Of course this bar - like every bar in Saigon - is MAJORLY over staffed. Seriously at every bar/restaurant there will be 5 waitresses/waiters for every one of you! How do they make profit? Maybe they work for free. I did hear the other day that one boys wages were around 5,000 Dong (20p) an hour!
Another new favourite place of mine is a cafe called Princess and the Pea. It's tres funky. You walk up 3 flights of stairs in this weird little apartment block to find this serene, fairy lit heaven. You take your shoes off and sit down. We sat in the library area packed full with Vietnamese books. It even had the Grimm Fairy Tales in Vietnamese. The music playing was the soundtrack to Amelie and it fitted so well. My favourite part of the house is the Princesses Bedroom. Complete with 11 mattresses piled on top of each other and a little ladder to climb up there. The walls are covered in pictures of all varieties of fairy tales and there are all sorts of things hanging from the ceiling. If anyone has seen Katana's bedroom then your nearly there.
One other hideaway on my list is The AK Hideaway. It's a bar for expats and travellers but only if you can find it. It's situated above a restaurant called the Asian Kitchen and is run by two lovely people. One Vietnamese girl and one London boy. He's Matt's idol at the moment because he came to Vietnam to teach (i think) and now owns a bar instead all within about 8 months or something. And he's only 23. He's living a boys dream. If any of you come to visit me, you WILL be drinking at this bar. 80p for a vodka orange - yes please. And for all you vodka red bull lovers out there you can do the vodka red bull challenge! Oh yes.
So I went out the other night, got really drunk (mum I'm not always drunk I just like to write about the drunk times as they're much more exciting), and got my god dam bag snatched! I know it's not my fault but I was kind of wearing a neon sign saying "I'M REALLY WANKERED TAKE MY BAG!". But I'm pissed off about my phone. It had loads of photo's on there and now I've had to buy a shitty little phone that doesn't even have a camera. ERGH. And they took my Vaseline. BASTARDS! So never again will I go out with a bag at night. From now on my belongings will reside in my bra. I'm actually thinking of sewing little pockets into it then nothing will fall out. So annoying though. I vote for the "shooting them down the river" route. :S
On my days off I try to always do something slightly constructive. The other I decided right I'm going swimming at one of the 5 star hotels. Got there and all was amazing until 30 mins in started to piss it down. Now usually in Saigon it rains vigorously then stops after about 1 hour or so. OHHHHHH NOOOO. It's Alison's day off so lets rain all bloody day and even throw in an electrical storm for effect. :[ So me and Kelly ended up sitting at the bar drinking tea and smoothies for about 2 1/2 hours until we finally gave in and left for mash potato.On Tuesday (another day off) Matt and I visited the zoo. And I tell thee, if you visit me I will never bring you to Saigon Zoo and scar you for the rest of your life. This place is fricking mental.
First Weird Encounter - Women touches Matt's bum. His boxers were showing so one women decided she should pull up his trousers.
Second Weird Encounter - We walk over to the reptile house and yes there were fluffy white bunnies in with the pythons. Me and my naive ways really couldn't understand why they would put these creatures together??? Then Matt says "I think they eat them". The terror in those bunnies' eyes. They were actually shaking. Further down in the reptile house there was a python actually swallowing a bunny whole. This is when I thought I'd seen it all. I was so wrong.
Third Weird Encounter - A gecko falls onto my head. At first I thought it was like a cochroach or something then calmed slightly when I touched it and it was gecko shaped!
Fourth Weird Encounter- The orangutan was chucking things at me. I think it was because he was so god dam bored. His cage was so small. This was a running theme throughout the zoo. Anyway, so I started chucking things back at him. I feel he enjoyed this.
Fifth Weird Encounter - Two ladies gestured for them to walk over to them. They handed us carrots and told us to through them at the bears. They then signed for us to follow them. "Monkeys" they said, but we told them "No we've already seen them". We started to walk and the women started shouting "Baby, baby, money, money, money." They wanted money for their baby. They were begging. Matt and I both started shouting "No" at them. I wish I spoke Vietnamese. I would have told them to feed their baby with the money they paid to get into the zoo. Crazies!
Final Weird Encounter - The Lion Cage. I was filming the lion roaring (but when you watch the film I only get the end of it and looks like the lion's just coughing) when Matt says "Have you seen the bunnies?". NOT AGAIN! Seriously bunnies EVERYWHERE! And they knew they were food. One clever bunny was in the pond because he knew the lion wouldn't come in and get him. But seriously bunny, you're going to die of pneumonia. As I carry on filming the lioness struts out of the house with something in her mouth, yes you guessed it, a bunny. This is when the camera goes off because I know she's about to rip its head off which she does. Then she must get bored with the dead bunny because she stands up and pounces on another bunny - which scares the crap out of me. Where's the challenge? How bored must these lions be. Get a gazelle in there I say!!!!!So don't watch the video if your against lions eating bunnies.
Tạm biệt my friends.
xxxx
