Happy belated Canada Day (and happy 4th to our neighbours)!
We've just about wrapped up our 3 weeks in Vietnam and can honestly say it's one of our new favorites... full of great food, shopping, and cheap beer... what more can you ask for?(other than maybe a tad less horn honking and fewer motor bikes)
Hanoi was a great introduction to the country. We ate more than our fair share of street food and visited a Bia Hoi (curbside bar) or two for 25 cent beers... Craig looks hilarious sitting on their kid-sized plastic furniture.
A pleasant surprise was that the Vietnamese have their french baguette down pat... so we had to sample a few doner kebabs (rotisserie pork stuffed into a baguette with green papaya, cabbage, onions, chili sauce and garlic sauce) as well as Banh My Pates (baguette with pate, cucumber, and chili sauce). We've also had some awesome Pho Bo (beef noodle soup), spring rolls (both fresh and fried), Bun Cha (BBQ pork patties served in a broth with noodles and herbs), Bun Bo (beef with rice noodles, bean sprouts, herbs, peanuts, and fried shallots in a bit of sweet and savory broth-like sauce)... the list goes on and on.
The capital was a lot of fun to explore and we had a chance to see some cool things, including Ho Chi Minh himself, whose body has been on ice for the past 3 decades. We also made our way up to Halong Bay for a 2 day cruise through karst islands and to visit a floating village.
After Hanoi, we flew to Hoi An, which is in the middle of the country. The old city itself is a Unesco World Heritage site and walking around it feels a bit like going back in time. There are no motorized vehicles and everywhere you look, women are wearing traditional cone hats and carrying produce in baskets hanging from their shoulders.
The city also happens to be very well known for its tailors, so we had some couture made for a steal of a deal (Craig got a trench and suit made and I got a skirt and dress). There's also a famous cooking school in town, so we had a chance to learn how to make some of our fav dishes. Hoi An also happens to have lovely beach about a 15 min bike ride from town, so we rented a couple of bikes and spent Canada day in the sun (or the shade, in Craig's case).
The next destination was Hue, about a 3 hour drive north. Hue was the imperial capital city from ~1800-1950 so we had a chance to learn a bit more about the Nguyen emperors and check out a few of their tombs as well as the forbidden palace (or at least what is left of it after French and American bombings in the last 2 wars).
At the moment we're amidst the chaos of Ho Chi Minh city (aka Saigon), where crossing the street is quite the adventure. We took a day trip to the Chu Chi tunnels, an important area in the Vietnam war (or as they refer to it here, the "Anti-American war"). It was really interesting to see the complex and unbelievably narrow underground tunnel system the Viet Cong constructed.
Time for a last bowl or two of pho and the next stop is Cambodia, first to the capital of Phnom Phen for a couple of days and then to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat...
