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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Phan Thiet


The Sunday Times 15 Aug. 2010 Life section

The above article reminded me of my holidays at Phan Thiet beach resort more than 10 years ago. At that time my son was working in Ho Chi Minh City and I visited him every year. There was one occasion my friend and I went to a beach resort at Phan Thiet. On the way there, we came across rows and rows of dragon fruit plants. We stopped to examine the plants and found that they were not plants but were actually vines that needed support to grow up like plants. Wooden poles were planted on the ground so that dragon fruit vines would creep upwards. We found them on sale at the markets and stalls by the roadside. They were very good to look at especially the big ones but never tasted sweet. In Singapore too I could hardly get a sweet dragon fruit.


Dragon Fruits


Slightly inland from the coast of Phan Thiet was a place that appeared like a desert. Above picture shows that we are in a desert. There were many sand dunes too. Actually there were bushes and trees nearby and also a small village. The houses were near the coast with many fishing boats and nets hung on poles to dry. I think the villagers were mostly fishermen.


Beach cleaners on the background


Chalet near the sea


I forgot the beach resort name. It was off season and we had the beach all to ourselves. There were many chalets like we had above. Guests could also choose to stay at the hotel within the resort. The beach was very clean. The resort owner employed workers to pick up litters at the beach every morning as you can see in the picture below.



The three are workers cleaning the beach.

3 comments:

Lee said...

Hello Phillip, I enjoyed seeing, reading your this interesting posting.
Regret I have never step foot in Vietnam....yet.
Maybe one day. Though we do have lots of Vietnamese people here and love their restaurants and spicy food.

You still looking good...you stay young, and keep a song in your heart. Best regards, Lee.

PChew said...

Thanks Mr Lee for passing by. I can't address you uncle for I maybe older. Like you, I love Vietnamese food too. In Singapore we have Little India. In Garden Growth, Orange County California, there is Little Saigon. My wife and I were there on holidays last month. We tried a variety of Vietnamese food. I noticed they used a lot of fish sauce. There is a large Vietnamese supermarket that caters to the community.

Thimbuktu said...

I love the Vietnamese pohpiah which I once tried at a restaurant in Edmonton, Canada.

My friend told me that more Vietnamese restaurants there was more than Chinese ones. It seems that Chinatown should be renamed as Vietnamtown.

Most Canadians like Vietnamese food too.