Vietnam - 15 Feb-15 Apr

Shera, Mereya and Jorge in their unnatural element (seated and drinkless)

Vietnam - in the local language it means "Land of the Swarming Motor Scooter." Did you know that there are more motor scooters in Vietnam, per capita, than in any place in the world? Thailand is second. And did you know that you can fit 7 people (small ones), one trailer load of lumber, a couch, 27 food delivery orders, three dogs, 37 inflated balloons or 8 plastic grocery bags of live fish on a motor scooter? The first stat is from Claude (Thailand is #2) and the others are from our daily gawkings. And yes, I saw a lady restocking a pond with 8 bags of live fish on a scooter. There is one rule that all scooter drivers obey in Vietnam - they wear helmets. Everything else, oddly enough, is fair game. Wrong way into oncoming traffic...that's OK. Pulling in front of a bus with an infant on your lap and a dog riding cowgirl on the back...that's also OK. Video call while driving down a packed street...that's OK. Stopping in the middle of traffic to answer a text...OK also. You can fit 11 scooters side-by-side and then 4 deep at a two lane intersection. The sidewalks are not for walking...they are for scooter parking. It's awesome to watch! Fortunately, they only go 30-40 MPH so there aren't too many accidents.

Fair warning - we were here for two months so there are a LOT of pics and a lot of stories below, not all of them interesting. But the pics (yes, plural) of Shera snorting smoke from some oddly amazing popped corn and nitrogen desert is definitely a must see.

Phu Quoc

Hanoi

Seriously - she was doing a video flossing demonstration at the hotel breakfast

Ha Long Bay

Hoi Anh, Da Nang, Hue and not enough time with our peoples

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Ho Tram

War Museum Photos (Hanoi, Ba Nan and Ho Chi Minhi Minh City Museums)

Random Scooter Pics

Random Thoughts

This was the longest we've spent in one country for the entire trip - exactly two months. We know it was exactly two months because one of us (guess who???) forgot to check the expiration date on the visas until, you guessed it, the day before they expired. Ooops! We had sort-of maybe planned to leave around that day but weren't really in a rush, until all of the sudden we were in a rush. Fortunately we were able to get tickets to Hong Kong on the fly (pun intended) and left with 9 hours to spare! That is one killer benefit of flying in the rest of the world - airfare is easy and cheap(ish) to get on a few days notice.

We knew we were going to be in Vietnam for a while, as we had three sets of friends there at the same time and we also had to get new passports. We planned the passport renewal in Vietnam since there are multiple embassies - Lyd's was set to expire at year's end and many countries won't allow entry if there are less than six months validation remaining. And I ran out of pages (written with extreme pride), so we both turned them in and then hung around the southern part of Vietnam for a month until the passports were ready. Overalll the process through the embassy was pretty smooth and we received the new passports with a day to spare on the visa - whew!

We spent the first week on the island of Phu Quoc, which sits in the Gulf of Thailand and looks like it should be in Cambodia. Beautiful island but it was a funny place. It has been “adopted” by two of the richest men in Vietnam who are each building Euro Disney style resort areas around the island. The northern area, Grand World, is an attempt at Venice, complete with canals and gondolas and water shows, all lined with restaurants and massage parlors (reputable ones, I think). Many of the restaurants boast the freshest seafood around by keeping a wall of aquariums out front with live fish swimming around. I later learned this is normal throughout Vietnam. The southern area, Sun World, is attempting the Roman vibe, with a funky Coliseum and some Gladiator statues and one of the longest cable car rides over water in the world. Aside from Vietnamese restaurants you’d be hard pressed to picture yourself in Vietnam. It feels a bit more like Florida, as the buildings are all pre-fab hotel type structures with lots of color but little differentiation or soul. It felt more like this was giving locals and Russian tourists a cheaper or more feasible opportunity to visit Europe without being able to actually visit Europe. The properties each have cringey Instagram friendly picture spots - a bridge with a heart or clasping hands as the center that are overrun with tourists all taking annoyingly endless photos. Fortunately the sand was really nice and the water was exceptionally warm, so we got in a bunch of beach time and dipped our toes into the wonderful world of Vietnamese cooking. If you can find these treats in your local Vietnamese restaurant, get them - amazing!

One of the highlights of the week almost turned into the biggest dud of the week. It even had us posing in front of their sign, for selfies, middle fingers extended (such sophisticated travelers- shhhh!). We decided to take this amazing cable car that runs from the south of the island across some small islands and lands on a beautiful island in the middle of a huge water park. It was the one thing that our ChatGPT said we should do beside the beach, so we took the hour long taxi ride from our hotel in the north and bought tickets. We were in line for roughly an hour and then all of the power went out and the gondolas quit moving. Nobody seemed to be panicking so we didn’t think anything of it…we’ve gotten used to random power/water outages at inopportune times. Finally, after about another hour and a half, they announced that the power was completely blown and they wouldn’t be reopening for the day - ugh! So we rearranged our schedule for the next day (which really means nothing because we don’t have schedules anymore...unless Jorge is visiting us) and decided to return the next day. As it turned out, that cable car was pretty cool - some pics, sans middle fingers, included for proof.

Our next stop, Hanoi, was wonderful. It's a busy and bustling city and, like I mentioned earlier, buzzing with motor scooters - it seemed like everywhere you went you were swarmed by scooters. And walking on the sidewalks was pretty much a non-starter, as they are all turned into makeshift scooter parking lots. It became fun just to see who could spot the most random stuff being carted by a scooter. I feel like the scooter with the 25 foot trailer carrying timber was the most impressive, but then we saw a balloon seller with at least 27 or so big helium balloons that completely covered up the driver, but he was still driving along.

Hanoi is a great tourist city with lots of interesting sights and loads of amazing and really inexpensive restaurants. The regional food is awesome and we quickly found some favorites (Bun Cha - a regional meatball pho-type soup, and Ban Xeo - a shrimp pancake) that we searched for every day. I joked with wife that my Buddha Belly was transforming into a Bun Cha Belly. There was a famous episode of Anthony Bourdain eating in a Bun Cha diner with President Obama, so we had to try that one - ended up loving it so much we went again, and we don't do repeats often. We also ate some wonderful Bahn Mi sandwiches and drank too many crazy coffees. Vietnam is the most coffee rich country I have been to and they make some killer coffee concoctions, especially the coconut salted coffees.

There is a famous street called Train Street that most tourists find their way to at some point. I initially dismissed it as touristy, but since I'm a complete tourist, I resmissed it, and we went. The street is about 10-13 feet wide and bounded by houses and small cafes on either side. The thrill happens about 5 or so times a day, when the train passes by, which is not much narrower than the street. The cafes have the exact schedule down and try to rush as many people to their shops as possible to get a good seat before the show. A good seat means one that you can smell the breath of the passengers inside the train...that close. As the scheduled train approaches, all of the shop-keepers rush to move the guests back and retrieve any tables and chairs or extended human legs, children, etc that stray too close to the tracks. I don't think the train really slows down as it passes into the area...it's actually quite thrilling and a bit scary when it's literally right in your face and you realize that if your foot slips at all, or your beer kicks in, you will fall RIGHT into the train - it's that close. If you are a safety engineer or risk evaluator, or at all clausterphobic, I don't recommend it, but if you want a cheap thrill, it's definitely fun and worth the price of a coffee or beer!

Hanoi, and most of Vietnam, is also a great shopping destination for knock-off clothes and goods. Many of my favorite REI brands are made in Vietnam so it was a good place to trade in some worn out clothes for great clothes at really cheap prices. They are sometimes referred to as North Fakes (North Face), which was funny, as I can't tell the difference. I bought a new really nice Tumi backpack for about $30 - I know it's a fake but it sure looks and feels real. Fortunately we can't buy much, since we have to carry whatever we buy, so it kept me from going crazy with new goodies.

One of the most memorable sites of Hanoi was visiting the Hanoi Hilton, or the Hoa Lo Prison. This was made famous in the US / Vietnam War (known in Vietnam as the American War of Imperialist Aggression) as the place John McCain (and many other downed US pilots and soldiers) were held during their POW time during the war. I will get into this a bit later, but it is sobering to tour areas around the world where such tragedy has been needlessly inflicted. More on this later...

Ha Long Bay

We’re on a bus from Hanoi to the UNESCO Ha Long Bay to spend a couple of nights on a boat, cruising around the bays. Rural Vietnam is not much different than what I pictured - both sides of the road are patchwork quilts of endless rice fields. It’s a different growing season here than it was a few short weeks ago in Bhutan, so the fields are all flooded and covered in thigh-high tall green rice shoots, versus the off-season brown of Bhutan. Occasionally there is a random field that lies slightly above the rice paddies that is used for other crops, but mostly it’s all rice. It's amazing how much rice powers the economies and diets in Asia. The individual fields are typically a couple hundred foot rectangles, bounded by earthen levees that keep the water in. Surrounding the fields are little waterways that get regularly diverted to different fields to increase or decrease the water levels. There are occasional gas generated water pumps that move water from place to place but I’ve also seen farmers simply cut through the levees and reposition them with wood, stones, plastic, plastic bags…whatever is available to help block or divert the water.

Ha Long Bay, on the northern coast of Vietnam, is a uniquely beautiful world famous UNESCO site. You might have seen it in movies (Bond - Tomorrow Never Dies...sort of, and Kong : Skull Island if you're a nerd (like me) and it’s famous for the stunning limestone karsts and islands that dot the bay, extending over a hundred miles or so. Karsts are island/mountain limestone towers jutting up from the water and are the little island/mountain thing that the space laser emerged from in the Bond movie back in the 60's. Reports are that there are around 1600 of them in the vicinity, so everywhere you look the landscape is covered in beautiful towers. Even the views from Ha Long town beach are stunning, as the limestone towers start roughly a mile from shore and fill the horizon. We've wanted to take a cruise through the bays and booked a two night / three day cruise, which is the only real cruise I’ve ever done, oddly enough. The bay is stunning and is a kind of cross between Ireland and Alaska, but slightly warmer and muggier. We really enjoyed being on the water but were disappointed with the amount of trash everywhere. We were heartened to learn that the govt is enacting measures to deal with the trash, but we definitely didn't want to swim after we had to clean all of the oil from our arms after a kayak tour. Kind of gross, to be honest. When you are on a cruise, you are surrounded by five to thirty other boats at any one time, so there are additional cottage industries that pop up to get as much of the tourist dollar as possible. One of my favorites was the roving band of 7-11 boats. They weren't really 7-11's, but these 12-15 foot long-tailed flat bottom boats were all over the place, piloted by women, and carried all sorts of items tourists might buy...from beers and wine to Pringles and Snickers. The ladies would drive around the bigger boats and, if they found a sucker (like me), they'd park next to your window and hoist a beer or six up using a long fishing net on a pole. I had to do it just for the novelty, but she actually had some really cold beers so it was an added bonus! If you get a chance to take the boat, do it - it's beautiful, especially on a clear night!

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Today (March 14) is my birthday and it’s a special one. We’re currently in Da Nang and 59 years ago today, my father was here while I was being born in the middle of America - 10,000 miles and 12 hours away. He was here because he was a poor kid and he’d been drafted into a war against his will. Maybe he could have gotten better grades or maybe he could have run to Canada or faked an injury and stayed out of the military, but he didn’t. I know that he hated the war because it took him almost 40 years to talk to us about it and even then you could tell that there were stories he wouldn’t and didn’t want to share. Mom said he watched his best friends die…I’m sure no different than thousands of others in the same situation. I also know that he hated the war because he tried to talk me out of applying to both the Naval and the Air Force Academies because of his experience on the ground…and also because he knew I wasn’t smart enough to get in so he didn’t want to see my hopes dashed!

It’s funny because after the Iraq War, when he saw the forces getting drawn into another endless war and coming home wounded and hurt, he became the biggest Marine booster in the world. He joined the Marine League and he and mom devoted themselves to the Marines charities, especially Toys 4 Tots, for years. They were so into it that he even asked me to teach him how to build a spreadsheet one year in order to help manage everything better. Everything became Marines this and Marines that and the young soldiers returning from service, making sure they received better treatment than he had so many years prior. Everything he owned became a Marines marketing tool. Hell, even all his underwear had Marines logos on them. He was especially overjoyed when his oldest granddaughter started dating a Marine that he could say Hoorah to.

Anyway, I wanted to bring them here years ago and try and understand what he went through, where he went through it, and how he survived, maybe provide a bit of understanding or closure...but he never wanted to go back. The pain was still too strong. So it was special, for me, that I got to spend a birthday here and honor my parents on the date that they couldn't be together. And goddamn, I couldn't imagine being here, with a friggin gun in my hand, at 20 years old and trying to shoot these people that just wanted to grow their rice. Half a world away from everything and these people were just trying to survive and be with their families. What a shitty way to start a new family. We toasted you dad, and mom too, on my birthday, at an amazing bar near the Marine base where we think you might have been and near the rice paddies we think you might have slogged through carrying that hideous mortar. Wish you could have been here and seen what an amazing place this is now and what amazing people they are. I know you would have hated the food but at least they have lots of amazing bread.

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At the beginning of our trip last year we just happened to be in the same city as Mitch’s cousin, Lori and Jeff, and got to meet them. They are doing a very similar trip - they retired (sort of) and are all over the world also. They do it a little differently in that they spend more time in each place and use mostly AirBnB’s. We loved meeting them and felt like we met instant lifelong friends. I’ve come to realize that anyone related by birth or circumstance to Mitch is automatically going to be someone that we love from the get-go. It just happened that Lori and Jeff were in Vietnam at the exact same time and almost the exact same place, so we got to spend a little time with them, again. The conversations are always different with fellow travellers like Lori and Jeff - not the typical "What's your favorite country?" but…how much luggage are you carrying, now? What do you do about laundry? What shirts/underwear do you wear (this is actually an important question for us because of laundry and odor control)? Are you tired of wearing the same clothes in EVERY picture? What are the surprises? Where do you want to return to the most? Stuff like that. We love all of the questions...that's one of the reasons we travel, but it's funny how we each relate and try to find the best way to travel and fit our individual needs/likes/dislikes. If you want to look them up, they post on Facebook as Travel and Vino - Slow Travel Group and have some awesome pics!

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We’re been gone a while now…15 months. The biggest thing we miss, besides Ted Drewes and tacos, is our family and friends. Don't ask me to rank them, though. I can’t tell you how often we think of the husky laugh, the quick-witted hilarity, the TikTok dance videos or just the big hearts of our nieces and nephews and tear up a little. I also miss dearly the deep conversations over a bottle or four of wine with my sister and our friends - sadly, the weekly texts and brief WhatsApp calls don’t have the physical hug option. Every once in a while we get lucky and find ourselves in the same part of the world as our friends and do everything we can to insert ourselves into their vacations. With the flexibility we have it makes skipping over a country or two pretty easy. Seriously, it goes like this:

Them: Where are you going to be in April?

Us: We might be in the Phillipines or we could be in Laos, why, where are you going to be? Them: Vietnam.

Us, 7 minutes later: We just switched the flight that we never booked to the other place that we aren't going to now...see you in Vietnam. Oh yeah, can you bring some Ted Drewes for Chris?

We got lucky in Vietnam, we had three sets of friends (see Jeff and Lori from above) all in the same two week span, which was amazing. Elliott and Bev, long-time friends and Lydia's TRC compatriots from S. Carolina, were there with his father, who runs an amazing charity geared toward Vietnamese children (called Children of Vietnam) and makes a pretty regular trip over. Elliott has been to the country a lot and has a wealth of information on travelling in the country. Elliott has motorcycled and biked around much of the country so it helped us get more comfortable jumping onto the back of a motorcycle for a countryside tour around Hoi Anh, which I can now strongly recommend. It was wonderful getting to spend a little bit of time with them, and it is incredible how soothing a southern US accent can make you feel! I was amazed at the change in Lydia, also...normally when she and Elliott get together they talk shop, but I don't think I heard more than a couple sentences regarding staffing and headhunting and margins and splits the entire time. I guess retirement is having the right effect on her!!!

Two of our closest friends, Shera and Jorge and their daughter Mereya, were attending an Eisenhower conference in Saigon and planned a whole week for us to hang out. It was also wonderful to spend such quality time with Mereya before she heads down to Paraguay for a 2+ year stint with the Peace Corps. We remember her as a baby in a carseat sitting by us during a wine tasting and now she's this beautiful adult human getting ready to change the world (for the better). If you look closely at some of the pics you can see an odd occurrence with the three of them - they like to be around each other. It was the cutest thing, I'd walk a little behind them and they'd just spontaneously start holding hands or hugging, as a family. And then Mereya would grab Lydia's hand. But nobody grabbed my hand...still smarting over that but such is the life of the plus 1.

An added benefit with Jorge is that he and I are almost exactly alike, except he’s smart and still works, but aside from that, we both love soccer and we’re the exact same size, so we can trade clothes. What this really means is that Jorge gets a bunch of my clothes, especially when we were downsizing our house, but I get none of his. Part of that is due to the fact I gave up on fashion and only wear REI quick drying stuff now but the big reason is his styling is late Cuban-Miami revisionist, so he is really the only beneficiary of our clothes arrangement.

Anyway, we got to spend a large portion of their holiday exploring the exact area I was keen to see, from Hoi Anh and My Son to Da Nang and Hue, with a little bit of Ho Chi Minh City thrown in. A lot of this was the area where my dad served with the Marines almost 60 years ago. Jorge planned out an excellent schedule of activities and events that we, in our retired slooowwww form of travel, would have almost completely missed. That includes things like riding in coconut boats, which was hilarious. And taking a lantern making class, which I really loved but realized that none of us will ever be in the creative arts industry. We visited some local artisans in Hoi Anh and learned that woodworking is MUCH harder than it looks. This tiny little guy came in and helped us carve some rudimentary etchings on blocks of wood and I naturally picked the most intricate to do (I chose our web site name, stupidly) so the little guy, who is a renowned master carver, came over and saved me from bludgeoning myself with a tiny chisel. It turned out that this guy was one of the most renowned carvers in Vietnam - one of the pieces he worked on took him 6 months and he won a national award with it!

From a travel perspective, Hoi Anh, while delightful, is too touristy now. I think it became popular and just keeps building on that popularity (for good reason) but it risks over-tourism and turning into a Phuket party zone, if it hasn't already gotten there. My Son is an excellent side trip and shouldn't be missed - it's an ancient temple site, akin to Angkor Wat. It has a bad history as it was the site of an American massacre during the war, but it has moved forward since and created a really nice tour opportunity. My favorite and my vote for most authentic city in Vietnam, was Hue. It was a couple hours drive north of Da Nang and the original capital of Vietnam, centuries ago. It was such a clean and beautiful city and didn't have any of the over-touristy leanings and party zones that cities to the south did. I'd strongly recommend adding it to any itinerary.

We had a wonderful time and probably talked way too much politics that week, but it really does soothe your soul when you get to spend time with those that you love!

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Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We spent a lot of time in HCMC, mostly because this is where we applied for new passports, so we didn't want to get too far away in case they came back early (haha!). Personally, I felt really at home here...the food, the people, the weather, it was all excellent. We really slowed things down here since we knew we had at least three to six weeks, and were able to hunt out the best ramen shops, the best bars, etc. As usual, we got on the Hop On Hop off bus and toured the city, and here's my plug for giving them a shot. As touristy as they seem, they almost always have the major sites mapped out and offer a convenient way of reaching everything. And often, the piped in tour-guide commentary is really informative. If nothing else, we get their maps and use them as a site guide.

I think the highlight of the city, aside from the food scene, was getting to a martial arts/comedy/dance/acrobatic show (The AO Bamboo Circus). It was a bit like Stomp but with a definite Vietnamese flair. Unfortunately they didn't allow pics so I have nothing to show of it! We also took 10 days to hang at the beach of Ho Tram, about a three hour drive east of HCMC. There are some pics included but it was probably the least pics I've taken over the whole trip, so far - talk about complete relaxation!

Can't say enough good about Vietnam and it was the right place to park for an extended stay. The people welcomed us everywhere we went with big smiles and even bigger bowls of Pho...yet another stop on this tour that I gained weight!!!