Posted on September 15, 2007
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As we were heading down the coast of Vietnam we were trying to figure out whether to go to Nha Trang or Mui Ne. They are both beach towns. Nha Trang is heavily developed, and pitched as a top class tourist resort. Mui Ne has more of a backpacker and windsurfer / kite boarder scene. We weren’t too excited about the reports from either of these places, and the logistics of getting there and out again were a little daunting.
Then we read about Phu Quoc island. It is off the south-west coast of Vietnam, in the Gulf of Thailand. Famous for its fish sauce, a laid back beach vibe and cheap return flights from Saigon. It sounded perfect.
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Posted on September 6, 2007
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Saigon holds somewhat mystical proportions for me due to its role in the Vietnam war and thereafter in U.S. popular culture. Much more than Hanoi, Saigon for some reason seemed to represent all of the chaos and foreignness that the war evoked in the American psyche. Maybe it had something to do with repeated watchings of Good Morning Vietnam and listenings to the lesser-known Charlie Daniels hit, “Still in Saigon.” Whatever the cause, I expected Saigon to be a dramatic experience for me. I was kind of surprised when it turned out to be a fairly comfortable and familiar (somehow!) place.
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Posted on August 26, 2007
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When we were planning our trip months ago we read a lot about custom clothes tailoring in Hoi An. We were interested in the idea, (c was very interested) but had heard lots of stories about shoddy work and unhappy customers so were a little worried. As it turned out we had a wonderful experience with a tailor called B’ Lan, who became a friend and a guide during our time in Hoi An. She was one of the nicest and most special people we’ve met during our travels.
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Posted on August 26, 2007
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It’s a well known fact that people in Vietnam eat dog. In fact, despite the practice being essentially at the level of taboo in the West, other Asian cultures (particularly Korea and China) also enjoy dog meat as part of their traditional and modern cuisine. Needless to say, this fact was on my and Gregor’s minds the first time we sat down at a Hanoi street stall to tuck in to a bowl of noodles with a meat we were told was beef. Judging by the jokes and uneasy comments we’ve heard from fellow travelers, I think this enters the concerns of many newcomers to the east. After the umpteenth time scrutinizing the Vietnamese words on the side of a food cart trying to make out any permutation of the words “thit cho” (”dog meat”) before I would eat there, I decided I couldn’t live this way…
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Posted on August 25, 2007
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Yesterday we visited the reunification palace here in Saigon. It was designed in the late 50s by vietnamese architect Ngô Viết Thụ and construction began in 1962. It served as the presidential palace for Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, the president of South Vietnam from 1967 to 1975 just weeks before Saigon fell. After the fall of Saigon the palace was renamed the reunification palace, and was used sparingly for official functions. It was opened to visitors in 1990.
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Posted on August 25, 2007
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We went to the mekong delta, intended to stay 4 days but ended up just staying one night and heading back to Saigon. I got sick with a really bad sore throat, and we had to stay in a horrible hotel in Ben Tre since there was some conference on and the nicer hotel was full. Caitlin was rudely interrupted by a cockroach whist having a private moment in the bathroom. Ben Tre was devoid of nightlife, (ie. things to eat and drink,) and it was raining out, so we sat in our dingy hotel room and watched a DVD on the laptop.
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Posted on August 20, 2007
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We’re in Saigon right now, had a great few days here apart from Caitlin being a little sickly. We’re off to the Mekong Delta for 4 days, unsure of whether we’ll have internet access during that time. After that trip we’ll be back in Saigon for two days, then off to Phu Quoc island for a week, and from there to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. After Cambodia we’re flying to Adelaide. Peace out!
Posted on August 17, 2007
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Ah, Hoi An. UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Beautiful Chinese and Japanese influenced architecture. Narrow streets absent the buzz of motorbike engines and irritating horns, (at least for a couple of hours a day.) It’s been a great place to calm down after hectic Hanoi. Alas, we leave tomorrow for Saigon which is supposedly like Hanoi, but louder, more stressful and much less charming.
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Posted on August 17, 2007
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Vietnam is blessed with such amazing fresh ingredients, as is evidenced in the delicious food everywhere. But it hasn’t rubbed off on their cocktails. You only have to look at a fruit-shake stand menu to see what amazing things they could cook up with the addition of a little rum (there are even dirt-cheap local spirits that approximate rum, vodka and whisky.) But every place we go seems to have the same cocktail list, copied from a hard rock cafe, circa 1991.
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Posted on August 16, 2007
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The next town on our march down the length of Vietnam from Hanoi was Hue. As mentioned previously, Hue was Vietnam’s imperial capital during 18th through early 20th centuries. The town is home to a massive citadel and compound created by the Nyugen emperors as well as many of their tombs. More recently, Hue was the first town south of the “DMZ” or “demilitarized zone”, the line drawn between the communist North and allied South during the Vietnam War.
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