interesting fact about vietnam

im nearing the end of my trip here in saigon. in my  two weeks stay, i have learned a few things you would not normally read from travel articles:

brushing hair inside a car, bus or any vehicle is a taboo. i learned this from our tour guide to cu chi tunnel. they said this gesture is associated with cats. cats and turtles supposedly bring bad luck on the road.

they use plastic bags made out of cornstarch. these bags are biodegradable. i think we should start doing that in the philippines.

ho chi minh city is progressing, really really fast.  i would not be surprised if one day, vietnam will overtake our country. i dont sure if they already have. they don't have skysraper cities like makati and ortigas.  but they have mid-rise building sprouting all over. condominium constructions are everywhere. the first floor of these condos have restaurants and shops.

there a lot of expats who live in saigon. whenever im out, i always hear someone speaking in tagalog. most filipinos here have white collar jobs. thank God! at last a country where we are actually respected. there are also a lot of japanese, thai, and indians working here, but its the koreans who have really set their community here. this is evident in the international variety of restaurants and convenience stores around the city.

vietnamese people will freely touch or grab your arm to get your attention. this actually surprisesd me, coz back home, we do this by calling out pssst. im not really comfortable strangers grabbing me. ive read from travel blogs that touching is not acceptable, but the writer of the article probably hasn't been to cholon market.

saigon is a lot similar to (metro) manila,  just replace the jeepneys with motorbikes. ben tanh reminds me of cubao. this is where all buses lead to. they also have divisoria - cholon or the cho bin tay. they don't have 168 mall there yet, but i think in a few years they will have air conditioned stores. they have also mini greenhills - saigon square, but its a dwarf compared to our fields of tiange-s.  they also have jollibee here, but i think their counterpart is lotteria. but jollibee's chicken is way more better :p Pho 24, which we have in rockwell, is actually more like of a chowking here.

vietnamese are mostly buddhist, but they celebrate christmas anyway.  almost all shops have christmas decors. what's weird is, veitnamese people like to take photo-ops in the mall window decos.  maybe because christmas is just a new holiday here.

a typical ho chi minh resident have two motorbikes, - one china made for everyday use, and one fancy vespa for weekends and special occasions.  they wear very thin helmets, which are more of a fashion statement rather than for protection. women ride motorbikes in miniskirts and in heels.

they like eating out -literally - in the streets.  people drinking coffee and eating pho in sidewalks is common sight.

you can recognize who's vietnamese by their built. a chubby chinese looking person, that's probably korean or filipino :p  this is probably because they love pho and vegetables. :)

Chúc mừng Giáng sinh!

that's merry Christmas in vietnamese. :) it's 820pm here and that's 920pm in manila. I can only imagine the text messages surging in my phone right now if im there.  i'll probably smelling my  tita's menudo, spaghetti and lumpiang shanghai, infusing the whole house with smoke. my mom is probably chopping ingredients for her traditional maraconi salad.  my cousins are watching tv or playing with nephews mathew and daniel.   and my kuya probably already burned his tongue again from stealing hot-off-the-stove food :p

our christmas tree will probably full of gifts waiting to be opened. my cousins and nephews have probably checked who has the biggest gifts :p  every ten minutes, there will be carolers in our gate.  but im probably be again in my room, either watching tv or staring in my laptop. sometimes i feel like a scrooge.

christmas is for the kids. i can't remember being so happy an excited for this in my adult life. because that means gastos and pagod for me :p but really, im happy seeing my cousins and nephews happy and my titas enjoying cooking food for us.  im more of an observer rather than experiencing christmas.

i think one of the most memorable christmas was when we did not celebrate it at all. it was a dark time, my dad was at his death bed.  my brother and his family spent their christmas elsewhere. me and my mom just ate dinner and slept through noche buena.  but a few hours after noche buena, a friend came over and shared with me the most heartwarming christmas ever.

before you react, no i dont miss the person. i just miss the feeling :p Aaand my point is, sometimes, great things happen in our darkest and quietest hours.  that's why im choosing to spend it different this year. happy or not, i think this christmas will be one of the most memorable ones :)

a different monopoly deal night

even when im miles away... i just can't miss a monopoly deal night.
i miss my friends :)

saigon shopping and sights tour - in 7 hours!

last friday, I became a tour guide for my friends around saigon. With just 1 day of training (thanks again to Soki), i was able to maximize my friends time here at Saigon. Here is the map Saigon Tour Map. The route includes Saigon's famous landmarks, sampling of Saigon's local food and shopping from bargain stalls to high end labels.

• 10:30am early breakfast @ Pho 2000 near Ben Tanh Market (Bill Clinton ate here!)
• 11:00am walk around Benh Tanh area, Le Loi street. - Saigon Square, Saigon Business Center, Tax Mall
• 12:00pm arrive at Dong Khoi - Money Exchange (good rate), Phuc Long Coffee shop and high end boutiques
• 12:30pm walk along Dong Khoi St to  Cong Xa Paris St
• 1:00pm  Notre Dame Basilica
• 1:30pm Central Post Office
• 2:00pm Diamond Plaza (coffee break or shop some more)
• 2:30pm Reunification Palace
• 3:30pm get a taxi and go to Saigon Square 2 (Ton Duc Thang St.) fare should be around 30.000 dong -- that's 60 pesos.
• 5:00pm  Snack at Thai Express at Le Thanh Ton St.

If you still have energy, you can go back to Ben Tanh for the night market which opens around 6pm. Be sure to bargain and be prepared for some drama.  Not recommended for people with personal space issues :p   But if you have more time and want to save more dong, visit Binh Tay market at Cholon . To get there, from Ben Tanh terminal, hop on to Bus # 1. :)

barbecued pork spare ribs

today, for the first time, i cooked barbecued pork spareribs :) and its not bad at all :). ask soki :p it was actually an impromptu thing. soki had some pork ribs, but her pantry doesn't have all the ingredients. i actually went out to buy ketchup -- and accidentally discovered a large grocery store. now i know where to buy pasalubong :)

so for my own sake, im posting the recipe here for easy reference:

ingredients:
pork ribs

bbq sauce
catsup half bottle catsup
2 tbsp steak sauce or worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
1/2 onion - finely chopped
1/2 clove garlic - finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

procedure: mix them all together. yes that's it.


how to cook:
sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper
pre-heat oven for 10 mins at 200 degrees
put ribs in oven for 15 mins
brush with bbq sauce
put back in oven, and brush bbq sauce every 1 hr.
do this for 4 hours, or until the meat falls off the bone :D

hello blog

sorry blog, i didn't even say hi, after a year of absence. well im here again. i'll catch up with you soon.

Day 0 - Saigon 2011

Its now 930 pm, boarding is an hour from now. Im here at the departure area at NAIA 3, with my laptop pretending to look busy :p, having black coffee and kaya toast for dinner. I should have ordered the kopi bun, now im still craving for one.

Anyway, I went over the baggage limit, so re-packed my luggage and tried to stuff as much as I can in my handcarried backback. Soki has a friend who sells grocery stuff and they asked me to buy local grocery items like - boy bawang, knorr cubes, eden cheese, chippy, tuyo- -- yes tuyo and other stuff. I didn’t want to but, for "pakikisama" sake, I did -- well at least a quarter of the items in their grocery list. I've also packed soki's cleats and hand sanitizers for her christmas giveaways.

I can't say im really, really excited -- okay just a bit excited. Its very unlike me not to plan, especially a long trip like this -- this kinda worries me. But I think the next two weeks will be very exciting. Its my first trip on my own -- technically, although I will be staying with Soki. And this will be the longest I will be away from Philippines. i hope 1200 dollars will be enough for this trip. i still dont know where to spend Christmas or if i'll stay in saigon or wander off to hanoi, cambodia, laos or thailand. i hope to meet new friends and see from there :)

here we go!