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The best place to eat in Vietnam is on little, plastic stools on the sidewalk. Whether it's noodle soups, like the iconic pho
or bun ca (the fish and pork-based soup garnished with dill pictured
here), or bun cha -- char-grilled pork served over rice noodles with
herbs and dipping sauces -- the street food in Vietnam is nothing short
of amazing. At any hour of the day, you'll find Vietnamese people of all
ages congregating under market awnings or outside store fronts, chowing
down and enjoying each other's company. Eating on the street is by far
the most exciting -- and accessible -- way to truly experience daily
life in Vietnam, and it's also where you'll find the best food.
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One of the first and more important things to
learn when visiting Vietnam is how to cross the street. It may be
intuitive at home, but the traffic in Vietnam's major cities seems so
chaotic and incessant, that getting from one side of the road to the
other feels almost impossible at first. You'll find cars and people in
the street, but the preferred mode of transportation is motorbikes, and
the stream of two-wheelers feels like unpredictable, roaring rapids when
you're standing on one sidewalk trying to get to the next.
According to The Diplomat,
there are currently 39 million motorbikes in Vietnam, up from about 4
million in 1996. That's a lot of bikes -- and with at least two people
on every bike -- that's also a lot of people. The trick to crossing the
street is to walk steadily, at an even pace. If you're moving at a
predictable rate, the motorcyclists will move around you. Eye-contact
with oncoming bikers doesn't hurt either. The most important thing is to
keep moving and not to stop or speed up. Once you've got the hang of
crossing the street, you can really appreciate the beauty of the
organized chaos.
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As the second biggest producer of coffee in the world, Vietnam knows a thing or two about coffee. Most importantly, coffee comes with sweetened condensed milk
(a.k.a. the best stuff on Earth) pretty much without exception. It's
also an integral part of the culture, served in cafes and... drumroll...
on the street, of course.
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The Mekong Delta is an area in Southwestern
Vietnam where the Mekong River dumps into the sea. Visitors can go to
Can Tho, the largest city in the area, and get a real taste of rural
life in this region affectionately known as the "rice bowl." Traveling
up the backwaters, visitors will be wowed by the floating markets and
above all else, the friendly people who live in the region.
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Mammoth caves that hold entire jungles and lakes are still being discovered in Vietnam. Son Doong Cave,
the biggest cave in the world, was only first explored in 2009, and
didn't open to tourists until 2012. Trips into Son Doong are still
highly controlled, expensive and limited, but there's a vast network of
caves that are much more accessible.
Paradise Cave, pictured here, in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, is 19
miles across and offers a variety of tours into its interior, including
an easy walk on the boardwalk at the beginning of the cave and a trek
past the boardwalk for the more adventurous. Headlamps and nerve are
required. Visit before the sights become overrun with tourists.
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Markets in Vietnam may not be cavernous
underground worlds of stunning rock formations and skyscraper high
stalagmites, but they can be cavernous worlds unto themselves. Markets
like this one in Danang sell everything from fabric for clothing to
dried baby shrimp. Needless to say, you can get lost exploring the rows
for hours. They're most active in the early morning and late evening,
when the temperature cools down a bit and shoppers come out. During the
middle of the day, you might find shopkeepers taking a nap in front of
their stalls. When we say you could spend all day in these markets, we
seriously mean it.
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One of the most extraordinary things about the
markets in Vietnam is that the food doesn't smell at all. You'll walk
into the food section and see freshly caught fish, snails, crabs and
prawns and brace yourself for a fishy smell. But because the fish you
see in the market was caught just a few hours ago, you won't smell a
thing. We swear.
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Same goes for the meat. When you see a pig's head
laid out on a table next to a slew of other cuts, you'd assume
something would smell. The meat was butchered no more than four or five
hours ago so it doesn't give off any smell. You can tell it's super
fresh by the bright red color. If you see browning meat, it may be a day
old and will cost less. Most people buy their meat the same day it was
butchered, however, making for some extraordinarily fresh dishes and
surprisingly pleasant market experiences.
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You might not recognize all the vegetables you'll
find in Vietnam, but you should try them all. From bitter melon to
morning glory, the vegetables go into everything from shredded salads --
like green papaya salad -- to stir-fries. Like all the other food
you'll find in Vietnamese markets, everything is super fresh.
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Don't be alarmed if you see spiky fruits you
can't identify. It could be a durian, dragon fruit or rambutan (pictured
here) -- and they're all worth a try. (Be warned: durians smell like
feet and are not for the faint of heart.) You'll also find mangos,
papayas, mangosteens, jack fruit and a fleshy fruit with a bumpy green
skin called custard apples, among more familiar fruits like pineapples,
bananas and watermelons.
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Views
of the horizon are magnificent, especially at sunset, all over the
country. The mountainous vista pictured here -- filled with sharp
undulations, like shoulders standing side by side -- is in the Quảng
Bình province in Central Vietnam.
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Speaking of vistas, Halong Bay, the UNESCO World Heritage Site
in the Gulf of Tonkin, is every bit as spectacular as people say. It IS
worth the roughly four hour drive from Hanoi, and it IS worth fighting
the swarms of tourists to see. The bay used to be littered with a lot
more trash, but with recent clean-up efforts, it's much better these
days. The 1,600 islands jut out of the sea, seemingly one on top of the
other, creating a dramatic scape of mountains, sea and sky.
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Vietnam's history is tumultuous and complex, the
country having been occupied and divided by various countries for
decades. Colonial influences are visible everywhere, from the
architecture to the food and the coffee. The aftermath of the Vietnam
War is apparent too -- in the museums and monuments but also in the
faces and stories of survivors and the overwhelmingly young population.
Interwoven with our own history, Vietnam's past is not only fascinating,
it's also important to learn about.
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14 Bánh Xèo: Rice Pancakes
Bánh xèo are rice pancakes, and while they may
sound ordinary, they are anything but. Grossly underrepresented outside
of Vietnam, this practically perfect dish isn't well-known to many
non-Vietnamese. Made simply with rice flour and water, the pancakes are
very basic, but somehow also sublime. They owe their yellow color to
turmeric, not eggs, and they'll typically have some small prawns cooked
inside. The real fun comes when you add all the fresh herbs you want,
and dip them into a sweet and sour sauce.
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Sapa, a hill station in the Northwest of Vietnam,
is one of the country's most stunning areas. Its dramatic rice terraces
and surrounding peaks make this mountainous area well worth the short
trip from Hanoi. You can take an overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa,
which makes it a popular destination on the tourist circuit.
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In the early morning hours and around dusk,
you'll find groups of Vietnamese men and women doing every exercise
under the sun. Large groups of people, young and old, gather around an
instructor and follow aerobics routines with music blaring in the
background. A few feet away, a group will be practicing ballroom
dancing, flanked by some guys playing basketball. Meanwhile, walkers and
runners will be circling the periphery of the park. It's a wonderful
sight to behold and scene in which to partake if you're up for it.
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Vietnam's beaches may be one of the country's
most unsung beauties. While travelers may think of Thailand and Cambodia
as the countries to visit for white sand and clear water, Vietnam
boasts beaches that rival these countries' beloved tourists spots. Sure,
some beach towns in Vietnam, like Nha Trang and Mui Ne, get a lot of
attention, but quieter, less-traveled beaches like Doc Let are the real
treasures. Con Dao and Phu Quoc are some of the most gorgeous islands in
South East Asia, and travelers would be wise to hurry there now, before
these isolated, idyllic spots suffer the same fate as the over-traveled
beaches in Thailand and Cambodia.
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In Vietnam, it's all about the herbs.
Plates piled high with fresh herbs like Thai basil, coriander, mint,
and dill, and greens like Morning Glory accompany everything from soups
to spring rolls. The crisp, refreshing addition of these herbs and
greens cuts salt and fat and brings levity to some of the heavier
dishes. Used as garnishes or wraps, herbs also serve as great palate
cleansers and most of all, they make food really fun to eat.
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A UNESCO World Heritage town,
Hoi An is one of the most picturesque, lovely places to visit in all of
Vietnam. Located in the center of the country, just outside of Danang,
Hoi An used to be a flourishing port town from the 15th to the 19th
centuries, before the Thu Bon river silted up and basically halted trade
in the region. Fortunately in the 1990s, the town was declared a World
Heritage site and tourism has since revived the so-called "Venice of
Vietnam." Thanks to the international residents -- from the Chinese and
Japanese to the French -- during the port years, Hoi An boasts a variety
of local specialities that you can't find anywhere else in the country.
Dishes like Cao Lau
and White Rose Dumplings are reason enough to visit Hoi An, and when
you factor in the gorgeous, canal-side setting and preserved colonial
French architecture, it really does become a national treasure.
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Pho (pronounced fuh, fyi), may be Vietnam's most iconic dish, but it's just the beginning of the country's amazing noodle soups. Noodle soups are typically eaten for breakfast, oftentimes at a street stall or in a market. They run the gamut and include Bun Bo Hue,
a beef bone broth-based noodle soup for which people (including Anthony
Bourdain) travel to its namesake town Hue. Bun Ca, a pork and
fish-based soup with dill and tomatoes, is a noodle soup specialty to
Hanoi. You could spend months in Vietnam without eating the same noodle
soup twice -- although once you get hooked on one, you'll definitely
return for seconds.
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Kind, thoughtful, industrious, optimistic,
generous -- the people are the heart of country, and if you visit, you
should take every opportunity to get to know them.
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