[RD] Backpacking Việt Nam (2019)

[warpus]

Dinh Bà Thủy Long Thánh Mẫu
A Beautiful Temple at the mouth of the Dương Đông river

I walked as far north as the Dương Đông river and ran into this temple at the very end of the beach. It was elevated up above the rocks and immediately drew my attention.

I couldn't find much information about this temple, but it seems to have been built with the safety of fishermen in mind. It is considered to be female and has a male temple counterpart nearby (that I had no idea about at the time)

Stairs leading up to an elevated terrace open you up to nice views of the water and beach.

Looking back south, the direction I had come from.. although I walked down the road that runs more or less parallel to the beach, out of view here.

 

[The_J]

While each word in German has a gender, the notion of male and female temples sounds pretty weird to me ^^.

 

[warpus]

While each word in German has a gender, the notion of male and female temples sounds pretty weird to me ^^.

In this case I think this particular male & female temple pair emerged out of the folklore tied to the temple history.. although I couldn't really figure out what that might have been. The male temple is about 80 m away and looks similar - there is a temple built in a similar style and a lighthouse right on the premises as well. It's laid out a bit differently, but looking at them you could probably guess they are related somehow. I am not sure how common this sort of naming scheme is in Vietnam or elsewhere though.

 

[warpus]

Stairs on the other side lead you down closer to the Bay of Thailand.

On the way out I got a shot of the back of the front gate

 

[warpus]

 

[warpus]

Phở Saigon

This restaurant is favoured by locals and gets great reviews from tourists as well, often being named the best bowl of phở on the island.

As the name of the restaurant might imply, the phở here is made according to southern Vietnamese preferences and influences.. I've had southern-style phở broth described to me as "a bit sweet" by somebody who lives in the north.. In fact, this person told me that southern Vietnamese cuisine is a bit sweet in general.. I could not taste this sweetness in the phở broth at first at all, but eventually realized what was meant by it.. It's not really that noticeable in terms of sweetness, but to somebody who is lives in Vietnam and is finely attuned to these differences in cuisine it seems to be noticable enough. To me the main difference was visual - the broth in the south was always a bit darker and not so translucent.

I ended up preferring northern style phở over southern style overall, and especially the northern style phở made in central Vietnam.. but it was great to be able to experience different takes on the same dish in different parts of the country.. such as that bowl I got in central Vietnam with the crushed peanuts.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I ended up preferring northern style phở over southern style overall, and especially the northern style phở made in central Vietnam.. but it was great to be able to experience different takes on the same dish in different parts of the country.. such as that bowl I got in central Vietnam with the crushed peanuts.

West Vietnam, Best Vietnam
Each place is different but that is a lot of onion and not much in the way of meat. Its more heavy on the broth with rich beef favor and fats which can be seen
You also need to add in the strong Thai basil and lemon which are provided as toppings to go with the richer broth.

But Id imagine Pho will continue to evolve as restaurants complete and try new things

 

[The_J]

West Vietnam, Best Vietnam

So... Laos ?

 

[warpus]

West Vietnam, Best Vietnam
Each place is different but that is a lot of onion and not much in the way of meat. Its more heavy on the broth with rich beef favor and fats which can be seen
You also need to add in the strong Thai basil and lemon which are provided as toppings to go with the richer broth.

But Id imagine Pho will continue to evolve as restaurants complete and try new things

I was staring at that white thing in the bowl trying to figure out what it is. I definitely do not remember that much fat being in there. I think it might be the way the light is reflecting off the noodles, but I'm not really sure.

I did do some research to get the most out of my phở eating experience in Vietnam. I knew to try a bit of the broth before anything else was added to the bowl, so that I could savour and appreciate it. Then I always squirted in the lime wedge and ripped apart some of the provided herbs (thai basil, mint, sometimes coriander or cilantro) and threw a bit of that in the bowl as well. After that I would squirt in some chilli and hoisin sauce and throw in some bean sprouts. I would take a short break then and allow the flavours to begin mixing, but rarely more than a minute or two. As you eat the flavours combine even further, leading to more complex flavours in the broth, almost as if the dish evolves as you eat it.

 

[warpus]

Last walk on the island

After finishing off the phở I ordered a beer to go and began the hour or so long walk back to my beach hut. There aren't really any open liquor sort of laws in Vietnam; If they exist they are not at all enforced. Walking down the busiest street in town with a beer in your hand is not a problem at all. Even so, it was rare to come across anyone drunk and stumbling through the streets, unless you ended up in a backpacker mecca in one of the larger cities.

This was my last evening on the island and I was definitely having a good time. I had a very pleasant walk to and around Dương Đông and my walk back to the beach hut was equally enjoyable.

One of the things I happened to come across on my walk back was a seafood restaurant with a fresh fish display right out front.

The next photo is technically from the previous day, but I am going to include it here even though it breaks the chronological order of the posts. It was not uncommon at all to see people burning things on the side of the road on the island, such as garbage..

This is fine..

 

[Samson]

That is a proper bonfire to have at the side of the road!!

 

[warpus]

Flight to Hồ Chí Minh City
Thursday, March 21, 2019

Hồ Chí Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam and serves as the country's economic centre as well as a major transportation hub. This region used to be scarcely populated and at various times controlled by Khmer, Champa, and Funan peoples until about 1623, when Vietnamese settlers arrived and began establishing a city. The official city name was changed from Sài Gòn to Saigon in 1862 by the French and to the current name in 1976. These days you will find both Hồ Chí Minh City and Saigon on the official city seal, and Sài Gòn is common to see as well. At first I actually wasn't sure if it might be a faux pas to use the wrong name for the city, but I learned that either of the 3 variants are perfectly fine to use.

The flight to the busiest airport in Vietnam took just about an hour. I considered taking a bus, but that would have been an 10+ hour long affair..

I checked into a reasonably priced central hostel at about 1pm. It included 2 free beers for every night I stayed there and promised a relatively quiet private room with a private bathroom and working amenities. It was about a 15 minute walk away from the crazy loud part of town where most of the hostels and tourist trap bars are located.

I checked in and took a look at the forecast

The joke is that HCMC has two seasons: Hot and Very Hot. I was lucky enough to have arrived during the Hot season.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Like Houston, TX in the US: Summer and August.

 

[warpus]

Like Houston, TX in the US: Summer and August.

Here's a comparison of these two cities mean, max, and min temperatures for every month of the year (just because I was bored and looked it up). In the case of HCMC in the summer months it's the humidity that makes it "very hot"

 

[Birdjaguar]

HCMC is very consistent! Thanks.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I was staring at that white thing in the bowl trying to figure out what it is. I definitely do not remember that much fat being in there. I think it might be the way the light is reflecting off the noodles, but I'm not really sure.

Looks like a Noodle
Oh some places they cant get fresh made noodles so they use the dried kind which imo is way inferior mostly in the US where rice noodles are not a staple daily food.
I also end up drinking the broth as well, because dont waste good food.

 

[warpus]

Definitely! Sipping the remaining broth at the end of a bowl of pho is one of my favourite parts of the whole meal. That's when all the different flavours from the various ingredients have had time to mix together and produce a complex mix of flavours that you can sit back and enjoy before it's all gone and you have to pay and leave

 

[warpus]

Bún Thịt Nướng

By the time I checked in to my room I was starving.. I picked out a restaurant a 10 minute walk away that was supposed to serve good vermicelli bowls and went for a walk. Ten minutes later I found myself in a relatively busy part of town that seemed a bit run down. I distinctly remember stepping in a pile of some sort of a thick black goo, wiping my foot off the sidewalk, and eventually stumbling into the restaurant. It was small and provided a handful of small tables and chairs for the patrons.. and if we're being completely honest just seemed quite rough around the edges overall, just like the part of town it was in.

The speciality here were vermicelli bowls. The one I ordered came with cold vermicelli noodles, grilled pork, fresh herbs, julienned carrots, roasted peanuts, spring onion, and nước mam fish sauce. It cost the equivalent of $1.50 USD or so and ended up being incredible (according to a social media post I made at the time). I remember it as one of the better meals I had on my trip overall..

 

[warpus]

First Impressions of Hồ Chí Minh City

Overall I found Hồ Chí Minh City to be a bit busier and more hectic than Hanoi. The major streets here seemed wider to me, with more traffic on the streets, making it harder to navigate as a pedestrian. I got the sense that HCMC had more of a "big city" urban feel, while Hanoi felt more traditional and down to earth.

I spent a bit of time in the afternoon walking around the neighbourhood where my hostel was located, but it was really hot and humid outside so that did not last long. Later on in the day I met up with a friend I had made in Hanoi; she was in town to visit a temple and was able to find some time to show me around the city.

The first real place of interest worth noting is the Bến Thành Market, located only a 10 minute walk or so from my hostel. There was a lot of construction nearby, with some streets and sidewalks closed off.. so it was a bit tough to navigate this part of town. At this point in the day the market had already converted to a night market, with the indoors stalls being closed and outdoors stalls opening up around the perimeter. Unfortunately I don't really have any good shots of any of this, so this will have to do

Afterwards we walked over to the super loud and happening Bùi Viện street, which is a part of town with a lot of hostels, bars, and clubs targeted at backpackers. This is the "backpacker mecca" part of town, where you will find overpriced drinks and food, as well as relatively cheap rooms nearby that no doubt are so loud that you will not really be able to get much rest. Nevertheless, this place was worth visiting for the atmosphere, at least for a couple dozen minutes or so.. No photos to show off yet, but I did return here another evening just by myself, so you will see what the street looks like a bit later!

We found a reasonably rated bar and ended the night with a couple bottles of a local beer.

 

[warpus]

My Review of The Roost Hostel

I ended up having a not so great time at the hostel I had booked for 3 nights.. The main problem was one of noise. The windows did not close properly and let in a lot of the noise from the street down below, preventing me from napping during the day or sleeping much at night. Fortunately my friend was able to negotiate an early checkout with the lone employee at the hostel in Vietnamese and after a phone call to the owner and about an hour of waiting I was out of there and checking into a nice comfortable hotel room.

I wrote a short review of the experience right after. I am including it here:

Do not ever stay at the Roost hostel. Crazy sounds right outside the window all day long. Window doesn’t close properly and lets in all the sound. Napping impossible even with white noise app on full blast and earplugs in my ears. Crazy sounds died down a bit in the late evening, but revving motorcycles kept going all night. At 2 or 3am more crazy BS started unfolding right outside the window. Sounds of construction, heavy machinery, people yelling, metal pipes being thrown around, this kept going until 5 or 6am when some guy started singing via a microphone and PA system right outside the window, I couldn’t tell but possibly later joined by a competing singing guy alternating with the first one. Street market sounds all early morning, people yelling, haggling, and all the sounds I mentioned above merging into an orchestra of psychological warfare. Once I actually managed to fall asleep I would drift in and out of consciousness, every time reminded of the unbearable mental torture that was my reality. The AC was designed to cool a walk in closet at best, each time you flushed the toilet it kept flushing forever until manually reset, and the shower was a super slow trickle more appropriate for a family of ants and definitely not anything larger than a small cat. And somehow this place got super amazing reviews - some of the best on booking . com! I can only imagine that the person who used the word “quiet” was taught English words to mean the exact opposite as a joke, or was paid off by the hostel to blatantly lie about everything.. or somehow all rooms at this place are amazing except the one I ended up with.

It took over an hour of confusing exchanges with the hostel staff and the owner via phone for them to finally refund half my stay. I am now staying in a much nicer hotel in a room with no {censored} windows. Technically I am today paying for both rooms, so if anybody out there is bored with waterboarding and/or other forms of torture, and wants to subject him/herself to the horrors of the Roost Hostel, please contact me soon before the CIA catches wind of this post and takes over the room so that they can continue their inhumane torture of suspected terrorists.

Thanks for all your help getting me out of this mess, you know who you are

I am now going to sleep in a nice comfortable bed, hoping that this experience doesn’t lead to ‘Nam flashbacks at some point in the future