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Published: February 13th 2013
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This is our 100th blog entry so now for something different I hope. Having fractured my arm I am feeling a little vulnerable and fragile however the journey continues. They say you should do something different/ challenging/ exciting each day, well in Vietnam crossing the road is just that. There are zebra crossings and we always use them however the traffic does not stop and we use traffic lights when available but most of the time the procedure is just cross the road moving slowly and whatever you do don't stop, thank you Uncle Robbie. With 90 million people in a country smaller than the UK and most of them travelling each day by motor bike you can imagine perhaps just how busy the roads are and they don't stop well sometimes at traffic lights but not at roundabouts or roads they just keep coming. There are 30 deaths a day on the roads although we were told this is reducing. How come there are not more can only be because they mostly travel slowly.
Going to a supermarket is fun, when you can find it. They are not easy to see. We went to one that is on the
top floor of a designer shop, another we tried to get to crossing 4 roads only to find it closed with a guard at the entry point and this was 3 in the afternoon but then it is the holiday. Today the shutters were down at the supermarket but it was open and inside the noise was deafening. A huge Chinese dragon was being drummed down the stairs and out of the shop, to symbolise the end of the year of the dragon I think. We wanted some bread but even at 10 am they had either sold out or weren't baking.Speaking to the waiter in the restaurant last night he said Saigon was quiet because of the holiday, glad we are here in the holiday time.
The new year celebrations are in full force and today is really the 3rd January for them. The streets have so many flowers adorning them and they are arranged in various shapes. The two snakes represent the year of the snake but there are boats and bears, carts filled with flowers, in fact everywhere you look there are flowers. The streets have light displays and they are always different, and whether it
Saigon
Flowers everywhere is that they change them each day or that we haven't been down the same street twice I don't know.
The food in Vietnam is great. Yes a lot of it is rice and noodles and spring rolls and the meat content is low but it is so tasty and not that spicy. We think they use a lot of coriander and other herbs. They also do western food but with a touch of Vietnam thrown in. We have been to three brilliant restaurants. The first the bar-b-que garden was set outside and you bar-b-queued your own food on the table, a bit hot but so delicious, prawns amazing
The second was a fusion of morocco and western called Au Parc we have been there twice it is so good, the best duck I have ever tasted and I had a wrap of aubergine, tomato and mozzerella that I would like to eat again, Steves BLT was amazing.
On our last night with the group we went to a rooftop restaurant called ? You could see everyone in the streets below just moving en mass a great tide of people. The food was not as good as
the other two but the setting brilliant and I loved the water spinach and crab spring rolls. It's not difficult to get decent wine but you have to spend a bit having said that I had a 250ml pichet of Sauvignon Blanc last night for 150,000vdg which is about £4.50 so you can't complain. Trying not to drink much/ at all as I am not sure with all the other medications that that is a good idea.
We are staying at the Sherwood Residence at the moment and enjoying a bit of R&R sat around a pool me in the shade. Steve does like to sit in the sun but he does it less now. I am finding it frustrating not being able to go swimming especially as it is so hot, perhaps I will dangle my feet in.
Not sure we will ever get used to this currency, we get out 2,000,000 dong and it usually lasts a day or two, well its only about£60. A lot of ATM's won't let you take out more, that was difficult when you need to pay for treatment. The money is all in notes and the 50,000 is the same
colour as the 500,000 so you have to be careful.
The average wage in Vietnam is US$ 6000 a year and the country is rapidly expanding as it embraces a more liberal economic approach. The main produce is fishing, textiles and agriculture Vietnam is the worlds second biggest exporter of rice, and it exports coffee in huge quantities and some minerals. Silly pointy hats are worn everywhere and this is rapidly approaching the biggest export especially when worn by stupid western tourists.
The Vietnamese have been invaded by the Mongolians, Chinese, French, American and are therefore a resiliant nation. The people seem genuinely happy and proud of their country despite the fact that many of them have to use the pavement as an extension to their homes, are living hand to mouth, work long hours and don't seem to mind, they really deserve to prosper
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