April 14, 2024 • 53 mins
Embark on a journey to the heart of Vietnam with the intrepid traveler Christy Teglo. Our latest episode is a vivid tapestry of cultural immersion and local flavors, where you'll discover the unexpected cool of the northern mountains and the rhythmic chaos of motorbikes dictating the pace of city life. Christy generously spills secrets on the best times to visit, regional cuisine, and the art of managing the local currency. Prepare to be enchanted by her stories of lantern-lit streets in Hoi An and the surreal Golden Bridge in Da Nang, all the while gaining practical tips that will transform your Vietnamese adventure into an episode of your own life's travel series.
Foodies, take note as Christy takes us on a mouthwatering tour through Vietnam's diverse culinary landscape. She shares the nuances of local breakfasts and street food scenes that are as vibrant as they are flavorful. From the challenges of adapting to a morning bowl of green onion brothy soup to the cultural insights gained over a bowl of pho, your palate will be itching to explore. And if you've ever wondered how to cross a street swarming with motorbikes, Christy recalls a local guide's bold strategy that's as effective as it is emblematic of the energy that pulses through Vietnam's veins.
For those mapping out their next Southeast Asian odyssey, this episode is brimming with sage travel tips. Christy's firsthand lessons on the varying climates, best activities, and transportation hacks across Vietnam are invaluable for any traveler looking to navigate this country with ease. Listen closely, and you'll leave with a treasure trove of knowledge that promises to make your journey as rich and fulfilling as the stories that have graced this episode.
Map of Vietnam
You can find Christy here:
Website:
https://teglogoes.com/
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Christy's Book - Weathered: Finding Strength on the John Muir Trail
https://teglogoes.com/weathered/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, welcome to our podcast.
We're Next Travel with Kristinand Carol.
I am Kristin and I am Carol,and we're two long-term friends
with a passion for travel andadventure.
In each episode, we interviewpeople around the globe to help
us decide where to go next.
So today we have KristyTeiglobba from one of our most
(00:36):
popular episodes that we alreadytalked about Argentina.
So thank you, kristy, forjoining us, and our focus today
is going to be Vietnam.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, yeah, that's my understanding, yeah, okay, but,
yeah, thanks, thanks for havingme back on.
I, you know, really enjoyedtalking to you guys last time,
so excited to talk about a newlocation.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Where are you calling from right now?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm in Joshua Tree in California right now doing a
house and cat sitting.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh my gosh, so cool.
Okay, how long?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
you there for this.
One was a week, and then I havea cat sitting long beach that I
use through trusted housesetters, which is great because
then I get to explore new areasand, yeah, get to see new areas,
stay for free, take care of thekitties.
But this was my first time outin Joshua Tree, so about two and
(01:29):
a half hours or so from LA.
So, yeah, it's pretty cool outhere.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So do they have a house in Joshua Tree.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, so it's in, technically, Landers, so it's
about 20 minutes from theentrance to Joshua Tree National
Park.
Yeah, it's definitely.
There were some rainstorms atthe beginning of the week and it
was pretty cold, but the lastfew days I was able to get out
to the park and explore and dosome hiking.
Yeah, it's funny, I've been inthe beach for so long and never
came out to Joshua Tree, whichis so silly because it's really
(01:57):
close, so I'm glad I finally getto explore over here.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Nice, that sounds like fun too.
So trusted house setters, andthey do.
Is it pets and just house too,or is it?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, it's pretty much.
You can do pets or just houses,but I've never seen any that
are just houses.
They're pretty much all havesome sort of pet.
But it's really cool.
You just pay the annual fee andthen the rest is there's no
exchange of money and so you payfor like 120 a year for
background checks andverifications and stuff.
Great for the homeowner theirpet and house gets taken care of
(02:30):
and great for me because I getto stay for free and get to see
different pets.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
And how long have you done thatand how has your experience
been so far?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
The first one I did was in Australia in 2019.
And I did three different cats.
That's there.
They were great.
I was still in touch with twoof the three homeowners and
really became friends with them.
I did cats, and then one hadtwo cats and then two goats that
she had just gotten.
(03:02):
She'd gotten a couple of goatsand so I had to take care of
them as well.
And then I did one inSwitzerland, one in Boston, one
in Long Beach, and then I triedlooking when I was in South
America, but there was very fewavailable.
Actually, it doesn't seem likeit's really taken off there.
And then when I was inSoutheast Asia, I had there was
(03:26):
a couple in Thailand that I saw.
I don't remember if I saw anyin Vietnam.
So there's definitely someareas of the world that it's not
really being used very much,but it definitely is being used
in the US, the UK, canada andAustralia, and then a lot most
of Europe as well, but so it'sspreading so you can use it to
(03:49):
see different areas of the world.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Really interesting.
Well, I'm excited to dive intoVietnam, and who long ago were
you in Vietnam?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I was there March of 2019.
I had spent a month there andI'm really glad I had the
opportunity because once COVIDhit you really couldn't go there
for quite a while witheverything shut down around the
world.
So I think pretty much I waskind of looking to see if things
(04:17):
have changed with differenttravelers and stuff, but I think
it's pretty similar to howthings were when I was there in
2019.
But it was a great time of yearto go.
I think I was there pretty muchall of March.
I think I got there thebeginning of March, left the end
of March.
You know it's a good time ofyear because the weather is not
too hot, although in the Northit gets.
(04:39):
It can actually get really cold.
I did a motorbike tour in themountains in the North near
China and it got down to 50degrees and I remember the tour
guide said I was one of the fewpeople who came prepared with a
coat because they said a lot ofpeople show up to Vietnam
thinking it's just hoteverywhere all year and it's
(05:00):
definitely not the case there.
Once you get to Central andSouthern Vietnam it was very hot
and humid, but in the North, inthe mountains, it was actually
pretty cold.
So do pay attention to theseason.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And how high are the mountains?
Are they like thousands or justa couple hundred feet above?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You know, I don't know the exact feet actually,
but thousands.
It's kind of funny because someof them are really steep and
the grade like when you'redriving.
There's a loop called the HaZhang Loop in the North and it's
pretty famous to do a motorbiketour.
You can also do a tour withcompanies that take you in a car
(05:40):
.
They'll drive you.
If I ended up driving my ownmotorbike, it was a four day
tour and you do home stays andget to see all the scenery and
drive through the mountains.
The other people in our groupthere was four other people.
They rode on the back of amotorbike, so they had a driver.
They actually make you test todrive around a couple of streets
(06:00):
before you head out into themountains and because it's a
semi-automatic motorbike, youhave to shift with your feet.
I was pretty nervous but Idrove it successfully around and
then I found the other littletour groups and stuff that they
had.
There was one group, the women.
Two women tried and by the endof the street they both had
crashed and kind of skinned uptheir legs and so they said yeah
(06:24):
, no.
This is why we make you testbefore we, because these grades
are 11% grades on the mountain.
So it's very steep, going up anddown a lot of corners and stuff
.
So most people ride on the backof a motorbike, but you also
have the ability to drive yourown motorbike and or do it in a
car if you're not comfortable,and they'll drive you around.
(06:45):
But it's really beautifulbecause you just see these
villages, you see how they growrice on the side of a mountain
and it's like they'll cut out.
It's like two feet, and thenthere's two feet of rice growing
and then it just is so steep itgoes up another foot and then
they cut out two feet andliterally you're growing rice
and growing these things on theside of these really steep
(07:06):
mountains and then you see themcarrying all of these I forget
what else they were growing.
It was really long, probablylike five feet of different
leaves, something with leafy,something that they'd bundled to
their back and be carrying upthe mountains.
So it's definitely steep, butactually the HaZhang loop gets
you right to kind of the borderwith China, so it can get quite
(07:30):
cold because of the highelevation.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
There's a couple of questions.
One did you have any experienceriding a motorbike before, or
you just learned on the fly?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Growing up, I mean a few times here and there I had
driven like a moped or a scooteror something you know, for very
short periods but I've drivenlike when I was in Canada I did
a snowmobile and in Thailand Idrove a four-wheeler.
So just getting familiar with,I did a scooter when I was in
Italy on a wine tour.
So once you get familiar with,okay, you've got to kind of move
(08:02):
your body.
So by the time that I went toVietnam I said, okay, I think I
can do this, and thankfully youknow it was in the more remote
areas and going into thedifferent villages, because
those areas again aren't crazytraffic.
Now, the rest of Vietnam, youwill see that it is motorbike
(08:24):
central.
I mean you can't cross thestreet Like they don't.
There's no stop signs, there'sno stop lights.
You just make eye contact withpeople and you honk your little
horn beep, beep, beep, beep,beep as you kind of slow down
and you look at each other tosee who's supposed to go.
And actually when I firstarrived it was in the North and
(08:46):
then I did Hulong Bay and then Idid this motorbike tour.
It was in Hanoi, the capitalcity, and then the Ha Zhang Loop
, which is like a six hour busride, which side note, I'm sorry
, forget to mention this theyhave a lot of sleeper buses that
go up to Ha Zhang because theygo overnight sometimes during
the day.
This standard sleeping bus,they put you in these like
double decker, it's like metalcrates and basically, if you're
(09:08):
above like five feet one inch,you will not fit.
It'll be very uncomfortable.
I'm six one, so it was the mostuncomfortable six hours of my
life.
Really crazy.
For an extra $5, you can get aVIP bus which you have like your
own little cubicle.
It's amazing.
So I always tell people, if youever see in Vietnam the choice
for transportation, for VIP ornot, get that.
(09:30):
So I went to the North and HaZhang and did the loop, and so,
again, you're going throughsmaller villages.
So I felt a lot better by thetime I got back to the city, and
then I traveled to the centralpart and then the southern part.
I realized, though, the best wayto get around is motorbike, and
the reason why I think theysaid there's I wanna say there
(09:51):
was like 65 million people as apopulation, but there's like 90
million motorbikes or somethingit's really crazy is because
they get taxed very, veryheavily on cars and so because
of that the motorbike populationhas just exploded.
And when I first rode amotorbike in a busier town I
(10:13):
forget the name of the town, butin the central I started to
stop at a stop sign becausethere are still stop signs that
exist and I got honked at andalmost hit and so I just kept
going and I.
So if you're not comfortable, Ijust tell people just right on
the back, you can still get theexperience with a guy driving
you and you just pop on the backand have your backpack and you
drive around and then, if youreally don't feel even
(10:35):
comfortable with that, you canjust take like they'll take a
little shuttle bus or a car anddrive you and you'll get to
still see the views andeverything.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And how long does it take to do the whole thing?
Oh, same question.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The average is about four days.
Some people have done threedays.
It depends on how long mostpeople it's because they wanna
also see the villages and thendo the.
You do homestays and you get toknow locals and they'll make
you food, you know, tell youabout their culture.
You'll get to stop and likethere's one area where there was
a cave that we got to walk in,this huge cave it was like
(11:09):
nobody around.
It was pretty crazy.
It depends, I'd say some.
I think some of the tours arethree days.
You might be able to get awaywith one, that's two days, but
that's really stretching it.
Usually most of them are threeto four days.
I think some go up to fivedepending, but the average is
about three to four days.
I mean it wasn't that expensive, especially for, you know,
(11:30):
covered transportation, thehomestays, a hotel covers your
food.
You traditionally eat food kindof in groups you know and share
different plates.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Is it safe to eat their food?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You can't drink any of the water.
The water definitely will notbe good for Western stomachs.
But I will say there is likeone restaurant it was somewhere
in one of the small towns in theNorth.
I had to use the restroom andto get to the restroom you kind
of had to go through the kitchen, you know, and it's all like
outdoors cement, and down thesesteps and through the back and a
(12:04):
lot.
And I just saw this guychopping like chicken on a
cutting board.
But it's like on the ground andhe's like chopping and I'm
thinking oh, uh-oh.
I don't want to be sick.
And once I, when I was in DaNang, which is in the, in Hoi An
, which is central Vietnam, Ihad met up with this group who
(12:25):
actually was on the tour with mein the Ha Giang Loop.
They were also touring.
They were, they had lived inAmerica for 10 years and they
were taking like an eight monthssabbatical, and so they were in
Vietnam also for a few weeks.
And we met up again later in DaNang and Hoi An and they said,
on Hoi An, da Nang, we saw themin Hoi An's, only like an hour
(12:46):
away the next day we're supposedto meet up.
And one of them she said youknow, yeah, I can't leave the
bathroom, I am not well, I havenot been well for two days.
And so after it was like daytwo or three, she was able to
meet up.
She was like I haven't eaten intwo days.
She was like I could not leavethe bathroom.
(13:06):
And I met a few other travelerswho also say but you see, I
learned my lesson the hard waywhen I went to Ecuador in 2008.
And I had very upset stomachand I really wished I had some
amodium and I did not and I hadto go to their pharmacy to get
their version of it.
And so now, everywhere I travel, I bring with me amodium just
(13:30):
in case, and I also bringactivated charcoal.
Activated charcoal actuallyworks amazingly well because
activated charcoal is just apill.
You can swallow it and it picksup.
It's a binder, so any bacteria,anything, it will bind to it,
and then just you pass it.
So as soon as I would start tofeel ooh, my stomach's not
(13:51):
feeling so good, I would takesome activated charcoal and
maybe take it for a couple ofdays and I would be fine when
every other traveler I met saidat some point they had upset
stomach.
So definitely just bring somestuff with you.
Yeah, and don't drink the waterand don't brush your teeth with
it either.
I think I did two or three foodtours and because the way that
(14:14):
most of Vietnam eats their foodis street vendors, street food
and the thing is you do need toknow, like, where to go or what
to eat, how to eat it Sometimessoups and bulb like okay, you
get these mints and you gottabreak up the mint and put it in
here and so I actually did afood tour in the north and I did
(14:35):
one in central Vietnam and thefood tours were awesome because
I would not have ordered orknown to go to all these
different street venues and wewent to a couple of restaurants,
but most are you go through aback alleyway and these places
are super narrow and you don'teven know they exist.
And so there's a ton of foodtours and I definitely recommend
(14:55):
them in Vietnam because theirfood can be hard to know what to
order.
It's not like you.
Just they have restaurants youcan just go into, but most
Vietnamese eat different streetfood and different markets and
vendors that are hidden, thatare really hard to find, and so
the food is really good.
It was just, out of all theplaces I've traveled to, it was
(15:18):
definitely the most complicatedthat I felt.
It was a challenge to sometimesfigure out what to eat or where
to eat, and then, with streetvendors, just comes more
possibility of upset stomachs,and so when that is, the
majority.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, definitely elaborate.
What is the food?
And I'm sure it's different.
I'm so interested in what youliked, what there was,
traditional and where to go.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So I really like they have their sandwiches.
Ba Min, Ba Min I'm totallyblanking on these names, I don't
know.
The soup, the pho, yes, yes,thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I just had that last night for the first time and it
was really good.
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's really really good, it's really really good.
Yes, yes, and so I had had somein California, but then in
Vietnam.
It was really good.
And then on the food tour, Icannot remember the names of
some of the stuff.
I had to be honest with you.
But there was one that it wasalmost like the pho, the noodle,
but instead of it being a soupit was just like the noodles and
the meat and then like thesprouts and the mince and things
(16:24):
like that.
And that's where I cannotremember the names of some of
the things.
But the food tours the crazything about the food tours that
I did they will take you to likeseven different places, so you
will be stuffed by the end ofthe food tour.
And at one of them, in Da Nang,she took it was.
I happened to be the onlyperson on the tour and so she
just took me around on hermotorbike and it was really
(16:45):
awesome.
And we ended up ending at thisone restaurant where part of it
was eel, and so it was reallysmall, thin slices of eel with
stuff and I tried it.
It was not really for me and Isay I'm willing to try it, but
not so much.
It's just slimy and the problemis it just looked like little
(17:06):
snakes or something you know.
They're really small and thinand slimy, but it was kind of
chewy and so I didn't care forthat.
But pretty much everything elseI liked wasn't crazy.
There was one in this kind of astreet alley.
It was my favorite thing.
It looked like a pizza butimagine the bottom was like a
(17:29):
fried tortilla and then theycrack a fresh egg on top and
then have like green onions andother things that like.
It was so delicious.
It was one of the favorite, myfavorite things I've had.
And then there was this Pudding.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
It was like a called the thing with the egg on it.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I can't remember, I have to.
You know, I on my website Ihave where I blogged about
Vietnam and I do try to.
I have some pictures and then Ihave Links to remember.
I think I have the names ofsome stuff or at least have the
company that I used to kind oftook me around.
Oh, nice, and what's your,what's your blog for it's teglow
(18:07):
goes T-e-g-l-o-g-o-e-s Dot com,yeah, and then I have pretty
much everything with withinVietnam they have.
But the problem is that, likeon the food tour, we went to
probably seven different placesand you go, oh yeah, this is
really good, and then the nextone, and then you, unless you
write it down, it's really hardto remember, which I do
(18:29):
recommend like write it down,because what would happen is, I
did the Food tour and I think,oh yeah, I will totally remember
this, this is so delicious.
And then I would be outordering by myself and I'm like
crap, what was that called?
Again, and you know it's inVietnamese, and so trying to
remember and how to say it was abit challenging.
And I some of the hotels that Istayed at they would have some
(18:52):
items that were more Western,typically European type
breakfast, where they have liketheir ham and cheese slices and
bread, but then a lot of theplaces I stayed at they had
traditional Vietnamese, so theywould still have like beef and
they would have the soup, and Itried to eat it one morning and
I just was like I can't eat this, like green onion brothy soup
for breakfast.
(19:13):
It's really weird, though,because in my head I thought, oh
, I need like breakfast food.
I don't think I can eat theselike cooked onion and broth for
breakfast.
But then I thought, wait, but Ieat omelettes with cooked onion
.
Why is this any different?
But my brain is just not usedto having it for breakfast, and
and so it depends on where yougo.
(19:33):
There are some hotels that willbe much more geared for
tourists and they'll have foodPancakes, you know things like
that but if you go to some otherplaces or smaller towns, they
might only have what theytypically eat, and so it's
definitely not gonna be pancakesand, you know, omelettes or
(19:53):
anything.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Okay, so, so these tours.
So you went.
Did you go on a the loop tourand a food tour, or is it one in
the same?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Well, so the hajong loop tour was just the four-day
motorbike tour in the northwhere you just kind of Explore
the whole region.
So it's four days likecompletely with the guides,
homestays, kind of all-inclusive, and then I took the bus back
to Hanoi in the north and then Iended up from Hanoi.
I spent like a week there.
Hanoi is a big, busy city, morePolluted, more dreary when I
(20:26):
was there, compared to the south, but just like an hour away.
You can also do a tour to seehow long Bay how long Bay I do
recommend it's really cool, it's.
You see a whole bunch of thesebig like rock formations out
into the ocean.
So they do a whole bunch of boattours out there kind of do it
as a long, how long Bay, yeah,it's like ha, and then LONG how
(20:49):
how long Bay and it's reallypretty they have you can just do
like a day tour to go see allof that from Hanoi and then from
there I took the train southand I stopped at several
different cities along the waybefore I got to Ho Chi Minh City
, which used to be Saigon in thesouth, and they, as you get,
(21:11):
it's really interesting.
There's, you know, vietnam,they have the Vietnam War and
they were kind of divided, thenorth and the south, and you can
still kind of see the divisionand you can see like Ho Chi Minh
City in the south was a littlebit more modern, a little bit
newer than Hanoi in the North.
And when I was in the centralpart of Vietnam, da Nang, it's a
(21:31):
pretty big city and then that'swhere I did another food tour.
I did one in the north andHanoi and then one in Da Nang,
and the one in Da Nang was justme and the girl and so both of
these were just like five-hourtours where they come pick you
up and walk you around to thedifferent places.
And the one in Hanoi it was meand two other guys and Then the
(21:52):
tour guide, and she was reallyawesome, the tour guide, because
I had only been in Vietnam, Ithink, a few days, and you know
the streets were really hard tocross because there's just
Thousands and thousands ofmotorbikes and you know it's not
like one or two, it's a row ofyou know, there could be ten
motorbikes across, you know,coming all at the same time.
And she, we were, we're in thesmall street and I said you know
(22:16):
, we don't know how to pass.
And she's just this, this shortlittle thing, petite girl, and
she just stands up so bold andshe grabs my arm and she says
you follow me, and she literallyjust puts her hand up like Stop
, and puts her hand up to thesemotorbikes and grabs my arm and
pulls me across the street.
The guys just followed next tous and she was like literally
(22:37):
putting her hand up like stop,stop, stop, stop, so we could
cross the street.
We crossed and I was like dude,that was the most intense cross
, we're just gonna walk.
And she's like no, you justhave to be firm and you just
have to look them in the eye andyou tell them no, and then you
just walk.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So she pictures.
It's pretty mad.
I mean it's like, yeah, youdon't see any street, you just
see people on.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yes, well, yes, it's just so many motorbikes.
And so she, it was like awalking food tour and so we
would just walk from one placeto the next and see different
parts of the city.
And then in Da Nang, because itwas just me and the tour guide,
she was an accountant duringthe day and then she did food
tours at night, so she justpicked me up on her motorbike
and I hopped on the back andsome of them we drove to and
(23:23):
then some we'd walk a little bitto these different places
around Da Nang.
But it was really cool becauseyou know you get the opportunity
to Taste all the delicious food, but then the tour guides give
you information just about likethings like crossing the street,
different things about theirculture and how to do other
things, and so a lot of thedifferent cities around Vietnam.
(23:44):
You can find, even onTripAdvisor here's Food tours
that you can go on and you canread reviews to see you know
what people say.
But they're typically a fewhours long and you will
definitely they'll be very fullby the end of the tour.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Okay.
So I see Hanoi, Hulong Bay, daNang, and then they're way down
the south.
I see Ho Chi Minh City, like ofthose, all those locations Like
say you go for a month, shouldyou hit it all, or is like you
could probably skip Hanoi butjust go to Da Nang and like.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I guess it depends on what you like, but yeah, I mean
it depends on what you like,but I honestly think you want.
I mean it's it's not a hugecountry, land mass wise, so it's
not, like you know, the US orAustralia or Canada.
It's very populated and there'sstill a lot to see.
And so, even if you only have aweek yeah, don't push it where
(24:38):
you're only at places like a day, a day, a day and you're rushed
but even if you had a week, Istill think the top thing to do
would be doing the Hajang Loopin the north, just because you
get such a unique experiencedoing that.
And even if you do it, let'ssay for three days, you could
then go to Hanoi how long Bay isreally cool.
As you go further south, there'sa city it's just north of
(25:02):
Denang, I can't think of thename, but it has different,
different Mountain typestructures, not like huge
mountains it's hard to describethat are kind of jungly.
They it's where they filmedsome of like King Kong and stuff
.
So it depends on, like you know, if you're a huge fan of that.
But Hoyan, which is H-O-I-A-N Idon't know if there's one under
(25:26):
two, I can't remember that oneis known for being a very
romantic place.
When I bring it up, yeah, yeahand yes, it's very, very, it's
so cute, so I definitelyrecommend staying there.
Even Denang's only like an houraway, but Denang's a bigger
city, oh yeah, it's just supercute.
(25:47):
They have a whole bunch ofthose canals with the little
boats and they're basically alantern city.
So you'll see everywhere at thepictures, and I did like a
lantern making class and so youmake your own lantern and it
folds down so you can take ithome with you.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
It's just like very colorful and, yeah, it's
beautiful with the land.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yes, so you kind of feel like you're in a fairy tale
world in Huyen.
So it's.
It's like you said, it's likethe Venice, where it's got
canals, you're on these littleboats, you've got lanterns
everywhere.
I did, I rode a bike aroundthere.
It's very cute there in Denangand the just like an hour from
there.
There I don't know if youremember there's a famous bridge
(26:28):
when it's a huge kind of halfcircle bridge with hands holding
it up.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I was gonna ask about that.
I just, yeah, I saw the dragonbridge and I saw that.
Let me go back to the.
The hands, yes, but not that is.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, that is basically in Denang, you, it's
like a 30 minute bus ride to getto the top of the mountain, and
at the top of the mountain,where the bridge is, there's
also like a little amusementpark there.
It's really interesting.
It's almost like a knots, veryfarm type thing, but not a ton
of rides but more like justdifferent events and characters
and dancing and singing stuff,and then they have the bridge
there.
So it's, it would be reallycool to say, okay, I'm gonna go
(27:06):
to Denang see the bridge, butthen I'm gonna go to Huyen again
.
Some people do it just as a daytour, like if you're, if your
hotel is in Denang, you could gosee Huyen just for the day and
come back.
Or you could stay in Huyen andthen just go to Denang.
I'm, denang is where theairport's gonna be, and so
that's kind of like, even if youjust covered that for central.
And then in the south, ho ChiMinh City is a little bit more
(27:29):
modern than Huyen.
It's gonna be.
It was warmer, I'm just goesfor it further south when I was
there in March.
But one thing I don't recommendI did go to an island I think it
was Pukuo, like PHO, and then QU O C, I believe, and I had
learned how to scuba dive inThailand and so I thought, oh,
(27:52):
let me go to an island and goscuba diving and Get a little
bit of rest and relaxation.
And I was used to the Thaiislands, which are super
tropical, warm, incredibly clearwater.
Warm water like just beautifultropical vacation.
That is not the case one it was.
(28:13):
The hotel itself was reallynice, but the whole island I
went scuba diving it was.
The water was much colder, itwas not clear, you could barely
see anything.
It just was not at all.
And I realized, okay, itVietnam is not known for like
beautiful vacation tropicalislands like Thailand.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I did not realize that until I went and well, the
pictures that they're showing onGoogle Kind of makes it look
pretty trap.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
It looks tropical, it looks, yeah, waters and
turquoisey color yes, and that'sthe thing and I went there and
the hotel was nice.
The hotel was like this littlehut.
There was a lot of greenery andflowers and there was a pool
there and the food was great andso that aspect it did kind of
feel resorty.
But then I rented a motorbiketo get to the dive shop, which
(29:01):
was like 30 minutes away, andWent diving and it was just like
, oh, this was definitely not aplace to go diving.
I actually got stabbed by a seaurchin.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, and I wonder is it because of the time of year
that you went?
Was it like because it is?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
It is possible, because I remember too it just
felt very cloudy and very dreary.
It was just such a strikingdifference compared to Thailand,
but it very well could be.
Also, it was just the time ofyear wasn't ideal, so it's,
you'll still get some tropical.
It's just compared like.
Thailand is just where thepeople go, especially February,
(29:41):
march.
You'll see a ton of people fromEurope there on spring break,
because it's Thailand is morelike Hawaii, where it's just
clear skies, beautiful Sunsets.
I mean it just felt like everyday was a clear sky with bright
blue sky and then beautifulsunset.
And then Vietnam, it was likecloudy gray sky.
It just it was not Tropical orsunsetty, I guess, like Thailand
(30:04):
Compared and it was.
It was only a month later, soit was a little.
I just, yeah, if you're, if youwant to do diving or do
tropical, I just recommendThailand.
Vietnam I think is really coolfor exploring like that north,
the mountains, the food, doingthat sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So Vietnam owns a lot of like sea, coastal, and then
Lao is like got got the badstick and it got no ocean or sea
, and Cambodia.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Did you go to Laos or Cambodia and you know that was
my plan and I ended up notmaking it there because then I
went over to Australia.
I definitely want to go backand see those areas and I know
that other travelers and stuffthat I met they said Cambodia
and then Laos both have a lot oflike temples and Things like
that that you can go see, sothat that whole region.
(30:57):
I will say, if you have a lotof time, what a lot of people do
is they go to Thailand, vietnam, cambodia and Laos because
they're all relatively closetogether.
I would still recommend flying.
So even when I within Thailand,I flew from the north to
Bangkok and then flew to theislands and back, but then in
Vietnam, just because Igenerally like taking trains,
(31:19):
because trains give you theopportunity to see the
countryside and you know trainsor buses, but I took a train in
In Thailand, actually to Bangkok.
That was not ideal and Vietnamwas very similar, where the
trains are very old, they don'treally have food available other
(31:39):
than like a street cart willcome Writing down the main aisle
but it'll be like you know athing of corn or something, and
so I was very much like, oh,where's?
Where's the other food I'm usedto, because this was like a
eight-hour, you know, train ride.
So I Don't necessarily recommendthe trains.
(32:01):
I mean it'll get you from pointA to point B but they're pretty
slow, they're old and theflights within Vietnam are
actually pretty cheap.
So when I flew, I think I flewfrom, I think I took the train
from or a bus I did otherdifferent buses as well, but
again, if you can find one whereit says VIP bus a hundred
(32:23):
percent, take it.
It's usually five, maybe tendollars more and it is night and
day experience, like one of itwas only 45 minute or hour drive
from Dending to Hoi An.
I took a little VIP bus and itwas like a minivan.
It was super nice, luxurious,you know, had a little table for
you and everything, and so someof the transportation is not
bad if you find the one thatsays VIP.
(32:44):
Otherwise the buses and thetrains are really old.
But you can get really cheapflights that are, you know, $50
to get from one city to the nextand you know you'll get there
in an hour, you know if thatit's really how do you book?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
it is like travel agents, or is there apps?
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I ended up so with the trains and the buses I did.
I think it's called 12 go Asia.
It has you could book a lot ofthings through there but other
like plane tickets.
I just went on Expedia priceline Book through there.
You could go directly to theairlines website.
The one thing I will caution isthat they do weigh your
(33:23):
carry-on and your carry-on can'tbe more than seven kilos, which
I think is 15 pounds and yes.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Expecting just a bathing suit and a towel or
something.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well that's for your carry-on, but then your checked
baggage.
I think they only allow it was20 kilos, which I think is like
44 pounds.
So I frequently was overweight.
When they weighed my carry-on Ithought, man, I purposely put
all my heavy stuff in mycarry-on to avoid baggage fees
of my checked baggage.
And yeah, so my carry-on tendsto be like 20 pounds, not you
(34:00):
know 15, and they actually weighthem and they'll tell you Nope,
nope, you've got a, you've gota pain for this and you don't
let you like have them both outand kind of like rearrange stuff
.
Right then, you can, if you,yeah.
The problem is that the checkedone is also only like 44 pounds
, and so it can be challengingwhen you're like, oh crap, both
(34:21):
of them are overweight.
So you know, yes, they justcharge you more, is that it?
I do charge you more and, and Iwill say, like the one in
Thailand, I ended up because AirAsia is really popular within
Southeast Asia, and I took VietViet jet, I think it was.
I did not care for that one.
Some of their I think it wasthe one in Thailand the seat was
(34:45):
so small, like some of these,because they're inter, you know,
continental, they're just shortflights, they're very, very
small planes.
So, and your six one, likemyself, you just really I mean,
my knees were like diggingthrough the seat in front of me
you can't really complainbecause on one hand you're like,
oh, this is a $40 ticket, butthen your baggage fee.
They're like, hey, this isoverweight and this is
(35:06):
overweight.
Now You're paying another $20,which 20 bucks is not bad, but
then you're you're like that'salmost the price of my plane
ticket.
You know, I think if you'reprepared for it, you won't be so
upset.
I was pretty annoyed inThailand when I started
realizing just because most ofthe world it was pretty standard
that it's 50 pounds for luggageand then I've never seen any
(35:28):
other airplane or airline everweigh my carry-on, except for in
Southeast Asia.
And so I think some peoplethink you, I will just put a
carry on and I'll packeverything in here and not check
a bag.
It's like that's fine, but justknow that you only have a 15
pound limit, so it's gonna be alittle tough.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Absolutely no, but that's good to know for sure.
How much did it cost in orderto travel through Vietnam?
Some?
How much did someone expect topay for like a place to stay and
like a daily food allowance andJust getting around?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
so Vietnam has been growing.
In 2019, they were the world'sfifth largest growing economy
and so things were changingpretty rapidly with pricing.
But, um, partly because theyhad opened themselves up for
tourism, you know, over the last10 years, and so they were
becoming more and more popular,and so it was just like them
(36:28):
getting used to tourism andfiguring all of that stuff out.
But they, I Would say, like inthe north, or I think most of my
hotels Were probably 40 to 50dollars a night.
Some I could, if I did, like anAirbnb or a smaller Place, that
might be 25 30 dollars, butthey definitely still had some
(36:51):
hotels that were a hundreddollars, two hundred dollars.
So it depends on howcomfortable you want to be,
because I was I was reallysurprised compared to Thailand
Thailand my money went a lotfarther where I could get a
whole brand new studio Apartmenton Airbnb for like $23 a night.
And then in Vietnam it was morelike oh, this regular two and a
(37:13):
half star hotel is going to be40 to 50 dollars, versus these
nicer hotels are a hundredhundred and fifty and so.
But those are the hotels thatthey are catering to people who
maybe don't want to get too faroutside their comfort zone, you
know.
So they want the typical kindof Western breakfast and they
want extra amenities.
(37:33):
And even like, the first hotelroom I got was in Hanoi I think
it was about 40 a night and Imean my room was so tiny, it was
a nice room, it was clean, Idon't have any complaints, but
it was so small, I had a hardtime like opening my my luggage,
and so if you're looking forsomething that you're a little
(37:54):
more comfortable, you can expectto still pay over a hundred
dollars.
But, that being said, there wasone place where I took a bus I
ended up arriving.
It was overnight, it was likeseven in the morning.
It just dropped me off in thistown and so I, just right on the
corner was a hotel.
So I walked over there and Isaid, do you have a room that I
could go to right now becauseI'm exhausted, I just want to
(38:14):
sleep?
And she said, well, we onlyhave our like penthouse room and
but because you're booking likelast minute and normally we
charge for this early of acheck-in, just but and I think
it was like seventy five dollarsa night or seventy bucks or
something.
Where I was, I get there andit's like on the top floor, this
huge room, this, and I was like, oh yeah, that's totally fine,
(38:39):
I think you know.
Yeah, so your money can stillgo far.
The food is where you're gonnasave the most money, because
they are mostly eating streetfood and you might get.
They typically eat like eightdifferent small Meals or snacks
a day, so they're not oftensitting down and eating like one
big meal.
One place in the north andHanoi I did go to I forget the
(39:03):
name of the restaurant.
I have to look at my my noteson my blog but it was a
restaurant that was like a fouror five course and it was
amazing like five star, fivecourse.
I mean it was like highly ratedon TripAdvisor and I think my
bill was like $80 or something,which Was a lot Vietnam for
(39:23):
standards, because usuallyyou're buying street food for a
few dollars Anywhere else in theworld.
To get this like amazingMulti-course five star
restaurant, you know it's besignificantly more.
So, yeah, they're.
I mean I would say that theplane tickets, bus tickets, are
Relatively cheap.
When you're looking at tours,they can still be anywhere
(39:44):
between, like a food tour mightbe, you know, 30 to $50 because
it's including your food.
So it's it's a little bit moreexpensive, I'd say, than
Thailand, but if if you're fromAmerica or you know have,
depending on your currencyconversion, your money can still
go pretty far withaccommodation, tours and food.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
That's yeah, it's surprising, okay, yeah, yeah,
all right, so we're gettingclose to the end of our time
here.
But, christian, if you have anyother Questions before I go
into the rapid fire about youknow, the normal food and
breakfast and all that, ThinkI'm good it's been.
Yeah, it's been fun to checkout, thank you.
So what is the popular religionin In Vietnam?
(40:29):
Did you are able to pick up onthat visit?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
You know.
So most of Vietnam is actuallynot.
They don't follow any organizedreligion and so they kind of
have like their Deities andstuff that they might pray to,
but there isn't a really a lotof organized religion.
I think the most popular thatis organized which again is
still smaller percentage isprobably Buddhism, but yeah,
(40:54):
it's generally not a veryorganized religion, religious
country.
They just have kind ofdifferent Deities and different
you know beings and things thatthey will pray to, but not part
of any sort of like church oranything that they're going to.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Okay, got it.
And if you could pick one dishto eat there, what would it be?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I would definitely say like a beef fuck, it's just,
the noodle soup is so good.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
That's what I had last night.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
my friend is saying yeah, you really can't go wrong
with it.
And the thing is they'll havedifferent cities, they'll have
slight variations to it, and soit's not like, oh, I've tried it
once, I'm good.
It's like no, I'll try itdifferent, because I might have
a slightly different recipe orhave different meats in it or
something.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Okay, and what's a popular breakfast?
I know you said something aboutnot wanting, like you know,
onions and stuff for breakfast.
Do they eat the pho forbreakfast, or?
Speaker 2 (41:53):
They do, they really don't.
They think it's which, I mean,totally makes sense, but they
think it's a little strange tohave sweet in the morning and so
they really don't have sweets.
So again, if you're at a hotelthough that's pretty touristy
you will have like toast and apancake or you know things like
that.
But they don't generally eat aheavy breakfast.
(42:14):
When they do, it's normal,regular, like pho and things
like that.
One thing that did surprise meis they do not have a lot of
dairy.
So finding yogurt is really hard, and when you do find it, it's
very liquidy, it's not at alllike creamy or thick, and then
they don't have like findingcheese, like I would go to the
(42:35):
market and just get somegroceries for a few days and
even finding it the market likecheese, yogurts, their coffee
you know, their coffee isamazing, by the way, it's very
well known as Vietnamese coffeebut what they put in it is
condensed milk, and so incondensed milk, you know, is
sweet and like a thick pastealmost, and they just don't
(42:59):
really have hardly any milk orcoffee cream, or doesn't exist
there, it's just condensed milkin it.
And I believe what they saidwhen I was on a tour is it was
because during wars and stuffthey it was really hard to get
certain supplies and so that'swhen they started using
condensed milk for their coffee.
But even here, like in the US,if you go to a Vietnamese store
(43:20):
or you go somewhere that hasVietnamese coffee, they
traditionally will have it withcondensed milk, because that's
now how traditionally it's madeand I think part of the being
the reason is they just don'treally have cows over there, so
that's why you won't see a lotof dairy over in Vietnam at all
Okay, wouldn't it be?
One thing they do use fish oilin almost all dishes because
(43:43):
it's just, it's part of theiryou know, kind of oil, kind of a
spice that they put into a lotof food.
And when I was at that reallyfancy restaurant actually there
was a couple next to me thatwere from America and the girl
was telling her boyfriend, shetold the waiter that she was
vegan and she said you know, Ican't have any dairy, I can't
(44:06):
have any meat which is reallynot too hard there, because they
eat a ton of vegetables andthey have tofu and they have
fish or they have you know,depending on what your dietary
restrictions are.
But then she's like eating thisone soup and then she says do
you think there's fish oil inthis?
And he goes oh, 100%, I thinkthere's.
And she goes wait a minute.
(44:26):
So I've been like eating fishoil this whole week and he goes
yeah, he goes.
I hate to break it to you, but Ithink this is in, like all of
her dishes.
It just looked terrifying andshe's like wait, I've been,
cause she was complete vegan andshe was like I've been eating
fish oil, and so if you havedietary restrictions, I will say
(44:46):
they are not really used tomaking adjustments to food.
It's kind of this is how ourfood is made.
That being said, you won't runinto a lot of dairy if dairy is
your issue, and same with wheat,because they generally do rice,
they don't do a ton of wheat,and so the biggest issue would
probably for most people ifthey're trying to avoid that is
(45:07):
the fish oil.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Oh, got it.
And what's the money called andhow you want to use credit card
or you want to change the money.
What's better?
Speaker 2 (45:16):
So they they're Vietnamese as dong and their
bills.
So I found this reallydifficult when I first arrived,
and other travelers that I methad the same struggle.
It was the hardest place withthe dollar, the bills, the dong
to understand, and the reason isthat they're so high.
So they have a thousand, twothousand, five thousand, 10,000,
(45:40):
20,000, 50,000, 100,000,200,000 and 500,000.
So they go up to 500,000 on thebills, and so I had a really
hard time trying to convert itin my head.
And when you would go somewhereI would try to think wait, how
much is this in US dollars?
And places.
A lot of places, especially ifyou're in the cities, they'll
(46:01):
take your credit card and youknow if you have that you want
to make sure you have a creditcard with zero foreign
transaction fees.
But a lot of places, especiallyin the smaller villages, they
will prefer cash or they'll onlytake cash.
And the way I figured it outthat really helped me in my
brain was the bills that areunder 10,000.
So the 1000, 2000, and 5000,they're really like coin.
(46:23):
You have to think of it likechange, like a dime or a nickel,
and so those and they'reactually like they just look
different, they're a littlesmaller.
Well then, 10,000 was almostlike a dollar.
So if you go get a bottle ofwater, it might be 10,000, and
you have a 10,000 bills so youjust give them that and it's
like a dollar.
Then most the highest is500,000.
(46:45):
So if you're paying for a touror something, you might be
giving them a 500,000.
People don't always have change, so you kind of want those 100
and 200,000s or the 50,000s, the10,000s, to make sure they have
change.
One thing I discovered isbecause most of the smaller
towns preferred cash or onlytook cash, I would go to the ATM
(47:10):
to take out money, but many ofthe ATMs would limit me to about
85 US dollars, and that wouldnot go very far.
When, then, you're paying foreverything in cash, and the
problem is I would get chargedan ATM fee with my bank and then
the ATMs there would chargelike seven to 10 US dollars per
transaction, and I was, yes it'slike yes, I've never
(47:34):
experienced this high of bankfees anywhere and I was really
frustrated because then I'd say,well, if I'm gonna pay all
these fees from my bank and fromthe ATM, I'll just take out
$300, and then it would not letme Like some, I think, would let
you take out one or 150, butsome literally would cap you out
at $85 US dollars.
(47:56):
And then so I would recommendcome with some cash that you can
either convert or when I was inSouth, I had never used Western
Union at that point, but when Iwas in South America I used
Western Union to wire myselfmoney.
I'd have to look to see ifthey're in Vietnam, but if
there's Western unions, I wouldnow wire myself money because
(48:16):
then you just pay the one feeand you could probably take out
more money.
But otherwise I would show upwith more cash and then just
convert it because I just Ican't believe how much I was
paying.
Honestly, sometimes it was likemy bank charged me $5 to use
the ATM and the ATM charged me10.
You know, so I'm out $15 andthen that $85.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
US dollars when they last me like two days.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
So then I'm like I'm going to the ATM multiple times
a week.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
So our final question is where's the closest place to
serve?
I see a lot of water, but itmight not be surfable for our
sure thing.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, I honestly didn't see any places that were
like surfing.
I will say in Da Nang that wasthe only city that I went to
that had beach area and yeah,where it was I mean Hoi An,
you're kind of in the canals andthey do have some areas over
(49:10):
there, but in Da Nang they dohave actual like wide spread
beaches.
People are actually hanging outat the beach and going to the
beach Now surfing it might justdepend on if there's waves or
the weather.
But yeah, I was actually reallyshocked.
I mean, the water is not superclear and it's not really
(49:30):
tropical, so it's not really thebest place for kind of water
activities, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Okay, go ahead All right.
Well, thank you so much,kristie.
Really appreciate you joiningus again.
This was really in depth.
I hadn't learned so much.
Thank you so much yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on.
I love that each episode youguys have a different location,
because I just think it's such auseful tool.
I remember when I was in Banffover the summer, I went there
for the first time with myparents and we immediately
pulled up your Banff episode andlistened to it with my parents
on the drive from Jasper, and Iwas like, okay, we got to go to
(50:10):
this restaurant, we got to checkout this area, so it's really
helpful.
Yeah, because it's just it'slike it's really helpful rather
than just being like everythingall the time.
It's like, okay, I'm going toVietnam, let me check about
Vietnam.
Right, I'm going to Banff, letme hear about Banff, or give you
inspiration to go to a placemaybe that you hadn't considered
(50:31):
before.
So I just really like yourformat and what you guys are
doing with that.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
Thank you, thank you, thanks for sharing that.
That said that just reallytouching it.
We're so what we've been doingit for three years and just get
so used to doing it and we enjoyit and love it.
But it was just I'm like, whenI travel, I'm gonna do that.
How fun to think that you werewith your parents and was like
yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Yeah, I was like we're just going to play this
all in the car while we'redriving there.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
That's so great.
Well, thank you so much.
This was such a blast and, yeah, I really love that.
I want to like get themotorcycle and do that tour.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
That sounds fun and yeah, if people some of the
names I couldn't remember onthere, but if they go to my
website, teglogoviscom, you canclick on blog and then it will
show Vietnam and then it'll Igive all the information and
stuff under there for Vietnam.
So if they're looking for thelinks or which company or who to
go through, it's all listed inthere.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Okay, and here I'm sure I'll put that in the show
notes for us as well.
Perfect, okay, thanks, cool,thank you, okay.
What another adventure?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
So have a great time.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Have a great weekend, thanks Bye.
Thanks for listening.
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(52:04):
We're at where next podcast.
Thanks again, ark.
Hi, welcome to our podcast.
We're Next Travel with Kristinand Carol.
I am Kristin and I am Carol,and we're two long-term friends
with a passion for travel andadventure.
In each episode, we interviewpeople around the globe to help
us decide where to go next.
So today we have KristyTeiglobba from one of our most
(00:36):
popular episodes that we alreadytalked about Argentina.
So thank you, kristy, forjoining us, and our focus today
is going to be Vietnam.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, yeah, that's my understanding, yeah, okay, but,
yeah, thanks, thanks for havingme back on.
I, you know, really enjoyedtalking to you guys last time,
so excited to talk about a newlocation.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Where are you calling from right now?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm in Joshua Tree in California right now doing a
house and cat sitting.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh my gosh, so cool.
Okay, how long?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
you there for this.
One was a week, and then I havea cat sitting long beach that I
use through trusted housesetters, which is great because
then I get to explore new areasand, yeah, get to see new areas,
stay for free, take care of thekitties.
But this was my first time outin Joshua Tree, so about two and
(01:29):
a half hours or so from LA.
So, yeah, it's pretty cool outhere.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So do they have a house in Joshua Tree.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, so it's in, technically, Landers, so it's
about 20 minutes from theentrance to Joshua Tree National
Park.
Yeah, it's definitely.
There were some rainstorms atthe beginning of the week and it
was pretty cold, but the lastfew days I was able to get out
to the park and explore and dosome hiking.
Yeah, it's funny, I've been inthe beach for so long and never
came out to Joshua Tree, whichis so silly because it's really
(01:57):
close, so I'm glad I finally getto explore over here.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Nice, that sounds like fun too.
So trusted house setters, andthey do.
Is it pets and just house too,or is it?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, it's pretty much.
You can do pets or just houses,but I've never seen any that
are just houses.
They're pretty much all havesome sort of pet.
But it's really cool.
You just pay the annual fee andthen the rest is there's no
exchange of money and so you payfor like 120 a year for
background checks andverifications and stuff.
Great for the homeowner theirpet and house gets taken care of
(02:30):
and great for me because I getto stay for free and get to see
different pets.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
And how long have you done thatand how has your experience
been so far?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
The first one I did was in Australia in 2019.
And I did three different cats.
That's there.
They were great.
I was still in touch with twoof the three homeowners and
really became friends with them.
I did cats, and then one hadtwo cats and then two goats that
she had just gotten.
(03:02):
She'd gotten a couple of goatsand so I had to take care of
them as well.
And then I did one inSwitzerland, one in Boston, one
in Long Beach, and then I triedlooking when I was in South
America, but there was very fewavailable.
Actually, it doesn't seem likeit's really taken off there.
And then when I was inSoutheast Asia, I had there was
(03:26):
a couple in Thailand that I saw.
I don't remember if I saw anyin Vietnam.
So there's definitely someareas of the world that it's not
really being used very much,but it definitely is being used
in the US, the UK, canada andAustralia, and then a lot most
of Europe as well, but so it'sspreading so you can use it to
(03:49):
see different areas of the world.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Really interesting.
Well, I'm excited to dive intoVietnam, and who long ago were
you in Vietnam?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I was there March of 2019.
I had spent a month there andI'm really glad I had the
opportunity because once COVIDhit you really couldn't go there
for quite a while witheverything shut down around the
world.
So I think pretty much I waskind of looking to see if things
(04:17):
have changed with differenttravelers and stuff, but I think
it's pretty similar to howthings were when I was there in
2019.
But it was a great time of yearto go.
I think I was there pretty muchall of March.
I think I got there thebeginning of March, left the end
of March.
You know it's a good time ofyear because the weather is not
too hot, although in the Northit gets.
(04:39):
It can actually get really cold.
I did a motorbike tour in themountains in the North near
China and it got down to 50degrees and I remember the tour
guide said I was one of the fewpeople who came prepared with a
coat because they said a lot ofpeople show up to Vietnam
thinking it's just hoteverywhere all year and it's
(05:00):
definitely not the case there.
Once you get to Central andSouthern Vietnam it was very hot
and humid, but in the North, inthe mountains, it was actually
pretty cold.
So do pay attention to theseason.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And how high are the mountains?
Are they like thousands or justa couple hundred feet above?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You know, I don't know the exact feet actually,
but thousands.
It's kind of funny because someof them are really steep and
the grade like when you'redriving.
There's a loop called the HaZhang Loop in the North and it's
pretty famous to do a motorbiketour.
You can also do a tour withcompanies that take you in a car
(05:40):
.
They'll drive you.
If I ended up driving my ownmotorbike, it was a four day
tour and you do home stays andget to see all the scenery and
drive through the mountains.
The other people in our groupthere was four other people.
They rode on the back of amotorbike, so they had a driver.
They actually make you test todrive around a couple of streets
(06:00):
before you head out into themountains and because it's a
semi-automatic motorbike, youhave to shift with your feet.
I was pretty nervous but Idrove it successfully around and
then I found the other littletour groups and stuff that they
had.
There was one group, the women.
Two women tried and by the endof the street they both had
crashed and kind of skinned uptheir legs and so they said yeah
(06:24):
, no.
This is why we make you testbefore we, because these grades
are 11% grades on the mountain.
So it's very steep, going up anddown a lot of corners and stuff
.
So most people ride on the backof a motorbike, but you also
have the ability to drive yourown motorbike and or do it in a
car if you're not comfortable,and they'll drive you around.
(06:45):
But it's really beautifulbecause you just see these
villages, you see how they growrice on the side of a mountain
and it's like they'll cut out.
It's like two feet, and thenthere's two feet of rice growing
and then it just is so steep itgoes up another foot and then
they cut out two feet andliterally you're growing rice
and growing these things on theside of these really steep
(07:06):
mountains and then you see themcarrying all of these I forget
what else they were growing.
It was really long, probablylike five feet of different
leaves, something with leafy,something that they'd bundled to
their back and be carrying upthe mountains.
So it's definitely steep, butactually the HaZhang loop gets
you right to kind of the borderwith China, so it can get quite
(07:30):
cold because of the highelevation.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
There's a couple of questions.
One did you have any experienceriding a motorbike before, or
you just learned on the fly?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Growing up, I mean a few times here and there I had
driven like a moped or a scooteror something you know, for very
short periods but I've drivenlike when I was in Canada I did
a snowmobile and in Thailand Idrove a four-wheeler.
So just getting familiar with,I did a scooter when I was in
Italy on a wine tour.
So once you get familiar with,okay, you've got to kind of move
(08:02):
your body.
So by the time that I went toVietnam I said, okay, I think I
can do this, and thankfully youknow it was in the more remote
areas and going into thedifferent villages, because
those areas again aren't crazytraffic.
Now, the rest of Vietnam, youwill see that it is motorbike
(08:24):
central.
I mean you can't cross thestreet Like they don't.
There's no stop signs, there'sno stop lights.
You just make eye contact withpeople and you honk your little
horn beep, beep, beep, beep,beep as you kind of slow down
and you look at each other tosee who's supposed to go.
And actually when I firstarrived it was in the North and
(08:46):
then I did Hulong Bay and then Idid this motorbike tour.
It was in Hanoi, the capitalcity, and then the Ha Zhang Loop
, which is like a six hour busride, which side note, I'm sorry
, forget to mention this theyhave a lot of sleeper buses that
go up to Ha Zhang because theygo overnight sometimes during
the day.
This standard sleeping bus,they put you in these like
double decker, it's like metalcrates and basically, if you're
(09:08):
above like five feet one inch,you will not fit.
It'll be very uncomfortable.
I'm six one, so it was the mostuncomfortable six hours of my
life.
Really crazy.
For an extra $5, you can get aVIP bus which you have like your
own little cubicle.
It's amazing.
So I always tell people, if youever see in Vietnam the choice
for transportation, for VIP ornot, get that.
(09:30):
So I went to the North and HaZhang and did the loop, and so,
again, you're going throughsmaller villages.
So I felt a lot better by thetime I got back to the city, and
then I traveled to the centralpart and then the southern part.
I realized, though, the best wayto get around is motorbike, and
the reason why I think theysaid there's I wanna say there
(09:51):
was like 65 million people as apopulation, but there's like 90
million motorbikes or somethingit's really crazy is because
they get taxed very, veryheavily on cars and so because
of that the motorbike populationhas just exploded.
And when I first rode amotorbike in a busier town I
(10:13):
forget the name of the town, butin the central I started to
stop at a stop sign becausethere are still stop signs that
exist and I got honked at andalmost hit and so I just kept
going and I.
So if you're not comfortable, Ijust tell people just right on
the back, you can still get theexperience with a guy driving
you and you just pop on the backand have your backpack and you
drive around and then, if youreally don't feel even
(10:35):
comfortable with that, you canjust take like they'll take a
little shuttle bus or a car anddrive you and you'll get to
still see the views andeverything.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And how long does it take to do the whole thing?
Oh, same question.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The average is about four days.
Some people have done threedays.
It depends on how long mostpeople it's because they wanna
also see the villages and thendo the.
You do homestays and you get toknow locals and they'll make
you food, you know, tell youabout their culture.
You'll get to stop and likethere's one area where there was
a cave that we got to walk in,this huge cave it was like
(11:09):
nobody around.
It was pretty crazy.
It depends, I'd say some.
I think some of the tours arethree days.
You might be able to get awaywith one, that's two days, but
that's really stretching it.
Usually most of them are threeto four days.
I think some go up to fivedepending, but the average is
about three to four days.
I mean it wasn't that expensive, especially for, you know,
(11:30):
covered transportation, thehomestays, a hotel covers your
food.
You traditionally eat food kindof in groups you know and share
different plates.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Is it safe to eat their food?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You can't drink any of the water.
The water definitely will notbe good for Western stomachs.
But I will say there is likeone restaurant it was somewhere
in one of the small towns in theNorth.
I had to use the restroom andto get to the restroom you kind
of had to go through the kitchen, you know, and it's all like
outdoors cement, and down thesesteps and through the back and a
(12:04):
lot.
And I just saw this guychopping like chicken on a
cutting board.
But it's like on the ground andhe's like chopping and I'm
thinking oh, uh-oh.
I don't want to be sick.
And once I, when I was in DaNang, which is in the, in Hoi An
, which is central Vietnam, Ihad met up with this group who
(12:25):
actually was on the tour with mein the Ha Giang Loop.
They were also touring.
They were, they had lived inAmerica for 10 years and they
were taking like an eight monthssabbatical, and so they were in
Vietnam also for a few weeks.
And we met up again later in DaNang and Hoi An and they said,
on Hoi An, da Nang, we saw themin Hoi An's, only like an hour
(12:46):
away the next day we're supposedto meet up.
And one of them she said youknow, yeah, I can't leave the
bathroom, I am not well, I havenot been well for two days.
And so after it was like daytwo or three, she was able to
meet up.
She was like I haven't eaten intwo days.
She was like I could not leavethe bathroom.
(13:06):
And I met a few other travelerswho also say but you see, I
learned my lesson the hard waywhen I went to Ecuador in 2008.
And I had very upset stomachand I really wished I had some
amodium and I did not and I hadto go to their pharmacy to get
their version of it.
And so now, everywhere I travel, I bring with me amodium just
(13:30):
in case, and I also bringactivated charcoal.
Activated charcoal actuallyworks amazingly well because
activated charcoal is just apill.
You can swallow it and it picksup.
It's a binder, so any bacteria,anything, it will bind to it,
and then just you pass it.
So as soon as I would start tofeel ooh, my stomach's not
(13:51):
feeling so good, I would takesome activated charcoal and
maybe take it for a couple ofdays and I would be fine when
every other traveler I met saidat some point they had upset
stomach.
So definitely just bring somestuff with you.
Yeah, and don't drink the waterand don't brush your teeth with
it either.
I think I did two or three foodtours and because the way that
(14:14):
most of Vietnam eats their foodis street vendors, street food
and the thing is you do need toknow, like, where to go or what
to eat, how to eat it Sometimessoups and bulb like okay, you
get these mints and you gottabreak up the mint and put it in
here and so I actually did afood tour in the north and I did
(14:35):
one in central Vietnam and thefood tours were awesome because
I would not have ordered orknown to go to all these
different street venues and wewent to a couple of restaurants,
but most are you go through aback alleyway and these places
are super narrow and you don'teven know they exist.
And so there's a ton of foodtours and I definitely recommend
(14:55):
them in Vietnam because theirfood can be hard to know what to
order.
It's not like you.
Just they have restaurants youcan just go into, but most
Vietnamese eat different streetfood and different markets and
vendors that are hidden, thatare really hard to find, and so
the food is really good.
It was just, out of all theplaces I've traveled to, it was
(15:18):
definitely the most complicatedthat I felt.
It was a challenge to sometimesfigure out what to eat or where
to eat, and then, with streetvendors, just comes more
possibility of upset stomachs,and so when that is, the
majority.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, definitely elaborate.
What is the food?
And I'm sure it's different.
I'm so interested in what youliked, what there was,
traditional and where to go.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
So I really like they have their sandwiches.
Ba Min, Ba Min I'm totallyblanking on these names, I don't
know.
The soup, the pho, yes, yes,thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I just had that last night for the first time and it
was really good.
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's really really good, it's really really good.
Yes, yes, and so I had had somein California, but then in
Vietnam.
It was really good.
And then on the food tour, Icannot remember the names of
some of the stuff.
I had to be honest with you.
But there was one that it wasalmost like the pho, the noodle,
but instead of it being a soupit was just like the noodles and
the meat and then like thesprouts and the mince and things
(16:24):
like that.
And that's where I cannotremember the names of some of
the things.
But the food tours the crazything about the food tours that
I did they will take you to likeseven different places, so you
will be stuffed by the end ofthe food tour.
And at one of them, in Da Nang,she took it was.
I happened to be the onlyperson on the tour and so she
just took me around on hermotorbike and it was really
(16:45):
awesome.
And we ended up ending at thisone restaurant where part of it
was eel, and so it was reallysmall, thin slices of eel with
stuff and I tried it.
It was not really for me and Isay I'm willing to try it, but
not so much.
It's just slimy and the problemis it just looked like little
(17:06):
snakes or something you know.
They're really small and thinand slimy, but it was kind of
chewy and so I didn't care forthat.
But pretty much everything elseI liked wasn't crazy.
There was one in this kind of astreet alley.
It was my favorite thing.
It looked like a pizza butimagine the bottom was like a
(17:29):
fried tortilla and then theycrack a fresh egg on top and
then have like green onions andother things that like.
It was so delicious.
It was one of the favorite, myfavorite things I've had.
And then there was this Pudding.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
It was like a called the thing with the egg on it.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I can't remember, I have to.
You know, I on my website Ihave where I blogged about
Vietnam and I do try to.
I have some pictures and then Ihave Links to remember.
I think I have the names ofsome stuff or at least have the
company that I used to kind oftook me around.
Oh, nice, and what's your,what's your blog for it's teglow
(18:07):
goes T-e-g-l-o-g-o-e-s Dot com,yeah, and then I have pretty
much everything with withinVietnam they have.
But the problem is that, likeon the food tour, we went to
probably seven different placesand you go, oh yeah, this is
really good, and then the nextone, and then you, unless you
write it down, it's really hardto remember, which I do
(18:29):
recommend like write it down,because what would happen is, I
did the Food tour and I think,oh yeah, I will totally remember
this, this is so delicious.
And then I would be outordering by myself and I'm like
crap, what was that called?
Again, and you know it's inVietnamese, and so trying to
remember and how to say it was abit challenging.
And I some of the hotels that Istayed at they would have some
(18:52):
items that were more Western,typically European type
breakfast, where they have liketheir ham and cheese slices and
bread, but then a lot of theplaces I stayed at they had
traditional Vietnamese, so theywould still have like beef and
they would have the soup, and Itried to eat it one morning and
I just was like I can't eat this, like green onion brothy soup
for breakfast.
(19:13):
It's really weird, though,because in my head I thought, oh
, I need like breakfast food.
I don't think I can eat theselike cooked onion and broth for
breakfast.
But then I thought, wait, but Ieat omelettes with cooked onion
.
Why is this any different?
But my brain is just not usedto having it for breakfast, and
and so it depends on where yougo.
(19:33):
There are some hotels that willbe much more geared for
tourists and they'll have foodPancakes, you know things like
that but if you go to some otherplaces or smaller towns, they
might only have what theytypically eat, and so it's
definitely not gonna be pancakesand, you know, omelettes or
(19:53):
anything.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Okay, so, so these tours.
So you went.
Did you go on a the loop tourand a food tour, or is it one in
the same?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Well, so the hajong loop tour was just the four-day
motorbike tour in the northwhere you just kind of Explore
the whole region.
So it's four days likecompletely with the guides,
homestays, kind of all-inclusive, and then I took the bus back
to Hanoi in the north and then Iended up from Hanoi.
I spent like a week there.
Hanoi is a big, busy city, morePolluted, more dreary when I
(20:26):
was there, compared to the south, but just like an hour away.
You can also do a tour to seehow long Bay how long Bay I do
recommend it's really cool, it's.
You see a whole bunch of thesebig like rock formations out
into the ocean.
So they do a whole bunch of boattours out there kind of do it
as a long, how long Bay, yeah,it's like ha, and then LONG how
(20:49):
how long Bay and it's reallypretty they have you can just do
like a day tour to go see allof that from Hanoi and then from
there I took the train southand I stopped at several
different cities along the waybefore I got to Ho Chi Minh City
, which used to be Saigon in thesouth, and they, as you get,
(21:11):
it's really interesting.
There's, you know, vietnam,they have the Vietnam War and
they were kind of divided, thenorth and the south, and you can
still kind of see the divisionand you can see like Ho Chi Minh
City in the south was a littlebit more modern, a little bit
newer than Hanoi in the North.
And when I was in the centralpart of Vietnam, da Nang, it's a
(21:31):
pretty big city and then that'swhere I did another food tour.
I did one in the north andHanoi and then one in Da Nang,
and the one in Da Nang was justme and the girl and so both of
these were just like five-hourtours where they come pick you
up and walk you around to thedifferent places.
And the one in Hanoi it was meand two other guys and Then the
(21:52):
tour guide, and she was reallyawesome, the tour guide, because
I had only been in Vietnam, Ithink, a few days, and you know
the streets were really hard tocross because there's just
Thousands and thousands ofmotorbikes and you know it's not
like one or two, it's a row ofyou know, there could be ten
motorbikes across, you know,coming all at the same time.
And she, we were, we're in thesmall street and I said you know
(22:16):
, we don't know how to pass.
And she's just this, this shortlittle thing, petite girl, and
she just stands up so bold andshe grabs my arm and she says
you follow me, and she literallyjust puts her hand up like Stop
, and puts her hand up to thesemotorbikes and grabs my arm and
pulls me across the street.
The guys just followed next tous and she was like literally
(22:37):
putting her hand up like stop,stop, stop, stop, so we could
cross the street.
We crossed and I was like dude,that was the most intense cross
, we're just gonna walk.
And she's like no, you justhave to be firm and you just
have to look them in the eye andyou tell them no, and then you
just walk.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
So she pictures.
It's pretty mad.
I mean it's like, yeah, youdon't see any street, you just
see people on.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yes, well, yes, it's just so many motorbikes.
And so she, it was like awalking food tour and so we
would just walk from one placeto the next and see different
parts of the city.
And then in Da Nang, because itwas just me and the tour guide,
she was an accountant duringthe day and then she did food
tours at night, so she justpicked me up on her motorbike
and I hopped on the back andsome of them we drove to and
(23:23):
then some we'd walk a little bitto these different places
around Da Nang.
But it was really cool becauseyou know you get the opportunity
to Taste all the delicious food, but then the tour guides give
you information just about likethings like crossing the street,
different things about theirculture and how to do other
things, and so a lot of thedifferent cities around Vietnam.
(23:44):
You can find, even onTripAdvisor here's Food tours
that you can go on and you canread reviews to see you know
what people say.
But they're typically a fewhours long and you will
definitely they'll be very fullby the end of the tour.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Okay.
So I see Hanoi, Hulong Bay, daNang, and then they're way down
the south.
I see Ho Chi Minh City, like ofthose, all those locations Like
say you go for a month, shouldyou hit it all, or is like you
could probably skip Hanoi butjust go to Da Nang and like.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I guess it depends on what you like, but yeah, I mean
it depends on what you like,but I honestly think you want.
I mean it's it's not a hugecountry, land mass wise, so it's
not, like you know, the US orAustralia or Canada.
It's very populated and there'sstill a lot to see.
And so, even if you only have aweek yeah, don't push it where
(24:38):
you're only at places like a day, a day, a day and you're rushed
but even if you had a week, Istill think the top thing to do
would be doing the Hajang Loopin the north, just because you
get such a unique experiencedoing that.
And even if you do it, let'ssay for three days, you could
then go to Hanoi how long Bay isreally cool.
As you go further south, there'sa city it's just north of
(25:02):
Denang, I can't think of thename, but it has different,
different Mountain typestructures, not like huge
mountains it's hard to describethat are kind of jungly.
They it's where they filmedsome of like King Kong and stuff
.
So it depends on, like you know, if you're a huge fan of that.
But Hoyan, which is H-O-I-A-N Idon't know if there's one under
(25:26):
two, I can't remember that oneis known for being a very
romantic place.
When I bring it up, yeah, yeahand yes, it's very, very, it's
so cute, so I definitelyrecommend staying there.
Even Denang's only like an houraway, but Denang's a bigger
city, oh yeah, it's just supercute.
(25:47):
They have a whole bunch ofthose canals with the little
boats and they're basically alantern city.
So you'll see everywhere at thepictures, and I did like a
lantern making class and so youmake your own lantern and it
folds down so you can take ithome with you.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
It's just like very colorful and, yeah, it's
beautiful with the land.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yes, so you kind of feel like you're in a fairy tale
world in Huyen.
So it's.
It's like you said, it's likethe Venice, where it's got
canals, you're on these littleboats, you've got lanterns
everywhere.
I did, I rode a bike aroundthere.
It's very cute there in Denangand the just like an hour from
there.
There I don't know if youremember there's a famous bridge
(26:28):
when it's a huge kind of halfcircle bridge with hands holding
it up.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I was gonna ask about that.
I just, yeah, I saw the dragonbridge and I saw that.
Let me go back to the.
The hands, yes, but not that is.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, that is basically in Denang, you, it's
like a 30 minute bus ride to getto the top of the mountain, and
at the top of the mountain,where the bridge is, there's
also like a little amusementpark there.
It's really interesting.
It's almost like a knots, veryfarm type thing, but not a ton
of rides but more like justdifferent events and characters
and dancing and singing stuff,and then they have the bridge
there.
So it's, it would be reallycool to say, okay, I'm gonna go
(27:06):
to Denang see the bridge, butthen I'm gonna go to Huyen again
.
Some people do it just as a daytour, like if you're, if your
hotel is in Denang, you could gosee Huyen just for the day and
come back.
Or you could stay in Huyen andthen just go to Denang.
I'm, denang is where theairport's gonna be, and so
that's kind of like, even if youjust covered that for central.
And then in the south, ho ChiMinh City is a little bit more
(27:29):
modern than Huyen.
It's gonna be.
It was warmer, I'm just goesfor it further south when I was
there in March.
But one thing I don't recommendI did go to an island I think it
was Pukuo, like PHO, and then QU O C, I believe, and I had
learned how to scuba dive inThailand and so I thought, oh,
(27:52):
let me go to an island and goscuba diving and Get a little
bit of rest and relaxation.
And I was used to the Thaiislands, which are super
tropical, warm, incredibly clearwater.
Warm water like just beautifultropical vacation.
That is not the case one it was.
(28:13):
The hotel itself was reallynice, but the whole island I
went scuba diving it was.
The water was much colder, itwas not clear, you could barely
see anything.
It just was not at all.
And I realized, okay, itVietnam is not known for like
beautiful vacation tropicalislands like Thailand.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I did not realize that until I went and well, the
pictures that they're showing onGoogle Kind of makes it look
pretty trap.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
It looks tropical, it looks, yeah, waters and
turquoisey color yes, and that'sthe thing and I went there and
the hotel was nice.
The hotel was like this littlehut.
There was a lot of greenery andflowers and there was a pool
there and the food was great andso that aspect it did kind of
feel resorty.
But then I rented a motorbiketo get to the dive shop, which
(29:01):
was like 30 minutes away, andWent diving and it was just like
, oh, this was definitely not aplace to go diving.
I actually got stabbed by a seaurchin.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, and I wonder is it because of the time of year
that you went?
Was it like because it is?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
It is possible, because I remember too it just
felt very cloudy and very dreary.
It was just such a strikingdifference compared to Thailand,
but it very well could be.
Also, it was just the time ofyear wasn't ideal, so it's,
you'll still get some tropical.
It's just compared like.
Thailand is just where thepeople go, especially February,
(29:41):
march.
You'll see a ton of people fromEurope there on spring break,
because it's Thailand is morelike Hawaii, where it's just
clear skies, beautiful Sunsets.
I mean it just felt like everyday was a clear sky with bright
blue sky and then beautifulsunset.
And then Vietnam, it was likecloudy gray sky.
It just it was not Tropical orsunsetty, I guess, like Thailand
(30:04):
Compared and it was.
It was only a month later, soit was a little.
I just, yeah, if you're, if youwant to do diving or do
tropical, I just recommendThailand.
Vietnam I think is really coolfor exploring like that north,
the mountains, the food, doingthat sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So Vietnam owns a lot of like sea, coastal, and then
Lao is like got got the badstick and it got no ocean or sea
, and Cambodia.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Did you go to Laos or Cambodia and you know that was
my plan and I ended up notmaking it there because then I
went over to Australia.
I definitely want to go backand see those areas and I know
that other travelers and stuffthat I met they said Cambodia
and then Laos both have a lot oflike temples and Things like
that that you can go see, sothat that whole region.
(30:57):
I will say, if you have a lotof time, what a lot of people do
is they go to Thailand, vietnam, cambodia and Laos because
they're all relatively closetogether.
I would still recommend flying.
So even when I within Thailand,I flew from the north to
Bangkok and then flew to theislands and back, but then in
Vietnam, just because Igenerally like taking trains,
(31:19):
because trains give you theopportunity to see the
countryside and you know trainsor buses, but I took a train in
In Thailand, actually to Bangkok.
That was not ideal and Vietnamwas very similar, where the
trains are very old, they don'treally have food available other
(31:39):
than like a street cart willcome Writing down the main aisle
but it'll be like you know athing of corn or something, and
so I was very much like, oh,where's?
Where's the other food I'm usedto, because this was like a
eight-hour, you know, train ride.
So I Don't necessarily recommendthe trains.
(32:01):
I mean it'll get you from pointA to point B but they're pretty
slow, they're old and theflights within Vietnam are
actually pretty cheap.
So when I flew, I think I flewfrom, I think I took the train
from or a bus I did otherdifferent buses as well, but
again, if you can find one whereit says VIP bus a hundred
(32:23):
percent, take it.
It's usually five, maybe tendollars more and it is night and
day experience, like one of itwas only 45 minute or hour drive
from Dending to Hoi An.
I took a little VIP bus and itwas like a minivan.
It was super nice, luxurious,you know, had a little table for
you and everything, and so someof the transportation is not
bad if you find the one thatsays VIP.
(32:44):
Otherwise the buses and thetrains are really old.
But you can get really cheapflights that are, you know, $50
to get from one city to the nextand you know you'll get there
in an hour, you know if thatit's really how do you book?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
it is like travel agents, or is there apps?
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I ended up so with the trains and the buses I did.
I think it's called 12 go Asia.
It has you could book a lot ofthings through there but other
like plane tickets.
I just went on Expedia priceline Book through there.
You could go directly to theairlines website.
The one thing I will caution isthat they do weigh your
(33:23):
carry-on and your carry-on can'tbe more than seven kilos, which
I think is 15 pounds and yes.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Expecting just a bathing suit and a towel or
something.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well that's for your carry-on, but then your checked
baggage.
I think they only allow it was20 kilos, which I think is like
44 pounds.
So I frequently was overweight.
When they weighed my carry-on Ithought, man, I purposely put
all my heavy stuff in mycarry-on to avoid baggage fees
of my checked baggage.
And yeah, so my carry-on tendsto be like 20 pounds, not you
(34:00):
know 15, and they actually weighthem and they'll tell you Nope,
nope, you've got a, you've gota pain for this and you don't
let you like have them both outand kind of like rearrange stuff
.
Right then, you can, if you,yeah.
The problem is that the checkedone is also only like 44 pounds
, and so it can be challengingwhen you're like, oh crap, both
(34:21):
of them are overweight.
So you know, yes, they justcharge you more, is that it?
I do charge you more and, and Iwill say, like the one in
Thailand, I ended up because AirAsia is really popular within
Southeast Asia, and I took VietViet jet, I think it was.
I did not care for that one.
Some of their I think it wasthe one in Thailand the seat was
(34:45):
so small, like some of these,because they're inter, you know,
continental, they're just shortflights, they're very, very
small planes.
So, and your six one, likemyself, you just really I mean,
my knees were like diggingthrough the seat in front of me
you can't really complainbecause on one hand you're like,
oh, this is a $40 ticket, butthen your baggage fee.
They're like, hey, this isoverweight and this is
(35:06):
overweight.
Now You're paying another $20,which 20 bucks is not bad, but
then you're you're like that'salmost the price of my plane
ticket.
You know, I think if you'reprepared for it, you won't be so
upset.
I was pretty annoyed inThailand when I started
realizing just because most ofthe world it was pretty standard
that it's 50 pounds for luggageand then I've never seen any
(35:28):
other airplane or airline everweigh my carry-on, except for in
Southeast Asia.
And so I think some peoplethink you, I will just put a
carry on and I'll packeverything in here and not check
a bag.
It's like that's fine, but justknow that you only have a 15
pound limit, so it's gonna be alittle tough.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Absolutely no, but that's good to know for sure.
How much did it cost in orderto travel through Vietnam?
Some?
How much did someone expect topay for like a place to stay and
like a daily food allowance andJust getting around?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
so Vietnam has been growing.
In 2019, they were the world'sfifth largest growing economy
and so things were changingpretty rapidly with pricing.
But, um, partly because theyhad opened themselves up for
tourism, you know, over the last10 years, and so they were
becoming more and more popular,and so it was just like them
(36:28):
getting used to tourism andfiguring all of that stuff out.
But they, I Would say, like inthe north, or I think most of my
hotels Were probably 40 to 50dollars a night.
Some I could, if I did, like anAirbnb or a smaller Place, that
might be 25 30 dollars, butthey definitely still had some
(36:51):
hotels that were a hundreddollars, two hundred dollars.
So it depends on howcomfortable you want to be,
because I was I was reallysurprised compared to Thailand
Thailand my money went a lotfarther where I could get a
whole brand new studio Apartmenton Airbnb for like $23 a night.
And then in Vietnam it was morelike oh, this regular two and a
(37:13):
half star hotel is going to be40 to 50 dollars, versus these
nicer hotels are a hundredhundred and fifty and so.
But those are the hotels thatthey are catering to people who
maybe don't want to get too faroutside their comfort zone, you
know.
So they want the typical kindof Western breakfast and they
want extra amenities.
(37:33):
And even like, the first hotelroom I got was in Hanoi I think
it was about 40 a night and Imean my room was so tiny, it was
a nice room, it was clean, Idon't have any complaints, but
it was so small, I had a hardtime like opening my my luggage,
and so if you're looking forsomething that you're a little
(37:54):
more comfortable, you can expectto still pay over a hundred
dollars.
But, that being said, there wasone place where I took a bus I
ended up arriving.
It was overnight, it was likeseven in the morning.
It just dropped me off in thistown and so I, just right on the
corner was a hotel.
So I walked over there and Isaid, do you have a room that I
could go to right now becauseI'm exhausted, I just want to
(38:14):
sleep?
And she said, well, we onlyhave our like penthouse room and
but because you're booking likelast minute and normally we
charge for this early of acheck-in, just but and I think
it was like seventy five dollarsa night or seventy bucks or
something.
Where I was, I get there andit's like on the top floor, this
huge room, this, and I was like, oh yeah, that's totally fine,
(38:39):
I think you know.
Yeah, so your money can stillgo far.
The food is where you're gonnasave the most money, because
they are mostly eating streetfood and you might get.
They typically eat like eightdifferent small Meals or snacks
a day, so they're not oftensitting down and eating like one
big meal.
One place in the north andHanoi I did go to I forget the
(39:03):
name of the restaurant.
I have to look at my my noteson my blog but it was a
restaurant that was like a fouror five course and it was
amazing like five star, fivecourse.
I mean it was like highly ratedon TripAdvisor and I think my
bill was like $80 or something,which Was a lot Vietnam for
(39:23):
standards, because usuallyyou're buying street food for a
few dollars Anywhere else in theworld.
To get this like amazingMulti-course five star
restaurant, you know it's besignificantly more.
So, yeah, they're.
I mean I would say that theplane tickets, bus tickets, are
Relatively cheap.
When you're looking at tours,they can still be anywhere
(39:44):
between, like a food tour mightbe, you know, 30 to $50 because
it's including your food.
So it's it's a little bit moreexpensive, I'd say, than
Thailand, but if if you're fromAmerica or you know have,
depending on your currencyconversion, your money can still
go pretty far withaccommodation, tours and food.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
That's yeah, it's surprising, okay, yeah, yeah,
all right, so we're gettingclose to the end of our time
here.
But, christian, if you have anyother Questions before I go
into the rapid fire about youknow, the normal food and
breakfast and all that, ThinkI'm good it's been.
Yeah, it's been fun to checkout, thank you.
So what is the popular religionin In Vietnam?
(40:29):
Did you are able to pick up onthat visit?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
You know.
So most of Vietnam is actuallynot.
They don't follow any organizedreligion and so they kind of
have like their Deities andstuff that they might pray to,
but there isn't a really a lotof organized religion.
I think the most popular thatis organized which again is
still smaller percentage isprobably Buddhism, but yeah,
(40:54):
it's generally not a veryorganized religion, religious
country.
They just have kind ofdifferent Deities and different
you know beings and things thatthey will pray to, but not part
of any sort of like church oranything that they're going to.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Okay, got it.
And if you could pick one dishto eat there, what would it be?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I would definitely say like a beef fuck, it's just,
the noodle soup is so good.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
That's what I had last night.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
my friend is saying yeah, you really can't go wrong
with it.
And the thing is they'll havedifferent cities, they'll have
slight variations to it, and soit's not like, oh, I've tried it
once, I'm good.
It's like no, I'll try itdifferent, because I might have
a slightly different recipe orhave different meats in it or
something.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Okay, and what's a popular breakfast?
I know you said something aboutnot wanting, like you know,
onions and stuff for breakfast.
Do they eat the pho forbreakfast, or?
Speaker 2 (41:53):
They do, they really don't.
They think it's which, I mean,totally makes sense, but they
think it's a little strange tohave sweet in the morning and so
they really don't have sweets.
So again, if you're at a hotelthough that's pretty touristy
you will have like toast and apancake or you know things like
that.
But they don't generally eat aheavy breakfast.
(42:14):
When they do, it's normal,regular, like pho and things
like that.
One thing that did surprise meis they do not have a lot of
dairy.
So finding yogurt is really hard, and when you do find it, it's
very liquidy, it's not at alllike creamy or thick, and then
they don't have like findingcheese, like I would go to the
(42:35):
market and just get somegroceries for a few days and
even finding it the market likecheese, yogurts, their coffee
you know, their coffee isamazing, by the way, it's very
well known as Vietnamese coffeebut what they put in it is
condensed milk, and so incondensed milk, you know, is
sweet and like a thick pastealmost, and they just don't
(42:59):
really have hardly any milk orcoffee cream, or doesn't exist
there, it's just condensed milkin it.
And I believe what they saidwhen I was on a tour is it was
because during wars and stuffthey it was really hard to get
certain supplies and so that'swhen they started using
condensed milk for their coffee.
But even here, like in the US,if you go to a Vietnamese store
(43:20):
or you go somewhere that hasVietnamese coffee, they
traditionally will have it withcondensed milk, because that's
now how traditionally it's madeand I think part of the being
the reason is they just don'treally have cows over there, so
that's why you won't see a lotof dairy over in Vietnam at all
Okay, wouldn't it be?
One thing they do use fish oilin almost all dishes because
(43:43):
it's just, it's part of theiryou know, kind of oil, kind of a
spice that they put into a lotof food.
And when I was at that reallyfancy restaurant actually there
was a couple next to me thatwere from America and the girl
was telling her boyfriend, shetold the waiter that she was
vegan and she said you know, Ican't have any dairy, I can't
(44:06):
have any meat which is reallynot too hard there, because they
eat a ton of vegetables andthey have tofu and they have
fish or they have you know,depending on what your dietary
restrictions are.
But then she's like eating thisone soup and then she says do
you think there's fish oil inthis?
And he goes oh, 100%, I thinkthere's.
And she goes wait a minute.
(44:26):
So I've been like eating fishoil this whole week and he goes
yeah, he goes.
I hate to break it to you, but Ithink this is in, like all of
her dishes.
It just looked terrifying andshe's like wait, I've been,
cause she was complete vegan andshe was like I've been eating
fish oil, and so if you havedietary restrictions, I will say
(44:46):
they are not really used tomaking adjustments to food.
It's kind of this is how ourfood is made.
That being said, you won't runinto a lot of dairy if dairy is
your issue, and same with wheat,because they generally do rice,
they don't do a ton of wheat,and so the biggest issue would
probably for most people ifthey're trying to avoid that is
(45:07):
the fish oil.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Oh, got it.
And what's the money called andhow you want to use credit card
or you want to change the money.
What's better?
Speaker 2 (45:16):
So they they're Vietnamese as dong and their
bills.
So I found this reallydifficult when I first arrived,
and other travelers that I methad the same struggle.
It was the hardest place withthe dollar, the bills, the dong
to understand, and the reason isthat they're so high.
So they have a thousand, twothousand, five thousand, 10,000,
(45:40):
20,000, 50,000, 100,000,200,000 and 500,000.
So they go up to 500,000 on thebills, and so I had a really
hard time trying to convert itin my head.
And when you would go somewhereI would try to think wait, how
much is this in US dollars?
And places.
A lot of places, especially ifyou're in the cities, they'll
(46:01):
take your credit card and youknow if you have that you want
to make sure you have a creditcard with zero foreign
transaction fees.
But a lot of places, especiallyin the smaller villages, they
will prefer cash or they'll onlytake cash.
And the way I figured it outthat really helped me in my
brain was the bills that areunder 10,000.
So the 1000, 2000, and 5000,they're really like coin.
(46:23):
You have to think of it likechange, like a dime or a nickel,
and so those and they'reactually like they just look
different, they're a littlesmaller.
Well then, 10,000 was almostlike a dollar.
So if you go get a bottle ofwater, it might be 10,000, and
you have a 10,000 bills so youjust give them that and it's
like a dollar.
Then most the highest is500,000.
(46:45):
So if you're paying for a touror something, you might be
giving them a 500,000.
People don't always have change, so you kind of want those 100
and 200,000s or the 50,000s, the10,000s, to make sure they have
change.
One thing I discovered isbecause most of the smaller
towns preferred cash or onlytook cash, I would go to the ATM
(47:10):
to take out money, but many ofthe ATMs would limit me to about
85 US dollars, and that wouldnot go very far.
When, then, you're paying foreverything in cash, and the
problem is I would get chargedan ATM fee with my bank and then
the ATMs there would chargelike seven to 10 US dollars per
transaction, and I was, yes it'slike yes, I've never
(47:34):
experienced this high of bankfees anywhere and I was really
frustrated because then I'd say,well, if I'm gonna pay all
these fees from my bank and fromthe ATM, I'll just take out
$300, and then it would not letme Like some, I think, would let
you take out one or 150, butsome literally would cap you out
at $85 US dollars.
(47:56):
And then so I would recommendcome with some cash that you can
either convert or when I was inSouth, I had never used Western
Union at that point, but when Iwas in South America I used
Western Union to wire myselfmoney.
I'd have to look to see ifthey're in Vietnam, but if
there's Western unions, I wouldnow wire myself money because
(48:16):
then you just pay the one feeand you could probably take out
more money.
But otherwise I would show upwith more cash and then just
convert it because I just Ican't believe how much I was
paying.
Honestly, sometimes it was likemy bank charged me $5 to use
the ATM and the ATM charged me10.
You know, so I'm out $15 andthen that $85.
Speaker 1 (48:37):
US dollars when they last me like two days.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
So then I'm like I'm going to the ATM multiple times
a week.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
So our final question is where's the closest place to
serve?
I see a lot of water, but itmight not be surfable for our
sure thing.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, I honestly didn't see any places that were
like surfing.
I will say in Da Nang that wasthe only city that I went to
that had beach area and yeah,where it was I mean Hoi An,
you're kind of in the canals andthey do have some areas over
(49:10):
there, but in Da Nang they dohave actual like wide spread
beaches.
People are actually hanging outat the beach and going to the
beach Now surfing it might justdepend on if there's waves or
the weather.
But yeah, I was actually reallyshocked.
I mean, the water is not superclear and it's not really
(49:30):
tropical, so it's not really thebest place for kind of water
activities, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Okay, go ahead All right.
Well, thank you so much,kristie.
Really appreciate you joiningus again.
This was really in depth.
I hadn't learned so much.
Thank you so much yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on.
I love that each episode youguys have a different location,
because I just think it's such auseful tool.
I remember when I was in Banffover the summer, I went there
for the first time with myparents and we immediately
pulled up your Banff episode andlistened to it with my parents
on the drive from Jasper, and Iwas like, okay, we got to go to
(50:10):
this restaurant, we got to checkout this area, so it's really
helpful.
Yeah, because it's just it'slike it's really helpful rather
than just being like everythingall the time.
It's like, okay, I'm going toVietnam, let me check about
Vietnam.
Right, I'm going to Banff, letme hear about Banff, or give you
inspiration to go to a placemaybe that you hadn't considered
(50:31):
before.
So I just really like yourformat and what you guys are
doing with that.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
Thank you, thank you, thanks for sharing that.
That said that just reallytouching it.
We're so what we've been doingit for three years and just get
so used to doing it and we enjoyit and love it.
But it was just I'm like, whenI travel, I'm gonna do that.
How fun to think that you werewith your parents and was like
yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Yeah, I was like we're just going to play this
all in the car while we'redriving there.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
That's so great.
Well, thank you so much.
This was such a blast and, yeah, I really love that.
I want to like get themotorcycle and do that tour.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
That sounds fun and yeah, if people some of the
names I couldn't remember onthere, but if they go to my
website, teglogoviscom, you canclick on blog and then it will
show Vietnam and then it'll Igive all the information and
stuff under there for Vietnam.
So if they're looking for thelinks or which company or who to
go through, it's all listed inthere.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Okay, and here I'm sure I'll put that in the show
notes for us as well.
Perfect, okay, thanks, cool,thank you, okay.
What another adventure?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
So have a great time.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Have a great weekend, thanks Bye.
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, canyou please take a second and do
a quick follow of the show andrate us in your podcast app, and
if you have a minute, we wouldreally appreciate a review.
Following and rating is thebest way to support us.
If you're on Instagram, let'sconnect.
(52:04):
We're at where next podcast.
Thanks again, ark.
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