Day 2: Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnamese motorbikes here aren’t loud, but several of them ripping through the streets in evenly-paced intervals, can equivocate a handful of Harleys. A motor stampede. I awoke from my sleep because my cavernous room echoed thunderous vibrations. That’s what you get from a room with a front row seat of the main street. Otherwise, the view is pretty interesting.
My room? I’ve gotten used to it. Periodically during the night, I’d awake with an itch which sent me to my spritzer of Solumel. Douse the sheets under my liner. Second perfume? Lemongrass. A bottle I ordered through my co-teacher in Korea. Mosquitoes avoid lemongrass, even mountain people swear by it. Anyways, silk liner, cargo pants, periodic spritzes of Solumel and lemongrass. Elements for a tranquil sleep.
My first Vietnamese meal @ Zen Restaurant, HCMC (*Lonely Planet listed)
Spring rolls and eggplant and tofu soup. Mmmm? Not really– the eggplant tasted like dirt. Zen is known for has “vegetarian” options (but never mind, vegetarians have options in Vietnam in general). Today however, was a bad day. It was hot, the power was out due to construction next door, there was no AC and the menu was downsized to what could be cooked without electricity.
My off-the-beaten path tour of the Old Quarter
Every now and then, I hit a wall of what to do next? If digging through a guidebook is unappealing, I hit explorer mode and wander, leisurely exploring off-the-beaten-path side alleys. The Old Quarter of HCMC may be the typical backpackers ghetto, where most things expose a dogged local life… you can always go deeper. Streets are paved brick and dirt. Walking down the smaller alleys and streets as they wind, can take you past open doorways into the grit of local leisure, make-shift work styles and generally, a chaotic (yet practiced) lower income family lifestyle.
This time, I didn’t have a scamming Indian Baba tour guide to lead me behind the scenes; so, I picked the next best thing– an old Vietnamese food seller, making neighborhood rounds. Following her deeper into the city streets was an opportunity to seeing neighbors chat between open doorways on their motorbikes, families eating on their living room floor or laying sprawled on the cool concrete floors, watching TV. Here’s some of my excursion…
Meet the tour guide…
meet the streets, it’s side streets and alleys…
a family-run plate lunch meal business run out of a home
Goodbye.
Vietnam, you remind me of Korea… not really, but sorta.
Six months and summer camps exhausted every EPIKer. When vacation hit many of us needed to jailbreak from our Korean lifestyles. Meeting up with friend and fellow EPIKer, Veronica for a couple of days in HCMC felt surreal. The Korean to Vietnamese exchange and lifestyle jump felt weird to us.
“Woo hoo, we’re no longer in Korea!” we kept saying and yet, every Vietnamese transaction tempted a Kamsahamnida…Annyonghasaeyo or an exchange of money with two hands. We had to hold ourselves from the …
Awww… kyopta’s (” cute”), …kenchanayo’s (“You okay”), kenchana’s (“I’m fine”)! I’m not kidding. I wanted to speak and act more Korean than I do on a daily basis… in Korea! What’s up with that?! It was getting too strange. Our ears thirsted to hear Korean. If there was an Asian tourist within a 20 foot radius, our ears were strained to listen for Korean! The 6 month old Korean in us wanted in on this trip! Korea had gotten under our skin; thinking in kimchi had become second nature.
Did we revel in this realization we’d been Koreanized? I’m not sure, but Veronica could not stop, sliding in an Annyeonghaseayo to any Asian tourist who looked Korean.
We walked around HCMC until our feet fell off. HCMC has an interesting motorcycle scene to checkout . The lifestyle revolves around a motorbike way of life, which will blow you away if you’re from a car culture! (Stay tuned- this is coming in my next blog)
Ben Thanh Marketplace
By day, it’s an indoor marketplace similar to Bangkok’s Chatachuk Market (although much smaller) with stalls of food, clothes, Vietnamese souvenirs, herbs, etc… After 6P/7P it turns into a night bazaar with outdoor restaurant stalls and vendors.
Workers getting ready for their shift at the night market. The setup of the night market happens very quickly. If you double-blink your eye, you might miss it (ok, maybe they’re not that quick but still…). Years of practice has gotten the setup perfectly choreographed.
(pic below) Men quickly roll out the night market tents
the night market outside of the Ben Thanh Market
And now, we eat!
Those alleyway pics are so cool!
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Christine Ka'aloa Reply:
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:56 pm
@Laura: Thanks for your comment. It was an interesting experience!
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these pics are awesome!
i can’t wait to go some where again with you!
mmm those veggies were da bombdiggity!
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Christine Ka'aloa Reply:
August 24th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
@Veronica: You’re on, lady! Where do you suggest?
Glad I got my fruit & veggie fix & hope you got enough of your Pho– time was too short on the good eats level. But are you glad you get to speak Korean now? Also, still haven’t had time to look at our Vietnamese street x-ing video, yet. Hope that turns out.
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Christine I want to know where to get lemongrass spray! and what is Solumel?
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Christine Ka'aloa Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
@Malou: Lemongrass spray?! My co-teacher ordered it for me from a friend during summer when there were mosquitoes out. Dunno. wonder if the herbal drops they sell a Daiso works?
The solumel is essentially Melaleuca/tea tree. That works too. I got on Amazon unfortunately; but it works on EVERYTHING! Can you make it to your doctor or the pharmacy to see if they have anything similar that they’d recommend or use?
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Christine Ka'aloa Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
@Malou: if worse comes to worse about the mosquitoes, you could take mosquito punk or that air plug in thing. But I’ll also bet Vietnam sells some kind of repellent.
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