Indochina Express - Day 13 (Hoi An to Siem Riep)

March 15

Our last morning in Vietnam before heading to Siem Riep in Cambodia! We have a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before Vu picks us up in the van for the ride back to Da Nang. Here is the view of the rice fields as we head out of town:

In Sa Pa, farmers were just starting to plant the first rice crop of the year while here in Hoi An, where it is much warmer, the first crop is getting close to being harvested and they will have time to bring in two more crops this year. It is no wonder that Vietnam is one of the world's largest rice producers! 

Vu guides us through the Da Nang airport, but we run into a problem at the check-in counter. The agent is expecting that we will already have our Cambodian visas while our itinerary says that we will be met at the gate by someone who will expedite our visa and passage through customs. We our reassured by our travel agents on WhatsApp that this is correct, and Vu is finally able to convince the gate agent that we should be allowed to board without a visa.

Direct flights from Da Nang to Siem Riep only happen once a week and today isn't that day so we have to make connections in Ho Chi Minh city (formerly known as Saigon). The flight to Ho Chi Minh city is about an hour. From the air, it looks like Ho Chi Minh city is really huge (population is nearly 10 million - about three times the size of Hanoi) and we can see a huge river flowing through it. I originally thought that this was the Mekong River, but it is actually the Saigon River. The Saigon is large enough for Ho Chi Minh city to have a huge port even though the ocean is perhaps 20 miles to the southeast. 

Upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh city, we follow arrows for transfer, but it turns out that the international terminal is outside the building we are in and then two buildings down. There is a long line to have an official check our passports followed by another equally long line to check our boarding passes before going through the security check. By the time we get through security, our 2 hr layover is down to 35 minutes!

The flight to Siem Riep is a little over an hour. In Siem Riep, we are met by a guy who helps us submit our E-application for a Cambodian visa and manages to bring us through the diplomat passport control saving at least an hour in line. Our guy manages to find our driver and guide (Sarnak Uy) and off we go. The sun is setting:

and we haven't eaten since breakfast, but the driver has brought a plate of dried fruits/vegetables (Taro, banana, mango, sweet potato, beets and dried peas). During the drive, Sarnak gives us a detailed history of Cambodia. I wish that I could remember it all! Siem Riep has a population of about 300,000, Phenom Penh has a population of 3,000,000 and the whole of Cambodia of 17 million. Average age is 25 after the killing fields wiped out most of the older population. Sarnak drops us off at a beautiful hotel where they bring us cold, scented towels as we check in. Here is a view of our room:

The bird looks like a roadrunner to me, but I think it must be a phoenix.

Since this was our last day in Vietnam, I wanted to give some final thoughts about the country. Because of the wars (with the French, Americans, and Khmer Rouge), the last 70 years in Vietnam have been truly terrible. As a result of the wars and emigration of many people from the south of the country, the average person in Vietnam is only 34 years old and has little or no memory of the wars. I don't know if this is the reason, but everyone we met in Vietnam, whether a peddler in a vegetable market, or one of the ethnic minority people in the mountains or the people in our hotels, were extremely friendly. Not only that, but there is also a feeling among most of the population that the best days for Vietnam are coming shortly. They can see that companies are starting to shift investment to Vietnam as the labor force in China becomes more expensive and the standard of living is starting to rise rapidly as new opportunities open up. In addition, the country is beautiful. We could have easily spent our entire three weeks here as we never saw the southern half of the country. We are so glad that we made Vietnam one of our stops on the Indochina Express!

Indochina Express - Day 12 (Hoi An)

March 14

Today is foodie day. We've got a walking tour of a neighborhood in Hoi An where food is prepared, followed by a visit to a local vegetable market and ending in a cooking class. We are picked up by Vu and driven to a Hoi An neighborhood quite close to our hotel. There we meet Chef Ngoc. Ngoc is a chef at the Four Seasons Resort on the Five Star boulevard. He takes us to his family neighborhood to show how local ingredients get to our tables. The first stop is to a farmer who grows mung beans. We see a big pile of reddish sand in his backyard, but when Ngoc pushes away some of the sand, we see mung bean sprouts underneath. He scoops out a double handful and the farmer washes the sand off:

Apparently, the mung beans impart some sort of toxin into the soil, so they only use the dirt once, then they sell the dirt as landfill.

The second stop is a place where they make the yellow rice noodles that Hoi An is famous for. We've seen how rice slurries are made and also how noodles are cut, but the key to the process is burning a mixture of herbs and dumping the ash into the slurry to produce the yellow color. Here is what the finished product looks like after sitting out to dry:

Next, we head to a local market to pick up some of the ingredients for the dishes that we will make. Chef Ngoc says that he will meet us there and hops on his scooter. He tells us later than he is very proud to have been the first person in Hoi An with an electric scooter.

As we walk along, Chef Ngoc quizzes us on what the various fruits and vegetables are and is surprised when Beth is able to identify most of them. She explains to him that it is because she goes to so many Asian grocery stores when looking for dinner ingredients. Here are some of the pictures I took:

In addition to the mung bean sprouts that we already have, Chef Ngoc picks up some Chinese eggplants, lemongrass, chives, lettuce and cucumbers for later. As I'm walking around, I'm wondering how any of these market people make any money. They are surrounded by people who are selling exactly the same produce. My only thought is that there is a difference between people who are growing organic produce versus those that use pesticides or that there are differences in what it costs them or their suppliers to produce items for sale. But it is not clear. We get back in the van and head to our final stop, which is some sort of resort that also includes rooms for cooking classes.

Chef Ngoc starts by taking blocks of white fish filet and pouring oil and soy sauce on it to marinate. Then we start on the first dish, spring rolls. He shows us how to ladle the rice slurry onto a fine fabric mesh above a pot of boiling water and move the slurry toward the outside to produce a thin rice pancake. Everyone is surprised when I manage to make the best one - Beth says that I obviously do not do enough cooking at home! Next, we get cooked shrimp that have been cut lengthwise, chives, mint leaves and cucumbers to use as filling. Along the way, I discovered why my burritos always explode. Chef Ngoc tells us to put the filling on the outside of the rice pancake while I had always put it in the middle. This makes it much easier to roll up! We dip the finished rolls into a mixture of chili oil, garlic and fish sauce.  Yum!

Chef Ngoc coats the marinated fish in turmeric and wraps it in banana leaves along with some spring onion, oyster sauce, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar and puts the banana leaves on a charcoal oven to cook while we work on the second dish: Hoi An pancakes. We had really enjoyed the Hoi An pancakes we'd had the previous evening at the resort and were anxious to see how to make them. The pancakes themselves are easy to make. It is a mixture of rice flour, water, salt and turmeric. We each have miniature hot plates to cook the pancake mixture. When they are ready, we add precooked pork belly, small shrimps, mung bean sprouts, spring onions, mint, coriander, basil and cucumber, fold the pancake in half and hold it down while still on the heat until it stays folded.

The next dish is braised eggplant in a clay pot. For this one, we didn't have to do anything. We each had little burners with clay pots. Chef Ngoc starts with oil and garlic then adds quartered tomatoes and lemongrass and a little water. Next, he adds fish sauce and sugar. Finally, he adds the chopped eggplant, a little more sugar, turmeric, pepper and lemongrass stalk. Then we simmer the mixture until the eggplant is tender and then eat it with rice while trying unsuccessfully to avoid burning our mouths.

The final dish is the fish, which is fantastic! The banana leaf does a great job of keeping the moisture in the fish and all of the flavors have blended together really well. There is only one problem: there has been too much food for a lunch, and we are completely stuffed. We manage to find enough room to eat at least some of it. Then we say thank you to Chef Ngoc, get back in the van and return to the resort where we have the afternoon to ourselves. Here are a few of the pictures that I took:

Beth has realized that the tops that she brought with her are probably going to be too hot for the temperatures in the upper 90's with high humidity that we expect in Cambodia and Thailand, so we head out for some shopping. At first, we see only dresses and skirts, but eventually, we realize that almost every shop has some shirts hidden inside. Beth manages to find two lightweight shirts and paid ridiculously little for them.

We are still pretty bloated from lunch, but eventually we start to get a little hungry. We debate trying someplace new but decide that we would rather go back to Morning Glory Original a second time. The only problem is that we don't have reservations, and we remember that there was a long line for a table when we were there before. There is a smaller line, and we were told that we would have to wait for about 20 minutes. Instead of just hanging out, the maître 'd takes us to a bar across the street which turns out to be an historic building from the time when Hoi An was a major seaport. Apparently, Ms. Vy bought this bar as an overflow from her restaurant. This is an advantage because anything we order to drink will be transferred to our bill at the restaurant. We decide to pass on wine tonight and go with lime juice.

One end of the bar faces the restaurant while the other door faces the night market. While we are sitting in the bar, a woman comes up to us from the night market side and begins placing intricate 3D folded paper objects on the table similar to what we had seen outside the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. Chris, who loves to shop, takes an immediate interest in them, which prompts the woman to bring even more out. Meanwhile Beth has discovered a sign on our table that says please do not buy from the street vendors. She shows the sign to Chris who tells the woman that she is not interested, but it takes a few minutes before the woman is convinced that we are not buying anything and tries her luck at another table.

About this time, we are starting to wonder whether the maître d' has forgotten about us since she never asked for a name or wrote anything down. But a few minutes later, she arrives to take us to our table. We are not super hungry, so we order a curry, a stir fry and another plate of morning glories marinated in garlic and top it off with a mango sticky rice and fried banana sticky rice. Yum!

Indochina Express - Day 11 (Hoi An)

March 13th

I've now had traveler's diarrhea for a week and while I don't feel awful, it is definitely keeping me from doing all of the activities that we've planned. The funny thing is that we have antibiotics with us for exactly this situation. I haven't taken them yet because for the last four days or so, I've been alternating between getting better and regressing.  Yesterday, I finally decided that enough was enough and took the pill. I'm feeling better but today is a walk through the old town followed by a bike ride to a local village for lunch, so I stay in the hotel just to be on the safe side. While the others were gone, I took some pictures of our resort:

Maybe the style is French Colonial?? In any case, it is beautiful, and the staff are super friendly. Meanwhile, here are some of Beth's pictures from the walking tour and bike ride:

The guy with the hat is the guide on the bike ride. (He is standing next to a field planted with rice and corn - not something you'll see often in the US!) The bike ride went out onto one of the islands in the river delta and the guide was one of the sons of the family who hosted the combination cooking lesson and lunch. Beth complained that it was too much food - a 7-course meal!

When everyone returned from the outing, we had some time to rest before dinner. Tonight is the full moon, so our resort is having buffet dinner and a lion dance to celebrate. Here is a picture:

It is really pleasant sitting out next to the river and watching the lit-up boats going back and forth, although it isn't clear to us whether they are a form of water taxi or if people just rent them for some period of time to cruise up and down the river.

Indochina Express - Day 10 (Lao Cai to Hoi An)

March 12

Night train from Lao Cai to Hanoi. We arrive in Hanoi around 5:30 AM and, as we promised Luke, we walk through the mist the half a block to the hotel instead of taking a van. Despite a better night's sleep than on the train to Lao Cai, I'm still tired. So, I took a nap before breakfast. Then it is time to head to the airport for our flight to Da Nang. Luke takes us all the way through check-in to security and then takes a final picture of us to prove to our travel agent that he has handed us off.

The plane was supposed to board at 12:10 for a 12:50 flight but no one is at the gate until perhaps 12:30. Finally everyone lines up goes down the stairs to a bus to take us to the plane. Flight was pleasant enough including the flight crew bowing to the passengers on boarding and deplaning.

I was a little worried that our "Find My" app last showed my baggage as being in Hanoi 2 hrs ago, but at the very end of the train of bags, all of our bags appeared! Outside, there are like a million people with small signs with the names of passengers that they are looking for. Chris sees a guy holding a sign saying "Peters" (note, Chris' last name is Peters). We follow the driver off to a smallish SUV. We are a little skeptical that we've got the right driver since there is barely room for us and our suitcases and he speaks no English. Chris shows him our itinerary and asks if he is supposed to be going to Hoi An and if he is with our tour company. He says "yes, yes" so off we go. After that, there are several phone calls between our driver and his dispatcher and from the tone of the conversation, there seems to be a problem. In the meantime, Chris has WhatsApped our travel agent telling them that we are in a van with a guy who speaks no English and no guide and asking whether we are in the right van. Finally, the driver hands his phone to me to speak to his dispatcher. He tells me that the driver picked up the wrong group and that we could go on to Hoi An for some large amount of money or return to the airport. In the meantime, Chris has handed her phone to the driver and our travel agent tells him to take us back to the airport. That settled, we head back to the airport and find our new guide Vu and his driver. 

Vu is from Hoi An and is telling us about the sites as we drive south along the coast from Da Nang. During the Vietnam war, Da Nang was the home of the largest American airbase in South Vietnam and we pass the airfield (which is now used by the Vietnamese Air Force):

as we turn onto what he calls Five Star Boulevard. It's called that because there is resort after resort on our left (next to the beach) along this road:

This is also where the US servicemen would come for R&R for short periods. For longer leaves, they went to Thailand.

Eventually, we come to a number of resorts that were under construction when the Covid epidemic started and have been halted ever since. On our right is a couple hundred-meter-high hill that Vu calls the Marble Mountain. All of the businesses in these areas are selling sculptures (Budda, Madonna, mythical creatures) in white, brown and red marble. Here are some pictures of what was available for sale:

Vu tells us that Hoi An was the most important city in central Vietnam since the 7th century and was a major stop in the spice trade. By the 18th century China and Japan both considered Hoi An to be an important port for trade, particularly for the ceramics produced in the area. But by the end of the 18th century, the Nguyen clan, which had controlled southern Vietnam for more than 200 years, was defeated and replaced by people who were anti-trade and who gave the French exclusive trade rights in Da Nang. At the same time, the river mouth in Hoi An had silted in enough that large ships couldn't go there. At that point, Hoi An was forgotten (and generally left alone) for more than 200 years. As a result, its old town is considered one of the only well preserved south-east Asian trading ports dating from the 15th century. This is why UNESCO listed it as a world heritage site in 1999. Our hotel is right on the edge of the old city. Vu tells us that we should go to a restaurant called the Morning Glory Original in the old town and check out the lanterns and night market along the way.

After a rest at the hotel, we decide to follow Vu's advice. The night market is cheek-to-jowl full of people, selling street food, fake designer brands, and lots of tailor shops who offer custom clothes made in about 24 hr. It is close to the full moon and people are putting little floating lanterns with candles in the river like prayers for prosperity or longevity. We learn that Morning Glory Original is owned by Ms. Vy. Chef Vy's vision was to serve Vietnamese street food in a comfortable setting and to rediscover many of the dishes and recipes that had been lost during the post-war period of food scarcity and rationing. She has been wildly successful and now there are a whole string of her restaurants. We can see why. Dinner is fabulous - deep fried red snapper, chicken curry and morning glories as a vegetable, lime juice to drink, mango sticky rice and Vietnamese banana ice cream for dessert. The bill comes to 901,000 Dong. That sounds like a lot of zeros but is actually only about US $35 for four of us! Here are some pictures:

Indochina Express - Day 9 (Sa Pa to Lao Cai)

March 11

Today's outing is to the top of Fansipan Mountain - the highest point in Indochina at 3,143 meters (10,312 feet). The weather forecast says that it is going to be a balmy 5C (41F) at the summit, but Beth and I bring an extra layer (we already have 3 layers on) just in case. After breakfast, Luke picks us up for a ride down the mountain to Sa Pa. Sa Pa is at 1,600 meters (5,249 feet) so there is lot of vertical to cover to get to the top. As it has been for most of our stay in Vietnam, it is cloudy at the base, and we are not optimistic that we'll see the sun at the summit. It takes a combination of a cog railway, cable car and funicular to get to the top. Here are some pictures on the way up to the top of the cable car:

This cable car is built by Doppelmayr and is the longest 3 rope cable car and has the largest vertical rise in the world. We get a great view of the valley as the sun breaks through. There is a small shrine at the top of the cable car:

You can get an idea of the weather from the first two pictures. We ride the funicular up to the top. When we get there, we are ready for the temperature, but what we didn't factor in was the wind blowing at up to 50 mph - time for layer 4! Here is proof that we made it to the top:

The wind is blowing the mist around and soon we can't see and my camera lens has fogged up so we are eager to go down again. Rather than taking the funicular back down to the cable car station, we walk down. The steps are steep and slippery with low visibility, so we take it very slowly. But there are a bunch of shrines to see. Here are some pictures from the walk down:

The interior picture is from the inside of a huge Buddha shrine that we pass along the way. We couldn't see the top of the Buddha when we were standing directly in front of it, but here is a picture that Luke sent us of what we should have seen:

When we finally got to the bottom of the stairs, we waste no time in getting back on the cable car for the ride down. One the way down, the sun comes out and we realize that everywhere but on top of the mountain is at least partly sunny - the mountain is tall enough to make its own weather!

We have a buffet lunch in a restaurant in the cable car building. It was good to have some soup and other warm food to thaw out! Next to the cable car building is another shrine and a park with buildings built by the various ethnic minorities along with some of their handicrafts for sale. Here are a few of the pictures that I took:

The last picture is of bunches of incense to burn at the temple.

After walking around for a while (and two trips to the bathroom for me), we take the funicular back down to the base and get back in our van for the ride back down to the Topas Ecolodge. We've got a couple hours to pack before Luke picks us back up for the ride down the mountain to the Lao Cai train station. We don't have time for dinner, but Chris, Mark and Beth go to happy hour. I decide that adding anything to my digestive system before an eight-hour train ride is a bad idea, so I stay in the bungalow and work on the blog. A while later, Beth walks in carrying what looks like a huge hat box.  Inside is a serving of mango sticky rice. I ask Beth about the size of the container, and she tells me that since the ecolodge doesn't use plastics, their choice of storage containers is limited. 

Luke picks us up in the van and we head to Lao Cai. The ride from the ecolodge to Sa Pa is even more fun at night - especially the section where the road was washed out during the typhoon. We pass a lot of "party buses" going up and down the mountain since this is now the primary way of getting to Sa Pa. We've got about an hour to kill at the train station before our train boards. Once settled in our cabin, Beth has a glass of wine and then we attempt to sleep. My cold is finally going away so I'm able to sleep a little better than on the trip to Lao Cai and I am pleased that I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

Indochina Express - Day 8 (Sa Pa)

March 10

When we get up, the sky is looking a little brighter. I'm still not feeling well, so after breakfast, Beth, Chris and Mark leave on their hike down the mountain to several of the local villages while I walk about the property within easy distance of the nearest toilet. Here are some of the pictures that I took:

I tried recording the local bird calls and letting my Merlin app try to identify them, but the app reported that they only know about 35% of the birds in this area, so I was only able to identify an Asian Palm Swift and a Eurasian Tree Sparrow even though I saw and heard a lot more birds than that.

After walking around for a while, I went back to the bungalow and worked on my blog for a few hours until about 3 PM when Beth and crew returned. Here is what she said that they did:

While walking down into the valley for about an hour and a half, the group was joined by several of the local Black Hmong women who integrated themselves into the group as a guide and in an attempt to sell everyone something. They walked along with the group, making animals and hearts out of grass from the trail side, until they got to Y Linh Ho village. There the group stopped for tea and for Chris and Beth to buy some small items. They walked along a little further until they came to a second Black Hmong village called Lao Chai, where they had lunch and got to see how people lived. Conditions were pretty primitive, but the people seemed happy. Beth tells me that all of the Hmong people (there are five different Hmong peoples in Vietnam) were originally from China and moved into the mountainous parts of Vietnam about 300 years ago. The Black Hmong women are famous for making cloth from hemp and dying it a deep indigo blue. The group continued on to a third village called Ta Van, this one belonging to the Tay people. The Tay people are the oldest and largest ethnic minority in Vietnam after the majority Kihn people. They are believed to have arrived from the interior of southeast Asia around 500 BCE. Because they have been in Vietnam so long, they have largely adopted Kihn ways of life. Finally, the group were picked up by the van and driven back up the mountain - a big improvement over having to walk back up! Here are some of the pictures that Beth took:

We eat dinner at the restaurant that serves local dishes. Everything we had was great, but we are disappointed that they are out of mango sticky rice.