We made it to Saigon! WIN WIN WIN! I’m clearly excited to both have my life and motorbike intact. Surprisingly, the drive into the big city wasn’t that difficult! We drove for about an hour on a large highway with lots of big trucks, but that’s not really the hard part: it’s just loud and dusty and semi-scary. The hard part is actually IN the city, where there are ten million {actually, that might be an underestimate} motorbikes zooming around at any one given moment. I picked our hotel based 100% on location. Not location to attractions or food or whatever — location that requires minimal turning in the city. More specifically, minimal left-turns in the city. So, after taking the ferry across the river, we drove about 10km then under the river {in a tunnel that reminded me of Chicago O’hare!}, took two right hand turns and arrived at our hotel {on the right side of the street!}. Yes, I am that person.
Little did I know we wouldn’t actually be that intimidated by Saigon traffic, as we spent yesterday exploring more of the city on motorbike, taking various LEFT turns and still arriving in one piece. Success! It’s really not that bad and, unlike in Hanoi where streetlights seem to mean absolutely nothing, 95% of people obey the stoplights here! It’s totally manageable. I’m still so nervous for returning to the US and driving… It’s going to be a major culture shock in reverse!
Now we’re taking care of business in the big city — going to the consulate to take care of legal business at home, shopping for new running shoes that aren’t size 6, getting work done, selling our motorbikes, and making plans to get over to Cambodia. We think we’ll take a boat up the Mekong to Phnom Penh, but for all we know we’ll fly up to Laos instead! TBD. I’ll keep you informed! For now, we’re enjoying Saigon civilization and living it up! This city is really, really hip. Did I just say hip? I did. Bringin’ it back! People are stylish, there are fun cafes everywhere, great food, awesome views, and a really energetic city. We were expecting basically nothing good, as most people have told us Saigon is ugly and boring, and were really pleasantly surprised to immediately love it here. I can see how it isn’t a great tourist destination, but I could easily live here. If only the beach were closer… 🙂
We’ve seen multiple bodegas around here with tons of Western food — like peanut butter! Derek has been carrying peanut butter with him this entire trip, buying a new one when we see it and eating sporkfuls regularly. I’ll admit, it has come in handy a few times when hungry strikes at inopportune times! In celebration of Derek’s peanut-butter-loving ways, I bring you these peanut peanut butter cookies. These are peanut butter to the max: a very peanuty dough, dotted with actual peanuts AND peanut butter chips! Like chocolate chips, only peanut butter. Don’t mistake them as butterscotch {as I did with this recipe}.
These cookies could be tweaked to fit your fancy in a number of ways. If you don’t want to use butter, check out my recipe for butterless peanut butter cookies. If you want some chocolate, add chocolate chips! Don’t have peanuts on hand? You can omit them! Do you have mini-Reese’s? PUT THEM IN THE DOUGH! I’m just throwing out ideas here, but I think you could end up with some seriously amazing peanut butter, or peanut peanut butter, or peanut peanut butter chocolate cookies here! Enough options for you? Lemme know if I forgot any!
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 1 and ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup peanut halves
- ½ cup peanut butter baking chips
- With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter, and again cream until fully incorporated.
- Add the egg, and mix in fully, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed, then the vanilla extract.
- Whisk the baking soda, baking powder, and flour together in a separate bowl before adding it to the butter mixture. Mix until just combined.
- Fold in the peanuts and peanut butter chips, taking care not to over-mix.
- Chill the dough for 30 minutes before rolling ⅛ cup-sized balls and spacing them 2" apart on a lined baking sheet. Bake at 350F for 9 minutes, or until edges are set. These won't look done, but don't overbake them!
Your adventures sound so amazing, but I’m not gonna lie the motorbikes terrify me a little! Good luck finding bigger shoes 😉
Haha yes, they terrify me a little too! It was easier than I anticipated, but definitely took concentration. This city is overflowing with Nike and Adidas stores — shoes will be found!
I think you are falling in love with travel, because you keep saying that you love every place you guys are going 😀 That is a great thing considering your travels continue!
I think you’re right! I can’t really think of a place I wouldn’t like to visit, so I guess that’s good for my traveling future!