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A Foodie’s Night Out

Ending our Vietnam stay in style (Candace)

We’ve had eleven amazing days in Vietnam, and have loved every minute of it. From the luxury of our Mui Ne bungalow to the beautiful beaches of Nha Trang to the flower fields and beautiful hills of Da Lat to the rich history of Ho Chi Minh City, we have fallen in love with this country. And thanks to a wedding gift from Bill Sjogren (thank you, daddio!), I wanted to end our stay here right. Sooo….I booked two motorbikes to do an underground food tour!

We had the absolute best guides, Thao and Toan, who drove us through busy streets and secret alleyways to introduce us to the true chefs of Vietnam – the street vendors. We tried Banh Xeo (pancake), Banh It Tran (dumplings), Banh Cuon (rolling cakes – which we made ourselves!), Banh Mi (baguette), Banh Trang Tron (mixed rice paper – my favorite), a duck egg with fetus (yuck!) and flan, and in the course of four hours, we got to see Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10.

Wow.

And to top it all off, today was Vietnam’s Independence Day, so while driving through the city, we were gifted with a 45-minute fireworks display!

We had so much fun and ate so much food, and just as we were about to call it a night, we got a call from the front desk. Thao and Toan wanted to go out for beers with us on the backpacker’s alley, where we watched a fire breather from five feet away!

In the flurry of activities that we have experienced over the past four months, it is sometimes easy to begin to live life in fast forward and forget to appreciate the moment, but I can easily say that we ate up every second last night.

Thanks, Bill, for funding our fantasy, frills, fund and food. And thanks, Vietnam, for embracing us at every corner.

We will definitely be back!