After travelling through Vietnam we can say, without a doubt, Vietnam is beautiful, fun, exciting, tasty, accessible and friendly. The people and culture we experienced were for the most part helpful and warm. The environment is like nothing either of us ha e experienced before, from swarms of motos riding up and down the boulevards, to tranqual dense jungle, to peaceful rice paddies, to pitch black caves, to herds of friendly tame water buffalo. This place should be a must see on any globetrotter's list. Now for our best and worst:
Gillian's List.
Best experience: Phong Nha Farmstay. Beautiful karst mountains, friendly locals and staff, unbeleivable caves, and amazing tours add up to a winner.
Favorite city: Hue in central Vietnam. So tasty!
Best food: Banh thit nuong cuon in Hue - grilled pork served in fresh steamed rice pancakes with fresh herbs.
Unexpected pleasure: Road and train travel. Amazingly comfortable, cheap, and impossibly scenic.
Worst experience: Agent Orange exhibit at the War Remnants Museum in Saigon.
Least favorite city: Hoi An. Despite its beauty it was too touristy! It didnt feel like a living city, just a museum piece.
Worst food: An entire fried chicken ordered accidentally. Beak, gristle, and all. Plus it was expensive!
Geoff's List:
Best experience: Phong Nha Farmstay tours were the best. The Red Bridge Cooking School was awesome. Teaching the kids at Sapa 'O Chau was also great.
Single best experience in nature: The swim from near absolute dark to the cave enterance at the Dark Cave in Phong Nha NP. Life changing swim.
Favorite city: Hue as well. Food was hands down the best overall, however the fresh grilled chicken from the "Pub With Cold Beer" in Phong Nha was seriously delish.
Best food: Noodles, noodles, noodles and freakin more noodles. Any foodie worth his or her salt MUST come to Vietnam to eat the noodles from street stalls and markets. This place has every incarnation of rice noodle one could ever think possible. From Savory to sweet, wrapped with to wrapped in, thick to thin this place had it all. Only caveat, eat only were locals are dining. You shouldn't have to pay more than $2 to get a fantastic and likely flavor game changer experience.
Breathtaking View: Trainride from Danang to Hue. Riding along the cliffs above the beautiful South china Sea. Wowzah.
Worst experience: Trying to get a taxi at the Ho Chi Minh City Airport to our first hotel after a 20hr flight from JFK, in sum: Only fly in during the day or better yet, arrange from your hotel a pick up. Save yourself the scam, displeasure and stress.
Least favorite city: Vinh. Sadly this city was flattened durring the American War. At one point afterwards it officially had a population of zero. This has left the city a very characterless place. However this place is easy to navigate and the bus and train station are fairly hastle-free.
Worst food: Not the freshest com (rice) and toppings. I should have known it wouldn't be good. As with the halal carts in NYC, only eat from the stall if the food looks fresh--lots of locals or the cook making fresh batches.
