I'm in Saigon, oficially know as "Ho Chi Mihn City." So far it's nuts. I love it. There's this crazy energy at night. Almost everyone in the street is on a motorbike. They outnumber cars 50-1. It's noisy, but exciting. There's a lot of eye contact. I've heard it's a good way to cruise.
I have a friend named Thang(prounounced "Tang" )who's a local. He's the boyfriend of my American friend Benjamin (an old friend of *BOB*s) who's in the U.S. at the moment. Thang is very flamboyant for someone around here, bleached spikey hair, trendy clothes, etc. I'm glad I tapped into the local crowd of freaks. Last night we went to a streetcorner place for beer and snack food and all of these wild looking girls kept pulling up on motor bikes and sitting with us. They were all really fierce, sexy clothes, lots of makeup. Most of them are singers.
Here, when people go to clubs, they always see live singing shows. The singers become nationally famous and they are played on the radio, seen on TV, etc. Most of the male singers are big fags but the general public is clueless about it. I guess this clubby crowd are hip-and-in-the-know. I can't wait to go see some of the shows. Oh, some of the girls were hookers too. They call them "PR girls." as in "public relations." They were VERY stylish PR girls. The mood was...hmmm... relaxed decadence.
I love the whole little table on the street scene. The snacky food was interesting: deep fried fish (I thought they were slivers of fish, but after eating a few I realized they were breaded whole small fish.), mango salad with dried salty fish, roasted dried squid, noodles with squid, fried seasoned squid, some sort of tiny hard boiled eggs. It was all really good and, from an American's perspective, insanely cheap!
There's a lot of French influence here, it's a former colony. The coffee is very strong and good. They serve it with a little dripping filter that takes 10-15 minuted to drip. Unlike much of Asia, they're really into baking. There are lots of bakeries and you see baguettes
everywhere.
Salespeople here are a lot more agressive than in Thailand, but you just smile and keep walking and it's fine. I love they mystery of wandering the streets alone. You never know what you'll find.