Salt, Coffee and Green Mango Juice

1. I have seen salt flats in the Ba Ria, Long Hai and Vung Tau area. Salt gets spread out on the side of the road to dry the same way rice does. It also gets piled up in small triangular mountains in the flats when it is harvested. The nannies taught me to eat watermelon and papaya with salt. I would have never bought salt in Vietnam, but Nathan and Merel did, and left their bag with me when they went home. 

The salt in Vietnam is very good! It has flavor, minerally sharp flavor. It makes food taste way better. I brought Nathan and Merel's bag home with me.

2. The coffee in Vietnam is soooooo good! It's the best coffee I have ever tasted. The Vietnamese like their coffee strong and sweet, just like I do. It's rich and chocolatey. Even coffee in a can tastes good there! The very first morning Susan and I were there, I went down for breakfast to the open air restaurant beside the pool at the Somerset, and ordered coffee. I expected a traditional Vietnamse iced coffee, but I got something like an americano. I took a sip, and was in heaven! It was sooooo good! You just can't go wrong. In Ba Ria, there was a coffee shop across the street from the orphange. They made great coffee, and sometimes they delivered.

I brought many pounds of coffee home with me.

3. I love mango juice. I kept saying that when I went to Vietnam I was going to drink gallons of mango juice. So, in the first week, I went to a restaurant for lunch and ordered mango juice but I got green mango juice instead. Tart, sweet, very refreshing! Ah, then I couldn't get enough. In Vung Tau, there is a cafe a block away from my hotel that served it. I took Molly out for a walk in the stroller in the evenings and we would stop for a mango juice. She ate the ice cubes, and I drank the juice. It's good.

I couldn't bring green mango juice home in my suitcase. :(

These are 3 things I'm going to miss from Vietnam.