The following morning, Kim (PPY) and I went across to visit a church while waiting for our foster mom to get ready. The church has similar benches like the ones in my church and the hall is clean and airy. I sat an one of the last few rows of benches and took in the serenity of the church's ambiance. The congregation was small and had some of the benches half-filled. The pastor came and soon the mass or sermon started in Vietnamese. Though, I could not understand a single word, I was held in fascination of the same faith we believe in while our languages may be completely different.
The entrance of the church
We walked to a market nearby to have breakfast. When I entered the market, I was overwhelmed by a terrible, putrid stench which had me immediately questioning the hygiene of this place.
I was getting a little worried about breakfast while I managed to be in amazement of what this lady was fixing. This appears to look like the Chinese "chi-chong-fun" and it was interesting to learn how it is made. She'd pour some batter over the sieve on the pot of boiling water where the steam would then cook and harden it into some sort of a lasagne-like sheet.
Here she is, removing the sheet once it is ready.
Ingredients of meat pieces and spices are rolled in.
Some dried garnish and fishcake-type stuff are added on. And, it turned out to be so delicious, I completely forgot all about the smell! The pink "fishcake" thing wasn't nice and I left it aside after the first bite.
On our way back, mom had gone to the vegetable market while Kim was at a saloon for manicure and pedicure. I walked along the street and took photos of the different vendors in the vicinity.
I think I've mentioned in my previous post of how I love Vietnamese food. In fact, I looked forward the home-cooked Vietnamese food at my foster home. And, this one here was my last meal before we headed back to the ship.
Our house was a shop house and mom had let the ground floor out for rent to a clothes vendor. This is a lady who was sewing outside the shop.
When we were carrying our baggage to walk back to Nippon Maru, I took more pictures of vendors along the way.
When Nippon Maru was leaving the port, I caught sight of this rocket-like boat.
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