Aug 2000: Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Close to a year later, I was back in Ho Chi Minh city again…
Renaissance Riverside Hotel
We stayed at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel, located next to the Saigon River. Housed in one of the best hotels in Ho Chi Minh city, I noticed an interesting phenomenal happening at Renaissance every evening. After 6 pm, a slow influx beautiful Vietnamese ladies began. Dressed up to the nine in traditional ao dai, they sat patiently at the hotel lobby. After some time, foreigners approached them and they ended up leaving the the hotel together, often intimately…
Scott Market
My colleague, Hue, introduced a tourist shopping place, Scott Market, to us. This place offered a wide array of imitiation consumables from handbags, shirts, watches to wallets. Unable to resist the great bargain, I bought two Ralph Laurant shirts and a leather wallet.
133 Gallery
Vietnam adopted strong french influence in its culture since she was part of the French Indochina empire for many years ago. The love for French art quickly flourished in this city. One of my favourite shopping areas is a street (along District 1) filled with shops selling fine oil painting art reproductions from great artists such as Monet or Vincent van Gogh. I delightfully chanced upon a fine replication of Monet’s Path in the Ile Saint-Martin, Vetheuil (1880) (original work kept at Metropolitan Museum in New York).
Another art piece that caught my attention was this bright and colourful van Gogh’s Harvest Landscape (1888) (original work kept at Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam).
Hue was ever eager to showcase the local Vietnamese paintings to us. “Look! Here’s a great painting,” pointing to a “nude” portrait of a long haired lady in a curled up posture. “This is another popular painting,” she introduced a local hawker balancing a traditional baskets on his shoulder. I was totally convinced by her recommendations and the price was incredibly cheap. I paid only US$50 for each medium size canvas oli painting at the 133 Gallery.
Food
Most of the best restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City are found in District 1, the heart of the city. An enduring French imprint can be easily traced and savoured here. There were a few restaurants offering authentic french cruisine. It was here that I was introduced to the French escargots; these snails baked with fresh garlic and olive oil were simply heavenly. But beer was a must for the group of us. Beer? Beer and french food were certainly not a natural association. But, who cared, as long the company was fun and the food was great?
One thing I would not miss in Ho Chi Minh is having a bowl of Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup served usually with beef or chicken. The Vietnamese beef noodle is the best. Unfortunately, I do not like beef and always choose the next alternate – chicken pho (Pho ga). The soup includes soft, rice noodles served with basil, lime, bean sprouts. The rice noodle is very soft and complimented well with the thick, tasty broth. Another add-on not to be miss is the fried bread sticks or fritters (cháo quay) and the best way to enjoy is dipping it in the noodle broth.
Picture with my colleague, Lan.
This is my colleague, Hue. Sportingsuch a youthful look, we could hardly associate her age to “mid-forties”. She adopted her name (“Hue”) as she was borned in the Hue province in Central Vietnam. Once at a karaoke session, she pleasantly surprised us with a Chinese song, Qian Yan Wan Yu (千言萬語) by Theresa Tseng. She briefly told us that she was once imprisoned by the Chinese Communist and the prison warren taught her this song.
Ho Chi Minh is such a young and exciting city with a vastly different culture and great and warm-hearted hosts… Somehow, I was sure that I would be back someday!
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