Hanoi, Vietnam – Vietnamese coffee; the first time I had it, I didn’t know that the water still needed to drain through the metal filter into the glass. I removed it too soon and had coffee leakage all over my table, dripping by my leg onto the floor. This particular coffee I got at Cafe [...]
Doner Kebap Bahn My Cart Hanoi, Vietnam – I suppose when I got to Vietnam I expected all the bahn mi there to both replicate and exceed the best ones I’d had in New York. There’s a place out in Sunset Park, Brooklyn called Ba Xuyên, originally recommended to me by Andrew Knowlton of Bon [...]
Bun Vendor Hanoi, Vietnam – Just like a few cities before it, I’d been warned that Hanoi was intense, sometimes with a wavering smile as though it were a euphemism for “chaotic hellhole overrun with motorbikes, their dust and their noise.” Of course, I fell in love with Hanoi my first night. The faded, peeling [...]
Plums and Peaches in Sapa Market Sapa, Vietnam – Sapa is a funny little place. A town of tourists with hill tribe people mixing in selling their wares, and yet you can find bright spots of the town’s uniqueness. The market is like many you’ll see through Southeast Asia selling mangosteens and lychees, rambutan, ginger, [...]
Halong Bay Halong Bay, Vietnam – I had my itinerary printed out. Fourteen days and five destinations with no wiggle room as I had a guest arriving the day after I returned to Bangkok. Yet somehow along the way an extra day in Sapa and another in Hanoi, I found myself in Halong Bay, which [...]
Pho Tanh Ha Hanoi, Vietnam – Arriving in Hanoi at 4:30 a.m. on the overnight train from Sapa, it’s too early to check into the hotel so I wander down Pho Tanh Ha. Dark is slowly turning light. A quiet hum pervades hours and hours before motorbikes and chaos take over the streets. All along [...]
Pho Sapa, Vietnam – Although the food options in Sapa aren’t as varied or thrilling as the landscape, the town market is always a good standby for decent, honest food. Most of the vendors there are selling pho (noodle soup) with chicken or chicken with rice. After a half-day trek (read: walk) through some local [...]