Montreal, June 2010: Sights, Activities, and Culture

I went to Montreal last week for Pattern Review Weekend! I had never been to Montreal--or to Canada at all--so my friend Cidell and I decided to head to Montreal early to see what we could see.

Monday, 14 June

When my plane landed on Monday it was pouring rain and quite cold. Cidell and I were scheduled to land at around the same time but, as is the way, her flight was quite delayed. The good thing was that when I finally left the airport, the rain had stopped and the sun had come out!

We bought weeklong Metro passes--carte hebdo--and navigated our way to Marche Atwater, a large market the guidebook insisted was open until 8. Unfortunately, it had closed at 6 so we hopped back on the metro (love that unlimited pass!) and headed into the Plateau, to famous La Banquise for poutine. It has about 30 varieties of poutine on the menu. Poutine, by the way, is a regional dish of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. La Banquise makes a vegetarian gravy so even veggies can have the pleasure of clogging our arteries. It had been a long day of travel with an early morning breakfast and no lunch so fries, gravy, and cheese sounded just about right. I'm not sure it's an experience I could repeat very often, however.

After dinner we walked around a bit, trying to digest our meal. The row house architecture is lovely, and everyone has added their own little twist with brightly colored balconies, hanging plants, and painted doors. We got back to the Mount Royal metro stop just in time for the (late) sunset and headed back to the Universite de Montreal dorms and hit the sack.

Tuesday, 15 June

The weather prediction was for alternating days of rain and sun, and luckily our first full day was a day of sun. We decided that a bike tour would be the perfect way to take advantage of the weather and get an idea of the city, so we contacted Cycle Tours Montreal and arranged to take the City Highlights Tour.

This turned out to be a fantastic decision. Our guide, Shea, was very enthusiastic, loves the city, and tailored the tour to our varied ability levels. We started at Parc La Fontaine in the Plateau, meandered through the Plateau (stopping for croissants and coffee), headed to the Mountain where I very proudly biked all the way to the top, then went down into the city, stopping to see McGill University, biked along the Lachine Canal, and had lunch at the Marche Atwater. It was a gorgeous day and we could not have been happier with our choice!

Wednesday, 16 June

Rain was predicted and the morning started cloudy, but we hoped it wouldn't start until the afternoon and planned a self-guided walking tour of Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal) for the morning. We started at the Basilique de Notre Dame de Montreal, a copy of Notre Dame in Paris (though without the flying buttresses). I visited the famous wedding chapel, which honestly did not seem very romantic! I did enjoy its modernism, in contrast to the traditional interior of the main part of the church.

Next we meandered our way through the old financial district, stepping into several amazing banks that still serve customers, including one with a wedgewood ceiling and one guarded by gargoyles. Looking at the gargoyles I think I understood J.K. Rowling's inspiration for the goblin bankers in Harry Potter. I was amused that there used to be a Molson Bank (left), now an office building, but beer-making is pretty steady business through good economic times and bad so perhaps we should have more liquor-run banks and fewer mortgage-backed for the stability of our financial system.

We ended our tour at the Old Customs House, next to the Archaeological Museum and along the St. Lawrence river, just as it was beginning to rain. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to visit the museum. It is my reason to go back!

From there, we headed to the McCord Museum, stopping along the way we stopped by the Cathedrale Marie Reine du Monde, which the guidebook said was a 1/4 scale reproduction of St. Peter's in Rome. We went to the McCord to view their temporary exhibition of costumes from Cirque du Soleil. I love Cirque, but when I go I am in the very far away seats and the costumes are nothing but a bit of color to me. It was so interesting to see them up close. The designers put minute and intricate details into each one. I really appreciate their dedication to their craft. The museum also has exhibits on winter in Montreal and Irish-Canadians, with lots of artifacts and bits of history.

I had a late lunch at vegetarian restaurant Lola Rosa. It was so pleasant to enjoy my meal and watch the passers-by. It is very near McGill's campus so there were lots of students to-ing and fro-ing. The waiter was very pleasant and (as with our bike guide and most Canadian men) quite attractive, which never hurts.

As soon as I left it began to rain in earnest, and then it began to POUR. Cidell and I tried to visit the Musee des Beaux Arts, which has late opening on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, only the temporary exhibits are open during the late hours and we wanted to see the permanent collection. So we headed to Pullman for a glass of wine and some nibbles instead, and capped off our evening with gelato.

Thursday, 17 June

Since sun and rain were alternating days, Thursday was a day of sun. Yay!!! I returned to the Musee des Beaux Arts in the morning, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is free to visit the permanent collection. They have a wonderful little capsule collection of Impressionists, whom I love, and an excellent exhibit on Modern Art by artists from the Quebec province and Montreal in particular. There is also an exhibit of Contemporary Art; I must confess myself a cretin when it comes to Contemporary Art. I pretty much hate it all. Then I took the underground passage to the Decorative Arts exhibit, which has great furniture and glassware from the early 1900s through the present.

Not wanting to waste a beautiful day, I took the long metro ride out to the Jardin Botanique. I first stopped to take some photos of the 1976 Olympic Stadium, which is on the walk up from the Pie IX metro stop to the Botanical Garden.

Admission to the gardens is steep--$16 (though I got a small discount because the Insectarium was closed). But once inside I saw dozens of groundskeepers hard at work maintaining this huge and beautiful complex and realized that the admission price is actually a bargain. I had only about three hours to spend before the gardens closed, but you could easily make a day of it with a nice picnic lunch (there are restaurants on site, but I didn't see any prohibition on bringing your own food).

There is an amazing diversity of gardens--including a vegetable garden, poisonous plant garden (!!!!--I finally know what poison ivy looks like), First Nations Garden, medicinal garden, water gardens (I got to see cranberry plants! they are one of my favorite foods) etc. etc., but the real showpieces are the Japanese and Chinese gardens. I have been to many Japanese gardens, including in Tokyo, but never visited a Chinese garden before. It is gorgeous! The garden was built in China and then carefully disassembled and shipped to Montreal, where it was reassembled by the original Chinese designers and gardeners. It has water features, buildings, a Bonsai garden, and amazing views.

By this point I was pretty well exhausted. A free mini-train makes a loop around the property, the north half of which is a large arboretum. I didn't think I'd manage a tramp through the arboretum so I took the mini train for a bit of a view and a rest. I finished off at the spectacular series of greenhouses, which range from tropical to desert. I learned that bananas never ripen on the tree. Interesting!

For dinner I headed to vegetarian institution Le Commensal. There is a buffet of hot and cold foods (and dessert!). You fill your plate and pay by weight. I got a full (but not unreasonably so) plate and a bit of dessert and it was around $13. I went to the location on Rue Berri and found a secluded little table where I could observe the busy street without feeling exposed and self-conscious about eating alone and heartily enjoyed my food and the view.

Saturday, 19 June

Friday I was at my sewing conference, and went fabric shopping Saturday morning, but I snuck off to do one final bit of sightseeing on Saturday afternoon. I didn't want to miss the Oratoire Saint-Joseph, which was luckily located in the vicinity of U de M and the dorms.

I decided to save myself some time and rent a Bixi bike from the stand conveniently located at the dorm. There are tons of bike racks in the trendy and tourist areas (not so much in the working class areas), you pay $5 for 24 hour access, and can use the bikes for 30 minutes at a time. If you exceed 30 minutes, it's $1.50 for the next 30, $3 for the next 30, $6 for the next, etc. This is meant to be an extension of the public transit system and the rentals are for transportation, not leisure. DC has a similar but not as user friendly system called Smartbikes DC. The only way to use them is to pay a $40 annual membership and get a special card. On the flip side, you can keep a bike up to 24 hours (at which point you are charged a $550 replacement fee). The Bixi model is so much better! A person is much more likely to sign up for the program if they can test it out first on a 24 hours basis, and the Smartbike is no good for tourists who won't want to pay an entire annual membership.

Well, I really should have taken into account my inability to read maps or navigate! I got lost several times, each time involving bicycling up and down very large hills, and when I finally found the Oratoire I sailed past it down down down a large hill looking for a Bixi rack, couldn't find one, cycled back up up up the large hill and was afraid I was going to have to ride all the way back to the dorm to drop it off. Finally found a stand. Had I done all this smoothly with no getting lost and finding the stand immediately (it turns out at the stands where you rent the bike there is a map with all the stands in the vicinity clearly marked) it would have taken about 12 minutes. It took me about 50.

However, I had plenty of time to climb up to the oratory, visit Brother Andre's tomb and view the interior of the main chapel. There is a lovely garden with (I think) the stations of the cross, but it continued on uphill and my enthusiasm for hills had waned. Brother Andre, the founder, was known as a healer and many people seeking cures visit the Oratory. There is a large display of canes that have reportedly been left behind by the healed.

I walked over to the Cimetiere Notre Dame Des Neiges and just had a moment to pop my head in before it started raining. I raced back on the Bixi bike through the rain and managed to arrive back at the dorm before it really started to deluge.

Sunday, 20 June

I had just enough time before I needed to leave for the airport to take the metro to Mount Royal and ride a Bixi Bike over to the Mountain to try to catch the beginnings of the weekly Tam Tam festival. This time I was well and truly foiled by my inability to navigate. I picked up a bike at Parc La Fontaine and knew I needed to ride along Rue Rachel to get to the Mountain. So I rode and rode and rode and then eventually the Olympic Stadium came in view and I realized I'd gone several kilometers in the wrong direction. When I turned around I realized that I could clearly see the Mountain and the direction I should have gone. Oh well. I picked up a pain au chocolat to console myself and returned to the dorm to head back to the airport and come back home.

It was a wonderful visit and I hope to return someday and have a little more time to enjoy the city. All photos are here.

Montreal, June 2010: Accommodations and Food

Here is where I stayed and ate in Montreal!

Accommodations

As the Pattern Review Weekend activities were held on the campus of the Universite de Montreal it was recommended that we stay at Les Studios Hotel, a dorm that converts into a hotel in the summer. This option is not for everyone. The rooms are small, very small. My room was quite dusty/dirty and had an unpleasant dank smell (luckily the window could be opened and that took care of the smell). The bath is shared and there is only one toilet per sex per floor (10 rooms). The beds are rubber futon-style mattresses and the single plastic-coated pillow is rather small. Do NOT try to share one of these rooms. However, it was very cheap at $40/night (internet extra) and nicely situated at a five minute walk from either the Edouard-Monpetit or the Universite de Montreal metro stop.

Food



Poutine at La Banquise, a classic spot for a vegetarian version (rare) of this classic local specialty. $7.

Punjab Palace for cheap, metro accessible, perfectly-acceptable-but-nothing-to-write-home-about Indian food. $9.

Lola Rosa for mid-priced vegetarian fare in a quaint restaurant in a cool part of town with great service and good food. $12.

Premiere Moisson, a small chain of bakeries with locations at Atwater and Jean Talon markets. I don't particularly care for sandwiches, but their mozzarella and tomato on olive baguette was delicious. $8.

Pullman for wine and small plates. The giant olives were delicious and the goat cheese divine. The atmosphere is a little snooty and the prices are quite high. I didn't recognize any of labels on the by-the-glass list and there was no info on the varietal so I just had to guess. I could have asked but I didn't feel up to it in French (the staff spoke English and I'm sure would have helped with only a little attitude). I ended up with something cabernet-ish, which I don't particularly care for. It was good to feel civilized, though. $8 for a glass and around $5-8 per small plate.

Le Commensal for a huge variety of tasty vegetarian food at a pay-by-weight buffet. Had I eaten here earlier in the week I probably would have come back. $13.

Mid-Priced Eats in DC

So, I already gathered together a bunch of cheap eats. But what about somebody who has an income? I used to be that person. Then I took a new job at a pay cut of over 50% and got my life back. But I still have fond memories of the few times I was let out of my office to gather enough nourishment to get me through another 12 hour day.

Some restaurants appear on both the cheap eats list and the splurgey restaurants list. They're relatively cheap (in the cost/benefit sense) if you don't get drinks, appetizers, or desserts, and splurgey if you do the whole experience. So that's how I explain that little discrepancy away. I define splurgey as over $35/person, and cheap as under $25/person.

I am a vegetarian. I only eat at places where there's something more for me than bread and a plate of iceburg lettuce (hold the bacon dressing). There is a whole world of fancy restaurants out there to which I have never been and am never likely to go. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding recommendations for places at which you can eat large quantities of animal flesh in DC. All my recs are veggie-friendly, which is much harder to find in upscale. They are not exclusively vegetarian unless noted otherwise, so your dining companion who will allegedly drop dead if not fed morsels of dead animal at every meal will be fine. That said, these are *good* restaurants, not just veggie-friendly restaurants. Although these restaurants are splurgey for me, it's hard to spend a lot of money on a vegetarian meal, so most are going to be under $50/person if you're going meatless and getting a glass of wine rather than a bottle. Check out the links to the restaurants to see menus; most list prices.

If you are a gastronome who can drop upwards of $250 per person and just want to go straight to the top, you don't really need my help but FYI Washington's two creme de la creme restaurants are Michel Richard Citronelle and CityZen. If you would like to experience either of these restaurants on a weekend, you must book several months in advance. You *might* be able to get a weekday table at an undesirable time within the month, but call as soon as you plan your trip. Michel Richard has established a chef's table at Citronelle which puts you in the kitchen on a tasting course of his choosing (from my understanding) at a prix fixe of hundreds of dollars per person. You probably have to book it a couple of years in advance. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration...but only slight.


Restaurant Week

There is a thing in Washington called "Restaurant Week." And it is good. During Restaurant Week, which occurs twice a year (February and August), participating restaurants offer prix fixe three course lunches or dinners for $20.0x or $30.0x respectively, x being the year. So last year it was $20.08/$30.08. This is a really great way to experience upscale restaurant dining without the major price tag. You're not *really* going to get out for that price, of course. DC restaurant tax is 10%, then there's a 20% tip (stop whining and just do it). If you order a glass of wine that's $8 or so. Some restaurants will offer the entire menu with a supplemental charge of $2 or $3 for more expensive dishes. But you'll still do better than $50 for a dinner that can cost twice that much under normal circumstances. Before you decide on a restaurant week location, though, be sure to browse through the regular menu. Some places it would be hard to put together a meal, especially a vegetarian one, costing $30 from the regular menu and restaurant week actually ups the price!

Reserve in advance if you're planning to do restaurant week. Most of the fancier restaurants participate in Open Table which makes reservations easy and painless to make online. Open Table operates year-round, not just during RW and I recommend it for making reservations. If there aren't any reservations left for RW check the restaurant's website--many restaurants now extend Restaurant Week beyond the official designated week. Most extend to the next week to do a two week stint, but Dino, for instance, did Restaurant Month for the whole of January.

Some restaurants cheap out during restaurant week. I tried Galileo (which is closed right now for renovation) during two separate restaurant weeks and was disappointed both time. The portions were teensy and the staff surly. Many people had the same complaint. I won't be returning.

Where I have only tried the restaurants below during restaurant week it is duly noted. It's probably safe to assume that it can only get better during the regularly scheduled program.

And now, the restaurants

Penn Quarter/Chinatown/Metro Center/The Mall
http://www.finemondo.com/ is one of my favorite restaurants in the city. It's a place where everybody knows my name. OK, not really, but there is zero staff turnover and you get recognized after a couple of visits. That's a really nice feeling. Start with the finocchio (fennel) soup in the winter, the insalata finemondo (avocado, tomatoes, and fresh mozarella) in summer. Move on to the gnocchi with asparagus and fava beans. Finish with the chocolate hazelnut cake. You can actually order anything off the menu and it will be sensational, but those are some of my favorites. My only teeny tiny complaint is that the by-the-glass menu is a little limited. If you're getting a bottle of white, my favorite is the Soave.

A Jose Andres creation, Jaleo brought tapas to DC, and continues to serve it up better than anyplace else. The small plates are divine and you'll want the server to keep 'em coming. I love the spinach sauteed with raisins and apples, the endive and goat cheese salad, the chickpea stew, the tuscarora mushrooms, and well, everything on the menu. The white sangria is nice, if they're serving it up. My only gripe with Jaleo is that the bar is teeny-weeny, way too small for a restaurant of that size and popularity. Reservations are not accepted so you'll be waiting in the cramped bar for quite a while at the weekend for a table. At lunch or dinners early in the week this won't be a problem. The Jaleos in Crystal City and Bethesda probably have larger bars, though are not likely to be less crowded.

Zaytinya offers more small plates from Jose Andres. If the squash blossoms are on special you must order them; they are stuffed with a mild feta cheese and I wish zucchini tasted as good as its blossoms. Everything is divine, although they changed the recipe for the Santorini fava recently and I don't like the new iteration as much. The old version had raw shallots, now the shallots are caramelized. It's more civilized on the breath but less bracing on the tongue. You must, absolutely must, get the potatoes fried in olive oil topped with yogurt (aka fries). The cabbage dolmades are not good, but they are literally the ONLY thing I've had there that I didn't love. The apricot yogurt dessert is not to be missed, and the sesame seeds sprinkled on the chocolate dessert are intriguing.

Tosca is another Italian place on F Street, three blocks from Finemondo. It is slightly fancier, a bit more expensive (both of which add up to less veggie friendly), and certainly more intimate with a much smaller dining room than Finemondo. It is located in the building where I used to work the aforementioned 12 hour days so I hyperventilate a little when I walk in, but the food is worth a little hyperventilation.

Zola doesn't have a lot of exciting vegetarian options; it resorts to the old pasta stand-by which is perfectly good but not, well, exciting. Apparently the burgers are very good so this is a nice place to take your meat-eating companion where they can have their meal and you won't be served a plate of iceberg lettuce with carrot shavings. The atmosphere is fun and funky and the cocktails are excellent. The server will thoughtfully provide you with a black napkin if you're wearing dark clothes. The desserts are good. I like the chocolate peanut butter one (but I'm a sucker for that combo). Zola is in the Spy Museum building, an easy walk up from the Mall around the National Gallery of Art-ish, and directly across the street from the Portrait Gallery. I love to do cocktails in the bar.

Rasika is upscale Indian street food. No danger of Delhi Belly here! The portions are delicate and the food delicious. I've only been for the pre-theater dinner special (prix fixe around $25 before 6:30 pm), but want to go back someday to try the full menu. Its D Street location makes it an easier walk from the Mall than most Penn Quarter restaurants, which are concentrated on F Street for the most part.

TenPenh is located at Tenth and Penn (note the clever pun of the name). This Thai restaurant serves up plenty of heat, though you can ask them to tone it down. The desserts are not to be missed, especially with a glass of sparkling wine. The dining room and bar are very well done; you'll feel much further from the dusty paths and hordes of tourists on the Mall than you really are. It's nice to feel civilized.

Indebleu is getting a provisional mention. The concept is French-Indian fusion, and when it opened I was quite excited about it. French food is not just veggie-unfriendly, it is veggie-hostile. Indian food, of course, has a long tradition of vegetarianism. I thought the two might tone each other down--Indian a little less earthy, French a little less involving the parts of 12 different animals in each dish. Unfortunately, the original menu had virtually nothing vegetarian on it, the prices were ridiculous, and the portions were minuscule. After our meal there, all three of us (small women) went home and had dinner as what we got there for $60/person amounted to a small nibble of appetizers. The menu has now been revamped and is a little more veggie friendly, but I have not been back yet. One of Indebleu's strengths is its cocktail menu; it's in the form of the metro map, with each line representing a different liquor. The drinks are as fun to drink as they are to order.

Convention Center
Vegetate is owned by an African-American couple doing their part to revitalize Shaw, my neighborhood. They chose to open their upscale vegetarian restaurant on a street that is not (yet) upscale. It's an easy walk from the Convention Center. The streets are "urban" and "mixed income" but it is safe--I walk through my neighborhood every day and I love living there. If you're not from an urban area you might feel more comfortable taking a cab. Vegetate's menu changes often according to what is seasonably available. This is the only fancy vegetarian restaurant in the area (there are other veggie restaurants but they concentrate more on food than atmosphere), and makes for a great meal with a nice experience.

Farragut Area
The K Street corridor is very 9-5 (well, this being Washington more like 9-8) and most of the restaurants cater to the power lunch or intern lunch crowd. There are a few sit-down gems, though, and among them is Vidalia. Vidalia's concept is upscale Southern cooking. I have only been during Restaurant Week, but they get a mention for always having a vegetarian option during RW. It's generally an unimaginative not-super-tasty rice pilaf, but they still get an A for effort. The sides and dessert are always amazing, so I suspect they can do much better than that off the regular menu.

Georgetown
I don't care for Georgetown and don't spend any time there, but I did have a memorable meal at Cafe Milano. This Italian restaurant is known more for its nightly parade of political celebrities than for its food, but they wouldn't all go there if it was terrible. I really enjoyed everything I had there. My taste buds *might* have been impaired by all the pre-dinner cocktails and during-dinner wine I had, but my palate is so discerning that no amount of alcohol...oh never mind.

If you absolutely must have dinner on the Waterfront, Sequoia isn't as bad as it could be. I was, in fact, pleasantly surprised at the pasta dish I got when taken there by a date. The draw is the view so I expected a frozen dinner brought to me still in the cardboard tray. The food is at least one step up from that. The crowd skews young and scantily clad.

I like Neyla in Georgetown, though my opinion is not universally shared. The middle eastern food (it doesn't seem confined to a single cuisine) is quite good, and if it's nice eating outside is a lovely option. It's a little out of the major hustle and bustle, which I like.

DuPont Circle
One of Washington's favorite places for sushi is Sushi Taro, which is closed for renovation until early March 2009. The location above a CVS isn't auspicious, but once you enter the dining room you'll forget that you're sitting on top of the hair care aisle. The menu offers plenty besides sushi. I got the seaweed salad, an avocado roll, and the tempura vegetables. I wouldn't recommend the tempura vegetables, but that's more the nature of tempura--it cools too quickly to be good for longer than a few minutes. I wished I had ordered two seaweed salads, though. It was delish. In the spirit of Japanese hospitality, the server will bring you a complimentary[CHECK] amuse bouche. I didn't know how much I wanted some miso soup until she brought it to me. The door is to the left of the CVS on 17th St and looks almost like a delivery entrance--don't miss it! You must climb the stairs to get to the dining room, so it's not for the mobility impaired.

Sette Osteria was conceived as a more affordable answer to Sette Bello in Northern Virginia. I haven't been to Sette Bello, but I love Sette Osteria. This casual Italian restaurant has excellent pizza from a wood burning oven as well as a variety of pasta and meat dishes and great wines by the bottle. If it's nice, get a table outside and enjoy the people watching in DuPont Circle.

Cleveland Park
Dino is at the Cleveland Park metro stop, so it's easy to pop onto the train and head out there even if you have no other reason to be in Cleveland Park. This Italian restaurant is in a strip mall, but does not suffer from strip mall blandness in decor, menu, food, wine list, or anything else. All the food is exquisitely prepared, and the owner prides himself on the extensive wine list with affordable bottles. If the strawberry-rhubarb shortcake is on the dessert menu, order it. Maybe as an appetizer and then again as dessert. As mentioned above, Dino extends restaurant week throughout the entire month. There was no vegetarian entree option on the RW menu, and they made me up an amazing plate anyway at no extra charge.

Woodley Park
Lebanese Taverna isn't quite a splurge, but it's not quite cheap either so I'll include it on this list. This local chain (with lots more locations) serves up consistently good Lebanese food in a great variety. The small plates are great for sharing with the table, and they have full plates for those who don't enjoy the communal food experience. The green beans are really, really good. The Taverna is located across the street from the metro stop, so it's a good last stop in Woodley for dinner after a visit to the zoo; it's a convivial and somewhat noisy place and therefore pretty kid-friendly.

Capitol Hill
Sonoma, a few blocks from the Capitol and a pretty quick walk from the Capitol South stop, brought California cuisine (and wine!) to DC. Start with a cheese plate or charcuterie, or end with the cheese plate if you're more European. Just don't miss the cheese plate. You can order 3, 6, or 9 cheeses and various accompaniments. You can order bottles of course, but Sonoma's space-agey wine preservation system allows them to offer many varieties by the glass. I'm sure your server can recommend wine pairings for your courses. I like the pizza, but they have a variety of entrees to choose from. The restaurant is easy to miss because the sign is just its name frosted into the glass above the door (this sort of thing drives me crazy). Check the address and look closely.

Crystal CityBebo Trattoria was opened by Roberto Donna as a more casual addition to his empire, the flagship of which is Galileo (I already gave my opinion on this one), and the flagship within Galileo is the Laboratorio--a chef's table. Bebo's space in Crystal City used to be occupied by Jose Andres's Oyamel, which has since moved to 7th and E. Because it's outside the District, the dining room is much bigger than your average DC restaurant, which I assume makes it a little easier to get a table. I've only eaten from the bar menu, but the food was great and the wine selection excellent. The service here is notoriously bad and my experience was no exception (one bartender alleged there was no bar menu when we knew there was one and finally another bartender gave us one; super super slow). If you're willing to trade good food at more affordable prices for bad service, I recommend a visit.

My wish list
There are a few restaurants I haven't been to that have been on my list to get to eventually. Some opened after I had already left the lucrative job, some I just didn't get around to before leaving. If you would like to make my dreams come true, please leave a comment. :-P If you try them for yourself, leave a comment to let me know how it was!

Restaurant Eve (Old Town Alexandria) is the brainchild of new critical darling Cathal Armstrong. Within the restaurant is the tasting room, which does multi-course meals (ten-ish I believe) of whatever tickles the chef's fancy that day. Apparently, if you call ahead they will do a vegetarian tasting menu. In the dining room, the birthday cake dessert is supposed to be fabulous. Armstrong also runs Eamonn's Dublin Chipper, a fish and chips place. Do NOT go there if you are vegetarian, as the fish and chips are fried in the same oil and there is literally nothing for you (i.e., me) to eat. If you eat fish it is supposed to be fantastic.

Cafe Atlantico Minibar (Penn Quarter) is another tasting experience, this one of the gastro-chemistry variety. The most famous (notorious?) item is probably the foie gras cotton candy. I wouldn't have this of course, but Jose Andres also says he will do a vegetarian tasting menu with advance notice. You have to give advance notice anyway--the minibar is usually booked up for months. Call far ahead of when you'd like to do it; I believe they open the reservation book two months in advance and you pretty much have to call the day the reservation becomes available to get it. Minibar is located in Cafe Atlantico. This is the only Jose Andres restaurant I don't particularly care for. It's Mexican-ish food, but I am not wowed by it. Maybe the meat dishes are better than the one veggie option on the menu. The tableside-prepared guacamole is good, though.

Restaurant Nora is a certified organic restaurant. It's quite expensive and not as veggie friendly as you'd expect a certified organic restaurant to be. I'd like to try it someday, but the price tag and limited veggie options have put me off so far.

I haven't yet been to Heritage India (Upper Georgetown/Cathedral area) more because of location than price. The only way to get to upper Georgetown is to drive or take the bus. I hate driving anyway, and I really hate not to be able to enjoy a glass of wine with my meal because I've driven. The 30 buses are fine, but buses are always few and far between at night. There are always cabs, of course, but getting into a cab to me equals getting into a car with a man I don't know who probably has nothing to lose. I really don't like taking cabs. However, it is reputed to be the best Indian in town with a lovely atmosphere and I'll bite the bullet and get out there someday.

Central, pronounced the French way, is the less expensive sister restaurant (sound familiar? this is a very popular thing among DC star chefs right now) of Michel Richard Citronelle, arguably DC's premier restaurant, and unquestionably one of its fanciest. Citronelle is not only stratospherically out of my price range, it is also French. We have already established the veggie-hostility of French food so really, there would be no point in me going to Citronelle. I would perhaps someday like to go have dessert at the bar because Michel Richard is a pastry chef by training and I hear the desserts are out of this world. Anyway, Central is closer to my price range and hell, it's Michel Richard, DC's honest to god French chef. Incidentally, if you know a little of Michel Richard's life story it makes you want to try his food even more. He was completely neglected as a child and was sent out to work around age 9. He didn't go to culinary school, but learned the art of food through apprenticeship. Now he lives a big cushy life as a celebrity chef, though a chef's life with its brutal hours and non-stop physical exertion cannot really be called cushy, but he was not to the manner born. He's the quintessentially French chef with the quintessentially American success story.

Vegetarian Buddhist Nirvana and Fountain Friends, Thursday 27 March 2008

I had a very brief awakening around 4 but went right back to sleep. I am finally adjusting to the time! The anti-malarial dreams are starting to kick in, though. I haven't had an apocalyptic dream in years (I was raised in a household that believed very much in the apocalypse and the dreams plagued for years and years, even after I moved out) but I dreamt of a reprise of Noah's flood. I was trying to decide to which of two cabins in which I had a share to flee. Also, the anti-malarials apparently bring references from the TV show Friends to all my dreams. Odd.

I had my yogurt, fruit, and bread for breakfast. Yay for yummy breakfast! I hadn't scheduled myself to give any presentations on the last half day, because when the trip was first planned the e-commerce seminar was set to overlap. However, they rescheduled the e-commerce seminar to accommodate me and I had an easy morning. Lunch was more marigolds. These had the flowers included, which I hadn't had before. They were a little like the tender inner leaves of an artichoke.

The minibus on the ride back was a tad rickety and I feared for its power of forward motion, but we arrived without incident. J and S were going back to the Renaissance Riverside hotel, and I was checking into the Majestic Hotel as it was my conference location. It was quite nice, with a complimentary fruit bowl and water. The lovely wooden floors did rather accentuate the endless tapping of high heels above me (I later learned I was below the ballroom, which was being prepped, I can only assume for a wedding). The bathroom was hilariously opulent.

I emailed J and S, as we had planned to go to the market together. Two hours later they still hadn't responded so I set off on my own. The market's location seems evident on the map, but I couldn't quite triangulate myself to the right location. I kept wandering down shady looking (but well-populated) streets that smelled of either sour milk or urine. I later learned that the renownedly stinky durian fruit is experienced by some as sour milk, so that mystery was cleared up. I willed myself, with some success, not to feel uncomfortable. I live in a neighborhood that an outsider might find uncomfortable, but it is not actually dangerous and I just assumed it was the same in Vietnam.

I finally oriented myself to the circle and realized I had to cross it. Here's how you cross the street: you just do it. The traffic never stops, not even for red lights. They will swerve around you (usually), but they won't stop. So you just step out into the road into oncoming traffic. Seriously, without even getting hit it really diminishes your life expectancy because of the sheer strain on your heart. By this time, the market proper was closing so only the outdoor stalls of knockoffs and such were open. I had noticed some purses covered in fabric roses in shop windows. I found one on the street and the asking prices was 100.000 Dong. I talked the girl down to 50.000, around $3.50. I wasn't sure whether this was good or bad, but later I checked out prices on the purses and they were 100.000 everywhere, so think my first bargaining experience was successful.

I also found an alley of food markets, which was full of locals. Here is where they hide all the vegetables! There was also much meat. There were no beans anywhere. They appear just not to be eaten here. I really don't think I could live in Vietnam because I freaking love beans. They are a vegetarian's best friend--a low fat, high fiber source of protein. Well, with that nutrition profile they should be everyone's best friend. As to the side effects, your body's enzyme balance quickly adjusts if you eat a lot of them and they have no ill effects on my digestion system whatsoever.

I had to re-cross the circle to get to the Tin Nghia (Buddhist) Vegetarian Restaurant. I took a break in the park that wedges into the circle, where some sort of aerobics was going on. But it just involved holding your arms above your head and waving them in time to clubby music, and then making a quarter turn and doing the same thing. There were a lot of people participating, but then they all sort of realized that there was not going to be any more to it than the waving of the arms (I, too, kept waiting for the dance portion to kick in) and people started to drop out.

The restaurant is the epitome of a hole-in-the-wall, literally. While it has a metal grate they can close at night, it does not have a wall for a door facing the street. I ordered a spring roll, stir fried mushrooms and snow peas (the latter were DIVINE), and mushrooms and wheat gluten in pepper sauce--actual spicy food! woot!, rice, and a large water. I'm sure this was more food than one person should politely order, but I'd been starving in the provinces all week! I was finally full and only felt semi-gross about it. The total was around 50.000.

I walked back to the hotel along Dong Khoi. I stopped at the little strip of park with a fountain in front of the opera house. It was kid central and the sellers of balloon animals on sticks were cleaning up. I sat at the fountain, which I later noticed was one of those abstract family sculpture things, just enjoying it.

A woman sat next to me and we had a nice conversation. Her English was impressive, though I sometimes had a hard time with her her pronunciation. She asked me if I was married, of course. We turned out to be around the same age. It was a very pleasant encounter. I think she invited me back to her home, but (1) I couldn't really tell, and (2) it felt weird. Thinking back on it, I can see that if I ran across a French speaking tourist in DC who was helping me practice French and seemed nice and normal I might invite her home so I guess it's not that weird. She let me take pictures of her daughter, who loved seeing herself on the camera.

I stopped into a store with this really cool pleated gingham silk skirts. The pleats were gathered so that the yoke of the skirt appeared to be solid and then opened out from there, similar in concept to Vogue 8353. I asked the price and was told "Ninety-five." Only later did I realize this was in USD and was glad they hadn't had my size.

I sat in the hotel lobby and had a "Happy Saigon," some sort of fruity cocktail, while prepping for my conference the next day. A hilariously mournful jazz band played and Russians sat next to me. I was so caught up in it all that I accidentally went to bed late.


You can see all the photos of Saigon, and all photos from this trip if you'd like.

Houses on Stilts and a Bride in a Box, Wednesday 26 March 2008

I woke at 4 and took a melatonin, but it didn't help this time. I laid there for a couple of hours, then got up and did some yoga. A rooster began to crow and workmen began to bang but somehow I fell asleep again.

I brought a yogurt and dragonfruit down to breakfast and was so much happier than I had been with the greasy runny eggs!

The morning program went smoothly, and at lunch we got the Vietnamese food rather than the "special" Western meal. I had tofu and rice to go with my marigolds this time, and it was much better.

During the siesta period we went to the market area to get S some shirts. We had all packed for business attire, but when we got to the conference they told us it would be business casual! I was all set because I could just throw a jacket over the dresses I'd brought for the tourist portion of the trip, and J (the male co-worker) is a casual dresser and I don't think brought any suits anyway. But S had only long sleeve shirts and was dying.

Judging by the fact that this was among the three questions *everyone* asked of me, being married is a huge part of Vietnamese culture. And therefore *getting* married is a big deal and big business in Vietnam. There are bridal stores everywhere and elaborate weddings every night of the week. My first night in HCMC I walked by a restaurant that was having a wedding during the processional. I didn't get to see the bride, but she was preceded by two flower girls in white dresses wearing silver angel wings and tossing white flower petals as they went. The weddings are westernized, but not wholly western. The bridesmaids all seem to wear white, for instance. This confused me the first time I walked by a restaurant with eight "brides" standing outside to greet the guests! I finally figured out these had to be the bridesmaids. Anyway, the bridal stores have these freestanding plexiglass cubes out on the sidewalks that hold a mannequin wearing an elaborate dress to advertise the store. Even though the mannequins are obviously not real people, it still weirded me out somehow to think of a person in a plexiglass box slowly suffocating. I was hoping to get a picture of one, but alas once I was *looking* for one I didn't see any more.

After lunch, unfortunately there was no participation in the practicum I was teaching. It's hard to get people motivated after lunch, no matter what culture you're in! I did a unit on consumer education, which was a little more successful because I passed out consumer ed tchotchkes so people had stuff to play with to help them keep awake. The swag was a huge hit.

We finished the day's session at 5, and were to meet at 6:30 for dinner, so J, S, and I headed down to the river. Although I had gone on the boat tour the first night and been to the waterside restaurant the night before, somehow I had missed the coolest part of the river which was the houses--well, shacks really--built on stilts on the opposite bank. Very photo-oppy. The little kids all stared and said, "Hello!"





We walked along the bank and saw a ferry loading to take people home at the end of their day.












The boats gliding through the river saw their way with eyes painted on the prows.







We crossed the bridge at rush hour just for the death-defyingness of it, and watched a little boy launch a kite from his balcony. It took many tries, but he was persistent and eventually got it up into the air.




Finally, we watched the sun go down over the colonial decay of this French-style building.

At the restaurant, same as the night before, I just wanted stir-fried vegetables and rice rather than the feast that had been ordered for me the night before. Which I got. It was perfect. They also ordered some fried dough in the shape of mushrooms; it was a little sweet and quite good. There is nothing bad about fried dough.

The translator guy sat next to me and was kind of like a really good boyfriend, making my life easier in a totally unobtrusive way by making sure I had the food I'd ordered, my water glass stayed full, that sort of thing. I could get used to that!

There were 11 of us at dinner and it was really nice to socialize with our Vietnamese colleagues. I'd been feeling like we had been missing out on the most rewarding cultural exchange part of the trip, based on what people had described from past experiences of late night karaoke and learning a few of one another's words. We had been pretty segregated for the most part and that had disappointed me.

I was less ready to drop into oblivion at 9 on the dot. I think the day before had been the worst of the jet lag. Day 3 is always the worst jet lag for me, no matter where I am or how much the lag.

You can see all the photos of the Mekong Delta, and all photos from this trip if you'd like.

Time to Work, and a Visit to the (Super)Market, Tuesday 25 March 2008

I woke around 3, but a melatonin put me back to sleep. Don't even tell me it's a placebo because it's a placebo that works! My dreams were vivid, but not noteworthy. So far no anti-malarial nightmares, which was a huge relief. I am very lucky not to have many nightmares, but my dreams are very vivid and realistic so when I do have nightmares they are *terrifying.*

For breakfast we had the choice of meat-ful pho or runny fried egg. And I do mean fried. I think they were deep fried. Puke. I ate as much of the white as I could choke down plus a baguette-ish roll. I am going to be hungry yet gain weight on this trip. I asked for fruit, but it is only for dessert in Vietnam. I was told that I could go to a store at lunch.

The conference center was nice; the meeting room looked like a chapel with elaborately carved wooden chairs and quite convincing silk flower arrangements everywhere. Ho Chi Minh presided. At tea break I ate a sickly sweet roll because I knew I had to (based on my food experiences so far), plus 1 1/2 mangoes. Yay fruit!

At lunch the Westerners were served grayish-green hot dogs and fried potatoes. Double puke. Eventually we got the same Vietnamese food everyone else was having, including some stir fried marigold greens. I ate greens. I felt bad seeming like such a sourpuss for just eating greens, but I just can't eat meat. It will make me sick at this point, as it's been 15 years.

After lunch the translator guy took me to buy fruit. I assumed we'd go to one of the many stands selling the most beautiful looking fresh fruit but no, we cabbed to a supermarket at the edge of town. It's funny, I think this is always our instincts with tourists, to provide them with what we think is familiar to them rather than the local experience they crave. The produce did not look great and the stickers indicated it had been imported from Australia. I got oranges, tangerines, grapes, strawberries, and some sort of Laughing Cow-type soft cheese spread triangles and yogurt. There was no dragonfruit, which was the one thing I really wanted! I asked the translator if the dairy was pastuerized, but this was beyond his vocabulary and experience. He went off to find me a small folding knife and I paid. The cash register screen showed my change as 2000 some VND. The cashier gave me 500. I pointed to the screen and she swapped my 500 for 600. Hmph. We're talking a few cents here, but it irked me.

We got back barely in time for the afternoon session. I felt bad because Vietnamese generally have a long lunch with a siesta and he got no rest because of ferrying me around.

My first presentation was in the afternoon, the dryest one I was to give *and* the last presentation of a long day. But amazingly people were engaged and asked a ton of questions. I had whipped out a few of my Vietnamese phrases earlier in the day and I think people really liked me for it. I'm sure I was their favorite. `-)




After the day was over we went to the market. It was the same as any market in a poorer country--not rich handicrafts drawn from millenia of tradition, but cheap plastic crap from China, just acres of it. I spotted a fruit stand, where I got some dragonfruit. Yay!






We also spotted some beautiful, huge, waxy red flowers at the flower stand. The flowers were about 10 inches in diameter and the petals radiated from a central cone. The stems were about 3 1/2 feet tall. We got three of them at a dollar each and J and I shared custody.

As we were leaving a spotted a fabric stall. Yum. I couldn't resist. I got two meters of orange polka dot cotton batiste swiss dot. It is so cute! It was $2/meter.



Then we were off to a waterfront restaurant for a sunset dinner (that's the view from the table). I was ordered stir fried marigolds, tofu, and stir fried vegetables. It was a lot of food. It was as good as it could have been--though some chili heat would not have been amiss--but I just didn't like it. It was greasy, and if I'm having greasy food the grease better be coming from cheese. Otherwise I just wanted steamed or roasted vegetables. I ate it and smiled, of course! I wouldn't dream of appearing ungrateful for effort put out on my behalf.

There were tons of tiny geckos along the outside of the frosted glass upper windows. Only on the outside and only on the frosted glass. Funny.

You can see all the photos of the Mekong Delta, and all photos from this trip if you'd like.

The Mekong Delta in Half a Night, Monday 24 March Cont.

The minibus had a/c and the ride took less than two hours. I expected some picturesque countryside but it is suburban strip mall the whole way. Not the Old Navy and Home Depot and Target strip mall that is now all of America, but still not so exciting.

In the center median was a marsh with gorgeous purple water lilies in bloom. I couldn't get a picture of any until nighttime when the flowers were closed, but you'll have to take my word on it that they were pretty. We passed some cultivated water fields of some sort--rice, fish, I don't know. We saw some cows, and they looked pretty fat and happy. They are smaller and leaner than our cows, but in a good way, like their DNA hasn't been contorted for a preference for one cut or the other.

I enjoyed talking to J, and I tried out the words I had painstakingly learned from the Pimsleur tape on one of our translators. He said my accent was very good. I'm pretty sure that was mere politeness (and a little bit of a crush) on his part, but I felt good nevertheless.

We arrived in My Tho city in the Tien Giang province. The hotel was state run. I assumed that it was just a cheap alternative to a commercial Western-style hotel, but I later learned that it is a great honor to stay at a People's Committee Guesthouse. Only high ranking party members and honored foreign guests are permitted. It was still under construction, which appeared to require a great deal of vigorous banging on water pipes, and had a smell I found...unpleasant. To put it politely and mildly.

We checked in and somebody carried my heavy ridiculous suitcase up the stairs for me. I was simultaneously relieved and guilty. I had packed for two weeks and three completely different trips--work, pleasure, and a wedding on the way home and I just had so much stuff. It was insane. I'm never traveling with a suitcase that big again.

We had 30 minutes to unpack and refresh before our tour of the Mekong Delta. We piled into a minivan cab and drove all of 1 km to the river. It would have taken less time to walk there than it took us to wait for the cab! At the pier there were tall pikes sticking up, and kids were jumping off them to make spectacular splashes. They were so cute! I think often this kind of spectacle is put on for tourists for tips, but there hadn't been any other tourists around when we arrived and they didn't ask for tips so I think it was just for the sheer joy of it.

We got into our riverboat and headed out into the Mekong. Our first stop was Unicorn Island. It's a well-touristed island but people really actually live and make their living there, so it was kind of the best of both worlds.

We went first to the honey place, where we were invited to hold up a screen of bees, as demonstrated by the apiarist. I declined, though they were quite calm. My parents used to keep bees when I was a kid. There is nothing like fresh honey eaten off the comb. We sat at little tables and had tea with honey and the juice of tiny limes the size of kumquats. It was delicious. We also had coconut candy, candied lotus flowers, candied ginger, dried banana, and peanut candy. All of them were great. The men were offered banana wine to increase their male potency. J and I insisted on having some too. I don't know about male potency, but it was quite potent. It was like drinking sweet mouthwash. I bought some coconut candy, which was wrapped first in clear edible rice paper and then wax paper. It was pretty greasy.

We left the honey place and walked along the path to the fruit place. We had dragonfruit, pineapple, and little things the size of large grapes and the texture of tapioca pearls with a big stone in the middle to be peeled and eaten. I think maybe they were called may apples? In Vietnam, fruit is eaten with toothpicks and served with a (dry) mixture of salt and hot pepper that you squeeze a lime over and then dip your fruit into. It is so good. I never would have thought of it, but what is not to love about fruit, salt, and heat? I love all of those things. While we are busy eating the fruit we are mostly left to ourselves, except one very curious young girl. She LOVED digital cameras, because you could take a picture of her and then she could see herself.

There was traditional singing accompanied by two-stringed instruments. The adorable four year old girl who loves to have her picture taken sang first, then four women sang. The men played the instruments. There was a girl of around 8-10 "backstage" (behind the picnic tables where the singing was) but she didn't participate. I wonder if she used to be the adorable one and how she feels about it now. Somehow, as the oldest child, I really identified with her. Of course, maybe she is just shy and didn't want to sing! The women didn't wear full ao dai, but fitted shirt with raglan sleeves that are similar to the ao dai. They were cute.

Next we got into canoes and were rowed down the canals. Mostly women did the rowing. The woman rowing at the front of our canoe sat with her feet tucked under her on one side and was incredibly strong and fast.



It was very dreamy and surreal to be riding through the canoe at dusk with bats criscrossing the water, reeds on either side, and palm fronds dipping into the waves. I felt like I was in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. It's funny how a new reality feels less real than a familiar fake world!

We got back onto the riverboat and were given green coconuts with straws. I was saddened to discover that while I love coconut, I don't really care for green coconut milk. The coconuts were in honor of our next stop, Dragon Island, home of the Coconut Monk. He started his own religioun after subsisting solely on coconuts (possibly) for 3 years (or 10). As with any good eccentric, lots of stories circulated and it was impossible know which was true. During the American war his sect was quite popular, as being a monk excused you from conscription. After the war all the followers drifted off and the religion trailed to an end.

He had spent his last years building for himself a fantastic mosaic funerary urn, at least 10 feet tall. The (new) government decided he couldn't be buried in it, though. I didn't ask where his body was instead, but I was curious. It was full dark by now so we couldn't really get the full feel for it, but I love it. It's huge and gaudy. There were also nine dragon towers on what felt like a basketball court, one male and (natch) his eight wives.

Then we were back to the mainland and dinner at the hotel. There was a hotpot of fish and a plate of fish. I got an egg and fried potatoes. This was not at all good and will make me fat. If I'm going to get fat I want it to be off cheese and ice cream! I dipped a potato into what I thought was a chili sauce. Oh dear! I discovered the source of the hotel's unpleasant (to me) smell. Vietnamese fish sauce is not my cup of tea, to say the least.

Jet lag was catching up with me and I was quiet at dinner. After dinner I had a shower and ran out of hot water halfway through. Bummer. It took me several days to figure out the hot water heater situation. I was asleep in a heartbeat!

You can see all the photos of the Mekong Delta, and all photos from this trip if you'd like.

Ho Chi Minh City in Half a Day, Monday 24 March 2008

My coworkers S and J had arrived the previous night so we arranged to meet in the lobby at 9 for breakfast. I woke at 6 and couldn't go back to sleep. I did some yoga. Obvs, I was desperate. It helped me relax, but I still couldn't sleep.

I got up and ate the fruit that had been left in my room as a welcome. There were some tiny bananas and tiny tangerines. Both were delish. I dressed and met S and J in the lobby. They wanted to do the hotel breakfast, which is so not my style ($20!!!). I told them there were plenty of Western style coffee shops on the Dong Khoi right outside our hotel (Starbucks, Gloria Jean's) but they didn't seem interested. Oh well. I knew it would be a substantial breakfast, at least. I had an omelet, baked beans, hash browns, and some unusual fruit that was white fleshed with little black seeds that looked like kiwi seeds except for evenly dispersed. It seemed a little like a melon. (I later realized I'd had my first dragonfruit, which was my favorite new fruit of the trip.) I also had some orange fruit that I thought would be mango but I think it was passionfruit.

We headed out for sightseeing and hit the Opera house first and then on to the People's Committee Building, which is the city hall of HCMC. It is a very elaborate wedding cake style and the small grounds are quite lovely and well-manicured. I guess something is always blooming at the equator, but it sure looked like Spring here. I was missing the cherry blossoms in DC, so I had to enjoy all the flowers I could!

Next we went to the Mariamman Hindu Temple. Even from the outside it is fantastic--bright and colorful like children's blocks. My savvy traveler ego was again wounded when I had incense shoved in one hand and a flower bracelet placed on the other. Normally I am so good at Tourist Defensive Maneuvers, but Asia is getting the better of me. The key, I later realized, is to have both hands full--map in one, camera in the other. Then there are no hands in which to shove unwanted souvenirs. The goddess honored by the temple offers fertility and love, so I waved the incense around, hoping for both. It actually took a little work to get accosted by whomever had shoved the incense in my hand but I gave her 25,000 VND or whatever and moved on.

We walked over in the direction of the post office and the Catholic cathedral and stopped for some cold drinks. It was a hot day. I was drinking my bottled water when I spotted an HSBC bank across the street. I tried my ATM card there, and thank goodness it worked! Every time I got cash I had to try two ATMs. A lot of the banks are not on the international network. So if your card doesn't work don't panic! Just find another ATM.




The Notre Dame Cathedral closed its doors just as we got there (I can't believe this was merely coincidence!). It's quite large and looming, but somehow its placement on a busy traffic circle seems not quite right, especially since you have to cross the traffic circle to get to the statue of Mary and the little gardens.




The Post Office has great tropical colonial architecture, with a high arched ceiling that makes it look like a train station. But I felt very Western-centric for liking it and being impressed. It's a very Western building and I was there to appreciate Eastern traditions and sensibilities. Well, really I was there to work, but you know what I mean.

It was time to go back to the hotel where we needed to check out. We regrouped for lunch. S wanted to go to a restaurant with air conditioning, but all of the "nice" Vietnamese restaurants were quite expensive. We went to Gilray across from the Opera, a diner-type restaurant with a mish-mash menue. I got the only vegetarian item on the menu, the Spaghetti Napoletana, which was surprisingly quite good. The noodles were perfectly al dente and topped with a tangy tomato sauce, bell peppers, and possibly zucchini. With a bottle of water it was about 100,000 VND ($6). The pastries looked delicious, but as I had just eaten a whole plate of simple carbs I figured I should pass.

Back at the hotel we had about an hour before we would be met by our hosts and head to the conference site so I made a beeline for the rooftop pool. I didn't bring my camera, which was a shame, because it is just lovely. The pool area is very nice and it has an amazing view of the city. The chairs were quite comfy and I had no trouble finding shade to protect my pale self from the sun. I recommend this hotel if only for the pool!

Down in the lobby I met everyone from our host agency. The introductions were flying fast and furious and it was all names that are not familiar to me. I knew I would never remember everyone...or anyone. I am bad with names to begin with! Included in the party was J, who works for a sister agency and is living abroad for two years under the aegis of the Commercial Foreign Service (I never knew there was such a thing). She would be presenting on a topic in which the Vietnamese had great interest and which my agency doesn't cover, so it was very nice that we could get her. And plus, that way I didn't feel so outnumbered (S and J are both men).


You can see all photos of HCMC, and all photos from this trip if you'd like.

First Night in Vietnam and Australian Food, Sunday, 23 March 2008 Cont.

The flight to Vietnam was fine and uneventful. The seats were so spacious! And they even serve you a little snack. It was quite a luxury. In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) you have to go through x-ray screening at nothing to declare before you can leave the airport. They weren't even looking at the screen to see if people were not declaring that which should be declared.

I had read about the taxi rip-offs in Vietnam and thought I was prepared. Ha! I walked outside of the airport and a guy asked me if I wanted a taxi. I said yes. He took my suitcase and put it in the cab. He said it would be $15. I said I knew it was supposed to be around $7 and he had to use the meter. He said, No, it's $15. You buy a card and it's $15. And flashed a little card, about the size of a business card with a little clear plastic window with a hologram. A pretty official looking card. I said meter. He said it was broken. I gave up, defeated and annoyed. I feared this trip would get the best of me, despite my savvy traveler ego.

After bidding a bitter farewell to my cab driver at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel I crossed the beautiful lobby to check in. I hit a snag when they asked for my government work ID so I could get the government rate. Well, I don't travel with my work ID! For goodness sake! I use it to get into the building but not outside of work. They were all, "Just get your husband to fax it over." UGH! I don't have a husband, people! Or a boyfriend, or a partner, or a significant other, or anyone who can do this for me. I have nobody. I am alone in this world. Do you really, really want to make that any worse? Finally I asked them whether the official passport I'd already handed over wasn't enough? Oh yeah, sure. Goodness!

I was very tired. The city was overwhelming. It was very busy and I wasn't quite sure what there was to see, and where I was in relation to what there is to see. I rallied myself to go to an ATM--where my card was declined! Oh crap. I didn't have enough cash for two weeks in a cash economy, by any stretch. My podunk credit union does not have an out-of-country collect number to call or 24 hour customer service. I went to the hotel business center to email them, knowing it was only Sunday morning in the States and it would be a loooong weekend of waiting for an answer.

I again rallied myself to leave the hotel. I walked up and down Dong Khoi, sort of the high end tourist main drag. I didn't take one single photo, so this is a very boring post.

I was foraging for a restaurant when I remembered that I kind of don't like Asian food. Hmm. I found Jaspa's, which had been mentioned in the English language magazine in the hotel. It is random foods of the world by some Australian expats. Perfect. I had a lentil, beet, and goat cheese salad, a pina colada, and a bottle of water for 250,000 VND (about $16) including tip. This is a lot to pay for a meal in Vietnam, but less than you'd pay in the States so I figured it evened out. I love legumes and they're not much used in Vietnamese cooking, so I was glad I'd had lentils while I could.

I finally let myself collapse in the hotel, where I accidentally wet my toothbrush with tap water. Dang! I rubbed some hand sanitizer on it. I took the first malaria pill of the trip, wondering what kind of trippy dreams it would give me.

I turned on the TV and proved the theory that at any given moment there is an episode of CSI on somewhere in the world. And then I went to sleep.


You can see all thephotos I later took of HCMC, and all photos from this trip if you'd like.

Hong Kong Walk of Fame and On to Saigon, Sunday, 23 March 2008

I had no trouble falling asleep night but jet lag woke me up at 3. I tried to fall alseep on my own for about half an hour then took a melatonin. I don't want to hear that it's a placebo because it totally works for me. I went back to sleep and then made myself get up at 8.

For breakfast I ate the yogurt I bought in the Chicago airport (I have a casual attitude toward refrigerating yogurt) and an apple from home while sitting at the little table in front of my picture window with harbor view. It's another gray day, but it doesn't seem to be too cold.

I headed out around 9, walking along the water in a southerly direction. It wasn't too chilly and the view of the Hong Kong skyline was spectacular.

My walk along the boardwalk soon brought me to the Walk of Stars, Hong Kong's answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There were lots of tourists and they were going crazy for the photo ops! In addition to the stars in the sidewalk there are also bronze still-life statuary groupings, such as a director's chair, someone with a megaphone, and a light. People were having a blast posing in the still lifes. I didn't know most of the actors, but I got Jet Li and Jackie Chan, just for fun.

I arrived at the pier/harbor at the end of the boardwalk where there is a lovely clock tower and these awesome huge lanterns/balloons of the olympic figures just stacked up in front of the tower all topsy turvy. Another girl and I take pictures of one another in front of them. To horribly generalize for a moment, I love that Asian tourists are so into picture taking, because she felt no compunction about telling me exactly where to stand and exactly what she wanted included in her picture, and she did the same for me. Since I am generally traveling alone I rely on the kindness of strangers to take photos to prove I have conquered something, and Western tourists usually just snap and go without thinking about framing or scale or composition or what have you.

I headed up to the observation deck and asked another girl to take a pic of me with the skyline. Quel surprise, elle parle seulement le francais. I really need to work on mine. And after insulting Western tourists' photography skills in the previous paragraph I should say the she asked me if I wanted a face shot or "entiere," and she did a great job with the full length photo.

It's a little before 10 and nothing is open yet, so no shopping for me. I wasn't that keen on it anyway, as I don't buy expensive clothes at home and am unlikely to do so abroad. If I want something expensive-style I'll make it. The Hong Kong Art Museum is nearby and opens at 10, so I hang out on the observation deck for another 20 minutes. More French tourists, this time a dad with two little kids. I wondered if the mom was off somewhere or if he'd brought them to Hong Kong by himself.

Entrance to the art museum is $10 HKD, less than $1.50 and a small price to pay for the bathroom alone. I went first to the Hong Kong artists contemporary art exhibition, including a large installation piece by Kwok the Frog King. It's fun--very colorful street art style and I like that the museum is open to that kind of thing. The rest of the contemporary art was also interesting--lots of men leading lives of quiet despair. There were also displays of Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painting, Chinese ceramics, Chinese jade, and Chinese gold. As I wasn't heading to China, I appreciated the chance to see some of the artifacts. As would strike me again and again throughout the trip, I loved that I had gone so recently to Greece and could compare what was going on in the different civilizations at different times. The technology and even the motifs and some of the styles were remarkably similar. There have always been people with itchy feet, I guess. It is a nice space and the collections are not overwhelming. I highly recommend a visit.

In the courtyard of the museum there were the five Olympic figures representing the five Olympic rings. These girls were going nuts over them and I kept waiting for them to move aside so I could get a clear picture. But then I decided their enthusiasm was kind of cute and just took my pics with them in them. Olympic fever is definitely sweeping China and its possessions.

After about an hour at the museum I headed back down the boardwalk to the hotel. As I was crossing the pedestrian bridge I was greeted by an Indian man. Not wanting to be unfriendly I said Hi back and he then proceeded to tell me my fortune. I was annoyed that I had gotten taken in--it's not like me to be so gullible--but I listened. He wrote down something on a scrap of paper and had me hold it. He said that 8-8-08 would be lucky for me. Well, I assume it will be lucky for everybody if it's lucky at all. He looked at my palm and told me I was lucky in love. If you call 33, hopelessly single, and childless "lucky," well I suppose he's right. It is not, however, the conventional definition of lucky in love. Then he asked me my favorite color. I said "Blue, I guess." I unfolded the paper, which said blue. Considering I was wearing a blue dress and blue glasses, it was not too much of a leap. I thought he was saying something about I should go stay with his sister, but then I think he was calling me "my sister." Anyway, at the end of course he told me to give him money. I said I didn't have any local currency. He said my currency was fine. I gave him a dollar. He was pissed. I was like, whatevs. A dollar for a wholly inaccurate unsolicited fortune seems fair to me.

I went to a bakery and picked up a custard corn bun and strawberry cake for lunch, each about $15 HKD ($2.50). The bun, unfortunately, was gross--the only corn kernels were on the outside, about give of them, and the custard was a sweet orange paste. I was hoping it was a savory cheese bun. The strawberry cake was pretty good--it was filled with a thick strawberry jam-like substance that tasted like real strawberries. In fact, when I was first eating it I thought it was real strawberries until I looked. I also picked up a mango sago, which was just as good as the coconut and the same $6 HKD.

Checkout at the Nikko was easy, but I had a 20 minute wait for the shuttle bus. At the Airport Express station you can check your bags! It was fantastic! I had no problems checking in at Vietnam Air with my paper ticket and they took my bag and tagged it through to Ho Chi Minh City. It was great not having any baggage wrangling on the train and at the airport.

The train ride was quick and easy. Once I got to the airport passport control took a bit of time, but I still had plenty to buy a fashion magazine (only about $2 US) and get lunch. After checking out all the food court options I got a mushroom rice bowl and a bottle of water from one of the places for $85 HKD ($14, your typical airport markup). It was more greasy than it appeared in the photo, but I appreciated the mushroom variety and soy chicken (?-it wasn't animal, but it wasn't vegetable either). There were like 2 cups of rice in there! I don't care for rice so I didn't eat much of that.

You can see all my Hong Kong photos, including lots of Olympiana, and all photos from this trip if you'd like.