Cocktails on the rooftop terrace of the Rex Hotel in Saigon
A cooking class at the originally monikered Saigon Cooking Class. Great fun, with the market visit to start, and then four dishes prepared over 3 hours. On the menu: 1. Tofu Soup with Tomato, Herbs and Whipped Egg 2. Grilled Beef, Herb and Kumquat Salad, with Sticky Fish Sauce Dressing 3. Braised Caramelised Pork 4. Chicken Curry with Lemongrass and Coconut Juice Verdict: #2 was the standout for flavour, but the technique and general flavour profile behind the caramelisation of #3 was probably the most interesting, especially so since we’d had a caramelised fish dish the night before that was super tasty. #1 was quick,
Ben Thanh Market, y’all. We got a guided tour of the erstwhile Les Halles Centrales prior to a cooking class. Most interesting was the whiteboard listing the average meat and fish prices for the month— you still get the fun of haggling, but no one gets really screwed over.
View from our window*: Alcove Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City. 8:30 am, 21 November 2013. *Technically speaking, this is the view from the restaurant immediately above our room. While lovely in all other respects, our window at The Alcove is frosted, so there is no view to speak of.
The wonderfully crazy moped and motorcycle drivers of Saigon. Pavements are often considered fair game as an extra lane, a phenomenon that is particularly acute in the evenings, when rush hour traffic jams at red lights are neatly bypassed. Even when driving rather more conventionally (i.e., actually on the road), they are 4 abreast in each lane, flowing through turns en masse as if connected by some hive mind - it’s extraordinary that no one crashes. In fact, the spatial awareness on display by all drivers in Saigon’s astonishingly busy* roads is amazing. The vehicle density is way higher
People on the streets and in the parks of Ho Chi Minh City. The folks in the second row were some of 20 or so we stumbled across one afternoon in the same corner of one park, practising their musical instruments. Talent levels were extremely diverse.
The Jade Emperor Pagoda in HCMC is a weird little spot, especially compared with previous temples on our itinerary. It is very dark and the air is thick with incense, and most of the divinities, etc. are made of papier mâché. The Jade Emperor/King of Heaven is on the left-hand side of the top photo, but you can also drop in on the Chief of Hell (second photo). Bottom photo is some generic good bloke who defeated the Green Dragon. But he looks cool!
French colonial architecture in Saigon: The Opera House The Continental Hotel A statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of the old Hotel de Ville Notre Dame de Saigon Sam in front of the post office The former municipal court house
Mainland China was fascinating and challenging and wonderful and discombobulating all at once. One particularly challenging aspect: I would say that many of the people we encountered in China, especially people working in ticket selling or front desk type jobs, were often unhelpful, and even unfriendly. There just wasn’t much patience on the part of officials at the train and bus stations, or even some hotels, when we tried to use the phrasebook to convey a question or request. There is a definite sense of “come back when you have learned to speak Mandarin.” To be sure, I would actually
Flight six. Refreshed and ready for month three.