Visitors, the Mekong, and a Wedding

Hotel Fox is officially open for business. This last weekend our good friends Aditya and Priyanka came to check out HCMC and crashed at our pad. We started out with a trip to our favorite hole in the wall Banh Xeo place (no illnesses to date) and then later met up with friends at a pool hall on Friday. One highlight of the weekend was a day trip to the Mekong. It started with a three hour boat ride down the Saigon River and up one of the 9 distributaries of the Mekong River (called Cuu Long here) to My Tho and Ben Tre. It was amazing to see all the traffic – small boats, barges, tugs – all with red and white eyes painted on the bow. We took a little tour which included: seeing an apricot tree garden (important for the tet holidays), visiting a beekeeper and tasting tea with honey, tasting snake oil wine, going to a coconut candy factory and sampling the snacks, listening to a traditional music performance, and taking a "rowing boat" ride down a series of canals. And that was all before lunch! After eating, we toured the local town on bicycles that were probably perfect for very small people back in the 60's when they were made. As we made our way across the river to the bus that would take us back to Ho Chi Minh City, the skies opened up and poured, which made for a beautiful scene as we plugged along in our covered boat.

The previous day Adit and Priyanka went on a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels/Cao Dai Temple, so Nikki and I had stuck around town. I spent the morning playing tennis with a group of guards, drivers, and employees from the consulate. I got my butt totally kicked, especially my first game with a bunch of Vietnamese business men, but everyone was super friendly. Next time I'm bringing a ringer (Nikki).

In the evening, we attended our first Vietnamese wedding (the brother of one of my buddies from soccer). All I can say is that Vietnam has got the whole wedding thing totally figured out. The entire event was barely two hours long, but they crammed in pictures, food, dancing performances, speeches, karaoke (why does everyone in this country have a fantastic voice?), and of course lots of drinking. The bride had no fewer than 3 costume changes and there were multiple confetti cannons, exploding balloons, laser-lights, and crazy ornate costumes. I feel very lucky to have been included in the festivities (Nikki and I were the only foreigners there) and appreciated the insight into the local culture.

Food report – continued the exploration of street food with a sandwich (banh mi) from a random local stall (pictured above). I shudder to think of what might have been incubating in the pile of fish pate that was scooped into a fresh French roll along with cilantro, lemongrass, peppers, and assorted meats and presented to me for the reasonable price of $0.75 – but damn, it was delicious. I'm so happy our friend Omar made me buy one. We've also hit up fancier places around town with friends, including Villa FB (you can sit in a cube that is designed to be a giant fountain) and Nha Hang Ngon (literally, "delicious restaurant," cute indoor/outdoor courtyard). So much deliciousness and so little time. I now understand why Anthony Bourdain loves this country.