Good Morning Vietnam!!!

Good Morning Vietnam!!!

Leaving Tokyo at 1:20 am and arriving in Vietnam at 5:15 am that just had to be done..

Avoid tours! Typically I avoid them and, at best, do a day trip here or there. For Egypt a tour company booked a full itinerary for me and my friend Denise which was awesome, Africa I thought a tour was 100% necessary. Some people like them, I like the freedom. Freedom of not being on a large group schedule, doing the same thing as everyone, same people daily, waiting for the slowest person to shop, eat , get to a bus; IMO, it’s a pain in the ass.

So, if you’re ever thinking of Vietnam contact Nancy over at Halong Tours . She was awesome, answered many questions, made suggestions and, as I said it was all on my schedule. She even came to the Hanoi hotel to meet me, say hello and see how everything had been; that’s customer service.

My First Stop

HO CHI MINH

Arriving early is good and bad, on one hand you get to a place ready to roll, on the other hand you can’t check into you hotel. On arrival, I got 2.5 million Vietnamese Dong which was about $108 USD. Out the arrival doors and my drivers not there, first hurdle which the booking company but I called Nancy and she was on it! Get to the hotel about 7:40 and bottom line, in a foreign country, no sleep the night before (couldn’t sleep), no sleep on the plane and no room. Just deal with it and keep moving forward.

After vegging on the couch in the hotel lobby for a while they were able to get me a room just before 10am. I rested a bit then it was time to see Ho Chi Minh. My plan for the day was walk the city and get what I read was the best Banh Mi. Now for those of you who don’t know what Banh Mi is, it’s bread, of course it’s also a Vietnamese sandwhich and they’re delicious!! In the US they are typically pork, some greens and/or cabbage and some dressing that usually has some chili’s in it for some heat. In Vietnam it’s just a whole other endless world of deliciousness. 

The heat/humidity in Ho Chi Minh made Japan look like a joke. The insanity of the drivers and traffic  is pretty unreal as well. I made my way to Huynh Hoa only to find it closed; so much for the best banh mi. You can always get a good vibe for a place by visiting their local market so I decided to make, or sweat, my way to Ben Thanh Market.

Vietnam has more markets then anywhere, night markets, day markets, central markets, floating markets and of course food markets. Given the best banh mi was a bust and Ben Thanh Street Food Market was on the way it was a no brainer. A timely stop indeed as I was hungry and soon after arrival monsoon like rain rolled in. Luckily a craft beer stand was also in the market so I waited out the rain with a local brew. 

As the rain settled down it was a quick walk to the market.  May have spent 45 minutes there then back through the city and to the hotel. The hotel was a block off the well knowing waking street, Bui Vien. Street food for dinner and I mean the guy was cooking and I was eating right there with scooters, cars etc whizzing by (below left). After I found this little local brewery and as I tried one of their beers people were setting up a full BBQ restaurant stand, tables, chairs and everything in the alley, semi street, next to it (below right).

NO question, Vietnam has Italy and Thailand, anywhere I’ve been, beat on the motorcycle, moped, scooter thing for sure.

Given lack of sleep and a wake up time was 5:30 am to head to the Mekong River it was an early night

MEKONG RIVER

Vietnam is larger than most realize. Coupled with the travel times due to driving speed, traffic and distance, it makes it seem even bigger. It took about two and a half hours of driving to get to our first stop. Overall the Mekong river is pretty interesting and I’d be curious to go back to other areas.

I won’t bore you with each and every stop but basically over the course of two days we had a couple of boat rides on the Mekong River. Our first stop of day one was for local honey and see the way they raise/keep bees. Sampling some honey tea while listening to live local music and even holding the trays from the hive. I mention this stop specifically as I’d hope at this point everyone knows how important bees are to our environment; a great little stop. 

We took small row boats to coconut island to watched candy get made. There was snake, rice, wine there as well. Of course it’s basically rice wine with a snake put in the bottle (picture to the right); yes, I tried it. Both days we had amazing lunches that seemed to be never ending in courses. One of my favorite presentations was this first lunch as they served the fish standing up (picture in the gallery) the waitress cut open the back of the fish and just pulled the bones out (well most, there were a few she missed).

Our last stop for the day was a Buddhist temple where there were three Buddha’s and this interesting bell. I say interesting because I noticed a symbol on the bell, on a few Buddha’s. In the photo gallery I have some pictures but zooming in on one 

Research was needed, you can do your own, if you like. The gist is this was/is a symbol of good luck (there is more to it) and although I had been to many temples I had never notice it before. I am sure it was in these other temples but this time caught my eye while looking at the bell. If you look closely you’ll notice that the symbol sits flat/square where as the German version was angled. As they say, we learn something new everyday and it’s pretty interesting actually. Obviously it’s also sad that this ‘good’ symbol gets recognized as evil. 

Over night was spent Can Tho. Pulling up to the Anh Dao Hotel I was pretty skeptical but had an amazing room overlooking part of the city. I spent the evening walking the river, exploring the small city and night markets before stopping at the Happy Crab/C-Brewmaster for a couple of drinks. Vietnam vs Malaysia was on and this little city, and I imagine country, went nuts with Vietnam 1-0 win.

Up at 5am, off to the group meet up point then to the dock for our boat to Cai Rang floating market. Our guide mentioned that each year the floating market(s) gets smaller and smaller. This is a part of life on the Mekong and an experience that could be lost soon (she said she believes within 10 yrs). Lost would be boats latching on to others selling breakfast and fresh fruit; mangoes, mangosteens, bananas, dragon fruits, longans, etc.  There are also drink sellers with everything from coconut (opened fresh if you like) and fruit juices to coffee, soups, soda, beer and water. We even climbed onto a larger boat to get fresh pineapples that were delicious. 

7:45am and time for myself and the two German’s to get a beer (it’s noon somewhere) before heading to another stop. I probably wouldn’t have gotten the beer but it was. ALREADY, another hot and humid day in the making. Spending some more time on the river our next stop was an island. Our group of eleven was given a choice. Four people took choice #1, a 75 minute bike ride on this island, the rest of decided on choice #2, stay put and indulge in some interesting food, if you like.  Where else would you see this menu?? 

Always up for the strange and unusual and given I’ve tried everything on this menu but one item, I had to go for it.

Myself and one of the Australians took any part of this both ordering the rat; yes the rat!  Watching people hold the snakes before the process of their heads being banged off (not even cut) then being thrown directly into the fire was different. Anyway we went for the rat; that’s mine front middle center; nope I didn’t name him. Definitely the most bizarre or unusual thing I’ve ever eaten at 9am. I mean I’ve had sushi in Japan at 5am; this was a whole different thing.

As you can imagine, it tasted like chicken (doesn’t everything) and there wasn’t much meat but as I said to a friend, a hell of a rack of rat ribs 🙂 Before the three hour return to Ho Chi Minh we watched and participated in the process of making rice noodles and had another great lunch.

On the three and a half hour return me and another got into the best banh mi discussion. He told me about this amazing place and I was telling him about the place that was closed. Ended up they were one in the same; he said he was going back because it was that good and could eat it every day.

We got back very late afternoon, I walked a little, relaxed and then there was only one thing to do and YES it was the BEST!! There was a constant line getting to about 40 people at one point.

Ironically a couple of days later an old colleague of mine  text me that if I was still in Ho Chi Minh I needed to go to this place he saw on a food show; again one in the same. If I was in Ho Chi Minh I’d eat it again and if you go, trust me, it was the best. Not only the best but the most expensive banh mi I had on the entire trip costing me 42K also known as $1.80 USD but more on that later. 

HOI AN

In general Vietnam is kind of touristy. Ironically they don’t necessarily understand tourists and the way other places operate in regards to tourism. Hoi An is made for tourists. Markets, yes more markets, the entire river front with lantern lit boats,  just waiting for riders (like gondolas in Venice) and restaurants lining both sides of the river. Hoi An is definitely more for tourists then the hustle and bustle of the cities.

Arriving in the afternoon I settled in and then spent the first night wandering around a bit taking in the city. Given I wanted to try all the foods in Vietnam it was off to Ông Hai for Mì Quảng which is a delicious rice noodle dish with meat, herbs, egg, peanuts and not too much broth. Not being sure how to eat it exactly I just watched some people next to me, followed suit and it was delicious.

By now you can probably tell food is a big center point in Vietnam. Not just for me either, there are street vendors everywhere, carts, people walking with donuts, strange things I don’t recognize and of course, like anywhere else restaurants. 

I’ll be mentioning other foods throughout but will say NOTHING that I ate that was disappointing; not even the rat. So below is a foods of Vietnam gallery.

The next morning was the only tour or anything planned while in Hoi An. This was, without question, the most touristy things ever. Up at 8am onto the bus to Bana Hills. In my defense I didn’t realize what this tour consisted of until after it was booked but honestly I was just going to see the Golden Bridge. To get to the bridge you take one of the longest gondola rides in Asia.

The bridge is really cool but after you see the bridge, gardens, and temple you take another gondola up to Vietnamese Disney. It’s obvious the investors are going for Disney but imagine a pretty lame version of Disneyland; a roller coaster (not really) a couple of 4D and 5D movies, some shows and  well you get the point. Oh and instead of Mickey Mouse they had these pigs which I still don’t understand but you can see pictures in the other gallery below). The tour came with lunch which was a huge buffet in ‘Beer Plaza’ and a total of 3 hours to explore the ‘park’. After eating lunch we probably needed 30 minutes. Ironically it’s much cheaper to do this tour then to just go see the bridge (by like $40). 

Rather then return to my hotel I headed straight to old town. I read about a spot to see the sunset and given the timing was right I got to this street food stand on the water in time to pull up a small plastic chair had a beer, watched a nice Vietnamese sunset and chatted with a fellow traveler doing the same.

The next day was an entire rain out. I did try to get the Banh Mi made famous by Anthony Bourdain  (another closed place) and check out the local market in between afternoon bursts of rain. Come evening and through the next morning before flying out it was just pouring. I did get to try Cao Lầu which is another delicious noodle dish. 

Hanoi

With three and a half days in Hanoi the focus was two days in Halong Bay which basically left me with one full day to check out the city. My hotel was a great location on the edge of the Old Quarter. Although I was leaving at 7:30am when I arrived in the evening I figured I’d just get a feel for my surroundings since I’d be returning after Halong Bay. 

Halong Bay

Most claim this is the highlight of Vietnam. I can tell you it’s a pretty amazing dozens and dozens of rock formed islands. What’s not amazing is the four hour bus ride to get there. They should really put that in the brochure I didn’t get; I was told two and a half which seemed like a lot. Apparently there is also a helicopter options as well as a sea plane which I would have loved. 

The weather day one was ok and not as nice day two; still beautiful and I can say I’ve never seen any place like it. Again this amazing natural place is now totally centered around tourism. Speaking to a fellow, Australian, passenger his thoughts were that Vietnam want the tourist dollars but don’t really know how to cater to tourist. This is something I hit on earlier and he’s definitely correct.

Perfect example was Halong Bay itinerary. We went to these caves inside one of the islands during the first day (about 3pm). The cave formation(s) was pretty cool and after we headed to a man made beach. By this time the sun was going down. and I realize many Asian people avoid the sun but the Australian’s, Europeans etc don’t; why not take people to the caves after or give them options? Also there are so many boats, too many and everyone goes to the same caves, same beach and many boats are anchored further out in front of this small beach. The view would be amazing if they just anchored them on the sides or back of the island; Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, I can help, TRUST ME!!

Regardless the bay was beautiful and I should note this was the most expensive part of the trip. Like any cruise, the drinks are pricey. Two drinks and two beers on the one day cruise cost $32. Now you might be thinking that’s not so bad and it’s not but think about this.

I was in Vietnam for 9 days at this point and I had 22,000 (95 cents) of that 2.5 million ($107) that I took out left. I had to charge the $32 and charged $9 at East West Brewing Co. in Ho Chi Minh so at this point I had spent $148. Let that sink in for a moment. Also if I didn’t drink, I’d bet that $148 would have been more like $68 because many times when I got food that was $1 the beer was $3 and in the breweries they were $5. Now granted I mostly ate inexpensive because of the things I wanted to try and places I read about. However when I was in the Happy Crab in Can Tho the guys next to me ordered a feast of all kinds of crabs, scallops, shrimp, etc on this huge platter, it could have fed four people and was equivalent to $17 USD.

Due to a bus tire issue our four hour ride increased so it was very late when we returned (wish I took that sea plane). Having 1 day left and blowing the previously mentioned 2.5 Million, I exchanged $20 at the hotel and got myself another 450K (hotel exchange rate wasn’t as good) 

The next day was city exploration. Walked around the lake, through the Old Quarter and even made it to another Anthony Bourdain food place. This one was actually open and it’s where he and President Obama had lunch while he was in Vietnam.

Although Bún chả Hương Liên has been serving bun cha for over 20 years this one lunch, a few years ago, put them on the tourist map. Ironically there weren’t many tourist and it seemed to be mainly locals. I also didn’t know any of this, but wanting to try bun cha and the fried crab/seafood rolls Google told me this was a top spot (before the famous lunch too). ‘Combo Obama’ was my order, it was delicious, only like $6 too. As I posted on instagram (@escapinglife3hrs), and tagged him, maybe Obama should consider franchising bun cha in the US; obviously Obama didn’t respond. 

Having only a taste of Vietnam with three major place there is SO MUCH more to see. My overall impression, the people were friendly, it wasn’t overly hard to get around, there’s some beautiful countryside (probably less and less polluted with garbage as you get away from the cities) and it’s obviously cheap. I’d totally go back and see more in the future. Check out more picture in the gallery and comment or email me with any questions

The last evening was spent just walking, had some more delicious food (beef and spinach with garlic) then a beer along to train tracks as the train was coming in. Back to the hotel, packed and got a little sleep before my 5am airport pickup for my flight to Christchurch. 

Before the adventure in New Zealand there’s an interesting 1 day layover in Guangzhou China I’ll tell you about.