Saigon

[bucky]

In Saigon over holidays. Looking for top picks for restaurants, shopping, hangouts...

[Ahlvahroe]

bump

let me know if you guys have any tips, i leave in 5 days and havent even started planning

[todesengel]

Was there pretty recently, didn't spend a ton of time there but...

-Don't go to Apocalypse Now unless you're looking for a fucking ton of hookers (or, if you are looking for a ton of hookers, go to Apocalypse Now)

-Temple club has pretty nice drinks, good atmosphere.

-Drink a shit ton of ice coffee (ca phe sua da)

-Quan an ngon for slightly upscale street food-style digs. Didn't go to the one in Saigon, but the one in Hanoi is great.

-Hit up street food/small restaurants for Bahn xeo, bun bo hue, bahn mi, pho bo kho (or just pho), seafood around the market areas, etc.

-Forget the names of most of the nicer restaurants I hit up, but there are some very nice upscale french/vietnamese places all around the city.

Not much in the way of shopping as far as clothes go. Nice interior design shit, though.

[Ahlvahroe]

thanks dude, that sounds pretty cool.

also if any one is up on their vietnamese how do i say 'i dont eat seafood' cause well i dont like seafood, and i would rather tell the people that before hand instead of leaving a barely touched plate at a restaurant/street stand.

[who8mahrice]

Depending on who you're talking to, the "I" will change. The "don't eat seafood" will be "không ăn đồ biển."As for writing out the pronunciation in English, my best attempt is something along the lines of: kh-ah-ng aa-ng dohh bee-in, where ah is like when you open your mouth and say ah, aa is like the a in pass, ng is kind of a nasally sound...hard to describe it. It's the beginning of nguyen, i'm sure you could find someone with that name to pronounce for you. dohh, the o is pronounced like saying "letter o" with it dragged out and in a low tone. and "bee-in" is asked like a question. Tonal languages are really hard to explain in words, sorry.

Oh, and I guess the most generic way to say I would be "t-oy" except the t isn't harsh like in normal english. again, hard to describe in words but if you just say "toy", people would probably understand you. but be warned, "toy" is really informal.