Day 3 Ho Chi Minh City

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Disaster! Tupur and family are scheduled to reach by 11 ish, so we had thought that we would grab some breakfast at our favourite ABC Bakery (trying to keep the costs down - its so easy to blow away 150 dongs in that place!) and then get the train tickets and the Mekong tour in place before they arrive. I had spoken to our landlady that we need 2 rooms for the night of the 30th. When we come down and just thinking that its a good idea to just check it up, we find that no, they dont seem to have an extra room for tonight. This is after confirming twice with the owners.

We rush to Vy who is leaving with some more guests, and she assures me that she will help out somehow. I rush through breakfast and get back to realise that we have to change guesthouses. Bummer! I am taken to another cousin of Vy - two rooms on the 3rd floor, with a small window this time. 16 dollars and 18 dollars - I dont want to pay that much, so we haggle and we settle for 15 dollars for both rooms. Okay..come back by 12 with luggage. Rooms would be ready.

Now the train tickets. So Pham Ngu Lau has a train booking office, which makes things easier, and I had had it marked out on my map. Getting the tickets done is easy. Saigon to Danang for 2nd night. 4 berths in soft sleeper a/c. Lower berths 617 dongs, upper berths 609 dongs. Again bummer - we did not plan this very well. So we dont have berths in one cabin and we have only one lower berth. That makes it even difficult to exchange. Hmmm...

We rush back to pack and change, and on the way meet our new landlord. Change of plans - he has one double room and another bunk bed. Unworkable and we are taken to another guesthouse right next to our old one. She has two rooms, pretty neat and with windows. She asks for 15 and 18. we strike a deal for 15 for both rooms. These rooms are not taken yet - so we need to get in fast before another change happens. By this time I have kind of got the cue - these side alleys from Pham Ngu Lau are full of these houses converted to guest houses. You stay almost with the family. Every second house which can is getting renovated and rooms added so that they can take in guests. They are good value for the price - all the rooms we stayed in were airconditioned with attached toilet and were in the range of 12 to 18 dollars mainly dependent on the size of your window. They had free wifi, and they had hot water. Most of these rooms seemed brand new, and the owners seemed completely new in business. Also their english language skills were minimum. Thats why Vy was such a catch. And in that intensely intimate community - she seemed quite the leader. Comfortable with English even with a heavy Vietnamese accent, very helpful, more professional than most of the others and always with an attitude of solving problems for everyone (even people like us who were not staying with her), she became the natural point of reference in that tiny alley life. The rest of them were still getting into the groove. Communication was a problem, just as how to define professionalism. They would have rooms booked, and then would have to cancel because their previous guests did not check out. On the other hand, they were realising that they were on a gravy train here, so they were less inclined to bargain - in sometime these people would become hardcore tourist sharks.

After Tupur and her family arrives, we set off first to deal with the Mekong trip. Fortunately I had the address of the real Sinh Cafe, and a few others (Kim Cafe) referred to by friends. We make it to the Sinh. 2 day 1 night trip - about 23 dollars. Children 75%. a/c night accommodation, and two meals included. No negotiations. We walk over to Kim Cafe next door where they first try to sell us a far more expensive trip, and then another one (the lady seems not so interested), which looks similar to what Sinh is giving us at the same cost, but minus all meals and non a/c accommodation. We walk back to Sinh and book the tour for the next day.

The next thing to do - we set off towards China Town or Chon Lon. Bus no. 1 from Ben Than stop. Takes us to Cho Lon Market. Bus travel in Saigon seems interesting - but the ones we are getting to ride are airconditioned and seems to be used only by a certain section of people. The others seem to carry chickens and hens! As we travel through the streets of Saigon - its similarity with Indian cities unfold. The chaotic traffic, the haphazard and quite strongly amorphous growth. But within it the swarms of two wheelers coursing through every street is such a revelation. Saigon with its 10 million population has 5 million two wheelers. Everyone love a two wheeler here - and they drive it with impunity - across the wide pavements (which in such a contrast to India was a blessing to walk on), and in all directions.

China town glimpses start with splashes of red - red lanterns, red hangings, and as we make our way through the streets around the Cho Lon Market, its all wholesale - bags, dried fish, numberplates - you name it. But we are looking for food now, even if I venture out to have a strange looking drink from an old woman on the street - some strange fruits with sugary sweet water. Interesting. And then we walk into an empty (always a bad idea) restaurant. It serves us beer for 15 dongs, which should have been enough of an indicator. The food is overpriced, too little and insignificant - some version of chinese/ vietnamese food.

As we walk through the streets after that highly unsatisfactory lunch (in which I was still quite hungry), we try to orient ourselves, and find ourselves on a street junction near the bus stop which has the entire ground floor as some kind of a eating/ beer parlour kind of a place. And the place is full of locals. And it starts raining - so hard, that we have to do SOMETHING! So we get inside and sit down to eat. But this is a bigger adventure than eating on the streets of Pham Ngu Lau, because here no one, absolutely no one speak a word of English and the menu is also only in Vietnamese. We look around and find a bunch of old men sitting around a pot over a fire, eating and laughing. So we point to that to our hostess - a young girl all made up who deftly set up beer glasses around us, filled with large chunks of ice (yes - here they drink beer WITH ice). This place seems something quite interesting - full of young girls all dolled up in tight fitting clothes, and really short skirts, serving beer to people - groups of men, old and young, families with children. This seems to be the Vietnamese Bia Hoi and we have stumbled upon it by accident.

The food arrives - its the hot pot and the soup is pigs bones. Its set up on our table on fire, and our hostess realises that she needs to help us with this. So as the soup boils, she takes out the pig bones, and starts putting in the greens (lots of it) and the noodles in it. A little more boiling and she serves the out in the small bowls - soup, noodles, meats and veggies. And its yum! And it goes on and on and on. She adds more broth and more noodles, and separates the meat from the bones, and keeps serving us while we guzzle it down with large quantities of beer.

As we sit around, we see the old men, who sit across their hot pot bowl and drink beer after beer the entire afternoon. Or other groups where they are having something like a grill - or something on a flat plate with some thick gravy which is also on a fire. Many variations of serious live cooking. And all these girls with high make up, deftly serving beer, and helping with the food and serving. Quick fast efficient and fascinating.

On our way back I want to tackle the supermarket business, and eureka atlast we find one. And then we have been invited to dinner by some couchsurfers to a very elegant place which we have been referred to by quite a few people. Dinner is lingering..the conversation slow...and the place quite interesting - small little terraces connected together, and here the young vietnamese, or the families come to have dinner. The place is full, and lively - though the service is a bit slow.

Sanaa passes out - she is completely exhausted and so are we. We have Mekong to do tomorrow early morning.

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