Mui Ne, Vietnam

This is our lovely piece of beach paradise in Mui Ne, Vietnam. We splurged for an oceanfront room with its own private pool and an outdoor shower. How can I live like this everyday?

The Resort

The room

Our room with our own private pool!

Our outdoor shower

The beach

Sand Dunes - Mui Ne, Vietnam

My friends from Arkansas, Quynh and Angie, met me in southern Vietnam for vacation. In the beautiful beach town of Mui Ne, we went for a sunrise jeep tour of the local sand dunes. Sand sledding is the activity of choice at the dunes, where local kids rent you a sled and show you how its done. Angie making some fresh tracks at the sand dune Me, Quynh, Angie and our sand sledding instructors Angie going down the hill
Local kids sledding

Dragonfruit - Vietnam

The beautifully exotic dragonfruit - native to Vietnam. There are two varieties - one that is pink on the inside and one that is white. Once sliced open it is full of black seeds that you eat and has a mild sweet flavor with the texture of a kiwi.

Vietnamese Coffee

Wow, this stuff is goooooood! You make it with condensed milk and a strong coffee which you brew directly over the cup in the metal device. Delicious! Good hot or iced!

Mekong Delta Tour

The mighty muddy Mekong - we went on a boat tour through the Mekong delta close to where it empties into the ocean. Here we were being shuttled around on wooden canoes.

Sapa, Vietnam

I loved my two day trekking trip through Sapa. The mountains are full of terraced rice fields and local hilltribe Hmong people, who are so nice and make beautiful handicrafts.







I fell in a rice paddy and it ate my shoe.







Marijuana field - they grow hemp for clothing

Halong Bay - North Vietnam

A relaxing overnight cruise through Halong Bay in North Vietnam.

Vietnam Traffic (Hanoi, Vietnam)

The motorcycle rules the busy roads in Vietnam and traffic lights seem to be the exception rather than the rule. I haven't seen a stop sign yet! It seems that you just inch and inch forward until there is room for you (or you make room) to cross the intersection.

Scooter Riding in Vang Vieng, Laos

In beautiful rural Vang Vieng, I rented a scooter and drove out to the 'blue lagoon', which had cold beautiful blue fresh water for swimming outside of a cave. The scenary was gorgeous and made for a nice ride.




The blue lagoon

The Beer of Laos - Beerlao

Only $1 for this huge bottle - good stuff! They have a dark version too, which is nice.

Lao Cooking School (Luang Prabang, Laos)

I did a cooking class in Luang Prabang, which was wonderful. I learned how to make chicken stuffed lemongrass, lao soup, fish steamed in banana leaves, spicy lao tomato dip, and coconut sticky rice.

The cooking school.

A traditional Lao stove with hot coals in a clay pot

Steaming sticky rice in a bamboo basket over a pot of boiling water on top of the clay stove

Chicken stuffed fried lemongrass with a peanut dipping sauce (yum)

Luang Prabang Market, Laos

I've been to quite a few local markets by now, but the one I visited with my Lao cooking class in Luang Prabang was much more 'authentic' than the others. Please be warned this post isn't for the weak stomached. However, don't think that I am making fun of the use of all parts of the animal - I actually think it is quite admirable. I don't like waste.

Pork feet to the left, skinned pork jowls to the right and up top are cubes of congealed pigs blood

Plate of organs

Chicken feet

Small Frogs

Pork faces (skin only)

They're lookin' at you! More pork jowls.

These fruits are delicious - top are lychees, left are mangosteens, on the right are rambutans (like a lychee on the inside).

On the top are red bags of blood and on the bottom of the pile are green bags of bile

Guinea pigs (not pets).

Dried fish strung together with bamboo and banana leaves on the left

The two barrels in the top of the image are fermented fish sauce. Our instructor told us the more flies, the better the fish sauce, as it improves with age. I tried some and decided they must snicker at our clear bottled liquid fish sauce in the 'world foods' section of the grocery store, because theirs is intense..... really really intense.

Fertilized chicken eggs. The number written on the eggs represents the stage in development of the embryo inside the egg. One represents the youngest and three is about to hatch...... see the illustration.

This is a mixed pile of dried up animals - some rats, small birds, large birds and another unidentifable creatures. They looked a bit like old road kill. They are used to flavor soups and eaten bones and all.

Last, but not least, this one goes out to all my cardiology lab friends.... bottled pigs fat.