Zara vs. The World: Dinner with friends

What an eventful day in the big city the 6th of January was. We had our first ride (and last) ride in a rickshaw, went to the top of the sky deck for free, had a NZ$18 haircut and meet up with some friends from Wellington for dinner. It was a great day.

It all started when mum decided we should try and walk to the building that the sky deck was in. The sky deck is in the tallest building in the city so the building is visible from most places because it towers above every other building in the city. The main problem we encountered was trying to cross the roads. A few times we managed it ok because we were able to spot a local and cross when they did but the big trouble started when we got a big intersection. We were standing there for a while deciding what to do when a few rickshaw drivers showed up. They said it'd be 15,000 dong which is equivalent to about 90 cents so we thought this sounded like a good idea. I can tell you know that my eyes were closed for most of this journey as they weaved their way through the traffic. To cut the story short we got very ripped off by our rickshaw drivers. When we got there my one said I had to give him 160,000 dong (a considerable leap from the previous 15,000 agreed on). He was quite forceful so I gave him the money and he put the 100,000 dong note in his pocket and asked for 100,000 more and tried to say I hadn't given him the full amount. By this stage I was getting a little scared because he was looking through my wallet and eyeing up my US money. I gave him the money just to be rid of him. 260,000 dong (NZ$16) later I was at the sky deck. The rest of the family encountered the same sort of thing from their drivers so my advice would be take taxis around the city. A taxis for all of us costs about 20,000 so got well and truly ripped but you live and learn ;) At least I can say I've been in one now.

First and last rickshaw trip

At the sky deck, where you get the 'most spectacular views of Saigon', Mum found a way to get around paying the US$12 per person by catching the elevator straight up to the cafe on the 50th floor and missing out the 49th floor sky deck lookout. At first we thought this was a bit cheap because dad and I were hoping for 360 degree views of the city, something that the sky deck viewing offered, but thankfully Matthew stepped up to the game and needed to use the bathroom. The bathroom was located right around the other side of the floor from the cafe so we did get our 360 degree view. You can always count on mum to find a cheaper alternative.

Cafe on 50th floor

View from the cafe

When we got back to our hotel I ventured out with mum to find a place to get a haircut. I got back to the hotel one hour and a half later a very happy girl. For a wash, cut and blowdry it only set me back NZ$18 and it was exactly how I wanted. Which is good considering no one I communicated with really spoke any English. The odd thing was that they washed my hair for about 40 minutes and that is no exaggeration. Three shampoos and two conditioners later they started cutting my hair. They took me out back to do the washing and mum was waiting out the front for me. I was away such a long that she thought I'd come back with all my hair finished. We also noticed that all the hairdressers we saw were men and it was the women that would hold the hairdryers for them and do all the cleaning up.This reminds me of a funny sign mum saw in Hanoi that I didn't put in my blog. On the front of a hair salon was the sign 'Haird Resser', which we thought was hiliarious because we saw a lot of signs like that where the English wasn't quite right.

By the time we got back from the hair salon it was time to go out for dinner with some of the Phan Van Phuoc family and extended family. They are the family dad works with back home and were orginally from Cambodia, went to Vietnam in the 70s, have been to other places to live as well but have ended up in New Zealand. It was a great night with lots of food, interesting stories and good laughs. The place we ate dinner at was completely full of Vietnamese people which was a sign of good food. When we got to the table there were plates of speckled birds' eggs. I asked Ernie what they were and as I did that the man sitting next to him peeled it and put it on my bowl. You guessed it, it was a baby bird. Ernie sensed I wouldn't be eating that so quickly whipped it out of my bowl. We were treated with delicious chicken dishes, sweet and sour fish, fresh spring rolls but my favourite dish was the succulent pig. I was a bit apprehensive to try it at first because we'd seen them roasting the baby pigs out the front of the restaurant but it really was quite delicious. At the dinner I was lucky to meet a young 17 year old boy, Andree, who has agreed to show me where some good shops are on Tuesday afternoon (could be dangerous). It was fascinating talking to him because he told me a lot about his school and how he has to go 6 days a week, starting at 6am every day. Crazy stuff. I also played cars with a little boy who was with the group. It didn't matter that we didn't understand each other because we were both laughing so much.