vietnam continued… ho chi minh city

a visit to ho chi minh city can be quick. we hit the main historical landmarks in a day & spent our second day lounging in hotel cafes to avoid the heat.

• saigon saigon bar at the caravelle hotel- this was the hub for journalists during the vietnam war. in addition to the cocktails they’re well known for, i highly recommend the banana & peanut butter smoothie!
• war remnants museum- i’m hesitant to mention this museum, but if you’re in hcmc then you should probably make a point to go. it’s very sad & very graphic, but will give you a different perspective on the people you see throughout your trip. i’d love to know what you think after your visit.

l, m

vietnam continued… nha trang

nha trang is a small beach town, known for scuba diving & hosting the miss universe pageant in 2008 (miss venezuela won). we took an overnight train here, which was possibly the worst recommendation i’ve ever followed. i will spare you the miserable picture of me camped out on a top bunk with bedding, whose last washing remains unknown. 

back to the reasons for visiting nha trang…

• scuba diving- we went did a private day cruiser with rainbow divers. our dive master was local & wore a speedo (gotta love french colonies!). it was actually pretty cold & silty since it was december, but we still had a great time & truly appreciated the hot tea & delicious pineapple snack.
• louisiane brewhouse- yummy beer & banana milkshakes. so-so food. we spent every afternoon here drinking while listening to greasy eastern europeans discuss american politics. possibly the highlight of our stay ;)

l, m

vietnam recs continued… hoi an

the next town we visited was far & away my favorite. if you pick one city to go to then hoi an is the must-go-to city.

• food- mango rooms is amazing
• beaches- we stayed at the boutique hoi an resort on the beach & it was the most luxurious place we found for under $120/night
• cooking classes- we did the night class at the red bridge school because that’s as long as i could hold jonathan’s attention, but the day class with the market tour sounds incredible!
• shopping & custom tailors- yaly’s tailors are the best. i had a simplified version of this j.crew gown made for $95 & they did a spectacular job. for those who know me, don’t get too excited… it was in black, not white :)

more to come on nha trang and scuba diving in vietnam!

l, m

vietnam recs continued… hanoi

highly influenced by french design & culture, hanoi has lots to see & has the best sidewalk cafes if you’re feeling adventuresome :)

• history- you can tour the prison where mccain was held during the vietnam war. it was sarcastically dubbed ‘the hilton’ by the american pows. we also did a quick visit to the history museum in hanoi, where i spotted jewelry from the 7th century that looks exactly like the styles that people are buying today!
• high tea at the sofitel bamboo bar- we unfortunately missed this due to a water puppet show, which should be avoided at all costs… it was $2/ticket & you get what you pay for. but the high tea at the sofitel is supposed to be first class. they even have a chocolate bar! we did have the opportunity to lunch here with the ladies of leisure… jonathan thoroughly fit right in :)
• photo ops- beware or you will be stuck holding a street vendor’s shoulder pole baskets like i did. jonathan always gets upset by this because i seem to attract these women, who he has to pay afterward. i won’t get into what happened in morocco, but at least it makes for a nice photo!

next post will be about my favorite city of the trip…

l, m

vietnam bound? a couple recs… ha long bay

we spent christmas & new year’s in vietnam this year… it was definitely an experience. it’s very hectic, crowded & a bit overwhelming (like india, morocco, haiti, etc). but i was pleasantly surprised by how nice & helpful the people were that we interacted with in hotel & restaurants settings. and everyone was very friendly towards foreigners, including americans. the only dicey situations occurred with non-english speaking people that were selling things in the street, driving cabs/motorbikes, etc. they can be fairly aggressive unless you’re firm in declining their offers. this is also totally avoidable if you have someone arrange everything for you, which we didn’t :)

we definitely took the do-it-yourself approach & moved to different cities every few days. we saw five cities in ten days & i was exhausted by the end.

over the next week or so, i’ll share a couple of my favorite spots… starting with the best surprise of our trip- our overnight cruise on ha long bay.

• natural limestone islands- spectacularly sprinkled densely across the bay. it was so beautiful, i practically had to hide the camera from jonathan so he’d talk to me!
• emeraude steamer- our overnight cruise ship, whose quarters were a bit cramped, but we survived for one night. they also showed the oscar winning filmindochine with catherine devenue on the sun deck… if it hadn’t been 45 degrees outside, it would have been very romantic!
• local water dwellers- 1600 vietnamese live & work on the waters of ha long bay. they spend their entire lives on a boat, living together with their families. it was fascinating to cruise past the small boats & hear a baby crying or see 3 generations working together to prepare dinner.

the cultural city of hanoi in my next post…

l, m