Please Sir, I want some more!

First up, apologies for the inordinate delay between the last post and this one. I was also set a week ago but for some mysterious reason the ‘drivers’ that enable bluetooth to function disappeared without warning from my laptop. Let me mansplain that to you – no mouse. No mouse, no photo editing, no photo editing, no post. So, as they say in the trade, this will be a ‘bumper’ final edition.

So, lets put on the sunscreen and do some exploring around Ho Chi Minh City. Firstly, the humidity is like a warm, wet blanket and it never goes away. As soon as you walk out of your airconditioned apartment, your glasses immediately fog up. Which I guess explains why everyone is up and about by 6am – no point lying in ‘clammy’. If there’s a cool time of the day, it’s about 7am on the back of a Vespa, seemingly ‘hurtling’ along highways and alleyways into the city. Actually it’s rarely more than 30kph, but like they say, “You have to be there.”

I spent half a day just wandering around, with the vague destination of Ben Tanh Station in the heart of the city. The contrast between the ‘western’ shopping malls and the street venders was stark, clearly two economies living cheek by jowl.

Not only is the city an international population, but also has a cosmopolitan gourmet menu as well(more on that later). I mean, who would expect to find a kebab shop in downtown Ho Chi Minh City? Even stranger that the cooking is done on the footpath!

There is a potential risk to just wandering ‘aimlessly’. English is not even the third language and without bearings or Google translator, one could easily get swallowed up, although I doubt ending up as an involuntary organ donor is a likely outcome. Even narrow back alleys have shop fronts and shingles.

I finally made it to the station around lunch time. The metro is very modern. The recently opened Sydenham to Tallawong railway line in Sydney runs the same trains. You purchase a travel card from a vending machine and at the end of your trip put the travel card into another machine for a partial refund. I calculated the cost of the trip at $0.79 cents. Morning peak hour is an experience, but everyone is courteous and patient. The railway line is elevated which provides a unique view of the city and some unique photo-ops.

In between all the exploring was, of course, the eating, I became a ‘regular” to my Banh Mi lady at the top of street. Sometimes the menu was simply the last thing cooked or the last dish left, depending on the time of day. Sometimes the most amazing looking restaurants would appear at the end of side streets in an otherwise non-descript neighbourhood.

So let’s bring this sojourn in Vietnam to a contrasting end, for, reaching into the sky like the proverbial middle finger to the USA, is a spire of a skyscraper known simply as Level 81. This is the largest (by far) skyscraper in Vietnam, dominating the city skyline. First, we’ll take a look from the very top.

The view stretches across this vast plain to the horizon. I have no idea where the ‘burbs’ start, but couldn’t see them from here. For food lovers however, the ‘diamond mine’ is buried underground. an Aladdin’s cave of gourmet treasure. Here’s just a few:

Now, you’d think that Christmas had come early! But for reasons unknown, I was drawn away from this culinary feast and towards a choice so bland and banal by comparison, I can barely bring myself to confess. Yet I could not draw away from it’s sweet siren’s call, a memory of a dish without rice or noodles. It mightn’t have been KFC, but it was close enough!!

Oh the shame, the shame. But my tastebuds would not be denied. Consumed by regret, I had nothing but street stall food for the next three days.

So for you dear reader, a sample of the culinary highs and lows of one Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. For my loyal subscribers, although the ‘junko’, is no more, the journey may not yet be truly over, There’s a couple of empty spaces on the map, that I might have, in somewhat dubious company, a chance to fill. Keep you posted.