Rocking at The Hard Rock Cafe in Ho Chi Minh City

Wow what a night with new friends. Went to dinner with some new friends at one of their places with great food from all over the world and really great good spring rolls, chicken curry from Malaysia, a few other meats that I don't know. We talked about our up coming trip to a beach in vietnam. Then all poured into taxis to go to the Hard Rock Cafe Ho Chi Minh City.

We got to the Hard Rock and the band was playing and the crowd seem to be dead. The lead singer seemed to be doing everything he could to get them to start having fun even giving away shots from the bar. A few drinks on I started to feel good and noticed a bartender cut a box for a helmet and wore it for like two seconds. My bright idea and yet a few more drinks in and asked for the box and transformed into Boxman.

Haha what a great way to act a fool and nobody new who I was. A great amenity of disguise with Boxman. I rocked the box all night long it even became so big that I could get away with almost anything. I even ran up and gave the female singer a huge hug and it was so funny. Then I danced and rocked so hard that I almost passed out in the box that I had to sit out several song then right back to dancing like a fool and the crowd loves every minute of Boxman.

Finding your prescriptions in HCMC

Today, ran out of my blood pressure medicine and thought it would be as easy as going to the corner pharmacy. Well not as easy as that but could have been worse.

What happened is that I went to the corner pharmacy where I had been getting my ibuprofen. For my ibuprofen I just ask for it by name and poof they give it to me and then I pay very inexpensive price of 5,000d. Well today I knew it would be a little harder since the drug was a combination drug of two things. So what I did is that I took the old sleeve with the English wording on it and showed that to her. She then tells me "no have" and then asking her where I could find  was even worse. Even placing it in the Google translate was not working for this lady. So back to the apartment empty handed.

I started to look up the drug for similar names. Found a few and made sure I wrote them down to show. Then placing a looking for help on the expat-blog site. I then had a suggestion in a little while. Also consulting my building manager she gave me some more locations for pharmacies. Going to the one she said was higher price for the first time I knew would be okay but I would at least have a local packaging for the next time. Yes they had it in stock and just like I thought different box and all but I will be able to take this box next time to a few smaller places. Just to see if they have the drug. So yes I paid a bit more than at home but I got it at least. I am relieved that I found it. All is good then today.

Computer problems

Since I have gotten to HCMC, my old computer has been running slower and slower. I finally did maintenance on it thinking that would help nope no help. Then I cleared two thirds of the files off on to external drives with no improvement what so ever. So I bit the bullet and decided to get a new computer since my current one is slowly dying and it is really too heavy to travel with on motobike. For a few days I have looked and searched for a decent light weight computer that would last me about two years.

I even had to work out the kinks in just buying a computer. The language barrier still makes it difficult even more so with technical terms. After about four shops and a few recommendations from some wonderful locals that yes, just happen to be computer person. I was able to find a lighter weight and much faster computer than my old one. Had the new computer upgraded immediately with more RAMM. Waiting for them to install the RAMM the bottom falls from the sky and yes I was on motobike.
After two ripped ponchos and a stop at my little great dinner place Beautiful Saigon 2 hotel for dinner and to wait out the rain. I got home maybe three hours later and was exhausted. I still unpacked the computer and started downloading updates. Got my Lightroom and Photoshop loaded on to the computer.

Then all of a sudden the next morning the touch pad stopped working. So instead of rolling back the driver (which I did not think the computer did an update on the touchpad) I did a system restore. Stupid me did not take a restore point after the adobe installs. It set the computer back to the original state. Now I am battling the rain with low Wi-Fi signal and reinstalling all the updates with Lightroom and Photoshop again. So as you have seen I was trying to post and did not want to go back to my old system so I am writing this on my phone. Lol. Up to come is the wild and crazy night with some new friends from the Expat-blog people and Asian Karaoke (total new experience.) this will be as soon as the new computer is finished updating.

Computer Withdrawls!

Today, I have decided to work on my removable hard drives that they are so disorganized that I can’t tell which drive holds what photographs. Lightroom does a somewhat good job of this but I have been shooting for so long that I have really never sat down and organized these drives. When I get a new drive I just transfer somethings and leave some and then continue to add till it is full and then buy a new drive. I will also needing to get a smaller and lighter computer since this laptop is very bulky and several years old. The laptop has serviced me very well thus far in my travels around the states and on the cruise but it is almost 9 lbs and it is very large compared to the size of the small touch screen convertible tablet/laptop computers of today.

One thing I do hate is reloading all the software on a new computer and priming the hard drives of new computers. The last computer was a desk top computer and man I do miss that computer. I had a huge tv screen for a monitor and a great graphics card, tons of RAMM and an awesome solid state hard drive for the main drive and then two back up SATA drives. I sure do miss that computer but times have changed and I must down grade for the new adventures that are to become very soon.

The one thing I do like is that I have solar powered battery chargers for the phone that can add power to recharge my cell phone to run my gps and to communicate. I will be looking for a solar power battery pack that will be able to run my new laptop/tablet this way when I am camping on the road I will still be able to work without a wall outlet. Now the question will be can I find it in Vietnam? Or can I find it somewhere else and have it shipped here. 

Buying a mobile transportation for the big trip North!

I am on the path of looking for a ride to play mobile Frogger. HAHA! Can’t you see a big guy on a small little motorbike? Yes, this is actually going to happen. What is going to be need in buying a motorbike? Well one I will need one with a 125cc engine that can carry a big guy and all my photographic gear, camping gear, and travel gear on the back of as well as travel up mountains. I started looking into doing my research for the specs that I will need and what are the extras that well needed to be added to the motorbike. I will be looking to at least add a back rack to the motorbike and maybe some saddlebags. Not sure how much I can add to the weight of the bike as of yet it does not look too good since I am a big guy to start.

I looked at a used motobike today and it was a Yamaha novious 110 cc engine. It ran well and the body was in good shape for the price. When I drove the bike had some pick up and go but I am afraid that when I add another 25kg to 35kg to the backend in gear that the little 110 cc engine may be way under powered for the trip in the mountains. I am looking into the 125 cc engines that may be better suited for the trip with my current weight limits and me being a big guy.

I still have a few irons in the fire for looking at another few bikes tomorrow. I am glad see so many backpacker motobikes for sale in HCMC. It seems to be either Hanoi or HCMC for the backpackers to sell their bikes to the next person. Either you are going north to Hanoi or you are going south to HCMC. There seems to be a few in the other cities throughout Vietnam but the main ones are sold in these two cities.

The list for the trip right now seems endless and no end in sight for the purchasing of all the equipment that I still need for the road trip north. I am reading blogs and looking at maps and places to visit a long the way and it seems to never end. There are some things that I don’t want to plan to leave up to the wind and be a butterfly on the wind but a lot of it I do want to try and plan. I would like to see if I can book a few photogigs for trade to stay places to help out the locals bring in more tourists to their place. This will be a slow process but once on the road I know that it will be very rewarding. I am thinking of doing a small road trip to the west of HCMC before the big trip north just so that side is covered too. This may be the prebig trip.  

Weekend shoot at the Ho Chi Minh City Botanical and Zoological Park

This past weekend was the first client shoot that I have done since getting to Vietnam. I did this shoot free of charge since a friend had asked me and I do not have a work visa. This was for pictures of a beautiful little girl that will be turning one in a few weeks. Her parents and a new friend of mine went to the local zoo to take pictures for her upcoming party.

The day started out like any other day here in Vietnam, Hot and very humid that the sweat is dripping off every part of my body. The drive to the zoo was yet again playing Frogger in the main streets of Ho Chi Minh City all the way there and with the wind in my hair it actually felt pretty good till we parked the motobikes and then the heat came swamping back around us almost instantly. Note to self is that 1.5 Liter of water is added to camera bag no matter the weight of the bag.

The cost of entry to the botanical and zoological gardens was only 50,000 dong. This is why I could see it being a very popular place for the weekend and the place was super packed with people. The first impressions were that the botanicals here were pretty neat with the topiaries that formed many different types of animals. They were in almost perfect conditions very small holes in the leaves that have just yet to be filled in. you could see that the base of the branches where there so that just in a few weeks they would be perfect. The grasses and local plants provided plenty of shade and places to sit and have a picnic lunch which most of the people were doing since it was almost noon.

We started taking pictures almost right away so that the little girl would still be fresh and awake knowing that the heat would take a toll on everyone. An outfit here and few pictures here and yes I think I became more of a sight taking pictures of the little girl than I of the little girl. The sight of a grown man laying on the ground with the camera almost on the ground was more of a sight than the precious little girl he was taking pictures of. I did notice about 6 or 7 people taking pictures of me taking pictures. Oh well when they saw the great pictures that I got for the clients they may not have been so wowed but floored at the result of changing the perspective of the camera to get the awesome shot.

The Botanical gardens is some of the nicest flower beds I have thus seen so far. The heat started to take a toll and we did not get to see the whole park but the botanical side of the zoo and gardens is very nice with all the different types of plants and flowers that were in bloom the gardens were awesome and then to have the animals around were just icing on the cake. As far as a city zoo and botanical gardens go the city does a great use for the space that they have and try to bring some exotic animals to Saigon for all to see. 

Greece

Thus far I have only written about my living in Ho Chi Minh City and nothing yet about traveling abroad.  My time in Greece was very short only two days and one night but they were very memorable. As the days went during this time we blew in at dawn and blew out blew out by dusk but this city we stayed the night. I had an okay tour in the morning and an okay but the same tour in the afternoon but they were named differently. This made me mad that the second tour was more costly and was the exact same thing as the first but the only difference was that we were able to walk up the hill to the Parthenon. Yes the tickets were almost twice as much but the entry fee to the Parthenon area was only 12€. Up on the top of the hill of the Parthenon was a spectacular sight of the city. Every direction North, South, East and West the city stretched for what seems like miles and miles. They say that Mt. Olympia was 43 Km way and I bet you on that day you could see that far and even further. This day I only took a few panoramic photographs. The following morning I had yet another tour that was named something different and was about the same price as the second and as it turned out that it too was the same exact tour as the second but this time I was with a friend so it made it a little better time spent. This time I did a few more panoramic pictures of the Parthenon. One panoramic is below. The picture is a composite of 12 photographs.

Greece in general was a great country to visit and the outlying areas have been having troubles since the collapse of the local and countries government. The streets inside the major cities had vandalism that was done to the buildings such as spray paintings and even set fire to a few of the local buildings. Outside the cities you saw less spray paint vandalism but the local trash had not been picked up in over a year and half. They said that the children and most of the families recycled what they could like paper and tilled it back into the homemade composting that each house had been making to further grow vegetables and olive trees. There would be bags of trash taken to one general area that use to be the areas trash pickup and you would see plastic bags of garbage. Other than the trash these people lived no differently than normal country fokes from the states. They used what they had and made the best of the situation that they were dealt. The comment that was made if someone could figure out how to use the massive amounts of refuge and do the collecting the local people would even chip in and pay for the pickup of the refuge. My hunches believe that if the plastics could be broken down to smaller pieces then they could be recycled into cloth threads or even reused for melting down to be remolded into new plastics chairs or even plastic cups.

Leap of Faith

As I write this Angels & Demons the movie is on the Stars Movie Channel, what I mean by this is not for the leap of faith of God, but simply the faith to cross the road. So then why did the Chicken cross the road? Well in the game of Frogger it was just to get to the other side. The “Leap of Faith” in Ho Chi Minh City is just to cross the street and hope to get to the other side. Anybody that has ever been to Ho Chi Minh City will know exactly what I mean by this term.

The Game of Frogger is a children’s video game in America where a simple frog has to cross the street and river before he is run over by a car, bike or bus or falling off a log. As the frog gets to the other side the game starts over again with just a busier street and more traffic on the street and the crossing of the river gets even harder with turtles that want to eat the frog. This game must have seen the future of HCMC for the designing of the game almost 20 years ago. As of today it is a Leap of Faith to just cross the street in HCMC. Simply that it is so busy with bikes, cars, buses and carts that just to cross to the other side one needs to pray for faith that he or she will make it. This was one of the most nerve racking things that I had to learn thus far while living in HCMC. When crossing the in HCMC you have to step out into the street and just have to keep moving all the while the traffic is just whizzing by you on either side. The cars and bikes will swerve around you as they approach you. If you try and run across they cannot swerve and miss you and your most likely to be hit by a bike or car. This is so not the way we cross in America. We look both ways make sure the way is clear and then cross. Here in HCMC there is so much traffic that you cross at a clear and steady pace and you will get to the other side.

I never knew that just crossing the street would be so nerve racking in my life as I cross the street in HCMC I take a small leap of faith and hope that I make it to the other side.

Making of Phở

It took me a few days to find all the ingredients for the first attempt to make Phở. I first tried to go to the Citimart grocery store for the ingredients but I could not find everything I needed. I then asked my awesome building manager for help on finding the right place to shop. We planned a morning trip to her local market. The next morning came and we were off on our motobikes zooming through traffic to the local market. Trying to follow her on her motobike was almost like playing cat and mouse but with cars, buses and thousands of motobikes to dodge. I don’t know how I even drive in this town. A few minutes later we are at the local market and park out motobikes. First impressions of the local market as of any other the smell is about normal for a local market that I am still getting used to it. The local store is small store that has one side with fresh greens and then the other side has fresh meats and in the center has some dry goods. She shows me what greens to buy for the Phở and I do notice a few of the proper items by looks but some of them I missed all together until she points them out. She shows me the ropes of the purchasing of the veggies here in Vietnam. I am still on the US measuring system not on the metric system yet. Notice that the scales are all in grams and sold by the gram weight. Kinda makes me feel like I am dealing drugs that are bean sprouts haha. We pick out several green veggies and a few other veggies like small romma tomatoes and cucumbers. We then go to the other side of the store to pick out some beef for the Phở. Yeah I was not too pleased about the sanitary conditions for the mixed meats but I know the meat is going to be cooked when the boiling water hits the slices of meat. We pay for the groceries and they were not more than about 3 meals at the local restaurant’s worth so that is not too bad if I get four or more meals out it then it was worth the costs. I really should be able to get at least 8 or more meals out of the groceries. We get back on the motobikes and play real life frogger with traffic on motobikes to the next store that sells milk. She purchases some soy milk where I purchase normal milk. She also buys some treats and they are banana ice cream. Then back on to playing frogger on motobikes back to the building.

After washing all the green veggies and placing the water to boil and adding beef broth, sugar, salt to the pot. Bring them to a boil and then slicing the eye of round beef (this time not thin enough) and rewashing the veggies again and adding the rice noodles to the bowl and slicing onions to the bowl. Bringing everything together in the boiling broth and adding the green veggies to the bowl then letting the beef slices cook in the broth. My first attempt at making Phở was not too bad I would have to say there is some room for improvement. My Phở did not look like the pictures that I see on the Internet but when does ever look like the pictures on Intagram? Lol I would have to say that the meal was filling and not bad on the nutritious scale either.

Curency Exchange?......

Was eating at one of my favorite places to eat the other day for lunch and saw a traveler that looked to understand English looking at the menu that the restaurant places outside the on the so called curb. This gentleman was very nice and I invited him to sit with me at my table to talk to him over lunch.

He had a story that I need to tell the people just as a preventive story so that what happened to him does not happen to other nice people. This gentleman just flew in that morning from another place which will be unknown in the story but that is not important. What is important is that when he got to Vietnam he had a bad day but a great outlook on life.

Not knowing the language and the customs once in a while in traveling we meet a bad apple in the bunch. The gentleman had gotten a cab ride from the airport to near the hotel where he was staying at which is a sister hotel where I like to eat. During this cab ride the gentleman was taken advantage of and even though he was taken for about 200 USD. He still had a good outlook on the situation.

What had happen was that he had a rather large bill more than the cab ride. He needed change and the cab driver did not have the correct change so the cab driver asked for another bill and the gentleman traded out the bills for what he thought was supposed to be the correct change that he had thought. In reality the money that was given by the cab driver was actually fake look alike bills that were just color photocopies of real bills.

Not knowing what the currency looks like I can see this happening to any new person that visits a new country whether it is Vietnam or China, or even Brazil. 

Chinatown, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

It seems that every town has one just like the main city hall they have a Chinatown. My first impressions of Chinatown here in HCMC is just like all other Chinatowns that I have visited. You can get almost anything and everything here in Chinatown. That actually might be true here in HCMC. This Chinatown may have everything you would want at a discounted price here in HCMC. 

The market area is actually quiet big and spacious covering several square blocks. The main difference here in this Chinatown seems to be that there are groups of stores jumbled together that sell the same thing for instance the cloth stores are all together as well as the hardware stores. Most of the shops here are specialized and carry one main thing. If your store sells fans that is all that it carries every conceivable type of fan and nothing else.  

One of the characteristics that you know you are in the Chinatown area is that the signs of the shops are now not in two languages but three Chinese, Vietnamese and English. The Chinese Red lanterns are another giveaway that you have made it to the Chinatown area.

One of the places that I like to see in Chinatown is the flower district. There is booth after booth of flower shops that are making all kinds of arrangements from bouquets to funeral arrangements. You can walk down the street and also feel the mist in the air to keep the area cool for the flowers. This actually might be the reason why I like the area LOL it is about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the heat of the sun.