We had a great time on our recent trip to Vietnam!!! In January 2009 we went with a group of students from our undergrad college, and this year we went with a group of alumni. We revisited towns and cities we had seen before, but enjoyed a lot of new activities and meeting a lot of new people.

Here’s my list of favorite things from this trip (in chronological order), just to give you some highlights:

1. Shopping at Cho Hom (the fabric market) and in the Old Quarter in Hanoi.



Lots of just browsing, but we had very little time for wandering on our last trip, and we had most of an entire day this time. I’m going to do a separate more detailed post on Cho Hom shortly, since I know you all are interested in fabric! This photo is of a shop in the Old Quarter where we bought a couple of small gifts.

2. Fairy Lake.

We spent the night on this junk in Ha Long Bay.



The water was calm, but as soon as they stopped the boat to weigh anchor out in the Bay for the night, I was instantly motion sick and stayed that way until I hit solid ground again after lunch the next day. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying our foray out to Fairy Lake, a hidden lake that is accessible via a cave entrance only when the water is low.



Beautiful and peaceful (except for all the tourists!).



3. Bike ride to Tu Duc’s Tomb.



The Nguyen emperors have tombs outside of Hue, and we biked to the tomb of Tu Duc. The bike ride was exhilarating, despite the hills and the lack of gears on the bike, and the tomb was beautiful, rivaling the temples of Angkor in my opinion, though not nearly as old (not even close).

4. Skipping the walking tour of Hoi An for a sorely-needed massage with hot stones at the hotel spa. What can I say. It was a vacation!!

5. Discovering the propaganda poster shop in Hoi An. Since we arrived in Vietnam on the trip in 2009 I have just really loved the propaganda posters (our guide’s description of them, not mine) that you see all over Vietnam. Many celebrate national holidays or say nice things about Ho Chi Minh. But I absolutely love the style and colors and overall graphic look of these posters, though most of the time I can’t tell what they say.



So, I was THRILLED to find this shop where they were actually selling small versions of propaganda posters that I could buy and take home! It was a really fascinating shop, with a lot of posters I could never hang up at home, like bombs dropping on babies, and posters celebrating the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu. We ended up with a great one that says “Nuoc bac, Com Vang” (“Water is silver, rice is gold”).



It’s great to find the perfect souvenir!

6. Cooking class at the Red Bridge Cooking School in Hoi An.



This was a total blast. Started with a boat ride on the river from old town Hoi An to the cooking school.



Then a big class for our group of 28 led by a chef who seems to have learned English from watching Howard Cosell. He was part chef, part comedian, and we all had a great time making rice paper, Hoi An Pancakes, Fresh Rice Paper Rolls of Shrimp, and Eggplant in Clay Pot (or in my case, carrot, since I loathe eggplant), and carving flowers from tomatoes and fans from cucumbers (admittedly the least successful portion of the class for pretty much everyone).



Finished off by a couple of courses prepared by the staff for us. SO much fun that I now want to take a cooking class everywhere I go, even though I can’t imagine it being quite so much fun with people you don’t know.

7. Dinner at Lac Canh in Nha Trang. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos here. We sat outside (thankfully) and for every four people they brought out a charcoal grill and set it in the middle of the table (yes, the tablecloths were full of burn holes!). This was ridiculously dangerous in truth, but a lot of fun. Then they brought us plates of uncooked chicken, pork, fish, shrimp (as long as your hand — HUGE shrimp), squid, etc. that we then cooked ourselves. We also had steamed vegetables and rice. It was a basic local eatery filled with Vietnamese people. Plastic chairs. FILLED with smoke, despite being outside without a roof. The waitresses were dressed unusually for Vietnam in short tight spandex-y dresses that were basically walking ads for San Miguel beer. One of our group said, “This must be the Hooters of Vietnam.” Pretty much seemed like it (though I’ve never been to a Hooters). I would never have gone in this place myself, but it was a great time!

8. Cyclo ride in Saigon.



Last time we did a cyclo ride in Hanoi, and this time we did Saigon. Fun in both places. I really enjoy this. Maybe it’s just that I enjoy the difference in how relaxing I find this to be (like being pushed around in a stroller!) and how terrifying other people find it to be. Here’s a short video of what the traffic’s like during a cyclo ride.



9. Ben Tranh Market in Saigon.



I could have looked at the pig offal all day.



I was just completely fascinated by it.



Brains, anyone?



Or maybe shoes are more your thing. They have something for everyone!

10. Flying First Class.



When I called to book our tickets using frequent flyer miles, the ONLY thing we could get (I swear!) was first class tickets. Even though we had to fly three different airlines from SFO to Narita, Narita to Shanghai, and Shanghai to Hanoi (and same thing back from Saigon), and I had to use a boatload of miles, it was totally worth it. It was so fabulous to have the lounges to go to in every airport, and people who actually want to help you, and lie flat seats, and slippers, and mimosas before take-off, and edible food, and gourmet chocolates, and…. It is going to be VERY hard to go back to economy class, let me tell you. If you can ever swing this for a long trip, I highly recommend it.

If you’re interested in more photos on any of these subjects, or want to see other fun shots from our trip, check them out in my Vietnam 2010 set at Flickr.