It was nice to see the fam, but i don’t have too much to do in Israel, and a few days there was enough for me. Last week I went to Vietnam to visit my buddy Derrick who lives there and his girlfriend Sophie:

Unfortunately I got some food poisoning (not sure if it was food I ate there or India) and stayed on the couch for 3 days and watched Discovery channel. I was pretty miserable, but learned my lesson, and will be more careful with what I eat and drink from now on. They serve some really weird stuff in Vietnam like scorpion, snake and the classic, “meat of snail with pork stuffed inside”

Although I didn’t eat any of that, I did chomp some weird fruits. Custard apples taste better, but dragonfruits are prettier:

Despite being sick I did manage to get 2 days of walking around the city.

I bought some paintings, got a massage, and tried drinking at the top of a nice hotel (bad idea). In comparison to Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh was pretty clean, there was almost no poverty (due to a strong family ties), and although it was very congested everyone was on motorbikes (about 10 motorbikes per car) which is pretty scary when trying to cross the street.

Vietnamese is a tough language and depends on the inflection. For instance the word Ba can mean three, grandmother or ghost depending on how you pronounce it. I’ve noticed this in other countries where english isn’t commonly spoken – they sell clothes with writing that doesn’t make any sense, for example:

Overall it was a nice a trip but would’ve been much better if I could’ve had a few beers…

Related posts:

1. Recent Travels (Goa, Kerala, Raipur)
2. The Events of the Last Few Days