A 20-hour (unplanned) Vietnamese Adventure - no problem!

Our second day in Saigon started quite innocently when we met up with our local friend (Laura) at her Mum's Restaurant and ate a bowl of the preferred Vitnamese breakfast Phoe Bo (Beef Noodles Soup). Over that bowl of Noodles Laura suggested to us that we should all together (with her sister Mai and her friend Frank) go to Vung Tao (an island about 2h ferry ride away from Saigon) to enjoy some fresh seafood and walk along the beach there. Sounds great, no? Of course we were ready for that adventure... :) So we went to the harbour and our Vietnamese friends got the tix to go to the island...

Terrific view over the roofs of Saigon from our Mini Hotel in District 1, Saigon

Vietnamese Coffee - very strong....very good!

Vietnamese Breakfast - Phoe Bo (Beef Noodles Soup)

Left overs from a Swizzy...(Marrow and Cartilage)

Waiting for the ferry...

Pascal with the Asian babes :-)

When we arrived in Vong Tao, our Vietnamese Tour guides wanted to get tickets for the ferry back leaving at 17:00 (the latest ferry back to Saigon) - unfortunatelly these tickets were already SOLD OUT. Hmm..o.k. a ferry earlier maybe? OOOPS....sold out as well...hmmmm....it was about two o'clock by then...so the decision was about going back immediately or staying overnight on the island....

Since Mai desperately wanted to show us this Seafood Restaurant, there was no other option to take than staying on the island for one night. And as it turned out - Mai and her husband frequently visit this island and she knew her way around and we went to check in to the Hotel she and her hubby normally stay in. We got ONE room for the five of us... :) On top of that, she quickly organized three motobikes for us so we could discover the island! In Vietnam, everything is possible - NO PROBLEM!

It's not a Harley...but fits the purpose!

At the Seafood Restaurant Mai got very excited and ordered a LOT of food for us....Mantis Shrimp, Snails, Clams and Lobster! WOW, what an extensive meal :)

Mantis Shrimp...very yummy!

We didn't try these fellows - Eel

Efficient cleaning at the Restaurant - first wipe everything onto the floor and then in the bin

The Lobbster and Snails...

Pascal being brave and trying the Clams!

After an (over-)filling dinner, we went to explore the island on our motobikes before returning back to our hotel where we enjoyed the view from our windy balcony. With the bunch of Asians, the photo-session from the balcony was obligatory!

As you can hear - I adjusted to the Vietnamese driving style of using the horn frequently!

Pascal with even MORE Asian babes..(Mishell, Mai and Laura)

We were ordered to "Kiss" so the girls can have a photo..

View from our balcony

After the photo-session, we went out again to get some fruits - the initial plan was some Bananas and Mangoes. But Mai got all over excited again and got us some Bananas, Mangoes and 'Dao Tien' or "Buah Susu".

Hmmm...I hear you ask - "wtf is Dao Tien"?! Hmm...I wondered as well and asked Mai. She started giggeling and went a bit shy before she pointed to Mishell boobs and explained that it means 'women's milk'! Hmm..a funny name no?

But it's all explained...she showed how to properly eat the fruit. Before opening the fruit you have to 'massage' the fruit (think massaging the boobs of a woman) in order to make it tender and then halfing the fruit and slurping the white meat out. Delicious!

Frank and I were enjoying (and practising) our fruit-massaging skills whilst Mai slowly enjoyed her banana. ;-)

As if this is not enough, Mai got us to try another local speciality which was kind of a little fried shrimp cake which you wrap into a salad leaf as we went out for another short bike excursion after the fruit session.

Little shrimp crackers eaten wrapped with lettuce and green papaya salad in fish sauce

On the walk along the beach, we saw some other interesting stuff to eat. Obviously Mai had to get some more delicious food for us and bought a portion of barbequed squid...

The Vietnamese seem to like their squid...there are these squid stalls everywhere!

Our bike has no rear view mirrors, front-brakes (don't work), brake lights (what brake lights?)....2nd gear is dodgy....at least the horn works!

After enjoying the fruits with some beer and squid on our balcony we decided to check out the local night life in one of the many clubs! Strong Air-Con, super loud music, lots of waiters standing around uselessly.....interesting!

Since we had to take the earliest ferry back to Saigon (07.00) because Frank had to go to work we had to wake up early (at 6am)! But we got rewarded by a beautiful sunrise..

Think what we've learnt from this adventure is: (1) Asians can eat a lot; (2) Asian on holiday = eating .....lots and frequently! (3) Vietnamese are very easy-going...everything is "no problem!"

As you can imagine, we were dead by the time we got back to Saigon. We stayed in the hotel for the rest of the day watching the Australian Open Tennis. :-/