Vietnam

Digging in at Pho Quynh in Ho Chi Minh City

There's a lot to like about Vietnam. It's got three thousand miles of beachy coastline, lush jungle mountains and interesting history of Chinese emperors and stalwart resistance to would-be foreign conquerors. But there's no question that the star attraction is the food. Throughout our three weeks in the country, we gorged ourselves on countless bowls of pho, a dozen banh mi sandwiches, and many heaping plates of bun cha. Add to that the occasional fresh seafood, roast pork, and other unique delicacies, and you get a good idea of the moveable feast that we enjoyed as we traversed the country from Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in the South up to Hanoi in the North.

Unfortunately not all of our experiences in Vietnam were as savory as the food. The country's rapid economic growth (the fastest in Southeast Asia) may be great for locals, but it can leave tourists feeling like they've stepped into a whirlwind of rushing motorbikes and scam artists trying to make a quick buck. These experiences, plus the travel pains we felt from covering too much ground too quickly, left us feeling pretty iffy about our time in Vietnam despite the many beautiful sites and delicious meals we enjoyed.

Motorbike is the preferred mode of transportation in Vietnam, which results in swarms of bikers on all roads at all hours. For whatever reason they haven't converted any of these into auto-rickshaws like they have everywhere else in SE Asia, so if you want to get somewhere without being swindled by one of the notoriously scummy cab drivers, your only option is to hop on the back of somebody's bike and hold on tight!

There's no defending the horrible acts of violence committed by American troops in the Vietnam war, but despite the brutality and recency of the war we didn't feel any anti-American resentment in our interactions with locals. Saigon's War Remnants museum, however, pulls no punches in its anti-American and very graphic depiction of the atrocities of the war. We had some trouble distinguishing between fact and propaganda, but nonetheless we were moved and saddened during the afternoon we spent learning about the horrible war and its aftermath.

The quickest, cheapest and most delectable lunch in Vietnam is a banh mi sandwich. There is always a line at Banh Mi Huynh Hoa where they serve up the best in banh mi in HCMC.

We decided to skip the overdeveloped beach resort town of Nha Trang and instead headed to Mui Ne, which we thought had more of a backpacker scene. Unfortunately it turned out to be more of a super-wealthy Russian scene, so we wound up spending most of our time at the lovely hotel pool.

Inspired by Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, Joe decided to try windsurfing off Mui Ne's famously windy beach. The waves were considerably more fierce than Lake Champlain, so his results weren't much better than the soldiers in the video - but he surfed 'Nam!

We continued north to the pretty colonial town of Hoi An and took a scenic bike ride through the old town and rice paddies.

We biked all the way to the beach, where we enjoyed some cold Saigons.

The markets in Hoi An's Ancient Town were stunning and always a-buzz. This is also the spot to get custom tailoring in SE Asia. Unfortunately, Ashley wasn't in the market for a floor length gown and Joe has no job to justify a custom-made 3-piece suit.

Hue served as the capital of the Nguyen dynasty from 1802 to 1945. We spent our first day at the Imperial City (which suffered major damage during the Tet Offensive campaign of the Vietnam War), and then went for a full day boat trip down the river to visit the impressive tombs of the Nguyen Emperors. The boat ride was as fun as the tombs - the 70-something-year-old mother of the boat driver cooked us some delicious food out on the water and then impressed us by squatting on her haunches for over an hour to replace the head of her deck mop. The Vietnamese people don't have a great rep amongst travelers, but I don't think anyone ever called them lazy.

A suite at the brand new Serene Palace Hotel in Hue cost us just $14 a night, including a delicious all-you-can-eat breakfast.

The cave system at Phong Nha is the largest in the world and Paradise Cave held the title for largest cave until a bigger one was discovered a few years ago. The cave is usually packed with Vietnamese tourists, but we timed our visit for 12:30 on the dot and practically had the place to ourselves. The Vietnamese are serious about their lunch.

All of our great cave photos except for the Instagram above were lost in the heist, so this image from google will have to do.

Water buffalo near Phong Nha. We thought that getting off the tourist track and into the rural interior would reduce the amount of tourist scamming, but were disappointed when our hotel owner refused to rent us a motorbike for less than triple the normal price, and then an old lady selling petrol shorted us and we wound up running out of gas in the middle of nowhere.

When we boarded our 12-hour train up to Hanoi, the place looked like a movie theatre that hadn't been cleaned in a week. Disgusting. The food also grossed us out, but the locals dug right in.

Fortunately the food options improved drastically once we arrived in Hanoi. Bun cha was one of our favorites.

And there's nothing like pulling up a plastic stool with the masses and indulging in a 10 cent Bia Hoi draft beer to wash it down. Joe struggled quite a bit to get comfortable on his tiny seat.

Halong Bay is a world famous archipelago of limestone cliffs off the coast near Hanoi. Unfortunately it gets very crowded with Vietnamese and foreign tourists, so we went around the back side of Cat Ba Island to Lan Ha Bay. Our boat ride took us past pretty much the same beautiful geology as Halong Bay, but instead of fleets of tourist boats we saw waterborne villages and secluded beaches.

Staying in the bay was a highlight of our time in Vietnam, but unfortunately we had to beat a hasty retreat back to Hanoi due to an approaching hurricane which would flood the island and leave us stranded and soaking wet.

Joe received a pretty nasty scowl from the crab lady after taking this picture.

On our way from Vietnam to Laos we had to stop over for a night at Dien Bien Phu. This boulder made the trip a bit more tricky. Dien Bien Phu is an armpit of a city, but it's famous amongst the Vietnamese as the site of their victory over the French in the First Indochina War in 1954.

We were very much ready to get out of Vietnam by the time we boarded our bus for Laos. Our bus driver wasn't ready to let us go and decided to make some money on the side by using the bus as a shipping service. We spent hours waiting in various towns while people loaded and unloaded cargo. Between the many stops and the horrible roads, what we expected to be a 7-hour trip turned out to last 17 hours.

To top it off, we were starving and the only food options when we took a pitstop was this delicious rat BBQ. It was after 2am when we finally arrived in Luang Prabang. We had to pound on the door of our guesthouse for 15 minutes in the pouring rain to wake someone up to let us in. Thanks for the memories, Vietnam.

Fortunately Laos treated us much better (apart from the robbery), so stay tuned for a more upbeat post next week - and the return of our own photos!