Vietnam

  • Vietnam

    Cat Ba Island – Our Final Vietnam Days

    May 7, 2014 - By 

    After Phong Nha, we spent a couple days back in Hanoi to hang out with friends. I even had an old Vietnamese American friend from high school visiting Hanoi at the same time, so we made time to hang out too. It’s always fun hanging out with friends from back home in a foreign country. I even bought an entire outfit to go out in – a hat, shirt, and pants, all for a total of $9 (no bargaining needed)! For the next 3 days, we spent our final days of Vietnam on Cát Bà Island, the largest and only inhabited…

  • Vietnam

    Phong Nha

    May 4, 2014 - By 

    Our train from Đồng Hới to Hanoi was scheduled to depart at 7:30pm so we had the entire day of May 1st to spend in Phong Nha. Our single day in Phong Nha ended up being way more entertaining than we expected…definitely many #onlyinvietnam moments. The story goes below… Ever since I arrived at the hotel the week prior, I had the urge to go for an open water swim in the river along our hotel. Now I finally had the chance. Not long after 8am I changed into shorts and a swim top, put on my flip flops, grabbed my…

  • Vietnam

    Hang En and Hang Son Doong

    May 3, 2014 - By 

    *Note: For an amazing set of Hang Sơn Đoòng photos, please check out my photographer friend Kiwi Chris’ photo album here. My story goes below: We left Đông Hà on Thursday, April 24 via local train to Đồng Hới for our Phong Nha transfer. They were sold out of the hard seats with air conditioning, so we had to take the shittiest seats possible – the hard seats with fans. It was a hot, sweltering day, but with the windows ajar and the fans at work, it was barely tolerable. If you think BART or Caltrain sucks, think again. Most locals brought straw mats…

  • Vietnam

    Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province (The REAL Vietnam)

    April 24, 2014 - By 

    When I told my mom I was going to Đồng Hới, Quảng Trị, she puzzledly asked me why I was going there. Travel sites also warned that there was nothing to do there. Tripadvisor hardly had any information on lodging and places to eat, and I read that no one there spoke English. There are no tourists, not even Vietnamese tourists. No tourists, no English! To me, that meant it was going to be the real Vietnam. Quảng Trị Province is merely a center where tour buses simply pass through to historic war sites such as the DMZ, marine bases and lookouts, camps, trails, and the famous Vịnh Mốc tunnels.…

  • Vietnam

    Hue

    April 22, 2014 - By 

    The train route from Huế to Đà Nẵng is well known for having beautiful scenery with the endless coast to the east and lush, hilly jungles to the west, so we chose the ~2.5 hour train ride over the bus. For Vietnamese-Americans like myself, Huế is famous for its food. And DAMN Huế food is GOOD, specifically 3 dishes: Bánh bèo (steamed rice cakes topped with dried shrimp, fried shallots, and a crunchy pork rind, served with fish sauce). This was the most amazing bánh bèo I’ve ever had, since we went to the restaurant most locals go to get bánh bèo: Bún bò (better than…

  • Vietnam

    Da Nang

    April 20, 2014 - By 

    Hội An to Đà Nẵng is only about 30 km away, so we decided to pass on the $10-$25 transportation options from travel agencies and opted for the local public bus instead, which was less than $1 USD/person! Score! Although local buses may rip off foreigners (we fortunately did not get ripped off during our trip), I found that service on Vietnamese local buses far exceeds SFMTA’s bus services. There are 3 people who work on the bus: 2 who periodically take turns driving, and 1 who hangs partially out of the bus asking pedestrians if they need to get on (whether or…

  • Vietnam

    Silk and Ruins

    April 17, 2014 - By 

    Two excursions we made while in Hoi An were a trip to the Silk Village (which was only 1 km away) and the Hindu ruins of Mỹ Sơn (43 km away). The Silk Village shed light on how silk worms are farmed and how silk is traditionally made. Since the Silk Village was only 1 km away, I found a local, dirt path near our hotel that led us to the village. The path led us through an abundance of rice fields. Standing still and listening to the young grains of rice swaying in the wind was quite pleasant: Silk worms!!! So cute.…

  • Vietnam

    Nha Trang to Hoi An

    April 16, 2014 - By 

    Our last day in Nha Trang included renting a motorbike and riding out 25 km north to Ba Ho Waterfall. The ride along the coastline was spectacular, especially at sunset. Whee! That evening upon returning the motorbike and grabbing dinner, we packed our sweaty, stinky bodies and gear into a cramped sleeper bus en route to Hoi An, about 510 km north. It was a very long, bumpy 12 hour ride. Imagine riding and trying to sleep in a large bus driving down undeveloped double lane roads shared with trucks and scooters. In Vietnam, it is normal for vehicles to cross over into the opposing…

  • Vietnam

    Nha Trang (My Parents’ Hometown)

    April 10, 2014 - By 

    Many Americans I know who have been to Vietnam often exhale a sigh of disdain when mentioning Nha Trang. “It’s too touristy,” they say. “It’s overrun with Russians,” they say. Although true facts, there is still more to Nha Trang (at least for me!). Over the past several years Nha Trang to Vietnam has become what Waikiki is to the U.S. Real estate has skyrocketed, the number of high-rise hotels have doubled since I was here 2 years ago, and there are even more hotels under construction. So why have we spent the majority of our time in Nha Trang so…

  • Vietnam

    Mui Ne (White Sand Dunes, Fishing Village, and the Fairy Stream)

    April 5, 2014 - By 

    For $15 each, we hired a private jeep and driver for 5 hours to take us 34 km out of Mui Ne to watch the sun rise over the white sand dunes. Off we went at 4:30am, and we arrived at the white sand dunes at 5:30am, which gave us about 16 minutes to hike to the sand dune of our choice. Here are some photos below. We even released some of Walden’s ashes here: After we watched the sun rise, we checked out the fishing village and  “fairy stream.” The fairy stream was quite small, but the rock and sand formations…