My trip to Vietnam (loooooong post)

Went to the market and tried some dried fish and crabs which was super scary at first, but ended up being rather good.  The dried crabs and fish in a sweet spicy sticky coating were incredibly good almost like candy. There was also an incredible amount of fruits to eat as well, super delicious stuff.  I'm now a fan of durian, especially in a smoothie is incredibly awesome. 

Also visited a pier and fish market which was really cool to see all the fish, and the prices were super reasonable (about 1/2 the floating restaurant cost) all super fresh.  I tried some raw oysters and they were super sweet and delicious.  Ran across a few guys fishing, but they didn't want to chat at all with me with the google translator.  Super fun spot to visit, would have been really fun to get out on a boat and go fishing, maybe next time. Stopped by a coffee shop on this lake on the way back home for a rest. 

n happy NY Al u look like ur well on ur w8 loss journey.  Keep at it brother

Ty, I did work hard to loose weight before the trip.  And now that i'm back and on my diet looking at these pics is super hard    But my journey to being healthy is not over yet, so back to loosing weight and dieting for me again.  Happy New year!

Had a great time virtually spending it with you. Love you bro!!

Good job on your hard work and got to reward yourself with an amazing trip to Vietnam. Thank you for sharing your adventures. Keep the food porn pictures coming. It’s inspiring me to get back to my love of cooking. Thank you!

Thanh

Good job on your hard work and got to reward yourself with an amazing trip to Vietnam. Thank you for sharing your adventures. Keep the food porn pictures coming. It’s inspiring me to get back to my love of cooking. Thank you!

Thanh

I'm just about done posting, but the last post will be just food pics so stay tuned! 

The vehicles through out central Vietnam and transportation in the cities had all kinds of crazy stuff I saw people carrying or doing on their bikes.  I wish I had more pics to explain further how nuts it was to see people carrying things on their motorbikes.  I didn't take pics of the people or pets on their bikes because I thought it would be rude.  However you can easily see in some of the pics that they literally carry anything and everything on their bikes.  Pets really seemed like the worst idea ever, but you would see an entire family on a bike, including their dogs just standing at the bottom or being carried.  I saw two people carrying their two 1 year olds completely asleep in their laps.  as many as 5 people on one bike at times. 

I saw a lady riding the back of a bike doing her mascara at night.  One pic I wish I had gotten was a guy on the back of a bike and he was carrying two bar stools on each arm while being driven by another guy and several times saw cargo loaded on the back of a bike and nothing to strap it down just the driver holding it so it didn't fall, while they drove one handed. In central VN people drove these crazy vehicles that were like tractors with a bed attached but i'm not sure what they are called.

Same kind of thing in China

You’ll see tiny little motorized thing with mattresses stacked 10’ high behind the driver

This might be a thing of the past but just barely. Around 2009 i was walking with my boy on one of the huge boulevards in Beijing, I hear the clipclop coming our way and it was a guy riding an old fashioned flatbed wagon loaded with melons pulled by a mule. It was booking along at top speed and blew right through a red light

Shoulda got video of that one

Thanks for the travelogue, VN looks like a place we need to plan a trip

Before I headed home I was able to meet up with our good buddy Kiet who was there also to visit family and have a vacation.  He treated me with the most gracious hospitality and invited me to have dinner with his family in Saigon.  I lost count of how many delicious dishes we had over the two hours we sat there eating and drinking (a lot of Heineken and Jack Daniels) and cheers'ing with his family was an awesome time, I felt very honored at this dinner.  The next day I met up with Kiet and he took me to lunch, down an alley on a famous street, where pretty much only a local would know to eat.  The food was incredible and I got to try even more new to me dishes.  One that I had been told was great I hadn't gotten a chance to eat yet, the catfish was absolutely the bomb.  Thanks again Kiet for the great hospitality with your family!

I was following your whole trip!! on FB. It looks awesome. Spending time outside our own country helps with keep a fresh outlook on life; to make sure we don't exist our own echo chambers. Thanks for sharing buddy!

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