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Published: January 2nd 2008
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Electrical spagetti junction
So if one of the cables breaks down, how does the electrician figure out which one it is?? Christmas in a warm climate. Now that is something I want to do again and again and again. Last week for Christmas I flew myself away to Vietnam, to the lovely city of Saigon, also known as Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh was one of the founding fathers of communism in the country and the party decided to rename Saigon after his name in order for all to remember him.
Vietnam is indeed one of the 5 communist countries in the world, and I guess you can tell so by the number of red flags flying around, as well as some communist party offices scattered in the town. But one can't deny that capitalism is truly alive, you can buy, sell, exachange anything!
There is actually an interesting contrast between elements of Vietnam which are very modern and "western" whereas others are there to remind you that you are in a (fast) developing country. The expats I met lived in very modern and comfortable houses, some of which are easily clones of those found in French suburbs. You have 5 star hotels which could be anywhere in the world, and the food has a level of sophistication which
Karaoke
Karaoke is a bit of a national sport.. The lounge gave me some interior decoration ideas.. is very modern. The city of Saigon is scattered with very "European" type places, eg a posh day spa (called
L'Apothiquaire ), a very sophisticated European restaurant (The Refinery) or little bars and cafes such as the ice-cream parlous Fanny's.
But on the other hand, some simple things are more complex to do and remind you where you are. For example, if you withdraw money at the bank, if you a very unlucky, you may get a 500,000 dong note. 1 USD is about 16500 dong, so you see it's not that much. Well it's really really hard to make change on such a big note..
On my first night, I had to take a cab from my hotel to join friends at a restaurant, and was really struggling to make change with my note. I was staying in Phan Ngu Laom, the backpacker area, full of tiny little shops and street stalls. I ended up going to a store and getting a cute handbag just to make change (can you imagine the self sacrifice??).
Crossing the road: that is another thing we all take for granted in our daily lives, but in Saigon it's not that easy! The Cuties
Julien and Jean, the sweetest guys in the country city is not called by the nickname of "Motorcycle City" for nothing. There are litterally millions of motorbikes (scooters), I think there might be more than one per inhabitant! It makes crossing the road quite daunting at times, though I think I am lucky having been trained in Phnom Penh to cross a crazy road with no traffic lights.. But it's easy to spot the tourists in the city, they just stand helplessly on the side of the road watching the traffic, I would feel quite smug overtaking them and crossing the road first. Actually the technique is to step one foot, slowly, then the other and keep progressing very slowly while keeping en eye on the traffic. Eventually they do avoid you. If you are lucky.
I met a few people in the city thanks to my friend Christine (from HK) who used to live in Saigon. She came there with me ad it was super nice to have her show me the city through the eyes of a "local" inhabitant. We ended up spending X-mas at the house of friends of her friends, and it was a really fun night. They cooked some really good Vietnamese-Mexican-French food.
Fashion
What do you think of my new style? We had dessert and champagne (bien sur!) on the roof top overlooking the city where we opened our presents (Secret Santa style where everyone brings one small gift and then picks randomly a gift back). I got a lovely Eiffel Tower keyring (very a propos to remind me of Paris a bit) as well as a ceramic pig coming from a saussisson package! We even got a can of fake snow to make the experience more real!
Apart from celebrating x-mas, wondering around the city, going out for dinners, drinks and even karaoke, I decided to head off to the Mekong Delta for a couple of days. I signed up for a 2 day tour with an overnight stay on a boat. The Mekong has a lot of life along its banks, and we visited the floating market (where all the sellers come and bring their stuff for sale on a boat and the clients also come in a boat), a coconut-candy factory, a local village. I also unearthed the secret of making the fine race paper pancake that is used to make nems. The other people on the boat were all tourists, many Germans, a couple of Swiss,
X-Mas
Me opening my X-mas presents.. some Americans. The next day we went to visit a floating village (all the houses were floating on barrils) and this was the favorite part of the Mekong trip: we all got into rowing boats and these ladies from the village took us around the village, it was very peaceful and beautiful.
Contrary to my usual tradition I did not go to a cooking class in Vietnam this time, but it's still very high up on my to do list.
On the last couple of days I got back to Saigon and was lucky to attend a Vietnamese wedding, as my colleague Tien was getting married, good timing! I attach a few pictures, Tien and her husband Nguyen were so gracious and sweet, the perfect couple..
The trip was way too short but the good news is that I am only 2.5 hours away so can go back sooner rather than later, hooray!
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