(March 26): I'd to go to the South. It was a travel made comfortable with stays at two five-star hotels, one of which is the Windsor Plaza Hotel for its proximity to the bus-station where Mai Linh vehicles arrive and depart.
I was surprised to find Pho 24 across the Hotel, so I went there for dinner on my first night. No regrets. The young waiters and waitresses were pleasant; the pho and the nem ran were reasonably good.(Pho bo,beef noodle, and sinh to bo ,avocado juice, in picture.)
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The restaurant was also clean and more spacious than the one downtown.
The next morning, we tucked in pho, cornflakes, rice porridge, egg, fruit, and toast for breakfast. The coffee, bland and characterless, was not at all invigorating. We gulped it down like water. I realised that in the cafe in Windsor Plaza, only the nuoc mam ( fish sauce ) tasted real. Even in an agriculturally fertile country like Vietnam where vegetables and food stuff are normally cheap, the ketchup and chilli sauces in the cafe look like 'dyed glue'. So I ate my sunny side-up sans ketchup. Food is terribly average here.
At night, J. wanted to taste the shark's fin of Vietnam. I obliged and took her to the Chinese restaurant at the fourth level. There, I had my first shark's fin soup in Vietnam in 11 years! It was going to be my first and last. I didn't enjoy the food. Although service was great and I was enchanted by the intricate Chinese aesthetics and Vietnamese handicraft, the kang kong rau muong with fu -yi ('fermented beans' as the Vietnamese lady articulated precisely in Cantonese), and the fried noodle we ordered were salty.
We spent SGD 44 on three dishes, the soup included. After that, we enjoyed mango juices from concentrate - compliments of the hotel - on the 25th level. To our surprise, there was a small 'Equinox Restaurant' a la Saigon beside the terrace where we were sipping our drinks. The restaurant had great ambience enhanced with wood panels and a 'cool' wine cellar. It was soothing being inside. I wondered how its food would be? The menu did not seem exciting at all.
Looking down on the buzzling streets from 25th floor in the strong breeze was rather exciting. But it was better looking afar. The city at night was rather different from developed urban cities. It was not head-spinning like Hong Kong's. A twenty-five storey building seemed like an architectural feat already:
The next morning at 6:30 am, we left for the outskirts. The lovely kitchen staff prepared us two bentoo in plastic boxes. Each one had a hard-boiled egg (unshelled), a big juicy Fuji apple, sweet Vietnamese bananas (chuoi tieu), two slices of French toasts sandwiching a slice of thick ham and melted cheese. This was a breakfast packed with warm thoughts and certainly tasted better than the whole buffet we stuffed ourselves with yesterday morning.
The journey outwards to the countryside was rather smooth. The bus sped; the passengers were quiet, unlike those from the 'far western end of the Mekong' in my last trip. The seats on the bus were far apart. The conductor - a young man- helped an old woman got up the bus even though she was accompanied by her family members. There is great respect for the old in Vietnam.
Halfway, we got down and waited for another bus. It's a smaller Mai Linh van which came after 20 -30 minutes. That Mai Linh staff was not helpful. But another traveller who was boarding a different vehicle helped us with information. He pointed to where the bus number was painted on the van. We got up the correct van, which later became packed with passengers heading westward along Kien Giang (a Mekong tributary).
Along the way, we saw a lady motorcyclist hit another motorcycle. She braked and helped the driver of the other bike who had fallen off to get up; then she uttered something and they moved on in separate ways again. J. baulked; she couldn't believe her eyes! There should be some detail exchanged on which insurance company to call or something like that, she thought. Nope - this is Vietnam, I told her.
The weather was fine - very sunny and breezy. The van stopped at a station for the commuters to lunch and relieve themselves.
Hygiene has improved over the years. J. was surprised; she thought it was much cleaner than rural Malaysia. I bolted out of the van into the toilet. Indeed I thought sanitation had improved -the toilets were OK. We brought along our clean tissue and papers and that was wise.
After 20 minutes at the terminal, the journey continued. The driver, a stout sun-browned man in his late 40s /50s, dropped us along Quoc Lo (the national expressway)after the Cao Dai Temple. I understood why he chose that spot to drop us. It was the only place where we could see some human activities - some men were chatting and enjoying some icy water outside a family shop. I negotiated for motorbike-taxis.
I asked the driver (the owner of the house where we alighted). He replied 10,000 dong for a person and said he was going to take us two rounds- both J. and I separately. I answered 'No'. Muttering something, he sped to get his neighbours. After a few houses, without success, he came running with a scrawny man. We were on our way...Toot, toot.
We arrived at the hotel. Tuan, the cleaner-turned-concierge, rushed to greet us and our luggage very quickly disappeared with him. He appeared beside the front desk in the rural hotel, smiling, and waiting for us. Indeed, he was a good 'concierge', though he explained that his job was only temporary. Dung the front desk lady had left. There was a change of management, explained Tuan. Dep ('The Beautiful'), another younger girl, took over. She's sun-burnt, pleasant, soft-spoken and sweet.
She quoted me at first in US dollars. When I broke into Vietnamese, she diverted my gaze to another price list-this time, in Vietnamese dong. She gave me a room which she said was good. I was surprised when I opened the room on the fourth floor. It was the last one I stayed in in my last trip - the same room where I was springing up and down when the dengue headaches were searing my head apart. It was bright, overlooking the main street with a big window and a tiny verandah - without any table and chairs. I looked out of the window-my heart screamed: "I'm very glad to be back!"
I unpacked everything and went out to visit my friends. Somehow I didn't find myself very productive. I wasn't in a mood to chat. Why? I wonder? The heat was sapping up my energy. In the night at 6:30 pm, J. and I took our dinner of caramelized fish in claypot,
bitter gourd stir-fried with beef, squid and a hot pot of mustard greens and fish balls. It was a fantastic dinner of the freshest ingredients:
At 7 pm, D. came to pick me up. We sped off and looked for Uncle Q. but he didn't want to chat with us. So we went back to D.'s home. There, at the second level overlooking the river, D.'s Dad was watching TV lying in a hammock tied to poles in his home. D. brought up a huge fresh coconut which he said was from Ben Tre. I sipped it as I was explaining to D. everything that he wanted to know about how to fly to Singapore.
At about 9:15 pm, his Dad was asleep on the hammock. I went back to the hotel.
The next morning, we had some awful breakfast buffet. D. appeared at 7:15 pm. He said he would be back in a while. I told him the bus would leave at 8:30 am but he had to be, as usual, late. J. refused to wait.
When we reached HCMC, the van stopped at a terminal somewhere far away from the Central. We took a taxi to Renaissance Riverside. The front desk wasn't very fast. We waited but finally went up to our room at the 11th floor. When we opened the door, wow! the view from the room was beautiful.
I scooted off to the bookstores. Prior to that, J. made sure that her request to go to Cho Ben Thanh was heard. It was a big mistake to take her along. I obliged her - again. But after shopping, we managed to reach the hotel in the evening in time to wash up for dinner.
At night, we went to Quan An Ngon. As usual, the crowd was there but we didn't wait very long. The Guest Relations girls have been great so far. This one was very pleasant.
I ordered a list: shrimp lotus salad (nom sen tom), bun thit nuong cha gio (this is simply the best!):
In addition, we had bo bia ('poh piah' as we call it here are small papaya rolls with some crushed peanuts), nem tom (shrimp summer roll), banh cuon (steamed mushroom roll with some meat)(see first picture in this entry) and cha gio (sliced ham). Finally, I had a do den (black rice dessert), which unfortunately tasted bad.
J. slurped all the way. She couldn't wait to put down her chopsticks on the table while scooping up soup with a spoon - all utensils in one hand! Both diners and the workers were all busy!
The next morning, I rose to a beautiful sunrise at the Mekong while J. was still in her sleep. The panoramic view of the river was serene...
Later, we packed and went down to the restaurant for wholesome excellent breakfast. I couldn't help recalling the more inferior quality of food at Windsor. But, Windsor's front desk and overall service was (at that time) warmer and more memorable than that of Renaissance. The Renaissance Riverside staff did not have any special characteristics that put them a class apart from those at other hotels. They were 'corporate' cold; but ack! breakfast was excellent.
And the jams and sauces could not be more authentic:
So I will come back here very soon.
On the way home,the Tan Son Nhat Airport's new international terminal,although basic in its functions, it's clean and efficient.
I am glad, I didn't meet that indespicable driver from the North who demanded tip all the way throughout my journey the last time. That was in the year 2007-already two years have passed! I only regretted that I didn't have time to feedback to TNK across the Bui Vien Motel because I have lost its business card. However, even that front desk officer at TNK, a young Mr Vu from Sadec, was belligerent. That was probably why the thought of going back would cause stress.
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