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.)
namumula lang ako kasi sa beer...
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