Had an excellent dinner with Sel, Howe Chern and Simon on Thursday night. We went to Lapa Brazilian Barbecue to indulge/over-indulge in their $49 Endless Feast. This was the night in pictures.
Green means “More, please!”
guarana Antartica – original do Brasil. Low on fizz and very easy to drink. Zing!
We have meat and meat. And also, meat.
These chicken wrapped in bacon things were awesome.
It wasn’t all meat, mind you. There were complimentary desserts too. These are different kinds of caramel fudge things.
I also had a quindim – a super eggy and super sweet tart with coconut. I get a sugar high just looking at it.
On the left, me at the beginning of the night. On the right, after 10 rounds – food coma.
For me, Sanya was the most boring stop on the cruise. To be fair, I know Hainan Island has a lot more to offer but what I saw of Sanya was limited to what I saw whilst on the shuttle bus between the port and the mall that probably sponsored the shuttle buses. And because my mother’s knees decided to flare up quite a bit on the day, we couldn’t even venture around the mall – there was a nice beach nearby and my uncle who was walking around on his own found a place selling awesome beef noodles.
We got to the mall, walked 4 floors of it, didn’t buy anything, looked for food, gave up and took the shuttle bus two hours later back to the ship to have lunch on board.
It was a waste of our $60 Chinese visa methinks and my photos would have probably betrayed my boredom and generally meh-ness about the place. So I decided to play around with the new filters in Picasa to make them a little more interesting.
Sanya port – Lomo-ish.
My cousin Shane, who wisely stayed on board the ship for the day – Cross Process effect.
Chinese government vehicles at the port, always black, always German – Orton-ish.
Sanya street corner – 1960s effect.
Liberation Road – Lomo-ish.
Engrish sign in the mall – Orton-ish.
From the top floor of the mall – Orton-ish.
Another one from the top floor of the mall – Lomo-ish.
On Saturday, I overheard Will & Woody on 92.9 talking about an ingenious system to help single people. They were talking about how men and women, even when they are taken, will flirt with single people regardless. Some more shamelessly than others and that is really confusing to genuine single people.
Asking people upfront if they are single or not is just very awkward. And so is putting the moves on someone and being all charming, only for them to casually mention that they have a boyfriend/girlfriend already. It’s a major bang balls moment.
So it is suggested that people should wear cab lights. You know, the lights on a taxi that tells you if the taxi is free to be picked up, occupied, or on the way to do a pick up.
The system is set up like so:
People who are taken will have no lights on.
People who are single but is eyeing somebody else already should have one yellow light on or two yellow lights on, depending on how high maintenance they are.
People who are single and available should have the bright white light turned on.
Provided that people are honest about their situation and change the lights display accordingly, this would also make it easy to judge whether a club was worth going to. If the dance floor has lotsa lights on, it’s worth going to.
It would be great if this was real and practical because then there would be no ambiguity and no mind-fucking. Well, less of it anyway. Because seriously, when are we ever truly honest about these things?
After Nha Trang and a day at sea, we arrived at Ha Long Bay at 7:24am. The morning was very misty and one of the first things that we saw whilst on the tender boats going to shore were these floating beggars. They were very persistent and bordering on annoying as the kids were made to say “oi” repeatedly, all the while waving and sticking their hands into the tenders. No money for beggars I say – these kids need to go to school instead of being made to beg.
What we did come here for was to get on board one of these river boats and cruise around this UNESCO World Heritage Site that has over 3000 islands and islets. Here’s what ours look like.
Here’s another one cruising alongside ours for a while.
The cruise was going to be about for four hours with two stops on the itinerary. This is what the scenery looks like along the way.
Our first stop were a series of caves of one of the bigger islands. This is the view from the top of that island.
And the caves themselves? Wow.
At both of our stops, there were these floating food stalls.
The next stop was a 20 minute hike up the tallest peak amongst the islands where I had this obligatory tourist shot taken. Supposedly if you look from up high enough, the islands in the photo form the shape of a dragon.
Pretty soon, it was time to head back to land. Our only stop was going to be Ha Long Markets (yes, another market).
The islands provide a very nice backdrop to the place.
There were many stalls selling tropical fruit and seafood.
And there were yummo prawn fritter things on sale too.
Ha Long was our third and final Vietnamese stop, and I will end with a shot of this – just outside the market are more of those skinny Vietnamese buildings that are stuck together.
After the hecticness of Ho Chi Minh City, the seaside town of Nha Trang was a welcomed change of pace. Although you wouldn’t think it by looking at the next photo. Though this is only because the port is small and there are plenty of boats taking tourists out to snorkel and to the several small islands not far out from land.
Not all of us were game enough to snorkel so they stayed on the boat and cruised around some of the floating fish farms in the area. (This was taken after I’d snorkeled and had gotten back onto the boat)
About half an hour later, the boat came back to where the snorkelers were and we had a simple but very tasty lunch on board.
There was also on-board entertainment. The band who are actually the crew sang oldies from the 60s and 70s and the odd Vietnamese tune. It was kitschy but it was a lot of fun.
After lunch and the song and dance, we stopped by an island for a beach stop.
It was v. pretty.
We were there for about two hours having a dip, lazing around and eating durian. More and more boats arrived and by the time we were leaving, there were about 6 or 7. I’m glad we were the first one to have arrived and thus avoided the crowd.
After our ocean excursion, we got onto a bus and headed to the Cham Towers. It’s a small complex on a hill with about three of these tower-prayer hall things. It is very impressive up close.
You can see part of Nha Trang from the top of the hill.
And then, would we believe we got hungry again? Heheh. So we pestered our tour guide to take us to find some good pho. So he took us to the Cho Dam Market. The bus stopped as close to the market as the driver could (you will see why in the clip at the end of this post) and we walked the rest of the way.
I really like this building that we walked past. It’s so full of life and character.
Inside the market was this little pho stall.
And the pho? Sublime.
Not all of us got to enjoy it though because it was small and it was not long before they ran out, and because its surroundings weren’t exactly clean, some of us balked at the idea. Me? I thought I’d risk it.
Anyhow so the rest were taken to another place to find pho (which I later heard wasn’t very good) whilst those who have just been fed walked around the markets to kill some time. It was a good opportunity to shoot some more photos.
This stall by the road side was selling some sort of sticky rice dessert. It looks wonderful, doesn’t it?
And since we are still in Vietnam, the motorbikes are everywhere.
A family of five on a motorbike isn’t such a strange sight anymore. Hello!
And I mentioned above that our tour bus driver wasn’t gonna drop us closer to the market and it was for a good reason. The traffic is chaotic. This video will show you how chaotic.
So I said in my last post that there are a lot of motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City. Here are my photos of some of those motorbikes. Below is one of the motorbike lanes that I mentioned – I like how the woman is sitting so casually sideways.
Here is another motorcycle lane – there’s hardly any room between the bikes.
Many riders wear funky face masks – like this little girl.
Navigating a sea of motorbikes can be a nerve-wracking affair.
Here’s a motorbike hero.
Here’s another two.
But these next three families got them beat.
Check out this kid’s face. And I like how the baby has to stand. Not to worry though – mommy’s got her back. For reals.
And we have a winner. Five(!) passengers. At least no one has to stand.
On the seventh morning of the cruise, we docked at the port of Phu My which is about 113 km from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, formerly known as Saigon). The first thing that struck me about HCMC were the motorbikes everywhere and the skinny buildings.
The photos of the motorbikes alone are enough to fill out a post on their own so I will do just that. But I will add just one more here. All the major roads including the highways have special lanes for the motorbikes. This is one of those lanes.
Our first stop was the Reunification Palace. It was the workplace and home of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Its interiors and appearance, including furniture and equipment are said to be preserved as how they were on the day that the Vietnam War ended, ostentatiously as a time capsule. Here’s a room in the basement where the telegraph machines are kept.
Here’s a tally of the South Vietnamese Army at the height of the war. That’s a lot of soldiers.
After this, we went on a driving tour around Ben Nghe Canal …
And Chinatown. It was extra colourful due to the fast approaching Lunar New Year.
Next up was Ben Thanh Market. Markets are to Asian city tours like castles and churches are to European city tours.
At the market, there are a few of these stalls selling all kinds of preserved fruits, nuts and meats that you can think of.
After a brief stop for lunch, we headed to the final two stops for the day. The Notre Dame Cathedral of HCMC (Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica).
And across from it is the equally ornate Central Post Office. Yup, that’s Uncle Ho looking down at us.
I like it how these colonial buildings have been preserved throughout the numerous wars that the country had endured and are now part of a beautiful kaleidoscope that makes up the city. This is another city on this cruise trip that I would like to return to and spend more time exploring.
At about 2:30pm we started the 1.5-hour drive back to the port. The next morning, we will be visiting Nha Trang.
