KennethT

Arrrggghhhhh. It is taking forever to clone my old hard drive over to my new hard drive... which I need to do before I can copy/collate all the photos from 3 sources (my main camera I use for sightseeing, my cell and my wife's cell). It has been going all day, and will probably be going on by the time I go to bed tonight, so unfortunately, I don't see any way I'll be able to put anything up tonight... fingers crossed for tomorrow! Sorry folks!

So, we're home and have slept a full night's sleep, but I feel like I am in that inbetween sleep and awake state. I barely slept on the flights coming here, so by the time we landed in NY, around 10PM NY time, we had been up for a really long time (about 30+ hours). What with our extremely efficient JFK airport, ahem, we got home around 12:15AM, even with Global Entry, which greatly reduced our time going through immigration and customs. Unfortunately, I won't be able to start posting until this afternoon at the latest, since the hard drive on my computer crashed just before we left, so I have to spend a few hours today installing its replacement, then loading all the photos and collating them.

Our home for the next 15 hours or so... The next time I write will be on Sunday at the earliest!

Now in the Taiwan airport, but not that hungry since I have now eaten 3 times today already, and will be fed on the next plane soon... But I had to get a snack...

Now in the Saigon airport waiting for our flight to Taiwan. And, since we haven't eaten in about 2 hours... When in Saigon, it's time for Pho! Interestingly, the prices were about double here compared to the airport in Hue. Pho was $5!

Waiting for the plane to load luggage... Airport bun bo hue - cost for 2 plus 2 bottles water, about $6 which is roughly double the street price.

I had always heard that to make gribenes, one fried chicken skin with onions in schmaltz. Without the onions, it's just chicken skin.

So this will probably be the last teaser before the real show starts on Sunday or Monday, jetlag dependent, as we leave for home early tomorrow morning. Dong Ba market - sorry for the exposure issues- I think my wife got better shots I'll be able to add later... Banh bot loc - a whole shrimp (head and shell included) and some pork encased in tapioca starch, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. I'll be back as soon as I can!

The clouds parted, and the heavens shone down on: Banh Khoai!!!!!! I wish you could taste how crunchy and crispy it was...

Breakfast this morning came with a view...

I couldn't get a good photo, but soon after I took that last photo, it started POURING with tons of lightning. It was quite a spectacle, especially being able to observe it from the comfort and safety of our hotel room, enjoying another awesome mango and some tea with our tea set. The rain stopped just before we went out for dinner... This rainbow didn't lead to a pot of gold, but something even better.... this dish of mam tom chua! This is a great story, but definitely too long to struggle with this pima cell phone..

A storm is coming!

YES!!!! So glad to see you are going home, most importantly because you are healthy enough to do so, but also so you can finally get something decent to eat...

Enjoying a mid-morning snack at the hotel: lime juice and summer rolls with shrimp and pork

I gave my fruit plate an upgrade, then ate most of them!

If anyone wants to see some other photos of ours, my wife has been posting a bunch on facebook, some using the hashtag #sweatcontest2017

Yep! Not really impressive skills needed with these ridiculously tender, sweet and juicy mangoes... You don't even have to chew!

Taking some time to relax in the room with some A/C to get out of the heat (it's been 95 to 100F and a heat index of about 120F the whole time we've been here)... Going to enjoy this nice tea set and some fruit in our room... Ridiculously good mango.

Tftc, I hope so! I cut down the basil tree because it drinks just way too much, so the remaining pkants should be fine unless I have a pump failure or something, which isn't likely. While I'm here I'm kerping an ete out fir any potential new roomates...

@Shelby I was wondering why I didn't see you here... If I hadn't seen you post in other topics, I would have gotten worried about you! I'll definitely talk more in detail about the pork toast, everything else, and more but I'm waiting to get home so I can stop typing on this annoying cell phone and I can get all the photos together from 3 different sources... This part us just the teaser... Stay tuned!

I don't think I've ever seen a "salad" in Vietnam. Usually herbs and greens are accompaniments to a certain dish. I've definitely run into the fish mint (diep ca in Vietnamese) several times - but it's always buried among a variety of herbs and greens that accompany something. But my experience is certainly limited compared to a local's, so maybe I've just never seen it?

Bun mam nem!!!!! I can't wait until I get home to a proper computer (actually I don't want to go home but for the purpose of this post uitt made my point better) to write about this stuff!

One might think that this is a boring looking plate of fried noodles with beef, and it was, but who cares when it came with this view!

In someone's back yard area, I thought I saw more dew moistened rice papers (see Saigon blog for more info) but I think they're sweet potato crackers drying in the sun. They're very popular here as you see tons of vendors on the street grilling them over charcoal.

Banh Xeo, Hoi An style!