Ho Chi Minh City

Jeff and I are hoping to do another overseas assignment after Jakarta, and we got the chance to check out what expat life is all about in Ho Chi Minh City.  We crashed with our good friends Clayton, Chantel, and their lab/boxer mix Ginger.  This part of the trip was less about sightseeing and more about relaxing and enjoying some time with C&C since we haven't seen them in over 2 years.  We were so busy socializing and enjoying ourselves that we completely failed to take any good group pictures.  Had we been a bit more ambitious you'd see us lounging by the pool with drinks in hand, getting a massage with G&Ts, riding bikes around the expat complex, playing corn hole, enjoying delicious wine and beer, grilling, baking cookies, and playing board games.

Beautiful street in the complex, we wish our apartment complex had streets like this!

Chantel also showed us how to make authentic Vietnamese coffee - it's almost like a personal french press only with the addition of sweetened condensed milk at the end.

Dessert in a cup

We did venture out for a little shopping at Cho Ben Thanh Market, where we stocked up on our favorite Vietnamese treat - dried, sweetened coconut strips, and found a hat for much anticipated Kentucky Derby Party.

Don't worry this is not the dried coconut

On our last day in HCMC, we made our way to the legendary Lunch Lady that Anthony Bourdain made famous in his show.  There's only 1 type of soup made each day and it varies.  We happened to show up on seafood soup day which was even better than we imagined.  Jeff was also here a few years ago and he said the price had really gone up; we paid a whopping $7 for 2 large bowls of seafood soup with fresh veggies and noodles, 6 fresh spring rolls, and 6 fried spring rolls (definitely still a smokin deal in my opinion).  

The picture hardly captures Jeff's excitement, he was like a kid on Christmas morning bouncing in his seat waiting for the soup to come.

Our time in HCMC was a perfect end to our Vietnam trip and it was so fun to compare crazy stories of living abroad.  If it was up to me, we'd be packing our bags in a few years to move to this beautiful country.

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Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

As we boarded our junk boat for a 2 night cruise, we were awestruck by both the stunning views and the number of boats loading up tourists. We enjoyed the leisurely ride out to Ha Long Bay, and then boarded a smaller boat to take us to Dau Go Cave (Cave of Wonders).  The splendor was marred by the concrete covering over many areas in the cave, but a little imagination helped us picture how amazing the cave must have been.

View from just outside the cave

Next we kayaked around the bay enjoying the beautiful sunset and challenging ourselves to paddle in a straight line.

The next morning we set of for Cat Ba were we enjoyed more kayaking and cave exploring - thankfully these ones had escaped the artistic concrete touch of Dau Go Cave. Since most tourists only take 1 night trips, we were able to get away from the crowds and enjoy the nature and peacefulness mostly to ourselves.

View from inside one of the caves

We had to cool off after our strenuous paddling

Our final stop that day was a pearl farm which was pretty unexciting until a junk boat came barreling into the dock at top speed of about 10 MPH while blowing the air horn. There were no injuries and just a few boards were damaged on the dock, but it certainly was good for some hysterical laughter afterwards.

Sunset on our last night

Our final morning we cruised back through the limestone cliffs while I took an unbelievable amount of pictures trying to get the perfect postcard scene to send our family.

It seemed like such a quick trip, but I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling in Vietnam.

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Hanoi, Vietnam

A few years ago Jeff's crusty Uncle claimed that Vietnam was the worst place he'd ever seen. Since I disagreed with most of his declarations that day, I decided I had to judge the land of Pho and Banh Mi for myself. Living just a quick flight away gave us just the opportunity. The Old Quarter in Hanoi was our first stop and we certainly had our share of adventures.

For the most part we wandered around the maze of streets, practicing our Vietnamese street crossing skills and trying food we found along the way. Getting across the street is no joke given the hordes of motorbikes swerving, honking, and speeding in all directions. The key seems to be avoiding the large buses and trucks while maintaining a steady pace (always forward) so the motorbikes can judge your trajectory and adjust their direction to avoid you.

Drinks with a view over Hoan Kiem Lake

Snail and clams for dinner at a street vendor, notice Jeff waiting patiently in the top left

Local coffee shop - these tiny little stools are everywhere.

We took a street food walking tour to try some local favorites and learn more about the cuisine. Our dinner included mushroom stuffed rice pancakes, bia hoi (fresh beer), floating cake balls, fried eel with rice noodles, pho ga (chicken soup), and grilled fish.  The food was so tasty, but we had to pass on the egg coffee for dessert since I'd been feeling nauseous since before the tour. That night we'd pre-booked a show at the water puppet theater, but about 5 minutes before the start disaster struck and Jeff had to usher me back to the hotel while I hobbled along trying to keep everything down. Jeff was also hit with food poisoning sometime that night and we spent the next day sleeping through our fever and dealing with our stomach "issues".   

I had tourist written all over me and this lady tried to charge us $5 for the picture .  We settled for  a bag of pineapple for a reasonable $1.

Dong Xuan Market

We recovered just in time to enjoy our last day in Hanoi. After a huge breakfast to make up for not eating the day before, we headed straight for a coffee shop to try the popular egg coffee, an extremely addicting treat that I'm going to have to find a recipe for.

Vietnamese egg coffee - so sweet and indulgent!

The finale of the trip was seafood cooking class where we learned squid cakes, shrimp wrapped in bettal leaf, steamed clams, and crab/pomelo salad.  The food was so fresh, tasty, and easy to make.  Hopefully I can replicate the taste when we get back to Jakarta.

Our favorite was the crab/pomelo salad (in front)

Next up is Halong Bay for our first cruise!

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Yogyakarta and Durian

Last weekend our good pal Tane and his family came for a visit from Hong Kong. Since Jakarta isn't much of a tourist hotspot, we headed to Yogyakarta for some relaxing and sightseeing. First on our agenda was a visit to Borobudur, a Buddhist temple built in the 9th century and the most visited tourist sight in Indonesia. The intricate stone detail was impressive and little Anaiyah (Tane's 1 year old daughter) was such a trooper even in the searing heat.

View from the top, it felt like 120 degrees

Anaiyah carried the umbrella for most of the day

Next on the itinerary was Prambanan, a Hindu temple built in the same century as Borubudor. Wikipedia lists it as the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia, but Jeff and I both thought it seemed smaller than Besakih in Bali.

When we returned to Jakarta, Yan and Tane surprised us on their last night by picking up a huge durian to share.

Bigger than Jeff's head!

We'd both been wanting to try it, but were too chicken to take the leap on our own. After seeing Yan dig in with uncontained excitement, I took a bite with huge expectations. I can't even begin to describe the taste - it was flat out the worst thing I've ever eaten. The pictures pretty sum up my opinion of the king of fruits. Even a shot of whiskey afterwards couldn't kill the obnoxious taste invading my mouth, nose, and throat.

Jeff managed a bit better and was able to keep down about 4 bites after being encouraged by Tane's insistence that durian is a superfood with amazing health benefits.

 

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Street food in Singapore

Jeff and I had 3 goals for our Singapore trip - finalize Jessie's work Visa, tour Tiger Brewery, and most importantly enjoy as much street food as possible. Our first mission was not easy and due to delays on the Jakarta end, we had to reschedule our flights 3 times. I thought the DMV was a pain, but after dealing with the Jakarta Immigration office I have a new appreciation for the efficiency government offices in the States. In the end it took 14 days to get a single signed and stamped piece of paper that I was promised could be done in 1 day. The bright side is we had no choice but to extend our stay in Singapore until I could legally get back into Indonesia. We were forced to indulge in a few more meals of delicious and diverse hawker food and wander around the city enjoying the clean air and garbage free sidewalks.

The brewery tour turned out to be almost as challenging as the visa since these two tourists completely underestimated the time required to take public transportation across the city. After 2 trains, 1 power-walk in the seering heat, 1 iPhone malfunction induced tantrum, and 2 taxis, we arrived only 30 minutes late for our tour. Jeff was relieved to learn this wouldn't affect the 45 minute free flow Tiger beer that was the main selling point for him.

We were left with plenty of time to explore the many hawker stands in Singapore. Because these complexes have running water, centralized dish cleaning, and high turnover, they are the 5 star street food of Asia. Our first stop was Chinatown Complex which was literally across the street from our hotel. We sampled some shrimp dumpling soup and found the beer cart which instantly became one of Jeff's highlights despite my whining about the hefty price tag - $11 for a single bottle of Oregon beer, what?!?

Night market just outside of Chinatown Complex

Chinese New Year decorations

Year of The Snake

There were several stands selling all kinds of cured meat, including duck heads

We tried the Hainanese chicken rice stand made famous by Anthony Bourdain at Maxwell's Complex. We ate here a lot since it was so close to our hotel and tried curry rice, several soups, and bao buns.

Deciding what to eat was the hardest part

The next day we ventured to Glutton's Bay complex which has a beautiful view of Marina bay and was definitely the ritziest of our tour with prices to match.

Merlion and view of Marina Bay Sands

After a pleasant walk along the waterfront, we reached Lau Pa Sat which had a huge variety of cuisines to choose from, and due to location it was very popular among the working professionals in the area. We settled on chicken satay, chicken pho, Vietnamese stir fried veggies, and Tiger beer.

Sate hawker

Our final stop was the Little India complex called Tekka where we stuffed ourselves with curry, dahl, biryani, and chapati. This was definitely my favorite meal, and we both waddled out a few pounds heavier. We enjoyed Little India so much and will be back on our next trip!

Jeff got the hang of eating without utensils

Flowers in Little India

Colorful street in Little India

Other highlights included the Orchid Garden and market tour

 

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