Misc fun in Saigon
Since most of my time in Saigon was spent working (or trying to) I don’t have much to write about, but did have a bit of fun here and there.
One night at dinner I met a Kiwi guy named Marc who has been living in Singapore for five years, currently teaching media studies (video production, a bit of acting I think) and doing some writing and photojournalism on the side. We talked about travel, Vietnam, and photography.
He showed me some really nice pics he had taken around town with his 75-300mm lens, similar to one I have with me. I had planned to send mine home because I never use it — whenever I have tried I have found it too zoomy to use in tight quarters like typical streets. Seeing his photos convinced me to try it again, maybe I just need to find the right environment.
The next night I went for dinner with Marc, then to a bar by myself. I felt a bit self-conscious about being by myself so I made a beeline for the pool table; on the way I was flagged down by an Aussie family from Perth that I had met in Hoi An (three kids and their aunt; parents were at the hotel.) We hung out most of the night.
At 3am I went wandering around looking for a snack, and walked past a group of Vietnamese guys gathered around a table on little plastic chairs (which are everywhere), drinking beer and singing while one played guitar. I have been on the lookout for people to teach me new guitar skills, so I turned around and smiled and one guy jumped up to give me his chair, they poured me a beer and continued playing.
The standard way they drink beer here (outside of tourist bars) is to pour warm beer over ice. I was worried about the quality of the water used to make this ice so I tried to drink my beer quickly before the ice could melt, but anytime there was any room in my beer they’d just fill it up again.
After a song or two I asked for the guitar (which I have to say was the worst guitar I have ever seen, and sounded worse than it looked), tuned it a bit and played a couple songs I have been practicing. They kept asking me to sing but I declined; guess I should start practicing that too. When I passed the guitar back the guy was delighted with my tuning job, though I had barely changed anything.
I hung out for a while listening to them play and sing, and talked a bit with the guitar player. He did most of the talking and I understood maybe 20% of it. One thing he was pretty clear about: I shouldn’t have been wearing the shirt I had on. I bought a few $3 tshirts the other day including one that’s all red with a big yellow star on the front, like the Vietnamese (originally North Vietnamese) flag. He said I shouldn’t wear that in Saigon; if I want to wear something like that I should go to Hanoi. Before I wore it I wondered if the Vietnamese would find it offensive, but it’s sold everywhere and it’s one of the most common shirts you see on tourists around here so I figured it would be OK — I never thought about the north vs. south thing. Oops. I just thought it was a cool shirt.
In spite of my shirt and the massive language barrier we got along really well; at the end of the night after we said bye I hung around for a few seconds to see if they expected beer money but they just looked at me funny, so I guess not.
I am still amazed at how cheap it is to eat here. As I gain more confidence in my Vietnamese vocabulary I have been eating more and more from street vendors. Some of my favorite street food:
- baguette sandwich with veggies, sauce and various mystery meat: 5000 dong ($.35 CAD)
- a fruit smoothie (like Booster Juices at home but maybe half the size): 5000 dong
- a small bowl of Pho (noodle soup): 5000-15000 dong (I had at least one of these every day, sometimes two. A couple days ago I had the best pho I have ever had for 7000 dong.)
- ice coffee: 3000 dong. (with condensed milk, 4000.) A couple days ago I saw a place that sells ice coffee for 1500 dong (11 cents!)
I’m almost starting to think I like Vietnamese coffee better than French or Italian. But I haven’t been to Europe in a while. (Actually, I wrote that yesterday and today I take it back: I just had an awesome espresso and cappuccino at an authentic Italian place in Patong, and nothing compares to Italian coffee.)
What else… I broke one of my new cameras already — the zoom on my SD800 stopped working while I was on Ko Samet (a dangerous place for cameras… all that sand, and especially the buckets.) Luckily I was able to get it fixed for only $30. I had a similar problem with another camera once and was quoted $150 to fix it at home; at that price it made more sense to buy a new one. $30 might even have been too much to pay here but another place asked for $50, I countered with $30 and they let me walk away so that must have been close to the best price. Anyway, I was happy to pay it.
After dragging my 35 kg of stuff up and down a few too many staircases and paying overweight surcharges on discount airlines I decided to lighten my load by eating, recycling, and shipping whatever I could from my packs. I mailed 4 kg of stuff home ($25 for ground shipping, 1-2 months) and recycled a bunch more; I think my big pack should be under 20kg now, down from 27.5. (update: no, it’s still 25kg. Argh.)
Hmm, there’s a bunch of other stuff I’d like to write about (befriended a python, fired an AK-47, got lost on a mountain bike with no brakes in the Mekong Delta) but my scuba trip is leaving in a few minutes so it’ll have to wait for next time.