May 5: The Most Expensive Dinner Yet

Dinner date with Mon at Golf Can Tho Hotel. It's one of the expensive hotels in Ninh Kieu, near the park and riverside. Restaurant (where we ate) was an open area at the 8th floor of the hotel overlooking the river.



When we got in the lobby, there were a Caucasian couple who said "merci" when we left the elevator open as we waited for them to get in. Still no Americans in sight.

We ordered spring rolls, fried rice, and a fried crab with some weird seasoning. Mon had Tiger beer while I had pear juice (tasted like pear, really.)

It was supposedly a relatively inexpensive dinner so Mon was surprised to see the bill amounting to 554.400 dong. That was roughly PHP 1,500. Apparently, the crab was priced per 100 grams (VND 62.000, times 5, and that was a whopping 310.000 dong or 56% of our total bill). He did not notice it, and we actually thought it wasn't the whole crab that was going to be fried (hence a believable price).

I was out of cash, bringing only a little more than 300.000 dong. He didn't bring enough cash as well since the dinner was supposedly my treat. I brought one credit card (which wasn't really mine but a supplement of my dad's) and he had two cards that weren't yet used in Vietnam (and which he did not really intend to use).

He did not have a choice (even if I volunteered to use my card). His Visa card was first swiped in Vietnam at the Golf Can Tho Hotel.

Good thing he finished off the crab. I even did not like it. The oil was a bit too strong for me ("oily" was not even the word, just that I could taste the oil).

As a remembrance of that expensive dinner, here's our pic (highlighting how Mon got dark in Vietnam.)



And snapshots:


The pool


Waiting for the expensive order


Elevator shot


By Uncle Ho in Ninh Kieu Park (I haven't realized that this statue was that big until this night.)

May 5: Walk in the Park

It rained in the afternoon. But when the sky cleared up hours later, I took the chance to go to Lưu Hữu Phước Park walking along the street of Châu Văn Liêm (Nguyễn An Ninh just at the other side).

I've then noticed that in wide streets where there were islands, they tend to name the streets differently for each direction (i.e., Châu Văn Liêm for the east bound lane, Nguyễn An Ninh for the west bound lane). It got me confused for a few seconds, but figured it out anyway.



I ate a Celano chocolate-vanilla flavored drumstick ice cream in that cafe. The seller did not know how to tell the price in English, though, and had to call someone else to tell me how much it was. VND 10.000. Or was it VND 13.000? Couldn't recall, really.

While I was enjoying my ice cream, I watched a group of men play sipa. I don't know how they call that game, but I know of it as sipa. They're really good. Great. Awesome. Amazing. And these were not so young men.



When a few of them sat down, and when I was about to explore the park (it was a small park, I later found out), somebody called me, "emoy" (I was told earlier that this is how they call younger people). So I looked. He instructed (signaled) me to take a picture of the men who were playing.

I agreed, without them knowing yet that I could not really understand what they said. Though I knew I wouldn't be able to take a good shot - it was twilight and my lens just could not handle it, plus the fast movement of the players. I tried. Then told them that I couldn't take a decent shot.

So they learned that I was a foreigner. From the Philippine(s). They still persuaded me to take a shot, and pointed the person whom they call "Superman" (young compared to the rest of the group, so probably a better player than them).

They offered me water, but it was really a tea with lots of ice. I declined. They may be nice, but they were men and it was getting dark and I could not really understand them. Taking this chance of another close encounter with the locals, I asked for a photo.

Instead of me taking their picture, the guy they call Superman offered to take the shot so I could join the group. While I hesitated to give him my camera, I agreed.



Then I took a photo of the group. Weird, not all of them looked.



So then I took snapshots in the park.







Then a pagoda...



...and a shot of Ninh Kieu Hotel 2...



...all along Hoa Binh.



When I got back near the riverside near Ninh Kieu Park along Hai Ba Trung, there was this group of motorcycles, este people watching a screenplay (what do you call that thing?)



Then again a snapshot of this...



...at night, with a pair of lovers in that bench.

To top it off, here's a night shot of the ancient market.

May 5: Goat Curry for Lunch

Lunch at Mekong restaurant (near the statue of Uncle Ho). Goat curry, Vietnamese style for VND 55.000. It was served with rice, and the curry itself had rice noodles in it. I tried to ask before the order arrived, "Is it served with rice?" but the lady who got my order did not understand me. At least she understood when I asked for a "not spicy" dish, but it still was a bit spicy.



Everything in the dish looked familiar except for the thin slice of black thing that I thought was a vegetable or some plant or organism that could be found there. I tasted it, chewed it with much enthusiasm, then realized it wasn't a vegetable. It was a the skin of the goat. It was good, by the way, but I was not really open to the idea of eating a goat's skin.

I spent some idle time after finishing my food watching people pass by the street - in motorbikes, in bicycles, or on foot. It rained a bit, so a few more minutes sitting alone in that place. Then this man initiated a conversation.



He asked where I was from - Philippines. "Philippine." (They always do not say it with the "s" at the end.) He said twenty (two by hand language) men from the Philippine who work there eat or drink there on Sundays - San Mig beer. I doubt if they were Mon and Asyong for they drink Tiger beer.

I was not able to ask them their names. It just gets complicated to ask more questions. But it was nice talking with them (two other men joined the short conversation). They even recognized me on another day I walked past the resto.

-This is Kate F., now blogging from the Philpippine ;)