Road-crossing assistance, cat-paw chair socks, banh mi/pork overload
Day 3. Monday 20 May 2024
16:15. So much for a half day out. But I’m certainly not complaining, I’m having a lovely day, which is also my birthday. I had a hot Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk at a coffee shop I sought out, Cheo Leo. It was all lovely and they played good music. I Shazammed a few tracks to add to a Spotify playlist of Vietnam café music. One track was one I’d not heard in years, Jambalaya by The Carpenters.
My next stop was for breakfast, dim sum near China town. I never found the restaurant I was aiming for but I did find IRIS coffee restaurant. Weirdly, it has a few dreadful reviews on Google and some excellent reviews. The bad reviews feel like they’re of somewhere else. I thought the food, the service and the staff were amazing. To get there, I waited about five minutes to cross an unbelievably busy two lanes to the middle, then a further three lanes. Unsurprisingly, an elderly local woman pretty much just walked out, getting across with barely a pause. Had she been crossing in the same direction, I’d have walked with her … maybe. I was very pumped up when I finally got to the middle but the next three lanes looked impossible. Until a traffic officer (he was in a uniform and had a baton, which, to me at least, gave him a sense of authority) joined me in the middle, gently took my arm and escorted me across the road waving his baton at the waves of mopeds/scooters. I was so happy to make it across in one piece that I turned to hug him in relief, but he’d already walked away by then. A hug would not have been appropriate!
My three dim sum dishes were astonishingly delicious, the best I’ve had in a very long time. I needed the air conditioning of the restaurant by the time I arrived. Having dumplings for my birthday brunch was a stroke of genius and only came about because I noticed that Cheo Leo was about half way between my accommodation and the edge of China town and an area with a few Chinese restaurants.
Today, I’ve upped my caffeine intake. I’ve had two hot Vietnamese coffees, one cold Vietnamese coffee, one cold tea and one hot tea (Vietnamese coffee seems to come with tea) and one lychee lemon green iced tea. The lychee iced tea was amazing, from a hip bubble tea shop called Koi The. That cost 53k vnd. I do not like bubble tea and the tea was not bubbly.
I have had birthday emails but I suppose it doesn’t really feel like my birthday. I’m not complaining or unhappy about that; it’s lovely to be somewhere new and exciting as that in itself makes it a special day.
I had planned to use a Grab scooter to get back to the flat today but I was enjoying the walk. I definitely overheated a bit but I stopped for cold coffee (air conditioned café), cold tea (air conditioned), in Van Hanh mall (air conditioned) and in a phone shop to buy a case for my new mobile (air conditioned). I also stopped at a huge Buddhist temple, Việt Nam Quốc Tự. It was closed but I enjoyed wandering around and seeing decorations for a festival (Wednesday appears to be a Buddhist holiday). It is extremely frustrating when you are as hot as I was and the place you have gone to see is closed. For about four hours.
[I realised some time later in my trip that most, if not all, temples close for at least a few hours around midday. Annoyingly, that temple had been open when I first walked past it, after my nerve racking road crossing with the helpful traffic officer, but at that point my sights were firmly on dim sum]
My scooter ride yesterday was almost too exciting. I was very conscious of the fragility of life. It was kind of good to feel thankful for not being in an accident. I also appreciated being tall and seeing over the head of my driver. I decided it was preferable to see what accident was about to befall us rather than be oblivious.
Anyone who asks me what to expect from HCMC will/must be told how insane the roads are. I’m sure this applies to all Vietnamese cities. There are more scooters/mopeds than you can imagine possible. And they are relentless, approaching like formidable tidal waves, and there are so many that it never seems like just individual scooters.
Today, I bought more pens. Well, it is my birthday. I could top up my baggage weight with pens. Some are gifts for friends. Most are gifts for me. I love pens. The one I’m now using is an animated skewer of three happy-faced mushrooms.
I almost bought two packs of chair socks. Yes, really. They were exactly as you’d imagine, little socks to fit over four legs of a chair. They were cat paws. I know, totally essential and cute. I somehow managed not to buy them, but if I see that shop, a Japanese shop, Daiso, in Hanoi in my last week, I may make a purchase of cat paw chair socks.
[Sadly, I did not encounter a Daiso in Hanoi and I feel I missed an opportunity to buy cat paw socks for our kitchen chairs]
I bought myself two birthday cakes from Duc Phat Bakery. I’m extremely glad I decided to use Google Translate, otherwise I may have ended up with Private Baby, 1 trunged green beans, restoration repair and something with chicken instead of pineapple cream lane and mixed platter. I’ve had the pineapple cream lane. It was not obviously pineapple, cream or lane. But I enjoyed it. Not sure how the mixed platter will turn out but it looks like an open mince pie with a physalis fruit on top. [All spellings in this paragraph are indeed correct, even though they seem more like a series of words which have no place together, let alone describing something edible]
It looks like it’s going to chuck it down with rain. This could scupper my dinner plans.
On my first night in Saigon, I went to a pho place on my road that the AirBnB host had recommended. It was perfect. I ordered “pho tai”, which seemed the most basic pho. A lot had some kind of blood sausage. Mine was a bit spicy. The thin shavings of meat are cooked in the broth. There are big baskets of herbs on the tables and lime, chillies, bean sprouts – oh my, it’s torrential rain – and chilli sauce. Some people seemed to eat the herbs, others put them into the broth. It was truly delicious. I ordered a pomelo juice to go with it. A cold drink was a good move as I inhaled chilli a couple of times. I also ate when I was very hot, almost too hot, and the hot and spicy soup was a bit much. I probably looked like I was suffering, my face was burning. I say “looked like”. I was suffering. A kind of multi-sensory (over-sensory?!) dinner.
Oh my, I have just tried to eat the mixed platter tart. It was inedible to me. I think the two balls on top, one of which I thought was a physalis fruit, being a ball of very bright orange, consisted of animal fat. I was expecting and hoping for a sweet, fruity, mince pie-like tart. I’ve now eaten half a pre-peeled pomelo because there was a vile fatty-meat taste in my mouth that I couldn’t get rid of. I love pomelo and its non-juiciness and very mild grapefruit taste.
[Thinking about it now, as I type this up from Scotland a few weeks later, I actually feel almost nauseous thinking about it. It was beyond revolting. Nothing in that “mixed platter” photo above was sweet. Nothing. Bleugh.]
I need to return to the subject of Vietnamese coffee, I suspect not for the last time. It’s so darn good, both hot and cold. I suspect I’ll buy a phin coffee filter, some coffee and, back in the UK, condensed milk. However, I know it won’t ever be the same; it’s all about being here to drink it. I also suspect a condensed milk habit is not a good, healthy idea. There’s something comforting and lovely about a short, strong, black coffee with condensed milk though.
Similarly, iced tea here is refreshing and tasty, and sugary. I wonder if the food is healthy enough to counter the sweetened teas and coffees …
Returning to my extortionate taxi here from the airport, 470k vnd. That seems to be the gullible tourist price. The next place I’m staying in Saigon (from tomorrow) offers airport pick-up, which again I assume is a premium – well, it is. I was told 140k to 170k vnd by a local with no vested interest in the fare. Anyway, my next accommodation offer a one-way price of “only” 310k vnd. I hate being ripped off. And I know I should have agreed a price or used Grab or held out for one of the two taxi companies I was advised to take.
It’s stopped raining but still very grey and I can hear thunder. Do I want a 20-minute walk for a meal somewhere that looks nice that was recommended by the AirBnB hosts or just go to the end of my road, approximately three minutes away, for another banh mi from an apparently very good destination banh mi place … haha, just writing it out, I’m going to take advantage of having a really good banh mi place close by, Ba Huynh/Madam Win. And I can go out now.
Banh mi is not just a sandwich. This one came with ham, pate, fresh butter (which is actually made from egg yolk not dairy), char sui pork, cucumber, carrot, daikon, coriander, spring onion and chilli pepper. As it’s my birthday, I ordered the large one. Mistake. There are a lot of all meat elements. The bread tastes very fresh, perfect.
Today, my insides reminded me that three fresh coconuts’ worth of coconut water has a laxative effect. Ditto an onslaught of meat, especially rich pate. However, the coconut water (with fresh scraping of the silky coconut flesh) cost 20k vnd (about 65p), cut and poured to order, was worth it. I should have stopped eating the banh mi at half a baguette. But it was delicious. I will need a break from banh mi now. For me, like the first banh mi I ate, less is more.
I’m not saying this because I’m proud of myself, but I did manage to eat the tiramisu I bought from the banh mi place. I have over-eaten. Poor logic that I felt I “had to”, it being my birthday and tiramisu being a joyous thing. I really do feel, well, pork-full.
I had another outdoor bath on the balcony. I feel a bit disappointed to be moving tomorrow for the next three nights. Balcony baths – who knew? – are the way forward.
It’s been kind of wrong not opening anything (other than emails) today and I’ve not even spoken to anyone. But it’s been a memorable birthday, and not just in terms of laxative issues and pork-pork-pork-pork-pork … so much [expletive] pork!
This is from the typed-up version of 144 pages of handwritten diary which I wrote over the 17 days I was in Vietnam (May/June 2024). I corrected it as I typed and added a few comments in square brackets. My intention was to use the diary as notes and transform it into a witty yet informative and concise travel diary-guide. Arguably, I should have stuck with that plan, but my handwritten word-vomit seems to capture my mood and authentic thoughts, so I’ve kept it pretty much as it was initially written.