HN to Cambodia

Why do I write these travel blogs? For the most part I write them as a diary so I won't forget the little stories. I never thought I'd forget being stung by a scorpion at a little stall in Hoi An, Vietnam, back in 2005 ("Miss, we do not have scorpions in Vietnam!") but I did forget it, until I re-read the blog. There are dozens of stories like that, things I never thought I'd forget -- and of course the forgetting happens more readily the older I get.

But secondarily I write them to encourage my friends to visit these beautiful places. It's easy for us in the US to want to visit Europe, but not as many of us have the imagination for southeast Asia; it's very far away, the trip is long and hard, and of course we have a difficult military history there. Most people ask us how we were treated in Vietnam, apparently imagining that the Vietnamese are surely not nice to us as Americans. (Being an American is hard going anywhere, I always hasten to say, and we fall back on saying we're Canadian when we can.) But the Vietnamese people are charming, lovely, eager to interact with us. So if you get the idea that you might want to travel to any place you read about in our blogs, that would make me happy.

So, Hanoi. We went back to the lake in the late afternoon, because it's really just so beautiful. It's like Central Park in that it's a part of regular Hanoian's daily life, and it's a place for tourists. (WOW -- giant yellow bird just flew into the window twice, as I write!) The day was getting late and we were approached by a young man who wanted to practice speaking English. He was just adorable, a university student (automobiles!), and we like doing this. Then two young women came up and joined the conversation, and I saw the young man's face fall; he was going to have to share, and not get the full opportunity to speak. Marc ended up speaking to him more, and I spoke to the girls. Their English was not as good as the young man's, but they were very eager to practice. I asked them how to pronounce some Vietnamese words and they were excited and telling me that I spoke Vietnamese very well. :) I suspect this is a general attitude that you see in most cultures....just try to speak the language, do your best, and they are glad to meet you more than halfway.

The girl on the far left is from the Sapa area; the lovely girl in the middle didn't
speak English quite as well. They were so adorable.

an impromptu gym setup -- these free weights weren't here a few hours earlier

we think this was set up for a wedding

We ate a lot our full day there, and as the end of the day approached neither of us was hungry. Marc would've pressed on and eaten small bits at a couple more places, but (a) I was really not hungry at all, and (b) I hit a wall on crossing streets. It was Saturday night, and the streets were more crowded with motorcycles, and each time we had to cross a street it took me longer to step off the curb. I was often kind of paralyzed by it, and finally got to complete overwhelm. You can't imagine it unless you've been there; motorcycles never stop, coming in multiple directions at once, and you just have to walk out into it. It's fine, it's fun, it's a game, but I suddenly couldn't do it again.

For both those reasons, then, we just returned to the restaurant we'd been to the night before when we arrived in Hanoi, the one where the waitress couldn't believe I, the girl, was ordering a beer and Marc, the boy, was ordering water. We liked her a lot, and we liked the food, and it was close enough to require crossing only two streets.

She was laughing and bossy and very much in charge

SUPER yummy -- Marc ordered this the night before so I got it our second night.

He ordered these grilled keo fish -- I had to make myself not notice the tiny teeth.

We had to leave for the airport by 7am, so we were up early, had a quick hotel breakfast, and then got in the cab for the 45-minute drive to the airport. While we waited for our slightly delayed flight to board, I made some notes about things I wanted to remember about our very quick return to Hanoi.

• Since our first visit nine years ago, Hanoi has changed dramatically. So dramatically. In 2005 the drive from the airport took us past such distinctive architecture: the homes were very tall and narrow, three floors plus an open-air top floor, with peaked roofs with spikes sticking up, and they were all painted one of three color schemes (a gorgeous periwinkle with darker periwinkle trim, a rusty sunset orange with darker trim, and a kind of teal/aqua green with darker trim....all secondary colors, I just noticed). One thing I loved, and said over and over, was that Hanoi had such a sense of place because of the architecture, like Paris. You look around and know without a doubt where you are. That has changed; the traditional architecture has all but disappeared, and now the buildings are more ordinary western-style buildings. 

• As we got nearer to the airport, the air did finally return to that intensely acrid eye-watering smell. The skies were low and overcast, so maybe that contributed. But the air is much cleaner than it was, which is good for the residents.

• We passed a miles-long mosaic on the highway, just miles and miles and miles. Beautiful work, and a variety of images -- Vietnamese history, culture, food, children, success, industrialization, everything. Occasionally the name of a corporate sponsor would be included.

• Again/still we can't figure out what it means that Vietnam is a communist country. Vietnam Airlines just went public, selling shares on the stock exchange. I've never seen people who are more capitalistic than the Vietnamese....hardworking doing this doing that, sell you this take you there. 

• Of course this is an overly broad statement, but Vietnamese women tend to be absolutely gorgeous. Probably the most generally beautiful women I have seen anywhere. Too often for my taste, the Vietnamese men sport one very long thumbnail.

• As we drove on the highway to the airport, there seemed to be a parade coming towards us, in the middle, between the lanes. It was a funeral, we think; there was an old woman walking behind the casket (we think) weeping and looking completely heartbroken.

• There were so many Indonesian troops in the Hanoi airport, no idea why.

So farewell, beautiful wonderful friendly frenetic Hanoi. I surely do hope we see you again. If we're anywhere in the neighborhood, we'll absolutely stop by.

The flight to Phnom Penh was easy enough, stopping in Vientiane where we had to get off the plane, and then back on again. Our adorable Cambodian driver took us the three hours from Phnom Penh to Kep, on the coast. Kep is most widely known, we think, for its crab market -- quite a scene. We are staying at The Veranda, the place we stayed the last time we came to Kep, and we wanted the same great room we had before but it was being renovated. So we were upgraded to a 'penthouse' room and while it was OK, it didn't have such a good veranda like our previous room had. Marc went to ask if there was another room more like the one we'd had before, and we were upgraded from our upgrade, to a giant private villa! We've never had a place like this, ever, it's crazy. On the roof is a big bed with mosquito netting, a seating area, and a kitchen. Then on the next level down is our big room with two small terraces (one with a hammock) and a third outdoor seating area, and then on the next level down is our private pool. CRAZY.

This is the view from our terrace overlooking our pool. OUR POOL. And that's
the Gulf of Thailand beyond, with Phu Quoc Island in the distance.

Hope to sleep here tonight (the roof of our villa), or at least lie there and look at the stars.

Gorgeous sunsets

vivid skies

Each moment more beautiful than the last

the colors, stunning

Our rooftop veranda -- the kitchen is behind me, the bed part to the left

After we moved to our villa (I can't believe this, seriously), we took a swim and then headed down to the crab market area. It's crazy busy in the mornings, with the women hauling in huge baskets of live crabs from the sea, and lots of stalls of people cooking the food, selling other food, etc. Adjoining the crab market is a row of restaurants, and so we picked Holy Crab, one of the top restaurants in Kep. We got BBQ Tiger Prawns, which came with this thick and luscious kampot pepper sauce, gritty and black. I love black pepper so much, put it on everything, so I was happy.

inside the restaurant -- that's me in the back, sitting at the railing overlooking the sea. The waves
were big and crashing, and the clouds in the black sky were filled with lightning.
Right after we got back to our room, a huge thunderstorm erupted.

Yummy prawns, but oh it was that kampot pepper sauce that lit me up

So we are here for four nights, and we'll take a tuktuk over to Kampot one day, and we'll swim, and walk back and forth to the crab market, and eat some amazing food, and enjoy the quiet of Kep, which is very different from the quiet of Nong Khiaw, and about as opposite from the insanity of Hanoi as you can imagine.

Lucky, lucky, lucky. (And think about visiting these beautiful places, for sure.)

LP to VN

We had an awkward amount of time to spend on our last day in Luang Prabang; we had to leave for the airport at 3:45, for our 5:10 flight to Hanoi, and we had to check out of our room at noon. On the way to lunch we climbed the 190 stairs to get to the big wat that allowed us to look over all of Luang Prabang, then we leisurely walked back to Joy's for lunch for fried spring rolls and one last BeerLao (for me) and ginger beef (for Marc), and then we stopped at a place along the river for an ice cream sundae -- mainly just to have a place to sit and watch the river one last time.

lots of steps, but a beautiful morning

inside the wat at the top

the exterior

and what a gorgeous view of the Mekong as it winds around LP

We headed to the airport a little early and had no trouble, and when we got to the waiting room it was packed with people and sounded like a big party. One group of Westerners started singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight -- they were a little restless because their flight to Siem Reap was delayed, and we didn't yet realize that 'delay' was going to be the name of the game. We were scheduled to leave LP at 5:10 and arrive in Hanoi at 6:10, but our flight finally took off around 8pm after a bunch of semi-frightening shifts in plans. The plane we were supposed to be on was on the tarmac when it was supposed to be, but then they just fired up the engines and let it run for an hour -- and with the doors open from the waiting area too, so it was loud. No one loaded luggage into the plane, and we couldn't figure out why they just had the plane running like that. We couldn't make up a story that felt very good, and then they turned the plane off and the crew left the airplane.

We were finally loaded into a different airplane and the flight was simple, but we had to circle for a good 20 minutes before we were finally cleared for landing. Getting through the visa and immigration gates in Hanoi was simple, and we were completely dazzled by the brand new airport. Oh my, it's ENORMOUS, all glass, as big as any airport in New York. Hanoi has changed rapidly and is so much more modern than it was the first time we came in 2005. Construction processes are modernized, everything seems more modern -- big highways, huge buildings, it is just such a different city. Our cab driver was so busy managing calls on at least two cell phones he kept forgetting to press on the accelerator, and while I love to hear Vietnamese spoken it was starting to work my last nerve, though he did have a nice giggle.

Anyway, we finally arrived at the Rising Dragon Palace around 9:45 and got the same room we had last time, on the top floor. We headed out to get a bite to eat at a little place around the corner, Bun Bo Nam Bo, and truly it was the best Vietnamese food either of us has ever had, ever. I just got fried spring rolls, but Marc got this noodle, grilled pork, and fried spring roll soup-thing that was so filled with flavor, every bite was richer and different and tastier than the one before. TOO BAD we completely forgot to take pictures. Marc doesn't drink and I don't drink much, but when we travel I always enjoy the local beer -- and this puzzles people wherever we are. So I ordered a Tiger beer with my dinner and Marc ordered water, and the waitress found this hysterical. She pointed at me and said, "You the man, he the woman," and then when another waitress brought the drinks, she made an elaborate show of giving me the water and Marc the beer, and then swapping them. It was done with a lot of giggling and teasing, and we prefer to think that they are laughing with us.

Our plan for our one full day in Hanoi is to push ourselves and eat at little spots where local people eat. Marc put together a "street food" tour for us -- the best pho here, the best bun cha here, the best bun rieu cua there, the best xoi, etc -- and we decided to make ourselves just get in there and do what we could even if we had no idea what was going on. We decided we'd order one thing at each place and split it, so we could eat at a lot of different places.

VN coffee without milk, thick and gritty and intense

walking to Hoan Kiem Lake

Vietnamese but still French if you look -- plus, THE BREAD of course

wide streets lined with huge beautiful trees

After coffee in the neighborhood, we headed out for the best pho in Hanoi, at 13 Lo Duc Street. It was intimidating, for sure, because we didn't know how to order, where to order, where/how to pay, what exactly we were buying, where to sit, or what to do. But we pulled it off.

So this was the place. We just kind of stood there, held up one finger, gave them some money,
and then looked to see what others were doing.

A couple of doors away seemed to be the place to sit, so we found our tiny stools and waited.

Pho was created in Hanoi, and this bowl right here must be the exemplar of pho bo -- beef pho.
OH my, it was without a doubt the best bowl of pho either of us has ever had. This bowl cost
50,000 dong, or $2.33.

Then we squeezed in some lime, ladeled in some brick red hot sauce, and spooned in some
seriously hot peppers. Stir, sweat, eat. Moan, groan. The broth was not thin and watery,
it was deep with flavor.

Stop #1: GREAT success!

Drunk on our successful pitstop, we headed back to the lake to sit for a bit and enjoy the gorgeous day. As always, there were Vietnamese people standing around the lake doing exercises, some rotating their arms in giant circles as they walked, young couples with their arms draped around each other's shoulders, families out for the morning. Gosh we love this place. As we sat, we were approached by two young men doing market research (they said something about an economics survey) on a product for tourists -- a small bamboo sculpture of a Vietnamese person with two baskets of flowers on a pole over his shoulders. They were so cute; one had a lisp, and the other was a bit shyer and more serious,and kind of bossy. They asked us lots of questions: bigger or smaller, which do we like more, what would we expect to pay, should they include a little story about it, what about the packaging. They were just adorable, and we enjoyed talking to them.

After that we headed out for our second breakfast stop, at Phieu Yeu Cau for a bowl of xoi xeo -- sticky rice with chicken. It came with a layer of polenta draped between the chicken and the sticky rice, and with a side bowl of vinegary pickled cucumber slices. Very very good -- another successful meal. With water, this was 48,000 dong, or $2.26.

Just so good -- and a traditional fast food breakfast

Even though I'm so full, I literally drooled as this picture loaded into the post.

A pitstop back at the room to cool off -- it's quite warm here, unlike our last visit to Hanoi at this same time of year, when it was cold and rainy -- and then we went out again for some bun cha. Bun cha is a classic Vietnamese lunch, charcoal grilled pork and pork belly in a sauce of fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and lime, and served with a huge platter of cold rice vermicelli and a bigger platter of all kinds of greens: mint, cilantro, basil, a purple leaf that was not basil but so good, a few sprouts, and some lettuce. We also got glasses of iced green tea. I wasn't even hungry but it was so tasty.

The bun cha operations. The woman in the striped shirt is filling bowls with two kinds of grilled pork, while
also managing the spring-roll-deepfrying station to the left of that red bowl.
Behind, on the left of the photo, is a woman piling platters (yeah, that stack with
the dirty towel on top...) with greens, and others with rice vermicelli.

THIS is the glory of bun cha. The pork has leaves grilled into the pieces, and since it's
cooked over charcoal, the edges are smoky/crispy. Lots of different greens to pile in.
One bowl was 35,000 dong, or $1.65. After we ate we had to step out to the sidewalk
to pay a man sitting in a chair -- Marc thought he was like a human cash register, holding a big
wad of bills and doling out change to a bunch of customers at once.

Just don't look too closely at your surroundings. Keep your eyes in your bowl
and everything will be just fine.

You sit crowded into these low tables, sitting on lower stools -- think adult on a tricycle, knees up kind of high -- and when one of the staff was removing empty bowls and glasses from the far end of the table, she sloshed them down my back. Not so great, but this is not a fancy-restaurant tour we're taking. This is the day we eat the way regular Hanoians eat on the run, and all I can say is that they are lucky eaters. Lao food is good but kind of unremarkable; they're landlocked and surrounded by China, VN, Thailand, and Myanmar I think, so the food is a melange of those various styles but perhaps with a bit more lemongrass than others. Good, delicious, but Vietnamese people know how to eat.

After eating bun cha we found another park to sit in and watch the busy goings-on. The streets never stop, ever. We've noticed a big change from our first trip in 2005, and even from our last trip three years ago: the transportation is much better. On our first trip, the air was so very acrid is made our eyes water. Two-stroke engines, and lots of them, equaled bad air. Women wore elbow-length gloves and full face masks to protect their skin. Now the air smells normal, no eye-watering smells anywhere. Beautiful motorcycles everywhere, the occasional bicycle, and lots more cars and airconditioned buses.

But still you see full life passing by on these motorcycles. Beautiful women in gorgeous short dresses and high heels passing by on their motorcycles. Men carrying bathroom fixtures, a dozen cases of bottled drinks, huge stacks of boxes (in fact, one motorcycle upended because the driver put too many boxes on the back). Families of four, two small children sitting between mom and dad. A man drove past dangling a 6-month-old baby in his left arm and steering with his right hand -- no helmets. Young couples, older couples, men in suits, boys in hoodies and flipflops, women with full-face masks and aprons completely covering their bodies, young guys driving and texting, women sitting sidesaddle on the back either in short skirts and heels or jeans and heels. It just never stops.

The fun of getting around Hanoi is crossing the street, and you just have to step off the curb and head across the street, don't stop, don't hesitate, don't step and then step back, keep your eyes where you're going. Traffic is a hive and it all works together and the drivers are watching the pedestrians and somehow it all works. Usually it's fun but once in a while I just get kind of clenched with fear and can't step off the curb. Until I can.

photo shoot in the middle of the street. seriously.

Tonight we'll continue our eating tour, but for now we're too full and kind of pooped from all the walking. I think so far we've walked 8-ish miles, so we're in the cool room, plotting our next move. When you have only one day in Hanoi you've got to make the most of it.

Gorgeous Hoan Kiem Lake near the old quarter, one of our favorite places to sit

Negotiating sweets -- puffy sugared donuts on sticks. She gave us one for free,
then we bought a couple of skewers -- first she said 50,000 dong, which is
what we paid for our big bowl of pho. We went to walk away and she
started negotiating, so this is a shot of Marc doing his thing.

Takeaway iced coffee, in this handy little bag. Strong VN coffee with
condensed milk, poured over ice. Very good.

One more Hanoi post to come.