(Mr. & ) Miss Saigon

Hello blogger friends! Happy belated Valentines Day to all. Some of you may be having a week of vacation here due to Presidents week if you are lucky. I hoped a flight from the Philippines to Ho Chi Minh City and Tony met me here late Friday afternoon. After a quick stop by our hotel to check in and freshen up, we were off on the town to do some exploring.
This may be incredibly ignorant, but did you know that Ho Chi Minh and Saigon are the same place? I didn't, well, not until I started looking into booking this trip at least. Thought I'd admit my faults and maybe teach someone else in the process : ) Well, the local people here do not call it Ho Chi Minh City (or HCMC) but they prefer to call it Saigon. They were born in Saigon, they live in Saigon, they work in Saigon. They prefer and use this name as a political poke in the eye against the ruling communist government...nuff said, it is Saigon to me then!
We walked down the main street, Dong Khoi in District 1. It is filled with hotels, shops, restaurants and cafes. It is very beautiful and quaint, a very small town feel. There are adorable little Vietnamese girls who keep coming up to us, in perfect English asking us if we want to buy their postcards or gum. We found a bar to stop in for a drink before dinner. The unit of money here is called Dong (yup, I said Dong, hee hee) and the exchange rate is 16,000 Dong to $1USD. They accept US dollars at most places, but we got some Dong anyway from the ATM machine. We were drinking beers, bottled and everything at this bar for $28,000 Dong each, approximately $1.75. More gross Western men hitting on all the scantily clad Vietnamese girls. Perverts. Oh and we had been forewarned about any massage parlors already, you get more then a back rub!
We made our way to dinner, a beautiful restaurant called Hoi An on Le Thanh Ton street. We decided on the set menu which included 7 courses - some of the highlights were a coconut filled with seafood soup which gave off an amazing aroma as you ate it; large lobster tail which you then dipped in a combination of salt, pepper and fresh lime juice instead of drawn butter; and for dessert, mango flambé - think bananas foster, served table side, flames and all, with coconut ice cream. The ingredients in the food are all very crisp - bean sprouts, fresh lime, basil, chilies, Chinese mustard greens. We loved every minute of it! There were also some Vietnamese ladies in traditional costumes playing live music. It was a great meal.
The next morning we woke up and hit the streets. I had been very excited to go to the War Remnants Museum which a coworker had told me about. It opened back in 1975 and highlights war crimes, aftermaths and foreign aggressive forces against the Vietnamese people, and guess who are the shining stars of the horror - yup, the good old USA. It is mostly a collection of photos showcasing everything from famous Life Magazine covers and Pulitzer Prize winning photos taken by US journalists on the scene during the Vietnam war, to the super disturbing photos showing the aftermath of Agent Orange deformities and handicaps, piles of dead Vietnamese women and children, and the infamous tiger cages where we kept the political prisoners in terrible conditions and tortured them. Bottom line is toxic chemicals used in war is an evil evil evil thing. They even had jars of fetuses with deformities to show all the babies that died from the chemicals as well. Missing fingers, conjoined twins, missing spines, no legs, no arms, blind, harelips...It was really tough to look at and know it was our own country who did these things to these poor innocent people for generations after the war ended. Disgusting, graphic and very disturbing. I understand that some of it is propaganda on their parts, however, just add it on the pile of reasons to tell the people we are Canadians! 3 million Vietnamese died in the Vietnam war, and 2 million of them were civilians. Just ugliness.
Now that the war is over, the quickest way to get killed in Vietnam? Death by being run over by a scooter, motorcycle, two wheeled beacon of death. They are everywhere, even the tiniest little women in their three inch heels are out to kill a pedestrian. We started just running for our lives, it was worse than anything I have ever seen in Europe, like Rome on steroids in terms of the number of scooters. Then they go and park them on the side walks, so you have to walk in the street to get around them, thus risking your lives once again by tip toeing through the two wheeler streets.
After the depressing yet amazing museum, we were off to the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, carefully of course! Outside were beautiful sunflowers and little men selling fresh coconuts. They simply chop a whole in the top and stick a straw inside and you are good to go. There is a statue of the virgin Mary outside which was made famous a few years back for the apparent sightings of her shedding tears, drawing visitors from all over the world to see the miracle. Across the way, we stopped by the General Post Office where we popped in to send only two cards out, one to each of our parents as they are sadly the only addresses we have memorized! Keep an eye out mommy & daddy!
We then made our way over to the Ben Thanh Market, finding the city center was very easily walked and navigated due to our trust map complete with all the sites. The market had everything from clothing to food stalls. One difference between this market and the others we have visited is that the little shop keepers actually grab you and touch you and pull you into look at their wares. Slightly annoying, but they are so small it really didn't bother me. After browsing the stalls, it was time for lunch. We opted for a small shop called Pho 24. Pho is the traditional Vietnamese noodle soup. I got the beef filet pho and Tony got the beef filet and brisket pho. You can then add as much bean sprouts, chilies and basil to the mix as you like, and we topped them off with a mango shake. In total, a delicious lunch for less than $10 US. After lunch we wandered by the Mariamman Hindu Temple but did not spend much time there as Tony is quite sick of all things Indian after being there for two trips in January! It was time to chill out and relax, so we headed up to the roof top pool and bar. The only complaint here was there were not enough lounge chairs at first but we were able to snag two in no time. It was great to chill out, oh yeah, by the way it was 90 degrees here!
After showering and freshening up, we went out for drinks and dinner at a great place called the Lemon Grass restaurant. We shared minced shrimp on lemon grass, crab rice, lemon grass chicken and five spice seafood skewers. The total bill including several glasses of wine was only $44 USD. And the food was amazing! We were stuffed, another fabulous meal.
Sunday morning we woke up early and walked over to the Botanical Gardens and Zoo. First we stopped for breakfast, more noodle soup for Tony and I had pork & dumpling soup myself at the Molinari Cafe. We headed into the Zoo, admission for both there and the gardens was $12,000 dong, only 75 cents! A bargain. The place was packed with kids and families. The gardens were beautiful but the zoo was quite sad actually. The animal cages did not look very well kept and there was garbage floating in their ponds, which barely had enough water to begin with. The cutest thing was all the millions of kids! They kept coming up to us saying "Hello" and they could not be happier when we replied back! They got so excited, it was so adorable. We had lots of friends.
We walked the whole park and enjoyed mixing with the families. We then started down the main shopping street where Tony bought two beautiful silk ties for $15 US and I picked up a new silk hand bag. I tried on some dresses but I am not even a large Vietnamese woman! Oh well : ) Maybe in another life time. Since the clothes didn’t fit anyway, we thought we'd eat again. The first night we had made an acquaintance with a British guy who has been here since 1991 and owns a pub, and he had recommended we try this place just called Number 13 for their famous lemon grass chicken. For $10 US, we got two beers, two bowls of rice and two plates of delicious boneless skinless lemongrass chicken. It was a great meal. Sadly after that, it was time to get Tony ready for the airport...he had to fly back to Hong Kong to meet with the big wigs who were coming to town, and hopefully to discuss our plans to repatriate back to the US and timing! But clearly we are having so much fun as it is, just want to understand the big picture, more on that later.

Well, that is all for now, I may amend this one later one depending on how the business week goes if there is anything worth while to post. Till then, I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU.

Filipino Magnet

Hello blog reading friends! What's up? All good over here. Spent the week in the Philippines for business...I am a Filipino magnet! They absolutely loved me here. I think that they are not used to seeing a big white American gal roaming the streets or something, they did not even try to hide the fact that they were blatantly gawking. My coworkers thought it was hilarious. They told me that typically the Americans they see here are fat and ugly. Point taken : ) In any case, I had a million friends everywhere I went, and I think it will be a very long time before my customers forget the day Sidney Sollazo came to their plant. So cute. Not only did the men love me but multiple women told me they loved my hair (ew) and that I was thin! Back at ya, little Filipino goddess! Love you too. Please don't marry a gross, ugly white man who is 30 years older than you just to move out of your country, it is not worth it.

In other news, I am probably offending many people by saying this, but the country really reminded me of Mexico. Lots of palm trees, hot & humid weather, smiling faces everywhere. Here is the view of Makati city, downtown Manila from our new office. There is a large spanish influence here and even though their native language is not spanish, (it used to be called 'Tagalog' but the government officially changed it to Filipino) because it was a Spanish colony back in the day, some of the words make sense to me but they are pronounced differently. The people are extraordinarily friendly, saying hello to everyone as they pass. Very devout Catholics are everywhere, as well as churches. They also are very colorful country, even their mini buses called 'jitneys' are decorated and painted beautifully showing each families name proudly. This one is filled with squash, not people. There appears to be some big alliance with Japan, having them be the one country who is lending them money for infrastructure projects with both Japanese and Filippino flags on the highways. Speaking of highways, all of the roads are being widened to accommodate more and more vehicles. Today, a car is considered a luxury item, and this is the one place I have seen in Asia that we actually provide them with a company car lease since 90% of the time taxis are too expensive and they certainly cannot afford one on their own.

The country is made up of over 7,000 islands, and I was on the main one, Luzon, staying in Manila. They get a bad rap for being chaotic, corrupt and lazy but I did not see any of this. They are very tight with security, and have metal detectors, bomb sniffing dogs and guards at every entrance and exit. These bomb sniffing dogs, however, look like some mutts that they put a leash on and named them "K9 Unit", nothing like the shepards, retrievers and labs we are used to seeing in the police force. Most have been asleep lazily in the sun and need to be woken up when a car comes around in need of a good sniff. I loved them all the same.

We had some interesting food here as well. The only way I can think of to describe the cuisine is Western (that's you!), Chinese, and Mexican mixed into one. We had a beef stew called 'Kare Kare' which is made using peanut butter as the sauce. We had a dish called 'Sig Sig' which is served sizzling on a fajitas plate, made of diced pork and a raw egg which they mix in at your table and then serve with Tabasco and Soy Sauce. We had Lumpia which is a Filipino spring roll, filled with bamboo shoots and steamed instead of deep fried. For dessert, surely you would find flan in any place (see I told you lots of Spanish-ness). In general, all was pretty bland and mild compared to other Southeast Asian countries, hardly any spiciness and not much going on. What I did love were the shakes - fresh fruit mixed with ice, sometimes with sugar syrup as well. I had both the ripe mango and green mango shakes nearly every day, very refreshing and delicious. Here is a pic of me and some very small Filipino guitarists who serenaded myself and my coworker (in the blue shirt) as we were out to dinner for spanish food. It was very cute, I requested a traditional filipino song and they were happy to oblige.

All in all the trip to the Philippines was a success both business wise and personally. I will have a hard time forgetting their hospitality and smiling faces as I travel to the other countries in the region...next up Vietnam where Tony and I are spending the weekend in Saigon before a week long business trip for myself. We'll see how that goes! Till next time, I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!

What's that face? It's RAT FACE!

OK, maybe only Jamie & Stefania will remember that title from a skit Jamie and I would perform, but I would like to introduce the rest of you to 2008, the year of the RAT! Happy Chinese New Year to you!
The Rat was welcomed in ancient times as a protector and bringer of material prosperity. It is the first of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese Zodiac. People born in the Year of the Rat are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex. They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists. They are thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip. Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful. They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox. Are you a rat? You are if you are born in the following years: 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996. Hmmm I know a few of you out there, an amazing uncle, a father-in-law, our beloved dog Kaiser, anyone else?...Well, happy year of the rat to you, RATS!
We opted to spend our first official Chinese New Year at home in Hong Kong to get the most out of the festivities. There are rats everywhere around the city! The office was closed for a half day Wednesday and then Thursday & Friday were full holidays. So thanks to Mr. Rat, we get a four day weekend.
Since Tony had been on the road for the past few weeks, we were very much looking forward to hunkering down and enjoying our long weekend. To kick it off, we booked a half day spa package for us including steam, exotic lime & ginger scrub, luxury bath, massage and a facial. 3.5 hours of pampering. It was heaven on earth. No cheap, but there was a new year's special, 2 for 1 so consider it half the price of normal. We treated ourselves...not something you can afford to do every weekend, but it was lovely!
That evening there was a big parade in TST on the Kowloon side, but we opted not to go as instructed by fellow expats who tried to attend last year, as well as some locals who said it is just madness and you can't even see anything. Instead we went out for dinner and found a very quite Hong Kong...nearly every restaurant / shop was closed for the New Year, but luckily one of our favorites, an Italian place in SoHo was open so we had a great meal.
Friday night we made plans to get together for a proper New Year celebration with the expats in town. Many people go away for Chinese New Year but there were surprisingly a lot of us around. We initially tried to find a place with dinner / drinks that had a view of the fireworks spectacular which was set to begin at 8 PM but unfortunately either we were too late to book a table or the places wanted too much for a spot (over $1000HKD / person, for not even dinner!) No thanks! We settled on a place in Wan Chai called 1 /5 Nuevo and had a very nice meal of Spanish Tapas and wines. I love sharing plates! You get to eat sooo many different things.
We headed out for a few after dinner libations in Wan Chai and found the place to have a very different vide than Lan Kwai Fong / Soho. We had heard the story of Wan Chai, the red light district, the hookers, the tiny philippino women hanging on ugly old white men, the madams inviting you in to meet the girls...all were true! Then came some shots and even though the bar we were at was pretty fun, we didn't hang out too late.
Saturday we were supposed to meet up with my old customer from NJ who was going to be in Hong Kong but he never called! I knew his flight had been delayed but maybe he just got wrapped up with family things, that was he main reason for visiting after all! Not offended, but would have been fun to see another familiar face here in Asia.
This week I am off to the Philippines (Manila mainly) while Tony is in Singapore and then together, we meet up in Vietnam for the weekend. Cannot wait for that! It is 90 and sunny in both countries right now, not to rub in that cold winter weather or anything....Till next time, I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!