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May 12

Very happy that my one of my all-time favourite barbershops has opened not far from my house 🤩
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May 12

One of the most famous Instagrammed cafes in #Quan2 🌸
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The interior of the cafe is very much like a cafe in France (not that I’ve been to France! 😬😅). It’s decked with flowers inside and outside of the cafe. Sadly, many are fake flowers while some are dried ones. Each corner certainly is “Instagram worthy.” They have two floors; first floor is air conditioned, but the second floor is a bit hot. Their coffee menu wasn’t that broad; on the plus side, they serve a few Vietnamese dishes and pastries. Prices for drinks range from 50k-95k. When I visited, there were a couple of friends chatting. I’d say it’s a nice place for catching up as it gives a bit of an intimate vibe. Towards the late afternoon, they bring out a few tables and chairs outside too perfect for watching the changing of colors as the sun sets. Cute isn’t always a term to describe cafes, but this one surely is ☺️
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#nevernotdrinkingcoffee #nevernotcaffeinated #nhacuacoffeeholic #saigoncafes #coffee #cafes #thebureauasia #hcmccafe #wheninsaigon #wheninvietnam #quan7 #nccsaigon #saigon #hochiminhcity #cafelife #paintcafe #paint #cafe

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May 12

coffee & color kind of day 🎨 ☕️
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This cafe sits in the middle of a residential area. They don’t have a big sign outside, so keep your eyes peeled for a small tarp with the name of the cafe. The cafe is quite small, but has two floors. The first floor is where the kitchen/bar is where they make simple desserts like cheesecakes and cookies. Their drinks menu has variety as well but I opted for an iced americano, my go-to. Aside from drinking coffee, you can also unleash your inner Van Gogh as this is also a ‘paint cafe’; price depends on the size of the canvas you choose. I got the smallest one and painted for about three hours, so I paid 65k. You pay additional fees if you are to use more colors or spend more time painting, which is still very affordable (about 10-20k). I went there at about 10:30 in the morning, as soon as they opened 😅, and I was the only one there. It was the perfect ‘me-time’ activity. Now I know where to celebrate my next birthday! 😊
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May 7

On a sunset chase 🏍🌅

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May 7

Young, wild, and free 🖖👽
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May 5

🚦Ped Xing
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May 5

📍Vung Tau
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May 4

To all the food I’ve eaten before. . .Vung Tau edition🤤
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1. Banh khot from Banh Khot Goc Vu Sua
2-4. Cơm tấm from Com Tam Loan
5. Dark Chocolate Beer Cake from saltwater.fromsea
6. Banana cake from saltwater.fromsea
7. Tiramisu from Soho Cafe
8. Grilled salmon in lemon butter sauce from ganhhao.restaurant
9. Asparagus, chorizo fried rice, and tendon with seafood and vegetables from ganhhao.restaurant
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May 4

Put another shrimp on the barbie? They bloody wouldn't fit 😄

These big arse prawns from Côn Đảo Market can be taken across the street once you've haggled the price down, to have old mate at Quan Ngoc Bich 610 cook them up for you 😉

Highly recommend you give it a try when in Côn Đảo 💯
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May 1

Breather...
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#travel #travelogue #travelgram #instatravel #wanderlust #traveler #travelling #travelbug #discover #travelphotography #pinoytraveler #travelingpinoy #beautifuldestinations #globetrotter #instapassport #explore #passionpassport #wheretonext #backpacker #couchsurfing #backpacking #fotografia #couchsurfer #lovetraveling #seetheworld #traveladdict #passportready #thebureauasia

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Apr 29

It's funny how even when you live in another country or culture you still tend to take things for granted.

Eating Ốc (snails) for one.

For a long time I never really wondered where the culture of eating "snails" came from in Vietnam. I guess I just assumed because the country has over 2,000km of coastline & plenty of islands (e.g. Côn Đảo), that the Vietnamese have been eating them for yonks.

But I also thought perhaps the French (1887-1954) brought it with them, like other ways they influenced the culinary culture here e.g. bánh mì (baguettes) & somewhat controversially, phở - it's been argued it originated from the French pot au feu dish.

I read somewhere that indeed the Vietnamese have likely been eating snails for thousands of years, with evidence found in the form of giant mounds of shells & molluscs dating back 10,000 years 😲

This plate of snails in this pic at Nguyen Binh Quan in the centre of town on Côn Sơn island is typical of what you'll get these days - sweet, spicy, savoury, chewy & sticky - washed down with a few (or more) cans of Tiger for good measure 😋

I highly recommend this place for taste, price & theatrics when you come to the Côn Đảo islands.

Check out my funny Reel vid of the staff clearing our table afterwards!
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Apr 28

They grow them big down Côn Đảo way 😲 There's nothing in this pic to demonstrate just how big these suckers were, but trust me, they were pretty damn huge 😅

Travelling is all about trying things out. Last week it was getting to lunch time so the hunt was on to find somewhere local & tasty. And the mission was seafood.

Dunno how it happened, but we wound up at Quan Ngoc Bich 610 on Tran Phu Street, right across from the market & basically next door to infiniti.cafe.resto which is an excellent resto to keep in mind when you come here.

At Ngoc Bich, there's really no menu, well, there is, kind of 😅 It lists seafood, but there aren't many (if any) prices. Not always a great feeling once you've made the commitment to eat somewhere 😁

What I noticed was that people kept coming in with small bags of fresh seafood, obviously from the market. At first, I thought it was a bit cheeky to BYO prawns & crabs & expect old mate to cook them up in his kitchen.

Eventually the "đồng" dropped (I'm slow, in case you hadn't noticed) & realised that this is the thing to do here: Go to the market, buy your fresh catch & bring it back to Ngoc Bich who will cook it up for you. Genius!

All up it was an awesome lunch for two for about a smidge under VND500K.

Definitely recommend this place, but remember to pop over to the market first! Also, get there early cuz this place is clearly on the local tourist foodie trail.
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Apr 28

Long weekend is here! Where are you going? Comment below📍👇🔭🛥
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Apr 27

I wish now I'd waited a bit longer for the sun to drop a touch further at Bãi Đầm Trầu (Dam Trau Beach), but I think you get the picture.

And besides, you've gotta leave something for next time you visit, right?

Bãi Đầm Trầu is located in the northwest of Côn Sơn island & is in a sandy cove perhaps just 300 metres long. At each end there are rocky headlands while the main part of the beach has plenty of trees for cover from the hot sun.

Getting there by motorbike from the main township is easy, with the road winding its way through some of the most amazing scenery - azure blue sea surrounding ancient-looking craggy islands on one side & sheer cliff faces on the other reaching up into the bright blue sky.

Although, on the day I arrived, as the ferry I rode on to get to the islands approached the docks, the peaks & valleys of the mountains were shrouded in mist, really adding to that tropical desert island vibe.

Naturally, by the middle of most days, the mist had evaporated leaving the peaks baking crispy brown & green under the sun.

An added bonus of visiting this beach (if you are a planespotter) is that at one end, the island's main airport runway is here, so when planes take off & land, you can get directly under their flight path.

At the moment, there isn't a great deal of traffic, but for the hour or so that I was here, I witnessed at least five flights take off.

I really don't want to end this post on a downer, but litter here is becoming an increasing problem on the beach & in the water, plus the beach shacks under the trees are adding to the piles of rubbish left to stew in the heat.

By all means visit here, but get here fast before the development because it still has that "old time" feel of beaches in Vietnam of 20 years ago when I first visited.

Just mind the groups of "selfie-grammers" dressed in after-five wear ticking another location off the list.

One way to do it, is to go at the hottest time of the day when Instagrammers are preventing their faces from melting off under the aircon of their hotel rooms 😅
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Apr 27

As I mentioned in a previous post, it's estimated that around 20,000 prisoners died in captivity on Côn Sơn island over a 113 year period.

In the notorious Phu Son prison (Bagne 2), the complex included an execution room with a guillotine, but also these - "tiger cages" - tiny cells with barred ceilings above which guards tormented & abused prisoners.

I'm not sure if there was originally a roof like this one over the building or that it was constructed for tourists. Let me know if you know.

Anyway, the prison guards would use long sharp sticks dipped in lime to prod the prisoners (men & women) with, sometimes they would just pour the whole bucket over them. Lime, of course, burns the skin.

I'd imagine lots of other nasty stuff was tossed into them as well.

Sometimes there was just one prisoner in a cage in solitary, but it wasn't uncommon to squeeze at least six or more into the tiny cages, with no time outside & in many cases, no prospect of release alive.

When the French were ousted from Vietnam in 1954, the Americans took over & meted out the same treatment.

It's hard to come to terms with what humans will do to other humans. Brutal.
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Apr 26

Côn Sơn has a very dark history, one that perhaps rivals "Devil's Island" in French Guiana, another island used by France to send their convicts from 1852.

You may have heard of the memoir Papillon (1962) that described the brutality & inhumanity of the penal colony. A movie of the same name starring Steve McQueen & Dustin Hoffman was released in 1973, with a remake in 2017.

Where on Devil's Island the French sent most of their own people to perish, the prisons on Côn Sơn (1862-1975) were constructed to incarcerate Vietnamese political prisoners.

When the French were ousted in 1954, the prisons were taken over by the then-South Vietnamese government, including the US military until the end of the war in 1975.

Torture & death were commonplace, as depicted in this short video inside one of Phu Son prison's (Bagne 2) "solarium" cells that had no protection from the elements & were used to interrogate prisoners.

On the day I took this video, it was barely noon & scorching hot.

Many of Vietnam's prominent (and future) leaders spent time here, many succumbed to the punishment.

It's believed some 20,000 prisoners died here on the island over a 113 year period.

For more, keep an eye out for my video on some history, food & sights on Côn Sơn island.
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Apr 26

Despite the Côn Đảo's isolated location at the southeastern extremity of Vietnam approximately 230km or so from HCMC (as the crow flies), the archipelago allegedly played a key role in the introduction of French influence into Vietnam during the 18th century.

Long story short, there was a massive shitfight between the traditional ruling family of Vietnam, the Nguyen Lords, and their rivals, the Tay Son brothers (* note to self, need to look into these badass sounding dudes) which eventually led to some negotiations, mutual back-scratching & pissing in pockets, which then ultimately led to a Nguyen leader agreeing to cede Côn Sơn to the French as part of a treaty signed in Versailles (no, not that one) in 1787.

I wonder how much "nhau-ing" was done to get that one over the line? 😅

And as they say, the rest is history.

The French went on to take the southern third of Vietnam & had colonised the entire country 20 years later.

Meanwhile on Côn Sơn, the French shacked up here in 1861 (they were in a hurry cuz they were shitscared the Poms might get in first) & set about constructing basic buildings & ultimately the prisons for which the island became notorious.

This pic here however (I'm guessing now) is of neither a prison or likely to have been built by the French, but of the island's cute central market. It's still operational, but attached to it at the back is a much larger & more modern Chợ Côn Đảo that looks to have only recently been constructed.

If you know what kind of design it is, let me know!
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Apr 26

No filter here folks! The blues are astonishing in this part of Côn Sơn island late in the afternoon.

From this point, it's possible to see at least three other islands in close proximity. I reckon I could swim to them, they're that close!

There are 16 islands that make up the Côn Đảo archipelago, but they account for just 75sq/km of Vietnam's landmass.

The population of the largest island Côn Sơn is said to be nearing 10,000 & the main township is definitely sleepy, especially during the hottest time of the day when everybody retreats indoors to escape the heat.

I wonder how the European seafarers handled the heat here? They probably went "troppo" and/ or got devoured by the mosquitos & bullants, either way 😅

Strategic interest in the islands started to take shape around the 17th & early 18th centuries, I'm told. Something I learned was that it was actually the British who set up here first, ahead of the French who later went on to leave an indelible mark on the island & the Vietnamese people.

The British East India Company apparently established a base on this island in 1702 & operated for three years till it was sacked by Malay soldiers & local villagers, after which it fell back into the hands of the Vietnamese.

For more, keep an eye out for my video with some history, food & sights on Côn Sơn island 🙂
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Apr 23

Getting dark & stormy over Vũng Tàu late in the afternoon 🇻🇳
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📷 @mattcowansaigon
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Apr 23

Storm brewing offshore of Vũng Tàu late afternoon in April taken from the back of the Con Dao ferry 🇻🇳
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