Category: Vietnam

  • Video Dump 6: Southeast Asia

    Hello and welcome to our sixth and likely final video dump. This one covers our time in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Enjoy! First, here are two more videos of the election night celebration in Mandalay, Myanmar: Click here to watch the first video of the election night celebration Click here to…

  • Draught Beer in Hanoi: A Religion

    We’d been tipped off to bia hoi well before we arrived in Hanoi by our friend Alexis, who spent two weeks there a couple years ago and loved the city, partially because of her time spent at various bia hoi joints. Bia hoi means “draught beer”, but unlike the food in Hanoi, it’s not something worth mentioning…

  • Yum: Hanoi’s Addictive Street Food

    Oh boy, where do I begin? Northern Vietnam had hands down my favorite cuisine of the 20+ countries we visited over the past year (note: I do not feel it would be fair to include Italy in the running for this title). While we’ve loved a lot of the Southeast Asian foods we’ve sampled, Vietnam’s…

  • Hanoi’s Lively Streets

    Hanoi simply buzzes with life. At almost any time of day, you can walk outside, watch various types of delicious street food being made (more on that later), find a place to sit down on a toddler-sized stool on the sidewalk to enjoy a coffee, lemon tea, or draught beer, purchase almost anything you can…

  • Cat Ba Island: Taking the Plunge

    With our time in Vietnam running a bit short, and having gotten our exposure to the countryside and mountains on our motorbiking trip, and to city life with a few days in Hanoi, we decided what was missing was some time on the coast, so we headed to Cat Ba Island, home to a large…

  • Motorbiking in Northeastern Vietnam

    Before visiting Southeast Asia, we weren’t big motorbiking enthusiasts; in fact, Claudia’s motorbiking experience consisted entirely of a few anxiety-ridden hours in Europe many years ago, and mine consisted of crashing a small toy bike into a fence in Portland, Oregon in 2009. However, taking a multi-day motorbiking trip in the north of Vietnam is…

  • Yum: Durian Fruit

    This oversized grenade of a fruit is a love/hate affair. It has a nasty reputation for smelling like trash, but durian fans are willing to overlook its scent’s peculiar similarity to dumpster air in order to enjoy the sweet, rich, custard-like meat. Our introduction to the fruit was in ice cream format in Myanmar, where…