Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Bits and pieces...

* Hey! Leave those conical-hatted-women alone! Says this guy over at Thanh Nien.

* "Le Thi Man, a 31-year-old accountant, said her family of five has skipped the habit of starting the day with a streetside bowl of pho noodle soup.

"One bowl of pho a few months ago cost 10,000 dong," she said. "Now it's 15,000. Some places charge 20,000 or even 40,000 dong. Now I cook at home instead. I've just bought a box of instant noodles." "

AFP finally gets back after an extended Christmas-Tet holiday and covers the recent bout of inflation – sure, we've been talking about the price of cabbage and what have ya for months here at Pittstop HQ!!!

* "She burst through the door like a distressed damsel in an old movie; her mouth agog, her complexion rouge. Which of the exotic characters of modern Vietnam had she run up against, I wondered. Was it the pickpockets? The motorcycle gangs? A too-friendly taxi driver?"

Nope, it was the dreaded Hoi An tailors.

* From a very brief piece on Hanoi: "Besides, there cannot be many Asian capital cities of such large countries with so little traffic." Guess he was here over Tet... Pictured below is Vientiane. Now THAT'S a very quiet Asian capital... almost too quiet???



...and here's a shot of somewhere a wee bit busier. Almost... too busy???


4 comments:

elliott said...

mot bat pho - bao nhieu tien?

pittstop designer said...

We could play Where's Wally? with that picture methinks.

Mot bat pho is a whopping 15 to 20g these days and don't get me started on the price of nem chua ... em... 'cos I don't know.

elliott said...

you gotta be kidding! i thought inflation in zimbabwe was bad. how about a banh my pate? has a bowl of bun gone up too?

Anonymous said...

You know i never ever ever kid around. If eating against the wind a serve of Bun Cha with a couple of nem and tra da might cost you 30g I'd say. Eating with the wind behind you it might get closer to VND23,500.

I haven't actually had a street side banh my pate since 2001. Those were the days... when i was poor and desperate.