After a long month on oncology and being away from Melody, I was glad to see her again when I landed in Ho Chi Minh City to kick off our spring vacation. Since she had already been working there for a month, we spent the evening re-organizing our luggage before our flight to Siem Reap next morning. Our first impression of Cambodia was that it was dirt poor, with the emphasis on “dirt.” After dousing ourselves with sunscreen and mosquito repellant (welcome to malaria country!), we set out on our tuk tuk to explore Angkor Wat. The ancient wonder was incredible, but the humid heat left us exhausted. So we had to enlist the help of a friendly neighborhood elephant to climb Bakheng Hill to view the cloudy sunset. We awoke next morning to watch the cloudy sunrise at Angkor Wat with our private guide before exploring the rest of the area, from the gargantuan stone heads of Bayon to the writhing tree roots that devoured Ta Prohm. By lunchtime, the temples were blending together and we had our fill of amok curry and hu tieu noodles, so we decided to leave for Vietnam a day early. Our first encounter in Hanoi left us miffed, however, when our cabbie’s scammer friend tried to convince us that our hotel was fully booked, and diverted our cab halfway across town to his own hotel before we broke his cover. The next day was spent touring the Old Quarter, where the real highlights were street foods like bun cha, bun bo, and oh-so-delicious banh cuon nong. We ended the evening with an extravagant dinner buffet followed by a fun water puppet show, but not before getting scammed again by another cab driver who took the long route to the show. Seeing that we get what we pay for, we splurged on a 2-day cruise of Halong Bay aboard the classy Emeraude. Our trip included a tour of Surprise Cave, kayaking around the rock formations, and even a free upgrade to the luxury suite. Back in Hanoi, we checked out some more sights like the Hanoi “Hilton” and the Temple of Literature before saying goodbye to Scam-town. Our next stop was my parents’ hometown of Nha Trang, a fishing village now turned into a resort town. Through my uncle’s connection, we got a discount stay at VinPearl, a private island resort, accessible only by cable car or speedboat, that encompasses a theme park, water park, aquarium, private beach, and even its own Buddhist temple. The place was eerily quiet, however, with seemingly more employees than actual customers. We also booked a private boat to Mun Island for some snorkeling action (or in Melody’s case, near-drowning action), and to Tri Nguyen Aquarium for a safer alternative to observe ocean wildlife. When we flew back to Saigon, we decided to take things more slowly. Aside from seeing the gritty exhibits at the War Remnants Museum, we also joined a half-day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, where we crawled through parts of the tunnel network, examined booby traps and bomb craters that dot the site, and fired an AK-47 for a dollar a bullet. The rest of the time was spent on gastronomic adventures, including Pho 2000, where Bill Clinton enjoyed a bowl in 2000, and foodie favorite Quan An Ngon, where we munched on banh xeo, banh cuon, banh beo, and steaming bowls of bun rieu and bun bo hue. On our last day, we bought a cornucopia of local fruits like jackfruit, vu sua, rambutan, custard apple, and mangosteens from Ben Thanh Market, and learned how to make a sublime bowl of pho from my mom’s childhood friend. In the end, even Melody’s iron stomach could not withstand the microcosm of Vietnam’s street grubs, necessitating a course of Cipro. Nonetheless, we were still sad when we got back to Boston, knowing we would have to pay more than a dollar for our meals again. Check out our other photos!