Ben Tre...done that..

The sweet post title is credited to my 'Chandler' of a boyfriend...what a witty, witty man...

This isn't the focus of the post, but I wanted to vent about this little event because it infuriated me (maybe I've no reason to be angry about it, but I am!).

This morning (okay, it was actually two mornings ago since I took so long to post this..), I was running a little late, as usual lately, so after getting my Vietnamese sub from the usual stand, I searched the street frantically for a taxi. As I'm staring off to my right, one pulls up to my left and honks to get my attention. I hastily waved it over and climbed in. I asked him to drop me off at Dong Khoi and Nguyen Du, the corner where my office is. This has always worked for me, save one time when the guy couldn't understand me because I am sure my pronunciation was quite off; but as soon as I was able to scribble it down for him, he took me there. However, this time, the guy looked at me, said some stuff in Vietnamese, waved his hand in that "I don't understand" kind of way, and pointed to the sidewalk, indicating that I should get out.

Hmmm..maybe he cannot understand me. Ahhh...but wait! I happen to have a handy dandy little business card with the exact address of the building on it. What do you know! So I hurriedly take out the card from my wallet and begin to show it to the driver. But wtf, this guy wouldn't even look at it. He just continue to shake his hand in that stupid (I know I shouldn't use that word, but I'm angry now) way and kept motioning for me to get out. It's not so easy at this time of day to catch a taxi because they are usually taken already (and with the daylight, I can never tell if the light is on or not, which indicates that the taxi is available). So I asked him "why?" and tried to show him the address on the card again. Again he refused to look and just continued speaking in Vietnamese and shaking his hand. At this point, I was very frustrated.

First, he honked at me and approached me.
Second, I was in a hurry already. (I know this one is my fault...but it also is a factor in my frustration, which if the guy had just driven me to work, would never have caused me to be frustrated.)
Third, he could not give me a legit reason for declining to service me. I was willing to pay!!!!

So I stared at him silently for a minute or so, glaring just a tad, and finally jumped out of his taxi. I wish I had screamed at him in English, not that he would have understood, but I would have felt better - something like "What the heck, buddy! All I want is a ride, I'll even pay and not ask for change back from my 20,000 VND. You honked me over, let me get in your cab, and then refuse to take me where I want to go? That's just absurd! Give me your name and the number of your taxi company so I can call and complain, mister!!" Oh, I desperately wanted to get his name, his license number, his employer's number..and all that. But I didn't. I just huffed and puffed and got out of his taxi and slammed the door behind me (of course it's normal to slam the door here so that didn't mean anything to him, I'm sure).

Luckily, only a few seconds later, another taxi pulled up and stopped for me - I'm not sure if I waved it down first, but I must have - and this driver willingly took me to the address on my business card. It was a very sour way to start the day. And now that I've blogged about it, I'm officially over it.

Oh wait, actually, I did ask Tuyen why the jerk was being such a jerk. Tuyen's only answer was that the drive was too short of a distance and he wouldn't make a lot of money and so he declined to service me. Sure, this explanation works for me. I do only live a 15-minute walk away from the firm. But I had not been rejected before and this guy failed in getting that message across to me...he obviously knew how to hand gesture.

I prefer the explanation (from Matthew, my darling) that he was a bigot and an old man and found it despicable that someone younger than him, who was Asian (possibly even Vietnamese), and could not speak Vietnamese was sitting in his taxi. Maybe we are being a bit judgmental here...but this is also a viable explanation...

But, oh I have never looked down at someone who I was servicing, who could not speak English but was able to get the message across of what he or she wanted. I only expected the same kind of respect.

I am happy that so far, this experience has been the first and a rare one. I hope it is the last.

Okay, I'm really over it now.
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On a happier note...I really am climbing my way to fame here in HCMC. Today, at work, I was again forwarded a picture of me at Lush while celebrating Khahn's birthday.

golly, my arm looks so fat...

Like I said in my earlier post, it was a fun night...and this picture was taken right when we had gotten there..so the dancing had not yet started.

Speaking of that weekend...on to the main focus of this post...

The same weekend as Khanh's birthday, I joined a number of people from the firm on a short trip to Ben Tre, a little city (would they call it that) or town in the northern part of the Mekong Delta. One of the associates is from there and had invited the firm to his house. Of course I hopped at the chance because I prolly would not have the chance or take the chance to go out and travel outside of HCMC by myself.

Unfortunately, it was the same weekend as Khanh's birthday and I had stayed out until about 2 am celebrating. I had planned on leaving the celebration at 12 am or something...but well, the dancing was just way too much fun, I couldn't pull myself away. Then I had to wake up and meet everyone at the firm at 7:30 am! I know, it is quite ridiculous. But surprisingly, I was not the last one to arrive. Actually, when I got there, no one was there so I was freakin' out...until someone came and informed me that the others were on there way. You guys, tell me to get here by 7:30 and make me wait for you all!! I'm tired! But I got a good nap in on the one and a half hour bus ride to Ben Tre after eating a yummy Vietnamese sub for breakfast.

Ben Tre is a little town that's very close to nature. There are rocky dirt paths lined with lots and lots of tropical fruit trees...all kinds of fruits - oranges, coconuts, mangosteens, bananas and the list goes on. In fact, we couldn't even take the bus to the colleague's house because the roads were too narrow so we trekked our way there under the hot sun and in the heavy, stuffy air.

Along the walk, I learned a whole lot of things..even about the obvious...

like this is a banana tree to my right...and this is a coconut tree to my left..and of course, I had to take a peace sign pose with them =]

here I am being taught by Ms. Ly about the natural wonders of Vietnam...

this is a flower to some plant...a banana tree? crap, I've forgotten...

more coconut trees...water coconuts! (prolly 'cause they grow outta the water)..yeah, who knew there were different types of coconut trees...not me...

ahh, look at the greens..so much green. makes the red seem all the more beautiful..

we crossed a little bridge and decided to a take a picture with the muddy water as a backdrop. I think it's quite beautiful..

  Oh, this is the coolest part...I've heard of similar things...but never before have I witnessed it...

plants that close themselves up upon being touched!!!! watch the change in the middle bottom leaf...

 I touched it to test out its defense mechanism....and...

lo and behold!! my golly, it works!!!

That kept me entertained for some time....like a little kid with bubble wrap..wait, actually that's still pretty entertaining... =P

oh lookie, lookie...here we are again!

 Well, we finally arrived at the colleague's place (okay, I think his name is Kun, but again, I still suck at spelling and pronunciation, and sometimes even actually not knowing the name generally of some of the folks at the firm)...

We ate a lot...

First, we had some fruits...mangosteens...they're pretty delicious..

as evident by my wanting to take a bite out of this one that's still hanging on the tree...

And I also got to pick some mangosteens. The ripe ones were hidden pretty high up so we had to use this really long wooden stick with a sort of metal "claw" attached at the end to pick them..

here I am, getting instructions from the master...

so you reach, place the claw part over the mangosteen...and twist...

success!!!

well..that was easy enough....

my winnings...the first time's result is in my left hand..the second is in my right...but this one was much harder because of those two huge leaves.. I learned then that you have to twist left then right then left then right until it decides to fall off..

Tuyen also gave it a try..she was successful as well...just not as good as me! =P

After picking and eating and picking and eating mangosteens....

we had some coconut...

Tuyen shows me how to drink it and enjoy it properly...

but I mastered it while in Singapore last year...so I'm pro.. (jk, I don't particular like coconut juice this way)

so I shared some of mine with this little monster...to help him wash down his oreos...

oh he is sooo cute...I'd take him back as a souvenir if I could..

but his little sister showed me up...one of the cutest little two year olds that I have ever seen..

and she's as fierce as she looks...

I watched a bit of fishing...no fishing rod needed...

he is sooo cute...

and then I watched people relaxing...

and sleeping...

and simply enjoying themselves as we waited for lunch..

and then lunch came...and it was good..

they like to do a lot of wrap and roll here...so this is all the ingredients...yummy yummy in my tummy..

this is called Vietnamese pancake..I forgot what they said it's made from...but golly, I could go for some of it right about now....YUMM!!!

Phew...this post is a long one...and it continues..

After lunch, we all trekked some more to a little docking area where a boat was waiting to take us on a lovely exploration of the channel/canal (I'm not really sure how they call this body of water) - waterway - that is all too common in the Mekong Delta.

here is a bridge...what's it lead to? I've no idea...but it's kinda pretty from here...

the highway...I think it's a rare site to see since during my whole time here, I've seen the highway about three times.

and the water is very murky and brown...if I knew how to swim, this definitely wouldn't be the place I'd choose..

and little buildings floating in the water...I forgot what they are, maybe refueling places...IDK

the guys...

us girls...

the rest of the group...

We made a few stops for coconut candy tasting and simple souvenir shopping...

our first stop...we tried some coconut candy here...but other than that, we didn't stay long..

ok...we did browse a few things...

like this monkey...which I did end up buying..tho i was sad because they didn't have the whole set...so now I have this lone monkey and have no idea what to with him.. =/

stop number 2...

i like shiny colorful stuff...like this tiny elephant statue..

ooooh....

ahhh......

he was crossing some  platform above and I shouted to get a picture...this was his pose of choice...

And even a short show of...

 
"Feed-the-Alligator Time"...

they look so fake...I kept telling my little "souvenir" that they weren't real...I mean, real ones wouldn't sleep with their mouths open!?!?!?!

in fact, they all looked pretty fake, regardless of the position of their mouths...

oh, if we were out in the wild, I'd probably be dead...because, shit, it was freakin' real...

and we jumped every time it lunged at the piece of meat that was dangled in front of it..

Phew! I thought I didn't like the zoo much anymore...but maybe I'd ought to give zoos a second go-around...not the one in HCMC though since it's not up to par with the Singapore one...and I've been to the Singapore one...which reminded me how if you've been to one zoo, you've been to them all...or maybe not..but again, this here wasn't a zoo...it was a whole lot cooler..

UPDATE: I just got these pictures from one of the partners of YKVN - they dared me to do it...and questioned my ability!!

oh...I showed them!!

=D

All in all...

It was a great experience! A good chance for some of us girls to bond. And it was a good chance for me to get to know some of the other colleagues from the firm that I was not able to really get to know. Good times!

Oh yes, it was after returning to HCMC from this trip that the gang and I went to watch X-men...I know, I know, the X-men post was awhile back already, why did it come first? I had less pictures to collect and post for that, of course!! And well, this post eventually made it's way onto the blog..(although I will admit it's been sitting it the "edit post" pile for a few weeks now...)

But the important thing is, it's here...(My back's been killing me so I took two days off of work and here you are with a new post!!) one with lots of pictures..and you've read it all the way through! (or I at least hope so)...and it's been a great day, eh?!

Until the next interesting thing.... =]