"Living the dream!"

Family and friends often tell us how happy they are for us - we're "living the dream!"

Generally speaking, they're right. Generally speaking, our smiling mugs on Facebook are accurate representations of our emotions and generally speaking, we are enjoying this whole travel thing. Twelve countries, four continents, 385 days and counting - generally speaking, we can't complain.

But nothing is perfect. Honestly, some days this whole travel thing just sucks. And more often than not, even if it doesn't suck it's a constant mental endurance test requiring seven tons of patience, two dozen ounces of flexibility, and acknowledgement that you are never in control.

Like today, for example. We were attempting to pre-arrange our Thai visas so that we wouldn't have to come back through Vientiane on our way into Thailand. Every blog and web site we read said it was easy peasey - get there early, have your passport photos and photocopies ready, have 1000 baht in hand, take your number, fill out your application, turn it in, come back the next day to pick up your passport. It would be a time investment with all the lines, but the process would be straightforward.

We borrowed bikes from the hotel, found a photocopy shop, found a money changer, and were on our way...

We knew that we had to go to the Thai consulate which is a separate building from the Thai embassy. Unfortunately, our hotel map labeled the embassy as the "consulate" so we still wound up at the wrong building. Fortunately, the embassy had a helpful map indicating the location of the consulate. Unfortunately, the street names didn't really match the map's street names. We also failed to notice that the embassy was closed. (That's called foreshadowing - it will be important later.)

After a lot of wandering and some vague help from locals who did their best to understand our questions and wave us in the right direction, we found the Thai consulate.

The gates were closed and locked. The grounds were empty. Where was the giant line we were promised?

A nice man came over and offered to make us photocopies. "No, we have photocopies - we just need to submit our forms." He replied, "Closed today - holiday. It will open at 830 tomorrow. Do you need photocopies?" No, thanks, still don't need photocopies. We don't need a tuk-tuk either. But thank you.

We stupidly believed our hotel manager last night who said there shouldn't be any holidays causing the consulate to close. We stupidly didn't check the handy Vientiane Thai embassy web site which clearly indicates that May 13 is a holiday and the embassy/consulate are closed. We stupidly thought we were being smart, showing up on a Tuesday instead of a busy Monday. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Now we are stuck in Vientiane for yet another day - another bloody hot day - while we try to take care of business on the busy day after a holiday, while our friend's vacation days whittle away, while we invest even more money into the city where we'd planned to spend two days at most, while all we want to do this afternoon is complain in a blog post and watch a table-tennis championship on television and listen to the afternoon monsoon rains pour...

Pretty dreamy, eh?

Friday five: Tạm biệt, Vietnam.

Tomorrow we leave Vietnam. It's pretty surreal to think that we've been here two months! We've seen and experienced so many wonderful things and we think if Vietnam isn't on your short list of places to visit, you should remedy that immediately...

As we head into the unknowns of Lao there's a lot we will miss about this lovely country. Two things that go without saying are the food and the coffee, so I'm not even including them in the list. Here are five other things we will miss, in no particular order:

• The friendliness of the Vietnamese people. From the grandmotherly-like cafe ladies who accepted our point-nod-smile method of ordering food and showed us how to eat their delicious meals, to the helpful bus drivers who ensured we got off at all the right stops, to the university kids wanting to practice their English, to the locals who helped us find our way when we were lost, to the hundreds of kids who screamed "HELLO!" at us as we passed on the streets - all of these encounters have left very positive memories.
  
  
Sure, there's been an occasional scamming taxi driver, but that's what taxi drivers do, right? Sure, there were some places where we westerners paid a lot more for things than the locals, but this is not a wealthy country and if Donald Trump visited my American fruit market you'd better believe I'd try to charge him double the actual cost of those bananas - he can afford it, why wouldn't I? - and if he didn't want to pay that much he could barter me down or simply walk away. And sure, there were some blank stares and a few scowls here and there, but where doesn't that happen? (I'm talking to you, lady at the Krakow information booth.)

the infamous $6 photo

(but the vendor did it with a smile!)

• The energy! These folks get up early, buzz around on motorbikes, sweep their stoops every five minutes, jazzercize in the park, tend their fields in the cool of the morning and the afternoon, prep veggies for tomorrow's food cart at night...
  
  They slow down when it gets really hot, but even then there seems to always be some sort of motion wherever you look. And when there's not motion there's still animated conversation. Morocco had an energy too but it was intense, almost electric. Here it's more of a calm-but-constant hum from sunrise on.

humming Ho Chi Minh City

• The ingenuity when it comes to moving things via motorbike. Motorbikes are the main transportation here but they don't just carry a person, or even a family of five in some cases. We've seen talented motorbikers transporting several 2x3m plates of glass, a pig, a bicycle, a dining table, crates of chickens, an armchair, and dozens of rubber tires. The Portland bike community would be so proud!

the sofa and table/chairs in Sapa probably took the cake though

and then one day this motorbiker transported me

• The natural beauty. Honestly, we had no idea what to expect from Vietnam. All we knew was what we'd seen in movies - in other words, jungle. Much like Oregon, Vietnam has a little of everything, and what they lack in desert they make up for in (yes) jungle.
  
  The beaches may not be as pristine as ours on the west coast and the mountains may not be as rugged and tall as our Northern American variety, but they're both still beautiful. The waterfalls are still impressive during the dry season and the jungle is always amazing with its lush green and crazy sounds.

Dray Nur near Buon Me Thuot

Sapa's beautiful terraced mountain fields

Cat Ba's rocky beaches

so reminiscent of the Oregon Coast

Dalat's gorgeous jungle

• The luxury of time. This is not really specific to Vietnam, it's true anywhere, but we do think it takes several months to really appreciate all this country has to offer. To keep to our Year Two plan we're now headed back into the one-month-per-country mode of travel and we're already a bit tired just thinking about constant movement and all the things we're going to miss along the way.
  
  

stop. breathe.

lather, rinse, repeat.

And a very short list of things we won't miss about Vietnam, also in no particular order:

• The beer. If it's really cold beer, and it's really hot outside, it's momentarily refreshing. Otherwise it's sugary water that leaves you with a headache afterward. Patrick has acquired a taste for it but I still don't like it. (Yes, yes, beer snobs here. Sorry.)

best when it's 100 degrees

and you have this view

• The bartering. This will continue throughout SE Asia - it's just the way it is here - but it's really grating sometimes. We mostly run into this at fruit markets since we're otherwise not big shoppers, but one night in Hanoi I decided to look for a new t-shirt. Thanks to secondhand stores and Ross, I never pay more than $5 for a t-shirt in the States and I wanted to apply the same principal here, even if locals could get the same t-shirt for far less.
  
  The merchant I found started the price for a simple black cotton t-shirt at 150,000 (~$7.50). I got her down to 90,000 (~$4.50); the process was quick but not fun for me and I know she made a killing off the sale. But got what I wanted so I can't complain, and I would do the same to Donald Trump so who am I to judge?

slightly overpriced

and "medium" in Vietnam is not "medium" in the US

but new t-shirts are good!

• The connectivity issues with Facebook and Twitter, which will probably also continue throughout SE Asia (if we even have wifi, that is). There are ways around it but in this day and age, in this loosely communist country where you can get BBC news online and HBO on the TV, it just seems silly. Fortunately our mobile devices are usually not affected.

this tweet was two cities

and several wifi connections in the making

• When strange men take pictures of us. There have been times when giggling Asian tourists ask if they can take photos with us, and that's always amusing.
  
  But it's really weird when a strange man asks if he can take your photo in front of a cultural icon and crops out the cultural icon from his photo.
  
  It's even weirder when a strange man asks if he can take a photo with just me. (Um... why? What are you going to do with this photo? Next time I'm taking a photo with my own camera too!)
  
  And it's really irritating when a strange man comes out of nowhere, snaps your photo when you're not paying attention, and doesn't even acknowledge you in return. That's just a tiny taste of what the ethnic groups must experience every single day, and MAN is it annoying.

this one falls under "amusing" though

• The horns! Horns are used as a way of saying "hey, I'm here, don't make any sudden moves"... which means they are always in use. They seem to really help with the zen-like traffic ebb and flow but the noise can be unbearable to us at times. All those minibuses and the tourist bus from Hanoi-Hai Phong were definitely the worst - it's impossible to let your mind rest when you're startled by a blaring beep every ten seconds.
  
  

to be fair, we probably won't miss the minibuses either

These are but minor gripes about an otherwise awesome country. Tạm biệt, Vietnam! We have enjoyed you very much over the last eight weeks, and we can't wait to send more people your way in the future.

And now, to Lao, where symbols are the new alphabet! It's gonna be interesting...

The obligatory Hanoi food blog post!

So there's this web site called StickyRice that tells you all the fantastic places to eat around Hanoi. Recommendations from this site, and random google searches, formed the basis of a list which I carried around with me and religiously consulted every time we were contemplating lunch or dinner.

our mission

which we chose to accept

(Digression... We're on an average-cost-per-day budget so I'm including approximate prices below for fellow travelers. At the time of this post, $1 was ~21,000 dong. We generally try to withhold comments about how inexpensive things are here in Vietnam. It's equivalent to waving money around in front of people who don't make that much money. But for travel planning purposes, it's true that one can eat very well here for about $5-6/day, or $8-10 if one regularly indulges in coffee/beer and one's hotel doesn't have free breakfast. Or $20 if you insist on sit-down restaurants - but we highly discourage this! The food is bland and the atmosphere is boring. Head to the streets instead! ... End of digression.)

We found some real gems that we went back to several times.

Like bún chả. Ohhhhh, bún chả. The guy at the desk of our first hostel recommended a nearby restaurant and despite the price tag (60,000 dong per plate) we decided to give it a try. HOLY COW. This DIY deliciousness consists of a bowl of amazing broth with slices of roasted pork and pork sausage; a plate of rice noodles; and a bowl of green herbs. (Optional: chilis, garlic.) You add all the herbs you want and throw in a bunch of noodles at a time, and you enjoy. We tried at least three different versions and they all tasted different, but...

so good

(Bún Chả Nem Cua - the 60,000 dong place)

so, so good

(random street stall - 35,000 dong)

so, so, so good

(Cua Hang Thu Nga - 30,000 dong)

Or bánh cuốn - where the chef spreads a rice pancake batter on a large double-boiler type griddle, steams it until it's wonton in texture, throws a spicy pork or chicken mixture in the middle, and wraps it all up. Also served with a delicious bowl of broth and green herbs.

a small plate goes a long way

(random street stall - 30,000 dong)

There was nem cua bể, deep fried crab spring rolls. Not sure if we ever tried those, exactly, but these deep fried spring rolls were damn good.

they are usually served at places

that have bún chả or bánh cuốn

(like the above street stall - 10,000 dong)

Loving Hut's com chay ("vegetarian food") was just short of awesome, especially after four days of meat plus rice noodles/rice wontons/fried rice. Clean and light, it was just what our stomachs needed.

his pho "bo" (top) had better flavor,

but my tomato-based "seafood" soup (bottom) was really interesting too

and the spring rolls were to die for

One day we found this sidewalk stall of salted pork and spicy noodle deliciousness. No idea what it's called (the dish or the stall) - it's near Old Quarter, so if you find it please let us know!

the quail egg was a nice touch

(think it was 20,000 dong per person)

StickyRice recommended a treat called kem xôi, probably because a key ingredient in this dish is sticky rice. The other key ingredient is ice cream. Sounds weird, but it totally worked.

we walked about 4km round trip for this

I randomly decided to try the "china cake" at Thu Nga while Patrick enjoyed his kem xôi. The "cake" was so interesting that we went back the next day for another bowl. Mung bean wrapped in rice dumplings, all in a gingery peanut warm broth...  Good thing we got a few bowls our first visit because they didn't have any during our second visit!

"amazing" doesn't really cut it

And while I was enjoying china cake bowl #2 Patrick gave the che nep a try. The menu described it as a smoothie but there was nothing smooth about it. The textures were really nice and the flavors were light and refreshing.

and so pretty!

There are a few kem xôi shops around Thu Nga but we were loyal to this place, so we can't speak to the quality of the others.

Walking to and from Thu Nga we passed an ice cream mecca called Kem Tràng Tiền in what appeared to be a parking garage. Turns out it's like their In-N-Out burger, a (motorbike) drive-through of inexpensive deliciousness. Sometimes when we passed, the lines were out the door of this huge place and every day that we passed, dozens of people were walking by with a cone. One day we finally went in and tried this famous coconut milk ice cream. A local who spoke English recommended their signature flavor and we're so glad he did - it was really, really nice, and just 12,000 dong for a scoop. No photo of Patrick's because it was gone in 15 seconds.

this photo will have to do

(thanks, TripAdvisor UK)

On our last night we stumbled upon Pho Gia Truyen, eyed the line, and decided to give it a try. We were a little self-conscious because we were the only white folks in the place, and we didn't know exactly what the pho ingredients would be, and there seemed to be a Soup Nazi process to ordering. But we muddled through at the counter and the nice staff helped us find seats in the cramped, crowded eating area. It ended up being the best pho we've had in our six weeks in Vietnam. The beef and pork (which we didn't know were beef and pork at the time) were perfectly cooked and the broth was slurpworthy.

photo of the line

because we were too busy slurping during dinner

(40,000-50,000 dong depending on which dish you choose)

When we got back to the hotel we looked up the names of the dishes and were not only relieved to find that we'd eaten beef and pork, we were also surprised to learn that this restaurant was featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. (Note to selves - YouTube all those Vietnam episodes during our next week-long vacation from our vacation.) Suddenly the whole Soup Nazi vibe made sense.

And some days we were so tired from the noise, the motorcycles, the smog, and the gray cloudy days that we had a really hard time finding anything that looked interesting or edible. On those days we resorted to bad decisions like eating at the night market. Or getting yogurt from the corner convenience store and calling that dinner. We don't recommend those decisions - it's HANOI, after all!

Actually, if you google "Hanoi food recommendations" you will get a bazillion results of blog posts written by travelers just like us who loved most of the food we sought out or ran across in this foodie city... So, dear readers, help your fellow travelers out! If you have additional recommendations please leave them in the comments. (Especially if you find bahn goi - we never managed to!)

Every-day-is-Friday five: Hanoi highlights.

For many, Hanoi is a major destination on their Vietnam vacation. There's a LOT of history and culture for one to absorb. For us, it was a stopover twice - two days before Sapa and four days after Cat Ba Island. It's a big city but over our six days we really only saw the Old Quarter and on our last day, the outskirts of Old Quarter... So take all this with a grain of salt.

But. HOLY COW. Coming from fairly calm Hoi An and Hue, and definitely after two and a half weeks in Sapa and on Cat Ba Island, the Old Quarter of Hanoi was insane. The motorbikes, the horns, the masses of people, the tourists - it definitely took some time to mentally adjust.

a day in Hanoi life

To catch our breath we spent a lot of time at Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of Old Quarter. Known as "the soul of the city," this is where locals walk the 30-minute loop for exercise, or practice their English with tourists, or take wedding photos, or sit and catch up with friends... Kind of like Lake Merritt in Oakland without all the goose poop.

lake-o-rama

Hoan Kiem Lake Tortoise Tower

pondering her fate

(or the phone call she just took)

We also wandered into a free artists' gallery with some stunning portraits of rice paddies and city life. (There were many more free galleries we could've explored as well.) And between dodging motorbikes and rainclouds we managed to take in some tourist activities. Here are five, in no particular order...

• Women's Museum: fantastic displays of the roles women play in everyday life (urban and rural), as well as the roles they played in the military over the past century. We had no idea.

lots of detail (in English!)

about rural marriage practices

and rural wedding garb

(yep, there's a bride under there)

• Hỏa Lò Prison (AKA the "Hanoi Hilton"), now a museum: interesting in a haunting kind of way. John McCain's flight suit is on display here, and there is some interesting signage about how well the American prisoners were treated during their "stay". But the building dates back to the early 1900s when the French used it to hold political prisoners. We appreciated the historical learning opportunity and the ability to see inside the prison, particularly the holding cells which make Alcatraz look like an actual Hilton in comparison.

the remains of a sewer from which prisoners escaped

creepiest org chart ever

one of the memorial rooms

• Thang Long water puppet show: a total tourist trap that we highly recommend. For about $3 (if you opt for the cheap seats) you get about 50 minutes of beautiful folk music and traditional performance art. Just ignore all the tourists in the audience and the bored looks on the faces of the orchestra members and you'll enjoy it quite a bit...

ancient instruments

synchronicity part one

synchronicity part two

• Ho Chi Minh complex: we stopped by our first time through but we were too late for the mausoleum displaying the mummified Uncle Ho and decided to save the museum for our next trip. Our second time through was over Reunification Day holiday weekend and approximately 40 billion Vietnamese were visiting the complex that day. (Really. We circled block after block after block with them looking for the end of the entrance line, so we had plenty of time to count them all.) So unfortunately, all we have are some shots from the outside that we took on our first visit. No offense intended to Uncle Ho but we're okay with that.

the changing of the guards at the mausoleum

(synchronicity part three)

so close and yet so far

• Paddle boats on West Lake: an indulgence to avoid the 40 billion Vietnamese tourists visiting the HCM complex. It was fun. And now we can check "paddle boats" off our life list and not do that ever again.

darn these western long legs

synchronicity part four

Food notes: we ate a lot of delicious food in Hanoi. A LOT. But that's a topic worthy of its own blog post...!

Lodging notes:

• Our first time around we stayed at Little Hanoi Hostel in the Old Quarter. Everything about it was awesome except the price ($20/night).

office meets den meets bedroom meets dining room

• So our second time around we opted for Kangaroo Hostel. A lot more dated, but huge, two beds, otherwise totally fine and just $14/night. (Hey, that extra $6/night goes a long way here!)

her side, his side

On our last day we wandered outside the Old Quarter and found delicious com chay and a great all-English bookstore. In spite of these two TripAdvisor attractions, the streets were much quieter and the vibe was more real, more down-to-earth. We wish we'd spent more time there instead of downtown.

Next time! But now we go back to the madness of Ho Chi Minh City for reunion #7 with Kim! Very curious to see how it compares with our first visit seven weeks ago...