tail in the air, and upon confirming my decision they slit its throat and drained the blood into a bottle of Vietnamese Rice Wine, confusingly put in Vodka Bottle.

Rice Wine Infused with Snake Blood

I was then presented with three shots of rice wine - one infused with snake's blood, another with it's bile... and the last one with the still-beating heart of the snake. And yes, I did feel it beating as it went down my throat. Apparently it's a demonstration of masculinity. So manly!

With each dish you are supposed to take a shot of the blood-infused rice wine. Which I did with no complaints. The waitress returned at various intervals with dishes fresh from the kitchen, which used the meat from the entire snake.

In total, there were 5 dishes - a soup, a stir-fry, snake-balls and snake wrapped in banana leaf.

Snake Wrapped in Banana Leaf

They were all delicious but despite my attempts to convince my friend to try them, he didn't dare touch it.

(skip to several hours later and he was still awake making sure I didn't die from eating the heart!)

There was an unfortunate mishap with the ordering, however. My friend wanted something with Beef in it. Probably not the best idea considering the restaurant seemed to specialise in strange and/or endangered animals.

Snake Soup

As I already mentioned, the waitress didn't speak English so I said "Bo" which is 'beef' in Vietnamese. However she must've thought I was saying "Bird", because she went away and cooked up a pigeon which she served to my friend... that he didn't touch.

Poor guy!

Snake Banquet

Vietnam - Photos from Hanoi

Sugar Cane Juice

Bun Thit Nuong

Saigon Import Beer

Glutinous Rice Desserts

 Pho Bo and Herbs

Sugar Cane Juice

Vietnam - Hanoi

Good Morning Vietnam!

So I made sure I made the most of my time in Hanoi and crammed a week's worth of sight-seeing and eating into 3 days *phew*

I don't ordinarily make a fuss, but the hotel's complimentary taxi from the Hotel didn't arrive - leaving us to foot the bill for an expensive taxi. When we arrived at the Hotel I let the receptionist know that the driver hadn't turned up (In case he came late and was waiting for us). She looked appalled and instantly upgraded us to the Honeymoon Sweet!

Honeymoon Suite

The room was much bigger and had a great (sound-proofed!) view of the markets down below, which were transformed into Night Markets at sundown. Although I couldn't get over how funny it was that my mate and I were staying at the Serenade Hotel's Honeymoon Suite... sounds like a pay-by-the-hour sort of joint, right?

One of my good friends was living and teaching in Vietnam while I was there, and so I organised with her to go around and see all the city's hottest spots.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

After having lived there for 4 months already, she was practically a local! We started with a tour to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The monolithic structure is impressive and really heavily guarded. Don't even think of stepping onto the grass! My foot strayed while taking this photo and I was promptly reprimanded!

Dried and Candied Mango Slices

We then hit-up the Dong Xuan Markets and shopped until we dropped. Literally. My blood sugar felt so low I thought I was going to collapse so I bought some dried and candied Mango slices.

Within the Dong Xuan Markets there's a food court area... but it's more like dozens of street stalls under a roof! For fantastically low prices, we bought several delicious dishes:

Lettuce, Prawn and Noodle Soup

Nem Nuong

Later that night we went out Clubbing in Hanoi. Being a clubbing-virgin I didn't really know what to expect, but the ridiculously-low prices of alcohol meant that it was an easily viable option to buy a bucket of alcohol.

Vodka Redbull in a Piggy Bank

 The dance club we went to served mixed drinks and cocktails in sandcastle buckets and... Piggy Banks!

The next day we took the lengthy bus journey to Halong Bay and then a cruise around the rock formations.

Our tour guide took us to some secluded rock caverns with stunning formations inside. Our less-mobile fellow tourists (an old Polish couple) stayed behind - meaning that we could get around to some special sites with ease.

Prawns and Crab

However, they DID eat most of the food provided on the cruise and weren't willing to share, so I had a measly serving of prawns and crab.

All in all, Hanoi was a bustling and exciting city with something for everyone!