I had a Vietnamese coffee. It was spectacularly good. It came to the table sitting in it's own little drip filter which sat on top of the cup and sloooooowly permeated through. Once it had all dripped through, I tipped it into a tall glass with ice and added fresh milk. Probably the best coffee I've ever had.
Later that night we went out for some noodle soup. On the walk back home, I noticed a sign I had seen a few times, close by to our house. "Bia hơi"
I had read about this before coming to Vietnam. It is a beer that is brewed daily and has no preservatives or any other nasty stuff in it. Oh, and it is stupidly cheap. Alex and I were seated on some small plastic chairs with a whole group of locals (one of whom looked a lot like Mr.Miyagi) and our Bia Hoi was brought to us.
It came in a large plastic bottle, probably about 3/4 of a litre and man it was nice. Very light, crisp and refreshing. I think we both got about 3 mugs each out of the bottle and it cost us.... drum roll..... ~63 cents.
It was a great experience; The Vietnamese locals around here are so genuine and friendly. Everyone we sat with clinked glasses with us and said cheers, or Yo! in Vietnamese. Very cool.
After drinking beer, we headed off to a place called Bui Vien. It is the mega tourist / backpacker strip in the city centre. There are many many pubs, bars, restaurants, travel agents, hotels, street vendors everywhere here. There were some really impressive local artists who have shops here, showing off all their paintings. We wandered through a few of them and in one of them was super friendly chair cat.
After having some expensive cocktails, it was home time. This afternoon we're going back to watch a football (soccer) match in an Australian bar there. That will be a first for me. We're also going to check out the Ben Thanh market, which is supposed to be super big and interesting.
A short post today, but more to come!
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