December 4, 2019
In this post, we wanted to share all the things that amazed us, surprised us or simply amused us in Vietnam.
Vietnam is an amazing country, full of fascinating and diverse landscapes. We enjoyed all the places we went to, from North to South.
From Hanoi to Hoi An, the karsts in Lan Ha bay to the rice fields in Pu Luong and from Saigon to the Mekong Delta
It took us a few days to appreciate the country mostly because of traffic, noise, pollution. But once we got used to it, we were hooked.
We got to learn basic words like “xin chao” (pronounced sin chaw, hello) and “xin cam on” (pronounced sin cam on, thank you). We were greeting people in Vietnamese and people were responding back. The Vietnamese are very friendly, despite being cold at first.
In Vietnam, motorcycles are everywhere, on the streets and on sidewalks. Crossing a street seemed impossible at first. But we applied the following strategy that worked out for us (holding the girls really tight)
1. Don’t look at the traffic (or maybe just out of the corner of the eye)
2. Go, whatever’s coming our way
3. Don’t stop, they will avoid us
Whether you believe it or not, people actually stop or slalom around pedestrians.
Street food is omnipresent. It can be a hole in the wall, a street cart with tables or just take-away. The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” seems to be in order. We cannot tell you how many places we went that didn’t look appealing but the food was wonderful.
Food, food, food!
We found a big difference between Chinese and Vietnamese food. The latter is more diverse with a lot of fresh vegetables and herbs (spring rolls for ex), crunchy textures (bahn xeo crispy crepe for ex) and fine flavors in general. Bahn mi sandwiches (with baguette bread) were our take-away favorites. It was quite surprising to see how popular they were and they come in all variations with cilantro, salad, cucumber, …
In Vietnam, they found a way to avoid breaking the cold chain… they don’t use fridges or ice at all on the markets. Meat lays on tables at the selling stand. We never got sick though.
After China where people mostly drink tea, in Vietnam, people mostly drink coffee. They have many ways to appreciate it (Vietnamese coffee, egg coffee, salty coffee – see other posts) and numerous cafés everywhere. Sellers have coffee poured in water bottles that they serve to customers with ice and condensed milk. However, the Vietnamese usually drink warm coffee with lots of sugar and milk. Whenever we were ordering hot coffee, just black, people were making a face like it was disgusting… lol
Fun fact: Vietnam is the second producer and exporter of coffee beans after Brazil. Robusta accounts for 97% of Vietnam's total output volume (Brazil is mainly Arabica).
Egg coffee and Salty coffee
Vietnam was also a place where we started meeting a lot of travelers, probably because we stayed in guesthouses and definitely because there are more foreign visitors than in China (mainly German, Russian and French).
Compared to China where internet access was restricted, we had no trouble accessing anything like in Europe, the US or Hong Kong, without a VPN. It was much easier to handle than the struggle in China.
English is more widely spoken in Vietnam than it is in China, there was always a way to get ourselves understood, even in remote areas like Pu Luong or the Mekong delta.
To conclude, Vietnam is a joyful mess (pictures below speak for themselves). But we have grown to appreciate it and would love to go back!
Coralie & Salah
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