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Vietnam Part 2

A person standing beside me said this is an image of Ho Chi Minh when he was a young revolutionary.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is often called “Saigon” and many companies located there use the city name “Saigon”
crossing the river with motorcycles on board
one of the ferries along the river in HCM (Ho Chi Minh city)
the cathedral under renovation
what is a prosperous city without a Rolls Royce dealership? the salespeople wear white gloves. We walked in with t-shirts and shorts, the “unpretentious rich”.
go to a shopping mall to buy a Bentley
beautiful old architecture
the rich and the poor
the city is named after him, of course, not me.
the ferry is nice and clean
bands on the walking street at night until about 11
portable restaurants love these kid’s chairs for customers
these enforcers go around on these automatic rollers to make sure people are adhering to the rules
at the restaurant a little wrapped up snack sitting next to a wet tissue, all extra fees, of course.
the walking street in HCM is long and very organized
big buildings in HCM
HCM city hall. Old French architecture
the palace
i was invited to the palace (provided I pay a small fee)
a US helicopter left at the palace
the president’s bed in the palace bunker
old communication equipment in the palace where the President of South Vietnam surrendered to the North’s army, the bunker being one of the main attractions of the palace.
the president’s car
during the war you can see how extensive the North Vietnamese presence was in Laos. The Ho Chi Minh trail was half the country.
motorcycle parking lot, they dominate the roads, good for Yamaha and Honda and for the electric bikes made by VinFast (vietnamese company)
reporters during the war used to come here for talking and drinks. the bar now is completely unimpressive and loud music makes it uncomfortable.
a view from the top
a production shoot on the street
another shoot at the opera house
the tallest building in town
Vung Tau island near HCM by fast boat. Not really recommendable.
nice walkways along beaches in Vietnam but the beaches are not as nice as in Thailand.
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Food in Vietnam

one option available in this restaurant

Food in Vietnam is not as spicy and is often more oily than in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Food in Vietnam seems to be more expensive than in Thailand or Laos. Soups tend to be very delicious.

the typical wrap with either lettuce or rice paper to do the wrap.
natural colors added to rice and cooked to a thin layer around the metal pan to make a nice, crispy rice snack
I am rolling out rice paper which is later put through a slicer to make rice noodles. Again, natural colors are added.
the completed noodles with the natural coloring bases in the basket, vegetables and herbs
a nice beer, not as well promoted by the country as Beer Lao is promoted in Laos. Drinking seems to be done in much more modest portions than in Laos.
interesting tea variety
almost anywhere you can find this tin sifter set to put coffee grounds and poor coffee to get a nice single pour. However, the holes are a little small and the grind also very small so the coffee tends to coagulate in the holes and the drip slows to something you may not want to wait for. It isn’t a fool proof system like a french press.
well, international food is available in big cities and tourist areas.
it is called a Vietnam Pizza but very different ingredients you can select from street vendors.
the Vietnam Pizza in the making
a typical broth/meat/herb dish; one of the nicest varieties.
rice/chicken dish with a delicious soup and pickles.
the top of this building has speakers squaking out sparrow songs to attract sparrows to come and create nests in the building holes so they can harvest the nests, held together by bird spit and excrement, the makings of bird nest soup.
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Nakhon Rachasima, Thailand

the baby buddha as he stepped lotus flowers appeared, up to 7 levels

Nakhon Rachasima is also known as Korat and is a very interesting place to visit and spend 2 or 3 days. Below is a link for further information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakhon_Ratchasima

this is the daytime market, organized masses buying everything from dry goods to groceries and also cooked food.
going for a pre-wedding photo shoot in the countryside
Nice view from the hilltop
Interesting windy tree
got pretty high
wat pa phu pha sung
the Buddha had a big foot
beautiful view
inside the temple
“we were there” signatures
the temple
a giant sleeping buddha
do you want to rub his tummy?
white squirrels all around the area
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Pakse, Laos – And a highland paradise (coffee included)

Tad Fan Waterfall

Pakse is a beautiful small town in the southern part of Laos and right next to the entrance to the Paksong Highlands where they grow a lot of very delicious coffee and have some very beautiful waterfalls. It’s a really great place to visit and I recommend renting a motorcycle or car to go up into the Highlands and look around. There are also some beautiful temples to visit so just spend about four or five days there and enjoy.

how many languages?
future dinners
nice view
vegetable market
some like it hot!
lots of bread and sandwich makers in Laos (PATE)
some beautiful waterfalls have lost their support
coffee areas are HIGH
beautiful Nagas welcome and protect temples
Wat PU, UNESCO site, old hindu temple unfinished
cooks scrambling to meet this restaurant’s demand
stay right by the view and have a beer. morning is beautiful
just don’t fall backwards
zipline across the canyon? hell NO!
beautiful place to view the top of the waterfall
Tad Yeung waterfall
a little scary
a nearby botanical hot house area
never saw this one before
beautiful butterfly
very red!

going to DAO HUEANG market, biggest market in Pakse district
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Transportation in Vietnam

don’t recommend this bus

As i wrote preciously transportation in Vietnam can be more successful and simple than possibly expected. One thing to make sure you do is to download the MobilePhone application called Grab. it is like Uber. Otherwise you wind up negotiating prices with local taxi drivers and you will definitely be paying much more. You can register your credit card with Grab so you can just get in and get out and the payment will automatically be made or you can pay them in cash. But in small towns you most likely will not find that service. our experience has been the local taxi drivers in small cities seem to be more honest so there probably will be not much of a disagreement about how much needs to be paid. But be very careful at any airport getting out and trying to get a taxi. Those places are rife with transportation scams of all kinds. Grab didn’t seem to be an option in airports.

The fare jumped from 150 to 264 when I turned my head away. the driver thought it was funny. we didn’t!
Remember to stay in the bar so you can drink as ordered to by the government. But don’t drive.
a Lao duk duk but popular in Vietnam as well

For long distance, by chance, we found a company called FUTA, which has offices all over Vietnam, and seems to be very reputable. They were very helpful. They run a series of large buses throughout the country and they can even pick you up at your hotel and take you to the bus station if you request that in advance for a small fee, seemingly less expensive than a taxi. There are other bus services as well, but we didn’t try them and the reputation of Futa seems to be pretty good. it seems many of their buses for distances of over three hours are semi sleepers, propped up seats which can recline almost all the way. don’t take your big bags on those buses. There’s not enough space inside, so make sure you put your big luggage down below and make sure you have no valuables in that luggage, always caring your valuable stuff with you on the bus.

Laos sleeper bus. One space for 2 people. slim people wanted!

Airplane travel is very convenient. They have a variety of airlines, including the most expensive, which is Vietnam airlines, the national carrier. One we took was Vietjet, which is good, inexpensive and services smaller cities, and also Bamboo Airlines. you can go between many medium-size cities with most of those airlines and also to some of the outlying islands.

long distance sleepers

The train seems to be pretty much a disaster and no one recommends it. It doesn’t seem to run on time, is very slow and not much good to say about it, but I never tried it.

Make sure for any transport services that you are clear how much it’s gonna cost from one point to another and stick to that price. Don’t let people change prices on you. Be tough at your final destination Regarding the fees. of course the buses will require payment upfront as well the mini buses, large vans that seat 6 to 24 people depending on the size. Read up on the Internet regarding all of these services to get the most update information on which companies and services are reliable and have the least amount of hassle.

transport your motorcycle by bus

up loading up the bus
Chinese electric scooters

Chinese copies of Hondas

Disclaimer: Most of these photos are from Laos travels but there are so many similarities with Vietnam.

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Food in Vietnam

Some kind of stew can be very nice

As I explained in my previous Phlog, food is culturally dealt with differently in Vietnam than in Thailand and Laos and probably other countries in Southeast Asia as well. 

Some prefer to eat shark

What I find with food delivery services is mostly very quickly made food and instant food, similar to what is served in US fast food restaurants. I’ve been a little bit discouraged by the lack of variety. 

wrap the noodles, the vegetables and the green wrapped minced pork in the rice paper on the upper right and dip in the sauce in the upper left

Department stores in Thailand and Laos tend to have extensive food courts but I haven’t seen that in Vietnam and I don’t see many people sitting around for a long period of time in restaurants. On the other hand they do seem to enjoy going to coffee houses for sitting and relaxing. Products served are  drinks such as coffee, tea, fruit juice or other sweet drinks.

Smashed down and crisply cooked rice which comes out as a giant flat pancake

One thing to be attentive to is the amount of sugar used in any kind of drink as well as food. Very few restaurants I’ve been to serve food without sugar infused. It seems to be everywhere and in everything. Coffee is not excluded from sugary additives. While you can find Coffeemate or milk for coffee available in Thailand and Laos the only milky type additive I’ve been able to find in any place that serves coffee is condensed milk which contains a lot of sugar. so be prepared to eat a lot of sugar unless you bring your own additive. I carry extra coffeemate with me when I can because it is available nowhere in Vietnam, except in large quantities in some grocery stores.

I am laying out a flat noodle round which will be put into a machine to slice up as noodles

Small restaurants tend to serve one very narrow offering of some thing with rice or something with noodles so be prepared to walk around and ask and see what different kind of foods are a available. Language will be a major barrier if you don’t speak Vietnamese as it has been with me, but I use Google translate extensively and people seem to be helpful when some sort of translation software is used.

these noodles get their coloring from the natural ingredients inside the basket on the upper left and the beans in the bag

One thing I commented on earlier was the proliferation of coffee shops. It seems there are more coffee shops than restaurants, and sometimes, such as today, I’m able to see two or three coffee shops right next to each other competing for business. While they tout Vietnamese coffee it could very well be the beans are from some other place as I have indicated before. The arabica might be from Laos, but they will still call it Vietnamese coffee.

For vegetarians
artichoke tea is plentiful

There doesn’t seem to be much spicy food  but they do have some sauces on the table, especially a chili sauce that, from the outside looks like tomato ketchup but is really pretty spicy and of course contains sugar.  

This is how most people seem to make their coffee in the morning with this ingenious aluminum filtering equipment
A good standard, chicken with rice
The speaker on the top of the building uses sparrow calls to get sparrows to come into the small holes and create their nests so the nest can be harvested for Bird’s Nest soup, an expensive delicacy

In general, the food tends to be more sugary, oily and much less tasty then Thai or Lao food so be prepared to walk around and find some thing that fits your taste. 

Warning!  The photo below may be disturbing!  

There are “rumors” that Vietnamese eat dogs; some joke about where some stray dog went when it disappeared. This photo I took walking on the street on Phu Quoc island shows a man preparing a dog for the bbq spit. A dog nearby incessantly barked. My Lao friend says a dog will continue to bark at people who eat dog meat as well, the smell being evident.  I don’t intend to confirm that scientifically.