Franco Vietnamese Hospital Benches

I've been spending longer than I particularly want to FV hospital this week. I'm still in negotiations about whether I can blog the reason or not, meanwhile, here's a picture of the benches there that throw shadows shaped like sunglasses.

Yes, I was THAT bored.

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.

Phu My Hung

The Vietnamese "city of tomorrow", clean and well designed it doesn't feel like Vietnam at all. Streets are broad and shaded and parks are planted between buildings and between roads.



Roads are smoothly surfaced and often deserted.



Shops and cafe's have sprung up all over the place with new ones opening regularly.





It's a safe and clean environment particularly suited to families. The place would drive me up the wall.

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.