Vietnam Day 62 (8/9/09)

We went to my favorite pho place in 18 Alley for breakfast this morning. It was kind of sad that Kendra and I had to share but none of us is feeling too hot right now. I think something we ate at all those closing ceremonies in Ben Tre is screwing with our stomachs. We went to a new area of the city today where we found a combination street food market and electronic black market. The food market was like any other with little booths set up along the street selling everything from vegetables to live fish, but the electronics were in single standing shops on the next street over. They looked like pretty legitimate establishments with nice glass cases displaying iPods with huge speakers standing behind – it was interesting to think about where this stuff really comes from and what makes people come to “black market sellers.” We hadn’t entirely decided what our next stop would be so we just started walking. I like the feeling of walking around the city. It’s not exactly living like the locals, because everyone just uses motorbikes, but you still get a chance to see more of the city than the average tourist. We ended up at Saigon Square, which is my least favorite place here – it’s so cluttered and since I have no desire to buy clothes here (the main good here being cheap mimic clothing), I just get pushed and shoved by a sea of people for nothing. Leaving, I was relieved to think it was the last time I’d have to set foot in this market.

By the time we finished shopping we were all starving so we went to the nearest restaurant, the Paris Café. We sat on the patio, which had the nice relaxed ambiance of a French Bistro, with white wicker chairs and easy listening acoustic versions of such Western songs as “Moon River” and “Take Me Home Country Roads” by John Denver (how you make that into easy listening I couldn’t tell you but it cracked me up). The Paris Café is a slightly more upscale place so I went cheap, just getting potato soup (which was really creamy and not necessarily in a good way) and “xinh to xoai” (mango shake), which succeeded in making me feel a little less touristy. After walking around for a while, we went and sat by the river, watching the barges and tourist boats. Tourists can be truly hilarious sometimes. My favorite pair of the day were two women in Crocs shoes and “Saigon” t-shirts waltzing around with really poor-quality conical hats on – the funniest thing about their appearance was the fact that they’d hung their cheap ray-band sunglasses from the neon strings on their hats. They couldn’t have been more conspicuous if they tried. There was also a small group of pre-teen Vietnamese kids sitting down by the water in front of us. They looked like the type of kids who go around beating up other kids – their style was all punk and they were chilling out smoking cigarettes. Soon we found out why they were there – they were catching little fish and putting them in bags to sell (probably to pet shops). There were a couple of men around them also catching fish, but their method was to jump all the way into the water with their nets. I can only imagine how sick they get plunging into water that polluted.

I had one last shopping errand to finish up so we headed to Ben Tanh Market. While we were there, Kendra tried to buy coffee from one of the stands but we had no idea what kind to get. As we stood there deciding, the vendor came over to us to persuade us to buy the more expensive one. However, his strategy lost him the sale as he physically showed us how “some” of the blends contain little black kernels of corn mixed in with the coffee beans (almost a “fake good,” even worse than a mimic good). He kept saying he would sell us the “good quality stuff” that had been sorted, but we decided against trusting aggressive vendors and left the market. We then made a return visit to Fanny’s, the ice cream place we ate at our first week in Saigon. Ming got one of the “creations,” a funny bumblebee made out of a banana, a scoop of mango sherbet, and waffle cone wings. I went for one of the simpler options with chocolate chili ice cream, which was amazingly good.

Across the street we finally went into the Hindu temple I’ve wanted to see since we got here. It was a tiny space, just one room with an elevated altar in the center. The altar had figures of different gods surrounded by colorful electronic lights. I took a little walk, wrapping around the altar looking at framed illustrations of gods as well as portraits of famous Indian figureheads like Gandhi and Nehru. The temple was set within a complex of apartments, so as I walked around I saw kids playing in the courtyard as women prepared dinner. I was stunned to find that not all the residents of this small complex are Hindu, which I discovered when I came across a large ornate statue of the lady Buddha right next to the temple. I wonder what draws people to live here if not the temple.

My is currently trying to do as much last-minute bonding with us as possible, so she had the whole evening planned out for us. We were going to get a noodle dish at a street vendor (which she says isn’t “delicious” but is the kind of food people of all socioeconomic classes eat and she’s eager to show us all sides of Vietnam), then get more food (some kind of fresh bread), and go to a park where a lot of dance groups, both break-dance and traditional dance, go to practice at night. We decided in the end to go for only one meal (which my stomach was thankful for) and we decided on the bread dish. The bread was soft and warm, just out of the oven and was served with a very good green curry – the restaurant was cheap, but pretty impressive for a franchise. When we got to the park, there was no dancing or activity (except for a few lovers in the shadows) because it had been raining and the pavement was too wet to dance. Instead we took a casual stroll about the park. In the center was a tone monument to honor the soldier the park is named after. During the American-Vietnamese War, this soldier grabbed a torch and blew up a stash of American artillery, sacrificing himself in the process. Hieu suggested that perhaps, rather than a heroic suicide mission, this soldier was just some stupid kid who was smoking a cigarette around artillery and it just blew up – I’m not sure which version of the story is sadder. Van, Alex, and I then went to the Ben Tanh night market, where Van got a bunch of mimic polo shirts and I got a ring. We’re getting awfully good at this bargaining thing – even the Vietnamese roommates were impressed and Van Anh wants me to bargain for her when she goes shopping now.