Serious beef in my portion of Taiwanese beef noodle soup. The favourite Taiwanese dish of those tourists I surveyed.

The staple in Taiwan is Braised Rice with Pork. Available everywhere at good value prices. Pork chunks, stewed in soy sauce and spices, then served on rice. Chinese pickles often on the side.

Often you can upgrade to Braised Rice with Pork Belly. Do it!

Taichung is the home of Giant Bicycles and is the birthplace of Bubble Tea. The same chewy tapioca balls are in many other sweet treats. Two most popular varieties are pearl black milk tea and pearl green milk tea (“pearl” for the tapioca balls at the bottom).

I got mine at Chun Shui Tang, the original location. Black milk tea alongside beef noodle soup. Though expensive, I’ve had better soup and bubble tea in Taiwan.

Shaved Ice is a big deal in Taiwan. There are MANY varieties. I don’t know what everything is in my portion ➙ BUT the best ingredient for me was those orange bits on the right. Candied sweet potato.

Locals call this small pastry a red bean cake. But there are many different fillings available, including whip cream.

I’d heard good things about Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan.

All tourists stop at the Formosa Boulevard subway station ➙ “Dome of Light“.

The Esports World Championships 2025 were hosted in this city. I happened upon a local Esport competition hosted in the subway station. It attracted the local cosplay community. I quickly donned my AI Nano Banana cosplay samurai costume. 😀

It’s amazing how young humans can dress up to look like their favourite cartoon characters. I’d never really thought much about cosplay before seeing them here.

I took the short ferry ride over to Cijin Island.

Rented an inexpensive bike. 8.5 km long, average width 400m. A series of tourists attractions.

Obviously, fish and seafood are important in Taiwan.

On the way back, I toured the Pier-2 Art Center area. Wild and weird instillations.

Walking around Lotus Pond is a treat. Kids love the Tiger + Dragon pagodas as you can walk through the mouth of both.

Buddhism here reminds me more of Hinduism. In these bright, detailed temples, I understand almost nothing of either.

The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts is impressive. The world’s largest performing art theatre under one roof: Opera House, Concert Hall, Playhouse, and a Recital Hall.

No snow in this city. But one kid was tobogganing down artificial turf on cardboard.

I’m not a foodie — I’m not adventurous — BUT for me the foot I ate in Indonesia was not that spectacular .

As a coffee addict, I was looking forward to the JAVA here. BUT what you get most places in Indonesia is strong, black sludge. They mix finely ground coffee with hot water, allowing the grounds to settle to the bottom. Something like cowboy coffee on the hiking trail.

One time I DID make a special trip to try a special dish was for Gudeg.

It is made from young, unripe jackfruit stewed for several hours with palm sugar and coconut milk.

It is variously spiced with garlic, shallot, candlenut, coriander seed, galangal, bay leaves, and teak leaves, the latter giving the dish a reddish-brown color.

It is sometimes called “green jack fruit sweet stew”.

Served with white steamed rice and various side dishes.

Here’s Gudeg with egg, for example.

Rice dishes, with or without chilli, are available everywhere. 

I prefer Mie goreng (fried noodles) over Nasi goreng (fried rice).

Fish and seafood often available, of course. 

I ate a lot of fruit everyday. More fruit than vegetables.

Coriander, cumin, lemongrass, coconut, soy sauce are all popular ingredients.

Satay meat skewers are perhaps the most popular street food. 

I was surprised at all the grilled corn on the cob venders. 

Chickens, and therefore eggs, are always available.   And both taste better than in Canada as more chickens here are free range.

Tourists love sipping coconut milk.   Not my personal favourite, however.

Overall, I prefer the tourist food available in Vietnam.

I’ve had duck a few times over the years.

Peking Duck in Beijing, for example.

I recall it being oily, lean, and not all that tasty.

BUT I couldn’t resist this duck in Vietnam. In a stir fry.

It was better tasting than I could recall. Not oily. But very lean.

Reason enough to plan your holiday in ‘Nam. 😀

Vietnam is the 2nd largest producer in the world after Brazil. Second only to rice in value of agricultural products exported from Vietnam.

First introduced by the French in 1857, the Vietnamese coffee industry developed through the plantation system, becoming a major economic force in the country.

It’s a boom and bust crop, needless to say. And there are environmental and sociological concerns.

Starbucks opened its first store in Vietnam in 2013. Highlands Coffee is biggest of the chains.

Almost every little street kiosk makes good coffee, however. I’ve not been to Starbucks nor Highlands.

For me, most of the coffee is too strong.

Here my guide is drinking black tar. I’m having the same tar with sweetened condensed milk.

The use of sweetened condensed milk rather than fresh milk was first due to its availability and easier storage in a tropical climate. 

Egg coffee is super popular, as well. Egg yolks with sugar and condensed milk rather than fresh milk.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

There are dozens of other alternatives available, hot or on ice. Coconut and Salted are great.

At the Me Linh Coffee Garden we toured the coffee plantation. AND visited the Asian palm civet enclosure.

Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) investigators call this animal cruelty.

The set-up for the animals at Me Linh Coffee Garden looked very good. BUT that’s what they want to show tourists.

I didn’t drink civet coffee.

In Vietnam they call it weasel coffee.

Here are coffee beans.

We drove away from the highland coffee tourist location via one of the abandoned U.S. airports from the American War.

I was going to skip the beach / tourist city, Nha Trang — but I’m glad I stopped over for 1 night.

It’s very inexpensive. AND tourist friendly.

After visiting the beach for about 20 minutes, I had a DAY.

• Monkey Island
• Mud Bath
• Gourmet Barbecue Buffet

Local cuisine is most famous for fresh seafood and barbecued pork rolled in rice paper.

I tried a buffet which offered a LOT of meat, fish, and seafood at very low price.

I was convinced to sit down by the small grill in every table.

Cook up what you want. Pork bellies were my favourite.

I added much of what I cooked to my personal Pho. Keeping everything hot.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Nha Trang in 2025 is overfull with overweight Russian men with wife / mistress. Many signs include Russian and some businesses provide tourist services mainly for the Russians.

Unwelcome in many nations, in 2025 Russians are vacationing in Turkey, Thailand, China, the UAE, and Vietnam.

This city is very popular with Koreans, as well.

BEST time to walk the beach is early morning or in the evening.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Huế was the capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945. 

UNESCO-designated Complex of Huế Monuments is the main reason tourists visit.

I used the GPSMyCity app to walk the huge site. It didn’t work all that well. I probably should have simply hired their headphones guide.

Happily, I got there in time for the morning changing of the guard.

I took a LOT of photos over a couple of hours. Most tourists don’t leave the main attractions. I walked everywhere. 😀

Pho and Mango Smoothie overlooking the site.

The other thing I enjoyed in Hue was renting a bicycle and cruising the waterways.

A nice tourist stop.

I had another inexpensive private room in a hostel.

I’ve spent quite a few nights in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam over 2 trips, the first in 2014.

If you’ve been, you remember well the entertaining, chaotic traffic. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hanoi has already started implementing a motorbike ban, beginning with petrol-powered motorbikes inside Ring Road 1 on July 1, 2026. These restrictions aim to combat the city’s severe air pollution, progressively phasing out fossil-fuel vehicles

I’ll believe that when I see it. 😀

I did see tourist areas blocked off for the evening in some other cities. Restaurants and bars could spill on to the street as they do in Europe.

There’s much to see and do in Hanoi, however.

I was moved by the Hanoi Hilton (Hỏa Lò Prison) museum. This is where John McCain spent parts of his five and a half years as a POW during the American war.

Both my visits I was very impressed with the Roman Catholic Church of Cửa Bắc.

Of course, tourists love the inexpensive local restaurants.

This time I wasn’t allowed into the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. I had a drone in my backpack which was detected going through the metal detector. Busted.

In fact, taking this photo from quite a distance and outside the fence, armed guards came to chase me away.

No worries. Images of Ho Chi Minh are everywhere.

He was the founder and first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969.

He was worldly having worked on ships from 1911 to 1917. This included stops in the USA.

He lived in France for years. Then moved to Moscow in 1923. And to China in November 1924. In Canton, Hồ organized the Association of Vietnamese Youth.

It wasn’t until 1941 that Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement.

I passed St. Joseph’s Cathedral often, staying in a nearby hostel.

BUT my favourite activity in the old quarter is walking around Hoàn Kiếm Lake. Especially at night.