Reflections on Vietnam Part 1 - Weather and Food

Well we've been home just over 5 weeks. I wanted to post some info for our trip for anyone who is headed to Vietnam soon. I can't seem to find the time to do it all at once so I'll break it into segments. This post might not be of much interest to anyone not planning a trip to Vietnam.

Part 1 - Weather and Food

WEATHER
It really is really important to keep in mind how brutally hot and humid it is in Vietnam during the summer months. In the U.S. people always say,

"It's hot in here. I mean really hot . . . Africa hot actually."

This is meant to imply it couldn't possibly get any hotter. This was clearly spoken by people who have never been to Hanoi. The weather in Africa isn't that bad so the phrase should be:

"It's hot, really hot . . Hanoi hot. "

To acclimate yourself, I'd suggest holding a pan of boiling water under your chin so you really experience the steam. Then stick your head in the oven when it's on Broil. That's almost as hot as Hanoi will be in the summer. . . almost.

We had spent a few days in Bangkok before arriving in Vietnam. Bangkok was about as hot and humid as Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh was a little cooler. I think you really have to have Cool max clothes in order to keep any sanity. This is not just for people who are heat intolerant by the way. 100% cotton will not only hold onto the sweat - it will never dry. I spent hours trying to dry a t-shirt with the hair dryer at the Sandy Beach hotel. It was impossible to really dry anything in such a humid climate.

I hear a lot of adoptive parents say they will put their baby in long pants and long sleeves to avoid comments from the Vietnamese about how you should bundle your child. These babies get heat rash very easily. We kept Kieran in very light weight clothes - mostly onesies and shorts. Very few people commented (and I really was more concerned with his comfort than comments from the Vietnamese.) We picked Kieran up from the orphanage with heat rash and it was a struggle to get rid of it.

Air conditioning was much easier to find in Ho Chi Minh City than Hanoi. Luxury hotels have A/C throughout the hotel. Taxis almost always have A/C but don't really put it on very high. If you get in the taxi with a baby - they will sometimes refuse to put the A/C on for you. I'd suggest having one person sit in the front so you can control the A/C. Once we did this - it was much more pleasant.

** If you have a room where the A/C goes off as soon as you take the key out of the slot and leave the hotel room - get a second key card and leave it in there so the A/C stay on. (Or just use any other hotel key - they all work to keep the electricity on.)

** If there is a remote for the A/C (like there was at the Sandy Beach hotel) LOCK IT IN THE SAFE when you leave so the housekeeping staff won't turn it off when you are gone. (The units are too high for anyone to access without the remote.)

Most restaurants (outside of those in the hotels) say they have A/C but it could be just a fan or a small unit that would probably be best suited to cool off a linen closet rather than a restaurant that has a hot kitchen making it worse. Sandy Beach did not have A/C except in the rooms. Even their small gym didn't have any A/C. The Duxton was fine and so was the Horison. The Vietnamese don't seem all that bothered by the heat so I think it just doesn't occur to them that we are really struggling with the heat.

FOOD
Like any city, there is good and bad food. The language barrier and the difference in food preferences that you have as an American mean you really have to plan where you will eat. There are great places to eat so ask the concierge for help or take notes from blogs when people mention a restaurant. Call ahead to make sure they can seat you inside. Ask for non smoking if you want that but they rarely accommodate that. I'll list my favorite places and scan in their cards if I can in a few days. We had some really good meals and all of them were based on recommendations. We had very little luck when we chose restaurants on our own.

If you are a vegetarian - you're pretty much going to have to realize that it's unlikely you will avoid meat altogether. Everything has pork. I was waiting to see pork juice at the breakfast buffet - that's how much they love it! Even if an item on the menu says "rice with vegetables" don't assume it doesn't have pork. If it says vanilla ice cream on the desert menu - ask if it has pork. Ok, I'm kidding about that but seriously - if it's important to you - be careful.

Vietnamese menus often stress the starch in the meal and leave out info on the protein (unlike U.S. menus.) Might I also suggest you don't phrase it like "Is there pork in here?" The answer will be yes. If you asked if there was cow dung in there, they'd answer yes too. It's not that they want to be rude at all - they just don't really know what you are asking or why you are asking. They want you to be happy and saying yes to everything seems to be in their customer service manual somewhere under "Is there one response that I can use for every question so I don't have to read the rest of this manual?" Ask the concierge to write out that you are vegetarian so the waiters understand what you require.

When we were in Danang, staying away from meat was really easy - that's of course because we stayed away from almost all food at the Sandy Beach Resort. Fish and meat are put outside for the buffet at 4pm in the heat and left there until the buffet closes at night. If you have to eat their food at the buffet - go early when they first put it outside! Santosh ate some shrimp and his face swelled up (and he has no allergies to shellfish or seafood either.)

I have heard some people say the food there was good. All I can think of was that they were there for the semi annual delivery of fresh food and that they were still serving those leftovers months later when we were there! We saw the same slice of cake in the display window every morning. That one lonely slice was not going anywhere until they found someone to eat it. Eat as much as you can at the breakfast buffet and that will keep you going during the day. We supplemented this 'Sandy Beach diet' with a yogurt we'd bring back to the room and a Toblerone chocolate bar every day. (But beware that there is not chocolate in Danang so get it before you go.) We lost a lot of weight while in Danang.

Hotel food at the Horison and the Duxton was pretty good. We didn't eat anything off of the street. There are restaurants that have Western style food. Some of them, such as The Green Tangerine in Hanoi, are probably as good as the fine restaurants you'd find in major cities in the US. Be prepared to pay a lot (relatively) for this kind of food though. It was $55 for both of us to eat there (no alcohol) compared to under $10 for local places. (We thought it was well worth it though.)

I'll post next about packing for the trip and shopping in Vietnam.