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.

Leaving Vietnam

After 3 weeks in Vietnam, we are leaving for Southern Thailand. I admit I’m a bit reluctant. I love the country so much. The people are so nice & welcoming, it has so much variety to offer from buzzing vibrant cities to gorgeous isolated beaches to lush mountainous rice paddies, & the food is on another level. We spoke with locals who noted they don’t get many American tourists beyond younger backpacker types & based on their prior conversations, they wondered aloud if it was due to Americans having a single track mind when it comes to Vietnam… All they think about is the war. It’s still recent history so perhaps that’s true. Thailand far surpasses Vietnam in tourism each year & after spending 3 weeks here, it’s baffling to me as IMHO, Vietnam surpasses Thailand in all respects, although my goal is to find some Southern Thailand beaches that are just as isolated as those we found in Vietnam. I think in 5 years, as word continues to spread, they will close that gap bc it’s just a lovely country.

Hanoi, a wonderful surprise

Every other city we’ve traveled to, I’ve been able to get my bearings, figure out where stuff is & find my way around in about a day. Hanoi baffled me for 2-3 days as it took me nearly the entire stay to get a handle on the city. It’s a mass of small winding streets, intersected randomly w larger boulevards and you’re concentrating so much on not getting hit by a car or a motorbike, bc the locals have commandeered the use of all sidewalks (bribes to police to ignore city ordinances) for their own personal storage, motorbike parking or an extension of their house/shop/restaurant, you easily lose track of where you are. It’s madness. Definitely the city with the most frenetic pace, insane traffic & high energy. I loved it from jump.
The food just pushed it over the top. You can clearly tell by all my posts, that I’ve eaten very well over here. When we hit Hoi An, the food ratcheted up a notch but Hanoi has easily surpassed it. Not only is the food ridiculously amazing, it’s also dirt cheap. We only had one proper sit down meal at a restaurant in Hanoi & excluding that, we stuck to street food all visit for every meal.
There were some hiccups on day one, in addition to the near hotel scam. In our first couple hours here walking the city, a biker ran into Amy. I’d say it was a somewhat gentle nudge, as we were walking on the street & he was turning a corner very slowly & we were all trying to squeeze together, but it was a bit of a surprise to her. Later, a street vendor, carrying what appeared to be a shoe repair kit, approached Amy with a glue stick aimed directly for her shoe before she reacted strongly with a “no”. I think he was probably just looking for money as if he “repaired her shoe”. Another vendor later, snuck up behind me with her wooden shoulder bar bearing 2 baskets of fruit & without me seeing, attempted to place it on my shoulder & then asked for money for a picture. I turned, sternly said no & shrugged it off my shoulder. She perhaps would’ve balked were she not worried about it going crashing to the ground, thus losing her pretty fruit displays in the mad Hanoi traffic. The hotel scam, those incidents & the insane traffic would, I think, scare off a lot of people. We just laughed our way through the incidents, didn’t give up on the city & subsequently fell in love with it.
So for a host of reasons, I may now consider coming back here on my extended trip. There’s this lovely place in the mountains, Mu Cang Chai, that I read about online before the trip (it didn’t even make my SE Asia book or Amy’s Vietnam book so that tells you how tiny it is). We didn’t have time to squeeze it in this time as we were told 4 days/3 nights minimum as it’s 8-10 hours north of Hanoi (this is after a guide asked me, intrigued,… How did you hear about that place?) & we wanted to end Amy’s portion of the trip w some beach time in Southern Thailand. Plus we didn’t knock off nearly half of the key Hanoi tourists sites. Prior to the visit, I’d never have dreamed Hanoi could challenge Saigon for culture, food, feel, etc. but it certainly does that ten-fold. It has culture coming out of its ears & I could aimlessly wander the old quarter all day hopping from place to place, stuffing myself full with street food & egg coffees. I love it so much.

Hanoi traffic on a light day

https://youtu.be/VlVWgbHsrGI

Red Bridge to Jade Island, which houses a pagoda, on Hoan Kiem Lake. It was sprinkling that day so Amy bailed while I kept wandering.

Monk action series sequel, spelunking edition

I was thrilled enough as it was w Halong Bay. Imagine my delight when we stumbled upon monks touring the same massive cave!?!?! Our guide and I debated on the origin of the monks. Based on my technical research, I surmised either Northern Thailand or Cambodia. Definitely not Laos. Turns out they’re Cambodian. So I present to you the monk action series sequel, spelunking edition.

Spelunking monk taking in Vietnam’s neon cave lighting

Vacationing monk thrilling a fellow traveler

Monk on holiday capturing a video on his iPad

Monk posing for a vacation photo in front of a sunny pic of Halong Bay. Perhaps he didn’t enjoy the fog as much as I?

Halong Bay in a fog out

Halong Bay is a 4 hr drive East from Hanoi & famous for its bright green waters & 1,600+ towering limestone islands topped w rainforests. With a simple google search, you can see just how lovely it looks on a bright sunny day. The thing to do is take an overnight junk boat, head out for some up close viewing, explore via kayaks & enjoy some great food. Unfortunately for us, the weather didn’t cooperate as it was cold, sprinkling & terribly foggy so we opted out of the overnight boat as we figured we could make better use of the night back in Hanoi (eating ourselves into a stupor) so we just did a day trip w a guide. Great decision and frankly, I think the fog made for some uniquely gorgeous vistas so I in fact, now would highly recommend visiting on a foggy day, limiting it to a day trip & heading back to Hanoi in time for some late night bun bo nam bo (yes, that’s exactly what we did).

I apologize as the photos below are I’m sure repetitive but it took me forever to narrow them down bc I think it’s just that beautiful of a place (& this is after I deleted 100+ photos). A couple videos interspersed as well.

https://youtu.be/CpeYPlAWqv8

https://youtu.be/oHvFWfI6ipg

Hanoi street food, professional motorbike tour

Because we really like to eat, are obsessed w street food & loved our Saigon motorbike food tour, did you really think we weren’t going to do one in Hanoi too? Similar concept as cute young women drivers are paired w customers but this time there were just 4 of us, including a very nice young Russian couple who lived in Kuala & was visiting for the weekend (I managed to resist asking them if they’ve visited Nha Trang bc I didn’t want to profile them but it was a struggle all night). The tour was a bit more informal as the girls didn’t wear traditional dress & only the chick in charge, Nga or “Money”, came in & sat w us at the street food restos to explain what we’re eating & how to eat it. Thankfully I was paired w her on the motorbike so we had great convos coming & going as she knew exactly what we ate & discussed & I really got to know her as well as you can. I felt a bit guilty as Amy didn’t have that same luck but despite that, we both had a really great time. I was a little curious, since we had been traveling in Vietnam for over 2.5 weeks, whether we’d know all of the dishes or still be surprised. I was thrilled as Money introduced us to so many new dishes which just speaks to the massive variety in Vietnamese cuisine as this tour varied significantly from the Saigon one.
Stops:

Stop 1 – Bun Cha w barbecue pork, noodles, fish sauce, green papaya, add chili & garlic for spice. Hysterically, we had bun cha w beef that very day for lunch on our own personal street food tour but I didn’t have the heart to tell Money. Delicious twice in one day.

Stop 2 – Thanh Hop restaurant; special pho (pho ga tion); dry pho so no soup; noodles same, mixed w soy sauce, chicken, cucumber, coriander, peanuts; add pickled garlic in vinegar & chili sauce. Called Pho ga tran (dry chicken noodle). I’d never heard of dry pho before & it was fg fantastic!

Stop 3 – Long Vi Dung for (1) nom bo kho, beef jerky salad, green papaya, peanut, basil & dipping sauce; (2) banh bot loc, tapioca dumpling so transparent w shrimp, pork & black mushroom & dip in same sauce (4 parts water, 1 part fish sauce, vinegar & sugar). We are only 1 hour in & we’ve had 4 dishes. Belly is bursting but must push on.

Stops 4 & 5 – Thankfully these were sightseeing stops at the pretty lake & a bridge.

Stop 6 – Pho chien trung, egg fried pho at Trung Ran; w beef, an amazing sauce & topped w greens. Again, no idea that fried pho existed but need to find this & dry pho in Chicago. Also had rolled pho, pho cuon – fresh rice paper, beef & herbs (very similar to Southern Vietnamese fresh spring roll but definitely not called that… they like to highlight the differences between S & N Vietnam cuisine… Kinda amusing).

Stop 7 – HCM mausoleum w parade in front when lower flag daily at 9pm (raise at 5am)

Stop 8 – Banh mi sandwich w fried pork, pate, veggies & a shot of rice wine to wash the food down; also had ca phi trung or egg coffee – yolk on top; Vietnamese say bc they have a bitter life, they like to sweeten everything; used to drink w condensed milk but replaced w egg; seriously delicious!!! I had to come back to the same place to get another one the very next day. Money gave me her email address to stay in touch but I told her first things first, I needed the egg coffee recipe.

Stop 9 – Two desserts including fruit w caramel & sticky rice w ice cream
And as an extra bonus… She recommended 2 other great street food restos for us to try on our time. Number 1… Bun bo nam bo, my obsession. Done & done. So that just further validated our amazing taste buds.

Money on the right. She goes by “Money” bc she says her real name, Nga, is difficult to pronounce. I tried 10 times & never got it, while she just launghed at me, so “Money” it was. She’s also the one who told me I was asking for smelly beer & telling people to shut up. She was a big help.

A light rain started while chowing down on fried pho so we donned ponchos

Hanoi street food, personal tour

So Hanoi is all about the food. Street food in particular. You may have figured this out already, but I’m kinda obsessed w Vietnamese street food so I was really looking forward to trying it out. Our LP travel guide, in addition to normal resto recommendations, also included a listing of 10 great street food stops in the city, each one focusing on one specialty (do one thing & do it the best). For anyone who has traveled before relying on guidebooks, you know that can be a great source, oftentimes better than hotel concierge recommendations as those oftentimes involve kickbacks or more tourist-friendly sites that sacrifice local food flair, for local dining options. We had enjoyed great success relying on it to-date, so we thought we’d give it a whirl & do our own personal street food tour of the Hanoi Old Quarter as we wander through its winding streets over the next 4 days.
The first stop did not disappoint as I claimed it to be the single best dish I’ve had on the trip (how quickly I forgot cao lao, what can I say… flavor of the month). So good, we had to have it as our last meal in Hanoi as well. The other stops did not disappoint. Love love love the food. There’s little to no ambience but who gives a shit. Best part… Entire meals including a beer were less than USD$3.00 & it was the best food of the trip, hands down.

They have a menu on the wall but as soon as you walk in, they ask “how many bowls?”

Bun bo nam bo (dry noodles w beef) is served mixed w bean sprouts, garlic, lemongrass & green mango then you cam separately add chili spice, soy & vinegar; this is pre-mixing

Post-mixing w chilis; it’s life changing

Xoi Yen’s specialty is sticky rice topped w various goodies including Asian sausage, slow-cooked pork & a fried evg w delicious sauce & chili sauce added to taste, of course

Bun cha is a combo of grilled pork patties in a delicious broth, vermicelli noodles, fresh greens & herbs, & chilis for spice, all served separately & you mix your own

Per direction, drop spring roll into broth & eat as it’s the perfect spicy dipping sauce

Banh cuon are super light steamed rice crepes filled w chicken, shrimp & mushrooms

Off to the mountains & my newest obsession…tiered rice paddies

High on my list of to-dos in Vietnam was getting into the mountains in the north. We chose Mai Chao as it’s a bit more accessible than other options. We were able to witness ethnic villages still fully functioning today as they had years ago as every family is allotted a certain number of acres to farm rice, primarily for personal consumption as everyone lives off the land in these parts. We did both bike & trekking tours of the surrounding villages & mountains led by Hoi, our adorable young host who is from the area so we were able to interact w the locals.
The afternoon spent biking was fairly easy while the trekking involved hiking on tiny dirt trails up & down mountains, the same trails used by locals to travel bw villages. We were busy concentrating on our sneakered foot placement while climbing over big boulders & staying on tiny path (bc it falls off on one side) when these 3 older tiny women, some barefoot some in flip flops, come briskly walking towards us balancing w 2 hands, atop a cushion constructed from jungle greens on their heads, a massive amount of wood or bamboo cuttings. Hysterical.
We stopped at a local stilt house & the little old woman invited us in. She couldn’t speak a lick of English but was very welcoming as she gave us homemade tea in plastic cups that looked as if they hadn’t been washed in months. She commented, via our guide, that we were very beautiful bc we have white skin. That’s the thing over here. Everyone wants to have white skin (while I keep getting tanner)… It’s a sign of affluence so people strive for it, bundling up in long sleeves, pants & sunhat while outside in the hot sun & buying “skin whitening” suntan lotion, moisturizer & deodorant. It’s very interesting. She was cooking lunch in her kitchen & for a bit, I was afraid we were going to eat there as she seemed to be grilling a rat impaled on a stick so I was preparing myself. We didn’t & instead left after the tea & a photo. The guide explained later the rat is a welcoming gesture for guests and a signal that good food will be served. Yeah, real welcoming. The guide did say the Vietnamese eat everything & let nothing go to waste.
We had yet another transportation snafu on the trekking tour as our driver picked us up to head to lunch after a hike down mountain only to find that a 25 ton truck broke its axle trying to turn around on the only single lane road that leads in/out of this tiny village as he was clearly lost. It was blocking the entire road & our driver couldn’t get around. All of the townspeople were coming to see what happened. Women carrying babies would look & just start laughing. The men seemed to be having more stern conversations w the driver. Hoi later explained they were cursing & calling him a “stupid driver” & “bad driver”. Given no other options, Hoi led us walking another 10km to lunch (after 10km+ that morning) while the townspeople sorted out the obstacle. We made it halfway there before a friend of Hoi’s rode by on his motorbike & agreed to take us, one at a time, to lunch. Amy went first so Hoi & I kept walking. After a bit, we were pleasantly surprised to find our driver honking wildly behind us so he scooped us & took us the remainder of the way. I was afraid our driver would be stuck there overnight & be unable to drive us back to Hanoi, that’s how bad the situation seemed, but in 1.5 hours, those resourceful people cut down trees & built a bridge of bamboo & wood over a nearby stream, sturdy enough for cars, while that truck sat still under the watchful eye of its “stupid driver”. We had lunch at a local family’s home who host home stays. Amazing food cooked & served right in their home while they went about living their daily lives. I joked to Amy they sure went out of their way to create an authentic experience for us as they even washed a baby in a basin for us.
We opted for the shorter 3km hike in the afternoon past the glorious tiered rice paddies over the 10km full hike due to the delay & complications over lunch as our feet were tired & we had 5pm massage appointments. The rice paddies were just stunning & made the whole trip worthwhile.

We stayed at this lovely eco lodge in little thatched huts. Just a gorgeous property.

Adorable local kids chasing after us on our walk out of town

Of course we ate like champs (yes it’s beef on fire)

Pork grilled Mai Chao way w 5 spices & lemongrass served w pepper, chili & lime sauce

Crazy Hanoi hotel scam, thwarted

Our first day in Hanoi got off to a bit of a rocky start. We read in our books to be mindful of taxi scams from the airport as taxi drivers will oftentimes tell passengers their intended hotel is closed or burned down to shuttle them to a buddy’s hotel & split any profits. To avoid that drama, we booked a private car w our hotel, reserved on hotels.com for $30 a night (prepaid). Smart right? Lonely Planet needs to update their warning to also include another scam.
Upon arrival at the hotel, we were informed by the manager our room was unavailable bc there was an issue w the bathroom & they are otherwise sold out so they would like to take us to another hotel a block away where we will get an equivalent or better room for same charge or they would pay the difference. My BS antenna went up. After several questions & confirmations including the name of the new hotel so I could quickly check TripAdvisor rating & address, we left following the bell boy who spoke no English. He took us to a hotel a block away. Problem was, it was a different hotel than the one the manager told us. I called BS, the front desk speed dialed our old hotel, reprimanded the bell boy & then we were off to the actual hotel, arriving a block later. Hotel 3 looks fine, maybe even nicer than the first. The front desk staff agree to show us to proposed room & prior to heading upstairs, I made it clear to the bell boy that he needed to wait for us until we accept the room (even though we’d walked maybe 4 blocks, the Hanoi winding Old Quarter streets makes it quite difficult). Room 1 was fine but for only one King bed & a window facing a brick wall so we declined it bc we specifically booked a room w 2 double beds & a window w a city view. Room 2 met those requests & even had a tiny balcony & so we accepted the room. Here it comes… “I’m sorry madam but to book this room, you’ll need to pay a $15 per night upcharge.” Boom. It may seem like peanuts to most people, & that’s exactly why I bet this bait-&-switch scam works bc travelers want rid of the hassle & just want a room. Not a chance was this flying with me out of sheer principal. I insisted our original hotel pay the difference & we headed downstairs to call them. Unsurprisingly, these guys had the hotel on speed dial too & spoke directly w the manager & sales manager & refused to give me the phone when I demanded to talk to both. So off we went back to our original hotel, w the bell boy & front desk dude from hotel 3 carrying our backpacks. I talked to the sales manager, expressed my frustration & she threw the hotel manager under the bus. The hotel manager apologized profusely & surprise, surprise, the original room we booked was indeed available. What a run-around but a totally awesome Hanoi experience!!! Not a chance were we getting taken. But it left a real sour taste in our mouth for the hotel, where we had only booked 2 nights to ensure we liked it & the area. We grabbed some street food, drank some bia hoi & went to a travel agency to help us book a couple side trips. Turns out, due to availability & timing, it made more sense to abandon prepaid night 2 at the scam hotel & head to the mountains, later returning to Hanoi. The next morning, upon checkout, we refused to pay the $18 taxi charge from airport bc of the hotel scam, they accepted so we were out a whole $12 & had a phenomenal story.

Enjoying bia hoi on the street after successfully thwarting the scam

Bia hoi in barrela & our cute bar owner who kindly chased away annoying street vendors once we had already nicely declined their wares 3x

Son My… one place, two dichotomous destinations

I headed alone to Son My, approximately 3 hours south of Hoi An right along the coast, while Amy stayed to enjoy a free day in Hoi An.
Purpose 1: to visit the memorial site commemorating the 1968 My Lai massacre

Purpose 2: to visit Me Khe beach, Vietnam beach #5 & final, which is located just a 10 minute drive from the memorial
It was supposed to be a 3-hr drive each direction but bc my hired driver was a maniac, he cut the whole trip down to 4 hours. No complaints here as it shortened my long day & I survived. My visit to the My Lai memorial roughly coincided with the 48th anniversary of the horrific massacre of 504 local unarmed Vietnamese by the US Army. The war crime was one of the pivotal moments of the war that shaped the US & worldwide perceptions of our involvement. It was a very somber, disgusting, embarrassing visit. There weren’t many other visitors but those present certainly seemed to be Vietnamese locals & I admit I got a few weird looks & questions if I was American. The highlight of that visit was after I had finished w the sickening museum tour & exited outdoors to see the memorial & the remnants of the torched village, I was approached by two darling university students who stake out the place just in hopes an English speaker shows & they can practice. I agreed to chat so we talked for maybe 20 minutes & they rapidly fired questions including heavy topics like how & when I learned about the massacre & why I was visiting to lighter subjects explaining certain slang terms. I found interesting that not only do they take a ton of courses to learn English, but they also take several intonation courses to “change the way their voice sounds”. Kinda crazy & a moment of reflection where I felt especially lucky to be a natural born speaker of what is now becoming the common language of the world.
As I didn’t want to travel that distance to only be depressed by My Lai, I made sure to stop at this local beach, Me Khe, a mere 10 minute drive from the site of those atrocities. My LP book had a quick blurb on it explaining it was massive, stunning & super isolated & that was all that was needed for me to negotiate a stop at the beach on the return trip. It was easily the most beautiful beach I’ve seen in Vietnam. Isolated & the whitest sand but there’s certainly proof of activity as a portion of the beach was dotted w fishing boats, abandoned by their fishermen as it was now early afternoon, as well as goalie nets on either end of an imagined football field. It was pretty sweet. There wasn’t much else around there but that is the place I’d come back to & rent a room & just do nothing for a couple months.