Vietnam
It's now 2.14pm in Vietnam and little trickles of water are coming out of the sky ruining my beach time completely. Vietnam is 1 hour earlier than Malaysia, so if it's 2.14pm here it's 3.14pm over there. Somehow I find myself waking up really early here, like at 7 to 8 in the morning, without an alarm clock, which is amazing considering my normal sleeping habits.
I'm now in Hoi An, which is by far the most expensive place I've been in VN... it's a quaint little old town, with many ancient looking streets and houses converted into shops which totally rip people off. Just yesterday i paid like RM8 for a teeny weeny little bowl of maybe 8 tiny slices of pork, like, seriously tiny like thinner than 0.5cm in width tiny. i was like "what the fuck man" when i saw it, because we've been super spoilt since we've touched down in Vietnam about 2 weeks ago.
On our first night, we had an AMAZINGLY fulfilling and superbly tasty local dinner for only RM9... which is RM4.50 per person. And we had like 3 dishes and a soup, and lots of rice and free tea. Imagine that. All piping hot from the kitchen. We bought baguettes the next morning for like RM1 and it was huge and extremely yummy, making me fall in love with vietnamese baguettes forever. They're called Banh Mi and really really lovely little things. Been eating tons of them since.
However, the most fantastic dinner we had was the night Bera biked us to some secluded ocean-side restaurant in Nha Trang which managed to be both vacation-y and classy, and whilst enjoying the sound of the gigantic waves and the cool breeze of the night, we ordered so much food we almost died. We had a HUGE hotpot, which was something like steamboat and loads of fresh seafood and really tasty soup and also fried fish and squid. Omg. The squid was soooooooo good. and the rice, the rice was so chewy, like calrose rice, but looked like normal long grain rice. Hot and fluffy, it made the meal fantastico. We also ordered the most delicious strawberry shake in the world which was like a glassful of strawberries and each sip was just marvellous. I never had a better glass of strawberry juice in my life. And guess what, the entire meal only cost us RM60+. Simply amazing.
You can imagine my shock when we went to this shitty restaurant in Hoi An which didnt look all that nice, ordered normal food and in came servings fit for a toddler. Yes. What the fuck indeed. It was more expensive than walking into a fancy restaurant in KL. I hate Hoi An.
On the other hand, Hoi An is amazing - shopping-wise -. they had everything!!! and really really cheap prices. It's strange how the food can cost so much and the physical goods can cost so little. People here arent as nice and people in Nha Trang and Saigon. Man I missed Nha Trang and Saigon so much.
We had this VIP-ish room in Nha Trang, with it's own living room! and beautiful bathroom and balcony for only 20 dollars, which was lovely considering the price and location. And in Saigon the room was okay, in a quaint little alleyway where you can watch the locals do shit like try to nab tourists into their hotels.
And Omg, I LOVED crossing the road in Saigon. It was the most exhilarating experience ever. At first it was a bit scary, you know... because all the motorcycles were going in all directions and the cars and trucks didn't seem to give a damn about your existence, but you move slowly, and you realise they weave around you as you make your way to the other side of the road and the feeling is just riveting. It's like they're taking care of you haha. Nowhere else in VN is the traffic as wonderful as in Saigon. Oh man.... I miss crossing the road.
what else do I love... hmm.... I love how everyone in Vietnam lives on their bikes and moves around using their bikes and how couples would hug each other whilst weaving through the heavy traffic and it's just really romantic. I love the oceanside cafes where some guy just set up stall and puts like a million really comfy sunchairs for you to sit there and sip on their really cheap coffees and juices. Bera claims that they have the best coffee in Asia. I wouldn't know though, not being a fan of coffee. But their milk coffee - Ca Fe Sua Da - is really good i think, really milky and nice.
Oh yea, and another thing, Vietnamese people seem incapable of cooking up any bad food. Even in the most expensive and unreasonably priced places, they serve good food. Even in the streets they serve fantastic food. Wherever you go, whatever you order, it is bound to taste good. And that's really surprising, because even in Malaysia, the food haven, there ARE bad food. There are seriously bad food. But here, everything's good. Strange, but true. I loooooooooooooooooove Vietnamese food.
One more thing, the Vietnamese people are really nice despite what I've read before... They're all really friendly and sweet. Now I'm going to go shopping. Toodles. Pictures will come.
I'm now in Hoi An, which is by far the most expensive place I've been in VN... it's a quaint little old town, with many ancient looking streets and houses converted into shops which totally rip people off. Just yesterday i paid like RM8 for a teeny weeny little bowl of maybe 8 tiny slices of pork, like, seriously tiny like thinner than 0.5cm in width tiny. i was like "what the fuck man" when i saw it, because we've been super spoilt since we've touched down in Vietnam about 2 weeks ago.
On our first night, we had an AMAZINGLY fulfilling and superbly tasty local dinner for only RM9... which is RM4.50 per person. And we had like 3 dishes and a soup, and lots of rice and free tea. Imagine that. All piping hot from the kitchen. We bought baguettes the next morning for like RM1 and it was huge and extremely yummy, making me fall in love with vietnamese baguettes forever. They're called Banh Mi and really really lovely little things. Been eating tons of them since.
However, the most fantastic dinner we had was the night Bera biked us to some secluded ocean-side restaurant in Nha Trang which managed to be both vacation-y and classy, and whilst enjoying the sound of the gigantic waves and the cool breeze of the night, we ordered so much food we almost died. We had a HUGE hotpot, which was something like steamboat and loads of fresh seafood and really tasty soup and also fried fish and squid. Omg. The squid was soooooooo good. and the rice, the rice was so chewy, like calrose rice, but looked like normal long grain rice. Hot and fluffy, it made the meal fantastico. We also ordered the most delicious strawberry shake in the world which was like a glassful of strawberries and each sip was just marvellous. I never had a better glass of strawberry juice in my life. And guess what, the entire meal only cost us RM60+. Simply amazing.
You can imagine my shock when we went to this shitty restaurant in Hoi An which didnt look all that nice, ordered normal food and in came servings fit for a toddler. Yes. What the fuck indeed. It was more expensive than walking into a fancy restaurant in KL. I hate Hoi An.
On the other hand, Hoi An is amazing - shopping-wise -. they had everything!!! and really really cheap prices. It's strange how the food can cost so much and the physical goods can cost so little. People here arent as nice and people in Nha Trang and Saigon. Man I missed Nha Trang and Saigon so much.
We had this VIP-ish room in Nha Trang, with it's own living room! and beautiful bathroom and balcony for only 20 dollars, which was lovely considering the price and location. And in Saigon the room was okay, in a quaint little alleyway where you can watch the locals do shit like try to nab tourists into their hotels.
And Omg, I LOVED crossing the road in Saigon. It was the most exhilarating experience ever. At first it was a bit scary, you know... because all the motorcycles were going in all directions and the cars and trucks didn't seem to give a damn about your existence, but you move slowly, and you realise they weave around you as you make your way to the other side of the road and the feeling is just riveting. It's like they're taking care of you haha. Nowhere else in VN is the traffic as wonderful as in Saigon. Oh man.... I miss crossing the road.
what else do I love... hmm.... I love how everyone in Vietnam lives on their bikes and moves around using their bikes and how couples would hug each other whilst weaving through the heavy traffic and it's just really romantic. I love the oceanside cafes where some guy just set up stall and puts like a million really comfy sunchairs for you to sit there and sip on their really cheap coffees and juices. Bera claims that they have the best coffee in Asia. I wouldn't know though, not being a fan of coffee. But their milk coffee - Ca Fe Sua Da - is really good i think, really milky and nice.
Oh yea, and another thing, Vietnamese people seem incapable of cooking up any bad food. Even in the most expensive and unreasonably priced places, they serve good food. Even in the streets they serve fantastic food. Wherever you go, whatever you order, it is bound to taste good. And that's really surprising, because even in Malaysia, the food haven, there ARE bad food. There are seriously bad food. But here, everything's good. Strange, but true. I loooooooooooooooooove Vietnamese food.
One more thing, the Vietnamese people are really nice despite what I've read before... They're all really friendly and sweet. Now I'm going to go shopping. Toodles. Pictures will come.