arrival in Hanoi

Another train--this one was only a couple of hours long--thus completing our trip up the coast of Vietnam, Saigon to Hanoi via the Reunification Express. We've experienced some crazy hotel bathrooms on this trip, but the shower plumbing above was extreme and needed printed instructions.

If you turn the top valve, like you think you might to get the water to come out the rain faucet, water instead shoots out of the three vertical circle in the middle. Chest height. Startling. 

 Fish in the hotel lobby pool.

                                                       

Dinner: the famous Hanoi banh cuon that I love. This place was ok--mentioned in our guidebook, so it was easy to find after landing, but the service was not so good. Somehow our waiter ignored our request for bia, so we just wolfed down the food, paid, and made a quick exit. 

I'm not a big fan of chains, but Cong Caphe has become one of our go-to places, especially if we need quick wifi or a caffeine injection. We first went to a Cong in Danang, and it was good for coffee and for cocktails. "Cong" as in "Viet-Cong", so it's got a late-60s wartime theme, kitchy, but the coffee and wifi are good and no one urges you to leave. This concept actually occurs all over Vietnam--lingering in cafes over a single cup of anything is definitely encouraged, and cafes are numerous. People just hang out for at least an hour, maybe more. No one cares how long you stay there. So civilized! 

My first sua chua ca phe: yogurt and coffee. Yum. Lauren's drink is a salty preserved lemon. 

Overlooking a cathedral square--wires and flowers and trees

Another classic Hanoi dish: bun cha! this was really delicious. Grilled seasoned pork, green herbs, sliced crisp vegetables, rice vermicelli, in a hot spicy sweet fish sauce broth. It *is* a little like bun thit noung, with more of an emphasis on lots of broth.

Tam Coc, near Ninh Binh, Vietnam: gorgeous karst scenery and a change in climate

We arrived in Ninh Binh after a twelve-hour train ride. Then we took a taxi to Tam Coc, several km from Ninh Binh, in the dark, which left us a little disoriented. It's pretty annoying to arrive into a new town at night, and the 12 hours north on the train also put us into a chilly, damp climate--a serious change from the heat of the central part of Vietnam in March. we awoke the next morning to this view outside our hotel room in Tam Coc. 

 In town, a jumping off point for hiring boats to explore the karst mountains and caves by river.

Few and far between: lots of new hotels are springing up everywhere in Vietnam. This building isn't one of them. 

The end of the building has been stabilized by new concrete and some wiring. The curved roof is pretty impressive. 

Graves and bikes. We've ridden an odd assortment of bicycles during the past couple of months, and these were among the best. They had to be though--many roads are dirt (mud) here.

Rice fields and karst. The road ahead. 

 Since these vines hung over the road, someone knotted them to make them shorter. 

 Rice is planted by hand, which you can see by the equal spacing here. 

Temple sign: dress reasonably. 

We visited this temple near our hotel at sunset, after the tour groups were gone. Inside a woman was chanting and singing. We listened for twenty minutes or so. It was amazing singing--even while the temple dog was barking. 

The water is heavily controlled to allow for rice field flooding and waterway travel.

Hue, one more day

Banh bao seller on bicycle: steamed rice buns filled with pork, onions, and a quail egg. Look carefully at his rig--charcoal fire heats the steam pot on one side of his bike, bun storage on the other.

 Even though we had kinda had enough of Hue and its pestering motobike/cyclo/taxi guys who yell or clap at you every time you walk near, we stayed an extra day. The train outta there (north) leaves at a luxurious 5:30 am, so we changed hotels and neighborhoods to locate ourselves within stumbling distance of Ga Hue, the train station. Unbeknownst to us, we were now in the midst of a thriving student cafe scene. Hello Coffee above, young Hue-ites on laptops or reading books, good coffee.

The train station waiting room has an aquarium.

Near our hotel. Santa and Martian bumper cars. 

 Every 'hood has its own fresh market, ours was no exception. I got this warm ginger silken tofu from a street vendor nearby. This is a simple dish that is very tasty. I'd like to recreate it at home. Maybe there is something about having it fresh from a mobile vendor in lovely porcelain cups too.

 Our market ran along a river. 

Sunset from the rooftop bar of our hotel. Not pictured: the worst mojitos in Vietnam. Never trust a hotel bar, lesson learned. Great view though!

One of the schools near the hotel. This one is known for an ex-student, Ho Chi Minh, and for its gorgeous historic buildings. 

On the road (rails) again: heading north, into karst mountain country.

Hue most delicious dinner I miss this food already

I had thoroughly researched our next dinner and was really looking forward to it. A couple of blogs (plus a tiny article in Travel + Leisure???) mentioned it as the best bun thit nuoung. There were two different addresses on the blogs but no Google Maps listing. Nothing on TripAdvisor. Suggested way of getting there was to tell your taxi driver, but we had bicycles and were determined to get there on our own. I asked a couple of people, including the woman who rented us bikes, and she confirmed: it's over the river and then you turn left. There was no hesitation from the Vietnamese people we asked about this place: everyone knows about it. Rightly so. 

One of my favorite Vietnamese dishes in the US is this bun thit nuong, grilled pork over rice vermicelli with herbs and fish sauce dressing. I use this dish to judge how good a restaurant the place is. It is a staple of Viet menus in the US, but it isn't everywhere in Vietnam. This version is the best I've had. Grilled pork with sesame seeds, cucumbers, lettuce, basil, mint, other herbs like baby mustard, banana flower, over rice vermicelli. Mix your own level of heat into the fish sauce dressing using the red chili paste on the left. Add additional chilies or garlic as needed. We did not need.

 The restaurant has three menu items, all variations of the essential grilled pork. You can order it with rice noodles, in rice rolls (above), or alone. I tend not to like restaurants that try to make too many dishes and none of them well. There is also a special instant camaraderie when you know everyone in the place is there for one kind of food.

 
Analysis of the elements for future at-home re-creation

We ate as the sun was going down, in a slightly charcoal-smoky room. Small wall fans try to circulate the air from becoming too thick. You can see the massive metal chimney in the back corner here. A large group of women (10-12) have just left, and one of them asked me via an inquisitive thumbs-up whether I liked the food. I speak just enough Vietnamese to order food and this lady probably had the same amount of English. But we shared a love of this place using non-verbal communication. At the end of the meal as we were paying, I looked up how to say it was delicious so that I could tell the two waitstaff--they had a lot of difficulty understanding me and my horrible attempt at saying "ngon luhm" but by the third attempt they understood and smiled broadly. 

Down an alley after the initial directions of "over the river and turn left". It is well-marked from the road. A couple of taxi drivers are parked on the main road, so if you are too full to bike back there is another option.

 Ok, I think I've covered how much we liked this meal.

Hue, Vietnam--Imperial City and Food more Food

Spoiler alert: one of us did not really like Hue! I have been before, and had a good experience, so perhaps that affected my perception of a very touristy place. Hoi An is also very tourism-driven, but we made wise choices to stay out of the Old Town there, so the annoyances were minimized. In Hue we stayed the first two nights in the usual Western tourist area. One highlight was having a drink at some outdoor bar, where five or six older American guys on motorcycles arrived and starting pounding back the Huda beers and talking about bad stock purchases and their bike trip up the coast from Saigon. Eavesdropping on that conversation was hilarious, though I did not get any good stock market advice. 

 Upon arriving in Hue, we took off on foot for the Citadel, a city-within-a-city-within-a-city. It was kinda warm out, so we found an outdoor cafe with a stunning setting right on the moat. Avocado smoothies were had. Chickens mating at the cafe were watched.

 First night's dinner at The Hanh, a place we found on trip advisor that turned out to be just what we needed. Hue is famous for "imperial dishes" that usually aren't found outside of Hue, and this restaurant was cranking them out fast and furious. Above: Banh Beo, steamed rice cakes in little saucers, with shrimp and a small tasty pork skin bit on top. You spoon the fish sauce on top and slide the dumpling out of the saucer to eat it. Tables were littered with piles and piles of these empty saucers.

Nem Lui!!!! A favorite. We had had something *similar* in Tuy Hoa, so we knew how to make these into rolls using the rice paper provided. Grilled pork on lemongrass, greens, fishy peanut dipping sauce. 

Nem ran and banh xeo. Banh xeo are smaller and crispier here in Hue. This was a great meal. 

The next day we visited the inside of the old Imperial City. 

Hue was heavily bombed during the American War (as it is referred to here), and the historic Citadel area was basically obliterated. A lot of it looks like this, but there are some surviving buildings, and others are getting serious restoration work done, like below. Restoration or re-creation, it was a little difficult to tell. 

I want these blinds. 

Outside the walls. Trip to Imperial City done. Feet tired. But we had a serious food plan for the evening, involving our bicycles and a place mentioned on a couple of food blogs, but not listed on google maps so hopefully it will be a top level secret hahahahahahaaaaaa....