Sorry it took so long, but I finally got around to uploading our photos from our trip. Check them out!

It’s been a busy few days full of trains, buses, walking, eating (especially eating!), meeting relatives (brothers, cousins, aunts, nieces and nephews). After spending last week in Daegu with Shinjoung’s parents, we headed up to Seoul and its surroundings to visit myriad relatives — I know some names, but mostly I remember them as relations (big brother, big aunt, little aunt, curly hair aunt, violin cousin etc!) because that’s how I’m introduced to them. We stayed with Hyungnim (literally “older brother” who’s actual name is Sangheun) and his family in Bundang, just outside of Seoul. We’ve actually done quite a bit of cooking, both at Shinjoung’s parents’ house and at Hyungnim’s apartment. Gazpacho (from the moosewood cookbook of course!) was such a huge hit with Shinjoung’s mom that we made a second double batch

Hope you enjoy the following videos

Shinjoung and her mom walking around in Daegu, Korea:

Eating sushi in Daegu, Korea:

Spirited busker near Hongik University, Seoul, Korea:

Eating mung beans near Hongik University, Seoul

Yes we’re still on our SE Asian tour. Shinjoung and I have been in Taegu, Korea for the last few days. No videos to post yet (and also no tour books to consult ). We’ve been staying pretty close to home, visiting with family, eating, visiting with more family. As some of you know, Shinjoung’s dad is having some health issues. He started dialysis a few weeks ago, and is actually doing pretty well. His energy is up as is his appetite, he’s doing his usual walk (though *slowly*) to Apsan mountain — Shinjoung’s family’s house is a couple of blocks north of the park so it makes for a nice leisurely stroll. We’re going to Seoul over the weekend so perhaps will have more exciting sites to show. stay tuned!

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Well we’re off tomorrow for Korea. It’s been a great (but IMMENSELY HOT & HUMID!) 4 days in Hanoi. We ate tons of street food — Bun Cha, Pho (pronounced like “fur”), Banh Mi, Banh Goi, Chao Ga, and a bunch of things we don’t know the names of but are listed on the wikipedia article on Vietnamese food but probably spent more on water and Vietnamese iced coffee! I think we mentioned earlier, but we decided that we’d relax our vegetarian ways while in Vietnam because we wanted to eat natively and not impose our own food requirements; plus we wanted to explore the street food for which Hanoi (and all of Vietnam) is rightly famous. That turned out to be a great decision as the street food stalls served delicious, fresh, affordable and filling foods and where the locals were always patient, helpful and friendly and showed us what and how to eat.

We also got a chance to go to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site (and more infamous in recent US history for the Gulf of Tonkin incident). It was a nice day trip, but of course we would have preferred to have gone on our own without a tour. We peppered Tuon, our tour guide, with tons of questions throughout the day — about his favorite foods, Vietnamese economics and urban planning (on the way to Ha Long, there were several REALLY large but vacant apartment housing developments), things we saw on the streets of Hanoi like older men smoking bamboo pipes called Thuoc Lao (we found out they were smoking nothing more sinister than tobacco ) and so forth.

While I haven’t convinced Shinjoung of the efficacy of the guidebook (which is so bizarre for someone who’s such a born studier ), I’ve attempted to follow her example and put it aside (and have been successful for the most part). I ripped out the map of central Hanoi and its maze of streets and alleys, but we largely relied on our noses and our eyes to explore. I have to say that we got to know Hanoi better than Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon — but not sure if that’s because we left the tour book in our hotel or if Hanoi was a more manageable size. I totally understand Shinjoung’s point that tour books distort reality and perpetuate some of the worst bits about traveling to a foreign place (pointing countless travelers to the same restaurants, hotels, sites etc) but I don’t think she’s come around to my view that there is definitely some helpful information contained in the books (little historical tidbits, explanations of food, little helpful phrases etc). I forgot my Korea tourbook at home so we won’t have to worry about this issue for the coming weeks But needless to say, with or without the tourbook, we had an amazing time in Vietnam filled with heat, humidity, delicious food, laughs and serious discussions.

As our Vietnam trip comes to an end, I have to admit that we haven’t completely abolished the guide book but have come to a detente. It’s hard to kick old habits ☺. We’ve had fun, lots of laughs and continuous debates – did you expect anything less from me?!

One of the most exciting things about traveling is to be lost completely in an unfamiliar place – full of serendipity at every corner. I think travel guides have a tendency to take away surprises and unpredictability; rather they routinize the experience. The travel guide tells travelers where to eat, go, sleep, shop etc. We noticed that despite thousands of thousands of neighborhood eateries travelers go to the restaurants recommended by the guide – we would like to examine where different language guides send tourists from different countries. They congregate in the same areas which the locals call “the foreigners’ alleys.” The area invariably becomes a scene.

The more interesting thing is how locals respond to travelers’ predictive behaviors and travel routes. In Hanoi, every alley is full of travel agencies that offer the same package tours like the one James chose for ha long bay boat tour and for which I compromised on the condition that it only be for one day (he wanted to have “romantic” two days boat tour which I declined ☺). Throughout the tour, we saw the same people in the same gift shops, cafés, scenic spots etc. where travel agencies organized. Everyone takes photos from the same places to keep their memories.

On the street, we noticed that street hawkers were selling photocopies of titles that are popular with the younger backpacker set (Life of Pi, Bill Bryson, Jack Kerouac’s on the road and of course Lonely Planet guide etc). In the clothing shops, they carry slightly larger sizes for westerners. In the restaurants that are recommended by the travel books, the menus range from pancakes, beans on toast, waffles, etc. When we ask locals about which eateries we should go to, they often recommend the places that are listed in the travel guides even though they don’t go themselves to those places.

Personally, an interesting experience on this trip for me was people’s reaction to seeing the two of us together. There is no way that James can hide his travelers’ status but I was a little different. Many people thought that I was a Vietnamese so they started to talk to me in Vietnamese. When I was not able to respond to them in Vietnamese they (in particular older people) were a little irritated. Also, I often got harsh looks from some people by being with a white man. I can’t really explain their stares but I’m guessing that they thought that I was a Vietnamese woman providing a “service” to a foreigner. This was a little surprising to me but it was not out of their context. In Saigon we saw many drunken male travelers with young Vietnamese women.

This time we didn’t get completely lost in the travel but for sure we were lost in the heat, motor bikes, and street crowds. I failed to convince James to give up his guide book but I think he admits that there is truth in my travel philosophy. There is always next time ☺.

Shinjoung and I took the overnight sleeper train from Hue to Hanoi. Originally we tried to get our own ticket at the station but were defeated because a) we didn’t have enough Vietnamese Dong on us (thought wrongly that at least the train station would have the ability to use a visa card); and b) it took a while just to push up to the window because “lines” don’t really exist. People kept shoving and pushing money at the ticket seller and this gentle giant couldn’t get the hang of the jostle (I think Shinjoung has a pic of me standing in a sea of Vietnamese looking bewildered ). So in the end, we called our guest house and for a fee of $1 they ordered the tickets for us. the tickets were very cheap, only @ 500,000 dong ($23) each. There were flights, but they cost between $60-70.

Overall, it was a pretty good experience although there were a couple of things that nobody mentioned: 1) the food’s not very good so pack a dinner, snacks and drinks; 2) lots of people smoke so be prepared to endure. It wasn’t overwhelming, but *was* a bit off-putting; and 3) the bathrooms are hit or miss, so pack a roll of TP just in case. Overall, it was a good experience. Enjoy the montage.

Today we’re heading for Hanoi and I proposed to James to do the un-lonely planet guide experience. James insists that he is different since he is using a rough guide instead of a lonely planet guide.  I will let him believe whatever makes him feel good ☺.

James is not unique among travelers. You can easily spot that pretty much all travelers (most of them are from Europe and US) who carry a lonely planet guide and read the book as they walk around. We noticed that travel book market in Vietnam caught up with this travelers’ common behavior. In Saigon, you can see that every street shop has a stack of lonely planet guides to sell (James thinks that they are left-overs from travelers but I think they are photocopy or original. More exploration needed on this point).

I have my own theory of impact of lonely planet guide (or rough guide for James) on traveler’s experience and local culture but I will save it for later. Stay tuned for our un-lonely planet guide experience!

We decided to rent motorcycles (and drivers, we’re not THAT crazy!) today in order to get further afield in Hue, Vietnam. Below is a video cobbled together of the day. We’re off tomorrow to Hanoi on the overnight sleeper train which should be fun. At least it’ll be air-conditioned

James and I have a little different travel style. I’m a wanderer while James is more of a planner (who likes to wander).  I rarely plan for any trips or read about the place where I will visit partially because I’m lazy but also because I enjoy trips with few plans or goals. On the other hand, James consults with numerous travel books beforehand and carries them wherever he goes regardless of how heavy they are. Most of the time James’s well-read knowledge becomes handy in orienting ourselves to a new place (and even teaching a little Lonely Planet version of Korean history to my parents).  However, this time seems an exception.

On our first day in Saigon, we decided to walk around the city. Of course James equipped himself with a local map and a tour book and constantly consulted with his map to orient us to our surroundings. Despite his tireless efforts, the city defeated him for a while. I smile at him for his persistency and told James several times that he needed to stop looking at the map since it wouldn’t help us.

The streets and neighborhoods of Saigon, like many other Asian cities, have evolved more organically over time rather than being centrally planned and grid-like.  They are more like a web rather than a grid. This web of unfamiliar streets plus over 90F and100% humidity threw James off his game a bit even though he doesn’t want to admit that.  Maybe this might be dumb luck or the result of growing up in Korea, but for some odd reason I was able to get around Saigon and even gave him directions and pointed out our location on the map ( trust me this rarely happens!). For me as long as I can get back to the hotel it doesn’t really matter where I am while James wants to know exactly where he is. According to him, he needs to situate himself ☺.

We walked for 6 hours all over Saigon all the while discussing whether James should give up the map and just go down random streets as the wind led us. I told James that he shouldn’t try to rationalize how the streets are organized. This is coming from someone who rationalizes pretty much everything ☺. I doubt that James will give up his map or tour books but I bet our discussion will continue throughout our journey.

Day 2 we decided to take an organized tour (against our better judgement) to the Mekong delta. It was pretty cheap ($24/person) but it was mostly ferrying the group around to various places to buy trinkets. The water coconut farm was interesting, but I wanted to spend more time visiting the beekeepers and listening to the local musicians (whose music sounded a little appalachian to me) and less time listening to the mom yelling repeatedly at her two kids and the group of young American men recounting their exploits in various countries around SE Asia. Plus we got caught in a torrential downpour that lasted 2 hours. All in all, it was good to get a taste of the Mekong delta, but would definitely want to explore more on our own. Unfortunately, we only had 1 day. Day 4 we’re heading north to Huế for a few days.

We’re having a blast, although it’s a bit hot and humid for me (but luckily for me I can get delicious iced coffee all over the place ). the food has been amazing for the most part. we decided to relax our vegetarian eating preference because it’s pretty difficult to find purely vegetarian foods. Luckily, Hue, which was the capital of Vietnam at one point in its history, has a stronger buddhist and vegetarian culture than the rest of the country and we’re told there are several all vegetarian restaurants in town. mostly we just sidle up to any little street food stall that looks to be popular with the locals (usually multiple ones on every corner), sit down on the impossibly small plastic chairs, and point to what someone else is eating. Turns out that Shinjoung has quite the nose for delicious food stalls.

We’ll post some food pics soon. In the meantime, enjoy these little vids of the Mekong delta.