This shot was taken at one of the assembly halls in Hoi An. The assembly halls were built by the Chinese during the old silk trading days, and the Chinese influence was noticeable in architecture and styling. There were altars and incense bowls all over, and I was the only person in the hall so I had free reign of the place.
This is the Dalat Crazy House. What is the Dalat Crazy House you might ask? Well, it’s this hotel that is, crazy. It’s sort of a weird Gaudi/Dali-esque treehouse filled with intricately carved furniture and animal themed guest rooms. If you don’t want to stay there, you can still pay an entrance fee and visit the house. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen and was definitely worth the trip for the strange factor alone.
While we were there we saw tow separate groups of people who were on our flight into Dalat, and I also encountered an excited older asain man who spoke no English but really wanted to see my camera. He gestured to it repeatedly and asked to see it, I kept saying no and his friend, watched the exchange and laughed. The excited guy was sporting his own Nikon camera so I’m still not really sure why he was so insistent to see mine.
Tiny Plastic Chairs
Vietnam was a country full of tiny plastic chairs. All along the streets in front of shops, the sidewalks would be full of people selling goods and sitting in these little chairs. In Hanoi our hotel was near an intersection with corner bars which filled the sidewalk and street with plastic chairs at night and big groups of tourists and locals would sit drinking beer hunched into the kid sized chairs.
Dragonfruit
Ladies Selling Vegetables
The food in vietnam was really great. There were so many amazing fresh veggies to be had, and I was so glad to not have to worry so much about not being able to find vegetarian food (Peru was a lot harder for that). There were a lot of familiar foods, but some, like the incredibly pink dragonfruit above, were more exotic. The dragonfruit, dissappointingly, did not taste nearly as exciting as one might assume from it’s hot pink exterior. It tasted a little bit like a watermelon/kiwi blend, and was stark white with small black seeds.
Sunrise in Saigon
Everyone who knows me knows that I am in no way shape or form, a morning person. But the crazy time difference between California and Vietnam, worked some serious magic in getting me out of be early. I took this photo on our first full day in Vietnam, from the balcony of the Liberty 2. It was probably just past 5am when I took this picture, and the streets were shockingly quiet. It was also already super warm, and it smelled a little like rain (from the night before) and the streets were still damp.
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