I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning

Hello! Miss me? Maybe? Just a little bit? i guess not. i've just been super lazy (crazy, right?) and haven't had anything really to blog about. Alright, well i could have written about the Phillies winning the world series, going to chicago, a birthday party, and etc... i guess you'll never hear those stories, but you will hear about my current trip! Keepin' it real in Vietnam!

i've realized that you maybe been on a plane for awhile if you last 4 meals were handed to you by a flight attendant. They airline was EVA out of Newark. We then stopped in some random place in Alaska after 6 hours to refuel. Then another 11 hours to Taipei! Luckily i slept for 6 of those 11 hours and was able to fit in a couple movies. The X-Files and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The X-Files was an alright movie but the Earth one was just super lame. Like the emergency pamphlet in the front seat pocket was more interesting than the movie. Not only was the movie horrible, i had a fat whining vietnamese baby next to me. i guess i was a fat whining vietnamese baby at one time (technically half) or maybe i still am. i guess he wasn't all that bad for a baby on the plane...

After finally arriving in Vietnam, i realized it was hot. Like humid hot...the worst kind of hot. Your body instantly becomes sticky and gross. Its going to be a stinky trip for me. Before getting the bags we had one priority, booze. Apparently the best deals are in the airport as they are duty free. So we picked up a bottle of gin, vodka, rum, and whiskey. Party! Later we found out the price wasn't that great. Maybe we saved a dollar on a few of the bottles but not much more than that.

Another thing i noticed about vietnam, is the driving. The rodes are so crazy here! There are like a million scooters passing left and right. i'm amazed that there are not a million accidents everyday.

Once we got our bags in our room i was given some money. 2 million bones of money! Holla! i'm rich! Okay, maybe not...its really a little over 100 dollars..but its nice to think i'm a millionaire.
After cooling off i the hotel for a bit we ventured off in to the city. We checked out this fancy 5 star hotel, got SIM cards for the cell phones, booked tickets for the dive trip, walked around in a random shopping center, and checked out this outdoor/indoor market.

The market was pretty crzzy, every two seconds someone tries to sell me something. Does it look like i need a woman's purse? Apparently it does. As for crazy food i didn't really see any. All i saw were pig's feet and pigs intestines. Lame chops. i was really hoping to see something a lot cooler. My mom use to have a jar of pigs feet in the kitchen while we were in Saudi. It was on top of the fridge, it was a gift. Pretty big deal in a country that bans pigs.

On the way back to hotel my mom picked up a bunch of random fruit and some crazy banana wrap junx. Later this vietnamese guy noticed my sneakers were falling apart at the toes. He said he could fix them with somet glue for cheap and good! He wouldn't leave me alone! Kept touching my sneakers and pointing out he could glue them. So finally my mom asked how much, a whole 75 cents! 5 minutes later he was done. My sneakers are still dirty but at least they're not falling apart as much. Lets see how well this glue holds up.

i saw this poor puppy on the street. i wanted to pet it but it was so dirty. But cute puppies don't have diseases right? Eh, maybe its better if i don't test that theory. Maybe later..
For dinner we hit up this crazy restaurant (Vietnamese of course). They have a pretty crazy set up, indoor and outdoor. It was raining on and off so we wanted to be somewhere well covered. The way this place works is that they have a bunch of chefs that all have their own dishes...but there is one menu! So the waiters have to run around to the right cook to tell them how many orders to make. i was pretty excited for some real vietnamese food.

First thing was first though, beer! i decided to go with the Saigon Special beer. Saw it on the Siagon Three Sheets episode. So i thought i'd try it. They're roll a little differently here in vietnam. They don't refridgerate the beer, its served at room temperature and its served with ice. That last thing i want to do is water down a beer that is already less than 5% alcohol by volume. i guess i'll just have to drink more beer. boo hoo.
My other drink was soda chan (sp?). Basically some sugar, lime, salt, and club soda. One of my favorites. This was probably the best i've ever had. Not sure why...but it was.
For appetizers my mom got something kind of crazy. These fried shrimp balls on sugar cane served with rice noodles, greens, and rice paper. We also got some goi cuon (spring rolls). Everything was good, the only probablem was the rice paper. Its fresh, like really fresh..and i'm use to the dried kind that needs to be soaked in water for several minutes before serving. Don't get me wrong, they taste delicious but its just the texture i'm not use to. But i quickly got over it and several wraps of the stuff.
For the main meal i got bun cha gio. Rice noodles with egg rolls on top. i wanted pho but my mom said i shouldn't get it because we'll be having it for lunch tomorrow. We'll see about that. i also got some grilled pork in my dish as well. This is pretty much my go-to dish when i'm not in the mood for pho. If i don't get this its cam tam bi, broken rice with shredded pork. Turns out after all that food i was still hungry, so i ended up ordering my bowl of pho! Pho Shizzle! The soup was really good, though i had the same problem with the noodles as i did with the rice paper. They're fresh! No crazy dried junx...just fresh noodles! They tasted great but because they are not dried and rehydrated again, they get a little soggy in the broth. That aside it was sitll pretty good but something was off with the broth. i'll just have to get some pho at a pho restaurant.
You're probably wondering what this cost. It was pretty expensive. Everything i just mentioned including my dad's noodle dish and my mom's stinky fish soup totalled to around 15 bones. Insane, right? Each of my dishes were about 2 bones. If only you could eat this much for this cheap in the states.

Well that's it for day 1 in vietnam. Can't wait to see what day 2 has in store for me!