[ horns honking ] anthony: vietnam. it grabs you and doesn t let you go. once you love it, you love it forever. i ve been coming here since 2000, the first time i d been in this part of the world, and it s held a special place in my heart and my imagination since. i keep coming back, i have to. [ bells ding ] vietnam has changed since last
vietnamese or american, who lived through them. and though there are still a lot of conflicted feelings back home, for most vietnamese these days, the war has become an abstraction, not even a memory. vietnam is still a poor nation, but the standard of living has improved a lot with the relaxing of hard-line communist economic policies. more and more foreign tourists every year, western chains, inevitably, are everywhere, and president obama is visiting for the first time, taking another step on the long path toward normalizing relations between the two countries. that is good. ooh, hot. ooh, i hit that chili hard. [ bells ding ]
[ bells ding ] [ horn honks ] [ thunder crashes ] tao: nice to meet you. anthony: yes. tao: it s such a pleasure. anthony: oh, and we have a beer ready to go, great. tao: yes. so, we are doing by bottle or we are going to pour it in a glass? anthony: how would you do it if i wasn t here? tao: i would pour it in the glass. anthony: okay. tao: in vietnam, in particular in the north, it would be very improper for a woman to drink straight from the bottle. anthony: oh, really? oh, really? okay, well, i m glad i know this now. cheers. tao is an eisenhower fellow and a fulbright scholar. she s devoted her career to help strengthen the bonds between vietnam and the u.s. today we drove to the outskirts of hanoi. cranes, tall buildings, people moving from the country to the city, marc jacobs, prada, i mean, this is a very young country now. tao: oh, very much a young nation.
[ bells ding ] vietnam has changed since last time i was here. it s changing every minute. [ horns honk ] but some things, for now, anyway, remain the same. important things, like this stuff. that s going to be good. bún oc. first meal in hanoi, and it s something they do here better than anywhere else. okay, i m officially in hanoi now. mm. magic. a spicy, wonderful broth with tomatoes and herb and noodles and fresh snails. plump and delicious. look at those beauties. come to me, plump little love muscle. mm.
anthony: vietnam. it grabs you and doesn t let you go. once you love it, you love it forever. i ve been coming here since 2000, the first time i d been in this part of the world, and it s held a special place in my heart and my imagination since. i keep coming back, i have to. [ bells ding ] vietnam has changed since last time i was here. it s changing every minute. [ horns honk ] but some things, for now, anyway, remain the same. important things, like this stuff. that s going to be good.