First and foremost, the FOOD! I am not much of a "foodie" but I have always loved Asian food and have heard amazing things from past SE Asia travelers about eating here. It has not been a disappointment! The food is cheap, delicious, and available any minute of the day or night, but there have been some surprises....
As self-described pad thai lovers, Noah and I knew we'd find some great stuff in Bangkok. Pat thai is everywhere, an often comes with a surprise, like being wrapped in a fried egg bowl, or these little critters:
Breakfast is Asia is interesting. All the places we've stayed have offered rice and vegetables as a big part of the morning meal, but the coolest thing has been the fruit! It is very weird and very colorful. I have no idea what any of it is called so I make up my own names (see below, Dalmatian fruit, brain fruit, spindly fruit, etc). It is often unexpected, and takes a minute to figure out whether you eat the outside or the middle. Sometimes it looks like garlic cloves and sometimes it comes soaked in chilies!
In Vietnam, I was prepared for banh mi and pho to be ubiquitous and figured I'd have eaten a ton of them both by the time we left Hanoi. NOT so. It took 2 days to learn that pho is actually a breakfast food here, which seems weird for a heavy, meat soup, and many places refuse to serve it to you in the afternoon. As for banh mi, the French influence is alive and well in northern Vietnam, and they look more like something you'd eat in Paris than Asia. The quest for these continues!
There is street food everywhere and it's crazy cheap. Sticky rice in little plastic bags and meat grilled on sticks is great and costs less than $1. We've been learning, however, that the premium for eating inside at a sit-down restaurant to cool off between sight seeing is worth the dong! Luckily for me as a fan of light beer, Tiger beer is refreshing and served very cold.
Finally, the weirdest thing we've eaten so far (to our knowledge) is frog. Fry anything with enough garlic and chilies and it's definitely edible! :
Enough on food. The other thing I've been really struck with here is the welcoming attitude of the people. After spending a lot of time in countries where white tourists (and especially female tourists) are harassed, catcalled, etc., I really appreciate the positive interactions we have had with locals. Despite a history with some serious animosity (more later on our visit to the "Hanoi Hilton") the Vietnamese people we meet are friendly, welcoming, and helpful. We are of course wary of those trying to sell their stuff (they do have to make a living) but generally when people strike up conversations with us they just want to chat and practice their English. We had a particularly cool street dinner next to a young couple who were super friendly. It's kind of amazing that we're here getting this opportunity given how things looked just a generation ago.
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