tell me about it

The first thing you notice when you get onto Vietnamese roads is the…Vietnam traffic.

Insanity!

That’s what the traffic was like. And we CROSSED ROADS in this madness. The trick is to not bother waiting for an opening. Just step out onto the road and walk steadily while keeping your eyes trained on the oncoming traffic. And then pray.

Prawns at Ben Thanh market. Check out the chicken drumsticks to the side and compare the size. These prawns kick ass.

More fat prawns and some wriggly things, the likes of which I ate in Yunnan, fried in chilli and tasting a bit like baby unagi.

Flowers! Would you believe they’re all fake? :D

Daddy and Mommy, at the cafe where we had our first Vietnamese beer (333 Bia for teh win!)

Longest bean sprouts EVAH. (Please ignore unsightly eyebags. Flight was at 6.35am. Whimper.)

Raphael physically restrains his zombie cousin from chewing his ear off

Froggies a-waiting for the slaughter (yes, they’re alive)

Face masks are necessary to prevent inhalation of Vietnamese dust. The cuter the face mask the better.

Day two. We went to Cuchi Tunnels (the previously mentioned tunnels built by Vietcong resistance forces) and stopped by a crafts workshop on the way.

Daddy tests out a slatted rocking chair

The workshop is operated by war victims of Agent Orange, who suffer from malformed limbs and misshapen extremities

The original Cuchi tunnel opening size. Mom just about managed to fit. It’s mostly boobies that get in the way; most slim-built men and women will be able to enter easily.

This tank was destroyed by a delay mine during the war. Beth, Rachel and Hanna all togged out in BKK clothes :D

Me with ten AK47 rounds. Live rounds, mind you.

Me shooting with the AK47. Fun!

The Cuchi tunnel. It’s about 1.5m tall and 60cm wide, if I’m not wrong. Just enough for me to stoop over and walk bent in half. Many of the taller (and bigger-sized) men (and women) had to crawl. Raph and I made it through all 200+ meters of the tunnel. It’s pitch black in some areas (so I resorted to turning on my camera LCD and shining it in front of us).

Motorboat ride back to the mainland. I never realized how white and pale I am (until I took photos with Bing).

Apparently we’re collecting these shots. We’ve got one similar picture of three of us in Beijing. We shall now take this photo in every country we visit :D

People on the boat. On the right are Robbie and Gareth, from Harvard Business School, whom we met on the trip. Crazy funny American guys :D

For the chemically-inclined - Pig Womb Steamed With Anions. Would you like some Electrons with that? I also like the Five Favors dish. Wonder what kind.

Positively the best crab I’ve eaten in my entire life. The BEST. Crab fried with tamarind. *sniffle* Will I ever get to taste it again?

When the crab was all gone :(

Day three. Floating market.

Mom trying to make round rice crackers. The griddle is a lot heavier than it looks and not as easy to make as we thought :/ Mom’s cracker turned out…more like a rice cracker splat than a round :P

In Vietnam you must wear the Vietnamese hat

Hanna can’t ride a bicycle (!!) so she got to tompang on the motorcycle!

Testing out a hammock during lunch break

Okay this snake is a lot heavier than it looks too :/

Raphael proudly helms our little sampan

As Uncle Hong Leong realizes that rowing the sampan isn’t as easy as it looks (coordinating those two oars in sync isn’t easy!)

On the boat back to the mainland

How do you fry something bristly? :/

I would have taken pictures of the best clams I’ve ever eaten in my life, but I couldn’t, because the minute the plate touched the table, you had to grab clams as fast as you could. Any hesitation and you’d end up with air between your chopsticks :(

Trackback URI | Comments RSS