My Time in 'Nam

 

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

I went to Vietnam over winter break but in my laziness, I'm only getting around to posting pictures now. So, Dad, here's what you missed seeing in the 70's.

 

Some electric green rice paddies, as seen from our sleeper traincar.

The countryside was very beautiful. 

A house we saw on the side of the road.

There were lots of beautiful palaces and old buildings to see, too.

A lake with a bridge in Hue.

I met my friend, Anji, in Hanoi and then, we caught an overnight bus down to Hoi An in central Vietnam. 

Hoi An is very well known for its custom tailoring. I got lots of clothes made, blah blah blah. Here's a picture of restaurant we ate at.

The restaurant next to the street market in Hoi An.

From Hoi An, we took a 22-hour bus trip (OMG 22 HOURS WTF!!) to Saigon. Somewhere in the middle of that, I ordered breakfast IN FRENCH. It was pretty exciting.

The next day we took another bus down to Vĩnh Long, a fishing village in the Mekong Delta. While there, I had to take a motorcycle taxi while carrying all my luggage, wearing a miniskirt and a falling-off helmet with a driver that seemed to maybe be sporting a coke nail. I thought I might die, just a little, as we weaved through heavy motorbike traffic, uninhibited by traffic lights. But man, I gotta say, motorcycle taxis are AWESOME and SO MUCH FUN.

We hired a boat to see the floating market the next day. Some of the produce is tied wooden poles on the boats so people know what each boat is selling.

The floating market

Although Vietnam is a much less developed country than Korea, they have a  much larger tourist industry. So, while finding chocolate banana pancakes in Korea is almost impossible, in Vietnam they are in almost every restaurant. Things were pretty touristy.

 Chicken noodle soup, just like mom used to make?

Except for this soup I had. This was not touristy at all. I tried to man up and ignore the fact that my lunch was squinting at me. But, in the end, I couldn't get past the fact that the soup also (unsurprisingly) smelled like something with a dead animal head in it. Sorry, Vietnam, I guess I'm not as open-minded as I thought.

 

The Vietnamese food pyramid

We found this food pyramid outside an elementary school in Hoi An. Even though they are communists, Vietnamese people worry about their consumption of salt, sugar and oily foods JUST LIKE US!

 School's out!

Except instead of Mom in a mini-van, Dad will pick you up from school on his moped! Heck yeah!