Embark on a memorable voyage through Vietnam

Undoubtedly one of Vietnam’s most famous dishes, pho’s seemingly humble simplicity belies its wonderfully complex flavor profile. Consisting of little more than rice noodles, herbs and meat in beef broth, these modest ingredients combine to form a uniquely flavorful soup that is beloved worldwide.

Pho originated around the turn of the 20th century in Vietnam’s northern region and is thought to have been influenced by both French and Chinese cooking. Rice noodles, a Chinese specialty, were a common soup ingredient, as were slices of traditional Vietnamese water buffalo meat. At the time, cows were used as draft animals rather than a source of food. When the French occupation began and there was suddenly an abundance of leftover beef bones due to the colonizers’ desire for steak, enterprising vendors recognized an opportunity to create a new, distinctly Vietnamese dish.

Inspired by the cooking technique used to make beef broth for pot au feu, a French beef stew, this new soup, featuring beef instead of water buffalo, soon became a northern favorite. During the turbulent mid-20th century, pho made its way south to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), where it acquired a stronger taste due to the introduction of regional ingredients like bean sprouts, Thai basil and fermented bean paste. This divide can still be seen today, with pho in Hanoi (pho bac) exhibiting a simpler, more rustic character than Ho Chi Minh City’s ingredient-heavy, spicy-sweet offerings (pho nam).

Should you find yourself exploring the streets of one of Vietnam’s major metropolitan areas in the morning hours, you are likely to spot vendors selling pho by the bowlful, surrounded by hungry patrons sitting outside on small stools or upturned milk crates. Many Vietnamese, particularly those who work as laborers, believe pho to be the ideal breakfast—substantial enough to provide sustenance throughout the morning, yet light enough not to feel too heavy in the stomach.

Given its status as the nation’s breakfast of choice, some stalls sell out of the day’s supply well before noon. Today, more Vietnamese citizens work in offices today than ever before. For many of these workers, the traditional breakfast pho has shifted to lunchtime, a change which is reflected in vendors adopting extended serving hours.

Although pho’s flavor and grounded appeal have made it a popular menu item across the globe, do not pass up the opportunity to enjoy this Vietnamese classic in the land of its creation.

The Mekong Delta—a maze of canals, rivers and streams—counts Khmer pagodas, coconut plantations and villages surrounded by rice paddies among its many treasures. It is a triangular plain of approximately 15,000 sq mi. (38,849 sq km) that begins in Cambodia, where the Mekong River meets the Tonle Sap channel and the Bassac River. There, the Mekong divides into six main channels and the Bassac into three to form the “nine dragons” that stretch down into Vietnam’s outer delta and beyond to the South China Sea. The region also includes Vietnam’s largest island, Phú Quốc, known for its agriculture, white-sand beaches and fast-growing tourism sector.

Beginning in the latter half of the 19th century, French colonists ruled over Vietnam, and during this period, the Vietnamese peasants living in and around the Mekong Delta tilled and tamed this fertile area. The land here is so low-lying that the tides have been known to reach as far as 186 mi. (300 km) inland. Since ancient times, the area has acted like a sponge, storing water during the monsoon season and releasing it once the rains have ceased. In doing so, the land is not only irrigated but refreshed with rich soil. This makes it so naturally productive that Vietnam has become one of the world’s leading exporters of rice. Incredibly, despite making up just 10 percent of Vietnam’s total land mass, the Mekong Delta is where more than one-third of the country’s yearly food crop is produced.

The Mekong Delta is also one of Vietnam’s most densely populated regions—its inhabitants, predominantly ethnic Viet, also include a large population of Khmers. Several notable movies have been filmed in the Mekong Delta, including The Floating Lives (2010), Buffalo Boy (2004) and Francis Ford Coppola’s epic war film Apocalypse Now (1979). Badly damaged during the war, the forests of the delta were where the Viet Cong concealed their bases. Fifty years later, they have been replanted, and rare animals long thought to be extinct have recovered. Today, the peaceful sounds that define this tropical jungle include the calls of birds, rustling palm fronds and small boats crossing the currents.

The rickshaw, invented in Japan in 1869, initiated an explosion of personal mobility methods in Asia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Around the same time, modern, chain-driven, pedal-powered bicycles were rolling off assembly lines, and enterprising rickshaw-pullers were chopping up bicycles and attaching them to their rickshaws. These three-wheeled bicycle taxis appeared in Vietnam during the French colonial period and were dubbed cyclos.

Initially, the authorities in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) found the cyclo to be too revolutionary in its design. In response, Pierre Coupeaud, a Frenchman who owned a bicycle company in Phnom Penh, decided to stage a timed cyclo journey between the Cambodian capital and Saigon. On February 9, 1936, two cyclists completed the 149-mile (240 km) trek in just 17 hours and 20 minutes, a feat which achieved its intended goal of bringing cyclos to Saigon en masse. Within six years, cyclos had replaced rickshaws as the city’s preferred method of transportation.

Cyclos are generally pedal-driven by a driver sitting behind the rider, who occupies a double seat supported by two front wheels. Today, they are used primarily for carrying bulky loads and as an entertaining form of transportation. With no fossil fuel emissions, they are environmentally beneficial and may be faster than other forms of transportation if congestion is heavy; however, their presence is banned from major thoroughfares for being a traffic hazard.

Cyclos are ideal for catching a glimpse of street scenes that you cannot see any other way, such as in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Not only can traveling by cyclo show you more than you could cover on foot without becoming exhausted, they are also a pleasant way to relax after a long, hot day of sightseeing on foot.

If you want to hire a cyclo, it is a good idea to negotiate the fare in advance. Generally speaking, it is wise to offer about a third of the driver’s quoted price and then bargain your way up to no more than half. And before you take off, remember to have your camera at the ready to snap photos of the unlikely loads that cyclos are known to carry, consisting of everything from bedroom furniture to live pigs.