Knife Making in Hanoi

While looking for things to do in Hanoi, Dom discovered a super cool activity: Knife Making!  (Incase you didn't know - Dom LOVES knives 😂)

This was a 3 hour workshop where you get to design and make your own knife with the help of a Vietnamese blacksmith. 

The steps (as we understood them) were as follows:

  • Roughly carve the handle
  • Cut the blade to a rough shape/size 
  • Strengthen the blade by heating and hammering
  • Bash the blade with the bashing machine 
  • Straighten the blade
  • Shape the blade with the grinder
  • Temper the blade
    • To make sure the blade keeps its edge, the blacksmith put salt on the blade, heated it up, and then she dipped it in oil and sand. 
  • Sharpen the blade using 3 different grinding wheels and manual honing
  • Put the handle on and sand it 

We didn't get to do all the steps solo (since some steps require proper training and can be quite dangerous if you don't know what your are doing!), but we were impressed at how many of the actual knife-making steps we got to participate in.  We had so much fun!!

Halong Bay on the Dragon Legend

We previously visited Halong Bay 10 years ago and thought it would be a wonderful experience to repeat again with Dom’s mom. 

During our first trip here, we booked with Indochina Junk and sailed on a 10-cabin boat called the Dragon Pearl Junk.  Even though we really enjoyed the small and personal feel of the Dragon Pearl boat, we decided to try out the 3-day/2-night trip on their newest 24-cabin boat, called the Dragon Legend.   It has bigger cabins and a bigger sun deck, as well as a spa, a tiny pool, and a tiny gym 🤷‍♂️.

We were picked up from our Hanoi hotel and drove 2.5 hours to the pier, where we checked in and waited in the lounge area for about 1 hour before heading out to the boat. 

We again visited Bai Tu Long Bay instead of Halong Bay because it is significantly less busy. Our guide told us that on a busy day, Halong Bay will have up to 400 tourist boats whereas Bai Tu Long Day would only have up to 100.  Of the 100 boats that visit this area, only around 35 of them will anchor overnight and sail further out into the bay. 

In our case, because post-covid tourism had not fully recovered yet, we spotted a max of 10 boats anchored overnight and saw even fewer boats while sailing during the day, so it really felt like we had the whole bay to ourselves!  

Our Dragon Legend boat would typically have about 50 passengers when full, but again, due to low season and post-covid, we only had 19 passengers the first night.  

It turned out that 12 of the passengers had only booked a 1 night trip, which we didn't even know was possible.  After breakfast on the 2nd day, they all took a ferry back, leaving only 7 of us on the giant boat for the second and third day.. we actually had more crew than passengers on our boat!

Besides the amazing views, we really enjoyed all of the activities offered by the cruise.

Floating Village Boat Ride

Cave Exploring

Kayaking

We really enjoyed the 2 kayaking trips that allowed us to peacefully paddle through the local landscape and explore the karsts from close-up.

Lunch on the beach 

On our second day, the ship's crew brought us to a secluded beach where they set up tables and chairs and served us a lovely BBQ seafood lunch. 

Squid Fishing

At around 9PM, you could go to the back of the boat and try to fish for squid. Dom decided to give it a try on the second night. He heard that the group only caught one squid on the first night, so he didn't have high hopes. 

While demonstrating the fishing technique, the guide actually caught a squid right away.  Then Dom put his fishing line into the water, mimicked the same up and down motion, and caught another one within a couple of minutes.  He was satisfied with catching something, so he called it a night.  He learned that the squid are attracted to the boat's light, so all you need to do is get a special hook, shine some light in the water and move your fishing rod up and down… that’s it!  😂

Lounging

Between activities and food, we spent time lounging on the sun deck to enjoy the sunny weather and amazing views.  Since there were so few passengers on the boat, we had the entire sun deck to ourselves!

Sunsets

Water puppet show

Lastly, on our drive back to Hanoi, we stopped at a small village to see a traditional water puppet show.


Quick Hanoi Visit

We only had a couple of days to spend in Hanoi, so we quickly saw a couple of sites and ate some of our favourite dishes that we had discovered before. 

Sites

When we came here back in 2013, it was the first time that we were ever scammed by a taxi driver who had rigged the taximeter to run significantly faster than it was supposed to.  Hanoi was also cold, cloudy, rainy, and uninviting during our last trip, so we didn't leave with the best impression. 

This time, we were able to use Grab for transportation (similar to Uber).  Having transportation at a fixed cost without worrying about scams made getting around a lot easier and stress-free.  We also discovered that Hanoi now has a metro!  Our days here were sunny and warm, so the streets were inviting and bustling with people.  Hanoi was starting to grow on us.  

We mainly wandered around the lake and old quarter areas.  On weekends, they block off the roads surrounding the lake, so it made our strolls very pleasant.  

West of the lake, we stumbled upon this quaint spot along a train track called Ms Huong Ly Vietnamese Restaurant.  Apparently, trains pass through here several times a day and you can enjoy a meal and/or coffee at one of the many cafes along the track.  If you are lucky, you will see the train pass, just a couple of meters from your table. We were not lucky enough to see a train, but still enjoyed a meal along the tracks.

When you travel in Asia, you are bound to see some motorbikes transporting interesting things.  Usually they are either unbelievably over-filled or carrying large items in precarious ways.  We thought that we had seen it all, but this time around we saw something new and quite unique: a motorbike parked on the side of the road selling live fish for aquariums/ponds 🐟🐠🐡!  We saw a few other interesting things, but that was our favourite 😂. 


Food

Jen had great memories of a small restaurant here called Bun Bo Nam Bo.  They serve a dish, called Bun Bo, which she and Guy (Dom's cousin) absolutely loved, and we couldn't find that dish anywhere else in Vietnam.  When we went to the restaurant, we barely recognised it because it has grown to 3 floors and become a proper-looking restaurant (instead of a small local kiosk with seats)!  As with everywhere, the price of the dish has risen quite a lot (70k VND, ~$4cad), but fortunately, the food did not disappoint and tasted as good as she remembered.  For Dom, it was also the same as last time.. "I don't understand the hype.. the dish is just ok" 😝. 

We wanted Dom’s mom to try Pizza 4Ps, a restaurant that Jen's coworker introduced her to when she was working in Saigon. Pizza 4Ps (pizza-for-peace) is a restaurant chain that was launched in Vietnam, by a Japanese couple in 2011.  It's normally difficult to find good pizza in Asia, but Pizza 4Ps has excellent pizzas that leave us craving for more!  

Our favourite is the Burrata Parma Ham pizza - a sauce-free pizza topped with arugla, parma ham, cherry tomatoes, and home-made burrata cheese which they slice open at your table.  Compared to eating local food, this 10-inch pizza is relatively pricey at 298k vnd (~$17.50cad) plus VAT), but we couldn't resist and ate it 4 times this trip (twice in Saigon and twice in Hanoi😆).

For dessert, Jen wanted to try a fruit dessert from Hoa Quả Dầm Hoa Béo that is also famous here.  We were super full from dinner, but since it was our last night, we walked the extra mile to try it out and she really liked it. 



Hoi An Foodie Tour with Vinh

From all of our travels, one of the most memorable tours that we did was the Original Taste of Hoi An Food Tour.  Having enjoyed and done that tour several times already, we decided to try a different one this time.  Since Hoi An is known for having great food, there are a lot of new foodie tours that have sprung up here over the years.  We found a free walking food tour (tip-based) with good ratings and decided to give it a try.

We met Vinh near the post office and had a great feeling from the start.  He was friendly, energetic, passionate, and his English was really good.  He did a particularly great job of giving an upfront explanation about what a "free tour" entails and what to expect on our journey. 

Che (10,000vnd, ~$0.55cad)
Our first stop was at a small stall by the main market, where we tasted a common desert in Vietnam, called Che.  It’s a mix of beans and jellies made from agar (seaweed gelatin), topped with coconut milk and condensed milk.

Banh Mi (30,000vnd, ~$1.70cad)
Next, we stopped at the Banh Mi stall that was made famous by Anthony Bourdain because it appeared on his TV series, No Reservations.  Hoi An has so many Banh Mi stalls, and each offers different variations of great tastes. At this stall, we tasted the traditional Banh Mi sandwich, filled with pate, savoury meats, vegetables, herbs and sauces.

Banh Dap (5,000vnd, ~$0.30cad)
Banh Dap is a layer of a wide fresh rice noodle sandwiched between layers of a crispy baked rice pancake. The fun thing about this dish is that you have to karate-chop it before you eat it. This action creates bite sized pieces that you dip into some fish sauce and enjoy. At this particular stall, the owner makes a very potent homemade fish sauce that is well known amongst the locals.  The fish sauce was really tasty, but too strong/fishy for most of the people in the group, so most of them switched to soy sauce instead.

Banh Kep (15,000vnd, ~$0.85cad) and Chen Trung (10,000vnd, ~$0.55cad)
For the next location, we walked a ways before turning down a small random alley.  Vinh stopped at a local lady's house where she cooks and serves Banh Kep (Vietnamese Pizza) and Chen Trung (cooked quail eggs) in the front veranda of her home.  This particular "stall" closes early, so we were their last customers of the day!

Che Xi Ma  (15,000vnd, ~$0.85cad)
Nothing like a bit of desert to cut your meal!  Our next dish was Xi Ma, a sweet black sesame soup.  We stopped at the oldest shop in Hoi An where the family has been serving a generation-old recipe for decades.  Their recipe includes medicinal Chinese herbs to maintain health, so in addition to enjoying the delicious taste and warm texture of the dish, locals come to eat the soup for good health.  Vinh told us that the owner doesn't allow customers to have more than 2 servings a day!

Bale Well
Before going to the next spot, we stopped at a well that was hidden behind a building.  We were told that this is the special well that everyone in the city uses to make the yellow "Cau Lau" noodles.  We're not sure what exactly is so special about the water here, but apparently every morning, people gather around this 1000 year old well to gather the precious water to make the noodles. 

Cau Lau (30,000vnd, ~$1.70cad) and Ban Xeo (20,000vnd, ~$1.10cad)
We proceeded to a restaurant near the Bale Well to try the typical and famous dish from Hoi An called Cau Lau.  This restaurant is owned by one of the original Cau-Lau-making families.  They used to only make and serve Cau Lau, but because they have become popular and customers request other food options, they now they serve other dishes as well.  Since this was our last main food-stop of the evening, we also decided to try their Ban Xeo (Vietnamese pancakes) and it was great as well!  

Sinh Tố Thập Cẩm (25,000vnd, ~$1.45cad)
To finish the evening, Vinh took us to a small stall at the side of a main road to try Sin To Thap Cam, a fruit salad served in a cop with ice and sweet milk.  If you want, they will blend it to make a smoothie for you, but Vinh recommended that we try the traditional version where the fruits are left in slices and you get to use your spoon to smash all of the ingredients together until you have the consistency that you want.  It was delicious and a great way to finish our meal! 

We've done quite a few food tours during our travels and always end up overly full by the end.  The thing that we really liked about this tour is that the food was not "included" so we just paid for each of the dishes as we went along.  This gave us more control over the quantities of food that we got, so that we didn't have to over-eat or "waste" food.   This, and the fact that Vinh was such a passionate and awesome tour guide, made this experience super fun and memorable.  We all really enjoyed the tour, so it was a perfect way to end our last evening in Hoi An!

Cooking in Hoi An

10 years ago, we did a cooking class with Van at Green Bamboo Hoi An and really enjoyed our experience.  Although there are many cooking-class other options available in Hoi An, we wanted Dom’s mom to have the same experience that we had before, so we booked with Green Bamboo again. To our delight, we had even more fun this time because we lucked out and had a very small group of only 5 people.  

Van picked us up at our hotel and gave us a tour of the market while purchasing all of the fresh ingredients for the dishes that we would be cooking.  She introduced us to various foods that you can buy at the vendors, explained how to identify which meats are fresh, and described the different ingredients that she was purchasing for our dishes.  We stopped for a quick snack and coffee break before driving to her house to start cooking.

The dishes we chose to learn this time were: 

  • Vegetarian Curry with Coconut Milk - Charlotte
  • Vietnamese Pancakes (Bàn Xéo) - Dom 
  • Grilled Pork with Noodles (Bún chả) - Jen 

The 2 other students chose to make: 

  • Fish in Clay Pot (cá kho tộ), and 
  • Egg plant in clay pot with Stir fry tofu, pineapple and tomato.  

We started by prepping the ingredients for all of our dishes, together.

One thing that differed from our first experience was that we cooked and ate one dish at a time, instead of everyone cooking their dishes and eating everything at the end.  We really liked this because it allowed us to enjoy each dish while it was hot and also gave us time to digest a bit before stuffing ourselves even more!

Since we only had 5 students, Van added some extra dishes to the list including: Vietnamese Sweet Potato Leaf Soup, Green Papaya Salad with Tofu Skin, and Egg Coffee for dessert.

We were super full and a little tired by the end, but we all really enjoyed the wonderful day spending time with Van and eating so much delicious food.  


Hoi An with Dom’s Mom

For the last part of our trip, we went to Hoi An to meet up with Dom’s mom so that we could share some of our favourite foods, places, and experiences with her, in Vietnam and Thailand.

Charlotte's flight from Montreal was originally supposed to take 26 hours with layovers in Toronto and Taipei.  Unfortunately, when she arrived to check-in at the Montreal airport, she found out that her first flight (to Toronto) had been cancelled due to bad weather.  They rerouted her through Vancouver->Seoul leaving 12 hours later, so she had to overnight in a Montreal hotel and return to the airport early the next morning. She managed to board the Vancouver flight, but the plane got stuck on the tarmac and arrived in Vancouver 5 hours late, so they had to reroute her again.  She was stuck waiting 12 hours in the Vancouver Airport, then took a 16 hour flight to Bangkok, and had a 13 hour layover in Bangkok until her final flight to Da Nang (near Hoi An).   

She finally arrived ~36 hours later than her original itinerary, buuut... her checked luggage didn't make it 🙃.  Fortunately, they located her luggage in Seoul 2 days later, so she finally received her luggage 3 days after she had arrived.  Despite her crazy long 60 hour voyage to get here, Charlotte arrived with a positive attitude and a smile on her face.  She was tired, but surprisingly not as exhausted as we thought she would be! 

Given her long journey, we tried to take it a bit easy in Hoi An.  We spent lots of time: wandering the cute streets of the ancient town,

people-watching while drinking different types of Vietnamese coffees (iced, salted, coconut, egg),

tasting a variety of Vietnamese dishes (a first, for Charlotte), 

and doing a bit of shopping.  We were amazed at how busy Hoi An was and how much it has grown and changed since when we were last here in 2019!

Dom's favourite Vietnamese food is called "banh mi".  It's a Vietnamese sandwich with meat, pate, pickles, egg, herbs, and sauce.  We were super excited to return to our favourite banh mi restaurant in Hoi An, called Madam Khanh, and figured we would eat there almost every day.  Sadly, we only ended up going there once because the sandwiches were so disappointingly cold and tasteless - it seems they have now become overly popular so the quality of their food has gone down significantly 😢.  
We decided to try a different place called Phi Banh Mi.  Fortunately, the sandwiches there were better and we really enjoyed meeting their colourful pet Iguana, Danny.  When it was sunny outside, he liked to crawl through the restaurant to lay in the sun next to the kiosk where they make the sandwiches 😂.

One morning, we did a half-day course to learn how to make traditional Vietnamese lanterns. 

Jen was happy that her favourite tailor shop, Kim Only, was still here - we each had a couple of pieces of custom clothing made. 


Vietnam 2019

This year, Jen started a new job that gave her the opportunity to work for 2 months at the office in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. 

It was an unforgettable experience and she had such a great time meeting her Vietnamese co-workers who were so kind and welcoming. They gave her a taste of the local way of life and work culture in Vietnam, and showed her some of the best local restaurants and foods in the area around the office.  They also went on a company trip to Rạch Giá and Nam Du Island.  It was such a privilege to have this opportunity to meet and work with such an amazing and fun group of people!

Jen's parents and Dom also came to visit Vietnam for a few weeks!
We did the usual Mui Ne + Hoi An visits, met up with friends, and enjoyed the Vietnamese food. 

On this trip, we did 2 new things that we hadn't done before: 

1) Lantern Making 

In Hoi An, we took a class on how to make Vietnamese lanterns. It’s a 4-hour class where you frame and cover the lantern with the fabric of your choice!  It was really enjoyable and we were all very happy with our creations .

2) Bà Nà Hills 

On our way back from Hoi An, we stopped in Da Nang to visit the Golden Bridge. It’s a popularly Instagrammed bridge held up by a pair of giant hands.  The actual bridge is just a small portion of a bigger complex/park, which is built to have the look and feel of a European city. A 20 minutes gondola brings you up to the village (a nice place go if you need to escape a zombie apocalypse). We took time to explore the area and enjoy the relaxing scenery. 


A trip to Vietnam would not be the same without seeing people manage to transport something on their scooter, which would think is impossible!

Biking the Mekong Delta

Thanks to a recommendation from our friends, Eddie and Jen, we finally decided to visit another part of Vietnam that we hadn't yet been to!  We always wanted to see the Can Tho floating market, so when they told us how much they loved the 3-day bike tour with Sinh Balo Tours, we decided to give it a try. 

Our 3 day journey in the Mekong area had us riding about 130km along quiet village roads and bike/motorbike trails that run amid various farms and fields.

Day 1 (Saigon–LongAn–MyTho–VinhLong ~43 km)

Our first day was pretty busy. Our guide, Loc, picked us up at our Ho Chi Minh hostel at 8am and we drove about an hour out of the city to begin our biking adventure with another couple from Denmark. 

The first 25 km were though rice fields. 

Along the way, we stopped at a factory to see how rice noodles are made.

Then the van then drove us 30 minutes to a local vegetarian restaurant where we ate an assortment of delicious local dishes. 

After lunch, we did another 18 km before taking a couple of boat rides to enjoy the beautiful sunset.  We crossed over to a smaller fruit-farm island where we tasted several types of local fruits and home-made "happy water".

At our homestay we ate some fresh seafood that our guide purchased from local fishermen during our boat ride along the river. 

Day 2 (VinhLong to CanTho ~50 km)

Another busy day packed with interesting sights and fun/unique experiences, starting with breakfast at 8am and then back onto the bikes!  

We stopped at:
a market where you can buy skinned frogs... that are still alive :(

several fruit plantations: Banana, Rambutan, LongAn, Pomelo, Papaya, Durian, etc.

a Khmer temple

another delicious lunch at a local restaurant in the middle of nowhere :)

Since it was nearing the end of the Chinese New Year (Tet) holiday, we saw (and heard) several small house parties blasting loud, distorted Karaoke through the normally serene farm fields.  

Our guide took an unexpected turn into one of the local homes along the way.  Apparently he decided to stop in to "say hi" to some locals he had met here while scouting routes for the bike tour.  The locals welcomed us all in as though we were good old friends, and offered us typical Tet celebration foods such as candy, biscuits, fruits with chili-salt, "happy water", and some dog-stew. 

One of the locals grabbed his guitar and they all started singing for us. The best part was that it felt so local, authentic, and unscripted - a very rare experience when you're on a tour! 

After our last ride, our butts hurting.  When we finally arrived at our guest house, we thought the days was over, but no… we had a 1 hour shower break and then it was time for a little cooking lesson!  The owner of the guest house taught us to make yummy Spring Rolls and Vietnamese pancakes. After dinner, we all crashed… exhausted, but happy.

Day 3 (Can Tho to Saigon ~35 km)

We woke up early and hopped onto a boat to visit the Can Tho floating market. We originally thought the market was where locals go to buy food, but it turns out that it's actually a wholesale market where farmers sell their fruits and vegetables to middle-men who then transport the food to other areas of Vietnam.  Our guide told us the minimum orders are somewhere between 50 and 100 KG. 
There were a handful of smaller boats selling food for the hard-working traders.
We returned to shore and biked 16km through the suburb of Can Tho.  This section was well paved, so our butts were happy :). 

Our last ride 20km ride was to a Pomelo farm where we stopped to pick our own Pomelo. 

After a quick drive back to Ho Chi Minh, our trip concluded.  

Overall we had an amazing time and we were extremely impressed with the organization of our tour.  Tthe bikes were in great condition, the group was small and felt very personalized and most of the activities didn't feel overly-touristy.  In particular, we felt especially lucky to get Loc as our guide, as it really felt like he put a lot of effort into showing us as many local and authentic experiences as possible.  

Thanks Eddie and Jen, for recommended the trip to us!  We also highly recommend it to anyone else thinking of visiting the area!!

Hoi An Side Trip

Jen jumped at the opportunity to return to her favourite Vietnamese city to play tour guide with her parents and the girls for a culture, foodie, markets, shopping, and tailor-made clothing extravaganza!  Dom and Guy had already been to Hoi An before, so they decided to remain in Mui Ne to continue teaching/learning kitesurfing.  

Of course they couldn't pass up the chance to try out all of the best Vietnamese dishes in the region, with Neville's Great Taste of Hoi An Foodie tour (for Jen's 3rd time)! :)


Friends and Family in Mui Ne

This season we were really fortunate to be joined by several friends and family from Calgary, at our favourite kitesurfing retreat in Mui Ne, Vietnam.  

Despite this year's very unusual season of windless days and down pouring rain, we still had a blast introducing them to all of our favourite restaurants, activities, massage/spa treatments, and, of course, all of our Mui Ne friends.

Kiting Lessons
Paddle Boarding
Motorbiking
Cooking School
Eating
Chilling
Jenga for buckets ;)
Checking out a movie to escape the rain...