We finally got a day where we didn’t have to get up early. Our first and only scheduled activity was meeting at the Oodles of Noodles Restaurant that is funded by G-Adventure’s Planeterra foundation. The foundation works to get young people off the streets and into hospitality and restaurant trades. They learn food preparation, cooking, restaurant management as well as English and receive a host of other benefits from the program. So after a morning of visiting a number of the suggested buildings in the UNESCO site we made our way to the Planeterra restaurant.
We were taught how to make rice noodles by steaming a mixture of rice flour and water ladled out crepe-style on a cloth stretched over a pot of steaming water. Five seconds under a lid and the rice crepe was ready. A bamboo stick dipped in the boiling water is then slipped under the crepe and used to carefully lift it off the cloth and onto a plantain leaf. The crepe can then be cut into strips or used as is. We all got a chance to make a rice noodle crepe and then eat it mashed into a rice biscuit and dipped into various sauces as a snack. It certainly beats crunching on the rice cakes we get at home.
The rice noodle creation technique was followed by a delicious lunch served up by the young kids in training.
I wandered back to the hotel to cool down first in the room then later in the pool. Actually the pool was like bath water but sitting on a lounge chair air drying worked. Dawne, Dave, Linda and Deb were already at the pool when I got there. We had a lazy chat then made plans to meet up and head back to the seamstress’ shop to try on the clothes we had ordered.
My outfit needed some minor adjustments. Linda and Deb were persuaded to have some more clothes made. Dawne’s tops didn’t quite meet expectations so some adjustments will be made and tomorrow we’ll see how they turn out.
The lanterns were out in full force tonight.
We found a restaurant near the river in the Old Town that was on the third floor so we could look out over the people on the street (and there are a lot of them). We had some really good dishes – mine was a vegetable and cashew curry – and yet the bill for the five of us came to less than $42 Canadian including beer and other alcoholic drinks. Not too shabby.
Tomorrow it is up early for a bicycle ride.