Label Babel

I went to "Shoe Street" and snagged myself a pair of Clark's sandals and some pretty flip flops orignially destined for New Look. Choice of shoes isn't something I've had recently so I bought all that fitted including a pair of gold shoes which I suspect may never see the light of day. Not all the goods are genuine of course, you have to be careful otherwise you're going to end up looking pretty silly.



"Watch the Nem Levi's Commercial, Cong Away Sin". Indeed.

Mistranslations always appeal to me and in the marvelously named "Fashion Monkey" Stephen got a nice t-shirt with an even nicer label



Of course I was too big for all the female clothes, but what do I care, I got shoes!

Rotten Narrow Table Ox Depository revisited

It'a been a while since I blogged some random images of things that tickle me so I'll rectify that now. I still haven't eaten here but at least I now know that oop-la is fried egg.



Building is everywhere, sites are usually surrounded by drab green corrugated steel walls but this one near Pham Ngu Lau is particularly colourful.




Everything becomes normal after a while, see how normal five big boxes on a motorbike look.

But neatly packaged incense is pretty eyecatching.



And these guys are soon to become an extinct breed as the city authorities are banning them in the near future. If you want the thrill of an exhaust packed trip through traffic on a cyclo in HCM you'd better get a move on.



Finally, we bought ourselves a motorbike, well a scooter really, it has elements of a Barbie Bike about it but it's not a

Piaggio Super Best Fairy. I would have been tempted just by the name.

Helmets plus

Some time ago I posted a short critique on Ho Chi Minh helmets. At the time I was short of a few pictures but recently I've been travelling tourist class with my camera out snapping at random. So far I've managed to capture:

The wide brimmed helmet complete with hearts and flowers stickers which instantly turn a safety item into a desireable fashion accessory.



I also got the full helmet cosy, an alternative to the helmet skirt, this covers the crown of the helmet too and produces a bonnet effect. Maybe I should get one.



You can also see the full lower face/neck mask usually supplemented by a small face mask worm over the top.

On a traffic note, here's a picture of something I think is going to grow to obessional levels with me, the Vietnamese prediliction for personlising their bikes; Pimp My Moto 1


Animal print is always so classy.

Goals, to get pictures of people in matching Pimp My Helmets and Pimp My Motos

Crunchy Collons

I tried a new snack food because I couldn't resist the name. Strawberry Collons



Also avaiable in chocolate and cream flavours. Indeed they do look a little like small sections of colon.



The wafer shell is very light and crisp and the filling is slightly gritty but not in a distasteful way and tastes more pink than strawberry but I'm assured they're made with real strawberry juice. They're quite nice if a little oversweet for my taste but I'd eat collon again.




Here you can see the ridged texture of the shell and a bit of my mustard sofa and seventies type wall units (soon to be a thing of the past if plans work out).


If you live in the UK and want to experience collon yourself they're available from CyberCandy who also offer the supreme Double Chocolate Collon and the Choco Puff Collon. Treat yourself

Holiday Travel

We joined the world traveler set and got ourselves an open tour ticket from Saigon - Mui Ne - Dalat - Nha Trang, a trip of around 700km at a cost of $15 each. There are several buses that do these tickets but we opted for An Phu travel which we booked through the TNK Office on De Tham who offered the times that suited us best.

I've read long tirades about the open tour buses but generally I found this a good way to get around with a few provisos. First of all we were promised "We garanteed all buses are A/C, brandnew with more leggsroom". They're not, they don't and they haven't. However they all left around the time they were meant to and arrived where they were meant to nearly on schedule.

I didn't get any pictures of the first bus we were one which was a pity because it was half sleeping bus, half sitting. I snagged a horizontal seat once we'd spent an hour tootling around Backpacker District picking up stray passengers and snoozed most of the way to Mui Ne only fully waking up when our driver got particularly enthusiastic with the brakes.

On arrival the tour buses operators will try to sell you a room in one of their hotels or trips during your stay but you're not held captive, there are options.

1. Pre book your hotel (or say you have) and after a while the bus will take you to the door of your accommodation
2. Have a look at what they have to offer, it might not be so bad after all
3. Jump a Xe Om, get a Taxi or walk to where you're going

We chose option 1 and had a cold beer in their affiliated cafe for half an hour and watched the world do very little indeed

We confirmed our travel the day before we left and our next trip to Dalat was in a less attractive bus without air conditioning unless you count open windows.



On the HCMC to Mui Ne route there was a stop at a petrol station to pee and buy fruit and snacks, there aren't any such facilities on the way to Dalat but they did manage a scenic stop to cool the bus and stretch your legs on the way.



Look carefully, you should be able to see the extra brake. The scenery was outstanding on the way and made up for the bus being a bit on the rough side. When we arrived we opted for a taxi the quicker to get a shower and wash the dust off.

The Dalat Mui Ne run was in a little Mercedes Ben - not a typo.



Which was comfortable and well driven and, after essential repairs, got us into Nha Trang in three hours.





So Open Buses, not a bad way of getting around, I'd happily use them again, just remember it isn't always exactly what it says on the tin.

In The neighbourhood

Down our way we don't have very much, no supermarkets or restaurants,bars or bookshops, although we do have a couple of temporary cafes which are good for an iced coffee. But recently I noticed that the area is up and coming. We appear to have a fairly upmarket knockin' shop. I've seen ladies ply their trade, quite discretely, along the National Highway and they need somewhere to take their customers.

For around £1.50 at the current rate of exchange you can get an hour in this local hotel. A bit extortionate for a ten minute stay but it seems popular, it looks like an extension is being built and it IS airconditioned. These types of hotels are also used by couples seeking a bit of privacy together and a more comfortable platform for their activities than a Honda Wave parked under a tree.

Mui Ne

We had a quick weekend break in Mui Ne about five hours from HCMC by bus. The picture above was taken from Coco Beach resort where we didn't stay but did use the facilities. The following picture was taken from the same place.


Why tourists shouldn't wear traditional clothing

We stayed at the Full Moon Beach Resort and liked it. The rooms were quirky and cute, more bijou than luxurious but perfectly charming. The plumbing was a bit musical so if you stay there expect to wake up to other people's water music as it courses down the pipes. Nice staff, perfect positioning and a laid back atmosphere.



The pool is saline and the tiles are very nice, bourgainvillia drops into it from time to time but my photie-ography isn't up to capturing it yet.

The bar closes at 10.30.



There are lots of other places relatively close by where you can drink later.



Or you can time it right and get a bottle of wine as the bar closes and enjoy the sound of the waves a few meters from your table.

The view is stunning. Even at night.



But just in case you think it was all too idyllic .....











...here he is again

Fine

Last night we got caught and had to pay an "occassional road tax" to the tune of 300,000 dong. Inflation huh!



Allegedly we were driving in the car lane, we couldn't prove otherwise and our particular traffic policeman was armed with a hand written notice saying "Police keep moto 20 days". A quick call to our bike hire guy couldn't get us off the hook so we had to pay up. Just a month ago the foreigners road tax was 200,000 if you were unlucky but the price of everything is going up.

No receipt of course but hopefully we won't get caught again too soon.

Saigon Cyclo Challenge

Saturday the 8th of March was the Annual Saigon Cyclo Challenge, a fund raising event for Saigon Childrens Charity held at the Taipai International School. As you'd expect it's a cyclo race sponsored by foreign and local companies with employees taking part.



It's not as easy as it looks and some of the participants take it very seriously. As well as prizes for winning races there's tough competition to win the Best Cheerleader competition. They strutted their stuff in the opening parade.



Stilts were very popular, traditional dress and more modern interpretations were on show.



I didn't see any of them fall.

The bulls shoogled their buttocks:



The cheerleader leader lead the cheering with inexhaustible enthusiasm



The girls from Catwalk dressed like cats



and walked



it was clearly hard on the feet.



Other girls from I don't know where dressed in gold tutus and tails and also walked in inappropriate footwear.



I couldn't work out the significance of the tiger and grass skirt combo



but it was all for charity so I can't be too critical.

I tried and failed to get a good picture of the professional cyclo drivers but they were too fast for me.



A good day and the unseasonal rain stayed off until the last race.

If I've got it right clicking on the title of this post should take you to Saigon Children's Charity site where you can see what it was all in aid of and see much better photographs of the day taken by a man in a pith helmet.

Helmet Chic

Since December 15th 2007 wearing helmets has been compulsory. At first the choices of helmets was fairly limited. This weekend I was at Hard Hat Corner on Le Lai to replace my cracked helmet and was overjoyed to see that fashion has reached the helmet market so quickly.

Prior to the new law people often wore wide brimmed hats to keep the sun off their faces while driving. There's no need to stop that even though you're wearing a helmet. The inventive Vietnamese have come up with a compromise in the form of the Helmet Skirt!

Fashionable and functional with a shiny green bow too.


For the girl seeking a bit of Barbie style.

Not seen one to suit yet?


Something a little more classy?

I was quite taken by the brown plush covered one in the middle, it has a look of the horse riding helmet about it. It was too large though so I had to pass on it.

Something for the gentleman, a lightly themed military helmet.


The goggles are shiny plastic and opaque so only there to fulfill the fashion needs of the wearer.

Or the more rugged helmet skirt for the man about town. Helmet kilt perhaps?



There are other helmet variations I've yet to capture:

The hand painted helmet, the ones with crystals glued to it, the decal salespeople who seem to specialise in Winnie the Pooh decorations for helmets, the helmet with a rigid brim or built in skirt, the giant baseball cap skip, the matching bike and helmet combo with decals in the same theme and the full helmet hat cosy.

Then there are the wearing styles. Helmet with hat underneath and for me, the holy grail, helmet with hat underneath and cone hat on top, seen twice but never when I had a camera with me.

I'll keep searching.