Good Morning Vietnam!

Honks blaring, pedestrians walks like the king, motorist zig zagging past every empty space they can get through - Yes, I am back in Vietnam! This time, in Saigon.

Ever since touching down this morning, I have been trying to find some distinction between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh but every where I look, shops, roads and people looks the same. Sitting in the driver driven Innova, I catch myself going back to the times when Dad was still in Hanoi.

My bird's eye view. Acres after acres of agriculture, boosted by their vast natural resources.

This is what the city looks like. Actually, these are the clustered districts in Ho Chi Minh City. Every building looks the name and there's no practice of organized township development.

I have been to meetings after meetings ever since I got there. One thing I have been looking forward to is Vietnamese food. Just like China where the styles of cooking vary according to the different clans and  provinces, the tastes of Vietnam is divided into 3 regions - North, Middle and South. The north have more of a salty taste bud, the Middle - spicy and the South have very sweet tooth.

I particularly loved the food in Hanoi because it was salty and full of taste! Needless to say, it was also quite bad for cholesterol. :) That goes to say good food are usually bad for you. I digress. Today I have tried my first 2 meals in HCM and I must say, it tasted similar!

This was peculiar to me because I had braced myself for the blast of sweetness in every dish, but all I got was the same kind of sauce and saltiness. So I brought this up and was told that actually, I am currently dining at local-tourists joints thus the dishes are tailored towards a more standardized taste. Ahh no wonder!

Give it a few more days. Hopefully, I am able to try some authentic southern dishes that will blow my heart out from the sweetness. Hehe.

On another sad note: No facebook here! Apparently it is blocked here by certain service providers. Anyone know how I can get around it with a proxy?