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...

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...

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!

General Observations on Saigonese Architecture

[NOTE: This post goes out to my friend Jenny, who asked me about architecture in July 2013. Excitingly, it's a much more interesting topic than I assumed! So here's the first post!]

I find myself often looking down out my window, which is located on the 3rd (4th, American-style counting) floor of my house, and find myself succumbing to the question that must be difficult for any Vietnamese architect to resist: why isn't the entire lot filled... the entire vertical distance??

There's about half a meter of a small awning over the entrance to the garage... that would give me (or my poor roomies on the other side of the building, in their small, glass closet-rooms) just a liiiiiitle bit more breathing room.

But this is a form of thinking that I had never encountered as a designer. Form really SHOULD follow function, but it's difficult to resist the idea that an object's aesthetic should be at least equally important.

On one level, though, this extreme interpretation of Form v. Function just makes common sense - people are more important than the building, so stretch the building to the farthest corners of the available land, all the way up, and you'll have slightly more comfortable humans.

Not to mention the fact that in the average Vietnamese home, there are many family members, and, all of a sudden, this doesn't just seem like A way to do it, it becomes THE way to do it. Even in parcels of city land that are surrounded by unsold/unimproved lots, the tube house reigns supreme... because the expectation is that this neighborhood will, in time, be just like every other well-developed neighborhood in the city - packed, walkable, vital, and very, very local.

Saigon Sights: Cu Chi Tunnels

One of the more famous sights to see when visiting the HCMC area is the Cu Chi Tunnels in the Cu Chi district some 2 hours north of the city center (and yet, amazingly, still within the city limits of Saigon).

Earlier this year, my good friends Alex and Liz took a Sibling Trip to Vietnam and we visited this unique site. It was sweltering hot, but we got a great half-day trip in and a fairly tolerable guide (sometimes the heat, non-stop narration, aggressive attempts to include you, and annoying co-tourists make you just want to punch them in their tourist-guide faces, but we got a little lucky this time around).

Together, we wound our way through a piece of our shared American/Vietnamese history, and learned just a little bit more about how the American War shaped an influential cadre of Vietnamese

Click through for pictures and (just a little bit of) history!

Da Lat 2014: Scarf & Fireplace Weather

Erin, I adore this picture.

One of the best and most relaxing adventures of my summer was my return trip to Da Lat, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam - Land of 1000 Pines and Former French Colonial Playground.

Not only is the weather here just ridiculously comfortable (a mild 70's during our visit in July), but it was an excellent last hurrah with my friend Erin and a great experience for my friend Lisa visiting from NYC.

It's truly a must-see if you're looking to experience a few of the sheer variety of climates and environments in Vietnam.

Some of the great things we did included: staying at one of the world's most unique guesthouses, visiting pagodas and flower parks, discovering secret trails into the hills originating in the cemetery, frolicking among lush jungle waterfalls, doing the central Market on a Sunday, and generally wandering around this picture-perfect painting of a town, far away from the sweltering heat of Ho Chi Minh City to the south.

It was SO COLD... seriously,
like at least down to 70 F.
Scarf and fire weather.

True, I was brutally sick with a stomach bug for the first day and a half (including a really, really precarious sleeping bus trek. Sorry about your bathroom, Da Lat bus station - but seriously, you should be sorry about it too: thank god I carry toilet paper with me).

(BTW: Hello Erin's Family - this post is for you!!)

Not a lot of reading today, it's been a long week and I'm tired of looking at these summer posts stuck in Draft Purgatory. Plus, I pretty much detailed everything I liked about Da Lat in my 2013 post, which you can find here if you haven't memorized everything I've ever posted.

Check out a photo album of my Last Vietnam Hurrah with Friend Erin, and the beginning of my Vietnam Adventure with Lisa, below!

Vũng Tàu: 30 Hours on the Southern Coast

The entrance to our nearby beach.

Note: I'm currently in Chicago and it's -12 C. These pictures are making me really happy.

Vũng Tàu is about 2 hours south of Ho Chi Minh City, and there's an awful lot there to make an excellent weekend of it. Whether you go by bus or motorbike (and, of course, I highly recommend traveling by motorbike), there's enough to see, tons to eat, beaches to loiter on, and of course, enough Banh Khot to kill a horse (an ok death, I assume).

The city itself is situated on a southern outcropping of the nation, with a few atypical hill-mountains near the shore, and features a relatively compact city center as well as several important historical sites. And Banh Khot.

While we were unable to get a hotel room in the city center, instead ending up in a new guesthouse about 7 km away in an unfinished division, we did have a whole beach essentially to ourselves at night and BANH KHOT GUYS, THIS IS WHERE BANH KHOT IS FROM! And... Jesus?

Click through to check out what 46 hours in Vũng Tàu looks like, as well as some of the most fun you can have for a stoopid cheap weekend not far from the crazy hustle-bustle of Saigon...

Côn Đảo: Unspoiled Vietnamese Island Life

Hey, you. You in the office. You seem stressed.

What do you want?

You want peace and quiet? You want dogs? You want the best diving in Vietnam and fresh seafood for every meal?

Done.

Beaches? I know a nice one. Endangered animals? Scads (well, maybe not scads... they are endangered, after all) Ghosts? If you believe some Vietnamese, this place is crazier than NYC at the end of Ghostbusters 2.

And history? Here's a place that summarizes in one 200 year period all the struggles and trials that Vietnamese mainlanders have gone through over thousands of years - shorter, sure, but arguably bloodier, and events just as traumatic to the national psyche in their sheer brutality and lingering impact.

You want all these things, plus boat rides, hiking, bike rides, and island-wide radio hour twice a day?

Have I got the place for you!

Resolution Check-in: Long and Short Term Planning... and Living

An Bang Beach in Hoi An. Did I steal this from my instagram,
or did my instagram steal this from my blog?

Over the past couple months I've begun examining the New Year Resolutions I made back in January. It's a process that I've never really attempted before, but having them in writing has lent a certain amount of solidity and weight to them, and so I thought I might as well respond as I achieve, modify, or outright discard each in turn - a form of public self-reflection.

Our lives are constantly changing, and I strive to be flexible, but I'm also committed to making noticeable forward progress. In many ways, it's an interesting response to my own Resolutions, and one that is threaded throughout all the the ones I made this year: Do, Examine, Do Again. Baby steps to your goals, Ben!

Here and now! has been my rallying cry this summer... Let's pull out my Resolution post and poke at it with a stick!

Here's number three on my list of resolutions for 2014:

3. Plan for the long term, live for the short termI'm at a unique time and place in my life, and while my main impulse is to save, save, save, I have to recognize that there are things that I can only do here and now. I will spend the money I need to in order to get to where I want to. Experiences await! I'd also like to use the summer to get my CELTA certificate, which will allow me access to better jobs and more money internationally.

Plan for the Long Term:

Financially I'm doing fine. I've got dong galore. I've got contracts coming up for the next school year that I'm excited about. My 20-year plan originally had me seeking out an environmental NGO for part time work this coming year, but I'm flexible and certain opportunities have arisen that are too interesting to pass up. More on that after September.

Meanwhile, One Year Later in Vietnam...

One year and two days ago I left US soil. One year ago today, I landed in Vietnam.

I did a preposterous, crazy thing. Irresponsible, even. Certainly audacious and full of risk. Setting off for a foreign land with an inkling (and that was it) of what I'd do when I got there was the craziest, outside-of-the-boxiest, obliterate-your-comfort-zoneiest thing I'd ever even considered doing. I could barely even go to bars where strangers might talk to me, much less expect to functionally operate in what amounted to an alien world. But, as my roommates and I talked about today (as I was going to the post office to figure out how to send a package, in itself an adventure), when you only have one option, deciding and acting become accordingly easier.

Vietnam's UNESCO World Heritage Sites: a Preview

Ha Long Bay (1994)

It's not long after spending some time researching or living abroad that the subject of UNESCO's World Heritage sites comes up. 

First of all, what are they, really? And what is 'UNESCO'? It sounds like a food supplier for prisons.

Hoi An Ancient Town (1999)

UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. In 1972, they approved and launched the most universally recognized international convention in history - the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. It covers many different types of sites around the globe (currently 981 sites (check out that cool interactive map!) - mountains, lakes, monuments, buildings, cities, complexes, and natural features are all treated with universal recognition).

Time to fire up the travel bucket list generator and see what my future plans will include...

Resolution Check-in: How to Speak (Enough) Vietnamese

The major difference is that, in the game, you're almost perpetually physically alone - traveling, I'm only mentally isolated.

Let's check out our hero's #4 New Year's Resolution...

4. Be able to basically communicate what I need in Vietnamese 

My vietnamese is just terrible. Much of it is that I'm shy and hesitant to use it in the first place (and the fact that it's just a difficult language, period), but I've come to recognize that, to put it simply, I've got to either use it or stay in the English bubble forever. Since the latter is not acceptable, I will start making more of a lingual connection to my environment.

Ha. Learning Vietnamese. I'd forgotten that I'd even made this resolution. Let me tell you a story.

It's time to unpack that dusty box that has "VIETNAMESE - HOLY CRAP, LEARN ME ASAP" scrawled on the side in big, black marker...

Dong Nai Football Opening Day

Last week I got an irresistible proposition: opening day of the Dong Nai Football Club.

It provided several very fun firsts: my first chance to visit a different province for fun and pleasure, my first ever FIFA soccer (no... football!) match, and my first "extended" motorbike trip.

People come and go so fast when you're traveling... when you're planted in one place, it's easy to miss all the people that are spending less time there than you. The possibilities seem endless when you have a set amount of time ahead of you. The trick is to avoid that sense of complacency and make the most of every moment - something that doesn't always come easily to my introverted nature.

Buckaroo Ben in the Street Food Dimension, Part Deux

I've been told by many locals that street food is the way to get the real Vietnamese experience - restaurants are fine and all, but if you want to eat like a Viet, you eat on the street.

This edition brings another dessert cup, a whole bunch of fried things, rice in all forms, and even a surprise cream puff. Did not expect the cream puff.

Here's my second round-up of treats from the streets. Enjoy!

Sticky Corn with Sweet Coconut Sauce
Average Cost: $.25 USD
Mandatoryness Level: Skip it
Best Attributes:

-It's traditional, but that doesn't make it acceptable to my western palette, even one that's been saturated in Vietnamese tastes for 7 months. Instant regret. Not even a rumbly tummy kept me from throwing this one away.

-The texture and taste of what is essentially creamed sweet corn with coconut sauce is just not my cup of tea.

Mentally Mapping the City

I never appreciated what I had in Chi-town.
God bless you, grid system.

"Where in the twisted hell am I??"

is something I find myself saying pretty much every week, whether it's because I'm lost in some maze of alleys or because I've just realized that I'm living and working in Vietnam (both can be equally disorienting). Let me try to give my definitive answer on locating myself in space and time* here...

I never really knew Chicago until I biked it. The same holds true for Saigon. This time, however, I've got a few extra cc's under me!

Sure, I took public transportation all over Chicago prior to biking, but it was always a passive, stare-out-the-window kind of knowing. It wasn't until I had to navigate and triangulate my position on two wheels in motion that I truly felt I knew where I was, and how I'd get to where I wanted to go. It was a good feeling.

A similar process of knowing is happening here in HCMC, but the difference here is that the City is so massive and the map is so unpredictable, it would take years and years of non-stop exploration and practice to effectively know it all. Hell, even my taxi drivers don't know it all! When I took taxis, they often had to stop and ask another driver for directions. I stick to the places I need to get to, and add to my repertoire as I need to.

So that's something I've been doing in my spare time - figuring out just where in the sam hell I am...

Saigon Sights: Lâm viên Cần Giờ (Monkey Island)

District Can Gio.

Recently it was the most glorious holiday (TEACHER'S DAY!) and I was able to rearrange my office hours to take a much-needed trip outside of the city - fresh air, fewer people, fewer bikes, nature... and monkeys.

So many monkeys. And so many pictures!

You can see the map of Cần Giờ District (yes, still part of Ho Chi Minh City, crazily!) that we traveled to. Our destination was Lâm viên Cần Giờ (Cần Giờ Forest Park), in the southern region - almost as far south as you can go while staying both on land and in HCMC's expansive boundaries.

Lâm viên Cần Giờ is a designated UN Biosphere Reserve, recognized as such for the best practices exhibited by the Vietnamese government in regrowing the massive and extensive mangrove forests following the destruction of over 80% of the total biomass through American gas attacks during the Vietnam War. Today, the area is a quiet haven for thousands of monkeys (called a troop!), a group of crocodiles (called a float!), and a beautiful and calm alternative to the endless shouting, honking, bustling throngs of Ho Chi Minh City.

It's picture slideshow time!

First Experience with the HCMC Public Buses

Recently I went to Monkey Island with a friend on Teacher's Day, and we ended up taking public buses to get the full experience.

This is the first time I've been on the bus system here (seriously - this long! It even took me months to try the buses when I first moved to Chicago! I don't even know) and it was a pretty good experience. Long, but very interesting, and I got some fun videos.

I thought I'd write a brief post about it, as some aspects are a bit... different... than bus rides I've had in the past.

Read on for a short primer on "how" to ride the city buses in Saigon! Complete with amusing videos!

Why Did I Choose Vietnam?

I waffled (fun word!) for several months before finally picking a place to go teach English, and even then I was unsure and lacked confidence in my decision. It was only once I'd been here for a while that I could say for sure that I made the correct choice - this is an amazing, electric city in a rapidly modernizing & developing country, and, in 2013, it's a fascinating place to live and work.

If you haven't heard me tell it, there was a specific string of events and planning that led me to take the concrete steps to go abroad to teach. Here's how I eventually settled on Vietnam!

Vietnam is special in a lot of ways. Here's what I was thinking when I finally made my choice: