This was my first visit to Vietnam and one I have been really looking forward to. I landed in Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon by the locals) and the first thing that struck me was the sheer number of scooters on the road, incredible.
I was given some good advice about crossing the road on foot, set-off and maintain a good even pace and they will work round you, don’t whatever you do speed up or slow down or worse…stop!
The tea producing regions are a 4-5 hour drive north-east of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and in the north a 4-5 hour drive north-west of Hanoi the capital.
We are packed a lot into 7 days changing location every day, and all all this has been made possible by our main contact Duong, who we call the “fixer” and he has certainly opened many doors for us as well as being tremendous fun to travel with.
The Van Rees team in Hanoi, including Robin Lavoij who traveled from Toronto to accompany me to Vietnam and also to China. I was impressed with this team and return convinced that we have the right sourcing team for Vietnam.
It wasn’t all tea, we visited a coffee producer as well and cupped some much improved Vietnamese coffees. I will tell David Burton our coffee blend master about this!
I thought Vietnam was one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited, and everyone was so friendly and hospitable.
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