Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. A few hundred more follow as each sends ripples across a deep brown pool. You could watch the slow ceremony go by or take in the environment around you. In one corner there are locals sat around slowly sipping in between a steady stream of conversation. Across the room a girl is posing for the perfect Instagram post. Outside the window there are hundreds of motorbikes zooming by each minute as they somehow narrowly miss swiping other vehicles. And in front of you, the drips and drops have just stopped. You remove the metal filter and take a small sip. A strong and flavorful punch hits your taste buds before stimulating your energy and heart rate. As you sip your way to the bottom, only one word can truly describe the moment: bliss.

If nothing else, Vietnam was a month of coffee and cuisine. Across dozens of cafes, I not only consumed many black Vietnamese coffees but also others including coffee with condensed milk, coconut coffee, yogurt coffee, egg coffee, Americano coffee, espresso coffee, cold brew coffee, and coffee made from beans that a weasel had previously excreted. On the dining front, I feasted on countless delicious dishes that varied by region and city. I’m now of the belief that Vietnamese food is second only in this world to Tex-Mex. It was THAT good.

In between the cafes and restaurants, I traveled to eight different Vietnamese cities—Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta, Dalat, Hoi An, Hue, Halong Bay, Sapa, and Hanoi—while accompanied by my grandmother. While I was admittedly nervous about how the travel styles of a twenty-three and a seventy-six year old might conflict over the course of about four weeks, I can tell you on the other side that it went very well. As we compromised our way through motorbikes, planes, hotels, and homestays, we made a lifetime’s worth of memories and adventures across Vietnam, for which I feel beyond lucky and thankful.

Instead of writing a post for each city or some other format, I’ve decided to tell eight short stories in one post—one from each place we visited on our route from Saigon to Hanoi.

**If you’re reading this post via email, I’ve been notified that many pictures are not showing up so I recommend opening the post in your browser while I work on fixing this problem. Thanks for reading!

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

Before arriving in Vietnam, my prior knowledge was a haze of half-remembered history lessons of a country where we (the US) were involved in a war back in the 60s and 70s. When someone said Vietnam, the first images that came to mind were symbols of communism and scenes from Forrest Gump. The only time I had ever eaten Vietnamese food was on a date in college where we went to a new pho restaurant. We didn’t end up working out as a couple, which could have been a contributing reason for my having written off the cuisine. Thus, Saigon served as a point of clarity for me both on Vietnam’s history as well as its culture and cuisine. Through visiting the tunnels where the Viet Cong lived and hid, followed by the Reunification Palace where the war ended, and then finally the War Remnants Museum that recounts the war from a somewhat bias perspective, I acquired knowledge from a different point of view on the Vietnam War (or the American War as those in Vietnam and elsewhere refer to it). While there are still some questions I have, what I took away was that the war appears to have been more politically based with lasting economic effects. Not once in my travels did I feel much distrust or negativity from the Vietnamese people although I heard and read many stories of the widespread poverty and physical effects that still exist for them.

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Despite a long history of colonization and war, Vietnam has kept much of its traditional cuisine intact while taking in external influences to expand and recreate its native dishes. At its core, a common Vietnamese meals contains a meat, a vegetable, and some derivative of rice. The sheer amount of variations in which they accomplish this basic structure is staggering. And as simple as the meals sometimes are, they all seem to pack in unparalleled flavor. I’d be lying if I told you I had a bad meal in Vietnam during my four weeks.

Mekong Delta

Nearly every year for the past decade or so, my dad and I have chartered a boat off of the South Texas Coast to fish for my birthday. Among my many hobbies, fishing belongs somewhere in my top ten. Upon leaving to Thailand I set the intention to go fishing but still had failed to do so. Then came mud fishing in the Mekong Delta. At our homestay, my grandmother and I were given black robes to change into, led to some muddy canals, handed a fishing basket along with a couple bamboo traps, and then given our instructions. Step 1: Feel around in the mud and watch the ripples until you find/feel either a catfish or a snake fish. Step 2: Try to cover the fish with the trap before it swims away. Step 3: Reach into the top of the trap and grab the fish by the gills. Step 4: Insert the fish into the basket and leave it submerged enough for the fish to breathe. Step 5: If you want a decent dinner tonight, catch more than one fish. The results: I caught three while my grandma trapped one but couldn’t grasp it. Don’t worry, I was gracious enough to share my catch with her for dinner that night.

Dalat

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At times, Saigon’s heat can be unbearable. In response, both locals and tourists alike escape up into the cool and breezy mountains of Dalat. Back in the war it was a center of rest and recreation for soldiers to take a break after prolonged time on the battlefield and even today it’s known to be one of the most beautiful and relaxing places in Vietnam. To ensure we didn’t miss any part of it, my grandmother and I signed up for a 130-kilometer motorbike tour of the countryside. At 8am the next morning, a couple locals nicknamed T and V showed up on high powered motorcycles to maneuver us across various terrain and activities including a flower farm, multiple viewpoints, a Weasel coffee farm, a pagoda, a silk warehouse, two waterfalls, a mushroom farm, and a chicken farm. Each and every stop was narrated in amazing detail by the trip’s leader, T. In fact, his own story may have been the most impressive of all.

Prior to rise of communism in Vietnam, T’s family held a position of prominence and wealth in southern Vietnam. Then, they were stripped of all of their possessions and forced up into the mountains to start from scratch. Without any skills or place to go, they found themselves about 10km outside of Dalat learning to farm and live off of the land. T rode his bicycle up and down the mountains and into the city and then back twice a day just to attend school. With pride and an unforgettable eye-to-eye smile, he recited to me that just 50% of students will matriculate into high school. From there, only about 10% will graduate and just 1% will go on to college where just a handful will come out on the other end with a degree. He was one of the lucky few. Despite everything his family had been through and the literal and figurative mountains of obstacles in front of him, T found success. Throughout the day he never ceased to smile and by every indication he seemed to truly love and enjoy his tour guide job. I found him to be a truly inspiring figure.

Hoi An

Your normal cafe experience isn’t much different from the post’s opening description. You’ll find a buzzing atmosphere of friends, photos, chit chat, computers, smartphones, and of course coffee. Then, there’s Reaching Out Teahouse. Smack in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Hoi An’s picturesque Ancient Town you’ll find a subdued cafe marked by a black-painted wooden exterior. As you walk through the doorway, the noise suddenly fades as you’re submersed in silence. Without a word, a hostess will guide you to an open seat and hand you a menu and a pencil. You check off what you want, exchange smiles, and hand your order back. A few minutes go by while you experience the contrast of a quiet room with the busy street just outside the open-aired windows. If you haven’t questioned the odd environment yet, you might look at a small card in front of you that explains the Reaching Out story: Reaching Out was established in 2000 with the vision of providing opportunities for people of disability to learn skills and gain meaningful employment so that they are able to integrate fully with their communities and lead independent and fulfilling lives. Every server and worker in the teahouse has some disability that limits their verbal communication abilities and to remedy that obstacle, interaction is entirely facilitated through gestures and a small board with written common phrases and objects that you might wish to reference. Throughout an hour in this cafe, I enjoyed the unique ambiance and sipped tea in a state of zen.

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Hue

Pronounced hoo-ay, not hugh, Hue sits right in the center of Vietnam and was the site of one of the Vietnam War’s most devastating battles. Beyond its history of blood and destruction, Hue is also home to what was my favorite dish in all of Vietnam: Banh Khoai (also called the Hue pancake). However, rather than a sweet crepe-like dish that the word pancake elicits, this version consists of a fried batter of rice flour, water, and turmeric powder, which is then topped with slivers of pork, shrimp, carrot, straw mushroom, and bean sprouts. On the side, you’re served a plate of leafy greens and the most flavorful peanut dipping sauce this world offers. The end product is a few crispy and savory bites of heaven. Some might argue I loved it so much because of its taco-like look but truly it was the perfect blend of ingredients with an indescribable, mouth-watering sauce. I’m definitely going to be dreaming of Banh Khoai for years to come.

Halong Bay

If I’m being honest, we spent all of an hour actually in Halong Bay over two nights and three days (our tour was mostly of Bai Tu Long Bay). And if I’m even more honest, I spent about 36 of my 48 hours onboard curled up in a bed in between dashes to and from the toilet. I’ve narrowed down my stomach bug to either a cucumber or a veggie burger I had the day before. If you’re asking me, it’s just another clear sign that being a vegetarian is the wrong choice—just saying. Apart from a day of misery, Halong Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay were magnificent. The mist settled in between the 1,969 islets that compose the bay made the scenery absolutely breathtaking.

Sapa

Shopping?? You walk, I follow? Buy from me later?? Sir/Madam, you like? If there’s a place that has more variations to solicit purchases than Sapa, I have yet to visit or hear about it. You could be 10 meters from the city center or 10 kilometers deep in the valley and a Hmong woman will be around the corner waiting to hawk you in attempt to sell handmade trinkets and textile goods. It got to the point where the running joke when you saw a Hmong woman up ahead was someone saying, “uh-oh looks like a shopping stall (or supercenter if there was a group) up ahead, should we veer off course?” Now don’t get me wrong, they are master hustlers and deserve all credit for their determination, but at times it could be a bit much—particularly when you were trying to enjoy the mountains, rivers, and rice terraces. Extreme soliciting aside, Sapa was simply beautiful.

Hanoi

My final city in Vietnam ended just how the first started—with coffee and cuisine. On the penultimate night, a local university student led my grandmother and I across the Old Quarter to some of the city’s local restaurants and cafes to get an authentic street food experience. Then on my final day I took a coffee tour with a local via the company Backstreet Academy to get one final Vietnamese-style caffeine fix. We might’ve skipped some of the typical sights but I wouldn’t have ended it any other way!

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What’s Next?

With a month through Vietnam wrapped up, I’ll be celebrating Songkran (Thai New Year) up in Chiang Mai with friends before heading back to the States at the end of April. I’ve had quite a few questions about what my first meal/activity will be when I get back to Texas. So in case you’re wondering as well, I’m thinking I’ll hit up the CrossFit gym followed by some of my dad’s BBQ and some Shiner Blondes.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post then drop a comment below or share it with a friend and as always, I encourage you to #gotravel!