Halong Bay

Hanoi was a lovely, lovely city, but I'd be remiss not to share our trip to Ha Long Bay first.



Our immediate reaction was of a pirate's retreat. The small port was full of wooden overnight boats with dragon mastheads...


... and women in small rowboats would come bearing trinkets and treasure. Treasures like bottled water and soda, 10,000 Dong.


As legend goes, the bay and its intricate network of caves (stunning, but doesn't photograph too well) was created by a dragon, writhing and thrashing on its way to the ocean. There's a romantic, if fanciful, explanation for most natural forms here.

This is the scene on the majority of Ha Long Bay postcards. Our guide tried to conjure the image of a rooster and hen kissing, or something of the like. Our walk through the caves was speckled with commentary on all the turtles, dragons, and jellyfish supposedly in the formations. Then the guide would mischievously confide the phallic nature of the stalagmites.


There's nothing quite like waking on the water to catch the sunrise.

24 hours of food in Hanoi

This post will give you a taste of what is availble for each meal of the day in North Vietnam.



I would like to preface this with a disclaimer about our ignorance. We are true novices at vietnamese food. Names of dishes go in one ear and out the next, that is when we can even pronounce them. Vietnamese as a language has six distinct tones making it difficult for us to hear and reproduce words. So when we think we are asking for chicken we end up with tripe (although the tripe is still really delicious). So we are somewhat blindly stumbling around back alleys of Hanoi with our eyes and mouths open. This is what 24 hours of getting lost in Hanoi can produce.



Breakfast:
Is generally eaten out. Very few Vietnamese make breakfast at home. And why would you when every corner has cheap and beautiful bowls of Pho noodle soup.





Breakfast soon gives way to the morning snack. We opted for some puff pastries sold by the basket full on the street.



It can get pretty hot in the late morning, so it's best to take a break for ice cream. The French colonists influenced the cooking of Vietnam and one such influence is the ultra creamy ice cream. It's best enjoyed with whip cream on your nose.



Lunch:
This meal is generally taken in the home by the vietnamese, and followed by a nap. But as backpackers we lacked both kitchen and mid-day accomodations. So we just resigned ourselves to an assorment of hot street food.



First piglet meat and pig ears on shredded raddish.



Then deep fried spring rolls with mint.



Finally a small bird we are still debating if it was a quail or a pigeon.




To tide us over before our next snack we picked up some dried jack fruit. We still don't know what jack fruit is.




Our next snack we stumbled into was rice panckakes filled with mushrooms, fatty pork, and shrimp.



This was accomapanied by dried salted pork shreds.





Dinner:
Street vendors follow the time of day. Some things can be found all day, but many are only for the morning and the afternoon. So when evening fell and Lilly and I wanted fish we were directed to an indoor resturaunt. Here we dined on fish and greens grilled in hot oil at the table.




But no day in Hanoi is complete without a late night snack. We opted for a grill stand.



We picked squid, salmon, okra, and mushrooms wrapped in beef from the large variety of skewers.





Then we chatted the night away with fellow travelers.




Sleep. Repeat.

Cute kids, and then some.

The kids in Vietnam are unsurpassed in adorable, such that Alex wants to abandon this blog for one focused on these cute things. Every kid is so happy and coddled, carried constantly by doting family members. Vietnam seems a very kid-centric place. Maybe more so than Southport Corridor (heaven forbid).

These first two were spied at the pagoda on Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.

A schoolgroup at the zoo in Ho Chi Minh.

A girl at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, created to commemorate the 82 or so people who passed their doctorate exams. The Temple (really a grounds with a series of structures), houses 82 stone turtles with stelae on their backs. It's good luck for students to pet the heads of each and then pet their own heads, especially before taking a test.

Off to Ha Long Bay today, more pictures when we return!

Being a Tourist in Ho Chi Mihn City

Ho Chi Mihn is the largest city in Vietnam. Yet we seemed to be confined to only a small portion of it. Mostly because we are little traffic pansies. The block on which our hotel sat was surrounded by major roads that raged with constant motobike traffic.



We would watch hunched old women carrying loads of coconuts across these bustling intesections, but the thought of navigating 15 lanes of mean traffic left us daunted.



After some fortifying coffee we braved the torrent. Lilly only got hit once (she really did get hit, ask her to tell you the bizarre story) and we ventured further into afield only to be greated with signs like this at the War Museum.



There does not exists a museum in HCMC unrelated to the war. Even the fine arts museum is 4 floors of paintings of soldiers. But the outside of each we were able to find amazing street vendor. Like the hot bun seller or fresh crab stall below



But if traffic, street food, and museums are not your speed have no fear because there is room in Ho Chi Mihn offering...




Who could ask for anything more?

Ho Chi Minh food, etc.

Hedgehog coconut pastry (held upside down).

Standard street-fare.

Fetal duck egg (surprisingly normal), which was followed by conch (surprisingly good), and snails (unsurprisingly not good).

Fried dough ball filled with sweet peanut butter. Speaks for itself.

Fresh rice pancake, wrapped around ground pork sausage, topped with chopped peanuts, beansprouts, and herbs. Amazing.

Big ugly fish, not sure if he's a pet or for eating. Can't imagine he'd be very good either way.

Eel and fish, to buy and eat!

fruit stand at one of the massive markets.

The markets in Ho Chi Minh house some amazing sights. Tubs brimming with live fish, frogs, or snails, stalls piled high with dried fruits and little shrimps, and so on. There are also many stalls selling tourist items, like laquered bowls, fans, and scarves. The perimeter is mostly inexpensive clothes. It's a feast for the stomach and eyes, but come prepared to stand your ground. The walkways are minute, and at every corner resides a small Vietnamese lady determined to tug your arm and suggest buying something. And tug they will! The "food court" is the same way. In a moment of indecision, we found ourselves stranded in the middle, proprietors waving menus in our faces from all sides. They back down eventually, and its all in good fun.

There's lots yet to upload. Prawn on rice noodles, spring rolls, shrimp on sugar cane... and when most of it costs less than $1 or $2, gluttony is cheap!

cheers,

L

Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh

It's day three in Vietnam. We've been in Ho Chi Minh since landing and head to Hanoi in an hour. Every morning, the second we step out of our room at the Hoang Phong Hotel (their card reads "best in everything"), the smell of incense engulfs us. It's a pervasive scent in this religious culture; every home and shop has a small altar. We've even stumbled upon little sacrifices set out on street curbs, the most notable containing a small cache of paper money and a handful of animal crackers.

After the incense, its an intense mixture of overly ripe fruit (dorian especially), cigarette smoke, and human sweat. The humidity is incredible. We're quick learners by necessity, as our first day of soldiering through the noon heat ended in mild heat rash for us both. But when the Zoo is next to the History Museum, which is so close to the War Remnants Museum, which is 2 blocks from the Reunification Palace, its hard to slow down.
Must go, more to come later!