Kaitlyn Mah – Page 4 – Where to, Gumshoe?

Hoi An (Day 107): Delicious Cao lầu and Unbearable Heat

June 15, 2016

Our first and only full day in Hoi An began with FaceTiming with my family for a while. Nate’s almost 2 (in two days) and he has grown quite a bit since we saw him (in person) in Taipei! He’s talking so much now and I love it when his face lights up when I say, “Say hi to Uncle Tim”!

We don’t get breakfast with our room and I didn’t want to pay $5 USD per person for it. I told my family that and they laughed and said we should splurge a little. We realize it isn’t that expensive but we’ve been in Vietnam long enough to know that $5 USD for breakfast is too much – you could buy 5 banh mi for that price!

Tim did a bit of research on where to go for Hoi An’s famous dry noodle dish called, Cao lau. We decided to try a restaurant outside of the Old Town (less touristy) that was suggested by a travel/food blogger we found. The restaurant didn’t have a name but we knew the address so we punched it in Google Maps and were on our way. Cao lau is only served in Hoi An because the water used to make the noodles are supposedly only found from one well in town. Who knows if this is still true today.

We walked for about 15 minutes before getting to the restaurant. The sun was beating straight down on us and it felt like we were walking in a sauna the whole way there. The heat here isn’t a humid heat, it’s dry, which is better I suppose. When we arrived at the restaurant, it looked like they were closed but the lady saw us and we sat down. After we sat down, a few more locals came for lunch and it seemed like everyone ordered Cao lau. We could tell that the place added a lot more to their menu to accommodate all the backpackers in the area as they had a lot of western options.

Cao lau is a dry noodle dish that has slices of pork, fresh herbs, beansprouts, and pork crackling. The star of the dish are the noodles, which are a type of thicker al dente noodle, more similar to spaghetti than to pho. Apparently the rice for the noodles are stone ground and then mixed with ash and water (sounds kind of gross). Any way, the cao lau was really good. It was Better than I expected the dish to be. We both enjoyed the pork crackling on top. It added a tasty texture to the noodles.

After lunch we headed towards the Old Town to walk around. It was early afternoon and it was pretty dead while we walked around, probably because it was incredibly hot. We walked around a bit, drank all our water, and felt exhausted from the sun. We tried to find the least overpriced cafe with fans or air conditioning that we could take refuge in for a bit. The prices in general in Hoi An are more expensive than other cities in Vietnam since the Old Town is so touristy (thanks to being a UNESCO World Heritage site). We ended up at Phuong Cafe, and ordered a fruit smoothie and a beer. They also gave us glasses of iced tea to drink, which was nice and refreshing. We stayed at the Phuong Cafe for an hour and a bit, they had free wifi so we just stayed in to escape the heat. The majority of places in Hoi An’s Old Town do not have air conditioning and the cafes that do are very pricey.

We felt a bit recharged after our break and headed to Peace Tailors for our first fitting. It’s pretty impressive how quickly they can make the clothes – within less than 24 hours. My dress fit well, but I asked them to make some adjustments to the hem. Tim’s suit was nice but he had to make some alterations to his shoulders and made his pants a bit slimmer. We were told to come back around 7pm for another fitting.

Before heading back to the hotel, I wanted to buy Nate a pair of pants. I call them “SE Asian backpacker pants” because that’s what I see a lot of backpackers wearing in SE Asia. I think they’d look really cute on Nate. We went to a couple of stores that quoted us some pretty outrageous prices – 260,000 VND ($15 CAD!). We knew that was a pretty crazy price to quote so when we told her how much we would pay, she acted very insulted. Then we walked away then she said she would go down to 40,000 VND. We still walked away. We found a store that said prices were fixed so we decided to take a look. They had a pretty good assortment of those backpacker type clothes , including the pants for kids. The list price was only 30,000 VND = $1.75 CAD. We were happy we didn’t go back to the lady who even thought about quoting us 260,000 VND.

We walked back to the hotel to rest up and cool down before our next fitting and dinner. Our plan for dinner was to go to a restaurant called, Morning Glory. It was suggested to us by the hotel and I had read about it in Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor. Morning Glory’s owner, Ms. Vy, has a few other restaurants and cafes in Hoi An, a cooking school, and a new restaurant in Melbourne.

When we arrived at Morning Glory, the restaurant was packed and we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. We were told to sit inside in the waiting area, which was towards the back of the restaurant. It was super hot and stuffy inside. They had fans all over the restaurant and a huge air conditioner, which didn’t do anything because it was set to 33°C! Luckily we got seated on the patio in the front of the restaurant, which was actually a lot cooler and more comfortable outside. We ordered four dishes – white rose dumplings (Hoi An specialty), com gia (chicken rice), bun cha (pork meatballs with vermicelli and fresh herbs), and morning glory (ong choy). For our four dishes and two iced coffees, our bill was $23 CAD. This was our fanciest meal in Vietnam yet. The food was very good and I would highly recommend the restaurant. We know if we had this same meal in Melbourne, the bill would’ve been closer to $100 AUD.

After dinner we walked back to Peace Tailors for our second fitting. My dress was good to go, but Tim needed a few more alterations for his. We’ll be back again tomorrow morning for hopefully the last fitting.

We walked back to the hotel, washed up for the second time today, and continued to watch the second part of the O.J. Simpson documentary. I’m finding it pretty interesting since a lot of what made O.J. Simpson who he was happened before we were even born. We were only old enough to know about his murder trial, and not so much the societal context.

We’re leaving Hoi An tomorrow and heading back to Da Nang for the night since we have an early flight to Hanoi from the Da Nang Airport. Hoi An is a nice town city to visit but after a few days here, I’m ready to explore another city!

Steps today: 22,000

Hoi An (Day 106): Pool, Tailors, and Ancient Town

June 14, 2016

Today we woke up feeling a lot better than yesterday. We had an easy morning since we had until noon before checking out and when our hotel in Hoi An was going to pick us up. We went up to the roof for breakfast earlier and it was naturally a lot busier. The roof at Hadana has 360 views of Da Nang (Tim: more like 270), which is quite nice. Since the air conditioning inside isn’t that strong, it didn’t make much of a difference to eat outside under an umbrella.

The breakfast at Hadana Boutique Hotel was okay. There are a lot of Vietnamese breakfast options, which are good, but nothing really seemed that appetizing to us. We both had a bowl of noodles, which tasted like borsch soup with rice noodles. We headed back to our room after breakfast, packed up, and waited for our car to come.

We’re staying at Villa Orchid Garden Riverside Hotel (it’s confusing because there are a lot of hotels that have orchid, garden, and/or villa in its name) and paying $36 CAD/night. We booked a car through them to pick us up from Da Nang to bring us to Hoi An. We read that taking a public bus is uncomfortable and the drivers will try to charge you more and even threaten to kick you off the bus if you don’t pay more. We opted for the more comfortable option and just went with the hotel’s car for $19 USD for a 30 minute ride.

The hotel driver picked us up in a Toyota Forerunner SUV right on time. I think the hotel just contracts out drivers and they don’t work exclusively for them. He didn’t speak any English and didn’t really smile or anything. It was a bit awkward and he was a pretty crazy/impatient driver. On the way to Hoi An, we drove along the beach rode (the one we walked on yesterday) and drove past all the fancy beach resorts.

We arrived at the hotel and were told to wait to be checked in. The lady at reception was with another group that was checking in so we had to wait. We were seated on the patio and given cold ginger tea and a fresh banana pancake while we waited. The hotel is very quaint and is right on the Thu Bon River. When it was our turn to check in, the lady at reception gave us a run through of Hoi An and what there was to see, restaurants to try, and safety tips.

We were shown to our room and it was pretty nice for what we’re paying. The room was nicely air conditioned, clean, and it had an outdoor washroom. There is a nice pool in the courtyard of the hotel, which is where we spent a good chunk of the afternoon. Weather today was another balmy 38°C so we didn’t want to make our way towards Hoi An’s Ancient Town (or Old Town) until later in the afternoon since we planned on seeing the town at night.

At around 4pm we got ready and headed towards Hoi An’s main area. We walked along the river for about 20 minutes before getting into the heart of the city. Hoi An has a very small town feel to it, especially as we were walking along the river, it was fairly quiet and calm. But once we got into the Ancient Town, it was pretty packed with tourists and backpackers.

Our first stop was Banh Mi Phuong, a place famous in Hoi An for being the best banh mi in the city. It became internationally known when Anthony Bourdain came here on an old No Reservations episode to Vietnam and he had a banh mi with a fried egg on it. They have a picture of Bourdain there but they don’t clearly show what sandwich he had (Tim: The picture looks like a paused screenshot from a youtube clip). I think the banh mi he had isn’t even an option on the menu, it’s basically a banh mi with everything on it (including a fried egg). I tried the BBQ pork banh mi and Tim ordered the ham and pate (both were 20,000 VND = $1.15 CAD). We sat inside and ate our very late lunch. I really enjoyed the banh mi. The bread was very good (shaped differently than the other ones we’ve had before) and there was a bit of spice to the sauce they put in which was quite tasty. The BBQ pork had crackling on it, so it was like the Chinese roasted pork with all the good banh mi toppings, which was delicious. I like how they also drizzle sauce directly on the bread after they spread the pate on the bottom. While we were eating, we saw a lot of locals buy bags on the banh mi to go.

The next order of business in Hoi An was to browse around at the tailors in town to see if we could get something made. We had a few places in mind that were recommended by Chloe, the hotel, and TripAdvisor. The first one we saw was called Be Be Tailors. It is rated second on Trip Advisor and also recommended by the girl at the hotel. I read online that they are one of the more pricey tailors and they don’t bargain. We sat down for a quick consultation and their prices were quite high, even for North American standards. The lady at the hotel was right, they don’t bargain. Since the price wasn’t in our budget and the ladies weren’t that friendly or very helpful, we left.

We headed down the road to Peace Tailors (who Chloe used last year). When we arrived they were quite busy with other clients – this is probably a good sign! We were helped by one of the sisters (most of the ladies are sisters apparently and are all super nice) and I showed her a picture of a dress I liked. She brought us upstairs to show us the fabric they had to choose from. I picked the fabric and got measured (which was probably pretty gross since I was sweating so much). Tim then decided to look into buying a suit for himself. He decided to get a navy blue suit, since he doesn’t have one and it’ll be good for summer weddings (the only time Tim wears suits). They took Tim’s measurements and they said to come back tomorrow around 4pm for a fitting. We’ll see how it goes!

After spending a good chunk of time at Peace Tailors, it was dark out and we made our way into the Ancient Town. I enjoyed the Ancient Town because scooters and cars were not allowed to drive! It was also really pretty at night because there were so many lanterns and lights around the town. You could pay to make a wish and put a lantern with a candle into the river. We walked through the nightmarket that surrounded the river and browsed through all the souvenirs and knick knacks. We’ll come back during the day so we can see all the buildings in the light.

Since we had the banh mi quite late, we weren’t really hungry, just really thirsty. We had already drank all the water we brought out with us so we bought a few drinks while we were out. For dinner, we decided to just get banh mi again from Phuong’s and bring it back to the hotel to eat. I ordered the same thing and Tim ordered a sausage banh mi.

As usual, when we got back to the hotel, we were so hot and sweaty so the first thing we did was take a cold shower. We watched a few episodes of the shows Tim downloaded and the O.J. Simpson (Tim: 30 for 30) documentary before we slept.

Steps today: 13,000

Da Nang (Day 105): My Khe Beach and Jolliebee

June 13, 2016

We both weren’t feeling 100% when we woke up so we wanted to take it easy today. We woke up half an hour before breakfast ended so we quickly went to see what they had. Since it was so late, a lot of the hot foods were gone. They had an egg and omelette station, so I just had that and some congee. The breakfast room was on the top floor of the hotel and had nice views of the Han River. We’ll wake up earlier tomorrow to try to take advantage of the nice breakfast.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon recharging. At around 3pm, we walked towards My Khe Beach. It was about a 20 minute walk to get to a beach and then we walked down the beach front towards My Khe Beach. There were a lot of people in the water and hanging out in the shade. The sand was really hot, super soft, and the beach was surprisingly very clean. There were ladies going around tidying up the beach, which explained why the sand was perfect.

Unless people were in the water, most locals were not just lounging on the beach, they were mostly sitting under the palm trees. We followed suit and grabbed a seat at a beach side cafe and ordered a mango and coconut smoothie. It was really nice sitting in the shade and feeling the sea breeze. After we cooled off, we headed down to the beach and walked in the water for a bit. The water is very warm, at least 20°C! We stayed on the beach and watched the many parasailers for a while.

Since our stomachs weren’t that stable, we decided to go to the Vincom Mall for dinner instead of being more adventurous. After about a 30 minute walk, we made it to the mall. We were both dripping with sweat before walking through the heavenly doors of the mall. We were immediately hit by the wonderful air conditioning. We went to the supermarket, Vinmart, to get some drinks with electrolytes and jackfruit chips. Before going into the store, security seals your bag with a zip tie or seals your small purse in a plastic bag. They take their loss prevention very seriously. We’ve learned that if there’s any line ups in Vietnam, there’s not much order and it’s very common for people to just cut infront of you (very China like). When we were lining up to check out, a middle-aged lady just walked right infront of me and stood there. I edged her out, and stared at her, then she finally backed off. But if I didn’t do that she would’ve just budged!

We went upstairs to the restaurants to see what we wanted to eat. We were tempted to have hot pot, but it was only all you can eat (for $10 CAD) and we weren’t really feeling like we should be eating all you can eat anything. I was interested in trying Jollibee since I’ve never had it before (Tim’s tried it in Manila) and it’s a popular Filipino fast food restaurant. I ordered spaghetti and a piece of chicken combo (75,000 VND = $4.30 CAD) and Tim just had two pieces of chicken for dinner (55,000 VND = $3.15 CAD). The chicken was quite good – juicy and crispy, but the spaghetti was too sweet for my liking. I know Seattle has a Jollibee, but I figure if I wanted to try it, it would be cheaper to try it in Vietnam!

We headed back to the hotel for an early night. I opened the jackfruit chips and they were really yummy. I think I almost ate the whole bag to myself!

Steps today: 12,000

Da Nang (Day 104): Scorching Sun and Dragon Bridge

June 12, 2016

This morning we packed up, ate a small breakfast, and took a taxi to the airport. We won’t be back in Saigon again until mid-July to catch our flight back home. We got the same Vinasun taxi driver we had last time (I guess he’s stationed near our hotel area). The taxi ride to the airport only was 110,000 VND = $6.30 CAD.

We checked in at Vietnam Airlines and headed towards the gates. The flight was fairly empty so we got seats pretty far forward on the plane. We had about an hour and half to kill before we boarded. The domestic terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport had a few souvenir shops and two areas with Asian and Western food options. We shared a meal at Popeye’s. Their chicken tenders are pretty awesome.

The flight to Da Nang was only an hour. The plane was comfortable and they gave us a bottle of water and a wet wipe (just like the buses). There was no in flight service since it was such a short flight. When we landed in Da Nang, it was sunny and 39°C! So hot. Da Nang’s airport is Vietnam’s third international airport, built in 2007, so it’s more modern compared to Saigon and Hanoi. Before exiting the airport, we had to show our baggage receipt and the Vietnam Airline rep had to compare it to our bags before we were able to leave. We’ve never had to do this in any airport, but it is a good system to have to make sure people don’t just steal your luggage.

We hailed a Vinasun cab and headed to our hotel for the next two days, Hadana Boutique Hotel. The hotel was pretty highly rated on Trip Advisor and is fairly new. We’re paying $55 CAD/night, which is a bit pricier for Vietnam. They welcomed us with cold towels and a drink as we checked in. They showed us to our room, which had two twin beds (was probably the cheapest option)(Tim: It was), and was very nice and modern. The room was also the biggest room we’ve had in Vietnam so far, so it felt like a definite treat! For an extra $25/night, you can get some pretty “luxurious” rooms in Vietnam. The hotel is situated on the other side of the Han River (not in the downtown core) but in between the Han River and the beach.

When we arrived, we noticed there were hardly any people out and about. Probably due to the extreme heat. The way we came from the airport, there were not nearly as many scooters as there were in Saigon. We rested up in the hotel room for a bit and then decided to head out much later in the afternoon.

We decided to walk towards the “downtown” area, across the Han River for coffee and dinner. Before crossing the bridge, there was a huge Vincom mall, which has an array of stores, a movie theatre, and restaurants from all parts of Asia (Jollibees from the Philippines and Crystal Jade from HK), and an indoor ice rink. It’s a pretty fancy mall for Vietnam. We went inside to check it out and we figured out that’s where everyone in Da Nang was.

I knew it didn't look like a pig and I Googled what "thit cho" was after :( — I knew it didn’t look like a pig and I Googled what “thit cho” was after 🙁

A friend of ours who had recently been to Vietnam told us about this coconut smoothie coffee from “Cong Caphe“, which was “life changing” (his words). When someone says a drink or dish is life changing to them, we have to try it. Cong Caphe is located right on the Han River and is a trendy cafe with a communism look to it. We grabbed a seat on the second floor looking out the window, it was nice and relaxing. We ordered one of the coconut coffees and a frozen lemonade (both were 45,000 VND each = $2.60 CAD). The drinks were indeed really good. The coconut coffee was my favourite. I think I’ll attempt to make something similar when we get back in the summer. The frozen lemonade was really refreshing and had a lot of lemon zest (the lemons here are more like limes). The cafe had wifi so it was a good place for us to take some time to wait to go out again when the sun was setting. The cafe was full of a mixture of locals and a lot of Korean tourists.

After spending a good amount of time at Cong Caphe, the sun was starting to set so we left and walked along the Han River. The streets around the Han River were all lit up with neon store signs and lanterns hung from the surrounding trees. All the bridges were also very colourful and lit up the city. At 9pm on Saturday and Sundays, the Dragon Bridge, has a “show” and spouts fire and water out of its mouth, so we were going to try to catch that.

Tim's nicer pictures of the Han River — Tim’s nicer pictures of the Han River

I did a bit of research online and found a place to try for dinner. It specialized in “banh xeo” (Vietnamese savoury pancake) and satay skewers. It took about 30 minutes to walk there from where we were on the river and it was actually quite hidden away. We saw a bunch of people getting dropped off by taxis at the alley so we knew we were in the right place (that and Google maps helped a lot). The restaurant was at the end of a narrow alley and was quite a large and very chaotic place. We walked in trying to find a seat and were given a seat in a make shift table area. They have 3 different items on their menu and they just give you everything without you ordering. This seemed like common practice and if you wanted more of something you had to tell them. Although, for foreigners, it was difficult to communicate, so we just went with the flow.

We were given a dish of lettuce and herbs, cucumbers, 3 bowls of satay sauce, pickled green papaya, and rice paper. They put down a plate of 10 pork skewers, 3 large cut up banh xeos, and a plate of marinated pork (Tim: or beef?) slices. We observed locals around us eating and saw they would just make wraps using the rice paper (add all the sides) and dip it into the peanuty satay sauce. The flavours were really awesome. The only downside to eating here was that it was a super chaotic environment (although the staff has their process down pat) and it was super super hot inside (we were at the back of the restaurant). They had fans on the ceilings but it didn’t really help us that much. Both of us were sweating really badly and the waitresses didn’t understand my request for drinks. We weren’t able to finish all the food served to us, mainly the banh xeos. Tim wasn’t a big fan of them, but I liked them just didn’t have enough stomach to finish it. All the food came out to 185,000 VND = $10.60 CAD, which was pretty good value. The boss lady (the one at the restaurant who usually walks around with the wad of cash) wrote us up a detailed bill.

We headed back towards the Han River and planned to walk back to our side of the river and walk over the Dragon Bridge so we could watch the show at 9pm. As we walked over the bridge a lot of people were already camping out for their spots for the show. We walked over the bridge and further down the River to get a more panoramic view. It was pretty crowded with families and other tourists enjoying the night. The show was fairly anti-climatic, basically the dragon blows out fire a few times and then shoots out water (pretty far range) after. After about 10 minutes, we got the gist of the show and walked back to the hotel.

The path along the Han River is quite nice. There are tons of sugar cane vendors set up and have tables and chairs all over for people to just sit and relax. There was also a lot of activities for children at night – rides, painting stations, and other games. We finally got back to the hotel and looked pretty warn (super sweaty and tired). We couldn’t wait to take showers and go to sleep.

Chairs are all set up along the river where people are enjoying their sugar cane juice

Tomorrow we’re going to take it easy and check out My Khe Beach and hang out by the pool downstairs.

Steps today: 18,000

Saigon (Day 103): Our Own Food Tour

June 11, 2016

We both got a better night sleep at the Platinum Hotel than we did in Can Tho. It helped that we had more than just a thin blanket when the A/C was on all night. We didn’t have much planned today in terms of sightseeing. Saigon doesn’t have that many “must see” attractions around the city. The ones that we thought were important to see, we already saw on our first two days here. Since we didn’t have a set plan, we planned our day around what restaurants and food we wanted to try. We went downstairs for a quick breakfast and some juice before starting our walk to our first food stop, Tay Ho.

The walk to Tay Ho was about 20 minutes or so. We passed through Dong Khoi and Notre Dame again (the nicer areas in Saigon).

Tay Ho has been around since the 1960’s and specializes in “banh cuon”, which is a rice roll filled with ground pork, shallots, and minced wood-eared mushrooms. Banh Cuon is originally from Northern Vietnam, but we heard good things about Tay Ho so we wanted to give it a shot. We just ordered one “dac biet” (special) to share (they give you a menu with prices), and it was plenty for the two of us. It was really tasty and was quite filling. We dipped the banh cuon in the fish sauce that was on the table (they had a jug on the table).

When we sat down they put cold wet wipes on our table to use. So far we haven’t been charged while in Saigon to use them so we opened them and wiped our hands and neck. When it was time to pay, they charged us for them (3,000 VND each). So now we will never use them again! I’ll bring the wet wipes I bought from Australia with me from now on.

Our next stop was another pho restaurant, called Pho Phuong 25. We read on a couple of blogs about the restaurant and it was also recommended by a friend. It’s just down the street from “The Lunch Lady”, so we were already familiar with the area and how to get there. We walked along the Saigon River, and were actually the only ones (as far as our eyes could see) walking along the water. I guess it’s way too hot to be walking around at 11am.

Once we got to Pho Phuong 25, we decided to just share a bowl of pho. We knew we wouldn’t be able to finish a bowl ourselves since we just had banh cuon about 30 minutes ago. Tim ordered the “dac biet”, which is usually our go to thing to order since it’s their house special, and if we’re going to order one thing the house special is a good choice. We also shared a Vietnamese soda, which turned out to be sarsaparilla. The pho came shortly after and the bowl was quite hefty and full of a variety of brisket, beef balls, tendon, and braised animal part that we weren’t sure of (but it was very tender). It was good that we shared because I could barely eat half of it. We both thought the pho was better than the one we had on our second night at Pho Thanh Canh.

We decided to head back to the hotel for our afternoon reprieve from the scorching sun. On our way back we shared an iced milk coffee (14,000 VND = $0.80 CAD) and then passed by our orange juice lady from our first day in Saigon. She recognized us and suggested the passionfruit juice. We agreed and then also ordered a freshly squeezed orange juice (both 10,000 VND = $0.57 CAD). As we were leaving she said she’ll see us again soon. So I guess we’ll be coming back in July! Her juices are really good and she makes them (cuts the fruit infront of you) on the spot as opposed to a lot of street vendors we passed by already who have the passionfruit in the cup and ready to have ice and water mixed in.

Originally we thought we would go to this fried chicken and rice place for lunch but we were full and the sun was getting pretty unbearable so we decided to save that for dinner tonight.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed by Ben Thanh Market again. Since we were going to be in SE Asia for another month and a bit, I bought a hat. I regretted not bringing a hat from home for this portion of the trip but I guess this makes for my Vietnamese souvenir. I ended up buying a bamboo fedora from a stall at the market. I tried on a bunch of sizes and finally found one that fit me properly. The girl working asked me if I was Vietnamese. I said no and she said I looked Vietnamese. So far on this trip, two Vietnamese people have told me they thought I was Vietnamese. One today and one from the Vietnamese restaurant in Adelaide. Any how we bargained and I got my hat for 40% of what she was asking for originally. I’m a really bad bargainer so luckily Tim was there to make me “walk away” before she called us back with a much lower price.

We stayed inside for the remainder of the afternoon (as locals do), worked on the blog and I researched more about the Hanoi portion of our trip. We booked our hotel for Hanoi and narrowed down which boat tour we were going to go with for Halong Bay. We’re deciding to splurge for the Halong Bay boat tour and take a 3 day 2 night cruise with a highly rated (on Trip Advisor) company. We heard horror stories about the cheaper ones, so I’d rather pay more to be comfortable, especially on a boat. Vietnam has been really cheap so far so it’ll be a nice treat.

After a productive and restful afternoon, we headed out for dinner. The chicken place we wanted to go to was about a 25 minute walk from our hotel. The restaurant is called, “Quon Com Ga Xoi Mo Su Su”, which has a really interesting way they fry their chicken. The owner created a one of a kind deep fryer than is basically like a waterfall of oil that crisps the chicken. All the chicken has already been cooked once but before it’s served, it goes through the oil waterfall and then served with rice and a really good brown sauce (which we have no idea what it was). They have a choice between a leg and thigh or a wing and breast. We memorized what the dark and white meat options were called but when we got there they only had the wing and breast left. White meat is always the leftover meat in Asia.

We both ordered our own dish this time and lucky we did because everything was super delicious. It reminded me of crispy skin chicken at Chinese restaurants except it was juicier and piping hot as it came straight out of the oil waterfall. They had wet wipes on the table but we didn’t touch them, but at least the menu on the table said they were 1,000 VND each. After we ordered the waiter came by again and said “rings”. We were confused and weren’t sure what he was saying, he said it again and we were just like, sorry, we don’t understand. Then he left. Then a second later, I realized what he was trying to say. He was saying, “drinks”! Oh well.

I would go back there again for their chicken, maybe for lunch when they have dark meat left. We headed back towards the hotel and wanted to find coconut ice cream for dessert. We basically looked at a food tour itinerary and googled where to find certain dishes. On the way to the chicken place, we passed by an ice cream shop that looked crowded and it was exactly the dessert we were planning on getting (at another location farther away), so this worked out well.

The dessert place was called, Ca-Rem. It looked like a more hip restaurant and probably the nicest restaurant/cafe we’ve eaten in our entire time in Vietnam so far. We shared one of the coconut ice creams and it was delicious! If we go again, I would want my own. The coconut cream ice cream comes in a half coconut shell that has all its flesh scraped to eat, fried coconut flakes, corn, palm fruit, sticky rice, and peanuts. The inspiration behind Ca-Rem is Thai coconut ice cream. When we were in Thailand, we had this quite a bit from street vendor but it wasn’t as fancy. This was definitely a more refined version of the ones we had in Thailand (for only $1 CAD or less). The waitress gave us a glass of what we thought was water and it turned out to be coconut water from the hollowed out shell. At first I thought it was just regular water so I drank it and realized it was coconut water. There are only two items on the menu: ice cream and coconut water. After I drank it, I was like oh no, I didn’t want to pay for it (15,000 VND = $0.85 CAD, I know it’s not much), but it was too late. But then after we paid, it turns out that was included in the price (phew!).

We passed by a Missha (Korean cosmetic store that I bought a lot of stuff from in Seoul), so I went inside to see what the prices were like. I expected it to be on par with the prices in Korea since they were pretty cheap and most things in Vietnam are cheap. But after seeing the price of the face cream I bought, I was very wrong. I paid $12 CAD for a face cream in Seoul and it was $50 CAD here! Face masks were $2.40 CAD each, and less than a dollar in Seoul (when they were on sale). Missha and Korean products are definitely for the more wealthy Vietnamese people. We noticed there are a lot of Korean restaurants and cafes here. There’s a Tous les Jours, which is from Korea. I remember going into one and thinking it was overpriced and left, so when we went into one here, I had deja-vu since I did the exact same thing.

We’re back at the hotel for our last night in Saigon before coming back here in July (before heading home!). The hotel left some Vietnamese snacks for us with a note saying that they hope we enjoyed our stay in Vietnam. That’s nice of them! We washed up (basically have two showers a day here) and I ate the rambutans that they gave us for our welcoming fruit.

We’re heading to central Vietnam tomorrow and looking forward to seeing a different part of the country. Our flight is at 1pm tomorrow, so we’ll probably just have an easy morning and then head to the airport!

Steps today: 20,000

Can Tho/Saigon (Day 102): Back to the Big City!

June 10, 2016

It was our last morning in Can Tho before heading back to Saigon (I’ll call it Saigon now instead of HCMC, since we’re in the south). The lady downstairs reserved seats for us on the 1pm Phuong Trang bus, so we had a bit of time to get something to eat for breakfast/lunch. We wanted to eat somewhere close by and both agreed that we wanted more of the Bun Bo Hue. The one bowl that we shared yesterday wasn’t enough.

We found a seat inside the restaurant this time and ordered two bowls. As we were eating, the ladies began packing up the soup for the day. It looks like they open for breakfast and then close during the day and probably open again at night. We’ve learned that almost all Vietnamese dishes that we’ve had can be eaten at all times of the day. There’s no distinct “breakfast food” or “dinner food” food. Tim and I both agreed that this Bun bo Hue has been our favourite noodle soup so far. It’s too bad it’s our last day in Can Tho. The broth is amazing, all the meat is cut to order, and the noodles are perfectly cooked. Tim drank his broth and mine (I usually stop drinking my soup when I don’t have any noodles left).

After a delicious brunch, we headed down the street to take a peak at “Saigon Bakery”. The hotel had a list of restaurants/shops close by that they like and the bakery was on the list. It looked good but it was just like a Chinese bakery with sweet buns. We were full from the noodles and didn’t really feel like buying anything for the bus ride. We went next door to a coffee shop and both got ice coffees instead. The man and woman at the coffee shop didn’t speak any English so we had to try to act out what we wanted (he understand that we wanted coffee but we had to describe ice coffee and to go). The girl behind the counter thought this was hilarious and was just standing behind him laughing. Tim asked for milk (“sua”) but the guy didn’t understand. Luckily Tim pulled out Google Translate and typed out milk to show the guy. Obviously Tim originally pronounced it incorrectly, so the guy didn’t understand. Then Tim showed him his phone and the guy said it properly and the girl started laughing harder. In the end we got what we wanted and everyone had a good laugh.

We headed back to the hotel and packed up and went downstairs to wait for our shuttle bus to the bus station. The shuttle bus finally came around 12:15pm (supposed to be at noon). There were already some passengers in the van when sat down. The bus driver went on to pick up 10+ people. The bus was super cramped (as per usual). We finally made it to the bus station at 12:55pm. We ran into the station to the Futa Bus counter to get our tickets. There was no line up. It was basically how aggressive can you be to get to the counter first. Since we ran directly into the building before a lot of others, I helped Tim block out people from the side so he could get in there first. Then I took his bags and stood back to get out of the crowd. Only one of us needed to be subjected to that. I sat back and took pictures.

Our seats for this bus ride were 10 and 11, so we weren’t at the front of the bus for the ride back. This bus driver wasn’t as crazy with the horn as the other one we had, so the ride was a bit more enjoyable. It took closer to 4 hours to get back to Saigon because of traffic. There was really slow WiFi on the bus, so I spent the four hours sleeping a bit and then reading old blog posts. Taiwan seems like so long ago! I was reminiscing about the high speed trains in Taiwan and Japan while sitting on the bus. If Vietnam ends up building their high speed rail (eventually), the ride from Can Tho to Saigon would probably be less than an hour (171 km distance) instead of 4.

Tim mentioned that he feels like Vietnam, from what he’s seen so far, is what Taiwan was probably like in 20-30 years ago. Even now, while walking around Can Tho and Saigon, it does feel a bit like (a dirtier/chaotic) Taiwan. The street food culture, the look of many street restaurants, and all the scooters. Taiwan had a lot more scooters pre-MRT days and a lot more stray dogs just like Vietnam. Tim took some videos and will show his parents to see what they think.

We finally arrived at the chaotic Saigon Bus Station and didn’t want to take another one of the Phuong Trang shuttles so we just got into a Vinasun taxi (one of the honest/reputable cabs) and took it to the Platinum Hotel. The bus station is farther away from District 1 than the airport, so our cab fare was 150,000 VND = $8.50 CAD. We’ve taken two VinaSun taxis and both have been good/not sketchy at all. Their meters are actually legit!

We were welcomed back to Platinum Hotel and asked how Can Tho was. We’ll be staying here again for the next two nights (in the same room as before) before flying to Danang. We got the rooms for even cheaper this time at $28 CAD/night. We settled in and looked up a place to eat for dinner. One of our favourite Vietnamese dishes to eat at home are the dry vermicelli bowls with grilled meat and spring rolls (bun thit nuong) so that’s what we were going to have for dinner. We found a place that was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel so we set out to find it.

The restaurant’s name is Chi Thong and it was on Co Giang Street, which turned out to be a really cool street with a ton of street food. It was basically just locals walking around and we saw sugar cane juice for only 5,000 VND (half of what the price is usually in more touristy areas). We’ll probably keep this street in mind for future meals. We finally made it to the restaurant and sat down and ordered two “buns” and two spring rolls. The bowl was filled with fresh greens and herbs on the bottom and everything was super refreshing. The spring rolls were really delicious. I think we’ll go back again when we come back to Saigon at the end of our trip. Our dinner was 119,000 VND = $6.80 CAD for our two bowls, two spring rolls, and a soda.

We headed back to the hotel for the night, chilled out and watched some Vietnamese TV. Actually, there were a ton of English channels with Vietnamese sub titles. We watched “England & Ireland’s Next Top Model” and “Fast & Furious 7”. I’m starting to pick up on Vietnamese words… Mainly food and drink related. It’s a lot easier for English speakers to learn Vietnamese words since they use the same alphabet vs. many of the other Asian languages. It’s just the pronunciation is probably off but at least you can try to say the words.

It’s almost been a week since we’ve been in Vietnam and it’s been growing on me. The best thing here is definitely their variety of good food. I’ve enjoyed every meal we’ve had so far. It’s hard for me not to keep comparing it to Thailand since it’s the only other SE Asian country we’ve been to together. I’m actually enjoying the food in Vietnam more than Thailand (it’s also a bit cheaper for the most part), but I do think Thai people overall are much friendlier.

Steps today: 8,000

Can Tho (Day 101): Mekong Delta and Street Food

June 9, 2016

Today was a long day. We set our alarms for 4:30am since we were getting picked up by the tour company at 5am outside our hotel. Luckily we were still slightly on Australian/New Zealand time and had been waking up fairly early any how, so it wasn’t that painful.

We were taking a tour with EcoTours, which was recommended by Chloe. It made planning really easy having someone recommending tours or hotels to you. I had emailed EcoTours booking our tour and they were very quick at responding to confirm. They said they would pick us up at 5am outside the hotel. As we were waiting, a guy on a scooter comes by and asks us if we are waiting EcoTours. He then got on his phone to speak to someone. He was speaking Vietnamese so we didn’t understand. Then a taxi pulls up and he tells us to go in the taxi to go to the dock and he will pay for it. We go into the cab and he drops us off at the water. The guy on the scooter pulls up behind and pays for our ride and leads us down to the dock. At this point I was thinking in my head, what if this is a scam and this guy just goes around to hotels picking up tourists who are waiting for a tour and pretending to be them? (Tim: paying for our cab would be quite the long con…)

We go down to the dock and there’s just the two of us. I guess since it was a recommendation I didn’t do much reading on Trip Advisor so I didn’t realize the tours were very small and not a large group. Before getting on to the boat, I asked the guide more directly if this was Eco Tours and he said yes and he knew our room number that we had to send them just in case we didn’t wake up I guess. Since he knew our room number at our hotel, I finally relaxed and went on the boat.

Our guide’s name was Phi and our boat driver for the day was a middle-aged lady named My. Phi’s english was not that great, compared to Thoai’s (from yesterday’s food tour) so it made trying to listen a bit hard. Maybe he was super sleepy when he approached us this morning but I think if he introduced himself and said right off the bat that he was from EcoTours then I wouldn’t think he was so sketchy (Tim: The first thing he asked us when he pulled up was “EcoTours?”). It definitely took him a while to talk more (likely wake up). Our driver couldn’t speak any English but she was very sweet, smiled a lot, and made us some really nice palm roses.

We signed up for the 6-7 hour Mekong tour, which takes us to two floating markets, a rice paper factory, rural countryside, and through smaller canals ($23 USD/person included all meals and snacks). Phi told us that it’s a holiday in Vietnam today so the markets may not be as busy and the second floating market (the more local one) may even be closed. This was fine with us (we had no idea it was a holiday in Vietnam) since it was just nice to be out of the city.

Our first stop was the Cai Rang Floating Market. This is the biggest and busiest floating market in the area. This is also the floating market all the tours go to, so there were a lot of other larger tour boats there as well. Phi told us since the motors of boats are so loud, people can’t scream out to show what they have so they put what they’re selling on a pole to display it. We saw various fruit (durian, watermelon, green mango, jackfruit) and vegetable (mainly yams) vendors. Before getting to the floating market, Phi warned us that Vietnamese floating markets are not as pretty as the ones in Thailand because they haven’t been built up for tourists (yet), where as the ones in Thailand are usually not actually functioning markets any more and vendors just want to sell to tourists. At Cai Rang, it’s mostly wholesale vendors. He was right. The floating market wasn’t “pretty” like the pictures I’ve seen from Thailand.

We had breakfast at Cai Rang in a restaurant on shore at around 6:15am. We ordered two bowls of soup noodles and ice coffees. It was all very tasty and a good way to start our day. After breakfast we continued on the Mekong to a noodle factory where we got to watch how they made rice noodles (for pho!). It was interesting to see how they made the noodles and it seemed like a very tedious and primitive way to do it. Phi said they make on average 700kg/day. Since it was a holiday week, he said they were probably making less than 700kg, but they usually make more the previous few days to ensure they had enough for their customers. The sheets of rice paper looked light, but after holding one they were heavier than I thought (3 sheets = 1kg).

After we left the factory, we got back on to the boat and continued on to the Mekong and made our way to the second floating market, Phong Dien, to see if they were open. Phong Dien is a local floating market, where vendors are mainly all from the Can Tho area. As compared to Cai Rang, where vendors come from all other areas (which is why it’s bigger). You can tell where the boats are from by their initials on their boats, as it tells what province they’re from. The only thing that was open was a cafe, where Phi bought us drinks. Tim got another ice coffee and I got a coconut.

We continued down the Mekong and got into smaller canals which was really nice and calming. It was still really early so the sun wasn’t crazy hot yet. They gave us “rice farmer” hats to wear, which saved me. They also said they could put the top on the boat up if we wanted to, but as westerners who think we really like the sun/want to tan, we said to keep it down.

Us with Phi and My before it was unbearably hot outside — Us with Phi and My before it got unbearably hot outside

Our next stop was to walk around the countryside. The walk along the country was nice. We saw a few houses built out of water coconut leaves (apparently they last for around 2 years), some locally grown fruit (jackfruit, green mango, coconut), and a lot of roosters. Apparently cock fights are extremely popular in Vietnam and people can sell their roosters for a lot of money if they win fights, so a lot of people in the country raise them to be fierce fighters. After about 30 minutes walking along the river, we got back on to the boat. Our driver had made us a bouquet of roses out of palm branches. She’s super talented! They were so pretty and perfect. In addition to the roses, she also made us bracelets, a grasshopper, and a crab during our tour.

After the countryside walk, we continued on the smaller canals and eventually made our way back into town around 11am. The last leg of the boat ride was super hot. No wonder Vietnamese people wake up early and then stay inside for most of the day and then go back outside at night. I would too if I were a local.

On the boat ride back, we were talking to Phi about real estate (typical Vancouverites) and asked how much things cost here. He said houses in the city are very expensive, and showed us his boss’ house that’s in a prime location by the river. His house was 17 Billion VND ~ $1 Million CAD. I was actually surprised houses in Can Tho could go for that much. He said the property he is looking to buy would be more in the $10,000 CAD range. He works two jobs, does the boat tours in the morning and then at night he works in the restaurant right on the river (the boss with the $1 million house’s restaurant). We asked if people borrow money from the bank to buy houses and he said they try not to and rather borrow from friends or family. He said you have to pay a lump sum (Tim: bribe) in order to even get the loan from the bank (bribery is clearly a common occurrence in a Communist country).

We got off the boat, said our goodbyes, and walked to find something to eat for lunch. Thoai had recommended a Com Tam restaurant to us during our walk which was close by but he said it was only open earlier in the day and at night. We tried our luck and walked past it and it was open! We both ordered the broken rice with grilled pork chop and egg. She gave us soup, which was quite flavourful. Our lunch was 58,000 VND ($3.30 CAD). We paid an extra 3,000 VND for the eggs ($0.17 CAD). When we got our food, they tried to show us what sauces to put on (kind of like we were playing charades showing what the sauces would taste like through animated facial expressions). Tim dumped a lot of fish sauce on his rice and they all laughed at him and said in Vietnamese probably something like, no that’s too much! It’s going to be too sour! (since they kept making a sour face). The man who was hysterically laughing showed what a reasonable amount would be to pour on the rice and I poured that amount. I would probably pour a lot like Tim on at home too. Lunch was delicious and definitely hit the spot.

We walked back to the hotel and spent the remainder of the afternoon booking flights and hotels for an upcoming portion of the trip. It felt good to not do anything. We sat on the bed and were on our computers researching and planning while listening to rave music blaring from the stores downstairs.

When looking at our itinerary for the next few weeks, it made me a bit tired. This portion of our trip is probably going to be the most tiring part. Even though we aren’t constantly “go go go”, we do want to see a lot of things during the next month. If there were better intracity transportation between cities in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, it would make things easier. I wouldn’t want to take buses everywhere (I’m not a young backpacker any more, not that I ever was one before), so our only option is to fly. We’ll see how our flight on Vietnam Airlines goes. They’re part of Skyteam which is comforting, but overall, the three countries we’re going to don’t have the best local airlines. At least in Thailand they have Thai Airlines and Bangkok Airways which are really good/reputable. I was really tempted to just skip over Cambodia and Laos, and spend a month in Bangkok or Chiang Mai and just chill. The compromise was to cut a few places out of Cambodia and Laos and spend about a week in a resort in Phu Quoc (Vietnamese island) before coming home. Biggest thing I’ve learned from being away for 3+ months is that traveling can be super tiring when it’s longer than a 3 week vacation (Tim: 3 week vacations can be pretty tiring too). We both appreciate days where we don’t do anything and catch up on North American TV shows.

Dinner time came quickly so we decided to check out the roof top terrace at the hotel to catch the sunset. It was just behind a building already but the sky still looked pretty. We decided to go to the Bun Bo Hue restaurant that was recommended by Thoai and the hotel for dinner. When we got there, we just ordered one bowl to share since we wanted to try to find other food to sample and didn’t want to fill up on noodle soup. One bowl was 30,000 VND = $1.70 CAD. I like bun bo hue at home so I was excited to try it here. The soup and meat were delicious. I can see why this place was super busy with locals all the time. The bun bo hue’s in Vancouver usually are already spicy but this one you can put as much chili as you want. I put in two small scoops and it was about as much spice as I like in mine. We’ll probably come back for lunch tomorrow before heading back to HCMC.

We walked towards the night market and tried a couple of different items from stalls that seemed pretty busy. We tried a grilled spicy banh mi baguette. This is something that is from Can Tho but now can be found in other places in the south (said Thoai). They grilled the flattened baguette, cut it up and put a couple of sauces on it along with green onions and fried scallions (5,000 VND = $0.28 CAD). It was tasty but I probably wouldn’t order it again. It reminded us of the green onion buns from Chinese bakeries at home.

The other food we tried was a grilled rice paper. It seemed interesting and we saw a few stands selling the same thing. We just went to the one that had the most people lining up for it. They piled spring roll filling on the rice paper, broke two quail eggs on it, added some sauces, stirred the mixture around. Then they put the rice paper flat on to the grill. When it was done they folded it in an half and put it in a bag. This was pretty tasty (10,000VND = $0.57 CAD), but I think we both prefer our rice paper to be fresh or deep fried rather than grilled.

After the night market, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night. It was a really long day and we were tired. It’ll be nice to sleep in tomorrow before heading back to the big city. I really liked Can Tho. It’s still a big city but not as crazy as HCMC and the people here are very nice (didn’t try to quote you a different price from locals).

Steps today: 16,000

Can Tho (Day 100): Crazy Phuong Trang Bus & Mekong Food Tour

June 8, 2016

Even after writing that today was going to be Day 100, Tim and I both totally forgot about it. I guess it wasn’t much of a milestone after all. This morning we made a second attempt to find the Com Tam stall for breakfast. We walked to where the lady’s stall should have been at around 8am and she was still not there. We think she is probably on vacation. Since we have a bunch of other days in HCMC, we can always try again then. We walked back to our hotel and ate breakfast at the hotel instead.

Our plan today was to get to Can Tho, a city about 3.5 hours away from HCMC in the Mekong Delta region. The hotel booked seats for us on the Phuong Trang bus. The tickets cost 100,000 VND = $5.65 CAD each. A cab took us to the Phuong Trang bus office where we would catch a shuttle that would take us to the actual bus station.

When we got to the Phuong Trang bus ticketing station, I was not expecting what we drove up to. The bus ticketing station was run down and full of people waiting for shuttle buses. Then when a shuttle bus would drive up, people would rush to the bus and try to get in before people even came out. It was pretty chaotic to say the least. Tim went to the ticket counter and showed them the slip of paper the lady from the hotel gave us and they issued our tickets. She told us to wait 15 minutes and then get on one of the shuttle buses.

We got on to the crammed shuttle bus with our large backpacks on our laps. After about a 10 minute drive we got to the HCMC’s bus station and it was even more chaotic than the ticketing station. There was a large room of people waiting for their buses and there was no departures board or schedule of any kind. We stood outside so we could see the buses that pulled up since we couldn’t understand the Vietnamese announcements and it didn’t seem like there was much order. People would just run up to the bus and the bus would continue to move even when they were trying to load the bus. The buses also drove up really close to where all the people we standing.

We didn’t take any buses when we went to Thailand so I can’t really comment on how it was there, but this was definitely my most “roughing it” travel moment. I told Tim that I felt that way and he semi rolled his eyes at me. I think it also felt more chaotic for us because everything was in Vietnamese and when we looked around there were no other obvious tourists or westernized looking Asian people. In my mind I was expecting way more backpackers at the bus station, but I guess Vietnam is still nothing like Thailand in that sense.

We finally spotted our bus, loaded our bags, and got on the bus as it was moving to down the queue of buses. We were seated at the front of the bus which was good because we had a good view straight out the front. In hind sight, I’m not sure if this was a good thing or a more nerve wracking thing – but it definitely added to our entertainment for the ride. The bus was full and our journey to Can Tho would take around 3-4 hours. When we were all seated, the bus attendant came around and gave us a bottle of water and a wet wipe. There was wifi on the bus too which was a nice surprise.

About 5 minutes after leaving the station, the bus pulls over randomly (Tim: or not so randomly) and two guys jump on the bus. I guess they’re friends of the driver? They come on the bus (obviously not paying for a ticket) and both sat on the steps right beside the driver and the bus attendant. I suppose this is normal practice in Vietnam.

Tim and I both fell asleep but were woken up to the bus driver honking like there’s no tomorrow. When we woke up we realized there was also Vietnamese music playing quite loudly and music videos and concerts were being shown on the TV. Even when I tried to close my eyes, I would get very startled by the continuous honking (bus’ horns are really loud, especially when they are leaning on it). From our four days here, it seems like everyone is just horn happy and it’s more of a honk to say “hey, I’m here”, not a “eff you” type of honk. Highway driving isn’t much different from city driving as the bus weaved in and out of traffic narrowly missing scooters. Since we were up front, it was a bit nerve wracking and we had a lot of “wtf” moments. We are definitely not in a first world country any more.

After about two hours we arrived at a rest stop, which is a Phuong Trang bus stop. The building was full of food vendors and snacks. We shared a banh mi (15,000 VND = $0.85 CAD), which wasn’t very good, and a sugar cane juice (12,000 VND = $0.68 CAD). Since the announcement for how long the pit stop was going to be was in Vietnamese and no one on our bus spoke English, we quickly bought our lunch and stood outside making sure our bus was still there.

We learned later that the bus attendant would pretend to count that everyone is in their seats but in reality they had no idea and would just leave you behind. As we were leaving the parking lot, a frantic man came up to the front to tell the driver that we were still missing some people. That’s when we the driver and attendant realized that they were missing 4 people! The bus driver reluctantly pulled over and the 4 ladies came running for the bus. When they came on the bus, the bus attendant and driver said a bunch of stuff in Vietnamese (that didn’t sound like it was something nice) and the lady said something back (in an equally annoyed tone) then took her seat.

We finally arrived in Can Tho 3.5 hours after we left HCMC. Phuong Trang provides free shuttle transfers to your hotel or your final destination within the city once you arrive at the bus station. We waited about 30 minutes for a shuttle bus to our hotel. This shuttle bus was even more cramped than the one in HCMC. Luckily, we were the second ones to be dropped off.

We checked into our room at Hotel Xoai , and signed up for a “free” three hour food tour that started 6:30pm. We basically just got into our room and got changed and went downstairs to meet for the food tour. We booked the cheapest/smallest room here for $14 USD/night. The room was very small but very clean.

We went downstairs to meet the tour guide, Thoai. We read a lot of reviews about our hotel on Trip Advisor and majority of them raved about the food tour at the hotel. Since it’s down season right now, we were lukcy and had a private tour with Thoai, a 28 year old Can Tho local. He was extremely friendly. knowledgeable, and his English was good.

The first stop we took was a “nem nuong” (BBQ pork sausage) restaurant, called “Nem Nuong Anh Map”. Thoai ordered one order of nem nuong for Tim and I to share. It was our first time having a dish like this so we were excited to try it out. The waitress brought a dish of the BBQ pork sausage on a bed of very thin rice noodle patties, greens, and all the assorted fillings. We were supposed to roll everything up and dip it in the peanut sauce. There were so many different flavours and textures in the rice wrapper which was so delicious. I love all the fresh greens and herbs – it’s very refreshing!

On our way to the next stop, we crossed a park that was filled with children and teenagers roller skating around and a zumba class going on. Since it’s so hot during the day, it seems as though everyone comes out at night to enjoy the outdoors. Thoai said zumba is really popular right now in Can Tho and that only woman exercise in Vietnam (Tim: men just sit around and drink).

Our second stop was to eat a special “bean muffin” that’s native to Can Tho. Thoai told us that only two restaurants in the city make these muffins and the one we went to is his favourite and the most popular. Since there were still other stops to go, Tim and I just shared one to try. The restaurant is called “Banh Cong Co Ut” and I think the muffin is called “banh cong co ut”. The muffin is deep fried twice and is made out of green bean, taro, and shrimp. The muffin came cut into fours and Thoai told us to put it in a mustard green leaf, along with lettuce and pickled vegetables, then dip it in fish sauce. This was probably my favourite snack/dish so far.

Our third stop was a street corner restaurant called, “74”. They specialize in claypot dishes and a Can Tho “special meat”. Thoai asked us if we wanted to try the “special meat”, we said sure but told him not to tell us what it was until after we ate it. In addition to the special meat, we tried the beef and egg claypot. The other choices were an eggplant or tofu. The beef and egg hot pot came boiling on a portable stove. Thoai stir the raw eggs around and covered it with a lid until the eggs were sort of a scramble. There was a sour and spicy dipping sauce to dip the beef in. The beef, onion, and egg were very flavourful and the beef was tender. Restaurant 74’s patrons were mainly middle aged men drinking beer and having a claypot.

At this point we were pretty full. Thoai asked if we wanted to try an “egg coffee”. We declined since we had to be up at 4:30am the next morning for our Mekong Delta tour. Thoai showed us where the egg coffee was for us to try tomorrow.

For dessert, he took us to a well known sticky rice lady who only sets up at night. She makes both a turmeric and black sticky rice and scoops both into a waffle (like a burrito), adds dried coconut, sugar, and a bit of salt. I really like mango sticky rice for dessert so this was something very different than what I was expecting. It was really good and Tim even liked the dried coconut in it (he usually isn’t a fan of dried coconut flakes).

Our last stop on the tour was to grab a drink at a cafe. Thoai and Tim got beers and I tried a fruit smoothie. Thoai listed all the fruits and I tried one that I’ve never heard of before – sapodilla. They blended the fruit and added some condensed milk, it was delicious and refreshing. Thoai said a lot of people get the sapodilla smoothie with espresso. We sat on the street on plastic chairs and chatted for a while.

It was nice to be able to speak to a local (around our age) and ask what life is like living in Vietnam – more specifically (Tim: or more broadly?) a Communist country. He talked about the differences between the people in the north and south (people in the south don’t call it HCMC, they still call it Saigon. But people in the north call it HCMC..makes sense), how hard it is for educated millennials to find decent jobs in Vietnam (without bribery), corrupt police, and their horrible hospitals (basically lack of trust in anything government related). He described their hospitals and how the only doctors who get jobs in hospitals are ones who have connections to someone in the government or who could pay the exorbitant bribes to get a job (nothing to do with skill). We told him that makes sense because Lonely Planet and our insurance says if we get injured/sick in Vietnam we should fly to Bangkok for treatment. He laughed and said people here don’t even want to go to their own hospitals. Any how, we learned a lot from Thoai and it reinforced how lucky we are to be Canadians.

We walked back to our hotel and Thoai marked down more of his favourite places on a map for us. I’m happy we decided to take the food tour with Thoai. We got to try all this different food we wouldn’t have found ourselves, learn more about Vietnam from a young adult’s perspective, and learn how to pronounce some Vietnamese words.

It’ll be an early morning tomorrow but we’re looking forward to seeing the Mekong Delta.

Steps today: 11,000

Ho Chi Minh City (Day 99): War Remnants Museum, Banh Mi, and Pho

June 7, 2016

Wow! It’s already been 99 days since we’ve gone. Feels like we should do something special to celebrate our 100th day tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll be heading to the Mekong Delta area and staying in Can Tho for a couple of nights before coming back to HCMC.

This morning we got ready, grabbed coffee and juice from downstairs and something quick to eat, and went to find the breakfast stall that Chloe had recommended that served “com tam” (broken rice with grilled pork chop). She told us the stall closes around 10am so we should try to go early just in case. We didn’t make it out early enough because by the time we got there around 9:30am, we didn’t see a stall. We’ll try again tomorrow morning and go earlier. After our failed attempt at getting com tam, we walked to the War Remnants Museum.

The admission fee for the War Remnants Museum was 15,000 VND = $0.85 CAD/person. We spent about 2 hours at the museum going through each of the exhibit rooms and looking at all the photographs captured from the war. I enjoyed looking through the photographs and reading more about the photographers who went to Vietnam to document the Vietnam War. It’s very sad that the majority of them died while capturing photographs that we get to see today (Tim: Lots of photo descriptions include the note “last roll of film” as they came from the photographers’ cameras after they recovered their bodies). About half of the photographs were directly attributed to specific photographers and included their original comments that went with the photos when they were first published. These comments were fairly neutral for the most part. The remainder of the photographs had commentary written by the musem that was very anti-American. My least favourite room was the Agent Orange room which had dead baby fetuses in jars on display. The pictures of all who had been and are affected by Agent Orange was devastating, but I think having the jars of dead baby fetuses was a bit too much. I saw them from the corner of my eye and walked the other way.

While we were still looking around an announcement came on saying the museum would be closing at 12pm and would reopen at 1:30pm. We didn’t realize the museum closed midday, but it did sound like something that would happen since I read that Vietnamese people take lunch very seriously.

Since it was lunch time for everyone else, we decided to have lunch too. We walked to a banh mi stall, Banh Mi Sau Minh, that was recommended by one of Tim’s friends who said it was the best sandwich he’s ever had (Tim: and I take his recommendations seriously). With testimonials like that, it would be an insult not to give it a try ourselves. There were two banh mi sandwiches listed on their menu so we ordered one of each. The owner was really nice and gave us two bottles of a lychee gatorade type of drink and he said it was “no money”. Maybe it was because we looked super sweaty and dehydrated to him.

We took our sandwiches to go and ate in the park we passed by earlier in the day. It was nice and shaded and there were benches all over to sit. In one of the banh mi, he spread “laughing cow” cheese on the bread. It was different but complimented all the Vietnamese deli meat well. As we were just sitting on the bench enjoying the shade, huge gusts of wind swept through the park and all of a sudden it started to pour really hard. We opened up our umbrellas and headed back to the hotel. Even with umbrellas we were both pretty soaked.

We dried off and did a bit of planning for our upcoming few days. With the help from the lady downstairs, we booked our bus ticket to Can Tho (3.5 hour bus ride). The rain continued to come down really hard and we could hear lightning from our room. We headed out for an early dinner to try out another banh mi for our appetizer and finally had pho!

We read online that Banh Mi Hyunh Hoa is one of the more famous/popular banh mi shops in HCMC. It’s pretty close to our hotel and only a street over from the place we went to last night for dinner. We tried to walk by after the park earlier in the day but they didn’t open until 2:30pm (close at midnight). This time, we passed by and they were open. The shop had tons of scooters out front ordering sandwiches for dinner. We ordered one to share and stood across the street under cover while we ate. This banh mi was definitely more hefty than the other ones we had. It had a lot of different meats in it and we could feel the heat from the pickled chili peppers. I think this one was my favourite so far. It was most similar to the ones we have at home. So far, the banh mi that we’ve had so far didn’t have as many pickled vegetables and cilantro as I would like. 2 days in and we’ve had 4 fairly different banh mis already – so delicious!

We walked another 10 minutes in the rain in search of Pho Thanh Chanh. It was recommended by Chloe and also on one of the pho lists that Tim’s cousin, Nick, sent to us. It was also the closest one on that pho list to us so we went there.

Pho Thanh Chanh is a family run restaurant, which I’m guessing the majority of the restaurants in Vietnam are. The Mom is out front preparing bowls of pho and her daughter (probably 15 years old) takes orders and cuts up the limes and chilis, and her two younger sons (probably around 12 years old) deliver the pho to tables. Since we were eating quite early, the boys looked like they just got off school as they went to the back room, got changed and put on an apron. Tim ordered two bowls of the house special (dac biet) pho, one of the few terms Tim knows in Vietnamese. The soup and meat were all very delicious. There was a really good ratio of noodles, meat and broth.

We headed back to the hotel for the night and are continuing to plan out parts the upcoming month. I’m looking forward to seeing the Mekong Delta, experiencing more of the Vietnamese countryside, and getting out of the big city for a couple of days. I really like walking around cities but walking around HCMC gives me slight anxiety. Why don’t scooters and cars obey the cross walks?

Steps today: 14,000

Ho Chi Minh City (Day 98): Independence Palace, Street Food, and Sweat

June 6, 2016

When you get one whiff of scooter exhaust, incense, and ripe tropical fruit all at once, you know exactly where you are – in SE Asia. It’s our first time in Vietnam so we’re both pretty excited to explore the country. Our last trip to SE Asia was a two week trip to Thailand 3 years ago and we both really loved it. We’ll see what Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos do for us.

All we could hear from our room were cars and constant honking. If you’re a light sleeper, HCMC is probably not ideal. It seems as though cars and scooters are really liberal with the horn. We fell asleep quite early last night and woke up naturally to the sounds on the street. We thought it was at least 9am, but it was only 5:30am! I guess we’re a bit jetlagged.

We get free breakfast at the hotel so we went downstairs shortly after it opened at 7am. The breakfast was self serve and had congee, fried noodles, sauteed green beans, bacon, sausage, fried eggs, toast, and passionfruit. I also had a cup of coffee with condensed milk. I usually don’t drink coffee but I really like Vietnamese iced coffee. The breakfast was better than I expected.

We left the hotel and walked towards Independence Palace (or also known as the Reunification Palace). As soon as we walked outside we could feel the heat and we started to sweat. Crossing the street in HCMC is a bit scary. Even if you have a right of way with a green crossing light, in HCMC, you don’t have the right of way. Basically whenever we crossed the street today, Tim would be on the side to block me from oncoming traffic and I would just hang on tight. Even when cars see pedestrians walking they just weave around you dangerously and scooters don’t stop on red lights. This is something I have to get used to. Bangkok was way more orderly in that way (in comparing SE Asian big cities). I don’t remember being scared for my life while crossing the street in Thailand. This feels more like China in that sense.

After about a 10 minute walk, we made it to the Independence Palace, which was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. At the end of the Vietnam War, a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates of the palace in 1975 during the Fall of Saigon on April 30.

Entrance into the grounds and building is 30,000 VND = $1.75 CAD per person. The palace is kept the way it was when Saigon fell to the North, which made it really interesting to walk around. It felt like we were stuck in the 1960’s. While walking around, there were a lot of Vietnamese tourists taking pictures posing in front of many of the rooms. I was thinking that if I were south Vietnamese, it would be a bit sad walking around what the palace used to be given it’s only been 41 years since the fall of Saigon. The sentiment from the commentary plaques around the palace was that the south was very grateful for being saved by the north from the Americans. But obviously we have to take those opinions with a grain of salt being in a single-party communist country.

The bunker area felt a bit eerie while walking around as there weren’t as many tourists in the basement while we were there. The palace was bombed during the war so the bunker was built in the palace basement by the Americans for the President. While walking through the palace, it made me want to read more about the Vietnam War since I don’t know as much about it as WWII. We’ll be going to the War Remnants Museum tomorrow and spending time learning more about the war.

After the palace, we walked to the Notre Dame Cathedral and checked out the Saigon Central Post Office. Our plan for lunch was to walk about 30 minutes to the Lunch Lady food stall that Anthony Bourdain went to on one of his episodes in Vietnam. We (I) was really hungry when we were at the palace so we went for a snack at Popeye’s across the street from Notre Dame. We shared a meal, and the chicken was super juicy and delicious. The air con also felt heavenly. The crowds for lunch were starting to build up. The prices at Popeyes are a bit cheaper than North American prices but quite expensive for Vietnam.

After a pretty hot walk through the city, we made it to the Lunch Lady. It was about 1pm, so the lunch crowd dissipated but the ground was covered with napkins and shrimp heads (remnants of previous lunchers). We sat down on slightly grimy plastic chairs and ordered two bowls of noodles. The lunch lady makes a different soup every day of the week and usually closes when she sells out. Today’s soup was a sweet and sour tom yum type of soup (called Bun Thai) with lai fun (round rice noodles), seafood, and beef. While waiting for our noodles, people kept trying to put food on our table without us asking but we just said no to everything. We read from reviews that they’ll put food on your table and you obviously have to pay for them unless you say no.

The soup was really good, I could see why Bourdain enjoyed his meal here so much. When we paid, the guy said it was 80,000 VND =$4.60 CAD for our two bowls. This is slightly more than what we thought it would be (we’ve adjusted super quickly since Australia) since Lonely Planet says street food is usually only 20,000-30,000 VND for a bowl of pho. Any how, when you convert it to Canadian, you realize how cheap it is. At first I thought we were charged more because we were tourists but I read online that 40,000 VND is right. They do have a smaller sized bowl that locals know as an option for 30,000 VND, but majority of tourists are just given the larger bowl.

On our way back from lunch, we came across a cam sanh (green peel Vietnamese orange) juice cart that had two scooters waiting for their order. The ladies on the scooter ordered 5, they drank 2 on the spot and took the rest to go. They smiled at us and gave us the thumbs up after Tim gave them an inquisitive thumbs up, so we ordered one to share. We asked how much it was and the lady said it was 10,000 VND = $0.55 CAD. This is one of the main reasons why I love SE Asia – cheap fruit and fruit juices. After she told us the price, the ladies conversed in Vietnamese. Tim joked around and said maybe they asked her why she didn’t charge us more. She gave us the local prices and we saw the ladies pay 50,000 VND for their 5 drinks (Tim: I think Kait would enjoy herself more if she didn’t think everyone was trying to rip her off :P).

We walked towards Dong Khoi, which is one of the nicest areas in Ho Chi Minh. It’s where the Opera House, City Hall, and all the luxury stores and hotels are. We walked down the large boulevard in the middle of the street towards the Saigon River. When we got to the Saigon River, the walkway along the river wasn’t very attractive nor was there much going on so we kind of took a peek and walked towards a market.

On the walk back, we stopped by Ben Thanh Market. Luckily we did because as soon as we walked in there was a huge downpour and we would’ve gotten drenched. The market was full of rows of t-shirts, purses, backpacks, coffee, fruit, and accessories. The vendors are pretty aggressive when you walk through each aisle. Even if you’re not looking at anything at their stall, they’ll try to pull you to look. Tim was wearing his Under Armour t-shirt and it seemed like all the vendors we passed by keyed in on it and showed him what other t-shirts they had that were Under Armour. We were curious about their pricing so we asked about a purse and they quoted us 750,000 VND and we said we weren’t interested. Then they knocked it down to 500,000, then to 400,000 and when we started to walk away they said 100,000! So basically we’re guessing that the prices they’re willing to take are 10% of their initial quote.

When we passed by the food vendor area, Tim asked me if I wanted something to drink. The ladies in all the stalls got up and grabbed my arm and stuck their menus in our faces. All their fruit juices were 20,000 VND = $1.15 CAD and I guess knowing that we got our juice for 10,000 VND, I wasn’t interested. When we got back to the hotel and I typed in the conversion and realized it was only $1.15 CAD, I felt super cheap.

The rain died down so we headed back to the hotel to relax and get out of the crazy heat. We both were super sticky when we got into the room, it was actually pretty disgusting. We heard some Aussies at the market say how they’re sweating so much that it’s dripping in their eye and making it burn. That’s how we felt!

I searched online for “the best banh mi” in HCMC and wrote down a couple of places to try out. There was one only about 5 minutes away from us so we decided to give that a try for dinner. They closed at 8pm so we were cutting it a bit close at 7:30pm. We had to cross another crazy roundabout intersection to get there, which was scary at night. Luckily there were a few more people walking so we just used them as buffers.

The Banh Mi cart was called Banh Mi 37 Nguyen Trai. They specialized in a banh mis with grilled pork patties. When we got to the stall, there were several people infront of us waiting for their sandwiches. The bottle neck was the grill as they were waiting for the pork to cook. After about 20 minutes of watching the pork cook and the lady assembling sandwiches for others ahead of us, we got ours. After ours, there were only 4 more baguettes left and she had to turn away a lot of people who were coming after us. We felt pretty lucky! The banh mis were 18,000 VND = $1.03 CAD each. It started to rain while we were waiting so we took our banh mis back to the hotel to eat.

The banh mis were delicious but a bit spicy. I haven’t had a banh mi with grilled pork patty before, so it was nice and different. Instead of mayo, she put a thick brown sauce that was a bit sweet on top of the meat, along with pickled cucumber and lots of cilantro. There’s a more famous banh mi place down down the block that we’ll probably try another day.

Steps today: 23,000