Comments | zoje_george: Here and There

zoje_george

Here and There

Feb 11, 2006 16:31

John fell sick early this morning. He didn't drink enough water yesterday and ended up getting himself all dehydrated. Poor baby. I speculated that he got sick just because he was jealous that I was getting all the sympathy ( Read more... )

saigon baby, coffee, pictures

Comments 10

georginasevart February 12 2006, 00:59:29 UTC

I hope you're beginning to feel better. For some reason, I'm just loving your food posts.

Oh! And "Paris 1919" is a kickass book, yes? I needed to write out a chart to keep track of all of the players, though.

georginasevart February 12 2006, 16:50:13 UTC

I need to add: that coffee situation looks a bit complicated to me. Being a fellow dark-so-it-bites-back fan, it's good to know what to anticipate in foreign places.

How's JT feeling? How are you feeling?

zoje_george February 13 2006, 13:35:52 UTC

It's not really. It's just like a French press, in fact it's the VN version of the press. After it's filtered/pressed, you either add water (nuoc nong), sugar (duong), milk (uh...), or sweetened evaporated milk (sua). And I was not a fan of anything sweet in my coffee before coming here, trust me. Now, I love it. Ca phe da (sweet black coffee with ice) is an excellent way to start the day or as an afternoon break. The coffee is quite strong, and I'm probablly drinking only a third to a quarter of what I drank back in the States -- maybe less, I used to go through two pots of coffee a day.

John's doing better. His stomach is still a little shocked from having a day with no food. I'm just coughing up gack. Feeling a million times better.

linaerys February 14 2006, 14:01:20 UTC

Lovely. I can't wait to see it!

BTW, how hard is it the just find a hotel in HMC (and hopefully, by extension, the rest of the country)? The only stuff we can book from the US is super expensive, so we were thinking of at least partially winging it on the housing issue while we're there.

zoje_george February 14 2006, 14:05:18 UTC

Oh goodness, it shouldn't be that difficult at all. There are like, a ZILLION guest houses down in our area. If you like we can arrange it for you at Guest House 70 or here at our house or one of Mr Hein's other houses. And it's not that expensive. Should be only $15 per night.

Unless you want to stay in the more high end areas, but then, better to spend your money on transport and food than a fancy hotel room.

Mr Hein's houses are all very clean and honest, and you'll have your own bathroom. Don't worry, even if you stay in our house, we wouldn't require you to do EVERYthing with us while you're here.

linaerys February 14 2006, 14:09:08 UTC

Wonderful! I'll email you to find out more about your area and pass it on to my travel agent (the Penguin).

You'll have to let me know what (relatively small) things I can bring you from the US.

=)

zoje_george February 14 2006, 14:14:41 UTC

If you can, get the Rough Guides for the countries you'll be travelling through. There's a reason Lonely Planet is called "Lonely Idiot" guide. Rough Guide Viet Nam (also, their phrase books are MUCH MUCH better) gives a pretty good description of the Bui Vien/backpacker area. We're basically in the center of HCMC -- right near Ben Thanh Market. We've found a reliable cyclo driver ($2 per hour), so Phuc (fook) can take you on a tour without ripping you off (and he's very careful that you keep your belongings and white skin safe).

I'll think on a list for you.

You'd mentioned that you want to bring a lot of books, I don't know how much time you'll have for reading when you're in Viet Nam, it's really just so exciting and there's so much to see...

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