Saigon Street Food

My brother is very adventurous. He sees food he's interested in at a street vendor, points to it and lifts up his hand to say "one please".

Today we had some sort of meat wrapped in tofu.

Guess whose birthday it is!?!

Dean Nelson's!

Happy birthday, dad!

Lots of birthday love from Vietnam!

Close Quarters

My brother and I were close before we began this trip, however, our time in Saigon has taken that bond to a whole new level.

The picture below is the reason for this. The plastic screen door is all that stands between the bed and the bathroom...

The Space Needle of Saigon

Bitexco Financial Tower is said to be designed after a blossoming lotus flower. I won't even mention what I think it looks like.

Anyway, my father worked at the Space Needle in Seattle for years so I could not pass up the opportunity to check out a "competitor".

In a fairness, the tower isn't even complete so all it offers is an observation desk and a couple finicky computers.

That being said, the view of Saigon it offers is literally out of this world.

**Our hostel is down the street from the greenery in the middle left of this photo. The famous street of District 1, Pham Ngû Lâo.

The War Museum

Words escape me. Im unable to describe the many emotions that overwhelmed me at this museum. I wonder how people hid behind lies while millions of people were dying all for the sake of pride and money? Disgusting.

Saigon - We Have Arrived

After complications at the Da Lat airport, my brother and I got on a sleeper bus at midnight to Saigon. Eight hours later we arrived safely in Saigon.

This bus was much nicer than the one we had taken to Nha Trang. Needless to say we slept like babies.

Unexpected Surprises

It happens at a random time, in a random place. You find something that blows you away. A view. A smell. A person.

Tonight it was a taste. Yogurt to be precise. From Long Hoa restaurant in Da Lat. Random? Yes, I know.

To quote Kenny directly "this has a place in Ron Burgundy's pleasure town."

Needless to say, he order another one. Hey, you only live once!

Semi-Sleeper Buses

From Nha Trang to Da Lat, Kenny and I sat on a bus that had half-sleeper seats.

As you can see from the picture below, the bus has two levels of seats. Kenny and my feet are in the picture and you can see the full seat of the lady in front of us.

The bus was old and the seats were rested into place, which meant you couldn't adjust your position.

The ride from Nha Trang was only four hours and during the day so the poor road conditions and constant honking didn't bother us. We were slightly concerned though because three quarters way through the trip several people had to go to the bathroom. The bus just pulled over to the side and everyone went in the open bushes.

This concerns us because tonight we leave for Saigon. The bus ride is a 10 hour journey and we leave at 10pm. To make matters worse both Kenny and I ate something that didn't agree with us. We are just going to have to cross our fingers that everything goes smoothly. Wish us luck!

Riding Through the Outskirts of Da Lat

Yesterday Kenny and I went on a tour of the surrounding countryside of Da Lat on the back of a motorbike.

We hired two guides, called Easy Riders, to drive us around on the back of their motorbikes.

The experience was unbelievable. I've never been on a motorcycle so you can imaging that I was a bit nervous at first. However, a couple turns into it, I could not imagine touring Vietnam any other way.

Our first stop was at Loi Cao Bach, the first pagoda in Da Lat city. Then, our tour guides shuttled us off to Lang Bian mountain, the second largest in Vietnam. We hiked up a short trail to see the peaks but they were covered in clouds. We did get a beautiful view of the city though.

Next we stopped at a flower farm. The farmers build structures similar to green houses so that they can grow flowers year round. The flowers, fuchsias, grew in many different colors. Red, pink and orange for love. Yellow for luck and white for funerals. Interesting to hear that there are only two places in Vietnam where flowers will grow. Here and a very small village in Hanoi. Flowers are picked daily (another flower blooms in its place 7 days later) and shipped all over the country.

The drive from the flower farm down the mountain to several surrounding villages was incredible. These winding roads went through pristine hillside forests. I'm unable to post images now however I will make sure to upload a number of images (as well as video of Kenny and I riding) when I get home.

After we visited a few small villages, we stopped on the side of the road where coffee beans were growing. Our guide showed us a few things about the plant then took us to a cafe where they processed coffee and rice wine. We tasted the partially distilled rice wine (potent) and then moved to a room filled with caged weasels.

This was the strangest thing we'd seen and at first we were very confused. Our guide proceeded to tell us that the weasels were known for finding the best coffee beans in the fields. They would eat them and something in their stomach would naturally alter the bean. Humans would then go through the fields and collect the droppings of the weasel to make Weasel Coffee.

Weasel coffee is considered a delicacy and very expensive. A kilo of it would cost $3,000. Hilary Clinton was even presented weasel coffee as a gift from the Vietnamese. Fortunately at this cafe we were able to try it at a fraction of the cost. It was awful. Dense and grainy. Kenny and I could not stop laugh. The guides just laughed at us.

After the Weasel poop coffee, we headed to a silk factory. The silk worms were grown else where but at this factory they sort the cocoons, boiling them and then unravelling the thread with the help of a very loud machine. The thread is then dyed and woven into all sorts of patterns.

While walking through the factory, I felt something on my left leg. I looked down but didn't see anything so I continued on. A couple seconds later I felt it again but still nothing was on my pants. All of a sudden, I realized it was coming from under my pants. As I rolled up the bottom of my workout pants two huge cockroaches fell to the floor. I tried to keep my composure but it was so unexpected that my skin was crawling and I quickly made my way outside while I started shaking and dancing about to make sure no other critters were trying to hitch a ride. The guides started laughing at me for a second time that day.

The Elephant waterfall and the Linh An Pagoda were next, followed by a quick stop at a rice paddy. I never knew how rice was grown. I had always for some reason thought rice actually grew near the root when in fact it grows more like wheat with the little kernels forming at the top. We also ended up seeing an avocado tree and papaya tree, which I had never seen before.

We rode to a few more places before arriving at Tuyen Lam Lake, home to the largest meditation center in Vietnam. The pagoda was beautiful with lovely gardens. The hydrangeas reminded both Kenny and I of my mom and her love of Ina Garden, the Barefoot Contessa, who always uses these flowers in her center pieces.

Our last stop was the Crazy House, described as a free-wheeling architectural exploration of surrealism. Basically, imagine if Antoni Gaudi were to design one of the houses in Disneyland's Toon Town. I would recommend googling images of this place. It was a trip.

Our guides then dropped us off. Safe and sound at our hotel. We enjoyed our trip immensely but were sad to see them go. Both Kenny and I could have done with more time on the back of the bikes. It has us both considering learning how to ride and taking a motorcycle trip across our own countryside.

Da Lat Late Night Market - The Food

This is just one of the many dishes we tried tonight.

Da Lat Late Night Market

This is by far the coolest thing we've done so far. It all happened very randomly and both Kenny and my stomach might pay for it later, but we ate dinner tonight with a bunch of Vietnamese at this late night market. Needless to say we were the only Caucasians there.

Drive to Da Lat

There are few drives that compare to the beauty of the highlands. The views were breathtaking.

It will also go down as one of the crazier drives in my life.

Nha Trang

Kenny and I are in Nha Trang after somewhat of a taxing few days. We didnt book a hostel and when we got here everything was full. To make matters worse there were no buses leaving Nha Trang for Saigon or Dalat until the 28th. So we were basically stuck.

For reasons I can't explain, we went back to the first hostel we checked and all of a sudden they had two openings!

Nha Trang is not the worst place to get stuck. For one thing it's a beach resort town. Full of tourists but beautiful beachs. Secondly, the weather is ten times better than Hanoi. Hot, hot, hot and sunny.

Today we were going to go snorkeling but we were in for so much more! This is an epic adventure I will never forget.

We booked a one day tour for ourselves of the islands here in Nha Trang. This morning a few of us boarded a bus to go on the tour.

When we arrived at the wharf, it was a mad house. Total tourist trap. But not for caucasians, for vietnamese. We were escorted to a tiny boat filled with Vietnamese tourist. This was one of about 20 boats doing the same thing.

We took off for the first island we were supposed to visit (someday I will post the description of the tour). Needless to say it was chalk full of the same boats and we learned we had to pay to get on each island.

The six people from the hostel looked at the scene and then looked at each other. What have we gotten ourselves into?

Everyone shrugged there shoulders and decided to make the best of it. It was also at that moment the guide came up to us and asked "who wants a beer?" The timing could not have been more perfect.

We ended up having an incredibly random but brilliant day. I will post more pictures later of the crazy floating bar, cluster of Vietnamese tourists and random water sports but I will leave you with one goodie!

The weather was lovely today. Deceptively so...

Mom, I told Kenny to put on more sunscreen! :)

( He only wanted me to cover his tattoo. Can you see the line of where I did that?)

Hanoi Part II

It is almost laughable that I'm in Vietnam during their new years celebration when everything is closed. A few years ago the same thing happened to me in Morrocco. It was Ramadan, nothing was open and I swore to myself that I wasn't going to do that again...

TIP: When booking travel, do your research on the local holidays where you are headed!

It has actually worked out fine for us though. The ride to the airport and to Ha Long Bay took half as long as they normally do. We were also able to change our flight and will be leaving a day earlier since none of the tours where running to Sapa and the south west regions.

That just left us with today to find something to do. Most of the museums are still closed but we were able to go to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and museum. It was very interesting for both Kenny and I to see the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh and the process we had to go through to see it.

Now we are back at the hostel planning for the next leg of our trip. We leave tomorrow morning at 6:15am.

Good bye North Vietnam! You have been cold but fun!

The Rock Long Rock Hard Tour

Yesterday brother and I went to Ha Long Bay on a tour put on by our hostel.

We drove four hours outside of Hanoi, through countryside, to get to Ha Long City. We boarded a small boat that took us to a larger boat called the Jolly Rodger.

On board we ate lunch as it left the harbor and head towards the limestone masses enveloped in mist.

It took about an hour to get to out final destination. The weather was overcast and cool but we were assured that the water temperature would still be fine. At this point in the journey we were given the option to jump off the boat. Both Kenny and I took it. The water was not warm. It was actually really cold and salty but how often do you have a chance to go swimming in Ha Long Bay? So I enjoyed it!

After we jumped in, the group went kayaking. We paddled by a couple of islands and went through a little cave. Pretty freaking cool even though the weather wasn't great!

When we got back to our boat we ate dinner and then the drinking games began. I was glad there were two 29 year olds in the room because at that point I started to feel really old.

The rest of the evening stays between Kenny and I but I can assure you that we had a fun evening.

Catching up over coffee in Hanoi

Nothing is better than sitting on the side of the road. On those little blue stools. Watching people and catching up with my brother.

One thing that is quite cool is how savvy my brother is at negotiating traffic. Calm and steady he walks through the streets. No sudden movements. He crosses streets that locals look concerned about with ease. And no he is not doing it in a dangerous way. It is very apparent that he has picked up a lot from living in Taiwan.

It makes me so proud and actually really comfortable here.

Hanoi

I'm here. With my brother. At a super popular hostel in the middle of the city.

After an 11 hour flight from Seattle to Seoul, I made my next flight to Hanoi with less than five minutes to spare.

Phew. Now it is time for me to rest.

At the Airport

Fortunately, the weather here in Seattle decided to settle down and my flight was only delayed by forty minutes.

I'm crossing my fingers that I'm able to catch my second flight in Seoul. I only have an hour layover there. The airlines says I should be alright.

Although I felt really anxious this morning, I think I successfully got everything I need into my traveling backpack. If I forgot anything I'm just going to have to figure it out once I get there!

SeaTac CLOSED

Here is the Seattle Times report on SeaTac and the snow/ice today:

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport this morning crews are scrambling to de-ice some 70 aircraft to get them ready for take-off.

Runways were completely shut down between 4:30 and 7:30 a.m. because of the icy weather, said airport spokesman Perry Cooper. When one runway reopened at 7:30 a.m., a Boeing 777 cargo plane landed. A second runway remains closed with no estimated time of opening, Cooper said.

Airport officials say that passengers need to check with their airlines before heading to the airport.

Cooper said that nearly 10 planes slated to land at SeaTac were diverted to other cities. The rest of the planes slated for Seattle were grounded at their airports of origin, he said.

Well this should make tomorrow interesting.

Brother Has Landed

After spending 19 hours in the Taipei airport, my brother finally arrived in Hanoi. Why 19 hours you wonder? I will address that quickly. See my brother is cheap. Very cheap. So cheap in fact that he would do his laundry in his dorm rooms in college in a bucket and hang them on strings in his room instead of paying the dollar to do it in the machines. Therefore, when he got a flight to Vietnam that required him to be at the airport before the buses would pick him up, he decided that he would just take the bus to the airport the night before and sleep in the airport to save money. Great idea. Only problem was that come morning his flight was delayed however many hours. So he sat and sat and sat in the airport. Enough said.

I'm glad he got there safely. He said he took the shuttle to the hostel and warned me that it should only cost me $2 when I take it. In all seriousness, I'm super excited to be traveling with my brother and so appreciative that he is giving me this heads up. Unfortunately, I land at 10pm on Saturday evening after the shuttles stop so I set up to have the hostel send a driver. You would think that this would be the safer option. However, I did have to laugh when I got this email from the hostel:

PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING SCAMS

Please be aware that taxi drivers and some shuttle buss drivers for that matter, are paid commission to take customers to other budget hotels and these hotels will tell you we are full, close or they are our sister hostel, this is completely untrue. They sometimes even use our flyers or signs - making you believe that you are at the right spot or they are there to pick you up. If this happens to you stay in the car/bus and wait for them to take you to your destination or shuttle stop or find a taxi a different taxi and show them the address on the booking sheet or the download the flyer on our website.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take back the idea that I don't need to have a clue where my hostel is because I'm getting picked up by a hostel driver. :) Darn.

Kenny says the hostels great and the city is crazy. No rules was how he put it.

He is there scooting out potential day trips for us and trying to get a lay of the land. We came into this trip having some idea of what we wanted to do but knowing that we had to be flexible. And it's a good thing too.

Chinese New Years. The most important of the traditional Chinese holidays begins on Sunday.

All of a sudden I feel like I'm back in Morocco. Kenny tells me that tours are few and filling up quickly. "What should we do?" he emails me.

We shall see.

Prep Work Begins

My trip is less than a week away and I'm spending most of this weekend preparing what to bring. I still have my huge backpack from previous adventures but I went to REI today for some additional necessities.

• A Watch - Not having my cellphone, I will need to know the time and have a functioning alarm. Weird.
• Bug Spray - I went to a Travel Medicine clinic. They recommended that I always wear bug spray and take Malaria pills.
  
• Sunscreen - The malaria pills make you more sensitive to sun but the sunscreen counteracts the bug spray. I was told that I needed to put the sunscreen on 30 minutes before the bug spray. Let's see if I can remember to do that.
  
• A Camel Back - My backpack has had a spot for it from the beginning but I decided to buy one specifically because my brother and I are thinking about going into the Cat Tien National Forrest. I'm not sure what type of resources there are but I'd hate to be out of fresh water while hiking around.
  
• Iodine Tablets - Just in case.
  
• First Aid Kit - Do you know my brother?
  
• Travel Towel - It tries quickly and will probably come in handy more often than I anticipated. We'll see.
  
• A Power Adapter - I will be bringing my camera and phone so I will need to be able to charge them.
  

If I'm missing anything that might be particularly important, please let me know.

For me, personally, this is the most unnerving part of the trip. I'm pretty good when it comes to dealing with situations on the spot but I'm bad at planning. Knowing that and how unpredictable the trip will be makes my stomach flip just a bit (that could also be caused by the Typhoid vaccine that is in my system right now). However, the feeling is temporary and passes quickly.

I'm getting more and more excited for my trip by the day. I cannot wait to see my younger brother, whom I have not seen since the summer and I look forward to exploring a new country.

How To Decide On An Itinerary

Having traveled a few times, I know what a big mistake it is not to research an area before visiting. I also know that if you plan a trip too specifically you might miss opportunities along the way.

Once my brother and I decided that we were going to Vietnam, the first things I started researching were the geography of the country, the location of the major cities/international airports and then I looked very specifically at transportation. This is key when you are exploring a new country. How are you going to get around? How long will it take to get from point A to point B? What modes of transportation are available? Plane? Train? Bus? Hired car? Mop head?

After familiarizing myself with the layout of the country, I looked at how many days I actually had in the country. 15. Vietnam is an incredibly long country. You don't quite realize it until you have to look at it on a map and 15 days goes by quickly. There is a lot of space to cover between the two major cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We want to see as much as we can while there and I've heard that North and South Vietnam are very different so it's important that we go to both areas. That's why we came to the conclusion of flying into Hanoi and out of Saigon.

SIDE NOTE: You don't have to go through a travel agent to do this. All you need to do is go on Kayak.com and click "Multi-cities" at the top.

That gave us our initial outline. Definite dates. Looking closer at the map, we realize that we will be spending a lot of our time en route from one destination to the next. Time is tight so our next decision is to cut out some of the travel time in between by taking a domestic flight.

My brother and I actually had a lot of trouble booking our original flight to Vietnam. I bought my ticket first. However, after my flight had been purchased, Kenny realized he was going to have to travel to Vietnam from Taiwan during the Chinese New Year, which is very difficult and expensive.

I made the executive decision and bought us plane tickets from Hanoi to Nha Trang. I wasn't originally interested in Nha Trang because it's a big tourist destination due to the beaches but looking at the map I realize that it will save us a lot of travel time and anxiety. Nothing is worse than realizing that you're not going to make your flight out of the country.

That gives us 7 days on both ends of the country. Next, the fun part where Kenny and I get to start putting together options for us for both parts of our journey. I say options because again if you decide everything down to the day, hour, etc. you will not leave a lot of room for flexibility. I'm calling it piecemeal planning. Many different things can change how you want to approach your travels. Weather. Holidays. You realize that a cool festival is happening on a certain day. So you want to be able to take advantage of these opportunities at any point during your trip.

I will explain piecemeal planning in my next post.