About 10 minutes into our first sightseeing day in Ho Chi Min City Joanna slipped while running through a park. Laura ran back to the hotel to get a plaster, knee cleaned and plaster applied before continuing on the days sightseeing. It was then that we decided that we needed a survival day bag.

Initially the bag was going to be used to keep our bamboo skewers which we take everywhere and try and do our little bit to reduce the amount of plastic straws used (obviously quite a few juices have been drunk on this trip by MoJo!) This has then evolved into “the pink bag” carrying all sorts of useful bits that we think we might need and coming in very handy various times ever since.

Below is a full list of the items included:

4 bamboo straws and straw cleaning brush

3 wet wipes (often given with meals in China, Korea and Japan)

Paper napkins

No biting nail varnish (to stop Joanna sucking fingers!)

Insect cream (before)

After bite cream (for when we forget to put before insect cream on!)

Sweets (saved from hotel stays)

Travel drops for motion sickness (ginger juice)

Hand sanitiser

Yellow girl (easy chopstick holder)

Empty plastic bag

Plasters (various sizes, mostly “frozen” or “princess” design)

Rehydration salts

Paracetamol

Imodium

Neurofen

Plaster tape

Alcohol swabs

Colouring pencils

Plastic cutlery

Since this photo was taken we have also added chopsticks which after 3 months in Asia we are getting very good at using!

We got very good at packing quickly and hardly leaving anything behind, although as we went we did have an increasing list of items that had been lost along the way – Tom’s hat, Joanna’s neck pillow, always just one flipflop of Molly’s…Laura’s phone into the water was probably the biggest loss, along with the chef knife that had to be given up at a train station in China.

We probably travelled slightly heavier than we needed but wore and used everything we had. We had three check-in bags between us, two of them rucksacks and one a suitcase, a day rucksack and the girls two scooter bags which usually went as hand luggage.

Accommodation wise we had a wonderful variety, and by luck more than good planning the next place we were staying was always what we felt like, be it with friends, in a hotel or a camper van. Tom did a wonderful photo story on Instagram of all the room numbers we stayed. His second a day film was also a fun way of remembering the trip.

Travel wise, we were in the air for 98 hours (not including check in, waiting and boarding!) on 29 flights on 14 different airlines covering 64907km. Other than that we traveled within countries by train, many different sizes of boats, camper vans, cars, a side car, trams, horses and bikes.

Tom and I decided to set ourselves the challenge of running everywhere we slept which we almost did, perhaps not when we were sleeping on a boat. We clocked up around 100 hours of running each.

So finally it is my time to write on the blog and of course that means that this post is about food!

I knew Vietnam was going to be a great foodie experience and I wasn’t let down. Even MoJo loved the variety of dishes, with many of our decisions on where to go for dinner starting with them demanding “we want street food” which I had no problems with!

Street food is massive in Vietnam with nearly every corner or spare bit of pavement – that doesn’t have a scooter parked on or being driven on it – set up with small plastic chairs, a table of you are lucky and some sort of make shift kitchen usually consisting of a bucket charcoal fire.

While the hygiene and uncertainties of where from and how long the food being used has been there, it is probably some of the tastiest food I have had. Memories of a street food dinner in Bangkok years ago came back – which I still remember as being in my top 10 dining experiences of all time.

It was great to discover and explore the regional dishes from the various cities and areas we went to during our 3 weeks there. It usually started with Laura reading up on what food was gluten free and fortunately, with Vietnam being the 2nd biggest exporter in rice, rice was the main staple rather than wheat-based dishes which suited us well.

Rice paper

Rice paper is used a lot in Vietnamese cooking and you can find it in various forms on nearly every menu. During our cooking lesson in Hoi An we had a chance to make rice paper from scratch grinding the rice, making the rice batter and then steaming it over a fine muslin cloth before leaving it to dry. To be honest, we didn’t wait for it to dry and opted to use the ready-made ones. Rice paper is very versatile being used for spring rolls (fresh and fried) to (Vietnamese pizza) base and will be something I will definitely be using in the future a lot more.

Beef Phở

Phở (pronounced phu) is found all over Vietnam. This broth (usually beef based) soup is accompanied by rice noodles and then a separate plate of mixed lettuce, Thai and lemon basil and mint. This was our first meal when landing in Ho Chi Min City and was a dish we had on many occasions for breakfast, lunch or dinner over the 3 weeks we spent there. The best example was at Phở 10 in Hanoi with the beef flank and brisket being used.

Bun cha

We had briefly read up on bun cha but when we sat down in the tiny street side area (I’m not sure you could call it a restaurant!) at 22 Phu Doan street near to our hotel we were not quite sure what we were going to eat. We were greeted by Huong, the owner/ manager/ head cook and maitre d’, who assured us that we would like what she was about to serve up to us. Like many places in Vietnam, eateries tend to only make a few dishes rather than offer a big assortment. I like this attitude of perfecting a dish or 2 and sticking with it, building up your name for what you do well. First came a bowl of cold rice noodles and the standard lettuce/ mint / basil plate. Then came the hot, sweet and slightly tangy pork broth with flattened minced pork patties and thick strips of sweet sticky streaky bacon with the skin. I’m not usually a fan of sweet savoury dishes but this worked so well and is a dish that I really wanted to learn more about. I asked Huong if I could come and find out more about the dish. Unfortunately she said it would take a week to learn and also cost more than our weekly budget for the tutition fees. I’ve promised myself I will be back at some point to master this great dish.

Noodles

People that know me, will know of my huge love of noodles of all kinds! Vietnam is basically noodle heaven with noodles on nearly every menu you look at. The cau lau noodles in Hoi An were a regional speciality and can only be made in Hoi An due to soaking of the rice in the lye water that comes from the central well in the town. This gives them a particular taste and colour and are well worth seeking out.

Snake

This was an experience to remember, not necessarily for the gourmet food that was eaten but more for the whole dining experience! We were greated by “Dragon” who is the owner and very proud of the best snake restaurant in town! The menu is limited to 3 types of snake with an option of bamboo, mountain or cobra snake and the only option is the full tasting menu! Of course a visit to the kitchen was needed to see the preparation of our chosen mountain snake. The meal started with the still beating heart in rice wine and 10 year old snake wine (snake infused rice wine). It took a bit of time to psych myself up but managed to send it down with a Saigon beer chaser! The rest of the meal consisted of 11 different dishes using the entire snake including saddle of snake (Mollys favourite), crispy snake skin (Joanna’s favourite) and liver and stomach which turned out to be my favourite. I’m not sure Laura had a favourite at all!

Price

Food, like most things in Vietnam is fairly cheap and as expected, the street food was the cheapest and best value for money. For under 1 USD you can get a fairly decent sized snack and 2 or 3 of those will easily fill you up for dinner. I had read that the tradition of street food is slowly dying out due to the next generation of street food families not wanting to take on the trade as it is now seen as a low class position and there is not much profit in it now. Let’s see what happens in the future but I for one love this style of cooking/ eating and think we need more of it around the world.

From the street food to the restaurants that we dined in there where lots of ideas for future meals for the kids, dinner parties on our return to the UK and even future business ventures. Vietnam has not let us down and is up there with some of the most interesting places in the world to experience some truly delicious food.