Peanuts Protect You from Ghosts

Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

NP: HIM - When Love and Death Embrace

Mood: Perplexed

Today I leave Saigon for Phnom Penh in Cambodia, so it's time to look back at some of the events that took place in this chaotic city.

The first thing that springs to mind are the people I've met here, most surprising of them being Ky from the reception of Mai Phai Hotel. One night he offered a meal he'd ordered (balut!) to us and Mika hungrily wolfed down the underdeveloped chicken embryo and egg saying it tasted good (like an egg) as I watched in awe. That was the one meal I really wanted him to try, and now it was done, just like that, without requiring any manipulation on my part.

Balut tastes so good!

The next day I brought Ky that bottle of Sangsom that had caused us trouble at the Singaporean border where we'd had to open it. It was a minor gift in terms of value, but it was still something from another country - Thailand in this case. Ky asked if it was safe to drink as is or with ice... Yes, but it's 40% alcohol!

Later he took us to the Reunification Palace, the city zoo, Notre Dame Cathedral and the French-built Post Office. He and Mika went off to Monkey Island as well on another day, as I battled an upset stomach at the hotel. He was of great help during our stay in Vietnam and deserves a big thank you for his time and patience. And maybe a few pretty girls as well.

Kim the Korean was another traveller I met in the lobby of Mai Phai Hotel. It was actually great talking to another traveller who'd been having similar experiences of Vietnam. He was also interested in my earlier trip to South Korea and asked what I thought of Busan.

"Well... I really liked Japan..."

Me in Kyoto, Japan, in 2010.

He hadn't visited Japan, which I thought surprising, seeing how much he seemed to like travelling. Except in Vietnam where he'd just been cheated at a massage parlour (he'd paid 120 000 Dong for a massage, but was asked for 200 000 more after that as a tip before said massage).

Ky at the reception offered us some peanuts. "In Korea they say eating peanuts protects you from ghosts", Kim said as he munched on one.

On our first evening in Vietnam we met a group of Norwegians in a restaurant who said the worst thing you can do here is pay with dollars. Always use Dong. So we did. "Snackar du svenska?" one of them asked loudly. "Yeah, but I prefer not to."

Watching a UEFA 2012 football game (Spain vs. France) in Sports Bar we overheard a group of drunken French louts calling their Vietnamese waitress stupid to her face because she was charging them the wrong amount for drinks. They demanded another waiter. Such directly rude behaviour of course came from the westerners, not the locals. Them being French, for that matter, seemed only fitting. And Spain proceeded to trounce the louts' team 2-0.

So what else is there to say about HCMC apart from the people I met? We got to try some crocodile meat at Din Ky's... which is not much. To be honest, I didn't really like the city. Granted, it's a big city and hanging mostly in District 1 I might've seen the worst of it. To me it was chaotic, too crowded and too noisy. It was too much in your face. You had to be alert at all times and relaxing was difficult, even inside the hotel, because my travelling companion was going peanuts. Eating was not private, the food wasn't particularly tasty and it seemed to rain every day. Hell, even Facebook was banned in Vietnam.

Well, at least the beer was cheap.