The food so far...

The food here is amazing (however, I think I preferred the food in Thailand as I'm a sucker for a good Penang Curry); I pretty much try everything that is put in front of me(more on that in a future post), even if it's only one bite ( I won't do dog though... actually many of the Vietnamese themselves won't do dog either). So far there' only been this one sort of vegetable cake things with this yellow gelatinous layer that didn't agree with me. From what I've noticed, there is a general fishiness taste to everything. In part it's the fish sauce that they put on everything called Ngnuoc Mam, or something like that. They just douse everything in it! The coffee culture here is insane. We went out with my friend's Vietnamese friend to this district which is only huge coffee shops with these immense terraces with horrible Vietnamese music blaring at volume 11. They actually have valet parking for the scooters. All the young Vietnamese come here and hang out and socialize for hours and hours. Starbucks has nothing on the coffee culture here. They really know how to do it. During our little excurtion we were witness to and almost victim of some sort of brawl between youngsters. At one point two on the young'uns decided it would be great to take refuge right in front of out table and start throwing glasses at their aggressors. Said aggressors thought it would be a good idea to return the flying glass of fire with their mix of glass and rocks... lucky the staff of the café thought it appropriate to intervine.

What's really nice about being here in Ho Chi Mihn is that Jason doesn't live in the ex-pat part of the city so everything we do is real vietnamese so to speak. We're the only white guys walking around and the looks and smiles we get are real funny. When we walk in to a local restaurant, which usually consists kindergarden stools next to a 8" high table in an alley way right in the doorstep of someone's home, we are definitely the centre of attention. Many of the places we've
been eating here are just extensions of people's kitchens. At one place in particular we get the local kids swarming around us yelling, Hello! Hello! Hello! and then they run off for a bit and then run back to repeat their little performances.

So tomorrow I've booked a flight to Hanoi. I'm in the process of figuring out where I'm going to stay. I'll let you know once it's all said and done. I plan to go to Halong Bay and Cat Bao island. Everyone here looks at me like i'm insane. "It's sooo cold up there. Something like 16 to 18 degree. You're gonna freeze! yeah right. I'm going to be back in Ho chi Mihn at the end of the trip so I'll be able to do more of the thing in the surrounding areas.