My Google Maps Addiction, and Why You Should Use It, Too

Today I'd like to talk about how I log what I do for fun around town. It's really nerdy!

For several years now (maybe 4?) I have been using Google Maps to document all the cool places I've visited, what I've eaten, and all the great coffee I've had to drink.

It sounds kind of inane now that I'm saying it out loud, but I absolutely love using this service, mostly on my phone. It has even become something of an addiction, I'd say! 'Must get rid of the yellow marks...!'

Here's the overview of my immediate neighborhood, for example:

• Blue checks are the places (cafes and restaurants, mostly) that I've visited and reviewed.
• Yellow checks are the ones I haven't been to yet but want to visit. 

The orange ones are the standard google maps suggestions, which are sometimes accurate for your interests and sometimes not. I don't let Google track my location, so these are pretty random for me, personally.

Let me tell you about why this is a great way to explore HCMC, or any city - click through for more!

Modern Vietnamese Music I Actually Dig

Vietnamese music is... not for everyone. This is probably an understatement! But after 7 years, I've finally started to 'get it' and I couldn't be happier about it.

Den, my favorite Vnese rapper... a true gem.

While Japanese music has its faithful adherents and K-Pop is having its biggest-ever moment, with BTS and Blackpink actually singing entire songs in English and catering to a worldwide audience, other Asian countries have been somewhat left in the dust. That's not to say there's nothing here worthy of the world's attention, however!

When I first got to Vietnam in (holy shit) 2013, I absolutely hated, HATED, all the music I heard. This is because most of what I heard was bolero (largely wistful songs of love, loss, and an imagined idyllic countryside existence of yesteryear). I'm also not a romantic and don't much care for ballads, so this whole package is massively unappealing to me.

In recent years, however, I've had the pleasure of being proven very, very wrong.

Click through for my thoughts, and my favorite Vietnamese pop, rap, and hip hop music videos!

The Best Vegetarian in Da Kao, District 1, HCMC

Tib's tofu skin rolls stuffed with mushrooms

Up next on my food tour of Ho Chi Minh City, I bring to you the best vegan / vegetarian Vietnamese cuisine in Da Kao ward, District 1! 

You're in luck today, because all three of these options are absolutely, undeniably excellent, and in three different and unique ways. In my opinion, these are three of the best veg spots in the city, so there's no clear frontrunner... you'll just have to try them all and choose for yourself.

If you haven't yet, read about finding and ordering vegan food in Vietnam. If you're looking for more vegetarian nearby, check your vegan options in Tan Dinh ward. Otherwise let's rock!

Da Kao ward sits just north of the major tourist and financial centers of District 1, and is full of big companies with hungry office workers, and thus excellent food at every price point and of every kind. Here's the area I'll be covering in my next few food posts:

As usual, I try to avoid the chain restaurants and focus on independent places that I think are unique and extra-delicious.

Click here for three tasty veg joints that will make your day:

Bicycle Tour of District 12, HCMC: Grasshopper Adventures

Last weekend Sieu and I took Grasshopper Adventures up on another of their excellent local bicycle tours around Ho Chi Minh City, and it completely rocked!

This one was a serious step up from our previous Saigon bike tour to the Cambodian Market. While that was a nice 20km (11.whatever miles), this tour to District 12 was a relatively hefty 42 km (26.1 miles) spread over about 5.5 hours, with several stops.

In all seriousness, I'm pretty proud that I didn't stroke out from heat and I completed the whole damn thing. *pats self on sweaty back*

Click through for our epic route, pictures, and details!

The Best Street Food in Tan Dinh, District 1, HCMC

So you're in Tan Dinh ward and you're hungry... You want street food? You want fast food? I've got some great options for you today.

Welcome to my last food entry exploring all the restaurants and foods of Tan Dinh ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City!

This final post is all about the best fast, street-level food you can get around these parts. Tan Dinh is a smorgasbord of fantastic food options, and the quick food is some of the best you can get when your tummy is angry and you need some calories STAT. 

Today I've got the best banh mi in the area, some Vietnamese pizza, some crazy chicken sticky rice, a very unique bowl of thick crab noodles, and the second biggest meatball you'll find in HCMC. All are craveable, all are cheap, and all are ready to fill your belly within a few minutes of ordering. 

Sometimes, faster is better. With these, you don't have to sacrifice quality in the name of quickness.

Click through to see the street food I recommend in Tan Dinh!

Grasshopper Adventures: Saigon Bicycle Food Tour to the Cambodian Market

Get on, losers, we're bicycling through hidden Saigon to the Cambodian market!

Last weekend Sieu and I had a great experience: we participated in a bicycle ride around Ho Chi Minh City that featured some great food, exciting alleyways, and awesome local areas. We went down hems barely wider than our handlebars, we crossed massive rivers of evening rush hour traffic, and we cycled through the city's biggest (and most fragrant!) flower market, all in the name of exercise, exploration, and eats.

But best of all, our mid-trip destination was the exhilarating dinner and snack stop in the Cambodian market in District 10, about 1/3 of the way through our 3 hour and 15 minute trek.

Because of COVID, Grasshopper Adventures has moved more of a focus on day trips of varying kinds. It's a genuine pleasure to explore more of this city, which hides a lot of what makes it unique inside twisting alleys (hems) and dense, crowded local markets. In olden times, this company (which operates in several SE Asian countries) specializes in longer trips, but these local ones are a fantastic way to explore your own backyard and appreciate the complexity and energy of this dynamic city.

On their evening foodie tour (which is 20km, or about 11.8 miles), you'll get an up-close-and-personal experience that you won't soon forget.

Click on through to see our route and more pics of the market!

The Best Restaurants in Tan Dinh, District 1, HCMC

Welcome back, folks!

I've been a bit sick the last couple weeks with a persistent cold, and now a possible ear infection, so I've been a little languid and haven't gotten much writing done. But the time has come to try and finish up my food and cafe overviews of Tan Dinh ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

Assorted Steamed Rice Cakes at Bep Hue

Saigon is a city of (as of now) 13 million people, and is, no surprise, a never-ending font of amazing food and restaurants of all kinds. Tan Dinh is a densely populated place and there's a lot of foot traffic, which leads to a pretty excellent variety of neighborhood eateries. 

You've seen my list of awesome cafes in Tan Dinh, drooled over the ward's many excellent vegetarian restaurants, and now it's time to focus on some of my favorite proper non-veg-exclusive restaurants in the ward (although, as usual, many of them offer some vegan options).

Click through for everything from Hue specialties to grilled octopus to Chinese noodles and more...

Tan Lap Floating Village: Day Trip from Saigon

As great as Saigon is (and I do love the sheer electricity, the convenience, and the never-ending variety of foods and cafes), you've got to take yourself out of the mix every so often and soak up some greenery. The buzz of motorbikes gets in your head after awhile, and the brain needs space - the birds, and water animals, and the wind through the floating cajaput tree forest of Tan Lap is just what the doctor ordered.

Tan Lap Floating Village - not actually a village, but a forest - is an easy and very cheap way to get out of the concrete jungle for a little bit, and at only 100km from Saigon, it's easy to do so. You have to go through the industrial regions of Long An province in order to get there, but within an hour or so you'll start to see the factories fade away, and soon you'll come to one of the more magical places within easy trekking distance of HCMC.

Whether you decide to take yourself via moto or rent a car for a group, it's easy and cheap to travel here! Click through for details and more pictures...

The Best Vegetarian Restaurants in Tan Dinh, District 1, HCMC

Our first stop on my city-wide breakdown of my favorite Viet Veggie restaurants is, of course, Tan Dinh, where I'm comfortably located and where I do the most repeat visits (including my post highlighting the 7 coolest cafes in the area).

Here's Tan Dinh ward, in case you need a location refresher:

Here are a few of the best vegan restaurants around my new home in Tan Dinh ward, District 1, HCMC.  Don't forget to check out the most important food vocabulary to decipher all-Vietnamese language menus.

To Tan Dinh, and to chay!

How To Clean Your Motorbike Helmet

De-stink your insurance hat! 

If you're anything like me, you put this task off regularly (it's easy to forget about and ignore it, honestly), but it's very easy to take care of.

Motorbike helmets are obviously a necessity. However, all that foam and fabric lining collects a lot of bacteria, mold, sweat, hair products, and just general nastiness, so it's necessary to sanitize and un-gross it regularly.

I spend about 2 hours on my bike on a normal workday (uf da, that was physically painful to type). I admit that I'm a sweaty person, and most of that happens above my shoulders, particularly my head - having the sun beat down on the plastic while I'm driving to my far-away workplace doesn't help at all. The foam lining of my motorbike helmets can get preeeeeetty smelly after a month in the tropical sunshine, and if I get rained on and then have to wear it with wet hair, it gets even worse.

There are two ways you can take care of this minor, but inconvenient, task:

Vegetarian in Vietnam: Vocabulary and Notes

Cha Gio Chay - Vegan spring rolls

Strap in - I'm about to start a series of my favorite veg restaurants in Saigon, according to area!

But first, a little background information...

It's absurdly easy to be a vegetarian here in Vietnam, and I've been upping my vegan intake in 2020 - a lot. At this point I'm probably about 60-70% vegetarian, and I feel great. I've also noticed that, even though I still sweat like a waterfall, I've got less BO! It's the little things, people.

Buddhists in Vietnam traditionally eat vegan two to four times a month, the day before and after the full moon, and before and after the new moon. For this reason, there's almost always a few veg places around, and even meat-centric places will often offer a vegan version of their most popular dishes on those days. It's very popular to gather in groups on these days and go out to restaurants, but many people also choose to cook at home.

So without further ado, here are some things to look out for, to understand, and some words that will help you navigate menus and street food signs across the city and through Vietnam. They'll also help you understand what you're drooling over when I post lists of my favorite locations.

Onward, to learning!

The 7 Coolest Cafes in Tan Dinh, District 1, HCMC

Cafe Time is Life. You know I speak the truth.

I moved into my new place October of 2019 here in Tan Dinh ward, District 1, and I really couldn't be happier with the location. It's full of street life, services, good food, and great places to explore.

Fortunately, there are also a bunch of great cafes to while away the hours with a book or your laptop and remote work. If you're anything like me, you love to find a good new cafe, especially one that lets you linger for a little while and take your time soaking up the leisurely pace of life that permeates Southern Vietnam.

Here are some of my close-to-home favorites...

Things to Do and Eat in My Tho, Vietnam

My Tho is just a short distance from HCMC (less than 40 miles) but it feels like another world. It takes the bus - Hung Hieu from District 5 - about 1.5-2 hours to make the trip (mostly because of the traffic, but also because they make several stops along the way). Fortunately, once you get there, there's enough to make for a relaxing but eventful weekend out of the city.

There's enough here to make for a pretty neat trip, including snakes, temples, statues, food, and plenty of pretty countryside on relatively nice roads - rent a motorbike and get exploring!

Follow me for some highlights...

COVID-19 and Vietnam: Masks Up... the 2nd Wave Has Arrived

COVID, COVID, COVID! 

A brief update on the virus situation here, for my friends and family abroad.

So 2020 sucks big, greasy dolphin butts, as I'm sure you're all aware. I'd planned to try and travel a bit somewhere else early next year, but that's looking increasingly unlikely. America is falling apart at the seams (just horrible to watch, good lord). Russia says they have a vaccine (probably BS). The UK is trying to deal with Brexit AND COVID, and kinda failing at both of them (also not surprised).

Europe is doing pretty good at the moment; still not recovered. New Zealand is setting a good example and is virus-free for the moment, but still had some deaths.

And then there's Vietnam.

I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been caught here, of all places, in these tumultuous times. The government, while not always transparent about news the party feels threatened by, have prioritized public access to knowledge about the pandemic and have achieved something of a miracle: 450 total cases as of July 30th, 2020, and zero deaths. And in a country of 95 million people, sharing a land border with China. That's not just good, that's downright AMAZING.

This is, hands down, exemplary. Every country should take two key lessons from this:

1. It doesn't take a rich country to battle a virus, just swift and decisive action ('Act Now, Act Fast'), attention to science, citizen responsibility, and transparent dissemination of information,

and

2. If you don't want your economy and business growth to come crashing into the red like that astroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, care about your citizens first. The evidence is clear that no economy is safe, let alone able to grow, until the virus is contained.

Of course, we've got a second (third? News reports disagree) wave on our hands now....

Get Your Dim Sum, and Then Some, in Saigon

Dim Sum is a great way to enjoy a ton of different tastes and textures, and there are more than enough options in Ho Chi Minh City to satisfy every steamed dumpling lover.

These are some of the best dim sum places I've personally experienced in Saigon. Some are best for takeaway (looking at you, Mr. Hao), while some are best enjoyed in the ambience of the restaurant (Baoz and San Fu Lou are both delightful and downright luxurious).

All are worth investigating with your food hole. Just don't forget to pack that wallet before you go - dim sum can rack up a bill reaaaaaal fast, especially if you're ordering for more than two people!

Click through for a list of my local favorites!

A Weekend at Giao Diem Homestay, My Tho

Last weekend I needed to get out of Saigon's traffic and get myself into a quiet, green area, stat. Fortunately, Sieu's colleague broke his leg (I mean, that part's not great, obviously), and he needed to deliver his work computer and materials to him at home in My Tho for extended work-from-home. Opportunity buzzer sounds!

We packed up for three days and two nights to travel to the closest city southwest of HCMC and set about looking for a place to stay, eventually landing on Giao Diem Homestay, which has a big ol' garden and DOGS. While it isn't very close to the city of My Tho proper (about 8 miles/14 km), that was just dandy for me. I generally subscribe to a more isolationist, and decidedly lazy, view of vacation. Going out and doing things? When you just did things all week?? That's how they get you, man.

Click through to learn all about Giao Diem Homestay, My Tho!

Life Update: Welcome to Tan Dinh, My New Neighborhood!

It's that time again, folks - I've moved! And I have to talk about it! And lots of other things! Because I can never shut up!

I have a great new place with a big ol' room for my kitties and a lot of exciting street life, restaurants, and cafes for us big two-legged bipeds. And hence... the itchy typing fingers have got ahold of me. I'm all out of video games, I can't stand to read the Stephen King book about a magical pandemic (!!) that's been hanging out on my nightstand since February, and I'm sitting on a thousand or two pictures that need sharing.

Before you ask, you might notice that not only have I abandoned Facebook posting, I've also now left Instagram (itself Facebook-owned). Sadly, social media is not great for my mental health, and pursuing those little dopamine hits easily spirals out of control for me, personally. 

My new neighborhood is Tan Dinh, a smallish area surrounding the eponymous market and home to a lively and engaging space.

Click through for all the details!