Desperation Juice

Now if I opened a booze shop I'd probably call it City's Liquors, or Good Libations or Hit and Rum or any terrible punning name I could come up with. However I would not call it St. Jude. Especially if I lived in Goa where a large portion of the population being Christian would get the reference.

St Jude is the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes. Mind you, I'm not adverse to a drop of the desperation juice myself and they did have a good selection.

What I did on my summer holidays

First stop on the summer holidays was in Malacca, Malaysia. It's a pretty town, lots of shop houses and a lovely river walk. there are hotels and guest houses to suit all tastes and pockets.

It has a big Chinese and Indian community so good food is pretty much guaranteed and these two cuisines fight manfully with the more local Nonya cookery. Nonya food is delicious. It seems to be a mixture between Javanese and Indian cookery with the techniques of Java and the spices of India but I'm sure an expert could set me right on that.

There is a lot of history in Malacca and plenty to do and see but I've been before so didn't do much with the camera except take picturess of shops and things in shops on an afternoon stroll. So here, for your delectation are pictures of shops and things found in shops - exciting eh?

Shop sign, they sell motor oil and have been doing for some time by the look of things


Ikan Bilis, salty, dried anchovies, you can smell them before you see them but they are delicious in a salty, fishy, smelly sort of a way and an important part of many dishes.


In the Chinese area of town you can find shops which specialise in paper goods. These are made to be burned so the ancestors can have a comfortable afterlife. I've seen all sorts, the new iPad and DSLR cameras are popular as are fancy cars and designer clothing but I've never seen racy red underwear before, I wonder what kind of ancestor would appreciate these.


Fake goods are all over the place, these shoes are for surfing.


Another nice shop sign, a place where you can trade all your Fatt Tatt.


And here's someone whose been shopping.

Annam Gourmet

Phu My Hung; variously branded as “The Saigon of the Future”, “Saigapore” and “Little Seoul” is home to many expats and upwardly mobile Vietnamese. It’s very family friendly and clean but lacks in atmosphere. For those reasons I wouldn’t want to live there but crucially my price range would only reach to apartments and I’ve been spoiled by living in a house. I do use Phu My Hung regularly though especially since Co-op Citymart is the best supermarket in town.

And now, identifying Phu My Hung as indeed a place to be Annam Gourmet have moved in with their polished wood, fancy lighting, imported goods and natty sales assistant. Coffee pavilion coming soon.

So overwhelmed was I by the shopping experience that I bought: my second choice of butter, bread I don’t like, jam in a flavour I wouldn’t normally entertain and a bottle of rose wine because it was in a chiller cabinet. I’ll be more selective next time. The wine was nice though.

Lotte Mart

Saigon is abuzz with excitement, ok, the Korean community is a bit excited and I am abuzz with excitement.



HCMCs first fully modern "Western" style supermarket, except that's it's Korean so is it still Western? More reports from the wall of kim chee once it's open.

If mega-retailer investment in Vietnam is your thing there's a fairly interesting article here
and for a few more pictures of the interior taken since it opened go here

Nothing says Christmas like pumpkins

Dong Khoi is already gearing up for Christmas but initially I was confused.



Pumpkins? What's that all about, leftover Thanksgiving or Halloween decorations?
Still, they were popular with the "pick up the props for a photo opportunity crowd".



A little further along the frontage of this high end outlet and everything became clear.

Cinderella, I should have guessed and yes, the manequins rotate.

There's a pumpkin coach too but I am going to wait to post pictures of that when I have pictures of it at night in all it's twinkling beauty.

Shopping

A trip to Nguyen Trai today and for once I remembered to take my camera. I'm glad I did because I managed to track down the elusive ladybird motorbike helmets. I've seen them being worn but this is first time I've managed to photograph them in captivity.


Also available in blue:


Vietnamese shoes are wonders to behold, check out the ones below. Leopard skin fabric, gold spindly heel, equally golden platform sole, broad ankle strap and bloody huge faux jewel.



I'm prone to the odd fashion crime when it comes to shoes so there are times I'm relieved that my giant Western feet can't be forced into things like this.

While on the subject of shoes, you might think that Converse have a wide enough range of baseball boots and shoes to satisfy everyone. Not at all. They haven't considered the needs of the Glam Rock Seventies Revivalists.



Thanks to the Vietnamese knock off shoe industry their needs are satisfied.