What a trip! In June 2008 I took two weeks to join a friend (Tom V.) in Vietnam for my limited vacation. He had been traveling for a number of weeks throughout Asia, but we synchronized our schedules, met in Hanoi, and booked flights out of Saigon for two weeks later - the rest was up to us. As expected, it was a great experience and Vietnam is undoubtedly a gem worth visiting (soon!) It may be crowded but it’s never overwhelming, the people are friendly, the land is beautiful, the food is amazing, and it’s cheap. You really can’t go wrong.

So the challenge is thus: I’ve returned from a fantastic trip with stories to tell and hundreds of pictures to go along with. For fear of simply posting the photos and forgetting the story I’ve endeavored to intertwine the two and produce a lasting (and hopefully entertaining) record of my experience, as much for my sake as anyone else’s. While this will necessitate a lengthy post and significant culling of my many photos, I expect the result will be better for it. Enough intro and babbling, let’s begin.

Friday – June 14

So the trip starts on Friday, frantic packing and a late night. As is often my tendency before long flights I didn’t go to bed that night, instead choosing to watch TV reruns until the cab picked me up in the early morn. Gory details of cancelled flights and additional legs can be ignored, suffice to say I flew Boston to Chicago to San Francisco to Seoul to Hanoi, Vietnam. Flights went well for the most part. My attempts at food and sleep regulation were semi successful. Journal comments touch on constant sleep deprivation, movies (The Other Boleyn Girl was a pleasant surprise) and weather (at what temp is F = C, answer -40 degrees).

In Hanoi at midnight, easy baggage collection, easy ATM, easy cab ride, Tom was waiting in the lobby. Had a Bia Ha Noi (beer) and a shower, feeling good! To bed @ 12:40am, and so the trip begins for real!

Monday - June 16, The First Day

So my first day in Vietnam, what do we do? Watch American TV of course. Start off the day by grabbing a couple of beers and Xoi Xeo (sticky rice with fatty pork and egg), then back to the hotel to watch the Celtics lose 103-98 to the Lakers (ed - for posterity, this was the 2008 NBA finals, game 4 I think? Celts end up winning it all a few days later). Delicious breakfast, crappy game, time to explore the city.

Not much to report except we ate our first Pho Ga at a small street stand (first of many). Tom ate a coconut, a fresh coconut? Gelatinous innards with liquid, served cold. Tried to eat some papaya business but turned away. That afternoon saw a Water Puppet show. A little ridiculous but fun, some highlights include “On a Buffalo with a Flute” and “Unicorns Play with Ball.”

Enough fluff, onto real substance, food. Tom had heard a positive restaurant review of “Highway 4″ from a friend, so we endeavored to stop there while in Hanoi. This place had an interesting variety of dishes including some more unusual items (fried locusts) and came across as pretty legit and not just a tourist destination. They also brew their own liquors. I’m just going to quote this whole section from my journal.

Highway 4 – Dinner

Only customers when we arrived, bad sign?

Dishes consumed:

Bo Kho Vat Chanah – Spicy dried beef jerky with lemon juice. Delicious, shredded beef, pretty sweet, lime juice, KICK at the end! Spicy.

Nem Ca Xa 104 – Catfish Spring Rolls. Fried catfish w/mayo and dill wrapped in rice wrapper, delicious, but how could it not be?

Thit Cho Hun Khoi – Smoked Dog Meat. The infamous dog! Tastes just like smoked ham, but chewier.

Ngon Su Su Xao – Chayote stalks and leaves sauteed. Good, finally some greenery

and to follow:

Lin Chi Mushroom Liquor – described as “profoundly bitter taste of Lin Chi mushrooms with the earthy sweetness of precious Korean white ginger”. Profoundly bitter indeed, my tasting notes “that’s f***ing bitter!” Tom says “Yup, that’s bitter”, a minor understatement. Wow that is awful stuff.

Apricot Liquor – described as “Thick, tartly sweet liquor with taste of ripe apricots” My tasting notes “anythings better than Lin Chi”.

Total cost of dinner 340000 Dong, or just over $20 for 4 dishes, two beers each, and two cups of liquor – not bad! Back to hotel for brief break, I immediately fall asleep, jetlag kicking in? But Tom wakes me up to rally again, out for Bia Hoi (draft beer). Sat on the street and drank a few fresh beers, poured from a huge stainless steel pot. Pretty cold too. Beers were 6000 each, 40 cents each! Then to bed for real, not a bad first day in Hanoi!

Tuesday - June 17

Every time I step outside my camera lens fogs up. Pain in the ass.

Busy day of wandering. Took off for Hoa La Prison (the ol’ Hanoi Hilton) and arrived at 11:30am, right as they closed for a 2 hour lunch break. Ate some snacks at a classy french deli, Vietnamese coffee packs a punch! Check out the History Museum (also closed, but good architecture outside), then a Xe Om (motorbike) ride back to the prison. Hard bargaining and threats of walking away to establish price of 10000 dong. Thrilling, quick ride – this is the way to travel!

Prison museum was good, saw the John McCain uniform hanging up. Stopped for a bit of Pho, then on to Army museum (eh, decent I suppose) and then Ho Chi Min Masoleum just in time for a changing of the guard. A walk around the grounds ended with another thrilling motorbike ride (this time in rush hour traffic) back to the hotel.

That night it’s off to another street vendor that was recommended on a blog. At first we couldn’t find it, but then peeked down a sketchy alley and saw the tell-tale plastic stools along the wall under a bare bulb, bingo. We were given a pan with a sterno heater and cooked various veggies and meats, fun and tasty. Stopped for a dynamite rice pancake wrapped dumpling on the way home (ed – called Banh Cuon, rice pancaked rolled around minced sausage and mushroom. Served w/shredded, salted shrimp and dried onion flakes and sweet dipping sauce). Delicious, lady making them was a whiz at creating see-through thin pancakes without breaking them. That night jumped onto our “balcony”, really the roof outside our roof, to watch a lighting storm and mess around with cameras. Some time later we have torrential downpours but I was in bed. First sign of this so called “rainy season” that I’ve heard so much about.

(Continued in Part II)

Wednesday - June 18, Halong Bay

Next day, jet lag wakes me up early followed by a cold shower and a miserable shave (someone accidentally turned off our hot water heater and my razor may as well have been a steak knife for how dull it was). At 7:30am we hop on a bus for a 3 hour ride to Halong Bay, we booked a 3 day tour earlier. Absolutely torrential downpours on the way, “good gravy” says my journal. Poor motorcyclists along the way are sopping wet. We get to the bay and take a dinghy out to the boat, rain hits again and everyone else gets soaked – Tom and I are quick with our rain gear and feel a bit smug. We arrive on our main boat, probably 100ft long with a number of small but adequate cabins, and settle in. We tour around the bay, take a short hike through a surprisingly massive cave, and do a little kayaking and swimming from the boat.

Halong Bay is simply stunning, definitely one of the most impressive sights I’ve ever seen. Thousands of tiny limestone islands jut out of the ocean, the whole bay is preserved and empty except for the occasional fishing boat or floating village (a series of rafts lashed together that locals actually live on). We had a great day boating in to the bay and ended it with a delicious dinner and cards with some friendly Germans (they taught me a game called Skat, similar to Euchre, and I whooped them at it. Ha!) To bed late, poor sleep, who cares, we’re anchored in the middle of this ridiculousness.

The next day is one of two clear highlights of the whole trip. In early morn Tom, myself, and a Dutch couple head out on a small boat with our great guide Dat (most people did a one night trip and were heading back to shore), we pick up 3 others for a total of 7 and pick up kayaks from a floating village. Then we take off for the day with our tiny boat motoring along in the vicinity in case of an emergency. We kayak for about 2 hours out into the bay, gorgeous surroundings, weather was perfect with a slight breeze but still sunny (and it was raining yesterday!)

Good workout, we settle in at the backup boat for a little break, a beer, and great swimming. At this point we’re anchored in a cove in the middle of nowhere, one other boat in sight, clear water, islands all around. Then back to the kayaks for another hour plus tour around the area, kayaking through caves that duck under the limestone islands and into secluded, secret lagoons, then back out and around islands and below cliffs. Surreal. Then back to the anchored boat again for more swimming, in the meantime our captain had been grilling a fabulous lunch, all seafood had been pulled live out of nets when we hopped into kayaks. A meal of lobster-shrimp like creatures, octopus/squid/cuttlefish like creatures, french fries, veggies, beef kabobs, shrimp, fish steaks with a curry sauce, and fruit. They cooked better food on a little gas grill on a dinghy than I could make with a full kitchen. Wow.

After lunch was more swimming (teased our way into a 100m deep cave with a very strong current pulling you into the darkness! Scary!) and conversation with our cohorts, great diving off the roof of our dinghy. At this point sun is UP and OUT, it’s hot and I’m burnt. We leisurely motor by the “boat people”, a large floating village that even has a school, then our guide Dat takes us to a tiny cave. We bring flashlights and crawl through, getting filthy but having a blast, I run into a spider web, look up, and see a massive 2” spider sitting just above my head! Ahhh!!! Finally we head back to our big boat (which had gone to shore and picked up a new batch of passengers) where we swam more. I promptly dive off the boat and lose our room key and some cash. Oh well.

Relax for the rest of the day/evening, chat and read, take pics, play a card game with our new Dutch friends (Hearts this time, I win again, Ha!). Best day ever.

(Continued in Part III)

Friday – June 20, Halong Bay and Hue
Another gorgeous day and we motor out of Halong Bay, horrible bus ride back to Hanoi. Not much to report except that sunburn is horrendous and apparently Tom’s malaria medicine aggravates it further – funny in retrospect, not at the time. Quick lunch in Hanoi (fresh papaya salad, with duck jerky and liver), then cab to the airport and a flight to Hue. Slow day, and not a pic to show for it.

Saturday – June 21, Hue
Typical touristy wanderings in Hue, decent town, but not a lot going on. Most memorable part is the outrageous heat. Near unbearable, I notice that locals are smart enough to disappear for the worst of it. Ate a bowl of classic Bun Bo Hue (similar to Pho Bo but different noodle and other subtleties), to which I added too much chili paste, particularly for the heat.

And this leads me to the 2^nd highlight of the trip. After walking through the old city in Hue I start lobbying for naptime, but Tom rallies and convinces me to head out to the beach (about 15km away). We rent two motorbikes, after Tom’s misbehaves we scrap the second bike and Tom hops on the back of mine (he didn’t know how to ride anyway). Off to the beach. With some dumb luck we find our way but choose to drive past and explore, continuing down a long thin peninsula. On our right are rice paddies leading down to the bay spotted with classic Vietnamese fishing boats. On our left are hillsides covered in elaborate, colorful tombs/shrines. Apparently it’s a bit of a competition for families to create the most extravagant grave sites. Small villages along the way, then back into countryside for more rice paddies and shrines. Beautiful views everywhere we look.

At one point I spot a moto coming down the hill and decide to zip up into the tombs and see if we can find a good photo op. Riding along a 8 foot wide path/road until it T’s, we take a right and keep going for awhile. End up in minuscule village, all locals and children standing up and shouting “Hello!” as we ride by – it’s clear they don’t get many (any) tourists back in the middle of nowhere here. Another couple of turns and we dead end into a gorgeous empty beach, stunning views, beautiful weather (heat has subsided a bit by this time), perfect sand. We park the bike, get ready to jump in the water, but then hear the shrieks of 8 young kids who had followed us from the village. We get mobbed, kids laughing and doing tricks, we’re slightly confounded. Tom starts taking pics, showing them the results, then lets them take pics – all are entertained immensely.

Finally we decide to move on, not exactly the best place to go swimming what with all the attention. On our way back up the the main beach area (shouts of “Hello!” again) the bike starts acting funny and, sure enough, we run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. Tom curses me thoroughly. Pantomiming leads us to a small roadside stand where we find a liter plastic bottle full of yellow liquid and a 12 year old girl who has no idea how to communicate with us. Eventually we pull enough bills out of my wallet for her to snatch them up and fetch us change, and back to the bike we go. Of course neither of us has any idea how to actually fill up the tank or start the bike after it’s been run dry. After some fumbling and a (gestured) plea for help, a 50 year old woman comes off the porch that we “parked” in front of, pushes me aside, takes the gas, pops up the seat, fills the tank, buttons it all up and hops on the bike, adjusts choke, gives it a handful of kickstarts, and has the bike running like a charm. Awesome! We thank her profusely, hopefully she got the idea, and jump on and head for the beach. Take a swim, give Tom a quick moto lesson, then back to the hotel. Unbelievable day and completely unique experience, those are the sorts of things you just can’t plan.

That evening is a fun night out with a traveling companion Tom met in China (Richard), we ran across him earlier on a fluke. Meet up at the DMZ bar and play some pool and drink some Bia Hue Exports, end up watching the Euro Cup with a smattering of Europeans until 4am and shutting down the bar. Netherlands lost to Russia, Dutch fellow Jourk (which I still can’t pronounce) is properly devastated.

Sunday – June 22, Hue and Hoi An

Spend the morning sleeping in, packing up, eating Com Ga (chicken and rice) and then grabbing a bus to Hoi An, a tiny tourist town a few hours away. Nothing like a random bus stop somewhere to give you a cool pic.

Hoi An is very touristy, but damn if it isn’t nice despite that. Two motos try to scam us by taking us to the wrong hotel, Tom acts quick and snatches our money out of their shirt pocket, well played, we’ll call it even. Delicious dinner on the river, Cau Lau (hot pot, Hoi An specialty) and an Egg Pancake wrapped in Rice Paper. Call it an early night and recuperate.

Monday – June 23, Hoi An

Hoi An is known for it’s tailoring, so why not, let’s get a custom suit made. We head to A Dong Silk and go through the motions, I get a sharp, dark gray, pinstriped suit made, slim fitting to say the least. The fitting and fabric choice takes awhile and is surprisingly fun. Temp is ridiculous still, we wander and grab Banh Mi (vietnamese sandwich consisting of baguette with pate, cucumber, mayo, meats, onions) and Nuoc Mia (fresh squeezed sugar cane on ice, delicious!) We catch a ride to the beach and just veg out for the afternoon, nice and relaxing.

Back to A Dong for another fitting, then we meet up with same Rich that we met in Hue, he had followed us to Hoi An a day later, as well as a future classmate of Tom’s who just happened to be in the same town at the same time, go figure. Tour a few bars around town over the course of the evening, gradually people slip away. In the end Rich and I head to some out of town site that provides a good time, I lose my sandals in the process and hitch a ride on the back of a bicycle back to my hotel.

Tuesday – June 24, Off To Ho Chi Min City (Saigon)

Next day is rough going for both of us. We slack off, get another fitting at A Dong, and take a very leisurely lunch. Pick up our suits and veg out for the rest of the day, napping, browsing the web, reading, playing pool, etc. Finally catch a cab to the airport and fly down to Saigon for our last leg. Cab to a tiny hotel/guest house, step out for a quick dinner and back to bed.

Wednesday – June 25, Saigon

Good day of sight seeing and “learning”. Haven’t done too much of that elsewhere, so it felt good to fill out some Vietnamese history. Walk through a bustling market, grab some street food, take a breather from a passing rain shower in a coffee shop. We finally hit up the Reunification Palace, hideously ugly exterior but I enjoyed the interior quite a lot – preserved almost exactly as the day when the North Vietnamese busted in and took over (1975?). On and off rain produces some amazing clouds and fun pics.

Afterwards off to the War Remnants Museum, a gory and one-sided account of the Vietnam War’s (or American War’s) horrors and after-effects. Very solid photography exhibit sucks me in for a good while, the rest is hit and miss. Finally we take off, walk by some other architectural highlights and then find the roof bar of the Majestic Hotel. Eight floors up in a five star hotel, beers cost an exorbitant 4 bucks each, those are USA prices! But we’re early enough that we get a 2 for 1 deal (we’re the only people up there) and we recharge our batteries for awhile and admire a superb view of the river and city. A quick and terrifying motorbike ride (Saigon is an order of magnitude crazier than anywhere else) gets us home where we relax, then back out to dinner. Later that night we met a local friend of Tom’s, unfortunately my health was rapidly declining. We spend a little time on a 5^th floor balcony/bar, would have been great if I were feeling better. I bail and go back to bed, Tom heads out to watch the latest 1am Euro match with friends.

Thursday – June 26, Saigon and Cu Chi Tunnels

Well I’m in Saigon, I almost have to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a classic network of tunnels that the Vietnamese resistance created during the war, hundreds of kilometers in length. Tour is mildly interesting, huge group of people, and pretty poor guide, lots of wasted time and efforts to part us from our money, but it’s all worth it once you crawl through the actual tunnels. Remarkable, they are really quite tiny (go figure), lots of ups and downs and twists. Don’t go in if you’re claustrophobic! Tom bailed as he had seen them before, but back home we meet up, wander around, and partake in the guilty pleasure of KFC (delicious I must admit). Then more wandering before my health takes a turn for the worse and sends me running for home and that miracle drug Imodium. That evening Tom meets with local friends again, and yet again I have to pass on the fun, a real shame as I haven’t gotten a good taste of Saigon culture yet.

Friday – June 27, Last Day in Vietnam!

The end is nigh. We wake up late, check out, and ditch our bags. Spend the morning touring the Chinese section of town, the Cholon District, snapping pics and just wandering. Saw a Vietnamese mosque, walked into my first Pagoda all trip (amazing that I made it this long). Found a spice market and then the industrial part of town. Good lunch, then a bike ride back to the Opera House and a coffee shop on the back side. We veg out for an hour or two and finally part ways, Tom to the hotel then airport, me to kill more time until my midnight flight.

I head off to the history museum to pass the time. Have a good walk around town, lounge in a park for many hours snapping pics and watching people. Surf the web a bit and buy a dry piece of bread and a bottle of water to bring my Dong total to zero, perfect. Then ride to the airport and a mere 36 hours of travel to get back to Boston! There’s a lot of my drool on a seat in the Tokyo airport, what can you do, I had an 8 hour layover! In the end I made it home in one piece, solid trip.

And that’s it folks, a much larger selection of photos are up at my picasa page. Hope you enjoyed the story!