Ba Huyen Thanh Chuan - Hotpot and Grilled Ca Keo or Goby Fish in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Ba Huyen Thanh Chuan - Hotpot and Grilled Ca Keo or Goby Fish

Last night a Vietnamese friend, Lone, brought us to try their popular local dish called Ca Keo or Goby fish at Ba Huyen Thanh Chuan located at District 3. It's a pretty big place and very crowded, with 97% filled with local. They sell mainly the Hot Pot or grilled Goby Fish.

High and low tables and chairs, air con and non air con room, indoor and outdoor. We managed to sit inside the air con room with high table and chairs - more convenient for foreigners although I prefer sitting on the low ones ^^

Một, hai, ba, vô! (pronounced mot, hi, bah, yo) means 1, 2, 3, Cheers!!! ^^

We asked Lone to order for us as the menu was all in Vietnam language with few pictures inside. After waiting for a while, finally our food arrived. Dadadada......

Fresh Goby fish

First they put a plate of various vegetables, vermicelli, and sauces. Then they will bring the portable stove to cook our Hot Pot. The fragrant soup was then put to boil. The fishes were already inside.

Lone poured the vegetables down to the pot

Lone then put the vegetables in followed by the vermicelli then covered it until it's boiled and ready for us to eat.

Grilled Goby Fish with Tamarind sauce

While waiting the grilled Goby fish arrived. We dip it into the tamarind sauces prepared separately on a small plate. Hmm.... nyummy! It smelt really great but must eat it carefully since there were lots of bones.

Non air con Ca Keo shop

Overall, it's a very good meal and very great experience. The next time you come to this city, come down and try it for yourself :)

Cheated by coconut seller around the Reunification Place in Ho Chi Minh

Xin chao! It is "Hello" in Vietnamese language ;)

Yeah, Hello from Saigon, or commonly called Ho Chi Minh! I chose to go to this place since it's only 1.5 hours journey from Singapore and the ticket was quite cheap. Quite near too! The airport is located very near to the city area. So when it's landed, you could see many houses and buildings surrounded it. Cool!

We took cab to our hotel that is located at District 1 and cost less than S$10 to reach. We went out continuously almost a whole day and I'm dead tired right now, therefore can't share much to you.

However, I want to share a very interesting story happened to us this afternoon.

We took cab and reached the 'must-visit' Reunification Place right at 12pm. The gate was closed when we got there and no staffs around. We walked around it quite aimlessly, not sure what was going on.

Suddenly a Vietnam guy walked beside us carrying his coconuts loaded in two baskets connected with bamboo stick on his shoulder. He was smiling to us and started talking in English informing us that the place was closed for lunch break and would only be opened at 1pm. He recommended us to visit the War Remnants Museum instead, which located not faraway from there.

He kept smiling and asked where we were coming from. We entertained him as he was very friendly. He said we were pretty and handsome, looked like Vietnamese people. Then he told my hubby that he was strong and muscular.

Suddenly he put his loads into my hubby's shoulder. And my hubby said it was unexpectedly heavy lah! The guy asked me to take my hubby's photo together with him since he was with the load. Still smiling and laughing to make us feeling comfortable.

My hubby felt that we might want to help him by buying his coconuts. The guy immediately put two coconuts, opened, put the straw and handed it to us. We felt something wasn't right as we didn't know how much it cost. So we asked the seller immediately before consuming it and asked him to stop opening it before we agreed with the price.

He then said "One fifty thousand." I was like, "What? How much?" He repeated it by mumbling the same thing. We looked each other then my hubby asking him, "What do you mean? VND150,000 (equal to S$9)?? Brother, I saw you a nice guy that's why I told my wife to buy coconut from you. But now you said it's one for one hundred fifty thousand dong??" with a raising tone, a bit almost exploded! Lol!

The seller immediately clarified, "No, no! It's not 150,000. I was saying one for fifty thousand." Tricky, wasn't it?

We visited a restaurant before reaching the place and I saw the same coconut was sold at VND28,000. Therefore, one coconut cost VND50,000 each was still too expensive! We refused and he tried to bargain, "Ok, ok. I give you VND70,000 for two!"

We insisted to say no and bargained to settle this matter fast by asking VND50,000 for two. He finally released us. At least we felt worth it paying that amount rather than 50,000 each. And we were laughing at ourselves after that. Also, the guy bluffed us 'cos when we reached the War Remnants Museum, it was closed for lunch break too! We had to walk back to the initial place and when we walked back, we walked past many other victims (mostly foreigners), either holding the loads, or taking the opened coconuts from the seller and we understood the situation clearly this time!

And funnily, when we met up with my sister-in-law who happened visiting this page too this afternoon with her friends, they were cheated too and paid VND50,000 each for every 3 coconuts that they took. Lol! I never read about this when searching the info about Ho Chi Minh online, but I'm going to write it here, right now, to prevent others being cheated by this 'over-friendly Vietnamese coconut seller' around the Reunification Place and below is their photo together :D Cheers..... (Before realized of getting cheated ^^)

Cheated by coconut seller in Ho Chi Minh,  Vietnam

Story of Singapore Taxi Driver

Last weekend I managed to borrow two books from Bishan Library. First, it is called “Diary of a Taxi Driver”, written by Cai Ming Jie, a Singapore most educated Taxi driver, who holds a PhD in molecular biology from Stanford University in 1990. After working for 16 years as a researcher, he was laid off from the company and decided to become a Taxi driver. Read more about him here.

Diary of a Taxi Driver by Cai Ming Jie

He started writing his personal story as Taxi driver on his blog, then decided to publish it in a paper form in April 2010. However I couldn’t find his blog anymore. Perhaps it had been deleted.

Another book that I borrowed is “Cabbies: The Inside Story – Reflections of a Singapore driver”, written by Sam Hwang. It’s also published in 2013. It gave you a deeper insight about life of a taxi driver, based on his own and other cabbies experiences, such as: fare cheats, robbers, drunks, etc.

Cabbies: The Inside Story by Sam Hwang

You know, Taxi driver is the only job that reserved to Singaporean, which means, foreigners need not apply. This job is seen not as a fancy job. It even gives a conception that only lowly-educated society or dropout will take this job as a last resort. Well, not anymore. As you read the first paragraph above, even a PhD graduate could also become a taxi driver. So, don’t be surprised if the taxi driver who is sitting beside you is actually a Professor, Master degree holder, etc. And this book will change your misconception that society has.

The reasons I borrowed these books were because my hubby is going to become a Taxi driver. He has already attained his Taxi Driver’s Vocational License or TDVL and will join this industry very soon. He has a long time driving experience around Singapore, but zero experience as a Taxi driver and he will have to go through this, alone.

Therefore, other than me reading these books, I also encouraged him to read it as well, so he wouldn’t get shocked if he had to face many surprising experiences from various types of passengers along his journey. At the same time it could give him a clearer picture and broaden mind of what to expect to happen and what kind of responds that he could give towards different situations.

If you can’t have an access to read their books, you can also find other blog, such as this one: Diary of a Singaporean Cabby and Gintai. There, you can read many interesting stories too! :)

Actually, while reading those books, I wish I was one of the Taxi drivers. Hahaha… Not that I wanted to earn money through driving Taxi, but I was wondering on what kind of passengers that I would meet in a day and how uncertain the Taxi would bring me around from one place to another. 

Just like in a day, you can experience many things, meet different kind of people, face good and bad luck, etc. Isn’t it interesting? Then, just like Mr Cai, I would be very interested to write my experience into my blog hehehe… ^^

Well, at the mean time I am happy with my job and what I do. Plus, I don’t drive well. So, I’ll let my hubby experience it and tell me the story. Hopefully I can convert his story into one or two blog posts here and share with all of you, one day…. :)

What will you feel...?

Ice cream - Medicine for the heart

When someone you trust

said something different

to you, 

and behind your back?

When someone 

that you treat as a friend, 

treat you otherwise...

To be honest, 

I expect honesty from you.

In the beginning, of course...

Otherwise, 

It'll all be too late...

Yes, you're right! 

You lost that trust

and definitely, 

You lost that friendship too...

We are not enemies. 

We are just back to a stranger

to where we were before...

I know you won't care,

'cos if you do, 

You wouldn't do it at the first place. 

I wish you all the best in everything that you do! 

Just remember one thing! 

What goes around will go around...

One day, 

you'll understand how I feel.

My love, my accompaniment, my life time partner...

Oow… Haishhh……!!! Alamak, again???
Suddenly my heart throbs faster than usual. I look at my watch and I have already on my way out to the train station. Oh dear, no way of turning back. Calm down... Relax… I speak to myself. Breathe in… breathe out… Breathe in… breathe out... Again, I try my very best consoling my own self.

Oh man, I should have remembered to pick it up before going out!!! I must have left it on my bedside. Now I feel terribly uneasy, lost and bewildered without it by my side!!! Triste!! Inside the train, I can only take out my mobile phone to entertain my broken heart. Hiks…

Pic source: Google.com

Hm… it’s not my mobile phone that I forgot to bring, obviously. Lately, there are two items that I’ll feel sad when I forget bringing it. First it is my reading book. It’s been my accompaniment, my best friend, the best thing to spend my time with, whenever I am alone.

It takes me to many different places in the world. It brings me to many different times in life. It introduces me to many different people with different characters. I can feel the time when I'm a patient, a princess, a student, the poor, the rich, and so on. Time passes by reading is worthwhile doing.

And second, it is my journal. Although I don’t usually write it on daily basis, however, when I need it the most and it isn’t there, I will feel down and gloomy. Like something big has been missing from my life. Those two have been my list of addictions these days.

Thank you Journal! :)

My journal has been one major healing exercise for me. It is the recipient of all my feeling, my emotion, my mood, my opinion, my anger, my frustration, also my love and my admiration. Writing it out manually, with own hands and colorful pens, helped a lot in lighten up my thoughts and brighten up my day.

One day, it can be a great memoir of my past time, the best confidant whom I trust the most, and the witness of how I overcome all those challenges in life. All sad and happy moments and feelings are recorded there. Lots of time it helps me lifting up my broken soul and I can get out from the situation with a much happier mind.

Thank you both of you! You both have always been my love, my accompaniment, and my life time partner, when I needed most during my alone time. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!