Vietnam a sliver of land bordering China in the North, Laos and Cambodia in the West and the South China Sea in the East. Inside this socialist republic country is a land of tropical jungles, terraced rice paddy’s, imperial palaces, delicious food, a coffee & beer culture and tropical islands. What more could you ask for? Our plan was to see the length and breadth, taste the food from all its corners.

From the moment you arrive, a cascading stream of motorcycles is never ending. In 2015 it was reported that there were approximately 43 million registered motorcycles in Vietnam.
The density of scooters is so intense that for the newbie it seems impossible to cross a road, until you discover your own  invisible shield, run the gauntlet, and miraculously the scooters just weave around you.

Street food is where it’s all happening and one of the main reasons we are here, but for the uninitiated one needs to be cautious before jumping in at the deep end. The Vietnamese eat all things that would constitute culinary oddities to the western pallet.
We called on Lily a local food guide to take us on a walking food tour of Hanoi. Commencing the tour, the first question you are asked is – “is there is anything you don’t eat?”. It’s a loaded question because for the Vietnamese, dog on a spit and even rat is a delicacy. We dodged the bullet by answering “we eat anything that we don’t have an emotional attachment to.”
Deep fried frogs legs and cobra rice wine was as far as we would go. The food tour was a foundation to work with and off we went exploring this fascinating place.

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As foodies and  photographers, we knew it was going to be like tasting sugar for the first time. A sensory overload that will eventually push us to our limits of exhaustion. We got used to the coffee culture to keep us going, and stopped for fresh beer whenever thirsty. We tasted many local dishes down dark back alleys and visited wet markets where animals are kept alive until purchased(not for the faint hearted). No refrigeration needed, quite clever actually. It did question your own connection with food.

We traveled through Vietnam from north to south on motorcycles, trains, planes, junks and hydrofoils. We listened to the one stringed harp, sipped more rice wine, ate Bun Cha (one of our favourite dishes), quaffed on egg coffee, got woken by socialist public address systems, that were later drowned out by the numerous Kareoke Bars late into the night.

Cảm ơn (Thank You) Vietnam

If you would like a closer at Vietnam, we published a book! – Let’s Meet In Paradise…a food journey, and dedicated an entire chapter to its cuisine.

Purchase the book here – https://soultoniclife.com/shop/

Below is a list of the destinations on our adventure.

Hanoi/ Hue/ Hoi An/ Phu Quoc/ Mekong Delta/ Mai Chau/ Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon)/ Ha Long Bay/ City of Ghosts