They say the third time is a charm.  Well, this is my third visit (and perhaps last visit) to the famous French colonial city in the north of Vietnam, Hanoi.  What is it about Hanoi?  Food, buzzing night life, silk, friendly young people, crazy traffic, exquisite handicrafts, it all adds up to a few days on interesting meals and adventures.

I have a feeling we will be concentrating on the food.  But the beer and coffee are also quite good here.  But the food, yes, the influence of the French, the culturally bound food and traditions, the newer cuisine.  It adds up to lots of eating and drinking.

We have already tried some of the better places in the city.   It is time to check out the lesser known, and perhaps more innovative cuisine of this city.

Here is one of particular interest to me:  KOTO, which stands for ‘Know One, Teach One’ is a cafe and all day dining restaurant that serves agreeable Vietnamese dishes and powerful Vietnamese coffee. Overlooking the Temple of Literature in the Ba Dinh area of Hanoi, the atmosphere is pleasant but the real reason this restaurant stands out is that it is part of a charitable endeavor offering street children the chance to learn a trade and earn a living by working in the restaurant. The serving staff really make KOTO the place it is, with genuine smiles and a willingness to provide the best possible experience. Try a Vietnamese Ice Coffee here and you’ll have renewed energy all day!

And of course, my weakness for good French food:  Green Tangerine is a small but beautiful restaurant that serves some of the most creative cuisine in Hanoi. Definitely one for the gastronomists, the chef uses French cooking techniques and adds signature touches best seen in dishes such as king prawns cooked with mango and rum liquor served with carrot cake or marinated pigeon with coffee and cocoa served with beetroot, strawberries and mashed eggplant. The set lunch deal is amazingly good value and highly recommended for any budget!

Standout dishes include the duck terrine and rillettes with Hanoi 5 spices, ratatouille, Dalat artichoke leaves served with clams, Ha Long curry sauce, veal in tamarind, and Mekong fruits sorbet. Diners can also opt for the lunch or dinner set menus (with desserts and optional wine pairing), which are priced between VND 218,000 and VND 1,115 000. For drinks, La Verticale Hanoi’s extensive wine list features imported brands such as Figaro, Moulin de Gassac, and South West of France, which are priced at VND 74,000 by glass.

But like many large cities in SE Asia, the street food, and the little shops in alleys and back streets provide the real experience.  They (local experts) try to steer us clear of the local places, and try to “influence” us to the fancy places.  Not I.  We shall go where we want, when we want.  I have already charted a course!

So, in honor of the above info, we are headed out on a FIVE hour moto guided food tour this evening. Motos, and food, a great combination.  I think the helmet will mess up what little hair I have left.  More on that I the next tome.

When I first listened or watched to the news and heard Cambodia, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and genocide, it made me sick.  They ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, and were autocratic, xenophobic, paranoid, and repressive.  The genocide was part of their social engineering.  The resulting deaths from diseases like malaria, and the Khmer Rouge’s ethnic cleansing, for lack of a better word, took its toll on minorities and the less fortunate.

Fast forward to about 2004, on our first trip to SE Asia, specifically in Bangkok.  We were eating at a little noddle stand in a small grocery store in Bangkok when we struck up a conversation with another American.  He stated, matter of factly, that Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia was the greatest, most interesting place he had ever experienced.  While we had a set itinerary on that first trip, we kept this thought foremost in our minds on our second trip to SE Asia, in 2006.

Needless to say, the man we met in the noddle shop was right.  Most of you know I hold Angkor Wat and the entire Angkor complex as the best place I have ever visited, along with the Amazon rainforest.

But what about Siem Reap, and Cambodia in general, make it so special.  As always, it is the people.  Our first guide, Roath was the perfect guide, taking us through the most famous sights, leading us to great places to eat, and shop.  We remained email friends, and upon our next visit, we had dinner together.

It turned out to be an unexpected experience for all of us, me, Sheri, and Roath.  We invited her to have dinner with us at our Sofitel Hotel’s French restaurant, Mahout’s Dream.  The photo above was taken at this very dinner!  Little did we know what was going to happen.  They obviously did not enjoy the fact that one of their own was able to dine in a restaurant that locals cannot afford.

As we proceeded with dinner, we invited her to enjoy anything on the menu.  She mentioned she had never had rack of lamb.  So, we ordered it for her.  She mentioned she had never tasted champagne!  So, naturally, I ordered a bottle for us. She giggled at the way the bubbles tickled her nose.

Somewhere during our dinner, she mentioned the reason why the staff was not very nice (though not rude) to her.  While very upsetting at first, I tried to understand why she was treated so poorly.  She mentioned they thought she did not belong there.  She learned English to make herself a better living, as a tour guide, and they were stuck working lowly jobs in a big hotel.

Moving on to the rest of our trip, I tried to keep this little dinner experience in mind.  When I made friends with a young man in the hotel’s dining room, he explained some of the problem.  The Khmer rouge tried to eliminate much of the middle class.  And only recently, was the country able to rebuild the middle class, through education, better jobs, and rebuilt infrastructure for tourism.  He said learning English was they key to his ability to get a job at the hotel.  And that the country is trying to rebuild the middle class, vital to their future stability and growth.

Yet, when we made our way to the downtown area, we saw and experienced many disheartening events.  Our guide told us of young girls who sell their babies for as little as $50 USD.  We saw hundreds of school age children begging on the streets, instead of attending school.  We saw street vendors forced to place their wares on the dusty soil of the downtown streets.  We saw open sewers running along the unpaved streets, and beggars and street musicians who lost limbs due to land mines.

Through it all though, we saw hope.  These people were not about to let their circumstance in life get them down.  They were doing whatever it takes to exist, to support their families, to make a new life for themselves.  It sounds like a cliche’, but this was the reality in Cambodia almost two decades ago.  It will be interesting to see it now.

Based on what I see, read, and observe, Siem Reap has turned into a real touristy town, with a street now called “Pub Street” in the downtown core area.  I see this as both good and bad.  Yes, they have come a long way from the repressive Red regime.  But do they really want to have a reputation for rowdy, all night bars and clubs that attract the “wrong” kind of tourists?

As far as the little “ma and pa” souvenir and craft shops?  My guess is that the newer mega stores are all Chinese owned and supplied.  Some of the employees might be locals.  We always tried to patronize the locals on past visits.  Hopefully, my friends here can shed more insight into the recent incursions.

But I digress, as often I do when thinking about the wonderful people in Cambodia.  On this trip, we will get to not only renew our friendship with Roath, but also meet her new husband, and two children.  I have a feeling I will not have much time to drink cheap, cold beer down on Pub Street in the downtown area.  Yes, we will visit Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Bagan, my three favorite temples in the Angkor complex.  But I am sure we will find plenty of time to just talk, hang out, show them a few photos of Sheri and Lexi, and learn more about their lives in Siem Reap.

BTW, Siem is now over one million people, the roads are now paved, and they have three night markets.