Oodles of Noodles

Usually it's the idiosyncrasies of a country that I simply love discovering. Other times it's those quirks that drive me crazy. Vietnam is a land of quirks to be sure!

When sorting how to get from Doc Let to Hoi An - at nine hours, a rather long journey - I naturally gravitated toward an overnight transportation option. With four overnight trains to choose from I figured I was set. But wait, the overnight trains only have hard sleeper berths and the one daytime train has soft sleeper berths?! This was similar to my sleeper bus experience which was the only option between Saigon and Dalat; regardless of the time of day or night you were required to recline!

Forced to Relax - Vietnam Sleeper Bus

Hoi An is an over-the-top sort of tourist destination to be sure but I loved it! Mostly because I could explore the surrounding countryside with a morning run or a leisurely bike ride. The only organized tour I got sucked into was a cooking tour, and that was just because I wanted to learn the proper way to make a fresh spring roll.

No Gluten Here!

The tour started with a meander through the market and an explanation of the various kinds of rice noodles. Personally I love market shopping - it's one of the things I miss most about living in Ecuador - but I'm pretty darn sure if markets were to replace the American supermarket most of the population would eat a lot less meat. There's just something about witnessing the butchering process that makes it so much more personal.

Add caption

Following the market, we boarded a junk for a meander down the river where we came across some fishermen tossing out a net. Although purely for our benefit, it was fun to cheer them on as each toss became a little more dramatic.

When the mangroves started to narrow we swapped the big boat for these crazy round boats. I'd seen the larger fishing boats using them to haul supplies out to their boat and was curious as to the purpose of the round shape. Turns out you simply cannot flip the thing! Plus they're woven from bamboo and coated with dung from a water buffalo making them about as eco-friendly as it gets.

Sun, Sand and Russians

Doc Let Beach

Walking onto the sand, I was sure I was in Hawaii. Then I noticed the men were wearing Speedos, the gals wearing thong bikinis were solidly in their 50s, and absolutely everyone was sporting the tourist tell - lobster red skin. Okay, so I'm not in Hawaii - but the water is warm, the sand is white and the seafood is still alive when you order it up!

Apparently neighboring big city Nha Trang is the winter holiday of choice for Russians and a few of them manage to trickle on out to Doc Let.  Every menu is available in Russian and all the shop keepers speak the language. I'm pretty sure I was the only non-Russian tourist in the place!

For three days I did nothing but sit on the beach with a good book and a cold beer. Interrupted occasionally with dips on the super-salty (equals super buoyancy) water and walks along the tide line in search of treasures. Somehow I managed to collect a few the beachcomber extraordinaire Ms. Sheryl Collmer has never found!

Stormy My Last Day

Bringing in the Catch

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

After several days of the crazy traffic in Hanoi, I was super excited to be venturing out into the Mekong Delta. While it was a fun experience, if I had a do-over I would skip Can Tho and head directly for a homestay somewhere off the beaten track. 

Riverside Gardening

The touristy thing to do in Can Tho is take a boat tour to check out the floating market at Cai Rang. I opted for the full monty and spent six hours cruising around with a rather funny chap who spoke absolutely zero English and would utter "whoa, he he he" anytime things got a little crazy. Like the wake of a tanker rocking the boat or a little boy taking a time-out from relieving himself into the river to wave and shout hello as we passed. Yep - it was that kind of adventure!

I'm pretty sure the floating market only exists for the tourists as I didn't witness any transference of goods between locals. Since there wasn't a fruit or vegetable on offer that I hadn't previously tasted, I was mostly there to get a glimpse of life on the delta. 

Spreading Rice Goo
on a Hot Griddle

After bumping our way through the boats gathered at the market, we took a meander up one of the tributaries to explore a rice noodle factory. 

I'm always a fan of seeing a process in action so this was right up my alley. From the huge vats of soaking rice down to the hand-crank noodle machine, it was interesting to watch this little factory turn out their product.

Though I am guessing (hoping?) the noodles we buy packaged at Safeway take a different route. I'm just not so sure about the cleanliness level of this whole operation given at one point my guide grabbed my hand and pressed it into a just-cooled disk to show me how sticky they are! 

Off the Griddle onto the Drying Rack