21 HCMC

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Route
1 Arriving in Hanoi
2 Cyclos and scooters
3 Old town Hanoi
4 "Admin" day
5 Halong Bay
6 Halong Bay
7 Uncle Ho
8 South to Hue
9 The DMZ
10 Hue Citadel
11 Open Tour
12 Cham Temples
13 Chuc Mung Nam Moi
14 Hoi An
15 Cycling around
16 On to HCMC
17 HCMC
18 HCMC explored
19 Cat Tien
20 Cat Tien
21 HCMC
22 Mekong Delta
23 More Mekong

Vietnam

Monday 6 February 2006

Hammer & sickle symbols abound

Ho Chi Minh City café culture

We grabbed a lift into HCMC this morning with Erica and Cuong. Inspired by Erica’s collection we were off to do a spot of shopping to pick up a few bits and pieces for ourselves. Erica asked Cuong to drop us off at “Mr Tim’s bank” just round the corner from D Dong Khoi where we tried a couple of places. One, Nuin Fray, had lots of very beautiful clothes, pillow cases and silks bits and pieces but not what we were looking for. Authentic Interiors further down the street is a Lonely Planet recommendation and is very geared for the tourist market. It was a bit like walking into a Vietnamese hybrid of Ikea and Habitat. We did see one bamboo basket but it was ridiculously overpriced and we walked out of there empty handed as well.

Half an hour of shopping was enough for both of us for the day so we settled into ambling mode and just had a bit of a look around. We stopped at a HCMC institution, the Kem Bach Dang café for a cooling drink and an ice cream (made from taro fruit whatever they are!) and to watch the world go by. They have two branches sitting across the road from each other. The one we were in was an open corner café and different street traders came in trying to sell lottery tickets, snacks and shoe polishing services. The staff seemed to turn a blind eye to them but every now and again would shoo them away.

A bit more ambling led us to the Terrace Café, a smart looking place that also provides a free internet service for its customers. That settled us for the rest of the morning as we tried to sort out what was wrong with our website with only partial success. We think that the telecoms network in Vietnam is perhaps a little on the wobbly side which is what is causing our pages to error.

We met up with Erica a little after twelve and headed back out to her house. Tho had cooked noodle soup for us for lunch and it was fantastic. She boils up beef bones with onions, cloves, cinnamon and garlic to make a stock. The beef is sliced and then marinated by resting slices of fresh ginger across the top. The ginger is then fried and the beef is then added and flash fried until it is cooked. Meanwhile fresh noodles are blanched for a minute and placed in the bottom of a soup bowl. Onto these are sprinkled some spring onions and the cooked beef. Stock is poured over the top along with fresh basil leaves (very aniseedy), fresh coriander and hot bean sprouts. Simple but very very effective and delicious.

In the afternoon we went back round to the pool for a swim and to relax. A very broad shouldered and muscley man was giving swimming lessons to two young teenagers. I thought the kids were amazing doing length after length of butterfly but their coach wasn’t as impressed. He was in the pool so he could give them practical hints and tip for correcting any mistakes. He had an assistant who was pacing up and down the pool side also watching and picking up on areas for improvement.

We stopped off at the local supermarket, very geared for expats, to top up on a few basic essentials and then went back to pack up ready for leaving tomorrow. Erica dished up yet another fabulous dinner, chicken curry with a Pataks sauce (another taste of home) and home made chapattis and by about 9:00pm we were all crashed out in bed.

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