I spent a long weekend over New Year’s in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) with the fun and wonderful Kevin.
As I haven’t any photos from the trip*, I will attempt to paint you a word picture of some highlights and impressions of the trip. We arrived New Year’s Eve with reservations for dinner at the Lonely-Planet-recommended Temple Club restaurant. The meal started with wine and a sampling of salad rolls, spring rolls, fish sauce and peanut sauce. Keep it coming, waiter! Next up we ordered the steamed shrimp in coconut and a second dish I recall only by its mystery ingredient, later to be identified as a banana flower, or young banana. My first bite contained a couple of the little devils, and my mouth promptly went dry. I didn’t think I was allergic to any foods, but for a moment I paid a lot of attention to whether I was still breathing. Yes, yes I was. A moment after Kevin took a bite of the white-ish plant and had the same reaction, my fears of dying of allergic reaction to delicious food my first night in Saigon were allayed. Phew! More food, please!
Indeed, it was a food-filled adventure. We dined on street food prepared on rolling carts, we dined in quaint restaurants tucked away in alleys or in loft-style buildings. One restaurant, Huong Lai (38D Ly Tu Trong), employs children from disadvantaged families or former street children. They receive hospitality training, education and a place to stay. It was at Huong Lai that Kevin fell in love with the taro-potato soup. Fantastic purple, salty and a little sweet, with potato bits. Slurp! Lonely Planet has a dish-by-dish list of Saigon’s greatest (food) hits. We made our way through most of it. Though I think we disagree on the best pho (rice-noodle soup, pronounced like “fir”). Our hotel, Saigon Mini Hotel, served amazing pho beef for breakfast. We slurped down a bowl every morning. Pho 24, the guide’s top pho, wasn’t bad for what feels like a fast-food chain. Indeed, they are soon expanding to Hong Kong.
How could I forget Fanny ice cream? I couldn’t stop myself from ordering what was called something like Bliss or Genius or OMG That’s Amazing. Sort of a chocolate fondue with fresh fruits and 14 mini scoops of ice cream and sorbet. We had young coconut, pistachio, chocolate, dark chocolate, lime, vanilla, peanut, coffee, mocha, banana, sweet rice (?) and more. Not sure I can remember them all correctly, but you get the idea. Yu-um.
We had banh mi sandwiches on the street. Vietnam is home to the best bread in Asia, surely a leftover from the French occupation. But I sure heard more about the American invasion. During our visit to the War Remnants Museum and our tour to the Cu Chi (pronounced koo chee) tunnels, my jaw got sore from being tense and my stomach turned in circles as our tunnel guide let the propaganda fly like the wind. War is evil, yes, but it has more than one side. Enough of that, eh?
More on street food: I think we were outside the Ben Thanh Market when we “mmm’d” and “wow’d” our way through a plate of fried egg in doughy pancakey dreams. Hooray for grease! About those New Year’s resolutions…
Quan An Ngon is a must-visit for street-style food in a restaurant setting. Sit outside or under high ceilings and wander the food stalls surrounding the dining area. Try the molded rice cakes with fish sauce. And the funky dessert cakes and drinks. And I haven’t even mentioned Vietnamese coffee.
You can have a cup at the Highland Coffee chain, or you can sit in the kiddie chairs of street stalls and get the real deal. I think my favorite one was at a cafe with yin-yang sign down an alley near Quan An Ngon. Mind the skeeters though, this place is set in and around an old house with a garden tastefully (though almost overgrown) plantified. Old trees, tiny buddha baby statues. There’s a woman constantly sweeping up the steadily falling leaves. Vietnamese coffee, served black or white, hot or cold, is made sweet with condensed milk. It’s thick, drip coffee sometimes served while it’s brewing. I think it could turn anyone into a coffee drinker.
Other stops along the way: Reunification Palace (I recommend touring this in 20 minutes or less), water puppet theatre (no translation required if you have a vivid imagination. Fun and silly!), old post office (neat building. Stamps and post cards sold here), Notre Dame Cathedral (note the odd opening hours). And there’s a list of other sights and day tours we decided to skip in order to see what we did and eat what we did and sleep when we did. We like sleep.
Another highlight: I had an ao dai (pronounced Ow Yah-ee) tailor made in an afternoon. Photos coming soon. It’s pretty!
I haven’t even mentioned the motorbike culture. Maybe later. To sum it up: there are many, and the only accident we saw happened very close to 0 mph. Amazing how they navigate traffic circles.
Weather? 30-plus, humid and sunny. Pleasant at night.
* A note for travelers, experienced and not: Always be aware of thieves. A motorbike cowboy swooped by and stole our camera one night in an alley around the corner from our hotel. No one was hurt, but it does make for an eerie feeling. The camera strap was wrapped around the wrist instead of around the neck or messenger-bag style against the body. There was a slight jostling and the sound of the lens cap clinking on the pavement. Can’t help but wonder how long they’d been watching, whether we could’ve stopped them, etc. Oh well, huh? The unfortunate event cast a negative cloud over my thoughts of the broad smiles I saw on local people the next day. It didn’t ruin the trip — far from it. But it wasn’t too delicious either.
Be mindful of fish bones.
Take only the water you’ll need.
Spandex is your friend.
If you need help, ask for it.
Go to Bali.
A 35-kilometer hike in the Vietnam heat can be harder than a 100-kilometer hike in the Hong Kong cold.
Take good care of your mother. She’s important.
Since I last wrote in August, I’ve had a few adventures. Shed some tears. Laughed with my whole belly. Made friends. Conquered challenges. Here are just a few shots of recent adventures. More soon, possibly…
Kids on the beach in Amed, Bali
I spent the good part of a week scootering around Bali, Indonesia in August. I spent three days in the SamaSama guesthouse in Amed, on the northeast side of the island. Then three days in Ubud. Think rice terraces, monkey forest, mountain biking. It was excellent. According to Indonesia immigration, I spent eight days, but it was literally less than seven. That cost me US$25, which was more than I paid for two nights in Sanya’s House in Ubud. Can’t complain.
The kids in the photo above were hawking their wares (necklaces, kites, good-luck boxes) and playing with the ball in the photo when I got home from an outing one day. I asked if they’d like to play Frisbee then fetched mine. We had a blast. Then I bought them Cokes and Fantas and suddenly there were twice as many kids, and they were all so thirsty. And, they figured, if I had enough money to buy them drinks, I surely had enough money to buy their trinkets. Lesson learned. I bought one necklace from the tallest fella in the photo. I don’t remember any of their names, but I remember the one standing at my right introduced himself as Barack Obama. Nice. I had a blast hanging out with them as the day wound down, sitting on the black sand beach outside my hotel.
Have banana, will climb.
After Amed I got a ride to Ubud, which was about 100 times more commercialized and civilization-like. And very cool. Have I mentioned the amazing food in Bali?
My trip after Bali was to Danang, Vietnam. This was supposed to be part of a three-day 100-kilometer adventure race through villages and remote areas near the border with Laos. However, a typhoon wiped out many of the bridges and roads and damaged villages where we were supposed to go. So we ended up in and around Danang. It was hot, and I don’t do well in the heat. But the race was great training for the one-day, 100-kilometer Oxfam Trailwalker I was signed up to do Nov. 20-21. That deserves it’s own post.
Here’s Danang:
I ran across those bridges pictured way below.
Here’s me finishing day 2 of the race. I decided to sit out day 3. My aching joints got a well-deserved rest.
It was so hot out there!!!
After Vietnam, I had a quick trip home to surprise Dad for his 60th birthday party. It was great — all six siblings were there, too, plus Mom and Non! A quick trip, but a great trip. On our way back to Hong Kong, Mom and I stopped in San Francisco to catch up with Annemarie (aka my very best friend) and the always-awesome Marilyn and Deb. Of course, I don’t think any of us took pictures (again).
That brings me to today, roughly. Yes, I’ve purposefully left out mention of the fishbone incident.
Yesterday Kevin took Mom and I on a tour of Macau. (flickr set begins here) Now I’ll be able to show people around there too (hint, hint, Anthony). We ate. Boy, did we eat. That really is ideal, to plan a daytrip around food. It helps when the food is fantastic.
Kevin and Emily at the old fort
This post is an excuse to link to more flickr photos. Awesomeness.
Senso-ji Shrine, Asakusa, Tokyo
Danise and I spent five-ish days in Tokyo, thanks to the generosity of one Mr. Scott England, who loaned us his bed and keys and TimeOut guide.
I’ll finish this post later. I want to go play soccer now.
……………………..time passes……………………………………
My first Hong Kong soccer experience was even better than I thought it would be. Big thanks to my pal Marvin for the invite, and to his pals for accepting me onto their pitch so genuinely. Unlike most co-ed soccer experiences of mine in the U.S., here the guys actually pass me the ball on purpose. They celebrated my two goals. And they didn’t really care that I sucked in goal. It was their first time playing with a girl, and I think they were pleasantly surprised. About half of them went to high school together. Now in their mid- to late 20s, they try to get together at least once a month at the pitch in Kwun Tong where they grew up. Most of them still live nearby.
There was Steven, whose favorite English word is “POWER!” He ended up shirtless and flexing at every dead ball. Usually near me.
And Stanley, who has an advanced degree of some sort in teaching English. He works with primary school students and says a lot of the times he is more of a babysitter. Sounds similar to teaching in the U.S., no?
Derek, with a pronounced British accent, is an engineer for a U.K. company. He showed up a little late and I don’t think he took a single break.
And so on. My friend Marvin apologized to Stanley when we showed up for missing his wedding party. Then he went on to name several of the other guys who just got married or were getting married soon. One was handing out red invitations he brought. Surely his fiancee would think it less funny than I did that he’s handing these beautiful invitations from his gymbag to his pals with sweaty hands. Boys.
………………………back to Tokyo……………………………..
One of our first outings took us to Senso-ji Shrine, home of this little
statue that is supposed to heal. You touch the statue where you’re sick and, well… hope for the best. The little blurry boy in the picture climbed the statue after slapping it a few times on the legs. Sort of hilarious.
Danise, my traveling partner, and I were treated to great seats at Tokyo’s Cirque du Soleil show, ZED. It was my first Cirque, and I was entertained by the show as well as the sideshow - about 20 people were moved to new seats for the second act after being doused in hydraulic fluid. That’s what they get for sitting under a winch.
We didn’t get around to kareoke, which seems to be a sin. Whatev. We hit the Hot Gate Bar, after Johnny from Guinea showed us the best curry noodle joint in town and we promised to stop by his bar for a drink. As Danise said, it is a really cute bar. Just needs patrons. A common problem in Tokyo after the subway closes.
Back in Hong Kong, I need to figure out what time to go to work today. It seems most of the rest of the world is falling back today. I am not. I think that makes my nights later. As Michael Scott would say: TDB.
See my full photo set on flickr here. Or, see the abbreviated version, below.
I spent Sept. 18-21 in Taipei, Taiwan, with my friend Anna. Here’s a brief recap:
We met cool people
We ate great food
It was hot.
We even saw a wooly mammoth
This concludes my photo montage from Taipei. For more, go here. It’ll be worth your while.
I now know enough about Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s history as it relates to Taiwan to sound knowledgeable should the topic come up at a cocktail party or during a game of Diplomacy (or a real-life diplomatic meeting, for that matter). This is thanks to a friendly English-speaking tour guide in Sun Yat-Sin Memorial Hall in Taipei. That Grace was such a sweetheart. After my traveling-partner Anna and I watched the changing of the guard, dear Grace approached us and offered her assistance. She was a splendid guide and presented us with gifts after we completed surveys. And Grace was not the only local to offer to help make our trip a memorable one (in a good way).
Themes of a weekend spent in Taiwan: Hospitality, gifts, fun, funny.
The hotel gave us beers and “fairy tale” face masks. After we visited the National Palace Museum, our cabbie took us to his friend’s tea house before dropping us off at the famous Din Tai Fung dumpling joint. The detour, free-of-charge, was both unexpected and wonderful. I sampled the best tea I’ve had in my 26.5 years on Earth. Anna and I learned the following, thanks to Lin the cabbie:
“Taiwan tea, No. 1
Taiwan Beer, No. 2
Taiwan dumpling, No. 3.”
Mainland tea - “not too good, not too bad, so-so.” Or, in Mandarin, “mamahuhu.” I don’t know how correct that is, but Lin sure got a hoot out of us repeating him. He also had some fun things to say in his comparison of Americans and Japanese. I’m glad to be the former, at least for the purposes of that cab ride.
Yes, eventually we wound up at Din Tai Fung and I ate the best dumplings in the world. I don’t need to eat another dumpling to prove it. There simply is no way a ball of filling and soup steamed in a perfectly shapen noodle can taste any better than it did the two times we were there.
Other highlights of the trip: break dancers in Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall; pork pepper buns at the Shilin Night Market; watching the cat-and-mouse game between cops and night-market vendors; lovely lattes at the SPOT Film House; never making it to another tea house (it wasn’t in our destiny); signs that made me LOL (pictures tk); damper babies in Taipei 101; Monster Ice; a highly interactive Wooly Mammoth Exhibition; pigs in the street…
