Me Love you Long Time!

Day 19 evening.
You never quite know what is going to happen in Vietnam, the fact that there are fabulous and surprising aspects to Vietnamese society speaks volumes about the people and is in direct contrast to how we experienced Cambodia. We ate dinner at restaurant 13 a delicious combination of salted pork in caramel sauce, garlic chives and spinach sautéed and a weird dish called violet tomatoes. We were slightly disappointed when they turned out to be aubergines! All this under the beady gaze of frogs, snakes, prawns and rats...all of whch you can order from the menu, yum.
After dinner we fancied a drink, it can be dreadfully difficult to find alcohol here unless you are eating, all cafes only serve coffee and tea. Neil did the noble thing of flagging down a passing cyclo driver and asking him to take us to a bar. We hopped on, some what precariously. Western bums are not made for the tiny seats that can happily seat 4 tiny delicate Asian frames. Even Sam feels big here. The poor driver cycled us manually to a bar about 1 km away, we asked him to wait and felt guilty for asking him to push our lardy white asses around. We were ushered into a room, then pushed on towards the back of the room and entered the great pink gin palace of love. The room was filled with pink and white leather sofas, lava lamps and a bunch of Vietnamese chaps looking suspiciously like a branch of local triads, all engrossed in watching a terrible Chinese kung fu film. We ordered from the menu, as every single eye was on us, we were obviously a novelty. The whole experience was a complete amazing, surreal and possibly a glimpse into the mind of Salvador Dali had he ever moonlighted as a Japanese interior designer. Wow, the photos do not do it justice but it is something we will all remember for the rest of our lives.


Day 20
Can tho to Ho chi min. The journey was horrible. It took 4 hours n a bus that was rammed to the gills with locals and horror of horror a lady who was car sick sitting next to Sam and I. Lush. Also an experience never to be forgotten, but not for any nice reasons. We were grateful to get to Ho Chi Minh City, still called by everyone HCMC or Saigon. The city is fab, it is much more westernised and modern with a plethora of fabulous things to do any buy. For the first evening we went for dinner then found a fab bar called Laura’s secret bar, it is on the 3rd floor above her clothes shop and is the epitomy of a boudoir . As we walked up the stairs we were slightly worried that we ladies would not be welcome, but that Neil would and may be offered a “happy ending” you can probably see from the pictures on the stairwell how we leapt to that conclusion!however we were ushered in with grace and style to peruse the cocktail menu, it was here that we discovered the lychee rose martini. A cross between fresh lychees and liquid Turkish delight with a large dash of vodka, even Sam had one.....love Saigon, we all do and each of us would be happy to spend lots more time and money here, but it is still the cheapest night out you could have. Tomorrow shopping he he he.


Day 21 – Me and My Worm
We have a stow away, a little parasitic friend who has hitched a ride to pastures new on to the other side, the nicer, more affluent side of the Mekong. One of us has Hookworms......
This little devil enters the body through the soles of the feet and can be easily passed on from walking in sandals or flip flops in dirty streets. Thank you Cambodia. For all you who think travelling is glamorous, this should lessen the envy.
Never mind, it has been easily treated by buying 30,000VND of medication (£1)
We went to drown our sorrows with lychee and rose martini’s ...3 martini’s a piece and we were feeling no pain, not even Stevie the worm. And one of us was drinking for 2. This whole episode cost us all of £10pp.
Aside from this, this is our first proper restaurant review. We stumbled across a tiny restaurant in a backstreet of HCMC, which specialises in food from Hue in central Vietnam. This town used to be the capital back in the early 19th C. Today it is well known for its poetry and exquisite cuisine, especially street food. This particular restaurant is called Mitau, www.mitauhue.com which is Vietnamese for you and me, moi et toi. The whole place has a grand 5 tables, each looked after by Mom and son, mother cooking , entering the dining room to dispense advise to the customers on what was good and to show off her golfing trophies. (1st place in the ladies tournament this year)
We ordered Bahn Khoai, an egg and rice flour pancake stuffed with bean sprouts, shrimp, mushrooms and pork which was chopped in to our bowls, by the avid Sam admiring waiter, her son. On to this was ladled a sesame and peanut sauce (Nuoc Leo) and mixed, by the Sam loving waiter with the fresh veg that characterise every Vietnamese dish. The greens were star fruit, green banana, lettuce, mint and another purple leaf which to this day remains a mystery. It was delicious.
Next came a dish of pork mushrooms and shrimp which was divided unfairly in Sam’s favour into our bowls by the lovely waiter, it was served with a chilli condiment and a crisp wafer of bread garnished with white and black sesame seeds. The crisp bread is used to scoop up the savoury pork mixture; offering a texture and taste sensation that made us all thank our lucky stars that we had sat here to eat. Wow. Reading our guide book later on we learned that it is normal to have to book in advance for this restaurant as it is regularly oversubscribed. So I guess the gourmet gods were shining upon us.
This was followed by some worming tablets and a new dish which was by far tastier, a mixture of spring rolls made with pork and crab and serves with rice noodles and more fresh veg and just a dash of sweet chilli sauce.
Wow, anyone coming to Saigon soon? Please visit, it is fabulous. And to be honest, there are no words to describe how amazing Nic, Neil, Sam and Stevie the worm thought this meal was. It was worth the thousands of miles we have travelled just to eat here. (Well obviously only several hundred in Stevie’s case)
The meal was rounded off with logan fruit and lotus nuts served over ice, delicious. Then a pot of ginger tea was brought to the table with home made candied ginger wafers sweetened with palm sugar. The lady was so pleased that we had enjoyed her cooking so appreciatively, she gave Sam and I a tea cup each to take home, however, I think she wanted to keep Sam for her son......watch this space, we may be going back there for lunch for Neil’s birthday.
Of course we did have to pay for the meal. It wasn’t exactly expensive by western standards however the suggestion that we left Sam with them as payment was relished by the excited waiter. His mum seemed quite keen to get her working in the kitchen or possibly as a amuse bouche for subsequent diners... In a country that eats rat anything may be palatable.

Still Day 21 – My handbag holiday
I love handbags. I especially love silk handbags from Asia. To date I have had 3 lovely presents from my lovely sister Sam. The first was a green, rough silk handbag purchased from a very expensive silk shop in Cambodia for the princely sum of $14 (£10) it is beautiful with a cream silk lining and a flower on the side. The second and third were purchased today in Saigon. One a black box embroidered with white daisies with coconut rings to thread the handle shut. And the third was pure indulgence, a ribena silk bag with cream flowers and black beads. Oh no, it deserves a whole new wardrobe to do them justice. I know that Christina will be very proud of me.

Other random purchases have included a grey silk ao dai for Sam which is traditional Vietnamese dress, some lotus flower tea, dragon ball jasmine tea and oh my goodness, weasel poop coffee. This lovely little creature eats fresh coffee beans from the plant and some poor bugger picks up their poop and decants it to make some of the most expensive coffee in the world. I have always wanted to try it and at 45,000VND for 100g ($2.5) £15 a poop sorry I mean pop in Selfridges! We made our purchase after smelling and being completely bowled over by the rich chocolate and cinnamon scent. (not like poop at all!!) We look forward to sharing it with anyone who is brave enough! Anyone for coffee?