go girls

M has a cold so we took it pretty easy today. Still waiting to hear of possible employment but no word so far.

Our cultural outing was to the Southern Women's Museum in District 3. We saw one floor of it yesterday but got (politely) kicked out, forgetting closing time for lunch was 11.30am to 1.30pm. Three storeys of women's history in Vietnam - an interesting counterpoint to the War Remnants museum, although there were plenty of girls with guns. Definitely worth a look if you are visiting HCMC, particularly as it's free. Both times M and I were virtually the only visitors. Of course there is plenty about martyrs and war heroes, but also a fantastic collection of jewellery, a clothing and textiles display, and works of art.

Fascinating to see that there are a number of female goddesses and heroines revered in Vietnam, including the Trung Ladies, two sisters who built their own female army and warded off a number of attacks from the Chinese in AD39.

Trung sisters rule

Unfortunately, according to Wikipedia, they and their army were finally defeated when the Chinese invaders got clever, got naked and scared them off.

We also ate handsomely today for lunch and dinner without having to walk more than 100m. District 3 is great for food places! 

market madness

Around District 1 and District 3 there are a number of markets (Cho) - the most well-known being Ben Thanh Market. Today we visited another couple near where we are staying - Cho Vuon Chuoi and Cho Ban Co. Not many tourists here and both were a rabbit warren of stalls, wonderful smelling food, stinky raw meat, fruit and veg. M bought a street sweet, while I got something from the bakery for morning tea. 

Check out the vendor's nails

Purchased item - crunchy custardy goodness

Sweet Home Bakery selections

Purchased item - Nu Hoang, red and green bean paste surrounded by papery pastry

We had lunch with some friends visiting from Oz, and then met again later at Ben Thanh. We knew of a night market that springs up near Cho Ben Thanh on Phan Boi Chau street but we weren't sure what time, so went to Bui Vien St for a while, then back to the market for dinner. Lucky we are doing so much walking with all the eating...

usual saturday

A selection of breakfast fruits

Saturday - some washing, a bit of shopping, out for coffee - and the footy on TV. M is very happy to discover that he will see more Crows matches here, thanks to Australia Network (tv station).  

Dinner was pho ga (chicken noodle soup) from one of the local eateries. The waitress didn't respond to our attempts to speak Vietnamese, wanting to practise her English, and was doing well until she served our meals and commented 'Have a good taste.' (So much better than 'Enjoy your meal'!) I love it when 'mistakes' actually improve communication. Yesterday walking around the markets I was handed a number of leaflets for massage/beauty salons, one of which offered 'Shampoo, Massage and Cry' for a mere $10 an hour. I know there's a market for that.

food, glorious food

We had a great day visiting the Ben Thanh market and surrounds. 

One of the reasons why we thought we could happily stay in VN for an extended period is the wonderful food. Tonight we had a special meal at Com Nieu Sai Gon (English tag - Vietnamese Gastronomy Restaurant), starting with Banh Xeo, a prawn filled pancake which you wrap in a lettuce leaf, along with selected herbs, and then dip into sauce. Then had chicken sauteed in lemongrass and chilli, and basa fish in claypot. Fantastic! Another great feature of the restaurant is the floorshow of rice throwing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18BvEwmH1lw&feature=related).
Earlier in the day we visited Sozu for morning tea, a business set up to help Vietnamese kids and families: http://sozocentre.com/

walking is good for you

More walking today - this time to the Botanical Gardens and Zoo, where it appeared to be school excursion day. There were hundreds of kids, some of whom were very excited to shake hands with a foreigner and practice saying 'hello.'

We also completely failed to find the Australian Embassy in District 1. We were using a map we picked up last time, which directed us to a demolition site. 


Tonight we dined at Quan Nem, which has the English tag line 'Special Vietnamese Spring Roll'. This turned out to be accurate as the restaurant only did one kind of spring roll, crab meat, which was delicious. There was one other option on the menu, grilled pork, also tasty. 


The length of the menu was in complete contrast to our lunch venue, which had a menu of about 20 pages, including choices such as goat's penis and field mouse. In both places the waiter handed us menus and then almost immediately pointed to the dish deemed most suitable. 

art and exercise

One of the great things about moving to a new location is that even the most mundane activities are a little bit different and sometimes exciting. If you've been to VN you know that walking down a street can be like attempting an obstacle course. So where do people walk to get fit? Today we discovered that in District 3, it's at Tao Dan Park, which has a collection of strange and wonderful sculptures so you can combine art appreciation with getting healthy. 

Dinner tonight was at Fire Restaurant,  close to where we are staying - we had a tasty 'traditional' Viet fish hot pot - we think our waiter arrived especially for us: we were the only Tay (foreigners), he only took our order, and then left on his white Vespa once we were finished!

Walking the neighbourhood

We did three walks around District 3 today, reacquainting ourselves with Vietnamese life. On our first walk we went out for coffee and then walked past the Archbishop's Residence, where we saw an amazing blue-headed lizard. 

We also went to the local Co-op a couple of times to pick up supplies. The supermarket's plastic bags have provoked a couple of negative comments from local street sellers, obviously feeling the financial effects.

Arrived!

After the champagne came the hard work of packing, cleaning, painting and moving things into storage. Then a week + of enjoying a wonderful time catching up with family and friends. The last 2 days we've had in Darwin, learning how to perspire again. It was a real surprise to see how beautiful Darwin was (in places). A frontier town but we had some great food. Had a fab time as tacky tourists at Crocosaurus Cove - until we saw that the baby croc you could hold for a photo was kept in a cupboard! And now we're in our apartment in HCMC. As per usual, M has done a great job of finding a wotif gem. 

View of Mindil Beach

last night

9 sq m and falling

Another load of boxes delivered to the lock-up this afternoon. I've had John Lennon singing 'imagine no possessions, it's easy if you try' in my head - yeah, right, he never had to pack up a whole house, I'm sure. Nature highlight of the day was witnessing a butterfly mating dance.

Crackle pop in love again

Four (or five?) years ago M bought me a record player with CD recording capabilities. At the time I thought it was the best present ever - and every now and again I would plug it in and play some dearly loved vinyl. But never recorded anything. Now, with about 10 seconds to go before we leave the country, I started recording tonight! Dancing around and playing records. Reliving my childhood. And recording, finally...

Tonight's view from the deck

The library has gone

I don't have many books left on my shelves - I couldn't bring myself to pack all of them yet though. I'm hoping that I'll be able to squeeze some real books into our luggage. If we end up in Hanoi I know of at least one good bookshop that sells books in English - http://bookwormhanoi.com