Monday, June 1, 2009 at 12:11PM | in Travel 9 things to miss about Vietnam (4-6)
4. Exercise. The Vietnamese love to exercise wherever there is a waterfront. In the early mornings and evenings the long pedestrian walkways next to the river and oceanfront are filled with people walking briskly, and old people entranced by the water while rhythmically throwing their arms and hips in different directions. Lita swears she's going to make a mock exercise video based on the workouts we've seen. Despite the entertaining sights, we've enjoyed the long sea-front paths for our own regular runs as well. And I found a local gym ($3 a month!) to visit regularly, where Da Nang's strongest men would alternate between the bench press and trying to follow the plot of "Dude, who stole my car" with Vietnamese subtitles, playing on a tiny TV in the corner.
Sunset football on the harbour beach5. Highlands Coffeeshop. My first encounter with Vietnamese coffee was rather traumatic, when I ordered a black coffee with no sugar and served up a small glass with an inch of black sludge (yes, I drank it, regrettably). Since then I've come to appreciate more about Vietnamese coffee, which is almost always had with condensed milk and a bit of hot water -- sometimes over ice. Nevertheless, it's not quite the same as a quality Americano. Highlands Coffee is a western-style coffee shop chain (not too different from Starbucks, but the comparison seems unkind) that serves up delicious Vietnamese grown coffee the way I like it. The widespread coffeeshop culture here in Vietnam means that there's really nothing wrong with buying one coffee and hanging out all afternoon -- which is precisely what we did many afternoons, establishing Highlands as our second office.
The second office6. Vietnamese Breakfast. I made a morning ritual out of motorcycling over to the neighbourhood market to pick up our breakfast. I stopped at the bakery, where I bought fresh baguettes, and then visited my favourite greengrocer women for fresh mangoes, cut pineapple, and cold cocunut milk. Lita rolled out of bed most mornings just in time to dig in (although I regularly appropriated the lion's share of the mangoes).
Not our neighbourhood fruit stand (this is Hanoi), but you get the ideaMonday, June 1, 2009 at 12:11PM | in Travel 
Reader Comments (2)
My dear friends lived in Viet Nam before the war and loved it so very much.
We have a small but wonderful Vietnamese community here on Kauai and we are able to enjoy the delicious foods (and the coffee!) here- but, alas, no bakery now.
Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! Many years ago, we were fortunate to meet Mr. Le Loc who visited the islands.
These "Top 9" items are enchanting for their familiarity...lovely to see you deeply appreciating the day to day common offerings of a place as well as seeking out the exotic. Sounds like you might be tempted to return. We'll visit if you do!