Halong Bay, Vietnam
3/26/11 got back from halong bay cruise didnt do much today besides stop at a "fishing village" and went around on a tug boat for a few minutes then went back to hanoi.
i found a new hotel with australian friends nice and hot shower for 300 vnd. Memory hotel. Asked reception man what to eat and he told me bang quon. so i got lost looking for the places that serve this food. I wandered around in circles trying to keep track of where my hotel was in the dark. i am bad at direction, but i must be lucky because i get so lost and then somehow i stumble upon my motel unexpectedly. i decided to just go straight down the street but then i always take a turn when i see somthing interesting or dont find something on the straight street so i would try to remember where i took a turn to get back on the first street.
i refuse to look at a map because i dont want to look like a tourist even though i am and im way more lost than the other smart tourists holding a map. During my aimless wandering i did not find the food i was looking for but i found other street food that looked like an omelete so i decided to try it since i was so hungry. The fat dirty old woman sitting in front of three burners at the entrance of the street-food-room didnt even look at me when i tried to order, so a young girl came up to her and helped me. The grumpy old hag waved her arm at me to sit down.
I must have noticed how filthy the place was before i decided to eat there so i dont know why i stayed. The floor was littered with dirty napkins and lettuce i think from the whole day of people throwing all their trash on the floor. It was gross. When i sat down at a dirty table i watched my neighbor vietnam kids to see how they were eating the stuff. They put some of the omelette onto dry rice paper then some lettuce leaves i was sure to get some disease or at the least severe diareah from-then roll it up and dip in some clear yellowish liquid with peppers in it. Just like that. simple. But i was worrying about the leaves washed with dirty water for sure. I was praying that just this once i wont get sick from the poor decision i made to eat this food because i have an early flight to ho chi minh tomorrow morning.
If my luck runs short i always have the three year expired diareah meds i can take.
So when i get the omelette its crispy and just breaks apart. it doesnt taste like egg but has bean sprouts inside with some foreign chewy meat im thinking is cat or dog. The young boy next to me is watching me to see how i eat it and i think i impressed him. The workers were laughing at me and saying stuff in vietnamese. I finished it all and ready to pay. A girl got the money basket and showed me how much a 5 and a 10. Cheaper than my other dinner of cornflakes with rice and egg which was 19vnd! $.70.
I left the shop thinking i was going in the right direction but got lost and went in circles until i found my hotel. I decided to get a beer in hopes of killing off any dirty stuff in my stomach even though my first choice would be soju for its extreme alcoholic killing properties. This singh beer will have to do. I havent seen anyone drinking clear liqiud. only beer.
I did see a fire in the street and on closer inspection saw pieces of american money slowly being chared on the dirty street. Well isnt that an insult. I stared at it and remembered hearing that they burn money for thanks to their god. But i guess thay dont want to burn their own so they burn mine! Or maybe thay are thanking the gods for all of the tourists who come and pay a ridiculous amount of money to them because they are so good at ripping us off.
I hope i wake up without hep a tomorrow! Although ive had mild diareah since i began my vacation with a few days of high fever and mostly rainy cloudy days i dont think a bit of hep will really affect me too much.
i found a new hotel with australian friends nice and hot shower for 300 vnd. Memory hotel. Asked reception man what to eat and he told me bang quon. so i got lost looking for the places that serve this food. I wandered around in circles trying to keep track of where my hotel was in the dark. i am bad at direction, but i must be lucky because i get so lost and then somehow i stumble upon my motel unexpectedly. i decided to just go straight down the street but then i always take a turn when i see somthing interesting or dont find something on the straight street so i would try to remember where i took a turn to get back on the first street.
i refuse to look at a map because i dont want to look like a tourist even though i am and im way more lost than the other smart tourists holding a map. During my aimless wandering i did not find the food i was looking for but i found other street food that looked like an omelete so i decided to try it since i was so hungry. The fat dirty old woman sitting in front of three burners at the entrance of the street-food-room didnt even look at me when i tried to order, so a young girl came up to her and helped me. The grumpy old hag waved her arm at me to sit down.
I must have noticed how filthy the place was before i decided to eat there so i dont know why i stayed. The floor was littered with dirty napkins and lettuce i think from the whole day of people throwing all their trash on the floor. It was gross. When i sat down at a dirty table i watched my neighbor vietnam kids to see how they were eating the stuff. They put some of the omelette onto dry rice paper then some lettuce leaves i was sure to get some disease or at the least severe diareah from-then roll it up and dip in some clear yellowish liquid with peppers in it. Just like that. simple. But i was worrying about the leaves washed with dirty water for sure. I was praying that just this once i wont get sick from the poor decision i made to eat this food because i have an early flight to ho chi minh tomorrow morning.
If my luck runs short i always have the three year expired diareah meds i can take.
So when i get the omelette its crispy and just breaks apart. it doesnt taste like egg but has bean sprouts inside with some foreign chewy meat im thinking is cat or dog. The young boy next to me is watching me to see how i eat it and i think i impressed him. The workers were laughing at me and saying stuff in vietnamese. I finished it all and ready to pay. A girl got the money basket and showed me how much a 5 and a 10. Cheaper than my other dinner of cornflakes with rice and egg which was 19vnd! $.70.
I left the shop thinking i was going in the right direction but got lost and went in circles until i found my hotel. I decided to get a beer in hopes of killing off any dirty stuff in my stomach even though my first choice would be soju for its extreme alcoholic killing properties. This singh beer will have to do. I havent seen anyone drinking clear liqiud. only beer.
I did see a fire in the street and on closer inspection saw pieces of american money slowly being chared on the dirty street. Well isnt that an insult. I stared at it and remembered hearing that they burn money for thanks to their god. But i guess thay dont want to burn their own so they burn mine! Or maybe thay are thanking the gods for all of the tourists who come and pay a ridiculous amount of money to them because they are so good at ripping us off.
I hope i wake up without hep a tomorrow! Although ive had mild diareah since i began my vacation with a few days of high fever and mostly rainy cloudy days i dont think a bit of hep will really affect me too much.
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