Back to Vietnam… the country that stole my heart

I’ve had a wonderful time exploring all of these countries but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been thinking, somewhat obsessively at times, for the last 2 months about getting back to Vietnam. I think it’s a combo of the people, the food & the variety of places the country has to offer. So I’m going to hit a couple spots I couldn’t squeeze in during the first 3+ weeks as well as one of my faves from round one.
As an aside… you know you’re traveling a lot when you run into 3 different couples & one solo traveler (the New Zealander from Mandalay) you’ve previously met in the Saigon airport. Three of the encounters happened in quick succession & all were venturing into Vietnam for the first time & wanted some travel advice. So I did introductions & held a sort of Vietnam travel info session at an airport coffee shop to help them plan their trips. They exchanged info in hopes of connecting later. I was going in a different direction but it was a pretty proud moment. Not gonna lie.
My first stop in Vietnam was the island of Phu Quoc, off the southern coast for some R&R on the beach for 4 days after my 1.5 week sprint through Myanmar. It was gorgeous. I had previously heard it was pretty well developed & a not-so-secret stop on the tourism circuit. Perhaps I would’ve thought that after enjoying those nearly deserted beaches on my previous jaunt north along Vietnam’s SE coast but certainly not after after having visited Bali recently. A very good indicator I was going to like it was the fact that I was the only non-local on the connecting flight from Saigon. So it’s still very much a domestic Vietnamese holiday destination. Generally, I’ve found that I really like those places. This was more of the same.
Second stop was Dalat, a city in the central highlands that provides a reprieve from the heat. While the rest of the country is sweltering, it tops out at 75 here & gets down to 69 at night. So I’m freezing of course since now I’m accustomed to 90+ degree weather. But I wanted to visit as I’ve heard lovely things. It’s nestled in the mountains with lakes & is a good spot for some serious trekking & adventure mountain biking. Since I ditched my tennis shoes in Bali in favor of some hippy pants, I didn’t come equipped with serious trekking gear & I wasn’t really feeling the land-based adventure sports, I instead focused on exploring the adorable city of Dalat. I couldn’t shake my laziness from Phu Quoc as I spent 2 full days wandering aimlessly & hopping from one quaint cafe w a great view to another, stopping to read a book & enjoy a smoothie/tea/coffee/beer. The city screams of French colonialism & there are delicious little French pastry shops everywhere that drew me in by selling macarons, my fave. Lazily touring the city, in addition to delicious meals out, was the gist of my time in Dalat & I thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps I’ll be back one day & motivated to do the adventure stuff. It’s funny, other places (like KL especially) I’ve felt the need to rush through the city, knocking out all the major sites as I think subconsciously I figured I likely wouldn’t return. That is so not the case with anywhere in Vietnam. I don’t feel any pressure to knock things off someone’s supposed “top 10 things to see” list maybe bc I know deep down that I will definitely be back.
Saigon was my first repeat stop on this trip, deservedly so. It’s such a cool city. It was a welcoming feeling in a taxi headed to my hotel as I recognized landmarks & parks & intersections. Despite staying in the same area as last time, I discovered new charming areas of the city I had previously missed. I spent zero time at tourists sites. All I did was eat. And walked, wandering the city, discovering new neighborhoods, parks, cafes & pastry shops to work off the prior meal so I could look forward to the next. I had to enjoy as much of this food as possible. I had a lengthy list of restaurants to tick through as this Saigon-based couple I met 2+ months ago in Vietnam at Doc Let beach provided recommendations for the best local dining. Going off that list, I had incredible pho breakfasts (oh how I had missed those), great lunches at street food restos & perhaps the best meal of the trip so far at a lovely little hole-in-the-wall resto in a house on an alley that I never would’ve otherwise found. Absolutely delicious.

Oh how I have missed my morning pho breakfasts

The Phu Quoc view I awake to from my beach villa

Holy thunderstorm rolled in one afternoon. It was dope.

Saigon foodie tour

Saigon is a massive city split into 19 large districts. We stayed in district 1 in which most of the tourist sites are located as are a ton of hotel & dining options. The city is so big, it’s difficult to get out of district 1. For this reason, our unbridled enthusiasm for street food & perhaps the fact we’re hardheaded as we apparently didn’t learn from our Bangkok bike tour experience & are not scared off by the Saigon traffic, we opted to do a street food tour of various Siagon districts… All while traveling on the back of motorbikes driven by locals. I could not have been more excited. The motorbikes are driven by Vietnamese women aged 21-25 (approx) wearing local dress, who are English speakers, quite engaging & thoroughly adept at traversing Siagon traffic. I was paired with Quynh, a beautiful young girl recently graduated from university w degrees in English & restaurant management, who picked me up, w Amy’s driver, at our hotel on a busy street, strapped a helmet to me, & was off w a start, driving the wrong way through traffic before darting to the proper side at first opportunity. Amazing.
For the next 4 hours, we made stops for street food & sightseeing, all the while dodging traffic & exhaust pipes of other motorbikes. If I didn’t feel as if I was putting my life at risk, I would’ve loved to get a video. At times I felt as if we were in a race & Quynh generally won as she was heavy on the gas & a great maneuverer through traffic (but very safe mom). She did say there are very few accidents in Siagon as the traffic generally moves quite slow as it’s so backed up. The food was phenomenal, eaten in locations we’d never otherwise find & excluding commonplace items like pho & banh mis, the opportunity to see a lot more of Saigon was wonderful, & the time spent on the bike getting to know my driver was super special. Overall, easily one of the best tours I’ve taken in all of my travels & I’d certainly recommend it to all.

Stop 1 in District 1 for Bun Bo Hue – beef noodle soup from Hue; lemon grass flavoring; veggies (banana flowers, morning glory or water spinach, bean sprouts); sate (homemade chili w garlic)
Stop 2 is non-food stop in District 5 (Cholon or Chinatown) to see their crazy food market… Everything is alive
Stop 3 in District 8 for barbecue – tofu sauce served w goat & chili rock salt served w beef, prawn & frog (served w skin on & off… way more flavorful w skin on) with grilled okra on the side.
Stop 4 is non-food stop in District 7 (AKA Koreatown), a boring, polished expat spot w chain restos that I couldn’t leave fast enough
Stop 5 in District 4 (AKA Mafiatown). I had to take off my simple gold necklace so as not to draw attention. This was my fave stop. Extra lively place w people & street food restos lining both sides of the street. The place is known to have the best seafood in the city. Crab served w black pepper, chili powder & kumquat juice sauce; sweet sauce served w scallops on the shell; tamarind sauce served w quail. We also had mini veggie/shrimp pancakes wrapped in lettuce and soup w clams, steamed Thai way (like tom yum (sweet & sour)). The “special treat” was a local specialty… boiled duck embryo that you eat directly from the egg. Many were grossed out so few tried it but Amy & I both did; she didn’t care for it while I liked it but didn’t finish it (I kinda wanted to see its contents). Dessert was a coconut jello.

The girls dropped us back at our hotel w super full bellies & big hugs.

Quynh would sit next to me at every stop to describe the food, the local customs, help prepare it & accompanying sauce & desribe how to eat it. At the first stop, I ate something delicious & exclaimed “yum” afterwards. Quynh, with a laugh, quickly told me I shouldn’t say “yum” in Vietnam as it means “horny”. Haha. We kept that in mind as it had been part of our regular vernacular.

Vietnamese food differs from other SE Asian foods as many are served w fresh greens & most are sauce heavy, which I love. While many Thai, Lao & Cambodian dishes are served inclusive of heat (& a lot of it), Vietnamese food is not but they serve you with chili salts, chili sauces, soys, limes, etc so you can mix your own sauce & ramp up the heat to whatever level you’re comfortable with (high for me). We are becoming professionals at this by now.

The whole crew… prob a group of 14 customers & their drivers.

An inpromptu game pitting Amy & I against one another in a battle of chopstick skills by testing fastest to transfer bean from your driver & put in a bottle.

We traded places for a bit… but just for a pic.

Crab legs w great chili salt & lime juice sauce. Perhaps my fave.

Quynh cracking open thr duck embryo. She then poured out the liquid for me to take as a shot & prepared my first bite. We’ve been told locals eat this as a delicacy & an excellent source of protein in the morning.

A couple duck embryo videos

https://youtu.be/Prs7w52tJc4
https://youtu.be/utDpgp-5v40

The aftermath… & evidence of a smile so proof I enjoyed it. I’m a weirdo.

I didn’t originally include this picture but I got a lot of questions about the duck egg so here goes. It’s eating a fertilized duck egg (not an unfertilized one). So there’s so much protein bc it includes a tiny undeveloped duckling. You can see the contents on the lower half of the plate (little duckling on lower left). It’s all mixed together in the egg, as you can imagine, so I took 4 bites to try the local delicacy & then we opened the egg to see the contents left (bc I was curious too). Sorry for grossing you out but I’ll try anything and we eat actual duck so I didn’t really have a problem with it. Judge away.

Saigon and The American War

We wandered one day around district 1, or central Saigon, taking in its charming streets, local markets & fancy skyscrapers. It’s quite an alluring city. We also spent a day touring the key tourist sites memorializing the “American War,” as the Vietnamese refer to our Vietnam War. This includes the Reunification Palace, formerly the base of the South Vietnamese government & where the North Vietnamese tanks memorably stormed the gates & raised their flag, thus ending the war. This also includes the War Remnants Museum which is a fascinating look at the war & it’s atrocities through the eyes of the Vietnamese including the “aggressive US war”, the devastating impact left by Agent Orange, & “aggressive war crimes”. One day hardly seemed like enough as my family has some personal family history with the war, so I’ll likely be back & further dig in to the history a bit more.

Georgeous Carlos Zapata designed building is the tallest in Saigon. We had drinks at the rooftop bar to take in the views. The part that juts out is the helipad next to the bar.

Large local market. Hot as hell inside but quite a happening place.

Locals hanging at the market. I am fascinated by the dress of Vietnamese women… so many wear floral patterns, oftentimes conflicting, on top & bottom. I call it the “pajama look”.

Puppies for sale on the back of a motorbike parked on the street. No big deal.

Local food market that sells wholesale to restaurants

Fish are still alive as air is pumped in

Believe it or not, this lady posed for my picture

The gate to the Reunification Palace that was plowed through by North Vietnamese tanks

60’s architecture alive & well as it’s remained unaltered since the fall of Saigon

Crazy Saigon, NOT Ho Chi Minh City

So Bangkok has a massive amount of organized traffic & Cambodia has zero traffic laws but we were very curious to see where Saigon fit in the spectrum. Somewhere in the middle I’d say. It seems just as busy as Bangkok and while it has traffic signals, many motorbikes just blow right through them. By day 2, we had a catchphrase for our approach… “Hesitation kills”. The light switches, you get the little green walking man, you put your head down & just walk briskly at the same pace without breaking stride, assuming the renegade motorbikes who are running the light will see you & adjust their path to you. If you alter your path, pace or hesitate at all, your arc changes which then throws off the motorbikes, leading to potential disaster. So out the window flies what your parents drilled into you as a little child… There is no looking both ways before you cross the street. You’ll never make it & will be stuck on that corner for hours. You look one way, even with the little green walking man, & then you sort out the rest on the fly. We adapted just fine (& survived) & I must say, it was a bit exhilarating & made simple strolls around the city pretty darn exciting.
You may have noticed I’ve been referring to HCMC as Saigon. On our first night in the city after travels & a lovely dinner at a restaurant operated by former street children & orphans, we ended up at Ice Blue, despite its name, a chill local bar down the street from our hotel. We sat having local beers for an hour or so before we realized we were the only ones in the bar & were approached by the Vietnamese owner & his older British minority investor. The owner explained their tradition that if bar newbies stay past 11, they are gifted a tequila shot dropped in a beer and only once we successfully chug the beer/shot mix, do they recognize our names (we remain nameless before). We weren’t given an option so the nice girls working the bar set up the contraption & we had to take them down. Afterwards, I ended up having a wonderful 2-hour+ conversation with the owner about various topics, while Amy was unfortunately stuck talking to the pompous investor. The owner & I spoke about our personal histories (he’s originally from Hue in central Vietnam); all of the American Vietnam War vets who sidle up to his bar, ridden with guilt, & how he tries, over several nights, to get them to open up & leave the past in the past & focus on living a happy life now; & the fact that no one calls the city HCMC. Tran says he’s never EVER heard ANYONE call it anything but Saigon. And he was emphatic about it. He said to the locals, this was very important as they don’t want to recognize & memorialize communist Ho Chi Minh (as it was renamed for him upon fall of Saigon in 1975). I really liked that spirit, & can attest we never heard locals refer to it as HCMC, so it’s Saigon from here on out. He was a lovely feisty old man w endless fascinating stories & a refreshingly positive outlook on life & I loved our conversation. He took out a pad of paper & drew a map of Vietnam and using his input, we mapped out our 3-week proposed itinerary. He gave me his card, in addition to a big hug upon leaving, & insisted if I needed anything at all or had any questions as we traveled, I shouldn’t hesitate to reach out to him. I think, after we complete the 6 weeks travel & Amy unfortunately has to leave, I will be back to Vietnam, and Saigon specifically, & will certainly make a point to stop in at Ice Blue for another chat w Tran.