Tuesday, December 15, 2009

胡志明市1

this may be a little belated, but nonetheless... presenting Ho Chi Minh City to you!

the most part of last week was spent in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City.
its been a trip i seriously look forward to after Novosibirsk.

so here i am on the plains of Bac Ho's (meaning 'Uncle Ho' in Vietnamese) conquered land.
in a city populated by almost 8 million Vietnamese, there are about 4 million motorcycles and less than half a million cars, motorcycles filled every corner of HCM as we made our way towards the hotel. this was the first encounter with HCMc.

after a short rest, we were packed off to the national post office and the 100 years old red brick Church (they were just across the road from each other). the set up of the post office reminded me of Novosibirsk's but of course its at least 1 to 2 times larger in area and they have souvenirs shops there for tourists like us to quench our shopping thirst. for the BIG commi fan, there was a HUGE photo of Ho Chi Minh hung in the center of the post office, so its time to take some photos with Bac Ho.

crossing the road to the 100 years old Church, be surprise! its nothing of close to be a shabby place of worship, but one that looks somewhat like a red replicate of St. Andrew's Cathedral back in S'pore. a considerable amount of murals made the church walls come alive, but thank goodness, its not all over the place like the Orthodox churches.

dinner was well, how should i say it?!?! special? different? new experience? its the FIRST time i have ever tasted Vietnamese food, so the feeling was excitement and curiosity. well the meal was not exceptionally tasty, in fact i would say its kind of oddly blended. but what ever the case is, the bottom line i got out of the dinner was : Vietnamese can really decorate the dish so well to make the food look appetizing. for instance, they made a rooster out of an entire pineapple, without wasting any bit of it at all. (pics to come later, or when i feel like uploading them)

so with the lovely pineapple rooster for dinner deco, that marked the end of day 1 in HCMc.

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