The Adventure Continues...

Itchy Feet YouTube Channel

New Videos on Fridays 7PM EST

vietnamese food

Do-it-yourself Eating and Walking Tour – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Tourist Day in Saigon

Saigon Market Banana Lady
A mobile banana vendor on the streets of Saigon.

This self-guided walking tour covers the main tourist attractions in Saigon. The actual walking time is only about 90 minutes, but it should take you the better part of a day with the all the stops. There are 4 meals on the tour, as well as plenty of opportunities for coffee breaks.

Saigon is hot and the sidewalks are broken, cluttered, or non-existent. Be careful and take breaks regularly, especially if you are doing this in the hotter times of the year (March-June).
More

Vietnam Road Trip Part 3: Dalat to Saigon via the Coast

Road Trip Vietnam: Chaos & Calmness

For our last trip in Vietnam, we decided to do a road trip up into the highlands to Dalat. Getting to Dalat, we took the QL20. You can see that route – and get all the information about where we stopped, what we saw, tips on driving, and more – by going to this link: Vietnam Road Trip Part 1: Driving to Dalat. If you’re looking for part 2 of the video, you can find it here: Dalat, Vietnam.

In this post, I am going to outline the route we took back to Saigon.
More

10 Delicious Soups in Vietnam that aren’t Pho

10 Delicious soups in Vietnam that aren't pho

Pho-get About It

Everyone knows about the Vietnamese beef noodle soup phở. Vietnamese restaurants around the world have it on their menu. Pho is good. Sometimes it’s great. But there are plenty of other delicious bowls of broth in Vietnam. A lot of them won’t show up on a Vietnamese menu overseas. I suspect some may not even be considered edible to someone that hasn’t grown up with the particular flavors, and isn’t open-minded enough to really give it a chance, but I insist you try these if you get the opportunity. You might find a new favorite Vietnamese soup. I know I have.
More

Bookmark These 20 Websites for Traveling Vietnam

Moto-taxi driver in Vietnam
A xe om driver in outside of Ben Thanh Market in Saigon, Vietnam
If you fancy yourself an independent traveler – one that doesn’t like tours and doesn’t rely heavily on guidebooks – you probably like to do your own research, finding tips about off-the-beaten-path places or local hangouts that the tourists don’t know about. With smartphones and tablets, it’s easy to arm yourself with websites for traveling Vietnam, but the hardest part is finding the sites. If you like off-the-beaten-path travel, you have to dig deeper to get that hardly seen information. Much like how I prefer eating at a restaurant that doesn’t have an English menu, I enjoy getting my information from Vietnamese sites.
More

VIDEO: The Mekong Delta is Life

The Mekong Delta is Life - Can Tho, Vietnam

In this episode of Exploring Vietnam, I investigate the Mekong Delta and its oh-so-fertile lands. The Delta is responsible for 40% of Vietnam’s food. It’s a very important place that is often over-looked by tourists. From Can Tho, I visit the local market, take a bicycle ride around farm land, and tour the floating market of Cai Rang. Learn about the popular fish of the area, see the area’s fruit growing in orchards, rice paddy fields, and of course the craziness of the floating market. The Mekong Delta is my favorite place in Vietnam. If you make it to the country, don’t skip this miraculous area.
More

Hoi An, Vietnam: Tourism & Shopping, but also stuff that doesn’t suck.

japanese bridge hoi an vietnam
The Japanese Bridge in the ancient town of Hoi An, Vietnam

The Story – Hoi An, Vietnam

I have to admit, the first time I was in Hoi An I didn’t like it. The main reason: The tourists. I didn’t come to Vietnam to see westerners. The whole town is centered around tourism. Locals are aggressive when it comes to getting your business. The beautiful buildings are all shops selling — well, it doesn’t matter what they’re selling — I’m not here to shop. Truth be told, Sara and I were in and out of Hoi An in only a few hours. The heat and the harassing was just too much for your favourite budget travel couple. This time around though, I would be stationed in the city for 3 days. I’d have to do things differently if I wanted to keep my cool, so I brought my mom… She thinks I’m cool.
More

The Vietnamese Have Been Eating Hipster Since Before Hipster was Hip

Southeast Asian hipster
Southeast Asian Hipster
I’m not a hipsterologist or anything — in fact, I once thought being hipster, scenester, and emo were all the same thing (an hour long rant set me straight). However, I did live in Toronto, Canada for about 8 years, and… Well, if you live at the zoo, you’re going to learn about animal behavior. Most of my hipster behavioral studies courses have taken place at cafes or restaurants, so I think I’ve got a pretty good sense of their eating habits. Since moving to Vietnam and having the chance to study an entirely new race of people, I have found some interesting similarities to the hipster race. I’ve decided to break it all down and see who eats more hipster – the Vietnamese or the hipsters. Lace up your Cons, this shit’s on.
More

Mui Ne, Vietnam: Resort to it.

Fishermen in coracles in the South China Sea, Vietnam
A row of traditional Vietnamese fishing coracles.

The Story – Mui Ne, Vietnam

We left for Mui Ne from Nha Trang, taking a bus that we booked through our hotel. We usually book buses directly with the company to avoid the commission fee that hotels and travel agents charge, but we were having a hard time finding a bus ticket office. The only ones that we could find were sleeper buses (Sara’s worst enemy). The hotel hooked us up with Tan Hanh Travel (126,000d/$6). We found out that the bus’ ticket office is at 14A Tran Hung Dao and if we had booked directly through them, we would have only paid $5 for the ride (that’s a savings of 2 beers!).
More