… because you are about to drool. I just wanted to take a moment and pay my respects to some of the awesome food we’ve had here. Enjoy.

Food court in Saigon. So much good food it was a little overwhelming. And house music blasting.

The second best bowl of soup I’ve had so far. Some of the vegetarian restaurants have the best food.

Vegetarian stir fry over fried noodles from the food court.

Fresh spring rolls… mmmm.

And more spring rolls.

Whole fish baked, then eaten Vietnamese taco style.

A gift from mother nature. Well, sort of a gift, we did pay for it at the market. Still felt like a gift anyway. 🙂

Huge bowls of soup at the night market in Dalat.

The best bowl of soup I’ve had here. It was at a vegetarian place, conveniently close to where Sky ran out of gas. The guys were being indecisive, but I was pretty hungry so I walked up to the counter to look at the food/get some food. I had only stood there a few moments before an old lady a head shorter than me (and I’m barely 5’1”) just handed me this bowl of soup. I forever thank that lady for taking the initiative there.

So if any of you out there want to travel to Vietnam someday (and I highly recommend that you do!), here are a few tips.

1. If you have some time to kill in a big city, check out some of the public parks. They are great places to people watch, and usually have some snacks or coffee and tea. If you are lucky, they also sometimes have little workout machines that are pretty fun. This morning I saw one guy doing some martial arts with two sticks (escrima?), two guys doing some other kind of martial arts, three guys practicing bar tricks with a shaker and bottle of vodka, and a man and woman practicing ball room dancing. The parks are also usually well maintained and lovely and peaceful breaks from the chaos of traffic and vendors trying to sell you anything and everything.

2. If you rent a moped, figure out the amount of gas your tank holds (in liters) and how much it should cost. And give the gas attendant ONLY that much money. This greatly diminishes your chance of being ripped off. Apparently it’s pretty common, even among locals.

3. ALWAYS look at the prices on a menu before you sit down. You can pay 20-35k ($1-2) for a great bowl of pho, or you can pay 60-80k ($3-4) for a great bowl of pho. Up to you.

4. When going to a restaurant, don’t expect the server to greet you, hand you menus, ask if you want to start with a drink or appetizer, and then return and check on you every 5-15 minutes. If you get the first two things, you’re in luck. Alternatively, sometimes they hand you menus and then stand there awkwardly until you order. That works too. Also, don’t expect all the food to come at the same time, or even the apps before the main course. The basic gist is, when it’s ready, they’ll bring it out. When you’re done, ask for the check. Tipping is not expected, but you can if it was great service and food.

5. Also, if you ask for water at a restaurant, they will usually bring a bottle of water for a dollar or two, so I just started bringing my own water bottle. The water here is okay to drink- I try to boil it first just for good measure, or use Ted’s sterilizer pen (very handy). They usually serve complimentary green tea with meals, which is nice. It’s also a good idea to bring a handkerchief or tissue with you, as some places will not provide napkins except packaged towelettes, which they (of course) charge you for.

6. It seems that toilet paper is seen as a luxury, not a necessity, which is another good reason to carry tissue.

7. If you go to a market, try not to buy from the first vendor you see. Chances are it’s also the most expensive one, and there are tons of other vendors selling the exact same thing for the same price or cheaper.

8. If you like massage, look for places that do blind massage. They are usually cheaper and often better.

9. Vegetarian restaurants are also usually cheaper and often better.

10. Oh- and if you see a food court, make your way there, post haste. Run, in fact. Asian food courts might be one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.

Well, that about sums it up for now- just a few observations from a wandering nomad.

Stopping for a break at a waterfall on the way to Dalat from Nha Trang.

On the ride to Dalat

On the ride to Dalat.

Our rugged crew 🙂

weasel poo coffee. No joke.

Ted running wild

At day 3 in Dalat, I admit the city is growing on me. Coming to Dalat, Ted and I had envisioned a peaceful mountain town with lots of outdoorsy stuff to do. Wrong! Picture a city with streets like a labyrinth filled with roundabouts and a bunch of horn happy mopeds. It was hard to find anything and hard not to feel in the way no matter where we stood, parked, or stopped. But after a few days (and thanks to google earth) we managed to navigate our way around and (thankfully) out of the city, which made it worth it.
Today we splurged on a mountain bike trip with Viet Challenge Tours and had a great time and some much appreciated peace and quiet outside the city. Our guide, “Smoker,” took Ted and I plus a British dude on some little dirt roads and the occasional single track through the pine tree forest that surrounds Dalat. He was very informative about local legends and history (between cigarettes) and we had a great time, stopping at some random animal sculptures, a flower garden, and a coffee and tea shop where we had the pleasure of trying the famous weasel coffee, which is basically coffee made from weasel turds. Seriously.
Tomorrow we head back for Mui Ne, and I will be stoked to be back in a smaller town with more of a mellow vibe. My advice for anyone thinking about going to Dalat would be: DON’T go on a weekend; make sure you have google earth (or a local friend), and get out of the city. It is a beautiful area, you just have to make an effort to see it.

Our outgoing lunch date

7th century Cham temple and statues in Nha Trang

Modern day Cham temple in in Nha Trang

Hot spring spa just outside of Nha Trang city

We enjoyed a great blind massage in Phang Rang

Phan Rang Beach, no one to the right

Phan Rang Beach, no one to the left

Leaving the little fishing village of Mui Ne (population 12,000) for a five day motor bike trip, we drove north along the coast and stopped in the cities of Phan Rang (two hours from Mui Ne; pop. 160,00) and Nha Trang (four hours from Mui Ne; pop. 500,00). If both cities were siblings, Phan Rang would be the quiet adolescent attempting to find his niche, and Nha Trang would be the outspoken teen who partys all night and drives way too fast. Phan Rang is still in its early stages of development, so there are miles of white sand beach with literally no one in site. Nha Trang, on the other hand, is a booming resort city with a population equal to one third of the State of Hawaii. Things to do include visiting the 7th century Cham temples (the Cham people occupied much of south Vietnam until the 11th century, but are now just one of thirty four ethnic minority groups who inhabit Vietnam), enjoying Vinpearl amusement park (which was unfortunately closed during our visit due to renovations), and attempting to cross the street (motorists in Nha Trang don’t brake for pedestrians, but rather attempt to swirve around them as best they can).
We also had the pleasure of dining with an extremely outgoing two year old, who pulled up a chair at our table and happily posed for photos while wearing his upside down, over sized celebrity sunglasses and lots of bling (a ring, bracelet, and sparkly necklace). Even in its larger cities, the Vietnamese people (both young and old) have a lot of Aloha to offer.

We took a wee road trip an hour out of town to see the reclining Buddha, which at 49 meters long is the largest reclining Buddha in Vietnam. This chill dude lies at the top of Takou Mountain, which is about 700 meters high, and a doozy of a hike since it’s pretty much straight up the mountain.

The mountain is also a nature preserve, and although we didn’t see too much wildlife, we did make the acquaintance of a family of monkeys at the top. The young ones seemed pretty interested in us until Dad decided it was time for us to go, swinging menacingly down from the tree and landing right in front of us. We decided it was time to move along.

At the top, we had a nice relaxing time with the sleeping Buddha, eating our banh mi and taking in the peaceful atmosphere. Afterward, we caught a cable car down and had a nice view of the countryside before returning to the moped and the chaos of the highway.

Our Mui Ne neighborhood on Nguyen Dinh Chieu

Our Mui Ne neighborhood on Nguyen Dinh Chieu

Following two flights, a hectic Hong Kong layover, and a four hour bus ride aboard the lead foot express, and we finally arrived at our first Vietnam destination, Mui Ne.  Mui Ne is located on the hot and sunny southern coast of Vietnam and is widely known for three things:

1.  Great kite surfing
2.  Dramatic red sand dunes
3.  The seasonal home to part time entrepreneur and full time vagabond, Mr. Sky Rama (this fact won’t appear in most travel guides)

With over 68 million annual passengers, Hong Kong International Airport is the third largest passenger airport in the world, as well as the eighth busiest. Due to a flight delay in Guam, we had just 30 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Vietnam in this bustling airport metropllolis. A high energy gate agent escorted us through throngs of other travelers, a busy security check, and two different airport shuttle buses. In the end, we were the last passengers to board, but made the flight. Once onboard, we discovered we were on the exact same plane that we exited just 30 minutes earlier, and were now assigned to seats 20 E and F (we sat in seats 20 A and B on the first flight). Due to a required security formality, we had just circled the entire passenger terminal just to make it back onboard. It’s the first time we almost missed a flight we were already onboard.

Statue at Two Lovers point.

Guam is a lot like Maui! Lots of Shakas from the Chamorros (the indigenous peeps), loco mocos on all the breakfast menus, amazing ocean vistas, and a great deal of friendliness and Aloha to go around. The big differences from Maui: water buffalo, 17th century Spanish forts, and the fact that it only takes about 90 minutes to drive around the whole island (Guam is just one third the size of Maui, but has the same population). Thank you to submarine captain/engineer and tour guide extraordinaire Monroe for showing us the entire island in half a day, and mahalo to Connie for putting us up for three nights. Next stop….. South Vietnam.

PS – Air conditioning is the eternal season in Guam, so bring a long sleeve shirt for the restaurants and malls, whether it’s January or July. Brrrrrrrrr

A BIG thank you to mom for all of the great multicultural pupus at our Friday, March 4th, A Hui Hou Party, especially the Wasabi Salmon and Samosas! A special thank you to Andrew and Brett for the entertainment and live music, and mahalo to everyone who attended the party, both physically and in spirit. Sorry we didn’t take more photos but we were busy eating lots of delicious food and socializing. Promise to make up for it with lots of photos of Vietnam.