Friday November 17th
Tim was up early to capture some morning pictures before we enjoyed a great breakfast from the friendly ladies who run the guest house. This featured a large number of strawberries, a local product, and good strawberry jam along with the usual fruit, strong coffee and french bread.
We elected just to walk around town for the day rather than to explore the hills and waterfalls further afield, and Tracy had a good workout for her improving leg. Our route took us down to the lake and around the far end from the town to a big flower garden. Though it is not quite the season (the rains are just ending here and we suspect they gear up for the busier travel months in Dec and Jan) and many of the beds were not at their best there were lots of beautiful bushes and flowers with a particularly impressive collection of orchids.
From here we climbed the other side of the lake to the University (it is a big university town as the students could concentrate in the cool conditions) then down through some older back streets and into the center. A snack at a floating restaurant sustained us and we headed to the market where all manner of fruits, veggies and other produce are on sail. We invested in some snack food (dried sweet potato, candied sweet potato, dried persimon) then ate at one of the stalls in the "food court" - a crowded collection of food places on the balcony ringing the market. Our choice was a vegetarian stall, which means the usual selection of foods made into a noodle soup, but with everything faked from tofu. Some of the fakes were outstanding... others tasted like old rubber!
Again we wandered to the narrow lane in the center of town with all manner of street food available, stopping to let Tracy enjoy the products of a little on the street restaurant specializing in clams, snails and other shelled items. Tracy picked snails and tiny clams cooked in spices out of the large selection and they were tasty if a little gritty. Once again we stopped at the shrimp pancake stall before splurging the $1 on a taxi up the hill.
We elected just to walk around town for the day rather than to explore the hills and waterfalls further afield, and Tracy had a good workout for her improving leg. Our route took us down to the lake and around the far end from the town to a big flower garden. Though it is not quite the season (the rains are just ending here and we suspect they gear up for the busier travel months in Dec and Jan) and many of the beds were not at their best there were lots of beautiful bushes and flowers with a particularly impressive collection of orchids.
From here we climbed the other side of the lake to the University (it is a big university town as the students could concentrate in the cool conditions) then down through some older back streets and into the center. A snack at a floating restaurant sustained us and we headed to the market where all manner of fruits, veggies and other produce are on sail. We invested in some snack food (dried sweet potato, candied sweet potato, dried persimon) then ate at one of the stalls in the "food court" - a crowded collection of food places on the balcony ringing the market. Our choice was a vegetarian stall, which means the usual selection of foods made into a noodle soup, but with everything faked from tofu. Some of the fakes were outstanding... others tasted like old rubber!
Again we wandered to the narrow lane in the center of town with all manner of street food available, stopping to let Tracy enjoy the products of a little on the street restaurant specializing in clams, snails and other shelled items. Tracy picked snails and tiny clams cooked in spices out of the large selection and they were tasty if a little gritty. Once again we stopped at the shrimp pancake stall before splurging the $1 on a taxi up the hill.
posted by Tim | 4:50 AM
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