Miss Saigon
Two of the first things I like to do when coming to an unfamiliar place are 1) Meet a local and 2) Learn about the food. In other words, "Are they friendly and can they feed me?" There is nothing more telling about the culture of a people (and it doesn't have to be foreign people) than hearing them talk about their food. Food is so integral to the lives of people - socially, culturally, biologically, that it's impossible not to learn something about a culture by breaking bread.
I was very lucky to get spend a lot of time eating with locals in Saigon, my first stop in Vietnam.
As an American, I'm used to spending time on the road in hotels by myself, but the idea of being alone seemed to defeat the purpose of traveling. I explicitly sought out an AirBnb where I could stay with a local and get the lay of the land from someone who knows it best. I stayed with a very sweet Slovenian couple and their two adorable kids and as soon as I arrived they said, "Hop on on the back of our motorbike and we'll go for lunch." Sweet! Friends. Food. What more could I need!?!?! So the 5 of us piled onto the back of 2 motorbikes, weaved through traffic like crazy people, and and arrived at Sara's "local" street food place where we served ourselves rice, beef, veggies, and a spicy chicken wing and the owner charged a price based on some form of voodoo math I'll never understand. It turned out to be $1.45 USD. To drink, I had fresh coconut water, served in the coconut after I watched the top being cut off with a machete and a straw poked through the top. Talk about fresh! And let me tell you what, there's no concept of a sports drink here to replenish the electrolytes lost in the 10 pounds of sweat that rolls off of you every day, so these fresh coconuts (along with a healthy dose of soy sauce) are a great way to replace what you lose.
One of the VERY best things I did in Saigon was take a Vespa tour at the recommendation of friends Tim and Nick. It was absolutely rad. Someone comes to your house and picks you up on a vintage Vespa and you spend the whole night whooshing in and out of the absolutely insane traffic and stopping to eat along the way. A quick note about Vietnam traffic (especially in Saigon and Hanoi, but also in the smaller towns) -- there are virtually no stoplights and the ones that do exist are taken more as suggestions than actual rules. I never would have felt comfortable driving a motorbike myself in Saigon. Heck, I was basically closing my eyes and praying to live just riding on the back of one driven by a local professional driver. I suppose this must be like what tourists to New York City think when they get in a yellow cab for the first time. :)
The best part about this tour was that every 30 minutes or so, we'd stop at some local street food place that I NEVER would have found on my own and even if I did, would have had no idea what to order. The guide was amazing and showed us how to order and described what each of the dishes was. I am so glad that I did this at the beginning of my trip so that I knew what I was eating for the rest of it! Of course, the street food tradition continued, as it is alive and well throughout Vietnam. You'll see in a photo below a guy cooking my food on a hot plate while literally sitting on the sidewalk. I would NEVER eat this in New York. But, when in Rome. And it was AWESOME!
