A Whole New World

Ho Chi Minh statue and City Hall

Things are different here. Actually, almost everything is different here. Here are just a few examples:

Our apartment - its great - 2 bedrooms, 2 baths on the 20th floor of a large building. We're located on a busy street that runs along one of the canals here. The traffic is non-stop, and karaoke can be heard most nights 'til the wee hours. We have a rice cooker (I haven't tried it yet), an electric kettle for boiling water (we use this daily for instant coffee), and an induction cooktop (took some getting used to, but I really like it!). We have a microwave, toaster oven, fridge and washing machine. The bathrooms here have bidets, which we were first exposed to in Europe. We have a small outdoor deck, which is used to hang laundry to dry. Its really too hot to leave the door open or sit outside. We have 4 separate air conditioner units, which we can control via remote. Every once in a while we find small lizards inside (a pretty large one hiding in a Coke can, a teeny one on the wall), and we just turn them loose on the deck. I'm not sure how they get all the way up to the 20th floor, but they're friendly little guys.

There's a grocery store in the first floor, which is convenient, but we have found cheaper options within walking distance. There's also a Starbucks, which we have yet to try.

Groceries - the fresh produce is inexpensive and delicious. We have enjoyed pineapple, mango, dragonfruit (both white and bright purple fruit varieties), bananas, watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, spinach, and mushrooms in all shapes and sizes. There are many more varieties that we can't identify. Seedless green grapes are imported, and cost around $8-10 USD a bunch. They were delicious, but I learned very quickly to check prices! Cheese is not eaten here ( I know - WHAT??), it is imported and pretty expensive. We have found edam, gouda, mozzarella and parmesan. What I wouldn't give for a nice hunk of sharp cheddar!

Most of the milk has sugar added to it, so we have to check the labels carefully (with the help of google translate). Hunts Tomato Sauce is really ketchup - we purchased 2 very large packages for making spaghetti sauce, and we now have ketchup for life!

There are entire aisles in the grocery stores just for cooking oils, rice, and several aisles for noodles of all kinds. We discovered a 'Western' store, where we were able to find (among other things) taco seasoning, canned jalapeños, chocolate chips, Italian seasoning, peanut butter, and vanilla extract. They also carry Doritos and Cocoa Krispies (we passed on those). I decided to make some cookies for our sailing journey, and we had to visit 3 different stores to find all of the ingredients. But I found everything, then borrowed Terry and Nanci's convection oven to bake.

Scooters - are everywhere, and they freely travel on the roads, sidewalks, with or against the normal flow of traffic, and come shooting out of blind alleys at full speed. This is the primary mode of transportation here. Everything can be hauled using a scooter.

Intersections without traffic lights appear to be basically a free-for-all - the scooters yield to the cars, the cars yield to the buses. You have to have your wits about you at all times.

Notice the green GRAB driver, he has a little umbrella on his handlebars to protect his phone from the sun.

If you're crossing the road and can make eye contact with the driver, they will avoid you. Buses, as I hinted at above, yield to no one, and cars are next in the pecking order. Then the scooters - pedestrians do not seem to have the right-of-way here, so again, wits about you...

The nice wide sidewalks are used to display merchandise, set out teeny little tables and chairs for eating/drinking, and of course, for parking scooters.

On a typical day, we meander through the city, cross the canal, stop for a coffee or a quick lunch; 1) a 'banh mi' is a Vietnamese baguette with some sort of meat, a spread, cilantro, cucumber, chilies and pickled veg, or 2) grilled pork or chicken with rice, chilies and pickled veg. We sometimes walk several miles to shop, then hire a GRAB car to drive us back to the apartment. Like Uber, but so much cheaper here!!

Going out to eat - its really best when the menu has pictures that we can point at, or better yet, English descriptions of the dishes. We have figured out that 'Ga' is chicken, 'Bo' is beef, and 'Thit' is pork. Beer is 'Bia'. When ordering street food, we first attempt to identify the food, then just point at what we want to try. This usually works well.

The coffee is served very strong, sweet, and over ice, and there's no such thing as decaf. Randy did order some Sanka (instant decaf) on Lazada (like an Asian Amazon). He has tried multiple times to order a hot cup of coffee. The last time he asked, they heated the coffee first, then poured it over ice HA HA!

In one café we ordered Coca-Cola, and the waiter brought us this=>

It was delicious, but not quite what we were expecting!

In another busy bar, we ordered grilled shrimp and French fries. The shrimp was served with all parts included, and the fries came with a side of butter and sugar for dipping. A plastic crate is placed under your table, and they put the empties there. This is how they figure your bill when you leave! We thought the sign was interesting too.

We are enjoying our time here, and the boat is almost finished. We will be moving to a new apartment on Thanksgiving Day, hopefully only for a week or so.

We ventured across the border to Cambodia so that we could extend our visas for another 30 days. My next post will tell you all about that trip.

Thanksgiving blessings to you all, and enjoy your turkey and stuffing. I'm not sure what will be on our Thanksgiving table, but we are so thankful to be on this adventure!