Good Morning Vietnam!

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Tags

Da Nang, Dalat, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Saigon, Vietnam

Mr. Selfish and I have been in Saigon for three full days now. Since this is our second time here, we haven’t really done much other than settle into our apartment, made a home-cooked meal, and joined a gym. It has been nice having a routine, and best of all, we don’t leave until Friday.

After that, we’ll be traveling to parts of Vietnam we haven’t visited yet – Nha Trang, Dalat, Hoi An, and Da Nang. So of course, our days will be jammed pack full of activities again.

At this point, we’re starting to get a little travel planning fatigue. So, please let me know if you have any recommendations for us.

Flashback Friday – Halong Bay in Vietnam

18 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Flashback, Food & Drinks, Vietnam

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Flashback, Flashback Friday, Halong Bay, Vietnam

During our homeland honeymoon, Mr. Selfish and I stayed in the Sofitel in Hanoi, Vietnam. The hotel had a French colonial theme and was utterly charming. It is one of our favorite hotels of all time. Since our good friends (Uyen-Minh and Mike) paid for a day trip to Halong Bay as our wedding present, we decided to splurge and arranged for the trip through the Sofitel.

It was a little extravagant but we had a private driver and an English-speaking tour guide to Halong Bay, which was about 1.5 hours away. Along the way, the tour guide made some disparaging remarks about Americans to us, which is fine but we found a little odd since we had just told him that we were American.

When we arrived at Halong Bay, we discovered that we had an entire junk boat to ourselves. It was a two-story junk boat that could probably fit about 100 tourists. There was also an entire crew just for us.

Continue reading →

Continuing Our Selfish Year

29 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Australia, Bali, China, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

≈ 3 Comments

Mr. Selfish and I have been in the States since Dec. 16th. We have truly enjoyed our time back “home”. Even though we are technically homeless (since we rented out our house), we consider the States to be home.

It has been wonderful to see so many loved ones and enjoy the comforts of home. I especially loved meeting my adorable three month old nephew for the first time and experiencing Christmas through the eyes of my 3 year-old and 6 year-old nephews. Mr. Selfish and I also appreciated all of the delicious food that everyone has been cooking for us. A home cooked meal with family beats eating out at a restaurant every time.

But tomorrow, it’s all coming to an end. We are continuing our selfish year. We have eight more months and about thirty more cities to go. Here’s the map of our itinerary:

Continue reading →

Flashback Friday – Rough Riding in Vietnam

05 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Flashback, Vietnam

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cyclo, Hanoi, Hue, Motorcycles, Saigon, Vietnam

On our honeymoon in 2009, Mr. Selfish and I went to Hanoi, Hue, and Saigon in Vietnam. Vietnam is a land of motorcycles. The roads are full of them, and there is a constant honking sound at all times. We quickly learned that honking is not to indicate that something has gone wrong but rather it is to indicate one’s presence. In other words, a honk is equivalent to “hello, I’m riding here.” It was definitely something we had to get used to.

In any case, one of our favorite past times was finding interesting items being hauled on motorcycles. We saw whole families, kegs, ducks, and chickens. We also found a huge live pig on its back, but we didn’t get the camera out in time to capture it.

Continue reading →

Flashback Friday – Eating a Beating Snake Heart

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Flashback, Food & Drinks, Vietnam

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beating Heart, Hanoi, Snake, Vietnam

Mr. Selfish and I did a “homeland honeymoon,” which means we went to Hong Kong and Vietnam. While we were in Hanoi, we decided to try snake. We hired a driver to take us to a restaurant in the village where they serve snake.

The restaurant had an outdoor courtyard that was lovely. We were relaxing a bit when they brought out a snake and started playing with it. After a couple of minutes, the negotiation for the price started. Once we settled on the price, they got to business!