What I learned about Bamboo from a trip to South Asia

I spent most of November 2022 in a whirlwind trip to Vietnam and Thailand. Fresh off the plane (and with the jetlag struggle feeling very real), I’m here to fill you in on the trip and what I learned about Bamboo in South Asia.

Vietnam

19 hours of travel time and we made it to Ho Chi Minh City (the city previously known as Saigon) in South Vietnam.

First of all, the food in Vietnam is phenomenal. And yes, you can find many dishes that feature bamboo shoots. If you didn’t know, bamboo shoots contain vitamins such as vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin B6. Plus, minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium iron, and magnesium.

I tried a Stewed Pork with Bamboo Shoot, Carrot and Mushroom that was mind blowing.

Nearly everyone drives a motorized scooter in Vietnam, and nearly everyone is out and about on their way to eat. Fun fact – 10% of Vietnam’s people work in the food industry, and food is rarely eaten at home. Thus, the streets are literally packed with scooters. Here is a photo of a sea of scooters near the Zoo in Saigon:

Another thing I noticed about South Vietnam is that the people are very eco-friendly. Drinks are served with either bamboo or paper straws. They also have stores dedicated to bamboo products! Here is a bamboo purse from one of the stores we visited. A great option if you’re tired of purse crumbs!

After Ho Chi Minh City, we flew up to Hanoi for another ½ week. The North isn’t a whole lot different than the South, but a little cooler weather-wise.

I didn’t know this, but the Buddha Belly Bamboo is the National tree of Vietnam! Here is a patch south of the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum:

Two sides of the north and the south of the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum are bamboo ranges, the symbolic tree for Vietnam. I got up nice and close, not realizing that you’re not supposed to do that - a guard whistled at me most strenuously. He wasn’t very happy.

Side note - one thing I didn’t know is that the Pho in Hanoi is different than Saigon. The Pho we had in Saigon was the best I’d ever had. When we arrived in Hanoi, we were starving and immediately went looking for the best pho in town. We ended up at the renowned Pho-10 restaurant. It was good, but not as good as the pho in Saigon in my opinion. The noodles are flat in the North like fettuccine, and they don’t serve it with a side of vegetables or hoisin sauce like I’m used to. Coincidentally, Pho in the United States is mostly served Saigon-style. So maybe that has something to do with it. We spoke with the staff at a roof-top bar in Hanoi about this discrepancy and they vehemently made it clear that North style pho is much better than South style pho. However, when asked if they’d ever tried South style pho, none of them had…

If you plan on visiting Vietnam, my advice would be to avoid the overpriced hotel breakfast and go for local breakfast. These meals were some of the best that I’d ever had in my life. Whether it be Eggs benedict, English breakfast, or Vietnamese breakfast – totally worth it. The locally made coffee in Vietnam makes Starbucks look like pond water. And don’t get me started on the cold-pressed juices.

Lastly, we did 2 tours in Vietnam. The first was the XO foodie tour in Ho Chi Minh City. A group of about 10 rode on the back of scooters, which were driven by women to various local food hot spots in various districts across the city. This was a ton of fun and we got to try cuisine that we probably wouldn’t try otherwise, such as duck fetus. Highly recommend. The other tour that we did was a day trip to Ha Long Bay near Hanoi. It was also a must see and quite beautiful.

Thailand

After a little over a week in Vietnam, we flew over to Phuket, Thailand. I enjoyed our stay in Phuket, yet it had the feel of a spring break crowd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Very touristy. We decided to make our way to the South to try and avoid the crowds and found this hidden gym of a resort. This place was amazing and half the price of most the hotels that we stayed at: The “Metadee concept resort hotel” in Kata. The sliding glass door in the hotel revealed this amazing pool shrouded in beautiful bamboo:

Next up we made our way to a ferry over to Koh Phi Phi. This is the island where the “The Beach” was filmed. Beautiful, yet very touristy as well. We had a lot of fun snorkeling around the islands and enjoying the Thai food and beer. Speaking of the Thai food – it was very hit or miss. You really have to search for the local restaurants that aren’t geared towards tourists if you want good Thai food.

The hotel we stayed at in the South of Koh Phi Phi had this stunning walkway with a bamboo canopy:

After 4 amazing days in Koh Phi Phi, we hopped on another ferry to Koh Lanta. It’d been nearly two weeks in South Asia at this point, and I was proud to say that I had zero stomach issues (Delhi Belly, Montezuma’s revenge, whatever you want to call it). That was all about to change.

I started feeling a little woozy on the ferry ride there, which is unlike me. You see, I have a stomach that is practically lined with a mixture of Kevlar and Titanium. Nothing phases it. I still can’t pinpoint exactly what the culprit was, but I started getting crazy indigestion, followed by unstoppable hiccups. From there, let’s just say we lost a few days to me laying in bed (or in the bathroom). The worst of it was over in 24 hours, but I was a bit out of it for the next 24 hours after that as well.

One thing that I was pleasantly surprised with was the availability of healthcare. It seemed like every other building was a pharmacy. We stopped at them pretty much every day. I had about a million mosquito bites which became infected, and I was able to procure creams that were better than hydrocortisone and would have required a prescription in other countries. Also, they sell antibiotics over the counter! If you end up getting sick in Thailand or Vietnam, I highly recommend visiting the pharmacies to pick up some of the hydration replacing drinks that they offer. The pharmacists were very helpful - it was just like seeing a doctor.

Anyway, Koh Lanta turned out to be our favorite part of the trip. The island vibes were strong, and the tourists were minimal. We rented scooters and drove around the island like crazy checking out all of the beaches and restaurants. One of my favorite restaurants was in South Koh Lanta, called the Drunken Sailor. This place was surrounded by bamboo and had some of the best Thai made IPA that we were able to find on the island. The food was great as well. My only regret is that we couldn’t stay longer!

From there, we made our way up to Bangkok. Not much to report there from a bamboo perspective. The waitress at a craft beer bar that we visited recommended that we check out the “Jodd Fairs Pha Ram 9” night market which turned out to be the best night market that we visited on the trip! Very clean with lots of stalls and a huge variety of food. We ended up trying out the pork bone soup made by Leng Zaab and it was 100 percent worth it (although somewhat spicy).

And there you have it! If you’re thinking about visiting, just do it! So worth it.