I’m currently in Phnom Phen and I wanted to list a couple things learned about Vietnam:

1. Pho bo (beef pho.. or any kind of pho) can be eaten any time of day but it is traditionally a breakfast meal in Vietnam… heavy breakfast.

2. Dress is not conservative at all. The women and men are both quite fashionable (in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh) and try to model their style after Koreans (fist pump!) and Japanese. In fact, I love the style.

3. I still look unmistakably Korean apparently. Even at the War Remnants Museum, the security guard greeted me with Anyong Haseyo. Even at the border crossing into Cambodia – I was called up as Annah Kim and asked what my real country of origin was… “But your first country… Korea right? You have Korean parents? Thought so.”

Didn’t bother to correct him – Americans do not receive any sort of welcoming here and my Korean ethnicity  serves as a free pass in some cases.

4. The cars are the same brands but not the same models… for the exception of two Porsche Cayenne Turbos in Hanoi and another in Ho Chi Minh.

5. There is a curfew and everything shutting down by 9pm (restaurants) and 11pm (bars) makes things difficult in Hanoi. There isn’t such a strict, no more street lights, no more people curfew in Ho Chi Minh, but people still go to bed fairly early.

6. The World Cup is definitely a universal love.

7. They were selling Celtics jerseys in Hanoi.

8. Vietnamese people are generally shy about their English skills and most will just smile and nod. They are exceptionally friendly, however.- At time of posting in Phnom-Penh / Pochentong, it was 80.6 °F -

Humidity: 78% | Wind Speed: 4km/hr | Cloud Cover: scattered clouds