Typical Tourist

One of the most touristy places to go after visiting Hanoi is Ha Long Bay.

Ha Long Bay

So, obviously I went.

You know what, though, tourist destinations are classified as such for a reason, right?  Some other tourists found a destination to be pretty cool, then more did as well, and then over time - the locale falls into the reputation of being a "tourist destination."  Stands pop up selling postcards, pizza (this is true even in Vietnam), and crafty souvenirs that are likely just purchased in bulk and re-sold to you.

I digress....I mainly just wanted to put up pictures of Ha Long Bay.  It's easy to say, but the pictures really do not do it justice.  It was hard to capture the giant rocks coming out of the water, many of them covered with a light layer of fog.  At first, I guessed the area of Ha Long Bay would be quite small (it is called a "bay" after all).  But as you keep looking in the distance, you see that the rock formations seem to go on forever!

We spent one night on the bay, sleeping on a boat, kayaking through a little underpass to get to a small lake (where we saw a ton of monkeys... and they were actually really cute, even to someone who may not be the world's biggest animal lover...), wandering through a cave, and eating amazing seafood.  

The cave

A little chilly!

Where we anchored to kayak

The gang for this part of my travels! (Matt, Carlyn, Jen, Becca)

So many rock formations

Live Game of Frogger

Photo credit:
mobilegames.about.com

After Hoi An, Marsh, Kristina, and I headed for Hanoi.  Hoi An was a peaceful, quiet little town.  Five minutes into walking around Hanoi, though, and I felt like I had been dropped into a real-life version of the game Frogger I used to play on the Nintendo Gameboy.

So many bikes

Similar to Ho Chi Minh, the asphalt in the roads of Hanoi can sometimes barely been seen through the swarm of motorbikes crowding an intersection.  Red lights sometimes appear to either be not seen or ignored completely.

Watch the toes when standing on the edge of the sidewalk in Hanoi!  Sometimes motorbike drivers wanting to make a right turn skip the road all together and drive on the sidewalks.


It's a crazy game of chicken for the drivers - and a real-life game of Frogger for tourist pedestrians like us!

You'll see so many babies (and dogs) on motorbikes...wildly unsafe - but SUPER cute

I Heart Ms. Vy

Cooking skills just do not seem to run in my gene pool.  Ask my siblings, they'll tell you it is the truth.

But - that doesn't mean I cannot change (double negative there, I know).

I feel like MJ's "Man in the Mirror" should be cued here...."I'm starting with the man in the mirror... I'm asking him to chaaaaaange his waaays.... If you wanna make the world a better place - take a look at yourself - and then make a chaaange."

Actually, that song may not be applicable here.  Changing my ways from hating to cook to actually enjoying it and knowing how to cook well may not really make the world a better place.  But, those song-writers have to be onto something.

For someone who does not cook well, cooking classes seemed like a great place to start.  We took a Thai class in Chiang Mai.  AMAZING.  Learned how to make curry paste and pad see ew (one of my favorite noodle dishes - basic, but great).

In Hoi An, Vietnam, Marsh and I decided to take yet another cooking class.  There's this woman named Ms. Vy.  I am now obsessed with her.  So obsessed in fact, that we ate 75% of our meals in Hoi An at one of her restaurants (she started 5 in the little town).  Guess we could have branched out... but when you find something that works for ya....

During the class, I learned a lot:

• I heart Vietnamese food.  Don't ask me whether I like Vietnamese food or Thai food better.  I could never make a choice.  They are both so great - and yet vastly different for being two countries located relatively close to each other
• According to Ms. Vy, cooking really only requires 3 things: (1) Fresh ingredients (2) Heat (3) Love.  I'll be the first to say that the last one (love) is pretty cheesy.  But hey - if it works for Ms. Vy....
• Vietnamese cooking incorporates "yin" and "yang."  Most of their dishes are not spicy, but you will find a very interesting combination of flavors.  One thing (such as a sauce or herb) may not taste good on its own - but when incorporated as part of the yin or yang of a dish - it completes it!
• Hoi An did not have electricity until 1980 (or at least the part of town that she lived in).  Her father tried to open a restaurant and it failed.  On his second attempt, he told his daughter (now Ms. Vy), that they needed to differentiate themselves - do something the neighbors would be willing to pay for, even though the neighborhood was poor... that's MBA 101 right there.... (Ms. Vy's father was successful in the second attempt - a banh xeo restaurant)
• Speaking of banh xeo - I learned that it is my favorite Vietnamese dish!  A "pancake" (more like an omlette, I think) made of coconut milk, fine rice flour, and tumeric.  Shrimp and pork are cooked right into the pancake.  It is then folded over with bean sprouts in the middle (thus the omlette type appearance).  You wrap this up in rice paper along with butter lettuce, basil, thin slices of green banana, some starfruit if you have it.... 
• Dairy was not introduced into the Hoi An area until 2003!
• Rationing existed in central Vietnam until the 1990s.  This is when MSG became so popular.  It is cheap and flavorful.  Hence how it has crept into some Asian cooking.... Ms. Vy warns against it, though!
• I am a sucker for buying things.  My mother gets in my head sometimes.... I thought it may be my only chance to buy Ms. Vy's cookbook! (I had checked Amazon the day before the class - it wasn't there...).  Now I have to promise myself that I will make some of the recipes   

Women's Day

Never in my life have I been called a feminist.  Likely never in my future will I be called a feminist.

However, I gained a new appreciation for strong women this past week.  Yesterday was International Women's Day.  If this is news to you, don't worry - it was also news to me.  I probably would not have  thought about a day celebrating the strength and role that women play in society - especially because people in United States history have fought so hard for gender equality.  Thus, if women are fighting for equality - it would seem counter-intuitive and not gender equal, to me at least, to have a day for men and not women..... or a day for women and not men.

According to Wikipedia (yes, I do seem to be using this a source for a lot of topics), International Women's Day first started in 1909 (how have I been missing it for so many years?!?).  It actually started as a socialist political movement!  However, in many countries today it has become a celebration similar to Mother's Day or Valentine's Day.

Traveling through Vietnam and visiting a few museums, cities, and villages opened my eyes to the impressive roles that women have, since early history, taken on in Vietnam.  Traditionally, it is the woman who goes to work every day in the Vietnamese culture.  Of the 54 different ethnic groups in Vietnam, most of them are matrilineal (family history and what not is traced through mothers rather than fathers).

On March 8th (Women's Day) and the couple days leading up to it, there were giant flower bouquets being sold on every other street corner in both Sapa and Hanoi.  The deli I went to for dinner even had a special "Women's Day" set menu, and "Happy 08-03" or "For Women" delicately written on top of mini chocolate torts in the display cases.

Now, I'm not saying we need another Hallmark holiday in the States to sell chocolate torts and flowers.  I'm just saying that yesterday, on International Women's Day (which is HUGE in Vietnam), I had a greater appreciation and celebration for those women in my life that are strong - people like my mother, my previous manager from Walmart, my former 'counselor' at Deloitte, my high school chemistry teacher, and so many of my friends....to name just a few....

Biker by Day

Central Vietnam has been one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

Took this picture my accident
while hanging on tight!

We only stopped in the town of Hoi An, but it was a great stopping point for a few days.  There are bicycles everywhere (likely enough said).  There is a little river that flows through the town.  The streets have long strands of lanterns hanging from buildings on one side of the street to the other.  There's even a little covered bridge.

Surprise, surprise - I haven't exactly done a lot of hard-core motorcycling in my life.  But regardless, this is the picture I had of myself in my mind:

A real bad-ass just cruisin the open road.  Wind through my hair (maybe some bugs stuck in my smile).  Revving the engine.  Getting to see the real Vietnam.  I even considered purchasing some leather gloves with the finger tips cut off.... you got to look the part, right?

Me and my driver

The real way it went down?  I was sitting on the back.  Hanging on for dear life for the first hour of our 8 hour trip.  Pigtail braids (I think those went out of style when I turned 12....) flapping wildly behind me.  Not. Exactly.  Cool.

Oh - and I majorly burned the side of my leg on the exhaust pipe about 2 hours into the ride.  As if it wasn't obvious enough that I was an amateur.




I would do it over again in a heartbeat - an awesome way to get outside the cities in central Vietnam.  I just may try to look a little cooler next time.

Forcing a smile RIGHT after burning my leg
(with my awesome driver... I mean, look at his stance for photos!)

I'm sure stopping on a
bridge is safe

Many rice paddys to be seen

Stopping for lunch.  Hill the US Marines controlled during the war

Great travel team (though we missed Matt!)

 

First Starbucks in Vietnam

If your name is 'Matt Kristek' then you may be known for many things - but one thing that tops the charts is your intense love for and dedication to Starbucks.

First Starbucks in Vietnam

And, if you're me, Marsh, or Kristina - you get to benefit from the wealth of knowledge Matt has to share.  I know more than I ever have about the history of Starbucks City Mugs, different ways I can order my coffee, and even the most recent store openings.

In fact, Matt was pleased to tell us that the first Starbucks to open in all of Vietnam opened in Ho Chi Minh, 3 weeks before we arrived!  The icing on the cake?  It was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  Though, thinking back... Matt actually picked and booked our hotel in Ho Chi Minh, so maybe the close proximity to where we were staying was not actually a coincidence :)

While Marsh was out on his Back of the Bike Food Tour (eating fertilized duck and crow eggs... which we happily decided to skip....), we headed for Starbucks.

This is NOT an exaggeration - true Vietnamese coffee is the best coffee I've ever had.  Starbucks coffee in Vietnam is the same it is in States.  So, I was SHOCKED when we waited in line at Starbucks for 45 minutes - when the Vietnamese have the best coffee in the world all over their towns!

A glimpse at the lengthy queue...
and two stunning models

It was all worth the wait though.  As I was waiting for our drinks, and Matt and Kristina were saving a table upstairs, I met probably the nicest Vietnamese person ever (again, not an exaggeration).  

He struck up the conversation by asking, "are the queues for Starbucks this long in your country?"  (being the only white person for a mile, I guess I stood out).  I then had to inform him that I come from a country that sadly does not have much Vietnamese coffee, but we are the headquarter location of Starbucks.

After a great little conversation, I was re-counting the story to Matt and Kristina at our table.  I realized that my new friend was at the table right across from us!  He jumped up and came over - giving us recommendations of bars and restaurants to go to, sites to see, and even his phone number in case we got lost in the city!

I have a lot to learn about hospitality from the people of southeast Asia!

View of Ho Chi Minh from the second floor

Re-Counting History

Talk about learning how to forgive and forget!

Visiting the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh is a stark reminder of the lives that are impacted during a time of war.  While we were walking around the exhibitions, my emotions were all over the place - so much so that I had to sit down a few times!

Sadness.  Your heart breaks so quickly for the people (or remnants of people) depicted in the graphic photographs - a human is a human - whether they are American, Southern Vietnamese, or part of the Viet Cong or northern Vietnamese communist party.

Anger.  The Americans are presented in a very bad light - and even though our country makes mistakes, many facts were omitted and choice words were used in each of the exhibits.  For someone with a burning love of country and pride, it made it difficult throughout the museum.

Understanding.  Seeing the long-term effects of war on their land and the Vietnamese people and reading the words used to describe Americans in the 1960s and 1970s helped me begin to understand and believe that some people here deserve to be angry!  If I were in their shoes, I would not be welcoming tourists with open arms!

Reverence.  After walking out of the museum, as I said, I assumed that on the whole, locals would not be welcoming us with open arms.  I was dead wrong.  I am amazed at how the Vietnamese have the ability move on from pain and from the past... a lesson I could learn from them!  I thought the Thai were friendly - and now I'm finding that the Vietnamese are also one of the most friendly cultures I have visited.

Fortune.  Despite which side of a bias you believe, or how you recount history, the photographs in the museum tear your heart open.  Between the mix of feeling sad, angry, more understanding, and even in awe of the Vietnamese people today - I also felt incredibly lucky.  As an American, I don't think it hits home nearly enough how lucky I am that there has been no war in recent history on American soil.  All of my "first world problems" do not seem so big right now....