Chúng Tôi Yêu Bạn Vietnam

The country of Vietnam will always hold a special place in our hearts because it is where Tuck and Jones were born! As we head off to Thailand to visit Ryan and experience some of the Thai island lifestyle, here are the things we take away from our month in Vietnam:

1) IT IS GOOD TO BE BACK! After living in Hanoi for 5 months in 2009, we feel like Vietnam is our second home. But because Jones and Tuck did not have passports back then, we were unable to travel within the country, thus we spent the entire 5 months in Hanoi. We never anticipated having to be in Hanoi for 5 months, 5 years ago, but we know it was a blessing in disguise. I guess the lesson we learned from that experience is to try and visit a place and stay a long time, rather than beebopping from destination to destination. When you hang out, you really do get to know a place and it feels like home!

2) TRAVELING WITH FRIENDS IS SUPER FUN! We were so lucky to be able to spend a few weeks traveling with Mouni, Kim and the Roaming Jones! We were a serious gang…taking each destination by storm On a long trip like ours, we are all experiencing some serious togetherness. It is awesome but it is a lot. Imagine eating every meal, everyday, with your immediate family and nobody else for 1 year when you are 16?! Or the parent of a 16 year-old? It was nice to mix it up a bit and let the kids have kid time and parents have parents time.

 

3) FOOD, FOOD, FOOD! When we sat down to brainstorm our lessons learned from Vietnam, almost 50% were about food! How much we love the Vietnamese food, which always comes piled high with tons of fresh herbs and veggies. How we love the street food scene and wish there was more of that in the US. We have decided when we get back, we are going to buy 100 of those short plastic stools and have a dinner party in our driveway where everyone sits on them  We also LOVE how everyone goes to the market to shop for fresh ingredients before cooking each meal. It is kind of like how we use the south end QFC on Mercer Island but more eclectic and a lot cheaper!

 

4) STAY IN GROUND ZERO! If you are visiting a city, it is fun to stay at ground zero! In most cities, ground zero is usually the “old city” which is where all the action is. Yes, it is super touristy, but it also allows you to walk out your front door and jump right in! We have done this in almost every city we have been to and, when we don’t do it, we kind of regret our decision. Sometimes it is a little louder with garbage collection, mopeds, roosters and whatnot, but all, in all, you leave feeling like you really experienced that particular place!

5) CAN’T GO TO ONE CITY AND THINK YOU KNOW THE COUNTRY. Just like it would be dangerous to draw conclusions about the US if you only visited NYC or LA, you have to travel around to experience the different facets of a particular country culture. We definitely saw this as we traveled around Vietnam. Yes, we knew Hanoi really well, but we didn’t really know Vietnam. The beaches, the countryside, tributes to the many wars, the Mekong River. It was really interesting to see new aspects of Vietnam. It also made me think about all those countries that I have visited over the years but never spent time in more than one place…..time to go back and soak more in!