Day 34 - Noir

By (un) popular demand it's Matt back as guest editor today. After some relaxing days where we hadn't done a great deal I get to write about what's been a really interesting day.

Firstly we went on a free walking tour. We've done a lot of these in various countries where there's no set fee but you pay what you think it's worth. This was slightly different in that it is actually free as your guide is a local student who's studying tourism and they use the tour as a way of improving their English. Our guide was Huey (not sure of the spelling) and we paid him anyway. His English was really good and he took us around some local landmarks such as the Opera House (French built and an impressive building) and the Post Office building (French again and looks like a train station). He then takes you to either the Reunification Palace or the War Remnants Museum. We went for the former as we wanted to go to the war museum later (see below). The Palace was pretty good but full of communist propaganda and digs at the south and Americans.

It was interesting taking to Huey about communism. Vietnam is one of only five communism countries left (try and think of the others comrades, answers at the end) and he was openly not a fan. He said most of the south don't like it whereas the north still worship old Uncle Ho. He said support for it amongst the young in particular is low and he hoped it would change to a democracy in the not too distant future. He also talked about their closer ties with Japan who are helping fund the Metro that's being built which is a move away from the usual Chinese investment (clue for the one of the answers here).

After the tour ended we were so hot so took refuge again in the nearest air conned cafe. HCMC is slowly melting us, 34 degrees again today. Appreciate that the locals are much more accustomed to the heat than us but we saw a bloke today wearing a wooly hat in the middle of the day. We then had some street food at Ben Thanh street food market, it's street food but a bit sanitised (think food court at a shopping centre) but was still nice.

This afternoon was spent at the war museum. Quite harrowing and some really horrific images. It's done with a major slant towards the north Vietnamese and the Viet Cong as you'd expect but still highlighted the horrors of war and was quite hard viewing at times. Particularly the bits about Agent Orange (where the Americans dropped chemicals to damage the jungle the Vietnamese were using as cover and which went on to cause horrific birth defects for generations afterwards) and the confirmed atrocities committed by US soldiers against civilians. Despite it being tough to see glad we went, it really wasn't that long ago and shows what the people here have had to deal with.

So on to the evening and Helen played a blinder (terrible pun intended) as she'd discovered HCCM has one of the dine in the dark restaurants, it's called Noir and owned by a Dutch bloke. There's a few of these popped up in London but for anyone not familiar with them you dine in the dark funnily enough. All the waiters are blind or sight impaired and you literally can't see anything while you eat (the chefs can see however which is one of the FAQ's for confused visitors). Someone had also asked what the dress code was.

It's a set menu with your only choice being east or west inspired. We chose east and after an introductory cocktail you play a game blindfolded where you have to put different shaped blocks in the correct places to get used to doing stuff in the dark. After that you're introduced to your waiter (ours was Tum) who takes you in convoy to your table with your hand on the shoulder of the person in front. It is literally pitch black to the point where you can't see your hand in front of your face.

Once seated the food arrives. We got four starters, three mains and three desserts. It was all delicious and it was fun trying to avoid spilling food everywhere and also guess what you're eating. After you've finished you go back in to the light and an explanation of each dish. We were very mixed at guessing. Helen correctly picked out the tuna dish which is often misidentified apparently but I thought one was pork crackling or something similar but it was actually a veggie rice cake.

It was a bit pricey by Vietnam standards (around £75 total including drinks) but much cheaper than the ones back home and definitely money well spent. It was a really good experience and a right laugh. As well as employing lots of visually impaired people many of the other staff were deaf and/or mute. We were speaking to the manager afterwards and he said how difficult it is for people with a sight or hearing issue just to get around in Vietnam.

After dinner we went over to a roof top bar at a hotel right in the middle of the backpackers area in district 1 before we called it a night.

Only a day and a bit left in Vietnam. It's been fun and a lot of contrasts. Hanoi and HCMC are interesting but a bit crazy in a Bangkok kind of way. Hoi An was such a cool place and Nha Trang was great for a relax on the beach. Glad we've been to them all but the quieter places like Chang Mai, Luang Prabang and Hoi An are still my favourites of the trip so far. We fly to Cambodia tomorrow, new country for both of us and looking forward to it. We're now five weeks in with six to go, it's weird, feels like it's flying by in some ways but thinking back to Hong Kong it seems ages ago.

The Cheltenham festival starts today (Tuesday) which means Helen will definitely be back on the blog as I'm hoping to cash in some of my cooking class credits to try and watch the races on my phone which will start at 8.30pm here.

So the answers are:

Vietnam
China
North Korea
Laos
Cuba

The power of five thousand suns and a free statue of Uncle Ho if you got all five. Down you Imperialist pig if you only got one!Read more