Cook-Cook Experience

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Our eight-hour tour today took us from the port of Phu My to Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) for “Market Visit & Cooking Class.”

We had a long 2-hour bus ride into the city. This gave me a good chance to “contrast and compare” Vietnam and Thailand. Vietnam is clearly on a lower economic rung than Thailand. The government housing looks shabby and old. Like much communist architecture, the buildings are  block-like and grim-looking. Fewer of the units here have balconies. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I have photos coming up that will help tell the story.

The 4-lane road from the port into the center of Saigon is lined with small businesses of one kind or another nearly the entire way. (Like Muldoon Road, if you’re familiar with Anchorage.) Many businesses were in the style of the “shophouses” we saw in Singapore - store in front, living quarters in back and upstairs. Most were run-down, cluttered, grungy-looking places.

After a while the bus turned off the road and pulled into a building containing a market. There was space for a bus to drive through the building. The front and back of the building, like many of the buildings here, were open. We drove right through the market building and came out in the back, where there was a rest-stop.

For the ladies

Eventually the surroundings became less rural - not that they were especially rural. We had driven through an “industrial zone” most of the way, and now it seemed to be more commercial and residential. It definitely felt urban.

 

We were in Saigon proper. I’m going to call it Saigon because that’s what most people here apparently call it.

The streets of Saigon are crowded and chaotic. There are more motorcycles here than I have seen anywhere else. There are also a multitude of small shops where you can get your motorcycle worked on or buy parts. 

Produce for sale literally on the street

Our guide told us we were going to a “seek low”. That’s phonetic. I didn’t know what that was because I had not looked at the tour information for several months, and I had forgotten we were going to engage in a pedi-cab experience. Some people call it a rickshaw or a rickshaw bike. In Vietnam it seems they call it “cyclo”, or xích lô.

We were driven around Saigon for about 25 minutes, past a few landmarks and many everyday street scenes. We rode in the street along with motorcycles, cars, and trucks. It was quite fun. Our two drivers were told we were a couple, so they stayed together and we got to take a lot of pictures of each other. It was really fun!

The Bitexco Financial Tower with helipad on right side. Once the tallest building on Vietnam.

Street food

We arrived at Ben Thanh market where our chef met us. As he purchased the ingredients for lunch he explained them to us.

Gorgeous fresh veggies

Our chef buys something. Taro?

Our guide watches as Chef weighs some wriggling live crabs

Ahhh! Sesame oil!

The market was very crowded. We were given 20 minutes to shop. Everyone wanted us to look at their wares. I bought a few souvenirs. 

The money here is very devalued - $1 US is worth over 25,000 Vietnamese Dong, so you just use Dollars when you shop. 

While we shopped, the chef returned to the Rex Hotel to start preparing our lunch. When we arrived at the Rex we each got an apron and a chef’s hat and there was a workstation for each pair. Our chef showed us how to make roses with tomato peels.

Next we made the chili sauce for our spring rolls. It turned out better than I thought it would. Finally we made spring rolls. A lot of prep work had been done already. We mixed up the filling and then rolled it up. It was a messy process, but it was very satisfying to end up with reasonable looking spring rolls. The kitchen staff took them away “to deep fry them.” 

While we were making our spring rolls, I noticed this place across the street.

I wanted to run over there and check out the quilts, but I didn’t dare leave our group.

We went to another room to eat lunch. “Our” spring rolls were served to us there. They were very tasty, but I’m fairly certain that we were served some rolls that had been prepared entirely in the kitchen by the kitchen staff. This first course was followed by a lunch, served family-style. The food was on the bland side and I have already forgotten some of the courses that were served.

Bok choy

Green rice

Lotus seed compote

The local beer 

At the conclusion of the lunch, people started getting antsy and most of us headed for the restrooms or went out to look for the bus. We thought lunch was over. Not! We were herded back into the lunchroom because they needed to present each of us, one or two at a time, with Spring Roll certificates. Then they had to take our photos with each of us holding our certificates. I thought perhaps they were going to try to sell the photos to us, but they did not. Maybe we are going to be featured in some Communist propaganda soon. It was a little weird.

After lunch and the graduation ceremony, we were running a bit late. We were supposed to stop at “the breathtaking Ngoc Hoang Pagoda.” (Spoiler alert: It was not breathtaking.) Our guide was not enthusiastic about going there, but some people wanted to see it, so she gave us 15 minutes to run in, look around, and return to the bus. As I recall, she did not come in with us.

The pagoda was underwhelming on so many levels. The main thing was that it was not actually a pagoda, in that it was not a many-tiered tower. We went inside and I took one photo, and then someone told me that we weren’t supposed to take photos inside, so I stopped.

Pagoda Entrance

Our guide is indicating that we only have a short time left to get back on the bus,

There were only two rooms inside the pagoda, so I was not too sad about not having a photo of the second room, which was a small shrine you go to if you want to get pregnant.  That room had a big arrow pointing to a door at the other side and we all went through that door to find ourselves at the exit. And just like that we were done with the tour of the pagoda.

And we went back to the bus and just like that we were done with the tour of Saigon - except for the two-hour ride back to the port.

And I have just one word for 18 hours of bus tours over two days: sciatica. That is really too much sitting. I hope I will remember this in the future 

Today’s fabric is Vietnamese Souvenir BookShelf by the_bright_leaf_design for Spoonflower. Can you identify the souvenirs?

Scroll down for answers . . .

Vietnamese lacquerware, a charming ‘Ao Dai’ doll, delicate lotus flowers, intricate ceramic pots, filter drip coffee, Vietnamese traditional wood block printing (not visible on this swatch), a miniature pedi-cab