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Published: October 7th 2005
Bin Thai Market
Bin Thai MarketI remembered that my ridiculous goal was to be able to cross the street blindfolded seeing that when you cross the street here, you don't need your eyes to get you across to the other side... the bikers do in order to swerve around you. My other goal was to ride on the back of a motorbike blindfolded...this latter one was achieved yesterday! Moira and I decide to go to the China Town district and visit the Bin Thai Market there. The guidebook had said that it is an "interesting" place to visit so I was glad of the company. We got a motorbike ride to the market and after asking in 'near perfect' Vietnamese that we wanted to go there we then bargained a price. It must have sounded good because my driver then kept talking to me in Vietnamese and, needless to say, I didn't understand a word of it!
We were half way there when it began to rain. Not just normal rain... monsoon rain!!! I got my rain poncho out and the driver was like "Good stuff!" put his head through the hole and I got covered by the back of the poncho!! I GOT SOAKED!!!!
Bin Thai Market
Trying out hats :) The only thing that the poncho covered was my head which meant that this was a true leap of faith.. riding on a motorbike blindfolded (or not being able to see anything because of the poncho)! We got there in one piece (I still don't know how) and went exploring through the market. We tried on some hats and we saw some pretty cool motorbike helmets (for when we get a motorbike) and then we decided to go eat traditional Vietnamese market food.
We had some Pho (pronounced Fa) which is like a noodle soup with lots of vegetables, tofu and beef and we also had some salady stuff. It was pretty good stuff! Moira and I are very much food people so any food comes our way it's all generally good... we are not fussy. We left after eating and headed towards our Vietnamese class when we suddenly felt really strange. I am not joking but we felt like we were on drugs! I was tingling all over, I thought my neck was swelling, my chest was feeling rather heavy and I just ached all over... we felt stoned for about an hour and a half... and the
Bin Thai Market
Trying out hats :) funniest thing was we felt stoned in Vietnamese classes!!! I mean these classes are funny enough without feeling weird...
I also had my first lesson on baseball, whilst watching a game on ESPN (My favourite TV channel alongside Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic - I know.. what a geek!) with Joe. He was very enthusiastic about the game which I guess is how I am like with football. He didn't know who Jose Mourinho was until I put THAT straight!!! Oh he has sooooooo much to learn! He didn't know that Ronaldo played for Real Madrid or even that David Beckham did.. so yeah.. still a lot of work to do!
We had Sushi for dinner and then went to a new bar where old men were hanging out.. always seem to be a good indication of how cheap the beer is. Joe thrashed me at chess (it was a huge chess board!!! That's not why he beat me, he's just better than me...) and then we played some pool.. I think I'm getting better but my sweat patches ruin everything for me.. I mean how can I play pool and not open my arms?? I
Drugged
Feeling way too strange for our own good! have been sweating
BIG time! Sarah you would be so proud!
Tomorrow we're going to Nha Trang, a place where there are lots of beaches and where snorkelling seems like a MUST so it should be a fantastic weekend break away from the choking gas fumes in HCMCity. We're flying out there (which should take 35 minutes) and returning on the train Sunday night (which takes 6 hours).
Should bve fun, so will keep you posted!!
Enjoy the photos! 😊
Rooj xxx
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Jackie
non-member comment
Drugged???
Marta,drugged,Come on, you always looked like that on a Monday morning !!!!! You seem to be having a great time, good for you x