Travelers who’ve downed a cup of joe in Southeast Asia know that the stuff’s good — really good — but not like what you’re used to at home. Given the coffee’s brewed from extra-bold beans and served in a climate where the last thing you crave while you’re sweating through [...]

We would like to thank each and every one of our The Expeditioner readers for yet another great year in the world of travel! It’s always a great time to reflect on it all. Let’s see . . .  Luke fell in love, Jon married his love, Brit returned home, [...]

On June 11, 1963, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire to protest the treatment of monks by American-backed President Ngo Dinh Diem. This act led to the steep decline of the support of the President, and is widely believed to be the end of his reign, culminating [...]

Jet lag does some strange things to the mind on the road. Waking up, sweating in the middle of the night, with no chance of falling back asleep, it sends your mind into some dark corners of the world, switching off all pleasure receptors and robbing you of all that [...]

There are a couple of things you should keep in mind when planning to include a massive layover during your trip. One: despite its reputation, layovers are good. Especially when they’re in a city you’ve never been to before. Especially when it’s Saturday night. And especially when you have two [...]

As synonymous with Vietnamese food as the country’s signature dish, pho, it turns out banh mi is actually quite a new invention for this very old culture. What, did you think the rice farmers along the Mekong Delta were munching on French baguettes back before the 19th century? As the [...]

Meet Nguyen Thi Thanh, or better known in these parts as the “lunch lady.” Due to the relentless coverage of television (Bourdain visited her last year on No Reservations) and the blogosphere, Saigon’s own Nguyen Thi Thanh has become the David Chang of Ho Chi Minh, creating legions of foodie [...]

A tour of Saigon from the backseat of a motorcycle. By Justin Calderon It’s dusk in Ho Chi Minh City — or Saigon as it is still called here — and the haze of the last ounce of light from the crimson setting sun is smothered in smog as I [...]

Bánh xèo means either “sizzling cake” or “sound crepe,” depending on what your Google search turns up, but either way, the name refers to this southern Vietnamese crepe made of rice flour, water, coconut milk, pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts that’s pan fried, then “rolled up in a leaf of [...]

Travel to Vietnam has been exploding during the last few years, with over 4,000,000 international travelers in 2007 alone (a 268% increase from 1998), and it’s probably fair to say that the Vietnam’s well-deserved reputation for food has helped drive this surge. Far more the pho, Vietnam’s busting at the [...]