Miss.Adventure in Vietnam

Reflecting back

2008-09-08T18:00:00.001-04:00

As I settle back at home (and deal with my jetlag), reflecting back on my seven months in Vietnam, it seems like my time there went by very quickly. I achieved one of my two goals, to learn to read and write in Vietnamese. I would not say I "fluently" read and write. I am definitely still stumbling and I do not have a sufficient vocabulary to understand the prose-y way Vietnamese write. At least now I have an idea how things are pronounced when I read. I did not achieve my second goal of volunteering. It seems more difficult when you do not sign up for a formal volunteer placement.

I am very happy to have had the experience to live in Vietnam. I don't think travelling through for a few weeks would have had the same impact. I got to interact with locals on a daily basis and not just as a tourist. I enjoyed seeing the different vendors every day. They were all so friendly and wished me well when I got home. They also all asked me when I would come back. Maybe in the next thirty years (since it took me that long for my first visit!)?

As I finish up with this blog, I remember some post ideas that I never ended up writing. One was the "What If?" post, as in "What if my parents never left Vietnam?". Well, the obvious answer is, I wouldn't be Canadian and I would not have had as many opportunities as I have. Would I still have become an engineer? Who knows? Would I own my own house? Probably not. Would I have been worst off? I think both worlds has its advantages and disadvantages but I do realize Viet Kieu's are lucky. Our parents sacrificed a lot for us to have a better life.

One last note, I have really enjoyed writing this blog and writing in general. I've also had the chance to make good friends (like Miss Gastronomer) and to discover the world of blogging. I want to continue blogging so I've decided to start a new blog, based at home (probably no more travels for a while, sigh). I think it will be mainly about food with a side of house projects. Please check it out: Miss.Adventure at Home.

Seoul Layover

2008-09-08T17:00:00.004-04:00

As I faced an 8 hour layover in Seoul (sandwiched between a 5 hour and 13 hour flight), I debated whether I should visit Seoul. Luckily, I was able to find a lot of information online, mainly from a Vancouver Sun article and from the blog adventures in the people’s republic of china and beyond. I decided that even if I ended up spending a couple of hours in Seoul, it would still be better than pacing around the airport for 8 hours.

My trip started less than ideally when I could only get a boarding pass from HCMC to Seoul because I was first traveling with Korean Airlines and then Air Canada. This meant that I would need to check in again in Seoul. I was hoping to save myself this task so I could save on time. When I arrived at 7 am I rushed to the Air Canada counter to get my boarding pass, but it was only opening at noon. So I decided the heck with it, I was going to explore Seoul!

I exchanged 60 USD for Korean won's. I went outside and found the bus stop that went to Insadong, my first stop in Seoul. Buses come at 20 minute intervals and their routes are very clearly illustrated. I went to buy a ticket for 9000 won (about 9 USD). It took about an hour to get to Insadong. Bus stops were announced by an automated voice in Korean and English. I arrived in Insadong at close to 9 am. Unfortunately, nothing was opened until 10:30 am except for a few souvenir shops. I could not even find a restaurant serving breakfast. So I walked around and took a few pictures.

On the way out of Incheon - looks like my previous employer, the big D.

Am I back in HCMC? Tous Les Jours Bakery just opened an outlet near my old place in District 1.

As you can see, Insadong was very quaint but still sleeping.

Only souvenir shops were open. They were rather pricey too.

It was a very artsy looking area.

The menus looked appetizing but I could not find an open restaurant!

I saw many cute stone statues.

I decided to move on and go check out Jogyesa Temple nearby. I have to admit that by now I was getting tired. I was dragging a carry-on and a laptop; it was getting quite heavy. So I just took some pictures.

Jogyesa Temple.

Then I jumped (rather dragged my carry-on down some stairs… ka-tunk, ka-tunk, ka-tunk) on the subway and went to the next station to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace, built in the 1300’s. I decided to pay the 3000 won to go inside, but I was there for maybe 20 minutes. The visit was worthwhile though; the property is very vast and there is a mountain behind the palace. Very scenic! Unfortunately, I only saw a fraction of what was there.

Gargoyle in the subway.

As I was exiting the subway station, I could hear drums beating. There was some type of procession going on.

The Palace with the mountain backdrop.

I love the gargoyles here. Who would have thunk there would be gargoyles in Korea?

I love taking pictures of old doors.

Finally, I decided to have an early lunch at the cafe in the National Palace Museum of Korea by the subway. It was a chance for me to sit and relax. I ordered the bibimbap for 12,000 won and a Korean lemon tea for 4000 won. That was close to a $16 lunch; I haven’t paid that much for a meal in a while! I’ve been wanting to try this colourful dish since I saw it on Food Safari. I was imagining it with a raw egg like I saw on the show but this one didn’t have one. It was still very good; I especially liked the spicy pepper paste. The bowl was too much for me though and I couldn't finish it.

National Palace Museum of Korea.

My bibimbap.

Accompanying dishes: kimchi, red pepper paste and vinegar-y seaweed?

Korean lemon tea. I really like the rosemary that infused the tea.

From Gyeongbokgung Station, I found the airport bus stop. I wasn't sure if I had to buy a ticket so I tried to ask a shop owner nearby. He kept trying to communicate with me in Korean. Finally, I gave up and just waited for the bus. As it turns out, you just pay the bus driver when you get on the bus.

Airport bus stop.

It was a whirlwind visit. I was in the city for only three hours, but I still think it was worth it. I got back in time to check in and go through security and customs. The only thing I would suggest is not to visit Insadong if you're there early in the morning.

HCMC Picture Hodgepodge

2008-09-07T20:28:00.019-04:00

Now that I have access to my computer (thanks to H for fixing my virus ridden laptop!), I can upload my many pictures. Here are miscellaneous pictures that I took in HCMC that did not make it into a post!

View from our hotel room on our first night in HCMC.

Careful there! So many electrical wires!

Rex Hotel. Dammit, I never had a drink on the patio!! However, I did get a Swedish massage at the hotel thanks to The Gastronomer.

Old houses in District 5.

Line of vendors lined up, selling ... I don’t know what. I always meant to try it but never got around to it.

Vegetarian thali at our favourite Indian restaurant, Mumtaz, at 226 Bùi Viện. I’ve had many thali‘s and this is one of the prettiest! The Boyfriend and I ate there every few weeks!

Bánh mì thịt bò nướng, fancied up (and the price showed it!)

Bánh cam Vendor.

Can you say traffic?

Family friends from Montréal in front of city hall.

Park by Phạm Ngũ Lão St (near the backpacker’s district).

Carved stone depicting traditional Vietnamese musicians.

Bright yellow Jaspas restaurant from where we ordered 2-for-1 pizza on Mondays and Thursdays!

My cousin L’s twins! Aren’t they cute?

Not one but two TV’s loaded on a motorbike!

HCMC has luxe stores of its own.

Striped socks seem to be the trend for motorbike drivers.

…and fancy motorbike helmets…

Talking about luxe stores and motorbike trends!

Kids playing in a puddle after a rainstorm.

View of the densely populated city from the International Language Academy (where The Boyfriend works).

Can you spot the salamander(s)?

Miss.Adventure’s Guide to Living in Vietnam

2008-09-03T21:16:00.005-04:00

As my days in Vietnam dwindle down, I wanted to include tips that I have learned from living in Vietnam for anyone who stumbles onto this blog for some help. I’ll include the disclaimer that this information is only accurate NOW (2008).

Side Note: As for posting on this blog, I have maybe a couple of posts left. I am debating whether I should visit Seoul during my layover there. If I do, I will definitely post the pictures here. After that, my trip will be over. However, I am planning a new blog based at home. I’ll share the details soon on my final post!

When to travel in Vietnam
I can only comment on my own experience. We arrived in Vietnam in February, on the first day of Tết (Vietnamese New Year). I have always wanted to go to Vietnam during Tết. What I found is that most stores and business are closed for a week. There is not much to do other than staying home with your family. As well, in February, while it is hot in southern Vietnam, it was cold in the north, and close to freezing temperature in Sapa. Just keep that in mind if you were imagining warm weather all year round throughout the country – like I did and didn’t pack the right clothing…

Train and Luggage Tickets
In Vietnam, you have to show your train tickets getting on AND off the train. I believe you get fined if you don’t. I think it’s to avoid having people cheating and buying cheaper tickets with the incorrect (shorter distance) destination. As well, when you leave the airports, they actually check that your luggage match against the luggage tags. It’s actually good when you think about it so no one can walk out with your suitcase! So be diligent in keeping ALL of your tags and tickets!

Multiple Entry Visa
After applying and paying for a multiple entry visa, I thought I had a multiple entry visa. Can you predict the rest of this story? To my surprise upon my return from the Philippines, I was told that my visa was not valid. My visa was a single entry visa even though I forked out an extra $50 for a multiple one. After being threatened by officials to be deported back to the Philippines, being reminded that entry into Vietnam was not a right but rather a privilege (yes, I understood all of that in Vietnamese!), I was able to get a new visa for double the normal fee but who is going to complain? When I asked if I could finally leave, one official even joked that I could only leave with one of them. I kept my cool and did not react. It was a nightmarish night. As The Boyfriend pointed out, I was lucky to be granted another visa and they could easily have refused me entry. Moral of the story? Check that your paperwork is what it should be.

Paying rent
My issue with rent here is that our rent was quoted in USD and The Boyfriend was paid in VND (dong). I recommend to anyone who is not being paid in USD to negotiate paying rent in VND instead. This is because we had a problem with having two different exchange rates: bank and black market rates. This is not an issue anymore as both rates are now the same but it could be an issue again with potential speculation. If you are being quoted in USD and want to pay in VND, ask that the contract specify which rate to use (bank rate is most beneficial) so no conflict occurs (as we had to deal with!); I think it’s actually illegal to use anything but the bank rate, but try to argue that with an old, stubborn Vietnamese landlady!

Exchanging money
On the topic of exchanging money, currently many banks will not exchange VND currency into any foreign currency. It varies from bank to bank. At Vietcombank, they will only allow The Boyfriend to convert his assets when he closes his account after it has been approved by the director. HSBC will allow exchanges only for their customers (who have accounts at the Vietnamese branch) if you have proof that you are leaving the country. The moral of the story is that you should not exchange more than you have to or you might get stuck with VND (or get charged a black market exchange rate as an anonymous commenter experienced).

Eating out
Two great websites that I used for restaurants in Vietnam is noodlepie and Gastronomy (yes, I’ve mentioned this site before and I’ve had the chance to spend time with the lovely Gastronomer!). They both have a pull down of Vietnamese dishes that is very helpful. Another helpful site is Chez Moz Dining Guide.

Vegetarian Eating
For vegetarians like The Boyfriend, a good tip is that on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month, Buddhists follow a vegetarian diet. It is quite easy to find vegetarian Vietnamese dishes on those days.

Shopping
My favourite subject! There are good deals to be had in Vietnam and it can be overwhelming. Here are a few things I think worthwhile:

- Custom clothing: My experience with getting custom clothes sewn is limited. I would suggest that you bring your favourite piece of clothing if you want a guaranteed product because Vietnamese tailors are great at copying. I was very happy with my pants. If you do get something made from a picture, you should try it on and ask the tailor to make the necessary tweaks. The Boyfriend got pants made he felt were too tight (even though measurements were taken); luckily, the tailor left some allowance so he could loosen them. In addition, you might want to bring your own fabric. Vietnamese fabric is limited and a lot of it is the shiny synthetic material that locals prefer.

- Bootleg DVD’s from China: You can buy the latest movies (that are still in the theatre) for 15,000 VND (about 1 USD). You can also buy TV shows on DVD’s. I just bought all 7 seasons of Sex and the City for 150,000 VND. The only caveat is that the quality is inconsistent. We’ve watched good quality movies and TV shows but some will freeze or you’ll see someone walking in front of the camera.

- Custom Paintings: There are many shops that do custom paintings. They offer everything from cheesy paintings to any replicas you'd like. If you want a picture of your family or dog painted on canvas at a good price, this is your chance. They are good at copying.

60cm x 80 cm painting for my sister for 550,000 VND.

- Eyewear: Forget about Lens Crafters. Eyewear is ridiculously affordable here. I got a pair of glasses made for 450,000 VND and it only took a day to get them. The frame I picked did say CK and I ended up with a pair of D&G, but at that price who can complain? So bring your prescription with you!

I can’t think of anything else. If I do, I will simply add on to this page.

Say No to Drugs

2008-09-01T00:49:00.005-04:00

I got the scoop about the death in my alley. It was not a homeless, old person as I thought. Rather, it was a young man in his early thirties. As my landlady put it, he died of ma tuy (drugs) or SIDA (AIDS). I'm not sure whether she means both or one of them. I think some Vietnamese people associate one with the other.

I am not sure if drugs are a big issue in Vietnam. According to the ads I see on the streets, I would assume it is a serious issue. I don't really have anything to say about this because I honestly don't know much. I've heard heroine is one of the popular drugs here, but I can't confirm this.

Say "KHONG" (no) to drugs.

Drugs can kill.

A sign that associates ma tuy (drugs) with AIDS.

Vegetarian Buffet

2008-08-24T23:13:00.008-04:00

When The Boyfriend and I first arrived in HCMC, we saw a restaurant that offered a vegetarian buffet. It was for a limited time around Tết (Vietnamese New Year). I thought it would be fun to go to a buffet where The Boyfriend could eat anything. However, when we finally decided to go, there was a wedding reception and the buffet offering was over.

Talking to my Vietnamese teacher, I learned that the 7th month of the lunar calendar (around August) is when many Vietnamese eat vegetarian all month to honour ancestors - I think... So I suggested we go check out the restaurant again to see if the vegetarian buffet was being offered. Luckily for us, it was!!

At 120,000 VND each (about 7 USD), it is not a cheap meal in Vietnam. There were two separate floors and we were assigned to go to the third floor. There were not too many people when we arrived, but it was full when we left. The offering was quite extensive: soups, salads, noodles, sushi, spring rolls and all sorts of faux meats. We ordered something to drink, not realizing there was also a drinks buffet, including tea and lemonade!

Everyone checking out the selection with festive green decor.

Some vegetable offering.

Some vegetarian gỏi (salads) served with bánh phồng tôm (crackers, usually shrimp flavoured). Our favourite was the lotus salad, minus the faux shrimps.

Faux meats under a heating lamp.

"Chicken" curry.

There was even someone making bánh xèo, filled with mushrooms.

Fruit offering, including peeled rambutans.

Desert offerings.

Death in an Alley

2008-08-20T04:28:00.006-04:00

I have been meaning to have a post about life in the alleyway or hẻm, where I live. I was going to write about knife sharpeners and recyclers in the morning, crowds gathered in the alleyway watching a soap opera or singing karaoke on a tiny television in a house and white-collar workers sitting on plastic chairs eating lunch. There are also chickens running around (The Boyfriend likes to warn "bird flu, bird flu" when he sees them), rice and onion being dried out in the sun, and rats scurrying around at night. However, I did not think I would include anything morbid.

My Vietnamese teacher came in today: "Did you see THE body?". I actually did see someone lying on a cot in the alleyway, head covered. Someone was massaging the person's feet so I assumed maybe it was someone who felt ill. I was SO VERY wrong. It was a dead body. I have mentioned that there are many homeless people in the city, people who come from rural areas to make money but cannot afford housing. They usually sleep on cots and hammocks at night. My guess is this was such a person or the body would be indoors.

My Vietnamese teacher is very amusing because she is very superstitious. I think this is characteristic of many Vietnamese people. She warned me about not looking at the body ("Did you already look at it?" she asked in panic) because it is bad luck. She was worried about The Boyfriend coming home tonight and walking by the body. She was also worried that the body would still be there on Friday when I have my next lesson.

Honestly, I have never really thought about how I feel about bodies. I don't usually like open caskets at funeral. I am not superstitious but I have to admit that it is rather creepy or morbid to have to walk by this body whenever I go out. I'm not sure also how a body will fare in this heat outside. I might try to minimize my outings until the body is removed...

Mũi Né - Part II

2008-08-18T22:21:00.022-04:00

The Boyfriend and I booked an excursion to go see the sand dunes. It cost $22USD and took over three hours. I’m sure this can be done cheaper by taxi but we got to see a lot of interesting sites by jeep: the Fairy Spring, red canyon, the farther white sand tunes and the yellow sand dunes nearby. I had heard that the sand dunes were spectacular but I did not realize how big they would be. It really did feel like we could have been in the Sahara desert, without the heat (we went in the late afternoon for that reason).

Our jeep.

Our first stop was the Fairy Spring (Suối Tiên). Our tour guide, really just our driver, dropped us off and told us we had 40 minutes. A young teenager acted as our impromptu guide even though it was very obvious where we had to go: just follow the stream! At the end, he asked for money. I don’t think so. I already paid for a tour…

We passed by big vats of stinky nuoc mam (fish sauce).

The Boyfriend is following our "guide" in the Fairy Spring.

There were very nice and interesting rock formations.

Next we stopped by the fishing village of Mũi Né where little fish (anchovies?) were laid out to dry in the sun. I’m not sure if they were the same fish, but The Boyfriend and I encountered little jumping fish when we were swimming in the ocean. They were just jumping in and out of the water, even into my swimsuit.

View of Mũi Né village.

Fish spread to dry.

Working the fish.

Not only does Mũi Né have sand dunes, it also has a canyon. So many interesting sights!

Red Canyon.

The white sand dunes were far out but well worth the trip. At the bottom of the sand dunes is a nice lake too.

Lotus lake with the white sand dunes in the background.

At the other end of the lake were some horses. Some tourists rode the horses up the sand dunes…

White Sand Dunes. Can you belive this is Vietnam?

This little boy followed us, trying to convince us to slide down the hills. Although we didn’t, we gave him 10,000 VND because he was so persistent (and cute!).

The boy slid down the hill himself!

I like the temporary trail left behind.

Finally, we hit the yellow sand dunes, which had more of a golden colour. The yellow sand dunes are much closer to Mũi Né and so had much more tourists than the white sand dunes.

We encountered a herd of cows.

Many tourists, hanging out and flying kites.

The Boyfriend from afar.

These dunes were very big too.

By a sand bank with the sun behind me.

Mũi Né - Part I

2008-08-17T22:17:00.022-04:00

The Boyfriend took a couple of days off work so we could hit the beach before I go back to Canada. We decided to go to Mũi Né, having heard that it was very nice and due to its proximity to HCMC. It also was a less costly option than Nha Trang or Phú Quốc.

We booked bus tickets through Sinh Café: 100,000 VND (about 6 USD) each way. The bus ride was not as bad as we heard. It took about five hours each way. The way back felt much longer than the way there.

The Boyfriend wanted a hotel with a pool because he does not enjoy his eyes stinging from the salted sea water. This was a good call since the water was rather choppy. I found an affordable option with a pool, Sunrise Resort, for 35 USD a night (it costs 50 USD for a beach view bungalow). This included breakfast (options were limited); there was also wi-fi so you can surf the net by the pool and cable TV. Our whole trip costs about 100 USD each for 3 nights. A trip to Mũi Né can definitely be done even cheaper; we saw rooms as low as 6 USD. It can also be done on the more expensive side; we saw some very nice bungalows on the beach.

Our days were spent going for dips in the ocean and then the pool. It seems we ate a lot, read on the beach and chill-axed as The Boyfriend likes to say. We also went to see the dunes – I’ll cover this in part II!

View of Sunrise Resort.

Most resorts are on the beach side of coconut tree lined Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, a 15 km stretch.

View of the pool from our sliding door. It was nice to have the pool at our doorstep until we got woken up at 4 am by drunk (I’m assuming) girls splashing in the water and then at 7 am by kids swimming… The beach was just at the other end.

View of the pool and beach in the background. Our room was clean and basic.

Some of the décor has a hint of "fromage". The little boys’ statues seem to be peeing into the pool...

We spotted this little guy near the pool, hiding from the sun.

We enjoyed fruit pool side. Only the pineapple was good. The mango was SO tart; it must be the end of mango season. The dragon fruit should have been good since we saw fields upon fields of dragon fruit nearby, but it was too ripe.

The beach was very nice and we had nice weather. Supposedly, Mũi Né has the least rain in South East Asia because of its microclimate created by its location near the sand dunes. As I mentioned before, the water was choppy due to the strong waves. This is perfect for wave jumping. Mũi Né is also a choice destination for windsurfing and kitesurfing destination. Having attempted to surf in Costa Rica at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp, I would not even think of trying kitesurfing but it was cool to watch others do it.

Views of the beach on each side.

Kite boarders jump seriously high, with the help of the wind!

There were a lot of stray dogs on the beach.

We spotted a few jelly fish washed up on the shore. Don’t they have an alien quality about them?

Fishermen set out around 5 pm and come back in the morning.

One night, I got grilled shrimp, freshly caught that morning. There were about 10 very big shrimps for 50,000 VND (about 3 USD)!! What a steal! Delicious!

A salamander fell, from the sky it seems, while we were eating . Can you spot this one?

We got a full moon. I wasn’t able to take a picture but it was amazing to see at night so many lights out at sea from the fishing boats.

The Boyfriend hates to get his picture taken but I thought I deserved to have one to take home while he stays in Vietnam to teach English, less I forget how he looks!

Quảng Ngãi - Treats

2008-08-11T03:43:00.003-04:00

Not only was I overfed in Quảng Ngãi but I also brought home some yummy treats for myself and my family back in Canada!

After trying these crunchy toasted coconut, I had to bring some back to share.

My mother asked for 1 kg of Vietnamese coffee but got 2!

Cơm rang is a Quảng Ngãi specialty of roasted rice with savoury spices: chili, onions, salt. Makes a great snack! I had to bring back a few bags for my sister L!

Banh Mi Xop are sesame cookies that The Boyfriend really enjoys.

Quảng Ngãi - Part I (Aug 3-4)

2008-08-03T04:25:00.044-04:00

Although I did not do much in Quảng Ngãi, I sure took a lot of pictures. Mainly of food, which was very entertaining to my family. But they really got into it and would help make the plate look better. My own food stylists! So I will break down my Quảng Ngãi post into two.

After an awful, sleepless night in Quy Nhơn (I had to sleep in the living room with my cousin and my uncle who is a very LOUD snorer while I am a very LIGHT sleeper), my cousin and I decided to leave a day early and go to Quảng Ngãi. Luckily, her boyfriend and his colleagues were driving home that day so we got to go back in a nice air conditioned car.

After about an hour driving, we stopped for lunch. Note I already had breakfast and coffee by now. I’m not used to eating three full meals a day but all this was about to change. We stopped for cơm gà, but this was not the typical cơm gà that I know (similar to Hainese chicken rice I think). It’s funny because as I was discussing cơm gà with my four lunch mates, everyone had an opinion on where the best was made and how the rice had to be sautéed first. Vietnamese are very passionate about food!

Interestingly, the Quảng Ngãi entry in Lonely Planet states that the province is “famous for a local delicacy called cơm gàm, which actually originates further north at Tam Ky. It consists of boiled chicken over yellow rice (the colour comes from being steamed with chicken broth)”. I saw a lot of cơm gà offered in Quảng Ngãi; unfortunately, I did not get a chance to eat it since I always seemed to be full.

We started lunch with canh cải – soup with greens.

This cơm gà consisted of plain white rice with a well seasoned chicken thigh. It was very good and there was a great dipping sauce. The green onion topping was cooked in oil and was yummy!

We continued our way back to Quảng Ngãi. My cousin made the driver stop in Sa Huỳnh so I could take pictures of the beach. I was also intrigued to see piles of salt nearby from salt marshes.

Beach in Sa Huỳnh.

I found this picture of the salt marsh in Sa Huỳnh on the internet that is much more representative than my pictures.

Pardon the blurry picture - this was taken from the train.

We got to my uncle's in Quảng Ngãi, relaxed a bit and then it was dinner time! Of course! My cousins asked whether I preferred seafood or meat. I said seafood so we went to a seafood restaurant (Hai Long Vien). The group included my cousin D and his fiancée, my cousin V and her boyfriend and my cousin K.

Bánh tráng dipped in nước mắm seemed to be the complimentary snack at many restaurants.

Gỏi bắp chuối (banana flower salad), not as flavourful as my aunt’s on the previous night.

I asked to have the crab in a tamarind sauce since I had really enjoyed it with The Gastronomer. It was good but not as good as the soft shell crabs at Quán 94, and it’s much messier and much harder work!

Gói ốc (snails salad). As my dinner companions said, it was more of an onion salad with snails rather than a snail salad. The snails didn’t particularly do it for me either…

Tôm Mũ Ni. These funny-looking fellows are some type of shrimp-cross-with-lobsters that are fished nearby. We picked them alive from the tank. I should have taken a picture when they were alive. They were excellent – like little lobsters!

What else do my cousins (and I’m guessing people in Quảng Ngãi) do other than eat? Drink! Or a term that encompasses both: ăn nhậu. Vietnamese men seem to drink like frat boys: they binge! I was a bit nervous having to ride with my cousin afer I witnessed the number of beers he drank in a short amount of time. Their drink of choice is Heinekken and we also had to order more food to drink with!

My two male cousins are hidden. In the middle is my cousin and her boyfriend, and on the right is my cousin’s fiancée.

On my left is my cousin K.

Roasted eggplants.

Grilled pork ribs.

Another day, many other meals. In the morning, we met up with my cousin’s friend (who happens to be my mom’s childhood friend’s daughter) at a restaurant right across the street from my uncle's. The day started out with cháo vịt (duck porridge or congee) for breakfast.

Cháo vịt.

Vịt (Duck). My cousin’s friend T asked about me not eating the skin. No, I’m a bad Vietnamese. I don’t eat fat. I only eat skin when it’s crispy!

My cousin V and her friend T. Notice they have their cell phones ready, a must for a Vietnamese!

To walk off some of the food I ate, I went for a short walk and took some pictures, some of which are a bit amusing.

Chickens just walk on the sidewalk like the rest of us.

No need for words. Too funny!

Quảng Ngãi may be small but it has a Gucci…!

This field was just behind a main street. I love the green!

I still think it’s cool to see bamboo “in the wild”.

Within the same block there were two ram bap (corn spring roll) vendors!!

I couldn’t resist buying half a portion of ram bap (8000 dong for a portion of 10) even though I knew my aunt was making some. You have to compare…

They also sell banh xeo. I realize that my mother’s unusual habit of adding beef to banh xeo stems from Quảng Ngãi!

This street was rather flooded after a rainstorm.

Pictures I liked around town.

Another funny picture…!

Dinner was a mishmosh of all sorts of things that we rolled in bánh tráng (rice paper). One thing about my family: we like to roll EVERYTHING in bánh tráng!! My aunt made ram bap probably because I mentioned it. She adds taro which makes it different. I really dug her peanut sauce. When I asked her how to make it, she said that for me it’s easy because I can buy peanut butter. I’m pretty sure hers, made out of actual peanuts, is better!

My aunt’s ram bap.

Nem chua (fermented pork) from Quy Nhon that has been stir fried.

Cha ca (fish patties).

You need some greens and herbs with your rolls!

After dinner, my cousin invited me to go have sinh tố (fruit shake) or coffee. I picked sinh tố. It was funny because we literally went out by a field and sat down in the dark. Lawns chairs and plastic tables were set up. There was minimal lighting.

My cousin and her boyfriend.

I got a sinh tố mãng cầu xiêm (sour sop). My favourite part was the toasted coconut on top; I’ve never had anything like it! It was crunchy and sweet! Hmm!!

Train Ride & Quy Nhơn (Aug 1-3)

2008-08-03T04:14:00.052-04:00

With only a month left in Vietnam, I figured I should go visit my family again in central Vietnam. I met them in Quy Nhơn where my uncle, aunt and cousin were visiting for a "festival" and my aunt's sister's housewarming. Quy Nhơn is a coastal city probably around halfway between Nha Trang and Quảng Ngãi. Interesting personal trivia: Quy Nhơn is the port my parents used to leave Vietnam in 1978.

Having only booked my train ticket two days in advance, I was only able to get a hard sleeper. The compartment fits six beds, as opposed to the soft sleeper, which fits four. My "bed" was the top one (also the cheapest) and it felt rather claustrophic; there was not even enough room to sit up. At least, I didn't have a hard seat for the 14 hour overnight train ride. I couldn't bear lying for 14 hours straight so I asked the young woman with the bed at the bottom if I could sit on her bed. Hers had more clearance! I think this is a common practice.

Trains in Vietnam are very slow. In addition, they have to make stops at pre-determined spots to pass each other. So if one train is late, it delays the other train waiting too. Add to that three boys under the age of seven in our compartment. Let's just say I was glad when the ride was over...!

You can see my backpack on my very tight "bed".

After leaving HCMC at 7:40 pm, I arrived in Quy Nhơn at about 10 am. My uncle picked me up at the train station. After dropping off my things at his mother-in-law's, he gave me a tour of the town and we went out for lunch. A mere two hours later (once my uncle had his nap), he went to buy banh beo and I had to eat again. This was a sign of what was to come...

I didn't know that Vietnam had festivals!

I think the flags were pulled out for the occasion.

There was always a person standing at intersections directing traffic. What is funny is that you can see behind the person that there is a traffic light. The person is literally looking at the traffic light and moving the flag accordingly. Rather pointless, non?

Lunch with my uncle was cơm thô. Thô refers to the container that holds the rice.

My uncle ordered a variety of vegetables to dip in mam. Mam is all sorts of fermented fish, shrimp and squid. A big too strong for my taste but I know my mother would have loved this! The vegetables included cucumbers, green tomatoes, cà pháo (type of eggplant), lettuce and bean sprouts.

Tôm thịt kho. Braised shrimp and pork. The portion was tiny but I guess we were only two people eating...

I ordered this soup thinking it was canh chua (Vietnamese sour soup). Rather, the "chua" referred to the type of fish. I was rather disappointed.

Rau muống xào toi - morning glory with garlic - has to be one of my favourite green dish. However, The Boyfriend does not like it - the translation in Hue was rather unfavourable, something like swamp weed. So I have to have it when I get the chance and it was well worth it!

Banh beo. I only had a taste because as I explained to my uncle I was too full from lunch to eat. He insisted I at least try it because these are renown in Quy Nhơn.

My uncle's funny. He's not the best at communicating. After lunch, he said we would "đi chơi", which literally means "go play". It was a big surprise where we were going. As we were driving around on a motorbike, being pelleted by rain, I was very curious about our destination!

Are we going to check out the beach?

...or the siêu thị (supermarket)? I overheard that suggestion; I think it's a novelty in certain parts of Vietnam.

...or check out festival activities?

Finally, after driving up a mountain and paying a fee to get in, I found out where we were going: Qui Hoa Leper Colony. I had read about it in the Lonely Planet so I knew a little bit about it. It is a "model village near the seafront, where treated patients live together with their families, the patients work in the rice fields, in fishing...". You can also find a nice beach within the property. It was started by Catholic nuns and priests. According to my uncle, it has been rather neglected since the government took over.

Queen's Beach.

Cottages where familes live; bust of a nun.

My uncle made me take this picture. Supposedly, it's a well known poem. I will have to ask my Vietnamese teacher to translate it.

View of Quy Nhơn on the ride back down the mountain.

My uncle then drove us to his sister-in-law who was having a housewarming (there's a Vietnamese term I can't remember), which was a very big shindig. I was so tired by then, I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it was an impressive spread: giant cooked shrimps, whole chickens, gỏi bắp chuối (banana flower salad), squid, etc. There must have been close to a hundred people, and most of the food was homemade. I think it's the Vietnameses' way of showing off their wealth to their friends.

The front of the house all decked out.

The hyper kids who loved posing for the camera and would not stop bugging me.

It rained again and pretty much every day while I was in central Vietnam since it is getting close to rainy season there.

The next morning, my cousin V took over. We had a quick breakfast of bun cha ca (before 8 am I might add. I usually have yogurt for breakfast!). Then we went out for coffee. As you’ll see on my next post of Quảng Ngãi, my cousin V goes for coffee religiously. Finally, we went to see Quy Nhơn beach before heading out to Quảng Ngãi.

Bún Chả Cá. Soup with vermicelli and fish.

Quy Nhơn beach. Not as nice as Sabang...

The big hotel on the beach.

Baby Can You Stop The Rain

2008-08-01T03:57:00.007-04:00

So many songs with the word “rain” in their titles… It's funny, about two weeks ago, The Boyfriend and I were discussing how for a rainy season, there has not been that much rain. It rained regularly at the beginning of May, but then it seemed to stop and would only rain a few times a week. Well, lo and behold, it has been raining close to daily since we talked about rain and we have had a few good showers! This is what happens when you don't knock on wood!

The Boyfriend has been lucky enough not to have to wade in puddles when walking to work but had to do it for the first time last week! It's good I told him to bring his socks and put them on at work! There is something about the intensity of rain showers here in Vietnam that make me want to take out my camera and take some pictures. Here is what we encountered after leaving the movie theatre we seeked out when the electricity was cut for a whole day.

Intersection at Nguyễn Du and Trương Dịnh.

How do you cross a flooded street? You find speed bumps!

Chợ Bến Thành – Part II

2008-07-30T05:29:00.020-04:00

I’ve resigned myself to have to re-write this post because I will not have access to my laptop for a while yet (it’s raining again anyway so what else am I going to do?). This is at the risk of not including the witty and thought provoking comments I initially came up with…!

For the second part of Chợ Bến Thành, I wanted to cover the interior of the market. There is a variety of wares from clothes to trinkets targeted at tourists and more food! The market is somewhat divided based on what vendors are selling (clothes, food, fabric, etc.) but you can always find something that does not quite fit. I really enjoy taking pictures here of rows or bins of one element; however, some vendors get testy and insist on no pictures.

I have already sufficiently covered the eating and drinking quarter. I should probably get back to the Chợ Bến Thành Challenge...!

Hmmm! I'm planning to bring home Vietnamese peppercorn.

This is pretty much the "Snack Shack": candies, cashews, candied fruit, beef jerky,...

I find these bags of rice and beans beautiful! They would make lovely pictures in a kitchen!

There is still fresh food to be found inside the market.

This lady sells sliced corn to make chè bắp (corn based Vietnamese dessert) or corn spring rolls!

You can also stop over for a manicure in the market!

This picture is not exciting nor appetizing. However, I like being able to buy fresh bun (rice vermicelli). The same vendor also sells different rice papers.

This vendor specializes in fresh bamboo and pickled greens.

Lots of dried shrimp and fish. I'm not sure if the lights are for seeing purposes or to keep the shrimp dry?

Mắm (fremented fish and shrimp) galore! If only this was a smell-o-blog!

Jars of coffee and tea.

I always come to this Chinese vendor. I was so excited to buy fresh baby corns since I've only had the canned stuff!

She also has a great variety of mushrooms and I love mushrooms! Unfortunately some look better than they taste. On top is fresh nấm thông khô (so flavourful! not sure if they're the same as shitake but they're so heartier). Second is nấm đùi gà - literally chicken thigh mushrooms. Third are oyster mushrooms. The last one I don't know the name but they are very common; I actually like the canned ones better than the fresh ones.

They also sell lạp xưởng with chunks of peppercorn that I used to make fried rice. I'll have a post about food I have cooked here!

Enough with the food. As I mentioned, there is more than food at Chợ Bến Thành. I still have not bought much in terms of touristy knickknacks. I will have to start shopping for gifts soon! It's hard though when you see these things everywhere; they just don't feel as special anymore!

The beauty product row: perfume, shampoo, etc.

There are many fabric vendors targeting both tourists and locals. The colourful fabric is to make áo dài (Vietnamese dress). You can even get your clothes made here!

The West side of the market targets tourists but don't believe the sign and still try to negotiate!

Lacoste or Ralph Lauren shirts anyone?

Pretty bejewelled slippers.

Wooden statues and chopsticks.

Those fruit on the left are fake. The fruit picks are so kitschy I might have to get some!

Colourful silk lanterns.

Cute figurines wearing Vietnamese costumes.

Stuffed elephants from Sapa.

Pinoy Food

2008-07-28T09:27:00.002-04:00

If you were wondering what Filipino food is, The Gastronomer covered Pinoy food from our trip on her blog. I don't think Pinoy food is a very well known cuisine. We had a chance to have some authentic food and it was great! Check it out: Pinoy Food on Gastronomy.

Night Out

2008-07-27T08:33:00.017-04:00

I have not posted anything recently (not sure anyone's noticed!) because, unfortunately, my laptop is ailing from a virus, supposedly from an Asian website (damn Asian websites!). I am using The Boyfriend's laptop but I have no way of uploading pictures because I did not bring my USB cord and he does not have the little slot for my camera card. So there will be no part II of Cho Ben Thanh until I figure out another solution.

I've had in mind a couple of posts that do not require pictures. However, it does not seem as much fun! But here goes...

Last night, The Boyfriend and I went out for The Gastronomer's and The Astronomer's last weekend in HCMC (Boo-urns!). I thought it would be interesting to list how much such a night out would cost. All prices are for two people.

50,000 dong - Taxi ride
70,000 dong - Dinner of banh xeo and bo la lot (including 2 Saigon bia)
25,000 dong - Taxi ride to ice cream place (split with 2 others)
60,000 dong - Ice cream
120,000 dong - Bowling

Our total tally was 325,000 dong (about $20) for two people which I think is a great deal, considering it included dinner, alcohol, dessert and entertainment! To be clear, I would not call this typical. Dinner for two for us can range between 40,000 dong to 400,000 dong, depending on where we go. While I think it's cheap, I have no delusion that all Vietnamese can afford to go bowling. I'm sure the average Vietnamese person would find this expensive. I just wanted to show that fun can be had for a good price!

The Gastronomer was lovely enough to share this picture with me. It's a large crowd; The Gastronomer and The Astronomer must be popular... They'll be missed!

Here are some sizzling banh xeo. Can you hear all ten go "xeo"?

Chợ Bến Thành – Part I

2008-07-17T00:46:00.038-04:00

One of the most common sights in Vietnam is food markets. Chợ Bến Thành is the best known market in HCMC. I’ve already posted about the food I’ve been eating at Chợ Bến Thành but I’ve been meaning to have a whole overview of Chợ Bến Thành since there is so much more than just the “food court”. I live a minute away so I am pretty familiar with this market. You can’t get lost like you would in a souk in Morocco but there is definitely a lot to see. I will cover the fresh food section around the market and will have another post on what’s inside.

I live by the north side of the market or by the cửa bắc (north entry). When we first started living here, The Boyfriend asked me what cửa bắc meant. Not having started my Vietnamese lessons, I had no idea. Now it’s so obvious! My Vietnamese lessons are already paying dividends (unlike my currently underperforming stocks...)! By the cửa bắc are flower vendors and fruit vendors. I find the fruit vendors here though quite pricey so I never buy fruit from them. I love going through the doors because it smells like fresh flowers!

Cửa Bắc. The north side entry of Chợ Bến Thành.

Fresh flower merchants by the northern entry.

Fruit vendors on Lê Thánh Tôn St. always stack their fruit nicely but charge a lot.

Right after the flower section, on the right and left side is the fresh food market. This is my favourite section. They sell anything fresh you can think of (and some things you would never think of): vegetables, meat, fish, frogs, seafood, eggs, etc. It is most active in the morning. Customers look at produce and negotiate. Vendors clean fish. I’ve even witnessed passionate arguments with women on the verge of physical altercations. I could learn a few Vietnamese swear words from them. For this section, pictures are worth a thousand words!

All sorts of fresh vegetables are sold.

Fresh green peppercorns. I love finding things I’m not used to seeing fresh!

The gac fruit is so amazing looking. Read all about it on Gastronomy!

Freshly grated coconut. You can find a lot of food here already prepped so you can save yourself the hassle: peeled potatoes, sliced onions, minced garlic, etc.

Tofu vendor. There’s a little girl who always helps her mom sell tofu.

Fresh seafood. The shrimps are still alive!

Fish debris. Eewwwwww!

Don’t these crabs look beautiful with their bright blue coloured claws?

Poor Frogs. Before, and unfortunately after.

This vendor only sells fake flowers.

The meat and fish rows. It can get stinky in here!

I don’t know what these are but I was told they’re from the sea…

Fresh and dried fish.

All sorts of innards. Looks yummy…!

Hooves anyone?

The crab vendor. All picked and ready to eat, or at least cook with. Isn’t this to die for?

Fresh snails and clams.

I always buy vegetables here, but did you notice what else she sells??

Yep, that's right. Some type of grub.

Philippines: Sabang (July 6-9)

2008-07-14T21:05:00.033-04:00

On Monday morning, C2 and I headed out to Sabang, two hours north of Puerto Princessa by car. On our way to Sabang, we passed by Vietville, a village with only 7 remaining Vietnamese families, refugees from the war; most have either emigrated to North America or been sent back to Vietnam. Sabang’s main attraction, the Subterranean River, is renowned to be the longest river-traversed tunnel in the world.

On our way to Sabang we encountered this bus/jeepney. Talk about full capacity!

The whole tour of the river only takes 45 minutes but it is very unique. It is pitch black except for one flashlight in the front. The tour guide/navigator is in the back. He is very entertaining. He screams out where to point the flashlight and what the stalactite and stalagmite formations resemble such as bacon, mushroom, a sexy Sharon Stone and obviously, different people from the Bible. The cave was full of bats and I tried to shelter my camera from drops of water (or maybe they were bat droppings…). I’m not sure the pictures really capture the experience but here goes.

All decked out in safety equipment to go underground. Behind me is the entry to the cave.

Bats were flying everywhere and I was lucky to catch one with my camera.

Formation from the top is stalactite (and bottom is stalagmite - sometimes they meet to form columns).

I don’t remember what this was supposed to look like but it’s cool anyway.

This resembles a bird.

Outside of the cave were wild monkeys that were very much accustomed to humans. One tried to whack my camera away when I tried to take its picture. They do not like paparazzi! Supposedly they also like to grab plastic bags. I was lucky enough to spot atop a tree a baby monkey and its mother.

In Sabang, we met up with The Gastronomer and The Astronomer, who fell in love with the beach there. Who wouldn’t fall for the beautiful turquoise water? The sand was also perfectly fine and soft. The water was clear very far out. So we decided to stay in Sabang for the remainder of our stay in Palawan. We stayed at Michi’s but went swimming to the nicer beach at Mary’s next doors. The two owners are cousins.

The huts we stayed in had very basic amenities: electricity from 6-10 pm (run by a generator) and cold water. This is definitely not what I’m used to. I usually have the AC turned on all night in HCMC! As well, this meant we had to walk in the dark in the evening; C2 would light our path with her cell phone to avoid buffalo excrement on our path to our hut! The up side to this was that the sky was so clear, we could see millions of stars!

Michi’s “Cottages”.

This was our simple hut.

Beautiful palm trees by the beach.

View of the beach from my lounge chair.

Local kids taking a dip.

I tried to catch the sunset but it was behind the mountain.

Some pink morning colours.

On our last full day in the Philippines, we decided to hike to the Subterranean River because The Gastronomer and The Astronomer had not seen it. However, we realized we had to cross a section of water before starting the hike. Not wanting to get wet and then having to hike (ok! I’m wimpy! I also had an injured ankle from our volcano hike!), I backed out and spent my day by the beach. Supposedly, the hike was a two hour affair; I’m glad I didn’t go!

Last glimpse at the beach by Mary’s before we left.

The day of our departure, we were told that the bus back to Puerto Princessa was leaving at 10 am but we should be there at 9 am because it would just leave when it was full. We obviously did not know how Philippino time works!! We arrived at 9 am and it was confirmed that the bus would leave at 10 am. We sat in the bus well past 11 am; that's when we realized that this bus might not leave on time for us to make our flight! Supposedly, there was an issue with a lack of driver?! We finally got out to make alternate plans to rent a minivan. The Gastronomer and The Astronomer ordered breakfast. At 12: 15 pm, the bus decides to leave and we hopped on. The bus ride was over 2.5 hours, stopping for everything: people threw nipa on the roof, a tire,… Our two hour window for lunch diminished to no window but at least we made our flight!

All in all, I had a lovely time in the Philippines. I think it is an underrated destination and should be considered when in South East Asia.

The bus that would not leave...

The Gastronomer has her breakfast to go.

Philippines: Island Hopping in Palawan (July 5)

2008-07-12T20:24:00.030-04:00

On Saturday afternoon, we flew out to Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan. Palawan is an island southwest of Manila. It is regarded as The Last Frontier and so we selected Palawan over Boracay. Although Boracay has beautiful beaches, it is known as a party town. Palawan is supposed to be more untouched.

The baggage carrousel was outside!

Pristine Beach. After inquiring whether there was a beach nearby at the hotel, we were told there was Pristine Beach. Unfortunately, it did not look too pristine!

C2 and I walked by a seaside village and this little boy followed us. He was very intrigued by the camera. He didn’t speak any English though. So cute!

We hit a Philippino restaurant to taste some of their specialties, including Crispy Pata, fried pork knuckles. The Gastronomer is enjoying every last bit of it. She’s not The Gastronomer for nothing!

On our second day in Palawan, C2 and I decided to go island hopping and snorkelling in Honda Bay (or Hunda Bay – Hunda meaning deep sea in Spanish). The Gastronomer and The Astronomer decided to head north to Sabang, having already experienced snorkelling in Nha Trang.

On our tour was our tour guide Aissa and two native Philippino from Manila: Ariel and Lai. We visited three islands. We spent the morning and had lunch on Pandan Island, its name stemming from the pandan trees. The beautiful island was small enough to walk around the perimeter in an hour. In the afternoon, we went to Snake Island where there was a dedicated space for snorkelling. Surprisingly, there were a lot of fish, especially if you fed them bread. On Starfish Island was an area with corals that was also great for snorkelling.

Most of the islands in Honda Bay are privately owned and visitors must pay a fee to visit. What’s amazing is that most Palawans don’t even know about these islands. Unfortunately, it’s a case of tourists getting to enjoy attractions rather than locals.

On our way to Pandan Island.

Our lovely guide Aissa!

Pandan Island from afar. The pandan trees are on the other side of the island!

Here are the pandan trees. The fruit looks like a warped pineapple!

I don’t know what this fruit is but its colour really popped in the background of beach colours.

The water was a beautiful turquoise. I wish I was there now!

Lunch comprised of rice, vegetables (eggplant was my favourite dish), chicken, squid and grilled tuna. There was a salad of tomatoes and salted eggs. Philippinos love salted eggs! All this for four people! We asked the tour guide to join us but she was shy about it and just picked at her food. After we finished, what was left went to the boat men (they wouldn’t join us either) and finally, their leftovers went to the dogs!

Our boat hit a shallow area where there were tons of starfish! These ones were by the beach. I tried to “rescue” them by throwing them farther into the water, but people kept picking them up and taking pictures with them over their heads. Don’t they realize they are living creatures!

Starfish Island.

I invited Ariel, Lai and Aissa for dinner. We went to Badjao Seafront restaurant which was close to Pristine Beach. Our new Philippino friends were lovely people and even insisted on paying for dinner (how embarrassing… I invited them!)

After dinner all five of us jumped into one tricycle because the restaurant was rather remote. Although the tricycles here are a bit roomier than in Manila, it was still a tight squeeze!

Philippines: Intramuros and Randomness in Manila (July 5)

2008-07-11T09:05:00.031-04:00

On Saturday morning, we parted ways to explore different areas in Manila: The Gastronomer and The Astronomer went to a food market, C2 went to visit the Chinese cemetery and I went to Intramuros. Intramuros is a walled city that was founded in the 16th century. I figured I could see some interesting Spanish influenced architecture. This area actually reminded me of the French Quarters in New Orleans.

Here are some of my favourite pictures.

I usually would never go in a horse drawn carriage but I twisted my ankle on my way down from the hike the previous day so I wanted to take it easy. I swear I'm not one of those people!

San Augustin Church, the oldest church in the Philippines.

Manila Cathedral.

Lions in front of the Cathedral seem to be an Asian influence?

Old buildings are resurfaced to look nice but maintain their original architecture.

Casa Manila.

An old convent.

Supposedly the Japanese held prisoners shackled down here. The prisoners would drown when water from the nearby River Pasig submerged it.

A section of the wall.

There’s even a McDonald’s within the walled city…!

City Hall outside the walls.

Here are more pictures of Manila’s unique types of transportations: the jeepney and tricycle. Not only are these unique, but each is also uniquely decorated to express the owner’s passions or hobbies.

Jeepney (mix between a bus and a jeep) is Philippines' most popular mode of public transportation. Originally, they were made from US military jeeps. When you get on, you just pay the driver if you're next to him; if not, you just give your money to the customer next to you, the money is passed on to the driver and any change is passed back the same way! The red one is my favourite one! Totalled decked out.

View of a jeepney from a jeepney.

Tricycle. People ride in the side car and behind the driver when the car is full. I guess it would be equivalent to Vietnam’s xe om.

Finally, most Philippino's are extremely devoted to Christianity. This could be seen everywhere. Every taxi had a few statues of Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. There were also Christian idols in the shopping malls. The jeepneys' names usually sounded Christian too, such as Almighty God above!

Enough said.

I got a glimpse of Jesus Christ at the intersection.

Lonely Planet said there were not many vegetarian options in the Philippines, but they do have Great Lenten specials!

Philippines: Manila and Lake Taal (July 3-4)

2008-07-10T05:19:00.021-04:00

I spent this last week in the Philippines. Unfortunately, The Boyfriend did not get to come; he had to work. Fortunately, I had three great travelling companions: The Gastronomer (whom I met through her Gastronomy website in HCMC), her boyfriend The Astronomer and C2 who works with The Astronomer. C2 is also a fellow Canadian Viet Kieu. Are all the aliases confusing?

After contemplating a few destinations within South East Asia, we were attracted to the Philippines because of the combination of city/beach we could visit at an affordable price. We also felt Philippines was more off the beaten track because it is not yet a popular destination for tourists. I think the Philippines is perceived as lacking its own unique culture after being colonized by Spain and then becoming an American territory? Incorrect! They definitely have a culture that is unique to them. I had imagined everyone speaking English (sort of like in Singapore) but while most people can speak English, most speak a mixture of Tagalog (with some Spanish sounding words) and English that’s quite intriguing.

Ok, no more of the boring stuff. Here are some pictures and an overview of our first few days in Manila. I will break the trip down into a few posts including entries of our stay on the island of Palawan.

Our trip started late on Wednesday night. It seems all Ho Chi Minh City-Manila flights are scheduled at 1 am. On top of this, our flight was delayed by over an hour. After arriving in Manila, we just slept in until noon. After waking up, we hit a mall to have some lunch and also book our flights to a beach destination. And maybe did a little bit of shopping...!

C2, The Astronomer and The Gastronomer taking a nap at Tan Son Nhat airport.

Manila is known for malls after malls after more malls!

The next day, we decided to go see Lake Taal. In the middle of the lake, is Volcano Island which has its own lake in the centre. We wanted to book a tour but the ones we found were about 100 USD! The G&A (Gastronomer and Astronomer) tried to book a taxi, but the driver called them at 4:30 am and demanded more money. We therefore had to go on our own by bus, which was quite the undertaking.

One thing we found about taxi drivers is that not all of them are familiar with the city. You really have to clarify whether they actually know where you want to go. Our taxi driver dropped us off at the bus depot, but we could not find our bus company. People were harrasing us to get on their buses. Finally, we were lucky to meet a lovely young woman, Rosalind, who correctly recognized we needed help. She took a jeepney with us to the correct bus area. A jeepney is a mixture of minibus and jeep; they usually have one route and people can jump in and out easily. She then guided us to our aircon bus. What a sweetheart! Tickets cost under 100 PHP (1 USD = 44 Philippino pesos).

We got to travel on the infamous jeepney on our way to the correct intersection for our bus to Tagaytay.

After we arrived in Tagaytay, we headed to Leslie’s Restaurant where the view of the lake was breathtaking.

We got to eat in cute huts.

This hut overlooking the lake required us to pay a 500 PHP (about 10 USD) premium which we weren’t willing to pay.

While we were eating, a man came to sell us a boat tour package. We agreed on 1500 PHP for the ride down to the dock and the boat ride to the island. However, he only agreed to one tricycle. A tricycle is made up of a side car bolted to a motorbike. So The Gastronomer and C2 (because they're the smaller ones...) climbed behind the driver while The Astronomer and I squeezed into the sidecar. It was an interesting ride down.

This is the only picture I could take of The Gastronomer and C2 behind her from my angle in the sidecar.

We then got a boat to cross over to Volcano Island.

We started the one mile hike up to the volcanic ridge. We were the rare ones who did not go on horseback.

These men were still hoping we’d go down on horseback so they kept following us.

Part of our hike seemed like we were on another planet. We could see vents with smoke coming out. We could also feel heat at our feet and smell sulphur.

The view of the lake within Volcano Island was pretty amazing: The Astronomer, The Gastronomer and C2.

The ride back up in the tricycle was more interesting. By then, it was raining. We decided to switch positions: C2 and The Gastronomer in the sidecar, The Astronomer and I on the motorbike. Imagine one motorbike pulling five people uphill in the rain!! The driver suddenly stopped to put a chain; the sidecar was not tightened sufficiently. He stopped a few times. It's never good when you need roadside maintenance...

The tricycle drove us to the bus stop and we took the first bus we got. Our bus ride back did not have air con and so was more affordable for locals. This also meant more frequent stops. There was a television screen at the front that showed the news or a basketball game. We glimpsed "typhoon" and "tropical depression" in Northern Palawan which was alarming since we were heading there the next day!

On our bus ride back to the city, C2 and The Gastronomer purchased a special buko (coconut juice) pie, not one of my favourites. Vendors would hop on the bus and sell food; a favourite seemed to be pork rinds.

A young girl got on the bus. I think her stop was near the Adventist Church. She stood up and started reading out loud even though she wasn’t very loud. She then passed these envelopes out! Philippinos are very religious; more pictures to come on that.

Exchange Sm-exchange Rate

2008-07-01T05:45:00.013-04:00

This entry might be boring to some. So warning!: I am going to discuss the VND:USD exchange rate because it has been a cause of frustration for me for the past month or so. I'll try to explain what I know the best I can, but I think there are many things I don't know nor understand.

The US dollar is highly used in Vietnam, like in many other poor countries. Not only is it widely used, but many things other than souvenirs for tourists are quoted in USD. I pay my Vietnamese classes and rent (the real source of my frustration) in USD.

When we arrived in Vietnam in February, 1 USD was worth about 16,000 dong. This number has been increasing as the USD has become scarce here. Someone is hogging USD, either Vietnamese people hoping it will go up (really, speculating) or possibly even the bank/government trying to decrease the use of USD in the country. The low supply of USD and higher demand is causing the price to increase (I remember something from my economics class...!).

This has caused Vietnam, in the past month or so, to have two exchange rates in the country: the official bank rate and the unofficial black market rate (the rate jewelry stores use). In the past months, in Thanh Nien, a Vietnamese daily, the black market rate was quoted, around 17,500 dong while the bank rate was around 16,400 dong.

You can imagine what this discrepancy instigates... What exchange rate should be used? This is actually quite a big difference when you're paying a large amount like rent. Our rent is 400 USD, but as we have used up our USD we have been paying in VND. My landlady has always gone by the black market rate. Since our rent has been stable (she would ask for an extra 30,000, about 2 USD due to the fluctuating exchange, which shows how petty she is!), I didn't actually realize there were two rates until last month, when she wanted an extra 400,000 dong (about 25 USD). After a heated discussion, we paid the bank rate but were told that next month she would only take USD.

Fast forward to this month. We tried to purchase USD at the bank but the bank had instated a policy that no USD could be purchased, unless you were closing your account. Even then, a request has to be written for the director to review. So no one can purchase USD, other than going to the jewelry store and paying the inflated exchange.

With the bank rate being 16,847 dong and the black market rate nearing 18,500 dong, we knew we were in for a battle. The landlady said she could not accept the bank rate because she would lose out. Really, she's only losing the potential of making more money. The exchange rate is not affecting her costs of running a building. I argued that The Boyfriend's salary is quoted in USD, but is paid in dong, using the bank rate, so we'd be paying an extra 40 USD. She argued we are two people and use a lot of water! What does that have to do with anything???

I asked her what the black market rate is because it wasn't quoted in the Thanh Nien. She said she'd go to a jewelry and check. How dubious does that sound? I think something has happened. Vietnamese people are discouraged to use this rate and so it is no longer quoted in the paper.

Since our lease ends at the end of the month, we figured we had some leverage because we want to stay an extra month. After telling our landlady this, and that we would only stay for the extra month if we paid the bank rate, she told us she'd ask her son. Ten minutes later, she knocked, smiling sheepishly. "Pay the bank rate! It's not a big difference!". Sure, it's not a big difference when you're getting an additional month's rent.

Whether any of this legal, I'm not sure. I just can't imagine this happening in Canada. I understand that the Canadian dollar is not strongly pegged against another currency. But still... When things like this happen, I realize I would not stay in Vietnam for the long term. Things like this would just infuriate me. Of course, next time we'll know better. Ask for a straight out quote in dong for rent or at least demand the bank exchange rate from the get go.

White Beauty

2008-06-25T08:31:00.017-04:00

I saw a disturbing advertisement for Pond’s White Beauty products when I went to see Iron Man a while ago. Not only was it disturbing, the ad was SO lame, pretty much your generic ad: girl uses White Beauty product, girl walks by café, all men turn and stare because she’s beautiful now! Pond’s (Unilever) is not the only company offering such products; there is also White Radiance from Olay. I meant to write about this after I took some pictures but security here is very strict, even at the supermarket. I was told I was not allowed to take pictures! Supposedly, it's easier to find pictures on the internet!

White Beauty and White Radiance beauty products.

I have to stay that I would describe myself as a person who doesn't push her opinions on others. I believe that people can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. So my dismay at this product surprised me. I dislike that the term "white beauty" implies that beauty stems from being white! What if you're not white? What's more infuriating is that there is a market for this in Asia which means people agree with this and are willing to buy a product to whiten their skin. I don't think beauty should be driven by a Caucasian standard!

A bit of internet research revealed that Pond’s White Beauty is a line of skin lightening products. My knowledge of beauty products is not very extensive so I’m not sure if this is a product only offered in Asia. However, I couldn't imagine such a product being sold in Canada without an uproar! I couldn’t find much information on the product in Vietnam. Most of the information came from India. This product line was launched in India last fall. There's an Indian commercial where most people don’t even look Indian and the girl who uses the product looks Caucasian. Finally, here's another blog post on this topic.

I had a relative (my mother's cousin's granddaughter, I think... only Vietnamese people would keep up with such relatives!) over this week. She saw my white bottle of extra strength moisturizer (I live in Canada!) and asked whether it worked at whitening. From my stay here, I have learned that Vietnamese are obsessed with keeping their skin white. Motorbike riders cover themselves rigorously to not get dark skin. A salesgirl once commented when I told her that I was from Canada “Why aren’t you whiter?”. Well, I’ve been here for a few months and the sun rays are very strong!

Entirely covered up motorbike females riders are not a rare sight in Vietnam.

Here's a vendor selling long gloves for motorbike riders.

The term for being tanned in Vietnamese is đen, which translates to black. There is a term for brown but that is not used. Again, I'm not sure if it’s just the negative perception of having dark skin. If only they knew how many people go to sun tanning salons in North America! Here's a Vietnamese point of view on this issue.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating to stop using sunscreen. I try to use sunscreen regulary because I don’t want to burn. The potential of skin cancer is very serious although I think Asians have a lower risk due to the higher pigmentation in their skin. I just don't like being encouraged to look white to be beautiful.

On a sort of side note, growing up, my mother referred to her numerous freckles using a Vietnamese term, which translates to "bird shit" (pardon my language!). I have noticed an increased amount of freckles on my face and I have decided they're cute! It seems having pale white skin is ingrained at an early age!

Aside from all of my issues with “white beauty”, you also have to wonder what is in this product? Is there a bleaching agent? The commercial mentions detox vitamins. I have never heard of such vitamins, but I’m not sure I would want it on my skin!

A Night of ăn nhậu and Karaoke

2008-06-24T03:36:00.023-04:00

A bunch of us continued with The Astronomer’s birthday celebrations and met up in District 4 to go ăn nhậu. An nhậu is one of those Vietnamese terms that can’t be translated accurately. An means eat and ăn nhậu refers to eating snack-y food to accompany drinking. Usually, ăn nhậu is used to describe men getting together to drink and eat snacks. A typical snack is dried squid which I guess is sort of equivalent to peanuts or pretzels at bars back home.

After mentioning to my Vietnamese teacher that I had ăn nhậu on the weekend, she informed me that this term has negative connotations. It usually implies men drinking excessively on a regular basis. Therefore, as a woman, I should not use the term to describe my activities or risk people assuming I’m a hard core drinker. Rather I should have said I went out for a birthday celebrations, where I ate and drank a bit...!

On this evening, our snacks were various shellfish and the alcohol of choice was nep ruou, rice wine. The rice wine came in bottles costing 10,000 dong (0.63 USD). That’s a steal because a bottle is potent enough to get a few people happy and singing. The goal was to open The Astronomer up enough so he would be singing karaoke later. His Vietnamese teacher H thought that one could not leave the country without this quintessential Vietnamese experience!

The place where we went to ăn nhậu. Notice: no women!

The birthday boy with the bottle of rice wine.

The Gastronomer joins in on the shots while C2 looks on.

*CAUTION* This may be disturbing to some. Hột vịt lộn in tamarind sauce. Hột vịt lộn is a fertilized duck egg with an embryo inside – you might have seen this on Fear Factor or Survivor! Read Jay’s and Rachel’s experience with balut – the equivalent in the Philippines. I grew up eating this so it doesn’t bother me but I like eating this better simply boiled, still in the egg shell with a bit of salt and pepper. Whenever a white person asked what the eggs were at Asian markets back home (yes, you can find them back home if you really look), my mom would advise them “You don’t want to buy that!”.

Clams backed with peanuts and scallion oil (delicious!). In the background are blood cockles (a type of shellfish) in tamarind sauce.

The girls enjoying some clams (V, H, C2 – C2 because her name starts with C and she’s Canadian too!).

The whole group.

Being a Saturday night, most karaoke bars were either booked up or didn’t allow reservations. After many calls to different karaoke bars, H found one where a room was available. The room was actually very impressive looking and at 118,000 dong an hour (8 USD), not a bad deal! There was a large selection of English songs with an even larger selection of Vietnamese songs. After singing each song, a grade was given; we ranged from 75% to 100%.

And the award goes to…
Best undiscovered talent: The Astronomer
Best prepared after years of singing in front of the mirror: The Gastronomer
Best duo of the night: C2 and the Gastronomer with their rendition of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise (the only 100% score of the night). Never knew Asian girls could be such good rappers!
Cutest singer of the night: H singing Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and stating it was her favourite song to sing!

The Astronomer got right into it with The Beatles "Baby You Can Drive My Car".

H singing a Vietnamese song.

The Astronomer singing We Will Rock You.

Best duo of the night!

Singing is not my forte. Slapping The Boyfriend is!

How cute! The birthday boy is serenading The Gastronomer.

Miss Universe Contestants

2008-06-24T02:51:00.015-04:00

Last Saturday, I met up with some friends for dim sum at the New World Hotel, for The Astronomer’s birthday (24! So young!). As I was walking along the hotel outside, I saw signs advertising New World Hotel being the Ho Chi Minh host hotel for Miss Universe. I did not realize then that I would be walking among the beautiful contestants very soon. Miss Universe is to be held in Nha Trang (north of Ho Chi Minh City) next month. I’m hoping to go to Nha Trang before I leave, not to bump into The Donald but for the beaches!

The dim sum restaurant, Dynasty, was on the second floor right by the elevator. As I was waiting in the lobby with The Gastronomer and The Astronomer, contestants kept coming out of the elevator and going to a conference room. They were hard to miss with their sashes. Kids were waiting to get their pictures taken and so I decided to become a paparazzi and take some pictures also. I thought it would make for an entertaining post!

The girls were very accommodating and always stopped to smile, even though their handlers kept rushing them through. All of them were taller than me (not a difficult feat!), but even more taller in heels. I left early and missed Miss Vietnam but The Gastronomer snagged a picture! I never saw Miss Canada either… Check out the pics below because really, no need for words!

The Astronomer posing with Miss Universe 2007.

Miss Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.

Notice contestants were all legs!

Miss Slovenia and South Africa.

Latin Americans like to stick together: Miss Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras and Guatemala.

Miss Norway and Finland.

Miss Israel, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Nicaragua going down the stairs.

Miss Australia was posing with some rugby players.

H, The Astronomer's Vietnamese teacher got to pose with Miss Vietnam!

Vung Tau (June 14-15)

2008-06-16T10:14:00.029-04:00

The Boyfriend and I had been planning on spending a beach weekend in Vung Tau (or Cap Saint-Jacques as it was known by the French) for a while now. However, The Boyfriend has been trying to get his visa renewed and so did not have his passport. All hotels in Vietnam require passports and we didn’t want to risk going without one. He finally got his passport back this past week and so off to Vung Tau we went.

Vung Tau is an hour and fifteen minutes by ferry (hydrofoil) from HCMC. A one way ticket costs 140,000 (about 9 USD). We booked our tickets on Thursday for Saturday morning and many of the morning departures were already solidly booked. We therefore booked to leave at noon and come back at 3 pm the next day.

The Saigon River is not very clean...

Big net on that fishing boat!

It was bright and sunny as we approached Vung Tau!

I searched for hotels and we decided to splurge on a nicer one with a pool. A standard room went for 55 USD (up until now, our stays have not gone over 27 USD!). We wanted a pool because although Vung Tau is on the water, it is highly polluted due to offshore drilling. We were not willing to go swimming downriver from HCMC! All the pictures of The Petro House seemed very nice. It was described as a boutique hotel.

We were rather disappointed to see our small and smelly room, with a window facing… a wall! We went back to the reception and demanded another room. We were told that they’d show us another room and if we weren’t happy we would have to get a deluxe room. The second room had a view of the pool. It still wasn’t what I’d imagine a boutique hotel room to be, but it was much better than the first room we got. This proves that it’s true: you should never accept the first room you’re assigned at a hotel!

The pool at the Petro House.

As described by the hotel brochure "the only Gourmet and Garlic dining room in Vung Tau". I've never eaten at a Garlic dining room before...

The much better view from our second bedroom.

On our arrival, we decided to lounge at the pool. We decided that we could go for a walk later to see the sunset on top of a pagoda. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining brightly. Unfortunately, the pool was as small as a private pool; fortunately, we were the only one using the pool (and the only two lounge chairs!). When we decided we were ready for our walk is when it started raining. And pouring. And raining some more. I even convinced The Boyfriend that it stopped raining. As we walked around, we realized it wasn’t true. So we spent the rest of the evening at the hotel. No sunset for us!

The rain or dirty waters didn't stop some from going for a swim.

The next morning was bright and sunny again. After breakfast and a quick dip in the pool (we were alone again!), we got a taxi ride to the Niet Ban Tinh Xa Pagoda where we were expecting a nice view. It wasn't quite high enough on the mountain. So we walked back toward the ferry station and stopped for a drink. We'll have to come again to explore some more and hope for better weather!

Can you see the back of the giant Jesus statue?

At the Niet Ban Tinh Xa Pagoda.

At the Niet Ban Tinh Xa Pagoda. This Buddha isn't quite as big as the reclining Buddha in Bangkok!

Vung Tau coast.

Fish traps on the coast.

As we leafed through our menu, The Boyfriend pointed that the picture strangely looked like... a Big Mac! Can you sing the Big Mac song?

A little red tugboat pulling a rig. (The Boyfriend's observations. I wouldn't notice these things!)

I think these were for rent, right by the road.

As we waited for our ferry back, this little boy was wearing a big furry hat, in sharp contrast to the girl in a straw hat, fanning herself!

This is our hydrofoil. It can hold over 100 passengers!

Can you see the water spout (which is like a water tornado)? Again one of The Boyfriend's observations.

Cho Benh Thanh Challenge II

2008-06-09T00:35:00.015-04:00

I realize that I still have a lot of stalls to eat at if I’m going to finish this challenge! So here are the latest updates:

Bo la lot & banh hoi at Stall 1090, 20,000 dong. Bo la lot is grilled ground beef wrapped in la lot (betel leaves). They’re the little green cylindrical packages. I remember my mom using vine leaves when she could not find betel leaves at Asian markets. I asked to substitute the usual bun (vermicelli) for banh hoi - very thin rice noodles, usually steamed instead of boiled. I really enjoy these thin noodles. The beef seasoning was excellent, but I’m used to a better quality meat. I couldn’t resist ordering a chao tom (ground shrimp, grilled around a sugar cane) for an extra 15,000 dong.

Banh Canh Ga at Stall 1084, 25,000 dong. I had spotted a stall selling chao (rice porridge) and had the intention of eating there, but it was closed. Looking lost in the middle of food stalls in Cho Benh Thanh will quickly attract vendors asking you to come eat at their stall. The lady assured me her stall had chao ga (ga = chicken). Once I sat down, the lady at the counter offered mien ga (clear noodles) or banh canh ga. I ordered banh canh ga – banh canh is specifically the fat noodles above. The broth was excellent, sweet and flavourful. Banh canh is not my favourite though; I don’t hate it but I don’t love it.

Bun Rieu at Stall 1128, 20,000 dong. I do not usually feel like eating soups due to the hot weather here even though I am a total soup fanatic. After a morning shower, it actually felt cool so I thought I should take advantage of the weather and have some soup. Bun rieu is a vermicelli crab soup and is one of my favourites in the winter. It’s hard to explain what it is since my mom actually makes the rieu (the lumps at the bottom) from a can and simply adds eggs. Authentic rieu is made from a tiny crab mixture. The norm here is to serve fried tofu and huyet (blood). I had a nibble of the blood just to say I did, but it’s not really my thing. They served this with bean sprouts. I like my version better (even if it’s from a can) because I add a ridiculous amount of tomatoes and iceberg lettuce! It was still good though.

A condiment for bun rieu is mam (middle container), which is fermented shrimp paste. It’s stinky and salty, but it’s a must for this dish!

Banh beo at Stall 1170, 6,000 dong. I realize I've included banh beo in this eating challenge before. That’s because there is a lot of overlap between the food stalls. I’ve noticed this stall in the northwest corner of the market because it always seems very busy. Maybe because of its low prices! This is my cheapest lunch yet. At this stall, the banh beo were a miniature version. You could have cha or nem for an extra 3000 dong. I opted for nem since I haven’t had any since I got here. Nem is ground pork that is cured and is not cooked. This was good although the nuoc cham was a tad on the sweet side, even for my taste (and I like it sweet!).

Bun moc at Stall 1266, 25,000 dong. Bun moc is a pretty simple soup: broth, noodles and pork patties. The broth was very flavourful and the cha was very good too. It was good, but I was sweating buckets which made it a bit harder to enjoy. I find it hard to eat soup in the hot weather.

Bun cha gio & nem nuong at Stall 1044, 30,000 dong. I’ve been obsessing about cha gio (fried spring rolls). This is the fifth time I’ve had it in a week… These were good because the vendor heated them up on charcoal grills so they were crisp and hot. The filling had big chunks of pork, which I’m not used to because my mom usually uses ground pork. The nem nuong (grilled pork meatballs) were perfectly flavoured; they were just very fatty. Again, I’m used to my mom’s and she uses leaner meat. The little joint near my place definitely makes them better!

Rau ma, 6000 dong. I accompanied my cha gio with a rau ma juice. I’ve never had this green juice and my mother tells me it’s very cooling. Not just cool temperature wise. Vietnamese people believe that certain foods make you hot or cool internally. Well, rau ma may be cooling but it tastes the way it looks, like drinking grass. It was fine when I was drinking it, but the minute I swallowed, it was just grotesque.

Com chay thap cam at Stall 1014, 15,000 dong. Being the first (along with the 15th) of the lunar month, most com tam (rice) stalls offer a chay (vegetarian) option for practicing Buddhists. Thap cam is sort of the special (I can’t think of the correct English term!) which includes pretty much a little of everything offered. In this case, there was a lot of tofu, some okra, some faux chicken at the bottom and pickled vegetables over a bed of rice, accompanied by a sauce made out of chau (fermented tofu). It also came with a canh (soup) with big chunks of squash. This was pretty good; I liked certain things more than others. I wish I had a better idea what I was eating though!

Bo bit tet at Stall 1054, 25,000 dong. I’ve had bo bit tet (beefsteak) a couple of times in Vietnam. The best I’ve had is still at my aunt’s; she used melt-in-your-mouth Australian beef. I headed for Cho Benh Thanh around 9:00 (that’s early! I’m usually lazing around at that time) for breakfast. The bit tet came out on a sizzling cow-shaped plate with one egg, topped with pate, onion and crispy slices of garlic. Vietnamese love their pate, another French influence. The piece of beef was pretty small. This was accompanied by a banh mi (Vietnamese baguette bread) to sop up all the sauce. Quite a heavy breakfast! I’ll have to hit the gym extra hard today!

Bigger than a Pugger

2008-06-06T08:50:00.004-04:00

Once upon a time, I had the reputation, for a few days at work, to have eaten a pugger burger. A pugger burger is a specialty at a Hamilton restaurant (O'Neill's on Barton St. E) and is infamous for its one pound beef patty. It also came with onion rings and I can never resist onion rings! My colleague A bet me that I couldn't do it so I had to prove him wrong! And so I did, in front of a small audience, and did not eat afterwards for a long while.

What could beat a pound patty you wonder? Well, how about a 1.4 kg patty (3 lbs!)? The Gastronomer wrote about it. Check it out: The Big Cheese.

If you're wondering, no, The Boyfriend did not partake in this. Rather, he had a much smaller veggie burger.

The Big Cheese could easily gobble up The Boyfriend's veggie burger!

Snackety Snack Snack

2008-06-05T21:46:00.009-04:00

I am a BIG snacker. I like eating in between meals, out of boredom or just wanting to have something in my mouth (regardless of hunger!). I usually go for salty snacks which crunch. I am quite the chip expert. (I remember my old roommate D and I spending break time, when we took Spanish, looking at vending machines and selecting our favourite snacks...) However, I do enjoy some sweets. Often combining both is actually the perfect solution. For example, a bit of chips, then a bit of chocolate then back to some chips. (After not feeling well pigging out on chips, D and I found the perfect cure: cheesecake!)

Unfortunately, chips and chocolate are not widely available here. Actually, I do know where to find them, they’re just quite expensive. When you’re used to forking 18,000 dong for three sleeves of Oreo’s (for The Boyfriend), it’s hard to pay 63,000 dong for a back of Tostitos (about 4 USD).

Foreign chip selection consists of Doritos, Kettle Chips, Tostitos, Pringles and Lay’s Stax (actually the last two are affordable). Didn’t I say I was a chip expert? Regular chips, with or without ridges (I miss my sour cream and onion Ruffles!), are hard to find, except for O’Star below.

The different aspect of snacks here is the smaller size. There are no 180g bags of chips, and definitely not the megasize bags found at supermarkets back home! This is good for portion control. Not so good when your bag runs out and you’re left craving more. I’ve included the sizes for some of my favourites snacks below.

Banh phong tom, handful, 3000 dong. Banh phong tom are shrimp chips and are sold by vendors walking the streets. You can notice large chunks of pepper - hmmm! I find this on the greasy side though.

Shek Perisa Sayur Vegetable Snack, 55 g, 7500 dong. This Malaysian snack looks and tastes like little banh phong tom, with specks of vegetables, except it tastes less greasy. It also has a little kick sometimes. Perfect for my salt and crunch cravings! I also like to delude myself into thinking it’s healthy because it has vegetables. These are one of my favourite snacks here!

Mut Dau Tam, 190g, 5500 dong. These are berry flavoured, sugard coated jelly candies from Dalat (Yeah, an actual Vietnamese snack!). These blackberry (I think?) ones taste like candies back home. The strawberries don’t quite taste the same. They taste more like dried strawberries.

Mango Candy Mini Drops, 40 g, 6200 dong. These are also jelly candies. These treats from Malaysia are hard to find. I have only found them at the 24 gio convenience store. I love these! Too bad it takes me about 10 seconds to finish a box...

O’Star Potato Chips, 20 g, 3000 dong. These Vietnamese rippled chips are good enough for my chip craves. Unfortunately, the 20 g portion is really just a teaser. The flavours include: sour cream & onion, seaweed and Texas BBQ. I’ve tried the first two flavours, very good; I’ll pass on the third.

Toonies, 35 g, 4000 dong. These treats from Vietnam pretty much have the texture of Humpty Dumpty Cruncheez or hard Cheetos. There are two flavours: vi cay (chili) and pho mai (cheese). I’ve only tried vi cay; it wasn’t hot at all and it’s actually a bit sweet. But it delivers on crunch!

Nui, 3000 dong per bag. The Boyfriend and I discovered these in the Mekong Delta where The Boyfriend bought them for 10,000 dong from a mobile vendor. (She was quite astounded and laughed wholeheartedly when The Boyfriend asked her "Bao nhieu?" - how much?). I think nui comes from the French term nouille, for noodle. They taste like corn and are perfectly crunchy, salty and spicy! The only issue is that they're sometimes a bit too garlicky. That bag may look small but they're extremely filling!
Banh lo tai heo, 4000 dong per bag. I discovered these on the Gastronomy website and found them at the same vendor at Benh Thanh Market who also sells the nui. Lo tai heo actually means pig ear, referring to its similar shape; I actually find they look like pretty seashells. The Boyfriend loves these for their crunch. They just have a slight hint of sweetness.

The Art of Dealing with Begging

2008-06-04T02:14:00.004-04:00

One thing I don’t think I’ve discussed too much on my blog, except for the orphanage entry, is the poverty here. Specifically, I wanted to share about beggars in this post.

It’s no surprise in a big city like HCMC and in a poor country like Vietnam, that there are many beggars. I would say being a pedestrian in this city, I encounter beggars on a daily basis. I think there are more beggars here than back home; however, it’s hard to say considering that most of the time I drove to and back from work and so would never encounter any beggars.

There are many types of beggars here in Vietnam: kids, mothers holding their babies, war veterans (I’m assuming) missing some limbs and very old people. Some of them actually don’t beg, but try to provide a “service” like selling gum or lottery tickets, or offering shoe shines (even if you’re wearing sandals).

I never give money to beggars. I don’t want to excuse it but I have a few reasons, that are mainly relevant back home. One reason is that beggars will use money for drugs and liquor. Second, is that I’d rather give money to a charity and ensure my money will help them. Third, some do take advantage of it, like the old lady in Toronto who went home to top of the line electronics because she made so much money begging.

So I’ve pretty much been following this “policy” about not giving here also. Now don’t think I don’t feel bad. I am Catholic and we’re good at feeling guilty. One of my other thoughts here is that there are so many beggars that I can’t give money to everyone!

The Lonely Plant had a pretty ridiculous cautionary tale about giving money to beggars. The gist of it is that one homeless boy was so good at begging, having learned English to charm tourists, that he would receive large amounts of money. Not being educated and living on the streets, he used this money and became a heroine addict. This is not where the tale ends… he caught HIV and finally died of AIDS.

I don’t actually believe giving money to beggars will lead down this extreme path. I’ve just been used to not giving money. I’ve noticed most tourists have the same attitude. Some have even worst attitudes. The Boyfriend was very angry when he saw a tourist taking a photograph of a blind old lady, sitting on the streets begging, as if that wasn’t demeaning enough. You don’t want to know the names he called her! (BTW, The Boyfriend doesn’t follow my policy and has given to this blind lady.)

A few weeks ago, I went to the pastry vendor around the corner for some goodies. When people buy something, it’s prime time for beggars since your wallet is already open. A man came and asked for money, and another customer gave him some. I wanted to ask him if he wanted food, but I was too shy. He then turned to me and said “Look, I don’t have legs. (Yes, I noticed…) I wouldn’t be begging if I didn’t have to.” And that’s when I realized it must be true and gave him some money.

Last week, I was buying my weekly sau rieng (durian) across the street from our alleyway. While the vendor was cutting my fruit a young girl about ten tried to sell me gum. (These girls don’t actually talk. They kind of half-heartedly whine and put their hands out, looking as sad as possible. Maybe they are sad.) I said no, but she just stood there. Finally, I asked her if she wanted a piece of sau rieng. She nodded in accord (Vietnamese like their stinky fruit!). I gave her a piece and she stood there eating it while I waited for the vendor to finish. I asked her if it was good and she nodded again.

This morning, I went to the pastry vendor. While I was waiting to be served, a girl came to sell me gum. I looked at her face and realized it was the same girl to whom I gave durian. I asked her if she wanted to eat anything. She nodded. "What do you want?" I had to ask her a few times before she pointed to banh khoai mi (cassava cake). Suddenly, I was circled by another girl, an old lady, and a young woman with her baby. So I bought everyone a round of baked goods and gave some money to the mother after she said she needed money for milk. (I don’t want to sound like I’m Santa Claus, all the baked goods came to under 1USD.)

I guess I have been converted. One thing I have learned is that it’s ok to give money to beggars; it doesn’t mean you have to give money to each and everyone of them, every time. You do what you can. That’s what I used to say when I fundraised for the United Way. I also used to say in my presentation “1 in 5 live in poverty”. I was so shocked when people didn’t react to this sad statement. I realized I didn’t react to people showing me their sad conditions either.

I think it’s easier to say no; it’s kind of a way of denial. I’ve found giving actually is acknowledging that there is a need, that the girl is hungry. I’ve found that I’ve been thinking a lot more about these people after I give them something rather than the times I didn’t, which is contrary to what you would think.

Meanwhile, I have a feeling I’ll be seeing that little girl whenever I’m buying food and I’m ok with that.

Tailor Made

2008-06-01T02:48:00.010-04:00

One thing that Vietnam is renown for is getting tailor made clothing for cheap. Actually, Hoi An is specifically known for this but since we only spent an hour there, I didn’t get a chance to do this.

I was still unsure about the tailors’ skills here so I asked my sister to send me our favourite pair of pants. (Side note: translating terms like “pair of pants” is very entertaining for Vietnamese people since only English refers to pants as a “pair”. I learned my lesson the hard way!) I thought asking the tailor to make an exact copy of an existing pair of pants would guarantee a good product.

These pants were purchased five years ago when my sister was a salesgirl at Teenflo where she got an employee discount (and where she spent all of her paycheques!). I have the exact pants in black and brown, while I think my sister has them in three colours. Both of our black pants are worn out because we’ve worn them so much!

My mother also sent material because she didn’t think I could find nice material in Vietnam (she also sent zippers because she was worried about zipper quality here!). This is actually good advice, since the material is usually the costlier part of getting clothes sewn. The pants cost 140,000 dong (about 9 USD) to get sewn, but would have cost 500,000 dong (about 32 USD) if I got the material at the store. Still a good price though! It took 10 days, which is actually a long time, but I was in no rush; I don’t wear pants these days.

I think the pants came out very well, especially considering the cheap price! They’re not perfect. For example, you can see where the button is sewn on the tab; I don’t know why they didn’t hide that. However, it’s good enough for me to want to shop for material and get at least another pair sewn before I leave! The tailor was accommodating too when I asked to shorten the pockets – they were really long.

These are my sister's and my favourite pants after which we’ve modeled our new pants.

Pants made for my sister with fake pockets in the back. No comments on the lack of posterior please...

And never mind my crumpled shirt - I don't have an iron. Notice on the front tab, the sewing line for the button on the underside can be seen.

These are my newly sewn pants with real pockets.

I now have confidence enough in the tailors’ skills to get something made from a picture. So I’ll be looking for ideas and material this week. Maybe a dress? Maybe a shirt? Unfortunately, I’m not very creative when it comes to clothes. I need to see the finished product and try it, so we’ll see how it goes… I’ll post pictures if I get anything else done!

On the topic of clothes, this Marc Jacobs store opened nearby. If I could afford anything here, I would still get clothes tailor made!

Tropical Fruit Heaven

2008-05-29T00:21:00.019-04:00

One of the great advantages of living in a tropical climate is the availability of tropical fruit. Most of the fruit are local so no guilt about eating UN-locally! The Boyfriend and I have been having our fair share of fruit that are mainstream back home: bananas, papaya, pineapples, watermelon and mangoes (which The Boyfriend professes to be THE BEST fruit!). They are all delicious! However, there is quite a bit of fruit that people might be unfamiliar with them that are just as good. So here’s a little round-up of some of my favourites:

Mit (jackfruit). Like durian, jackfruit can be a very big fruit, without the big, dangerous spikes! They also have yellow flesh, but much brighter in colour. You can pull strips of flesh around the numerous seeds. This fruit is incredibly sweet! It has a bit of a smell, not as strong as durian, but The Boyfriend likes this one!

Mang cau (custard apple). This fruit has many seeds but it is definitely worthwhile to eat it and spit them out. Its white flesh has a hint of pear taste and texture. It’s hard to describe these fruit since they are so unique. This picture is one of three that I got my sister to blow up as a birthday gift for my mom. It’s hanging in her new kitchen now. Can’t wait to do the same when I get home! Not only do these fruit taste good, but they look good too!

Chom chom (rambutan). These alien looking little fruit are similar in size as lychees or longan fruit. Similarly, they also have a seed in the middle and taste quite good, with a milder flavour. I recently bought some that were quite green; I was worried they were not ripe but was told that they’re Thai rambutan.

Mang cut (mangosteen). I had been awaiting mangosteen season since I arrived in Vietnam. I remember buying some in Bangkok and my ex-roommate loving it. The Boyfriend thinks its taste is reminiscent of plum. The six segments inside the thick purple shell have the perfect combination of sweetness and tartness. The only issue with this fruit is that a good portion will not be edible (not sure if it's because they're not ripe). So you have to pick them carefully (a soft shell is a good indicator of a ripe fruit).

Bon bon (langsat). My mom has suggested I buy this fruit but I didn’t get to taste it until The Gastronomer gave me some. They were delicious and I immediately bought 1 kg! These little fruit have a grapefruit flavour without the tartness. They also have segments which remind me of the mangosteen. The Boyfriend loved them when I brought them home. As for looks, they’re not very pretty; they look like dirty bruised longan. Their outer skin is soft like a fig’s though.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

2008-05-21T06:02:00.006-04:00

We’re officially in the rainy season here in Vietnam. This means that if there’s one thing that you can count on, is that it will rain. It can be hot and sunny, and suddenly big black clouds will swoop in and you’re soaking wet in no time. The rain is needed as respite from the heat. When it doesn’t rain, it gets pretty hot.

This has affected my life in a few ways:
- I’ve abandoned my Birkenstock for flip flops. Birkenstock are more orthopedically friendly but they get soaked;
- I go straight for the shower after every outing to wash off my feet and legs from the dirt and mud;
- I must carry my yellow umbrella all the time, just in case;
- I schedule activities around the rain, trying to predict the rain, either quickly before it comes or waiting until it’s done.

In Vietnam, large water tanks are found on most rooftops. This holds water and keeps it hot using natural sunlight. This means that we have not needed to turn on the water heater for hot showers. It’s surprising how hot the water gets without any artificial heating! We will now have to start using the water heater as there is not sufficient sunlight to keep water hot.

Water tank on neighbour's rooftop.

I have surprised myself and have not become a hermit. I have come to accept the rain and have even gone out during a full rain shower. It seems I’m one of the rare ones in Vietnam with an umbrella. Most people have rain ponchos; these are more convenient on a motorbike I guess. A girl once joined me under my umbrella to protect herself from the rain and walked the few steps to her destination. She chitchatted and seemed nice but kind of shoved me out of the umbrella and so I ended up being half wet!

It’s true that most often, when it rains, it pours. Often, The Boyfriend and I will be caught at a restaurant and try to wait out the rain. Fortunately, restaurants here are far too polite to kick anyone out for lingering around too long.

I like taking pictures when it rains. It often rains so hard and always seems so impressive. However, the pictures never seem to capture the sudden coolness and the sound of the rain.

We were comfortably sitting on a patio watching the rain.

A woman got her rain poncho in time.

These people found refuge in the telephone booth.

The Stinky Fruit

2008-05-19T03:42:00.014-04:00

It is durian season in Vietnam, which means you’ll see trucks full of durians, motorbikes with baskets full of durians and vendors everywhere selling durians.

What is durian? Well, if you’ve ever smelt it, you would know. Durian is known as “King of fruit” in Southeast Asia. The Boyfriend calls it Ass Fruit. In Vietnamese, it's called sau rieng. It's quite a big fruit, weighing up to 10 lbs. and very prickly on the outside.

Since I do enjoy durian, it’s hard for me to describe it objectively. I will admit it has a strong smell, but the smell makes me crave durian. It’s banned in most hotels in South East Asia due to its smell, although I did sneak it in years ago at my fancy Bangkok hotel.

This is a sign on the wikipedia durian page from Singapore.

Smell is relative. My Vietnamese teacher came in once to my room after I enjoyed durian and said it smelt good! So here are some more observations I’ve found on the internet.

“… there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. […] it is in itself perfect. […] the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. ... as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed.”
British naturalist Rusell Wallace, 1856.

"completely rotten, mushy onions."
Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Food (I watched this episode this episode. He’s the freaking Bizarre Food Guy and spit it out – Booh!)

“Its taste can only be described as indescribable. Something that you either love or despise and afterwards your breath will smell as if you’ve been French kissing your dead grandmother. (while tasting the fruit) That’s awesome. That’s a noble fruit. Like a sweet, custardy, it’s kind of Vacherin like. But pungent, runny French cheeses not your idea of an appetizing description of fruit? It is in my book.”
Anthony Bourdain, No Reservation: Indonesia

These days, you can find all sorts of durian flavoured food: ice cream, xoi (sticky rice), pastries, candies, cake, etc. People love it here! Aside from its strong flavour though, I actually enjoy the texture of durian. It is like eating a creamy, sweet custard!

These durian vendors are in front of our alleyway every day. They asked me to take a picture of them and develop it. In exchange, I saved 2000 dong...!

Supposedly, the thick prickly skin cracking open is a sign of the fruit being ripe.

The vendors will cut up the fruit for you to take home. Durian has many segments that are housed in "compartments".

Durian in styrofoam container ready to take home. Durian segments range from pale beige to a nice yellow. I like the yellow best. They are currently selling two types: with small and big seeds. Small seeds (hot lep) mean more flesh to eat!

Because it is a fruit, The Boyfriend was willing to have a very small taste of it in the shape of my sinh to (fruit shake). He did not enjoy it, to say the least. He also had a taste accidentally once when his pineapple pastry ended up being durian flavoured. His students also keep giving him durian flavoured candies.

Like most fruit, I like eating my durian cold. However, the smell does permeate everything and The Boyfriend ends up eating durian-smelling bread. My solution is to leave my durian in our landlady's fridge. Every time I do, she tells me her granddaughter really likes it; this makes me worry that it will all be eaten! Today, she told me to be careful because I could get fat from eating too much durian... Getting fat from eating durian is the least of my worries!

I am going to take full advantage of durian season and enjoying it while I can. It is sold in Canada, fresh and frozen, but it is quite expensive.

Street Food II

2008-05-13T04:28:00.019-04:00

One thing I have learnt about street food is seizing the opportunity. You have to get it when you see it because it might not be there when you want it a few days, or even hours later.

Nem nuong, 13,000 dong. On my way to meeting The Boyfriend for lunch, I stopped to get a piece of banh chuoi (banana cake) for dessert. Just next door (or rather next stall), a man was grilling nem nuong (grilled pork meatballs) that smelt mouth-watering (can smells be mouth-watering?). They were just the perfect colour (not the weird, artificial red you see at restaurants back home) and grilled perfectly. I couldn’t help buying a stick, even though I was heading for lunch. As I walked down the street, men were laughing at me as I was enjoying my meatballs. They’re one of the best I’ve had!

Banh mi ga nuong (Turkish style), 14,000 dong. I would meet The Boyfriend to grab some Shawarma by his workplace. Supposedly, the owner learned to make these in Germany, where he spent some time and learnt how to make Turkish kebabs. He offers chicken shawarmas, but many teachers from The Boyfriend’s school, such as himself, get vegetarian ones. They have purple cabbage, lettuce, onion, tomatoes and tzatziki that has a good amount of dill! He uses bread similar to ciabatta and presses it in a panini grill! Perfect for those Middle Eastern cravings!

Banh mi bo duong, 5000 dong. Following dinner, The Boyfriend needed a sweet treat so we went to a vendor across from our alley selling bread with butter and sugar. The Boyfriend used to have something similar with the addition of cinnamon. I remember my mom’s friend’s son, that I just saw recently, used to have this!

Com binh dan. Com means rice and it is served daily at lunch time in our alleyway with a variety of meat, fish and vegetables. Here we have thit heo kho (braised pork) at the bottom left, and clockwise: ca kho (braised fish), xiu mai (ground pork patties), sautéed choux, pickled vegetables, chicken, fried fish and pork ribs. They set up around 11:00 am and by 11:30, people are waiting in line or sitting at the plastic chairs and tables, eating.

Canh. Canh is a simple broth and a vegetable served at every meal. The canh was being kept warm above hot charcoals. Today’s was made with napa cabbage.

Com, 18,000 dong. I picked an egg that was cooked with braised pork, fried fish fillet, some vegetables and the broth. The fish was on the salty side but very good and crispy. Sauce is placed in a little baggy. Vendors are expert at placing sauces in bags.

Che dau hu, 2500 dong. Che is the generic term for Vietnamese liquid dessert. Some are like puddings, some more like sweet soups. I'm not a big fan of che, but there are a few ones I like, including this tofu one. This is something I enjoy, oddly cold. They serve it hot with two additions I'm not used to: coconut milk and tapioca. I went without the coconut because it’s too heavy for me. The tapioca balls were ok, kind of chewy.

Bot chien, 10,000 dong. I pass by this vendor every day. I’ve been curious about bot chien, meaning fried dough, because I’ve never seen this dish until I got here. I’ve waited a while because it looks on the grea-Z-y side and I thought it’d be a bit too heavy. I don’t know what I was thinking! I LOVE grea-Z-y! The lady has a big pan of dough frying; she’ll add how many eggs you want, scramble it on top. It is served with some green papaya and a really good soy sauce. It’s all about the sauce! This is good; I may have a problem!

Bo bia ngot, 3,000 dong. After lunch with my mom’s friends and their families from Montreal (how the “kids” have grown! no longer kids!), I spotted this vendor. I know all about bo bia, a savoury roll of jicama and carrots, but ngot (sweet)? It consisted of a very thin crepe, stuffed with candied sugar, coconut and some sesame seeds. Roll it and you have a nice little treat. My mom’s friends thought we got gypped, even at that price.

Di Xem Phim II

2008-05-10T11:07:00.011-04:00

I did not think I would have much else to say about our second movie outing. I have to say I enjoy doing regular things, like going to see a movie, in a foreign country and finding little differences; I look at them as novelties. However, some differences can just be annoying!

The Boyfriend and I selected to see Jumper. By the way, Jumper came out on February 14 in North America so we’re about 3 months behind. By the way #2, many of the Detroit scenes were shot in Peterborough. We learnt our lesson last time and decided on an evening movie to ensure there would be popcorn available. When we bought our tickets, we were given assigned seats; this did not happen last time.

We were early and noticed a store so went to check it out. They sold books, crayons and DVD’s. To our great amusement and bewilderment, the DVD’s included burned copies of Jumper, the movie we were about to see!! We could have just bought it and watched it at home! They also had 10,000 BC, the movie The Boyfriend had wanted to see, but its run had just ended.

Excited to buy our popcorn, we went to check our options. Even though the signs had sizes small and large, it seemed there was only one size. We each got one popcorn and Pepsi for 27,000 dong each. (1 USD =16,000 dong and our tickets were 60,000 dong each.)

Sizes seem to be normal here, for now anyway, unlike our crazy SUPER-sizes!

The popcorn seemed to glisten more than usual and I just assumed it was very buttery. We tried to get into the theatre but it was still too early so we sat down to enjoy our popcorn. We were quite surprised to taste SWEET popcorn! Do people only eat SWEET popcorn in Vietnam? As I went to complain, The Boyfriend was still unhappily munching away.

Can you notice the extra glistening from the syrup? The popcorn wasn’t overly sweet, but it was still disconcerting to eat sweet popcorn at the movies. If I want sweet popcorn, I'll get caramel popcorn! This actually wasn't sweet enough for caramel popcorn.

When I asked the girl behind the counter whether they had salty popcorn, she said yes. When I asked if I could exchange mine, she looked at my bag and gave me a hard time because it wasn’t full anymore. I had eaten like 5 pieces!!! Are you serious? She did exchange it begrudgingly. When I got back to The Boyfriend, he had already eaten a significant portion that I didn’t think I could exchange.

We finally got in to our assigned seating. We then decided we needed a third bag of popcorn to replace the sweet one. After waiting in line with a lady trying to push her little girl in front of me (I would not give them an inch!), I specifically ordered a salty popcorn. I looked at my glistening popcorn and asked if this was salty. After mumbling something, the boy behind the counter gave me the right one.

When I got back in the theatre, there were about 6 people in our row, all sitting next to each other. They had not scattered assigned seating, so there were empty seats all around us and clumps of people randomly spread.

Previews started with my favourite rap about etiquette at the movies!!

The pictures are terribly blurry because we were in the dark and I was worried I'd get kicked out for taking pictures. I just couldn't resist because I find this so funny. I think the second panel says "Be smart when you're watching a movie", but I'm not sure.

People kept coming in late during the first 20 minutes of the movie. Typical Vietnamese! This was even more annoying because they had to sit at their assigned seats. We were sitting in the aisle, so people had to go past us to get to their seats. The ushers then realized that the couple next to us was in the wrong seats so they had to leave and another couple sat there. Sigh!

It was funny, the audience reacted loudly whenever there was an “exciting” part in the movie (for example, when the hero would suddenly teleport to a crazy location like the Grand Canyon). It would sort of be like a loud gasp and laugh with some chatter.

The people behind and in front of us were also whispering throughout. In the middle of the movie, we actually heard “you have a message” from a telephone. And someone's son kept talking out loud. Why won’t anyone respect the rap song?

The theatre wasn’t very well sound proofed either since we could hear the movie next door.

I want to see Iron Man next week and I’m determined to get it right on our third time!!

Mekong Delta – Early Day 2 (May 4)

2008-05-05T02:42:00.034-04:00

When we found out we had to wake up at 6 am on our second day in the Delta to catch the activities at the Cai Rang Floating Market, I thought The Boyfriend was going to kill me!! Sleep is sacred to him now that he’s working long days.

This market is the largest in the area. Between the market and the visit to the fruit plantations later in the day, I took many fruit pictures. Bear with me because it’s going to get fruit-y!

The Boyfriend and me. Friends complain I don’t put enough people pictures, so here’s one!

A boat full of jackfruit.

Baskets of long ngan fruit.

Advertising poles. As the pole advertises, this boat sold everything: garlic, onion, carrots, lettuce…

How about some jicama for bo bia?

A boat of watermelons.

Rice Husking Mill. Between fruit activities, we also visited a rice husking mill. This shows the various stages of rice husking. We passed on the 8:30 am offer of rice wine with 50% alcohol though.

Rice Reserves. These could be worth a lot with rice prices increasing!

Boat ride. Our boat ride to the fruit orchard was quite laborious at times due to the low tide. All sorts of things (plastic, clothes, plants) would get stuck on the propeller and would have to be removed.

Warm welcome. We were regularly greeted by cheerful HELLO and WHAT YOUR NAME? from kids running out of their houses along the river.

And now for pictures of fruit still on trees!

Bananas. With the beautiful flower still attached.

Jackfruit. They can get quite big.

A row of papaya trees.

Pineapple growing crooked.

Purple chili peppers.

Khe (starfruit).

Mang fruit (or rose apples), looking like two perfect bells.

And let’s not forget the mighty mango! This was the nicest cluster I found; never mind the bathroom as background…

All this in one morning!

Uncle Ho in Can Tho. I hope my mother will forgive me for this picture...

After we took the ferry leaving Can Tho, we had to wait for our bus since it wasn't on the ferry with us. As we waited, I wandered around an area with vendors catering to passengers from the ferry. I bought these fruit - I believe them to be marian plum. They look like apricots, but had the texture of a ripe plum, tasted very sour with some strong mango flavour!

Mekong Delta – Day 1 (May 3)

2008-05-04T21:59:00.026-04:00

After two months of staying put in HCMC, The Boyfriend and I booked a tour through the Mekong Delta with Sinh Café for the weekend. The two day/one night tour cost us 400,000 dong each (about $25 USD), which is actually an inflated price due to the holidays on the previous Wednesday and Thursday (April 30 was Liberation Day/Reunification Day and May 1 was International Labour Day). This included transportation, accommodations, a complimentary t-shirt, water bottle, pack of peanuts, lunch on the first day and breakfast on the second day. How can you complain? (ok, so I can always complain…)

Mekong Delta is the southernmost region of Vietnam. It is known for its rice production and its fertile soils that produce delicious, tropical fruit.

We left at 8 am from the Sinh Café office. It was crazy mayhem with people everywhere, but we were able to jump on the right bus. It took 2.5 hours to get to Cai Be. We got on a boat to go to the Cai Be floating market. By the time we arrived, it was too late for any market activity. No worries, we’d get to wake up early the next day to check out another market.

View from our boat. The pictures came out rather glum due the combination of grey skies and murky water. Our tour guide assured us that the brown colour is due to silt. Sure… I would still NOT be willing to jump in, thank you very much.

A woman selling pineapple from her boat.

Pumpkin boat. You can tell what vendors sell by what is hung on their poles.

We next visited, by boat, various factories producing candies, rice paper and Vietnamese rice krispies. The pictures speak for themselves:

Banh trang (rice paper) laid to dry.

Mixture to make coconut candies.

Keo dua (coconut candies). The candies tasted like coconut-flavoured salt water taffy: lots of chewing and stickiness! There must have been collusion in this area; wherever we went, everything cost 15,000 dong (various candies, crips, crackers). Even though this seemed like a lot for Vietnam, I bought 6 packs of candies (buy 5, get one free!)

Coconut and banana crisps. These banh were also produced and sold. The coconut ones were very crispy while the banana ones were a bit chewy. The sesame flavour came through in both. Add two packs of these to the candies!

Vietnamese rice krispies. Rice is “popped” using a traditional heating method. The rice is placed with sand in a big wok. The sand is used as a heat source and the rice is sifted once it’s popped. The rice krispies are then made by combining the rice with a syrup.

After lunch, we had half an hour to check out the market in Vinh Long. Finally, we crossed the Mekong River by ferry to Can Tho.

Ferry crossing. This is actually a picture on our way back, but the ferry was just as jam packed on our way there!

Can Tho Show. After dinner, we heard singing on Hai Ba Trung St. and decided to check out the show. Families on motorbikes were gathered in front of the stage, watching the various acts. This picture is not very clear; I was trying to capture the motorbikes zooming by, right in front of the stage!

Finally, here’s my whining! We stayed in Can Tho for the night. For the price we paid, we didn’t expect much from our hotel and our expectations were met! That the room was small, far from the centre of town, the bed was uncomfortable and there was no hot water was expected. That ants were crawling everywhere (on our bags, and even on The Boyfriend!!), not so good. We did have AC, but the machine made rhythmic sounds that is really hard to ignore when you cannot fall asleep. Oh well, what can you expect for 25 do-la?

French Imprints

2008-04-29T05:20:00.017-04:00

The French were in Vietnam for about 100 years. Although they have been gone for over 50 years, there are still some French imprints, albeit slowly disappearing. Not many people learn French anymore; rather, they’ll opt for English, or even Japanese. French probably left more of a mark on Vietnamese people of my parents’ generation.

Vocabulary. Some Vietnamese vocabulary still show sign of French, even though it’s not always that obvious. Western people have the tendency to assume that letters in Vietnamese are pronounced the same way as in their respective languages. Not so; I’ve been learning this the hard way! Here are some examples of French influenced terms I've noticed:
- xe buýt means bus. One of the lesser obvious terms. Xe means vehicle.
- ô tô was the term used for cars, or auto, in Northern Vietnam.
- ga means train station, as in gare.
- mơ đến is obviously modern (moderne)
- xu is cent (sous)

Songs. I grew up listening to French songs from the ‘60’s, followed by Vietnamese verses of the same songs. These included Tous les garçons et les filles (Françoise Hardy) and a French version of Nancy Sinatra’s Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down). I heard Aline (Christophe) on our drive from Danang to Hue, which made me giggle. My Vietnamese teacher always hums French songs. I also regularly pick up some French music, mixed in with the Vietnamese songs, in restaurants.

Street names. There are still French name streets like Pasteur and Alexandre De Rhodes (who converted many Vietnamese to Catholicism and is touted as having created the Vietnamese writing system, using the Roman alphabet). However, the well known Catinat St. is now known as Đồng Khởi St.

French Colonial Structures. The downtown core boasts Cathédrale Notre-Dame, the General Post Office and the Municipal Theatre as examples of French colonial structures (thanks to my Vietnam guidebook for this info!).

Food. Many of the French influences can be seen in Vietnamese food. Our banh mi is reminiscent of baguette. There are also some culinary terms that are French inspired:
- Bò bít tết refers to steak (usually served at breakfast with eggs. My aunt in Quang Ngai served some excellent Australian beef!). Ok, so this word is based on a French word (bifteck) which was based on an English term (beef steak).
- cà rốt is clearly carrot (carotte)
- cà phê is obviously coffee (café)
- núi, referring to nouille, is a pasta and beef dish sold street side
- sô-cô-la is chocolate (chocolat). One thing The Boyfriend pointed out that I never noticed (duh!) is that all Vietnamese words have one syllable, which explains why chocolate had to be broken down into three words.
- sốt means sauce, as in sốt cà chua, ketchup (cà chua means tomato!).

Pastries. There are many pastry shops here. This picture was taken at Pat-a-Chou (another French term!). At the top is a bánh paté chaud (a vol-au-vent stuffed with pork), on the right is a chocolate stuffed croissant and at the bottom a pineapple pastry.

- bánh flan (as in Spanish flan and not English fruit flan cake, totally different!) is a favourite dessert here and can be found everywhere, from Givral pastry shop to vendors on the streets. I think I eat about one every week…

- bánh su kem (choux à la crème) or cream puffs, are also quite popular here.

Dairy products. Not surprisingly, many dairy product terms come from the French since Vietnamese do not typically eat dairy food. Some French influenced dairy terms include:
- Kem is ice cream or crème glacée (limonade sucrée, dis-moi le nom de ton cavalier…)
- bơ is butter or beurre (and trai bơ is avocado, possibly alluding to its buttery texture)
- phô-mai or phó mát is cheese or fromage (and the most popular brand here is La Vache qui rit or con bò cười!)

Cho Ben Thanh Challenge

2008-04-28T02:10:00.026-04:00

I was thinking about food (well, that happens often). More specifically, I was thinking of all the dishes I had NOT eaten here yet (it was in the same train of thought that I did not want to leave Vietnam, regretting anything). Then as usual, I started comparing food to my mom’s. I realized that since I’ve moved out of my mom’s (in 2001), I only eat a number of dishes when I go back home. Dishes I crave. My favourite dishes. This puts a lot of dishes that I don't feel as strongly about on the wayside. Dishes that wouldn’t make my top ten, because it’s already crowded as it is.

I was actually thinking of one specific dish: mi quang. So I checked out the food blogs and found entries on noodlepie. He mentioned that he ate some at the Ben Thanh market. Why, I happen to live right by Ben Thanh market! So I went searching for the specific stall and ordered mi quang. I then realized that while I’d eaten a couple of times in the market, I really hadn’t given it enough of a chance. There’s so many food stalls with so many dishes, only minutes away. I decided to give myself a challenge to eat my way through, stall by stall. I have three months left! Here is what I have eaten so far:

Mi Quang at Stall 1092, 25,000 dong. Mi quang is a yellow noodle dish, a specialty of Da Nang that has a soupy sauce, but isn’t quite a soup. Like my mom’s, this one had cha (ground pork patty) and shrimp. Unlike my mom, it also had delicious meatballs. When I asked, I was told it consisted of pork and crab. So good and sweet!! Unfortunately, the banh trang (the sesame crackers on top) were very stale so didn’t really add that required crunch. I think I remember my mom deep frying them, which added more decadence!

Banh Cuon at Stall 1006, 20,000 dong. Banh cuon, described on the sign as steamed rolled rice pancake, is stuffed with ground pork. It was good as expected, but nothing special.

Banh cam (mobile), 3000 dong. While I was eating my banh cuon, a lady came by selling banh cam, a deep fried dough rolled in sesame seeds and stuffed with green beans. Perfect meal ending!

Thach at Stall 1010, 15,000 dong. Stall 1010 sells all sorts of sweets, cakes and thach, the Vietnamese version of jello. Well, The Boyfriend would disagree it’s like jello; it’s a bit too crunchy for his taste. Aren’t the shapes and colours pretty though? Some of the flavours include coconut, coffee and la dua (pandan leaf). I'm not sure if the pink is maybe strawberry?

Banh cam at Stall 1128, 3000 dong. I was looking for more banh cam and was pointed to this stall. I’ve noticed these are more densely packed with beans than back home and the sesame seeds aren’t all over the outside, rather it’s part of the syrup that is poured on top. When I took the picture, the lady made me wait to rearrange them so it would look nicer!

Bun Cha Gio at Stall 1124, 25,000 dong. After reading a few food blog entries about cha gio (fried spring rolls), I had to find myself some. It was a bit disappointing, burnt and stale. But a bowl of bun (vermicelli) with nuoc mam (fish sauce) always makes me happy.

Banh cuon thit nuong at Stall 1018, 10,000 dong for two rolls. I’ve actually been to this stall but didn’t have my memory card in my camera. So I decided to come back and try these rolls with grilled meat, herbs and noodles. I’ve never actually eaten these. It was quite good and I especially liked the accompanying peanut sauce.

Banh beo at Stall 1018, 20,000 dong. I also had a banh beo dish, which is dough that is steamed served with minced shrimp, fish sauce and crackling pork skin. Here, they serve it with cha hue (ground pork) and cha ca (ground fish). This is one of my favourite Vietnamese dishes.

Di Xem Phim – Going to See a Movie

2008-04-27T22:29:00.001-04:00

The Boyfriend and I decided to go see a movie. First was the challenge of finding what movies were playing. I had dropped by Galaxy Cinema, an “American-style” cinema, nearby and there were three options: Fool’s Gold (I knew for certain The Boyfriend would not be interested), a Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie and a kung fu movie. As I tried to remember the names of the last two movies, I forgot them on my walk home.

We searched the internet to see what else was playing and found one website that had the schedule for four movie theatres in the city. The selection was similar so we decided on the Jet Li movie Thong Linh (or Warlords). This website did not include Galaxy Cinema so I called to find out when it was playing. We settled on the 16:50 show, and I called back to make sure I understood properly.

As we got to the cinema, Thong Linh was actually playing at 16:40. Luckily, we got there 10 minutes early. We were looking forward to some popcorn, to find no popcorn in the popcorn machines and no one working behind the counter. Thoroughly disappointed! We went to our theatre and were ushered in to a given row. Not sure if we could have sat anywhere we wanted. It was already pitch black even though commercials were still playing.

We were just on time to see Tiger beer and Coors Light commercials while Heinekken was being sold outside. There was also a hilarious amateur-looking commercial, common to cinemas, about turning off your cell phone, except it also included not smoking (yes!), keeping quiet and not putting your feet up (I’m guilty of this when no one is in front of me…). This was rapped in Vietnamese, with scantily clad girls dancing in the background. That’s the way to get a message through!

The movie was actually in mandarin. There were Japanese subtitles, sandwiched between big yellow Vietnamese subtitles on top and smaller white subtitles in English. It was a bit distracting as I would try to read the English subtitles and the Vietnamese. The sound was terribly inconsistent, going from barely audible to deafeningly loud.

Warlords turned out to be a war/epic battles movie with a love story; I remembered why I don’t like and rarely watch these types of movies! Too much gore and violence!

A third of the way through the movie, I asked The Boyfriend when Jackie Chan was appearing. “I don’t think he’s in it”, he said. Weird, I was so sure he was! At a point, I heard a woman behind me talking. I turned around to see her on her cell phone. Obviously, she did not see the rap commercial! Who actually answers their cell phones at a movie theatre?

When we walked out after the movie, we could only smell one thing: popcorn! Outside, bags were pre-filled with popcorn. People were eating popcorn at their tables. We were not sure if popcorn was just an evening offering, but we felt SO cheated!

Finally, when we came home, I realized Vua Kungfu (The Forbidden Kingdom) was actually the Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie. There were two Jet Li movies! How confusing! This kung fun movie was actually in English too. Maybe I would have liked it better. Oh well!

I'm Singing in the Rain

2008-04-23T09:13:00.011-04:00

Rainy season has not officially started. However, we've had three rainstorms in the past week or so. Supposedly, it's going to get way worst. The Boyfriend and I have not yet got those plastic rain ponchos that everyone seems to have here. Not sure if these capture the amount of rain, but here are some pics.

View from the bedroom.

Grey skies forecast another rainshower.

The food vendors are ready.

After meeting for lunch with The Boyfriend (our regular yummy shawarma!), I was lucky enough to find a gazebo full of kids when I got caught in the rain.

Another view from the gazebo.

No Weddings and a Funeral

2008-04-21T09:48:00.009-04:00

While I did think that it would be cool to be invited for a wedding while I was Vietnam, I never thought I’d be attending a funeral. Unfortunately, my mother called me on Saturday morning to let me know that my uncle who lived in Saigon just passed away. I had met him for the first and only time a couple of months ago, at a dinner for his granddaughter’s birthday party.

I did not know my uncle very well but from my understanding he was a very generous and caring family man.

Feb 26. People enjoying some drinks after my cousin's daughter's party; my uncle’s sitting on the left.

Prayers started with female monks chanting with a plaintive wail. Its cadence had a soothing effect. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about Buddhism and so not much about funeral traditions either.

I don’t know if this means anything in Buddhism, but while prayers were going on, some cows passed by (you can notice the bus in the background, ready to carry mourners to the crematorium).

I’ll have to research this more, but there was a group of men in uniform, slightly reminiscent of the sailor guy from The Village People. They prayed and did a quasi mini-choreography.

They also were the ones who carried the casket. Initially, I was wondering if my uncle had been in the navy. My current impression is that it’s just a tradition and those men are for hire.

I realized I have seen this decorative vehicle once before and wondered then what it was. Now I know. While we drove to the crematorium, fake money was being thrown out the window. Traffic in Vietnam rarely stops but it actually stopped when we passed by.

Male monks (at the front) led the prayers at the crematorium. They had percussion instruments, again giving a rhythm to the prayers. They were all much younger than the female monks.

Randomness II

2008-04-17T03:01:00.011-04:00

More random observations:

Shampoo salons. You can find these all over the city. You can go there and have your hair washed. What’s funny is that there’s a bunch of girls, wearing the same outfit, usually short, tight and skimpy. Now I shouldn’t assume anything untoward is going on, but it’s hard not to think that.
Restaurants. Toothpicks are available at all restaurants. I guess that’s a good thing for tight teeth from braces like mine. Vietnamese are also big on moist towel-ettes, but you have to pay for them if you use them (usually 1000 dong). Sometimes, you get a moist and cool facecloth instead.
Laundry. Laundry here is charged by weight. We’ve paid between 7,000 to 15,000 dong per kilo. A good load of laundry probably weighs about 4-5 kg. This includes washing, drying and half-ass folding. Dry cleaning (which I think might just be regular washing and ironing) is 7000 dong per item. Which means our laundry bill doesn’t get close the 50 USD per month our landlady wanted to charge us, thank you very much!
Recycling. I made a comment about there being no recycling. I rescind my comment. There is recycling; it’s just done after the fact by the garbage/recycling person, who sifts through the garbage. It’s an unfortunate job, but it is a paying one.

Plastic containers and cardboards are separated for recycling.

Energy efficiency. I don’t think energy efficiency is an environmental concern here like it is back home. However, there is a high degree of energy efficiency; I’m not sure if it’s by necessity or to keep costs low. All light bulbs are fluorescent light bulbs. Our toilet uses a very small amount of water. At home it’s about 13L for toilets built after 1985 and new ultra low models use 6L (Freshwater website).

Here, our toilet even gives the option of using 3L!

Homeless people. I had not really thought about people on the streets being homeless. I think it’s not unusual for people to spend a whole day on the street: doing business, selling food, cigarettes or drinks. I just assumed they were relaxing, maybe taking a nap. It wasn’t until The Boyfriend pointed it out that I realized that these people actually live there. They set up their hammocks (if they’re lucky) and go to sleep. After inquiring with my teacher, I was told that a lot of rural people come here because money is easier to come by in the city, but they don’t have enough money for rent, let alone owning a house.
Bed. Most mattresses here are on the hard side, which means I wake up every morning with a back ache and The Boyfriend’s back has never felt better. It was the opposite back home. Our landlady actually has a bed, but no mattress. She just sleeps on the hard wood of the bed. Yikes.
Time Zone Difference. I’ve enjoyed waking up in the morning and finding out the Canadiens’ playoff game score. Especially when they’ve won. Go Habs go!

Happy Hùng Vương Day!

2008-04-14T04:11:00.010-04:00

Today is Hùng Vương Day. Hùng Vương is celebrated on the tenth day of the third lunar month. Who is Hùng Vương you wonder? Well, let me give you a little lesson in Vietnamese history, or rather mythology, or rather a little of both. (I had to do some research for this. Luckily I had procured a little booklet in Hue: Vietnam Legends and Folk Tales.)

According to Wikipedia (I wikipedia everything. And yes, it’s a verb, as in to wikipedia!), “Hùng Vương was the first emperor of Van Lang or Lac Viêt (as Vietnam was known at the time). Legend tells of the dragon lord, Lac Long Quân and the mountain fairy, (sometimes a Chinese immortal) Âu Cơ who had 100 children. As the parents belonged to different realms, they parted ways, each taking 50 of the 100 sons to their respective homes. Hùng Vương the eldest went to live by the coast, the domain of dragons. According to legend, he came to power in 2880 BC, ruling an area covering what is now Vietnam and part of China. He founded the Hong Bang Dynasty , which ruled Vietnam until 258 BC. His dynasty existed in Vietnamese prehistory, but much of the lore from this time is now lost to the ages. His sons were always named after him and many stories include either him or another of his offsprings.”

The more myth like version has Âu Cơ lay a sac of one hundred eggs since Lac Long Quân is a dragon lord. From these eggs hatched one hundred human beings. While the children grow up, Lac Long Quân realizes he misses his underwater life. He decides to take half of the children with him to his underwater palace while the other half will stay with Âu Cơ on land. Although half lived on land and the other in water, if either group encountered misfortune, then the other group had to help each other. Âu Cơ and her fifty children became known as Hùng Vương. Because of that, Vietnamese people refer to themselves as the dragon and fairy’s grandchildren.

Last year, the Vietnamese government made Hùng Vương a public holiday, as an occasion for the Vietnamese to express their gratitude to the Hùng Kings and to bolster Vietnamese cultural identity. This makes the total number of public holidays in Vietnam 9.

Street Food

2008-04-10T01:37:00.026-04:00

For a number of reasons, I was slow to delve into street food here. One, it’s hard to find vegetarian street food and so The Boyfriend and I usually go to a restaurant. Two, I’ve been a bit shy about going up and ordering, not sure about the system and not very confident in my Vietnamese (I’m slowly getting over this!). Three, my stomach has paid the price for eating street food a few times (actually, I'm currently recovering from a bout that has lasted a few days after lunch in my alleyway).

Street food isn’t quite what I imagined here. I imagined a sort of food district, where there would be street vendors selling their food. In reality, you can find street vendors on any street at any time (but mainly at meal times), especially down alleyways (and there are a LOT of alleyways in this city!). There are areas where they are more concentrated, but they are everywhere.

So here’s a sampler of street food I’ve had so far with my personal colour commentary! I should really have more so I'll make more of an effort to have my camera with me.

Making Banh Cuon. One day when The Boyfriend was sick (over a month ago), I decided to venture out by myself and find some street food. I found a sign with banh cuon, literally meaning rolled dough – the only comparison I can make is very a thin crepe, stuffed with ground pork. The amazing thing when you order from these stalls is that they will make it right in front of you. No old food sitting there for hours! She already had a batter prepared that she poured onto a flat surface and that gets steamed. Then she added a mixture of minced meat and mushooms, and rolls it.

Banh cuon. I also got two pieces of cha (ground pork cold cut) – one fried and one steamed, and a half a piece of banh tom (shrimp cake). Top this with fresh herbs, fried onions, steamed bean sprouts and nuoc mam (fish sauce) and you’ve got a perfect lunch for 14,000D.

Baby bananas anyone? There are also mobile vendors, such as the fruit ones. They often have one or two fruit that they sell in whole.

Fresh cut fruit at 5,000d a piece. There are ladies who sell a variety of fruit, already cut up. There’s nothing more refreshing when coming back from the gym than a fresh piece of papaya, pineapple, watermelon with some salt and chili to dip in. Mmm mmm mmm! And it’s healthy (except for the salt. The Boyfriend swears I’ll be suffering from hypertension but I swear my blood pressure is actually low!)

Sugar cane juice. Along with food vendors, are drink vendors. There, you can have a sinh to (a fruit smoothie), iced coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice or my favourite, nuoc mia (sugar cane juice) for as low as 3000D (less than a quarter!). Sugar canes get squeezed through, with a piece of lime, to produce a sweet, frothy juice with a hint of sour from the lime. I've seen some on Spadina St. in Toronto in the summer, but they charge $3!!

Passion fruit juice at 5,000 dong. I stumbled onto this drink when The Boyfriend and I went to the gym around 1 pm. As we were to find out, many business here close between 11:30 and 1:30, sort of like siesta time. So to bide our time, we got drinks and watched a football (soccer) game at the stadium nearby. The lady cuts up the fruit right in front of you and mixes it with sugar, water and ice.

Passion fruit juice. It is such a beautiful drink and SO aromatic! The seeds do make it a bit hard to drink with a straw though.

Com. Com means rice. At lunchtime, an assortment of meat, fish, shrimp and vegetable dishes are sold with rice all over the city. Plastic tables and chairs are set up and all the workers come out to eat. A lunch costs about 20,000 dong depending on how many items you want. There is also usually a soup. This picture was taken in our alleyway. I'll have to take more close-up pics.

Frying cha ca. Cha ca is ground fish fried up into a patty. This food vendor popped out of nowhere one day at the end of my alley, selling banh mi cha ca. She starts frying around 3 pm and closes shop when her food runs out around 6 pm.

Banh mi cha ca at 10,000d. Ground fish fried up into a patty, sliced and added into a crusty bun, with salt and pepper, cucumber, rau ram (Vietnamese herb) and chili. I asked for scallion oil for good measure. The bread is room temperature, but the freshly fried fish warms it up nicely. This is pretty much the Vietnamese version of a po’ boy. This picture is the second time I had this sandwich; they tried to sell it at 15,000 d. When I told them I paid 10,000 a few days earlier, they said 10,000 has less fish. Sure… The lesser fish 10,000 dong banh mi was plenty for me!

Xoi gac and xoi dau den. Xoi is Vietnamese sticky rice. There are a variety, both sweet and savoury. This picture I took when I went on a food tour with The Gastronomer in District 4. By then, I was too full, but I had to take a picture because it's so pretty and colourful.

Banh chuoi. Last week, my Vietnamese teacher came in and said she saw banh chuoi (banana cake) that was tantalizing. So we went down and got a few pieces. Some of the banana pieces are reddish and I was told that this is made on purpose to make it look nice. I didn't really understand how they do this. My mom used to make this, using stale bread and for the longest time I thought this was banana bread. Wrong... It was good, but a bit too sweet for my liking. I'm sure my sister and mother are salivating!

Banh khoai mi. We also got a piece of banh khoai mi, something my mom bakes on a regular basis. Khoai mi is cassava, a root vegetable. I especially like the crunchy outisde.

Racing Sunday

2008-04-07T01:22:00.014-04:00

I’ve recently met The Gastronomer and her boyfriend The Astronomer, from the food blog Gastronomy and they were nice enough to inform me about races organized to celebrate La Semaine Française au Vietnam.

I had some mixed feelings about running. One being I haven’t run in Vietnam. Two, I wasn’t really running much before I came to Vietnam. Three, the heat! However, races are always fun and another way to see a city. So I decided to sign up. It didn’t hurt that it was absolutely free and you got a tee-shirt (a too large tee, unless they're trying to tell me something???).

My options were 3 km, 7 km (for women), 10 km (for men) and 21 km (half-marathon). I was pretty certain that I could handle 3 km, but felt a bit wimpy doing so. I decided on the 7 km. I ran once during one evening prior to the race, just to make sure I could handle it.

Unfortunately, a couple days before race day, I ate something in my lunch that did not sit well. I was still hurting from it on the morning of the race. I also was not used to running in the heat. The 7 km consisted of running around a street course in downtown (by the Opera house and Louis Vuitton) twice; I pretty much ran one and walked one. I won’t even mention my time because it was not very good. Instead I will share a few interesting observations about the race:

Running in traffic. As expected, roads were not closed for this race. This means that we were running among cars and motorbikes, on the road.
Heavy security. Motorbikes did accompany runners around the path, stopping traffic and sounding sirens when runners went through an intersection. This gave me a bit of a feeling of importance, like I was a queen followed by heavy security. (ok, I have a rampant imagination). It also makes for a more embarrassing situation when you’re walking and a motorbike is following you, wondering why you’re being such a slow poke.
Vs. at home. Compared to racing at home, it wasn’t quite as well organized. We were half an hour late while they went through the top ten half marathon runners. This made the early morning start to avoid the heat pointless. The 10 km started, with the gun shot by the French ambassador, 3 minutes later the 7 km and finally the 3 km. No time chip, time mats, water stations or markers. Instead, there were volunteers pointing the way.
Segregating. Not sure why, but they segregated men from women in the 10 and 7 km race. So when The Gastronomer decided to run 10 km, there was confusion with people telling her she was finished.
Runners. Runners ranged from serious looking Vietnamese runners (running barefeet!!) to a Vietnamese woman in a denim skirt (I think she beat me!). There were also a few expats and kids running.

Airborne barefeet runner finishing the 10 km race.

This is me pretending to run (I'd had enough by then!), towards the finish line.

What I Miss

2008-03-21T07:20:00.004-04:00

I have been in Vietnam for over a month. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here, there are a few things I miss:

Friends and Family. Obviously! Imagine if internet and e-mail didn’t exist …
Cooking. Although we can technically cook, we don’t because food is cheap and we’re not that comfortable using the kitchen. I used to easily spend an hour preparing a meal, even numerous hours on the weekend, and I miss that.
Seeing baby P grow up. But her picture is used as my computer background so I see her every day! And I'm sure she'll hold off walking and talking until I get back.
Recycling and Composting. I just feel terrible every time I put something in the garbage. Blame it on my guilt-ridden, catholic, green conscience!
Not having to negotiate. We’ve already determined I’m bad at it and I hate having to think that everyone is out there get me. The good news is that I’m improving, I think…
My house. I do love my house so very much!
Smoke-free indoor spaces!
A number of needless things. Like my clothes and shoes I left behind, my comfortable bed and pillow, TV shows like Lost, Design Inc. and Giada shows.

And some things I don’t miss:

Snow and boots. It sounds like there’s been a massive amount of snow in Montreal and Hamilton. What can I say, except laugh evil-y! And I’d be happy wearing sandals year round!
My car. It’s not like I would even consider driving here. I don’t mind walking, except for the heat.
Working. I miss the interaction with co-workers and some routine things, but I don’t know that I really miss work.
Having to clean/do laundry. Our room is cleaned every day. However, I’m not sure mopping the floor without sweeping and dousing the bathroom with water really count as “cleaning”.

It's A Zoo Out There!

2008-03-17T09:03:00.013-04:00

Unlike back in North America, you can encounter animals on a regular basis in Vietnam. Often, they are stray dogs, sometimes cats. There are definitely some scruffy dogs out there, but I find a lot of them are actually quite good looking, kind of like in Morocco. I've abstained from taking pictures of the rats I've seen. Luckily, they've all been dead. They have been quite big, comparable to a pigeon! So here are some random pics (nothing too exciting, unfortunately).

Stray in Quang Ngai. Whenever The Boyfriend tried to interact with strays, my aunt would give him a hard time. "They'll bite you!"

Cows are actually a rare signt in Vietnam. These look much skinnier than what I'm used to.

Water buffalos are more often seen, especially working in the rice paddies.

Some goats on our hike in Sapa.

It's hot out there, even for the doggies!

A nice looking dog, with a bunch of ducks in the background.

Some dogs get pampered here too.

These are our alleyway neighbours. I see them most mornings. I'm guessing I might see them in a soup one day...

Cars, Motorbikes and a Pedestrian

2008-03-14T09:05:00.013-04:00

Being a pedestrian is looked down here in Vietnam. The Boyfriend learnt this when his students were horrified to find out that he actually WALKED to school. Not many people walk around here for two reasons: 1) it’s too hot and 2) it signals a lack of status, i.e. you can’t afford a motorbike.

To clarify, what is referred to as motorbikes are actually scooters and not motorcycles. Motorbikes are more affordable and thus more rampant than cars. The typical picture is the whole family riding on a motorbike (see below). It’s also funny to see a lady, daintily sitting in a side saddle position.

The whole family on a motorbike. At least they're wearing helmets.

The classic side saddle position.

We could technically afford a motorbike. Renting one is about 40 USD a month. However, traffic is so crazy that we don’t want to risk our lives. (Well, I have a second reason: I don’t know how to ride a bike and am assuming I need those balance skills to ride a motorbike…).

Risking our lives seems like an exaggerated statement but it really isn’t! I even feel like I’m risking my life when I’m walking. We’ve literally stood at an intersection for ten minutes trying to figure out how to cross a street unscathed. Now a motorbike is smaller than a car, but I’m still fairly certain that being hit by one would still be quite unpleasant.

The trick is to find a pedestrian walkway with a traffic light. However, you cannot assume that people will respect traffic light. There are always laggards who will accelerate across a red light. Another issue is that sometimes traffic is very congested so you’re dealing with many lanes of motorbikes. Just their sheer volume is overwhelming.

Cars and motorbikes.

Motorbikes stopped at a red light.

Finally, because being a pedestrian isn't hard enough, there are many obstacles on the sidewalk. There are all sorts of improvised businesses, be it motorbike parkings, where attendants will charge 3000 dong to look after your motorbike, or restaurants/juice bars/coffee shops. I am a big fan of street food, but this means that you'll come upon little plastic tables and chairs that you have to weave through or else walk on the road. It has also happened to us that a motorbike has driven on the sidewalk; why not, everything's fair game, right?

Motorbike parking taking over sidewalks.

To add to the craziness, there is the cacophony of different honks and engines. Like many Asian countries, honking is not a last resource like it is in North America, but a way to communicate you’re coming through, that you’re right behind, that you’re being impatient.

At a point, you do get used to the honks (somewhat), but then an unfamiliar honk will blare out, scaring the hell out of you. The less frequent larger vehicles, like a bus or garbage dumpster, have their own particular sounds and your life flashes by as you see yourself being hit.

Vanity Insanity

2008-03-12T05:12:00.016-04:00

I’ve made a comment that most women here are pretty thin. The Boyfriend commented a week after we arrived in Vietnam that he could understand how a woman would feel pressure to be thin here. He thought that there is a level of vanity that drives the women to want to be thin. I had thought that it was a matter of nutrition. Someone growing up here would not have all of the nutrients and calories available to someone growing up in the Western world, like myself. There isn’t as much junk food available here either, although I think that is changing.

However, I have noticed that there is an emphasis on physical looks. When people meet me, the first thing that is said (not to flatter myself…) is that I’m pretty cute. I’m not sure if this would be the case back home (or maybe people don’t think I’m cute?!). My cousin’s said “Obviously she’s cute, she’s from a cold country!”, as if that’s obvious. They’ll even ask “Is your sister as cute as you?” and not “Is she as smart/nice/successful?” - or any other adjective that would be just as important. (And in case anyone is wondering, my sister is not as cute... just kidding!)

My Vietnamese teacher also has commented about looks: how I would look nice with makeup on and how The Boyfriend is han dsome. Then she mentioned she thought girls from the West are very cute from a young age to the twenties; however, it seemed to her that as they grow old, they get bigger. And that is why she finds occidental men more attractive than women. I tried to explain to her that it wasn’t the case and women try more and more to take good care of themselves.

I’ve also noticed a few businesses advertising plastic surgery very openly. There’s actually one just down the street from where we live. Maybe I’m just not familiar with this topic, but it doesn’t seem that we’re as open about it. I’ve never noticed a plastic surgery clinic back home and people hide the fact that they have had plastic surgery. Plastic surgery seems pretty common here; I think one part because it’s much cheaper. Some people will even go back to Vietnam to get surgery. What I don’t like is Asian people trying to look occidental. What’s wrong with looking like yourself?

Needless to say, this is a complicated subject and hopefully, as I meet more people, I’ll get a better understanding of it. Meanwhile, I have to go to the gym so I can fit into the small clothes here!

This is right by our place, next to the nuoc mia (Sugarcane Juice) Lady that I love.

Learning Vietnamese

2008-03-10T23:13:00.002-04:00

One of my goals here in Vietnam is to learn Vietnamese. I already speak Vietnamese, but at a very conversational level and the main person I speak to on a regular basis is my mom. This means that my vocabulary is very limited; I learned while trying to rent that I didn’t know terms, like contract; however, I am very familiar with food terms!

I don’t know how to read or write; I literally don’t know how to pronounce my street name so I write it down and show it to cab drivers, rather than butcher the name and end up god knows where. So I signed up for private classes at CICER (Centre for International Education Exchange and Research). At 5 USD per hour, this actually pays for your teacher to come to you (only if you live in districts 1, 3 and 5). I’ve signed up for the month of March, 3 times a week for 2 hour sessions.

I had my first session with my teacher, Cô Phuoc. She’s quite nice and about my mother’s age. She told me of her tragic life, how her first love left for the US and tried to sponsor her right when Vietnam closed its doors on emigration. After she finally married and had two kids, her husband passed away merely 7 months after her second was born. I told her that she was very brave. No, she says, I have a sad life!

We’ve gone through a lot of the basics. We go through the sounds and I repeat after her. We then read a few words and sentences based on the sounds we learned. I can handle most of this. Cô Phước then dictates me words we just learned. That’s when I get in trouble. I write one word – no this actually means X; I change the accent – no that means Y. After five iterations, I may get it right.

Vietnamese is a tonal language, which means changing the tone (not the sound) of a word changes the meaning. This can be very subtle and is a very different concept from other languages. I also have some issues with certain sounds. For example, ng vs. nh sounds the same to me, which is problematic when trying to write. And when I try to pronounce ơ (sort of like e in French), Cô Phước tells me that I sound like a French person and I tried to explain to her that I grew up speaking French in Montreal

I think my efforts to learn Vietnamese will be worthwhile. I've already felt some synapses have after a few things Cô Phước said, little ah-ha moments. I have this fantasy that one day, all of a sudden, everything will click and I’ll be fluently writing, reading and speaking Vietnamese. Somehow I don’t think it will be so…

Costly Lessons

2008-03-09T22:05:00.001-04:00

While I think I have traveled sufficiently to know better, it seems that one mistake I always repeat is to get deceived by locals. I’m not sure if I scream “Please take my money”, but it seems to always happen to me. It’s sometimes just a few dollars, but it’s very frustrating nonetheless. Unfortunately, two instances occurred recently.

My seemingly nice, 70 year old landlady offered to buy us bottled water because she says we would be charged more as foreigners. So she charged us 72,000 dong for a case of 24-500 mL bottles. I figured out that this was 3000 dong per bottle, which is the same as they charge tourists on the street! I further found out at a store that a case of 24 bottles cost 60,000 dong. Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll have to keep an eye on that landlady! (She’s also the one who wants to charge 50 USD for laundry a month, which sounds quite excessive.)

The second instance took place when The Boyfriend wanted to buy maps for his students. We found a street vendor (first mistake), in a touristy area (second mistake) who was selling a map for 20,000 dong, about $1.25 which didn’t sound too bad. He wanted 8 and the vendor first said she couldn’t give us a deal unless we bought 10 (third…) and that she was selling at a fair price unlike big stores. The Boyfriend said 140,000 and I translated; she rebutted 150,000. Finally, she agreed on 140,000, a bit too easily (fourth). A bit later, I realized that he paid nearly $10 and that sounded too much. We found maps at a bookstore later in the day (isn’t that always the case?) and they were selling for… 3500 dong?!!!!!!!!! That’s right about a sixth of her price.

I can hear some of my friends remind me that I have taken a negotiations course. Well, actually, sort of two. So in class, we would analyze the situation… I think the first case was simply trusting my landlady; I really didn’t expect her to go out of her way and lie about helping us when she’s actually trying to deceive us. The second case was really not thinking, not considering the conversion and multiplying a mistake by 8; it was that lady’s lucky day. Rehashing this is painful, but hopefully I’ve learnt my lessons. I hate having to think that everyone’s out to get my money, but it seems that’s the case.

Randomness

2008-03-09T05:01:00.004-04:00

Here are some random observations about Vietnam:

McDonald’s. There are no McDonald’s in Vietnam, or rather none that I have seen. The KFC’s make up for its absence though. They seem quite popular here.
Coffee or ca phé. There are no Starbucks either, but why would you go to Starbucks when you can get excellent café sua da at a fraction of the cost? On this point, coffee places are very popular here. They’re bigger than usual Starbucks and look more like a very trendy restaurant/lounge. They’re more of a hangout and socializing spot. You usually get free ice tea, and it is refilled the minute you’ve had a sip by the usually over abundant staff; you can easily have 5 different people waiting on you. Wifi is also usually available.
Smoking. Smoking and smoking indoors is prevalent here. One of my pet peeves, Vietnam!!
Adidas. There are many Adidas stores here in Saigon. Not sure why, but I keep seeing them everywhere.
Saigon. In my always paranoia, I wasn’t sure it was ok to call Saigon Saigon. Or rather use Ho Chi Minh City. Supposedly, it’s fine. I won’t get arrested for it.
Candies for money. 1 USD = 16,000 dong. Actually, the USD is dropping quite fast, so it’s more like 16,650 dong… This means that everyone’s easily millionaires and a grand is meaningless. The smallest currency is 500D, but when I’ve been owed 500 dong, I’m usually given a couple of candies as change.
Television. Vietnamese dubbing is quite funny because it's usually one female voice for every character, with no inflections. She seems to be rapidly reading the script. And if you were wondering about Who wants to be a Millionaire?, they have their own version here. the grand prize is 120 million dong (about 7500 USD). mtvasia.com seems to play '80's music on a regular basis, which makes The Boyfriend happy...

Home Sweet Home

2008-03-06T00:47:00.007-05:00

Exactly a month after leaving Canada, we found a place to stay!! It’s so nice to be able to unpack and put your things away. No more hotels and living out of suitcases! We actually found a place thanks to my aunt Mo Thuy (she’s done so much for us!) and the agent she found; the agent charged us 1 million dongs (about $60) – the easiest mil he’s made I bet!

The place is really a room, not an apartment; that’s all we’ve found actually. The typical rooms for rent are in very tall and narrow buildings, with about two rooms on each floor and a kitchen on the first floor. This room provided us the best space/cost ratio.

Our humble abode.

Our room will cost 400 USD per month and includes everything: cable, internet, water, electricity, AC and even a fridge. The room will also be cleaned for us. They’ll even do laundry for an extra 50 USD; we’re not sure if that’s worth it… The bathroom actually has a bathtub, rather than the common toilet/shower room, where everything gets wet.

Cable includes the Travel & Living channel, which I’ve started being addicted too. It’s part travel, (we didn’t have the travel network at home), food network (definitely had that!), HGTV, TLC and Life/Slice, with some Canadian shows! There’s also a few movie channels and you can always get caught up on Asian business news on the Bloomberg channel!

It is situated steps away from Ben Thanh market in one of those omnipresent alleyways. So starving will not be an issue! It’s probably at the limit in terms of distance from The Boyfriend’s workplace (probably 15-20 minutes walk).

This is our building. We're on the third floor.

View of the alleyway from our "building".

View of Cho Ben Thanh at the end of the alleyway.

Now that I know where we’ll be living, it’s time to plan what I’ll be doing while The Boyfriend is teaching.

Eating duong dua (you read right, that’s Coconut WORM!)

2008-03-05T03:03:00.006-05:00

Last night, after a very filling dinner at Huong Vien, a vegetarian place from the gastronomy website, I got a call from my uncle to meet some family members at a restaurant. This is AFTER I called earlier in the evening to invite him for his last dinner in Saigon and was turned down because he was too busy packing… I have no idea where we went since I literally got in a cab, called my uncle and he gave directions to the driver. All I know is that the restaurant had the #31 in its name.

The Boyfriend and I didn’t even look at the menu because we were so full. But it was a grill/hot pot/anything-else-you-can-think-of restaurant. So we ate just a bit of what my family ordered: grilled beef, tofu, okra?, oysters... Around us were boards with menu items: field rat, snake and other interesting items as you can see in the picture below.

Interesting menu items.

Then The Boyfriend made the mistake of noticing a pictures of coconut worms.“Look they sell coconut worms. We just watched a show on that. How would they be served?”. My uncle called the waiter over and asked. Options are raw, grilled or fried in butter. As my uncle is speaking to the waiter, I was trying to say “This is just out of curiosity, we don’t want any!”. My uncle translated: “Why don’t you bring five over, fried in butter?”.

Once upon a time, I believed I was the type who would try anything. Insects, funky meat or raw whatever, bring it on. Either due to age or a misperception of myself, I realize I am not that person! So I just sat there, HOPING that I had heard wrong. I obviously wasn’t.

The fat, grubby worms came in a dish with a side of lettuce, tomatoes, onions and mayonnaise, I think. Just your usual garden salad with a side of grubs. We were assured that these worms are the cleanest since they live in and feed themselves from coconut trees. Still didn’t help.

Yum, clean coconut worms fried in butter...

I knew I would have to one. So my Cau Q had the first one. Then I went for it. It really doesn’t taste like anything bad, just a big pouch of melted fat explosion. I drank it down with The Boyfriend’s beer. The outside was a bit chewy/crispy and harder to swallow. More beer helps. My Cau H had one and my cousin Anh V.

Did I mention that we ordered five and all were eaten? Let’s just say someone whose name started with “The”, VERY UNHAPPILY, had half of the last one. But don’t tell him I said so… He did concede that of all the items he could have asked about, this was probably one of the better ones. And the dried squid he tried in Quang Ngai was worst!

Saigon

2008-03-01T10:19:00.016-05:00

We’ve been back in Saigon for a week. During this time, we moved from our hotel on Le Van Sy St. to one on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai St. (yes, street names are that long, just to make my life harder it seems…). Now we’re steps away from where The Boyfriend will be teaching. We’ve spent most of our time exploring the city, walking when we can (did I mention it’s VERY hot?) and taking taxis when it’s too far. We’re also in the midst of apartment hunting, which is not easy. It’s hard being in a small hotel room, so let’s keep our fingers crossed!

We explored the centre of the city on a REALLY hot day. This is where the well know buildings and hotels are. On another day, we went to Cholon, which is pretty much Chinatown in District 5. There, we saw numerous intricately decorated temples. Here are some of the pics.

Beautiful Hindu temple in Saigon.

City Hall.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

General Post Office.

The old Opera House.

The well known Continental Hotel.

Binh Tay market in Cholon.

Temple in Cholon.

Beautiful detail on another temple in Cholon.

And another temple...

Finally a mosque for a change!

And a temple I like to practice my shopping! I like the name!

Rant ‘n Rave

2008-03-01T01:49:00.003-05:00

I’ve realized one thing about my travels: I tend to emphasize the negatives (rant) and less so the positives (rave). People then conclude that I’ve had a terrible time, which is not true. I think it’s just easy to get stuck on some negatives and talk about it. Like when I went to Morroco, I was so stuck in explaining how annoyed I was by men ogling that people thought I had a terrible time; in fact, Morocco is a beautiful and colourful country. Where men happen to ogle women!

So while I was thinking of ranting about a certain aspect of Vietnam, I decided that every time I rant about something, I’d also have to rave about something else. And it wasn’t that hard to find something!

Rant: Lack of line
I’ve commented about this when I wrote about our crazy visit to the Perfume Pagoda. However, I’ve found, to my annoyance, how common it is for people NOT to respect a line, when waiting in line. I actually first observed this when we flew to Danang and someone went in from of my uncle. He was so angry and swearing up a storm; meanwhile, I thought it was pretty funny at the time since it wasn’t happening to me. At a recent visit to the convenience store, The Boyfriend was waiting in line to pay for cookies and a young man goes in front of the three people waiting in line and drops his food at the counter to pay. Just like that. Doesn’t even pretend there’s anything wrong with it. The problem is that I’m not relaxed enough to NOT let things like that get to me, but I’m not aggressive enough either to make a big scene. I just give the evil eye, which really doesn’t seem to faze anyone.

Rave: Helpful people
As we were looking for an English newspaper, I was explaining to the man with the newspaper stall that we were looking for an apartment. He didn’t have an English newspaper but suggested I come back the next day and he’d ask around for us. As well, as were looking for grooming scissors (The Boyfriend got his confiscated at the airport), the women at the beauty salon were also quite helpful, amidst their amusement at my poor Vietnamese.

Finally, while we were looking for an adaptor for The Boyfriend’s laptop at this big electronic store, one employee finally find us one and says it’s about a dollar. When I asked him to pay, he looked in confusion. It wasn’t for sale. He told me to go look at an electric store. Where do I find one?, I ask. Just take it, he gives up. That was nice of him. Then, when we went to wait in line to pay for a memory stick we were buying, that’s right, people kept going in front of us. By now, I’m not that annoyed, more amused. Is this just a cultural practice rather than rudeness? Should I just accept it and be patient? Or should I just jump the line the next time? When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right?