Green Around the Globe » Vietnam

Out from Chinese Censorship

Keith — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:00:40 +0000

The land of the rising sun has provided us with many things over the last two days. Delicious sushi and beer, orderly street crossings and clean air to name just a few. But one of the most exciting things for flashpackers like us has to be the uncensored and incredibly high-speed internet we have at our hostel. We have had our Mainland Southeast Asia highlight video finished for weeks but despite having a VPN we were unable to get it past the Chinese censors and uploaded to Vimeo. Check it out below, and if you have not yet seen the first two episodes you can check them out here.

Also be sure to to check out our guest post on the Art of Backpacking here. The post details our experiences and features some of our best pictures from Expo 2010 in Shanghai. We will soon have a post here highlighting the different sustainability efforts we saw at the Expo, but this post gives our overview and recommendations if you are planning a visit to Shanghai and the Expo. Be sure to leave a comment on Art of Backpacking with your thoughts.

Lunar New Year in Saigon

Amy — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:32:58 +0000

During the Tet (lunar new year) celebrations in Vietnam, the people of Ho Chi Minh City (still also called Saigon by many of the locals) clear out and return to their villages to visit family for the extended holiday. Being in Saigon for Tet is a unique experience that has both upsides and downsides.

The Good:

- There are incredibly beautiful flower displays in the center of town along Nguyen Hue Street in front of the People’s Committee Building. The whole street is shut down to traffic and the area is crowded with families out for a stroll, taking photographs of the kids and relaxing. The atmosphere is very pleasant, with everyone smiling and enjoying themselves.

Worshippers ring the bell and circle under the horse for good luck

- The rest of town is very quiet. In fact, you can actually cross the street with relative ease and without breathing in excessive motorbike fumes. This makes the city much more walkable, and a nice change from our experience in Hanoi where we feared for our lives at every intersection. However, if you’re looking for that quintessential Vietnam experience of stepping off the curb and into chaos, you’ll definitely be disappointed.

- The pagodas in the Colon (Saigon’s Chinatown, located in District 5) spring to life as hundreds of locals come to make offerings and burn incense as they pray for an auspicious new year. Not only do you get to take in the beautiful architecture and Buddha statuary, you get to see the local religion in practice.

The Bad:

- Many, if not most of the local restaurants outside of the tourist areas are closed, thus limiting your dining options. However, there are still many delicious meals to be had, even if that out-of-the-way place you heard was a must-visit is closed.

- If you are looking to shop, you’re probably also out of luck as many stores shut down for at least the three days of Tet, if not the entire week or longer. If you’re traveling with a backpack like us this could be a plus – there’s a lot less temptation to buy things that you can’t really carry with you anyway.

- Major tourist sites, including the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum, were very crowded. Not surprising with the entire country on vacation, there were many Vietnamese tourists in addition to the foreign tourists enjoying their days off by taking in the sites.

She kissed the camera when we showed her this picture

For us, the upsides of celebrating Tet in Saigon far outweighed the downsides. We loved the feeling of having the city to ourselves and being able to walk most places without the constant stress of trying to avoid being hit by a motorbike. And being able to share in the celebrations with the relaxed and friendly locals more than made up for the crowded sites and limited restaurant choices.

Discovering Vietnamese Cuisine

Keith — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:01:30 +0000

You can now officially call it an addiction. After three cooking classes Amy and I are hooked. We love the discovery and cultural understanding that comes with cooking classes. Our third class was in Hoi An, Vietnam at the Red Bridge Cooking School. Our half-day class started with a tour of the local open-air market. And while rubber boots may have been a more appropriate footwear choice than the sandals we had on, we avoided the growing puddles of melted ice that was being used to keep the fish, pork and beef very fresh. Market tours always remind me of one of my favorite places in Philadelphia, Reading Terminal Market. With its stalls of seemingly endless culinary options, I love walking the aisles and taking in the sights, smells and fellow shoppers.

However, I have learned that in the developed world you often find local markets are less organized and sanitized. And while that maybe a turnoff at first, what I am coming to appreciate is that while these local markets are very different than the sterile supermarkets of the West, they provide access to fresh protein, vegetables and fruit for the local people at affordable prices. While not entirely responsible for the 30lbs I have lost in the last 5 months, I do believe that the significant reduction of processed food in my diet has been a major contributor. But I digress, back to the cooking class. After our market tour we boarded a boat for the scenic 15-minute ride up the river to the school.

Upon arriving at the school our instructor began the class with fresh spring rolls. This is one of the dishes I was most excited to learn about having enjoyed them in Hanoi and Hue. The fresh spring roll could not be further from the greasy egg roll of every U.S. Chinese restaurant. We started by first making our rice paper wrapper. A simple rice batter is poured onto a cotton cloth that is stretched over a large pot of boiling water. A ladle of batter is then poured into the middle and gently spread over the cloth using the bottom of the ladle, very much like making a crepe. After a minute or two of steaming it was time to lift them off and roll them with a delicious and healthy filling of bean sprouts, cucumber, carrot, spring onion and cooked shrimp.

Our next dish was a local specialty called Banh Xeo, also known as the Hoi An Pancake in English (see recipe below). The pancake starts with a ladle of rice batter flavored with turmeric for a golden color. To that you add cooked, chopped pork and shrimp. As the batter sets you layer on bean sprouts and spring onion. With a flip of the wrist you finish it by giving the top a quick sear. After removing from the pan, you roll the pancake in rice paper with mint, coriander, Vietnamese basil, carrot and banana flower, cut and plate it with a peanut sauce.

We made three other dishes in our three hours at the Red Bridge School. I would highly recommend the half day class to anyone visiting Hoi An. Classes cost $24/person, and after the cooking instruction ends you sit with your classmates to enjoy even more delicious Vietnamese cuisine.

In addition to the traditional food we had at Red Bridge, Vietnam has a lot to offer the foodie tourist. The influence of the French is ever-present with baguettes, pastries and plenty of proper pork bacon – which after the first three months of our trip in Muslim countries was a welcome sight. I had more than one lunch of a BLT on a baguette and an iced coffee or Saigon lager.

Finally, in a perfect example of “you don’t always get what you pay for,” one of our best meals in Vietnam was also one of the cheapest and from a cart on the sidewalk outside Café Goethe in Hanoi. Banh Mi is a street food popular in Northern Vietnam that in its simplest form consists of sliced pork on a baguette. What makes Café Goethe’s different it that they cook their pork donner kebab style, add pickled cabbage, fresh tomato and lettuce, topping it all with a spicy mustard sauce. And for 15,000VND ($0.75) it is an amazingly delicious deal.

While I have highlighted our best culinary experiences in Vietnam, overall it was not as amazing we expected. Maybe our expectations were too high; beyond the great food described here, we ate lots of mediocre Chinese and Western food. Unlike Thailand, in Vietnam the great food is a bit more of a search, and after a long day sightseeing sometimes we just did not have the energy to find the hidden gems. But when we did, they were worth the hunt.

Hoi An Pancakes (Banh Xeo)

Rice Batter:

1 cup dried rice flour
1 ½ cups fresh water
Pinch of salt
½ tsp turmeric powder (or curry, saffron or food color powder)

Mix all ingredients together and leave at room temperature for 1 hour.

Pancake Ingredients:

150 grams finely cut shrimp, shelled and deveined (cooked or raw is ok) or any other seafood
2 thin strips of pork, chopped (cooked)
Vegetable oil for frying
2 thinly sliced spring onions
250 grams bean sprouts
Topping mix – mint, coriander, Vietnamese basil, carrot, banana flower
Packet of rice paper or cabbage leaves

Add shrimp and pork to rice batter and heat 2 TBS oil in a small (5 inch) non-stick frying pan. Stir the batter and pour just enough into the pan to create a thin layer. Top with a few bean sprouts and spring onion. Fry over medium to high heat until the bottom of the pancake is crisp. Drain off excess oil and flip pancake over. Fold the pancake in half and turn out onto a plate. Repeat with the remaining ingredients, adding a little oil to the frying pan for each pancake.

To serve, each person takes a pancake, adds a little topping mix and wraps it in a sheet of rice paper. Dip in peanut sauce before eating.

Out of the Comfort Zone (and into the Water)

Amy — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:01:05 +0000

One of our goals for this trip around the world is to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and have new experiences. For me, that’s meant getting into the kitchen – we’ve taken three cooking classes so far – and into the air, both on planes and, most recently, hooked up to a parasail. For Keith, pushing himself has meant exercising calm and patience on long, hot bus rides and learning new sports such as scuba. After completing more than 20 dives, Keith decided it was time to give windsurfing a shot. For your awe and amusement, here is some video from Nha Trang, Vietnam that I shot of Keith’s first attempt at this new sport:

Windsurfing from Keith Sutter on Vimeo.

Northern Vietnam

Keith — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:01:27 +0000

Our eight days in the northern Vietnam were spent among three cities: Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay. We did quite a bit of sightseeing, trekking and soaking up the feel of the north. Below you will find a brief overview of the highlights and a selection of our favorite pictures from these cities. Enjoy!

In Hanoi, some of the most interesting tourist attractions provided insight into the views and beliefs of the ruling Communist party. While Vietnamese Communism seems to be largely relegated to politics with few of the self-destructive economic reforms of the former Soviets of Khmer Communists, there is no shortage of Communist propaganda in both the Hoa Lo Prison and the Ho Chi Minh Museum. The Prison museum focuses largely on the crimes committed against the Vietnamese people by the French during their occupation. It contrasts this brutal treatment with the “wonderful treatment” afforded the American pilots captured during the American War. There are pictures of Americans playing volleyball, celebrating Christmas and even being given souvenirs upon their release. I would bet most of the pilots would not find this a fair or balanced depiction.

We left Hanoi on a comfortable overnight sleeper train to Sapa in the mountains of the northwest. Our two days were spent trekking through green terraced rice paddies and small ethnic minority Vietnamese villages. Our guide for the two days was a Black Hmong. In addition to our guide we also had a whole troop of Black Hmong women and girls that escorted us the entire first morning. They would help us across tricky parts of the path, make us animal shapes from fern leaves and practice their English by asking an endless stream of questions: “How old are you? How many brothers and sisters do you have? Are you married?” and Amy’s favorite, “How many kids do you have?” It did not come as a surprise when the hand embroidery came out as we got close to our lunch stop. And since it was handmade and they had walked nearly three hours with us we both bought a small belt. While very attractive I have no idea what we will us them for, but it was hard to say no. Our escorts are quite the practiced saleswomen.

After Sapa we were off to Halong Bay. While the unique rock pillars and cliffs were amazing, the weather was not very cooperative for pictures. It was overcast and hazy for nearly three days, so we did our best trying to get a couple of shots when the sun would peek through. We had a great time cruising on our boat and seeing the National Park on Cat Ba Island. After a brief stop back in Hanoi it was off to Hue by overnight bus. This bus was not your standard motor coach. The seats were on two levels and all reclined to nearly flat beds. This made the average speed of 25mph fly by as we slept in relative comfort with the help of ear plugs and Benadryl. At some point in the night we crossed the 17th parallel and the former DMZ, marking our arrival in southern Vietnam.

Vietnamese Coffee = Jet Fuel

Keith — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:01:07 +0000

Coffee was a very important part of my morning back home, so I wanted to write a quick post about the most potent and delicious caffeine delivery systems we have yet encountered on our trip. To set a base line on my level of caffeine addiction, back home I would start each day with a large, 24oz Dunkin Donuts coffee, either store bought or home brewed. So I am no stranger to a big shot of caffeine. Admittedly, in the last four months of travel I have been somewhat irregular in my caffeine intake so I may have become more sensitive to a big caffeine rush. However, I am no novice. As we have traveled I have had to get my morning fix in a myriad of ways, including: Turkish coffee, hot Lipton tea, Coke, and even occasionally the horrid Nescafe instant coffee. The most remarkable brew so far was the Luwak coffee in Bali.

Luwak coffee, or Civet coffee, is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside the berries pass through their system undigested. Interestingly, these animals will not survive in captivity so thier poo has to be collected in the wild, letting the civets roam and have pretty normal lives. For about $3 a cup the coffee was milder and a smoother brew than the regular Bali blend which went for $0.50.

Upon arriving in Hanoi, Vietnam I discovered the wonderful caffeine and sugar rush that comes from Vietnamese iced coffee. As far as I am concerned this is the perfect blend of a cool, sweet and even slightly chocolaty beverage. They start with a strong brewed local coffee which after brewing is kept cool in the fridge. To that they add a generous amount of sweetened condensed milk and ice to keep it cold. I enjoyed my first iced Vietnamese coffee during lunch at Cafe Paris in Hanoi and I made the mistake of having a second one. At only 12,000D ($0.60), why not? I will tell you why not, because at 1am that night I was still staring at the ceiling unable to sleep. On the upside, I was incredibly productive all day. I helped Amy write a guest blog post for Briefcase to Backpacker, edited and uploaded pictures from Indonesia and finished reading my latest book, When Broken Glass Floats. All of that on top of sightseeing and some provision shopping in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. I am not sure how the Vietnamese have not yet taken over the world. With this potent brew getting them going every morning I would think that there would be no limit to what they could achieve.

Lest you think this was a fluke, I had another iced Vietnamese coffee in Hue at a French bakery with the same results: high productivity all day until I finally drifted off at 1am. Maybe the best part of this caffeine rush is that I do not wake up exhausted after only five or six hours of sleep, and if I ever feel a little slow I know that a cafe is never far away with an iced pick-me-up waiting. With all the new parents I know back home maybe there is a market for this in the States?

I know there are lots of caffeine junkies out there, so let’s hear your best caffeine stories, or lack there of, in the comments below.