This challenge encourages you to start a journey along Vietnam’s coast, where emerald waters meet golden sands. Wander through quaint fishing villages, and ancient temples, as you marvel at the limestone cliffs. I’m doing the shorter version of this challenge at 161 km (100 miles). There’s 2052 km version suitable for cycling, but it’s just me on my feet for now.
I went to Vietnam for the first time in 2006. I say that because I still very much want to go back. Michael and I spent a month in Vietnam and Cambodia, and it was very much my gateway to being determined to explore the world. I found that norther Vietnam resonated strongly with me. From the very first morning in Hanoi, walking the streets in the early morning and watching the street vendors getting set up for the day while elders exercised in the park, I knew that there was something there for me.
For a long time, I was lucky enough to have a great Vietnamese restaurant next to my work at Wells Fargo in Mississauga. The food was excellent, but more than half of the appeal for me was that there were almost always the owner’s small children or parents playing/working/reading in the last two tables by the kitchen, which felt a lot like what I remembered from our trip to Vietnam. The boundaries between work and home blurred. Since that restaurant closed, I’ve been looking for a new favourite. Every place I try gets the same first order: a bowl of their house phở and chả giò (fried spring rolls). If the broth is good enough, I’ll come back and try a vermicelli dish. So far, I haven’t found one that did those well and also had a bánh mì I enjoyed. If I can complete that set, I will probably be a customer for life. Special mention goes out to the vegan phở at Dai Bi Chay in Mississauga, which was an unexpected revelation.
2006 was also my introduction to trying some travel photography with a DSLR camera. It was a Canon Rebel XT DSLR back then, with a battery grip that was the absolute coolest and most useful thing ever, and just this year I moved to my first mirrorless R7, which I am still trying to to figure out. If you’d like to see the old pictures, the album is still online.
This post wandered around some, and has no clear ending. Huh. Better luck next time.
