8 things you see in Ho Chi Minh City everywhere

1. Motorscooters, loaded with anything from 1 to 5 masked people of all sizes and ages and all sorts of stuff - the roads are teaming with them - if they were sheep the dogs would be walking over the top of them; lane markings are just a helpful guide if you want to measure the width of the marked road. They drive and park on the footpath everywhere too.

2. Ho Chi Minh, otherwise known as Uncle Ho and not to be confused with Colonel Sanders who you also see around a bit but it's usually Ho Chi Minh although Amberly had to check when we first saw his picture in the impressive Saigon Post Office. "Hey is that the KFC guy again?"

3. Street sellers - Everywhere you go you'll find lots of different kinds of food, drinks and random stuff for sale from a cart, the back of a bike, or just on the street. You'll find (or trip over) anything from scooter parts to fans to $1 shop junk, balloons, hats, sunglasses (with Ray Ban or Oakley stickers) etc. etc. You can see in the top picture that motorbikes just pull up to the food sellers on their way past.

4. Narrow shops with narrow houses above them - so narrow one of the kids commented that it looks like people are living in bookcases; the varied shop wares spill out onto the street where the motorcyles park too - pedestrians just end up on the road with the rest of the traffic and the cars and bikes very nicely toot their horns so you know they can see you! And the shops generally shut for at least an hour around the middle of the day (sometimes longer) so the owners can have a snooze.

5. Little plastic chairs and tables that you might find in a kindy - in between the motorbikes and stuff for sale on the streets under the narrow buildings.

6. Cigarette smoking Vietnamese men - often sitting on the little plastic chairs inbetween the motorcycles ....

7. Bright red and yellow banners/posters with really happy cartoon asian families, snakes and flowers. Cheesy.

8. Karaoke clubs - there are several of them, usually with brightly lit bad Vegas style advertising in every district of the city. The one we went to was called "Nice Karaoke" and we got our own room with our own vinyl couches, our own disco ball, our own 2 microphones with reverb cranked up to a ridiculous level, and our own ear piercing sound-track to the english pop songs; there were a few Vietnamese tracks available for our friends too.

Playing in the Traffic (the river of death)

When Isaac's 16th birthday came around, because we didn't have anything much planned, we decided to do a little sight seeing. While we were roaming around, after going to the NewYork Dessert Cafe and seeing at least 5 geckos, we decided to go and check out the Saigon River which was, unfortunately, very polluted but still worth exploring (the boats were pretty cool). Running alongside the river, in between us and the dock however, was the busiest road I had ever seen in my life! Given that it was also rush hour Mum and Lena were .... reluctant to say the least. Oh, and did I mention that there were NO LIGHTS? Normally, if this was in Auckland, I wouldn't DREAM of crossing such a road, however, this was Vietnam and, since almost all the traffic consisted of motorbikes, instead of just crashing to a halt or going right over you like a car would, the torrent of motorbikes and scooters merely flows around you as you slowly walk through it. Of course, Mum and Lena were terrified, but Isaac and I were LOVING IT! Safely across, Isaac wanted to do it again only this time FILMING it! (typical) All in all it was a fun day!

Food in Vietnam

The first thing we noticed about the food in Vietnam was the price. We've had meals as cheap as 10,000 VND, or just over 50 NZ cents. Vietnam has a very large range of food; western style cafes, vietnamese eateries and sushi bars can all be found on a single street in some places, although western food is only slightly cheaper than in New Zealand. Also noticeable are the street stalls: usually mounted on a handcart or motorbike, these sell all kinds of food; I've had omelets, filled rolls and all sorts of skewers from them, all very cheap. However, after I had the omelet, I was told that that stall, like others, wasn't known for it's hygiene. We usually avoid fresh fruit stalls, or wash any fruit we do buy, as pesticides are widely used. As well as the fruit, we can't drink water from the tap without boiling due to bacteria.

As with most Asian countries, rice and noodles are the main staples, but Vietnam is slightly different: because it was once a French colony, baguettes are very popular and more common than normal loaves, while smaller ones are filled and sold by street sellers as banh mi. Vietnams most eaten dish is pho bo, or beef and noodle soup, but ironically, it's one of the most fiddly to prepare, so almost no-one makes it at home, instead choosing to eat out and buy it or use a sachet. MSG is frequently used , so much so that it is actually sold in supermarkets as "super flavor enhancer". As you can guess, we don't use it at all, though we suspect we've been given it in some of the food we've ordered at restaurants. Interestingly, dessert as we know it isn't found very often, but caramel flan and ice cream are still popular treats. It's been great fun sampling all that's available, but we've barely scratched the surface and are looking forward to what's to come.

by Isaac

Setting up for living in HCMC

Being here in Vietnam with my family is a much better experience than being here by myself. Here is an email I sent to my family when I was here on my previous trip, setting up the apartment ready for us all to come over (It is a furnished apartment but I still needed to buy plates, cutlery, and a dozen other things). On the two trips before this I was staying in a hotel and had to fend for myself a little less.

Hi Honey,

I didn't make it past 8pm last night before I had to go to bed. I've had about 7 hours sleep before waking up, so I'm lying here writing an email at 3:20am. Must try to make it to 10pm tonight.

Yesterday I had breakfast at the cafe in the foyer - they look like they have a full menu, which is nice, but I'm not sure what their operating hours are. I will go and see the management office today sometime - I will leave work early so I get back to the apartment before the management office closes.

Anyway, breakfast was a steak in a mushroom sauce and chips. After breakfast I was skyping with you and doing some research on churches and on supermarkets. I was kinda hoping that someone would ring and offer to spend the day with me, but it turns out I am not the centre of everyone else's world and that they do actually have a life! I had decided to put off doing any shopping until after lunch incase someone rang, but no - I was going to have to brave it on my own.

I went down to the cafe again for lunch - which was a noodle soup (Bun Bo, not Pho - the difference is the type of noodle) with pork bits and veges. It was quite nice and only 32,000 VND; about $1:50. After lunch I forced myself to go and do the shopping, overcoming my natural tendency to avoid the unknown.

I decided to go to the shopping co-op that's quite close to the apartment - probably within walking distance actually, although I can't remember if there was anywhere to walk (I will have to take more notice next time). I double checked it's location on the map and made my way there, but was concentrating so hard on driving that I went past it. It's on a one-way street so I had to try and remember the map and work out how to get back around. I managed that ok, and ended up back near our apartment. Resisting the urge to flee to the safety of my apartment (and just manage on what I could eat between the cafe and the mini-mart), I plunged back into the traffic and made my way around to the co-op again.

The co-op is a little building with 3 floors. The entrance and a supermarket are on the bottom floor, along with a few food shops around the outside. The third floor has a food court and a stationary shop. The second floor is like a little version of The Warehouse and it was here that I focused my efforts. I realised that with just one of me, I was going to have to shop either for food or for apartment stuff, but not both since they were separate stores on different floors. But first I went to the service desk and asked if they were able to deliver to the apartment; which involved me showing them the address on the apartment, preceded by the words "giao hang" which means "delivery". The guy nodded and then asked me something in Vietnamese with a confused look on his face, so I whipped out my cell phone, rang Tam and had her act as interpreter. Turns out the guy was asking where were the goods that I wanted delivered? So Tam explained that I was just checking that delivery was possible before I went shopping. All good.

So then I'm wandering around the second floor trying to find the stuff on our list - which wasn't hard although it took a while matching the vietnamese price tags to the right goods to work out the cost. The only problem, really, was that the shopping trolly was not particularly large and by the time I had got most of the bits I needed there was stuff precariously balanced on other precariously balanced stuff and more stuff hanging off the sides and handle of the trolly and an ironing board rising out up to a couple of feet over my head. I got a few laughs and concerned looks from a couple of the other shoppers and was beginning to feel like a bit of a side-show. But what was I to do? There was only one of me!

I decided that it would be prudent to stop putting anything more in the trolly before disaster struck, and I made my way to the checkout, which involved a bit more giggling and concerned looks. It took a while, but everything got packaged into bags and put back in the trolly. Actually, they cheated and put everything back in to 2 trollies. After paying, I gave them my address and walked out of the shop empty handed worrying that I had missed some important step that was crucial to the goods actually arriving back at the apartment.

Nevertheless, shortly after arriving back, I got a call on my cell phone (I had given them the number) and had a conversation with the same guy from delivery where I finally got to use the vietnamese phrase that I learnt which means "I don't understand". He hung up and shortly after that the phone rang again, this time with a different person, and one that could speak quite good English. They just wanted to confirm my address, which was just as well since I had written down the apartment number as 8080 instead of 0808 (apartment 8 on floor 8). Whew.

Everything turned up shortly after that - there was just one guy and I wish I had have been down in the foyer when he arrived so I could have taken a photo of him with all that stuff on one motorbike! As he was brining everything out of the hallway into the apartment, I pulled out my receipt to start ticking off everything to make sure that it had all arrived safely. Of course the receipt was all in vietnamese so I gave up and had to just trust that it was all there.

After unpacking everything, I wandered down to the mini mart and bought some ingredients for my first, home-cooked meal in Vietnam (not counting instant noodles):



Yup - spring rolls. The chilli sauce here has a bit more bite to it than ours, and it's not a sweet chilli sauce. So pretty basic, but it hit the spot.

It was still quite early and I was having trouble keeping my eyes open so I went up for a swim. It had been a fairly cool day (about 27 degrees) and the evening wasn't super warm either so the pool actually felt a bit cold! There were a couple of western looking guys sitting at a table and I considered going up to them and saying hello (very brave for me), but heard them speaking russian so I just went for my swim instead.

Well, I'm going to try and catch a few more Z's before getting up for work.

Love you all,
me

So there you have it - a little taste of my experience here on my previous trip.

Crazy Vietnam Wildlife

Vietnam, which is our exiting new home in asia near the equator, has exotic wildlife everywhere you look! From jungle elephants, to tiny monkeys. Unsurprisingly, some of that wildlife comes indoors! On our first day here, I found a gecko clinging to the bathroom wall! Going for a walk in the park also revealed an array of wildlife. Large ants at least half an inch long, lizards with blue heads, and beautifully coloured yellow and green birds are among some of the critters I encountered. There are also things New Zealand and Vietnam have in common, such as sparrows and stray dogs. I am looking forward to learning more about this exotic country and its wildlife!

Xin Chaò

Welcome to the travel blog of the Middlemiss family. We have just moved from Auckland, New Zealand to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and will be writing about our experiences here for all our family and friends. We will be adding new posts to this blog regularly so check back soon, or follow us using the links on the page. Here is the RSS feed.