the things they carry

from large appliances to live pigs to human cargo five deep... southeast asia = major burdens.

[for even cooler photos, check out hans kemp's new book, bikes of burden]

cuisine of champions

finds at the Hoi An central market

I could fill volumes talking about the foods that I love. Book 1 would be devoted entirely to Italian, which, if such a thing exists, has got to be food's gift to the world. Book 2, though, would be all about Vietnamese.

Vietnamese cuisine is fresh. Flavorful. Filled with leafy plants and savory herbs, most of which are entirely unknown to the average Western palate. Holy basil, bitter herb, star anise, water spinach, turmeric root, banana flower, fish mint, sorrel, red perilla, Vietnamese coriander, just to name a few (check out this helpful catalogue of herbs for more info). Add tangy fish sauce, melt-in-your-mouth pork, ground shrimp, grilled goat, handmade rice paper, fiery chilis, fresh baguettes, and amazing fruit and you've got a meal. It's incredibly tasty, healthy, and, oh, did I mention it's really cheap?

As in Japan, Vietnamese cuisine is made up of many small dishes served together. Or rather, whatever you are eating is served with many accompanying dishes, most of which are freshly torn from the ground, washed and brought to your table. The Vietnamese add these greens, herbs and fresh chilis to almost everything; from salad rolls to noodles to pho to crepes. Everything is delicious...so totally mouth-watering, in fact, that it hurts to think about it now that we are gone.

There just isn't time to describe all the wonderful things we ate in Vietnam - suffice to say that they are too innumerable to list. But some highlights are as follows:

1. Fresh fruit

The fruit in Vietnam is out of this world. Fresh coconut, juicy pineapple, prickly chom chom (rambutan), sweet mango, green banana, ripe guava, red dragon fruit, strange and delicious star apple (milk fruit) and custard apple (bread fruit), mangosteen, smelly durian, giant pomelo. The list goes on. They are all incredibly cheap and intoxicatingly delicious.

Top: bread fruit, milk fruit, chom chom, guava, tangerine, pomelo and green banana.

Bottom: chom chom, milk fruit, and dragon fruit

2. Vietnamese crepes

These 'crepes' are usually made from a thin batter of liquified rice and egg. They can be sweet (filled with banana and pineapple) or savory, folded over shrimp, bean sprouts and fresh greens. They are crispy on the outside and sometimes wrapped with rice paper or lettuce for dipping. Yum!

3. Assorted rolls

Spring rolls, summer rolls, salad rolls: whatever you call them, the idea is mostly the same. Tender rice paper, freshly made (not that dry, crackly stuff we buy at the Asian market), assembled at your table by hand, and filled with anything and everything your heart desires. Whole, shell-on shrimp, pork slices, star fruit, vermicelli noodles, pickled cucumber, and again, assorted herbs and greens. Possibly one of the best food ideas on the planet.

Top: a heap of Vietnamese greens and herbs

Bottom: Nat and My, our Vietnamese host, at an authentic joint on the river

4. Pho (noodle soup)

We all know pho, the enigmatic noodle soup, it's affordable goodness having reached hipster enclaves in cities across America. It's cheap, it's tasty and it does a body good. In Vietnam, it costs way less and it tastes way better - the most grim roadside stand beating the best pho shops in Portland, hands down, without batting an eyelash. Enough said.

best 40 cent bowl of soup EVER

5. Bun (Bun cha and Bun thit nuong)

Bun, like pho, is also becoming more common in the west. It's essentially a bowl of cold vermicelli noodles, served with a heaping serving of fresh greens and herbs, the most tender pork (or chicken) you've ever eaten, grated carrot and a splash of fish sauce steeped with garlic and chili. It's delicious and refreshing, especially in the oppressive heat of Saigon. The bun thit nuong we ate at Quan An Ngon in Saigon simply cannot be beat.

6. Quan An Ngon

Quan An Ngon is not a food, it's a place. A quite large restaurant near the Reunification Plaza in central Saigon that houses a multitude of traditional street foods under one breezy, well-designed roof. Quan An Ngon is not 100% authentic, on both of our visits it was quite packed with foreigners in addition to its local clientele and it appears on the must-eat list of the NYtimes and assorted travel guides. And perhaps we had more interesting meals elsewhere in Saigon (for example at a fantastic riverside joint we were taken to by our Vietnamese host). But none of these factors should detract from it's appeal. It serves what is some of the best food to be had in Vietnam in a lovely setting. Please go there hungry. Try the chao tom (ground shrimp rolled on sugarcane and fried), the bun chit nuong and a soursop juice. You will not be disappointed.

Top: a lunch feast at Quan An Ngon - chicken wings with rice cake, salad rolls, chao tom, grilled prawns, bun chit nuong, and soursop juice

Bottom: chao tom (sugarcane rolled in ground fresh shrimp, fried and served with vermicelli)

5. Red Bridge Cooking School

Red Bridge is a small cooking-school operating out of Hoi An. Half and full day courses offer a trip to the market to purchase your ingredients, followed by a lovely boat ride to the school, a tour of their herb garden, a 3 hour course with a Vietnamese chef, and a fabulous lunch on their terrace where you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. The all day course was fully-booked so we opted for the half day and couldn't have been happier. Among our feats of the day were handmade rice paper, Vietnamese crepes, seafood salad and eggplant in a clay pot. One of our guides also helped us to purchase a bunch of seeds to grow our own Vietnamese herb garden here in Sapporo. An awesome experience.

Top: Kelly whipping up eggplant in a clay pot

Bottom: eggplant dish with tomato rose and cucumber fan!

My only post-Vietnam food regret is not having tried any banh mi, the french-inspired baguette sandwiches for sale on streetcorners everywhere. After a bout of traveler's you-know-what, I completely lost the nerve to dive in to a sandwich, or anything else, from a roadside vendor. If you want to learn more about banh mi, check out this recent article, or better yet, hop a flight to Saigon and spin the roulette wheel on a sandwich that is probably well worth the risk.

lessons 1 and 2: the perks of overland travel

near the mud baths outside Nha Trang

Because our itinerary felt a little pressed for time, we decided before leaving Japan that we would travel by air between our intended destinations in Vietnam and Cambodia. Our friend who lives in Saigon discouraged untimely and unreliable overland travel and assured us we would have no problem booking airfare on the fly, and so, ignoring our better judgement and intuition we landed in Saigon without a single reservation in hand.

We soon found - and found, and found, and found again - that this winging it mentality was not shared by tens of thousands of our fellow travelers who, wanting to ensure their seats, had booked well in advance (lesson 1). And so, after an initial bout of frustration, we embarked on our first leg of overland travel in Southeast Asia: a 13-hour bus ride from Saigon to Siem Riep, Cambodia.

Top: from the taxi en route to Hue, Center: from the train ride to Da Nang, Bottom: boat ride on the Perfume River

Our 6 am bus departed with a moderate degree of difficulty and confusion. A short sleep and a cleverly prepared egg sandwich later, we were barreling through the rice paddies of rural Vietnam, wedged between two South African tourists and the on-board toilet. As the hours ticked by, we passed through villages on stilts, fastidious farmers in their conical hats, water buffalo lazing in the murky water, young boys in school uniforms riding two and three to a bicycle, and trucks packed to the brim with reclining men. We stopped only occasionally to pick up or drop off a tanned, elderly local on the side of the road, stock up on rambutan fruit and pineapple, and once, to load the bus onto an under-sized boat which carried us swiftly across the river into Phnom Penh. We arrived after dark - exhausted, stiff-kneed and with the knowledge that we had just seen a tremendous piece of countryside we would have missed entirely by flying (lesson 2). It was the first of several exceedingly beautiful, if not totally comfortable, journeys we made over land - by tuk tuk, taxi, van, boat and local train - all of which are memorable.

Top, center and bottom: from the van leaving Doc Let

in defense of Saigon

River view in Saigon

Like so many travelers daydreaming about their eventual visit to Vietnam, one place has captivated my interest more than any other: Hanoi. The "grand old dame of the Orient," as it's known, is touted among travelers and guidebooks to be one of the most exotic, atmospheric, and graceful cities in Southeast Asia. It's charming French-colonial architecture, bustling streets and exquisite cuisine make up the Vietnam so oft idealized. In short, Hanoi has long been on my mind.

Unfortunately, in January, Hanoi is also cold. Not bone chilling, granted, but departing from snowy Sapporo, we were not eager to don our jackets nor to tote them around for the remainder of our travels. So, with heavy hearts, we decided to postpone our visit to Hanoi. Instead, our chosen port of arrival was Hanoi's bigger, messier, and generally less-loved sister to the south, Saigon.

Rooftops from our apartment in Saigon

We were fortunate to have acquaintances, our old neighbor in Portland and his Vietnamese wife, willing to host us during our time in Saigon. I admit that it is perhaps because of this connection that we were able to so thoroughly enjoy the city. However, I would like to briefly make a case in defense of Saigon...

Let me start by saying that Saigon is not charming. It is a huge city, and a sprawling one. It is thronged with people, it is unrelentingly noisy, it is unquestionably hot, humid and dirty. It is a place where your life feels vaguely in peril just by setting foot in the streets. But. It is alive like no other place I have ever seen. While something similar can be said of much of Vietnam, Saigon is truly a place unto itself. It is a seething, breathing, living thing - teeming with massive herds of motos, luscious foliage, exotic smells, designer boutiques and vigorous street hawkers, flashing lights and ear-splitting music, visible history and stunning architecture, packed cafes, vibrant colors, calf-deep puddles, rickety ferries, bizarre fruits, and an overabundance of pho, baguette, and every kind of leafy green and grilled animal you could ever imagine. Saigon is pure chaos in all its glory. It is not for the faint of heart. But if you can survive the initial shell-shock (not to mention your first attempt at crossing the street), you will be rewarded with a richness, a vibrancy, a livelihood and an authenticity that rivals anything anywhere else in Asia. It is entirely worth seeing, and however sadistic, a place I will most definitely return to.

Top: a pho joint in Saigon, Center and bottom: Saigon motos

Vietnam + Cambodia re-cap

Top: fields behind our hotel in Hoi An, Center and bottom: streets of Hoi An

We had a fantastic and fruitful trip to Vietnam and Cambodia over the holidays. Three weeks is just long enough to make you realize you have to stay in a place much longer to know anything about it. It's also long enough to forget all of the Japanese you learned before you left.

Those things aside, it was absolutely spectacular. Some highlights:

1. Vietnamese food! So wonderful it merits it's own post.

2. experiencing just a taste of the 'real' Saigon

3. the color green. Vietnam has the most lush landscape my eyes have encountered

4. French-colonial inspired, Vietnam-ized architecture

5. our week at an extraordinarily isolated and beautiful beach resort (novels read: 3)

6. the unmatched kindness of the Cambodian people

7. overland transport (assorted long-distance buses, taxis, soft-seat trains, boats and tuk tuks)

8. fresh coconut

Top: our bungalow at Ki-em on Doc Let beach, Bottom: walking a path at Bantay Srei, Angkor