My name is Bình Minh –

8/7/14

Auntie Binh Minh to be exact.  Auntie because well, I am not young and Aunt is a sign of respect, or so I was told.  John is - Uncle John. 

Trying to eat in HaiPhong has been our biggest struggle.  Because we haven’t yet learned the language we aren’t sure what to order at restaurants.  We tried two restaurants that were listed on travel websites.  The first one Com Vietnam. It popped up on the map of Hai Phong as a very good place to eat with traditional Vietnamese food.  It was close to our destinations for the day – the Hai Phong Post Office and Queen of the Rosary Cathedral.  We picked the hottest day we could for this adventure and were quickly thankful for the taxi we found not too far from our home.

We were dropped off near the post office but our taxi driver wasn't sure of our destination and pointed us in the wrong direction.  We walked north about 8 blocks asking several people for directions.  We were finally turned around and ended up back where we started from. The post office was one building south of where we were dropped off.  By this time we were dripping with sweat and the unairconditioned post office was only slightly better than the heat outdoors due to the many circulating fans in the lobby.  Although a wonderful old building it doesn't compare to the post office in Saigon. Probably not a great stop when visiting Hai Phong unless you are really into post offices. We were able to send off a letter to John’s mom without too much trouble and headed back out into the heat to find the cathedral.  The cathedral was about 4 blocks away and was filled with several hundred school children at mass for the day.  We were able to peek inside without distributing them too much – although many had spotted us and were pointing and waving despite their teachers disapproving looks.  There was another building next to the cathedral which we were told was housing for the nurses that stayed there.  It was also very beautiful and old – but not open to tourists.

From there we walked to Com Vietnam which was back by the post office.  We were asked to pick from the display case (no menu – thank heavens) and went inside our private room (with many fans, thank heavens once again) to wait.  We ordered shrimp, pork, morning glory and rice.  They don’t peel the small shrimp, but take little bites as they eat the soft shell and all – including the little feet.  I tried to eat it whole but couldn't quite get it down.  John peeled his but it was difficult and even he gave up after a few tries.  The pork was pretty good and the morning glory was wonderful as usual.  Our meal here was under 100,000 VND (about $5).

Our day ended with the return taxi driver taking the long, long, long, way home.  What cost us 30,000 dong to get to ended up costing 100,000 to return home and no A/C in the cab. The shower felt soooo good. 

Last night we went tried to find another restaurant that was rated highly on TripAdvisor.  Quan Ngon sounded like the perfect place to eat.  The menu had English entries, great food, friendly service and they even offered wine – which isn’t common. Where they placed it on the map was not where the address was, but just to be sure we went to the map location first.  Nothing.  So we jumped in a taxi and went to the address.  Much to our dismay the restaurant was gone.  It appeared to have burned down. It must have been recently as the last review was in January.

We ended up at ZoZo’s.  A place we had walked by many times but hadn't stopped in at yet.  This was an outdoor restaurant on the street.  It was bigger than most of the street restaurants and always had a crowd. The wait staff spoke very little English and we had a good time trying to figure out what they were saying and the other way around as they tried to understand us.  We ended up with our first Vietnamese grill, or các món nướng.  We have seen this many times and it always smelled so good when walking around town. They brought the grill right to the table, along with marinated beef, sliced vegies, pickled vegies, sliced (the long way) cucumbers, another meet wrapped around vegies and tied as well as my favorite, morning glory, and of course we had beer over ice.  They patiently taught us how to grill our meats and vegies and which sauces to dip it in.  This was our best dinner in Hai Phong so far.  This meal was 255,000 VND or $12 US.  John ended up giving them at 100,000 VND tip for all their help – they tried to give it back saying it was too much – but we insisted since they had to work so hard to help us.