Mekong Delta – Day 1 (May 3)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!