.. paradise in the middle of nowhere

.. after an arduous journey of 200 kilometers which took me almost 5 hours out of Saigon braving the morning rush hour, i've reached my destination, or rather the junction that leads to my destination. The beach i am going to, still needs about 35 kilometers into the depths of nowhere. I snapped a whole bunch of pictures, there won't be much detailed explanation, but i will try my best as i am just too darn tired. This page might take slightly longer to load with so many photograph being uploaded .. its worth the wait !


i thought the real journey would begin after we escaped the horror of Saigon's rush hour, but apparently, the road that we are on leads to Hanoi as well, which is about 2000 kilometers away, a long stretch of straight road .. passing through small towns once in a while.

we stopped for a break at one of these stops, dotted throughout our journey every 2 kilometers or so. They only sell drinks, but what interests me more was that these are built not for travellers, but for workers and farmers working around the area to take a quick nap during their lunch breaks.



these are taken after we turn off the main road to go into the beach area, another 35 kilometers of journey with cows, paddy fields, more cows .. and more paddy fields. It's another long stretch of straight road with the destination no where in sight. Later, i realized that my cab driver took the least taken road that leads into the resorts, filled with holes, puddles, cows .. all that and not one single vehicle in sight .. and i wondered, why did they even bothered to tar the road in the first place.










above are all images that i have snapped within the compound of the villa style resort that i am going to stay in for the next week. It is a 5 star resort, just officially opened last month, so there is practically no guests around at all .. nothing else could be more perfect! The compound is beautifully decorated with flowers and its natural sweet scent accompanying your every step, and there is a swimming pool at every corner, towards the beach they even have an infinity pool !! The beach is left untouched and all the resorts around this coastline are spaced quite far from each another. I have yet to visit all the other resorts, the fishing village, the sand dunes .. there is so much see and much to be done. More pictures would be added soon enough as i explore around the place.

.. both of my nights here is spent watching the sunset alone, telling myself how beautiful this place is, letting the sun cast its hypnotic rays, burning a memory into my mind. The passing shadows seems to be urged faster and faster by the crash of the waves, racing towards where i am sitted. I would wait until the shadows reach me before calling it a day.

.. a new day of exploration awaits tomorrow. Good night all.

.. off to the beaches and sand dunes

.. well, i am off to the beaches and huge sand dunes for almost 2 weeks, or earlier, if i could finish off my tasks there. The place i am headed to is about 4 hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City, to a province named Phan Thiet. I might not be able to update my blog in this period of time, depending on the availability of a connection there.

.. in the meantime, provided here is a link to where i would be staying. Check out the pictures within the website on the natural scenery of the province.

.. i would of course provide photos of my own as well in my next update. This trip would be my first "unofficial" (officially, i am there for work!!) trip out of town as a tourist to one of Vietnam's natural beauties, and i am sure there is much to see and amuse myself with.

.. Musa ca ri an do !

.. first, i would like to apologize for the slight delay in updates, as my laptop was infected with a virus that disables my login to Windows, had a long weekend formatting and restoring it.

.. most might not understand what my title might mean, but i do feel it is worth mentioning here in my blog, as it has satisfied my craving for curry in Vietnam .. to an extent. Musa ca ri an do means Musa Indian Curry, i was introduced and brought to it by a friend. Six of us went, and we had a feast sitted around a small square table.




Hidden in an alleyway, this establishment took up almost 2 shoplots, 1 for the kitchen and own for the indoor sitting and since they are towards the end of the alley, they filled up the road as well (..or lane/walkway, whatever it might be, we were sandwiched between 2 double storey building, a hole in the wall). We arrived during peak dinner hour and was lucky to have found a place to sit, though a small table but it fitted us comfortably .. well, before the food started coming. Environment was great ! .. the air was filled with chatter, clink and clanks of cutlery, cries of children running around .. ahh bliss, reminds me so much of the food court in SS2, back in KL.

It might not be the most presentable of all places hygienically especially the floors .. its hawker food, what else do you expect ? I had not problems with my stomach days after, instead yearning and craving for more of it, so i guess its more than safe, since i went during a busy day and during peak hour. All cutlery and dishes were clean without grease on it. Now .. lets move on to the food .. we ordered quite a lot, we started off with the curry .. of course, served with fresh banh mi (french loafs). The curry is almost the same as what i usually have back home, but instead of chunks of meat, these came with the bones and ribs ! I dug in without hesitance, using my fingers .. there is no way that i am able to juggle mutton knuckles with chopsticks whilst trying to tear succulent meat off! Curry is spiced just enough and sweet at the same time just to cater to local taste buds. it might not be as spicy as what we can get in Malaysia, but its acceptable enough to please my cravings .. and extra delicious and yummy dipped with the loafs ! Meat is slightly tough that day, but i won't complain, because it is lean meat from a goat which exercised a lot it seems.





.. barbecued crab laced with a generous helping of sweet lemon grass, a bit of chili, and some barbecue sauce was served next. We had bamboo shoot and prawn salad earlier, but i was too late in getting a picture, what i am left with is just the empty plate next to the crabs. It shows enough how good it was to be snapped up immediately. We also had some kind of fish stew later, which i left alone because i don't really fancy fish cooked this way. Sticky rice was also ordered. Quite a nice texture and feel to the rice, simple, cooked with 5 spice powder and , and infused with sweetness of honey, and mixed with raisins.

The small plates that you see all over the table is a mixture of salt and pepper, topped with a lemon which you need to squeeze over it. It is a common thing you can see in all eateries in Vietnam, these are used to as dipping for your food. Another type of dipping not in the pictures would be fish sauce, LOL, that is practically served with every dish as well, with one small chili cut in side. Here you don't get chili padi or red chili served with soya sauce.

The final item that can be highlighted was the side dishes that came together with the fish. I can't remember what it is called, but it is a thin plasticky popia skin, which you use to wrap the fish meat, and rice noodle, and herbs .. dip it into fish sauce and munch .. yummy! Thanks to out new found friends, we were even shown the proper way of doing it. Look at one of the pictures, just a blur of hand moving all over the place grabbing herbs and vegetables! The simplicity of the dish it self makes you yearn for more, and the herbs just revitalizes our taste buds which had been bombarded with taste of different dishes earlier.

It was a great experience and we left the table filled up with empty plates and bowls, a great honour to the restaurant itself showing how satisfied we are with the meal. We paid about 600,000 VND for it, which comes to about 36 USD converted, shared amongst six of us, reasonable price for the great food we had. Would definitely be back again for more.

Everything served to us was fresh, yes even the fish head stew. The mutton was marinated properly before being placed into the curry to get rid of the "mutton" smell. Personally, i hoped the curry was much spicier though, but since they have cooked everything in a big pot before being served into smaller plates, don't think i would be able to demand much. They also have "Hot Pots"/"steambots" served, with a choice of curry or normal stock soup. Remember to order any dishes with fresh bamboo shoots as well, especially the salads! They are fresh bamboo shoots, not canned!

Curious readers could find the place near Windsor hotel in District 5 Saigon, the exact address being MUSA CA RI AN DO,001, Block B, Su Van Hanh, ward 9, district 5. From windsor's main entrance, just walk down the road for about 100 meters and you would see an alleyway to your right filled with bikes and lights,people, and food at the end .. if you get lost, just ask anyone, they will point you to the correct direction, just mention Ca Ri An Do !