Well I'm currently in the Ho Chi Minh City, or also known as Saigon in Vietnam. The original plan was to come here with the CarribeanFrench, but he somehow didn't think to look up the visa requirements so he wasn't allowed to fly into the country!!
I originally thought this was going to be a rather lonely trip and was def more nervous about the safety of this place for sure, but so far everything has been pretty damn good except for being ripped off at the market by more than a bit!! But oh well, I guess it's a lesson for me NOT to shop too much!
I guess after exploring Singapore by myself continuously, I don't really mind doing stuff by myself anymore. And plus, there are enough travellers around to chat over dinner table anyway!
So yesterday was spent touring around the city in general, hitting the markets full of foreigners and also pick pocketers and ripping off merchants and begging children. I, for one did get ripped off for sure BIG time, and now I know to correctly remember the currency exchange next time I travel anywhere! But then saying that, even after going on a tour and all it's still proving to be pretty damn cheap. i mean I'm spending a lot more than I initially planned, but then I'm doing a lot more stuff and eating a lot more than I planned anyway lol.
I also saw a water puppet show last night, and it was much better than I expected for sure. I was thinking it was going to be a shitty run down on like at a lot of asian tourism places, but this was a very very well maintained and although I don't understand Vietnamese, I still understood the suttle comedy and all.
The city of HCMC has very little remnants from french occupancy as I've seen so far. But the biggest influence I saw so far is probably the amount of bread sold at even the street shops. I found 1 that was too tempting to pass by, and the service go as far as a shop attendee follows you around with a tray and gets all the bread for you. I felt like Ive become a royalty or something for sure! And the actual bread? A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It's nice as the breads I actually ate over at France.
And now speaking of food, the only experience of Vietnamese food that I have is what was served at "Saigon" restaurant in Dunedin. Now tasting the actual Saigon food, I have to say it wasn't that bad back there considering you can't have the ingredients you can easily get over here. The most interesting meal that I've experienced is the plain 'pho'. They are mainly available in chicken or beef, and when you order them, they serve you a plate of mung beans and thai basil and some kinda chinese green vegetable. You put as much as you want in your soup, along with kaffire lime and chilli and just eat it up! And goodness sake they are good!! i've already had 3 bowls and this is only my second day. And also, you cannot forget the rice paper rolls. The ones they serve you over here is much thinner than the ones they sell in nz, and there was no need to pre-soak them. They come out dry and you wrap with whatever inside and then by the time you are ready to eat, it's softened enough from the moisture of the vegetables.
So enough about all my piggy eating and on about today. So today I booked a tour that I booked with my hotel (also not recommended as they are def charge you more than the local travel agents) which takes you to this place called Makeng, 140km away from HCMC. It was a nice cruise which was mainly on a boat taking through floating markets and then some small village house that make coconut candies, popped rice snacks, rice papers and rice wines. And then we went off to further up the river and transferring onto a old style 4 people seater boat for about 30min to a restaurant for lunch. i met a guy while I was on the tour, an Aussie guy who was on it by himself as his gf was rather unfortunate and got a stomach ache on day 2 in south east asia. And he turned out to be a brilliant company! We chatted along the way, and we had a chuckle over how there was old aunties selling pineapples as a snack. They cut it really nicely decorative and then cut them in 4's so you can bite into it like a corn cob (and was tastey!). and he even payed all for the deep fried fish we shared for lunch as well! we've exchanged number so hopefully we can catch up for lunch tomorrow before I take off and x finger his gf is fine enough to come out! We got back to HCMC at about 7 and went for another bowl of pho for dinner. At the dinner table, I met another fortunate travellers who missed 2 flights coz
When I first arrived here, I was annoyed at the CarribeanFrench for stuffing up coz the whole point of coming over together was so I don't have to feel the loneliness on the christmas day. But at the end of the day, I haven't had the time to even feel it! Amazingly, Vietnam celebrate christmas big time, and according to the tour guy, they drink it up big time too. And you see these toddlers everywhere in santa costume. But maybe it's the thing with both Singapore and Dunedin, that if you stay, you're left behind there coz you don't have a family to go to or you are one of the few that lives in that city. I never liked the feeling of being 'left behind'. It makes me depressed more than I need to.
Anyway, I think this post is getting way too long for single post. And I've become rather healthy and sleeping rather early over here!
Anyway, good night and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
I am definitely glad to say that this post is much more happier than the christmas post last year!
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