Jason Ooi: Vietnam : Day 1

I AM HOME!

yes, back from the 4 days trip to Vietnam. Its been ages since I last went to another country... that is why I agreed to go.

and we get to sit an airplane, AIR ASIA!

the journey there is estimated 1 hour and 55 minutes (as told by the air stewardess), but I think it takes roughly around 1 and a half hour.

the flight was 720am, so we had to leave the house by 430am.... woke up at 4 btw.

Grandma came along too.

Amazingly everyone in Vietnam has the same hairstyle:

for the guys, its usually the short hair, middle parting, plus a reasonably long fringe comb to the sides.

the girls, well its the long straight hair tied at the back.

AND THEY'RE ALL SO SMALL... they're smaller than the average Asians i think. O_O

Sister.

waited for the driver, my uncle works there, so he got his own driver to pick us up from the airport.

the siblings.

and the mom. pretending to read the map.

the driver picked us up like an hour plus late? damn. haha... but he IS a really nice tour guide. told us a lot of stuff about Vietnam

what about the architecture there?

houses like these EVERYWHERE!

interesting, some even renovated it until really well... i dont have alot of pictures of the houses. but who cares...

so first of all Vietnam was taken over by France at a certain point in history... so you can see it in their French like buildings.

and they pay the government by the width of the house, not by its square feet (something or nothing like that). hence the very thin and tall building... (if my facts are not wrong btw, I didnt say it was 100 accurate)

hows the traffic like?

motorbikes everywhere

a lot.... a lot... and A LOT of motorbikes.

they have 3 lanes just for motorbikes, another 3 for cars... so imagine their cross junctions (a road To and Back make 12 lanes already).

its scary I tell you, and they love to use the car horn, quoting the driver : "if you don't horn you cannot drive one"

they have so many motorbikes they even need traffic light for the motorbikes.

can you see the little red light on the tiang itself? thats for the motorcyclist... and another bigger traffic light for the cars.

went to eat lunch at Quan An Ngon. I LOVE THE CONCEPT THERE...

imagine a Chines courtyard house (or a typical Buddhist temple - or imagine a very very small version of the Forbidden city) with food stalls everywhere... I LOVE.

you can sit within the building, on the 2nd floor, around the house or anywhere as long there is a table for you.

random.

My sister, Sian Kor (Dad's younger sister), and Daddy Alan (we all call him that)

the food stalls.

you order from the waiters, then they'll look for the stalls for you. so they save you the trouble of walking around.

well. the picture dont do my statements any justice, but the place IS really beautiful.

crazy girl.

the tea is called Cha Da.

ate Snails. that is dad btw... scary hor.

poll :
which is scarrier, the thought of eating snails, the snails itself, or my father

snails

they love vegetables.

the food up there is... nothing but veggies and flour

haha. i think thats why they're so small... but you should know that there is no fat Vietnamese... they are all sooooo petite.

they like food that are DIY.

like you have to put the stuffings in yourself, or you have to put the sauce that you like yourself, put the combinations of veggies you like yourself... and all those shit.

so the food there are usually not fully put together.... you get? think of it as making your own pizza.

veggie, roast pork, sumthin' or nothin' , drowned in sauce, wraped in rice paper.

they'll give you a bowl of raw veggie. then you can put everything else you like inside after that.

AND THEY MAKE PORK TASTE SOO GOOD!

brother. and grandma in the background.

Name : Pho Bo (or something like that)
English translation : Beef Noodle
Ratings: GOOOOD!

see? i told you she crazy.

candits.

the plate of veggies with some pork.

served with rice. I think.

we ate so much till i cant remember what is what...

group pic, minus the crazy girl.

the best cendol you'll ever eat

this is where we stayed.

Its the expat area in Vietnam. Imagine you have room service cleaning your house everyday!!! it is like staying in a hotel!!!

and then night came (that is after a few hours of coma on the bed)

went out for dinner.

WENT TO TIB! another vietnamese restaurant.
thats me btw.

i like the teapot, dont ask.

and we all ate some more:

the porridge, WHICH IS SOOOO GOOD!

the paste thing, which you need to add chilli, and some weird sauce.

this is really nice, though i cant say i am the biggest fan for this food. I got really tired of the taste after the 2nd one.

spring rolls, must i tell you its damn good too?!

soft shell crabs. I LIKE SOFT SHELL CRABS.
this taste great too...

i dont remember eating something i hate actually

went for MORE snails. yum.

the one we ate for lunch wasnt THAT great... this one was way better.

they put some stuffings inside as well to make it extra delicious, and it works.

their noodle. covered with tonnes of greens.

good for the health, no?

sticky rice cubes

Disclaimer : those are not the food's real name. I just wrote according to what I remembered eating (according to taste, and what I can see fro mthe pictures)