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PalaNIN posted:Do you recommend any place/area in particular for NYE in Saigon? A few friends want a fun night while they're staying with us over the new year break, but I'm a bit wary of Bui Vien because it'll be mayhem I'm sure. Three words: Chill Sky Bar. (It's probably gonna be mayhem everywhere downtown anyway)
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Dec 24, 2014 15:46
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Yea, I recommended that place earlier, but they discriminate against who goes there, especially holidays, so dress nicely.
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Dec 24, 2014 20:11
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How about Hanoi NYE? Maybe less cool than Saigon NYE? Some possibilities: http://www.buffalotours.com/blog/whats-on-in-hanoi-during-xmas-new-year/ Lots of sparkling wine for cheap is ideal, 5000 (25 US cents?) dong beers sound great though. I've heard that Hanoi is a more sleepy town than Saigon. I'm excited to try the Bun Cha there.
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Dec 24, 2014 20:20
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Forget Hanoi! Saigon is where it's at. The best Hanoi chefs go to Saigon to work so you get great food too. And loving dog, because in Hanoi they eat dogs.
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Dec 24, 2014 21:01
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my dream NYE party would involve a rave in the ho chi minh mausoleum
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Dec 24, 2014 23:17
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Speaking of Saigon/HCMC, any tips for nightlife? I'm thinking easy-going bars to warm up (cheap drinks) and discos / clubs with some electronic/dance music. Preferably not too fancy/high class where drinks cost the same as in the West, and with local people. I'll be staying near the "Nhi Dong II Hospital" in District 1.
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Dec 25, 2014 00:23
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ReindeerF posted:We have now entered that entertaining period where Thailand has no idea what the difference is between New Year and Christmas and assume that because their celebrations last like a week that it must be all one big holiday for us too. We've got Santas blowing party whistles and wearing top hats and fake trees with "Happy New Year" banners strung over them and so on. Always a laugh. I kind of like it because this is my first Christmas away from home sine 2008 so it makes things feel a little more familiar to me, but at the same time I'm spending my Christmas going to the dentist and getting a massage with my future father in law so I'm not feeling super festive right now. I did buy myself some awesome knock-off Legos of comic book characters so I'm counting those as stocking presents to myself.
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Dec 25, 2014 02:09
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PalaNIN posted:Do you recommend any place/area in particular for NYE in Saigon? A few friends want a fun night while they're staying with us over the new year break, but I'm a bit wary of Bui Vien because it'll be mayhem I'm sure. That is exactly the wrong attitude to have. Go to the mayhem. But the main streets around the opera house in D1 have a lot of lights and things up, and there's a few good bars near there. That might be good for an early evening walk to see the displays. Traffic on NYE in Saigon is insane, there is no getting anywhere near Bui Vien after maybe 10pm. Choose where you want to be before then, and be prepared to stay a while. I went to a bar my German-Vietnamese friend work at in Bui Vien and had a great time, mostly because I drank there all the time and knew everyone. Pilsner posted:Speaking of Saigon/HCMC, any tips for nightlife? I'm thinking easy-going bars to warm up (cheap drinks) and discos / clubs with some electronic/dance music. Preferably not too fancy/high class where drinks cost the same as in the West, and with local people. I'll be staying near the "Nhi Dong II Hospital" in District 1. Bui Vien plastic chairs to start, there's a fair number of Vietnamese who go there too and they'll likely speak English if you want to strike up a conversation. Lush is near you, and although the drinks are more expensive, it's a good dance bar with two sections, one with club music and one with more electronic stuff. It's at 2 Lư Tự Trọng, which looks like 2 blocks from the hospital so really, don't skip it. Locals go there too. Horatius Bonar fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Dec 25, 2014 |
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Dec 25, 2014 04:50
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Pilsner posted:Speaking of Saigon/HCMC, any tips for nightlife? I'm thinking easy-going bars to warm up (cheap drinks) and discos / clubs with some electronic/dance music. Preferably not too fancy/high class where drinks cost the same as in the West, and with local people. I'll be staying near the "Nhi Dong II Hospital" in District 1. Cheap drinks, that's gonna be in the Bui Vien area. If you want disco/club, that's not gonna be cheap drinks, not even compared to western standards. Warm up at Bui Vien (or I personally suggest the Emergency Room, near Ben Thanh market) and then all clubs play electro/dance. Horatius speaks the truth. Lush is the best club in the city and it's normal, not high class or cheap. On Tuesday they have Ladies Night, which is the best night to go to Lush because it's packed. I've spent countless nights in Saigon clubs and Lush was the best. There's another club that plays a lot of hiphop, I can't remember the name, brain fart. Other than that, I'd say DC Club or Gold Club if you want the Viet club experience (as in you might be the only foreigners), it's quite something. Fang Club if you want a normal bar full of locals with a lot of live music. After 3am, Boston Bar, TnR tavern, Go2 if you want to see just how far you can push it. You'll easily find all the addresses on google so I'm not bothering to include them. There are many other well known place (Apocalypse Now and company) so you won't be bored.
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Dec 25, 2014 05:45
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Horatius Bonar posted:That is exactly the wrong attitude to have. Go to the mayhem. But the main streets around the opera house in D1 have a lot of lights and things up, and there's a few good bars near there. That might be good for an early evening walk to see the displays. Cool, thanks - we'll have a crowd of 10 or so, so I guess we'll block out a bunch of plastic chairs for dinner and enjoy the scenery, then bar hop around on Bui Vien before it gets too blocked up. The party happening out in D2 is looking less appealing every day since it'll be so far away from the city.
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Dec 25, 2014 14:22
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PalaNIN posted:The party happening out in D2 is looking less appealing every day since it'll be so far away from the city. Also, D2 means it's gonna be full of French people and hipsters, just a fair warning. 
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Dec 25, 2014 18:32
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If you get confused about which is which at a place with that crowd, the hipsters have cultivated beards and try to look unkempt while the French just don't shave and are unkempt. Also, the hipsters wear silly hats and oddly mismatched shoes/boots with their jeans while the French will exclusively be wearing soccer shoes or, varying by demographic, F1 racing shoes with their jeans (which are always very dark in color). And, of course, if they're French they'll be smoking like it's going out of style. This has been your handy not-at-all-stereotyped guide!
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Dec 26, 2014 06:27
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The French insult you outright. The hipsters make passive aggressive quips.
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Dec 26, 2014 06:29
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You guys forgot the full sleeve tattoos, a very important hipster accessory.
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Dec 26, 2014 16:44
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The quickest test is, will they fight you? Then they're French.
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Dec 26, 2014 17:08
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Why does Ganesh, the elephant headed hindu god, show up all over Thailand? Are there still traces of Hindu religion in the country?
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Dec 26, 2014 18:38
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Chantilly Say posted:The quickest test is, will they fight you? Then they're French Canadian. Squalid posted:Why does Ganesh, the elephant headed hindu god, show up all over Thailand? Are there still traces of Hindu religion in the country? Many Thai people still believe there is a ghost that lives in the threshold of your door and therefore you ought not step on it. That's a pre-Hindu animist belief. You may have also noticed that they will clothe certain trees like they do the buddha statutes or stupas. The critters holding up the prang are taken from any old myth, often old Chinese one instead of Hindu or Buddhist mythology. The spirit houses that adorn many plots of land don't show up in any Buddhist text -- Thais will tell you it is a place for the ghost resident on that plot of land to live in so that he doesn't live in your house. Arguably the most popular diety in Bangkok is the statue of Pra Prohm (bootleg Brahma) at the Erawan shrine. I'm not saying Buddhism isn't obviously the dominant spiritual belief in Thailand, but "out with the old" has rarely been a thing for spiritual beliefs outside of those religions that are very uptight about false idols and whatnot. To drag out an old holiday horse we might as well ask why we do Christmas in December. Christ probably wasn't born then and old Christian documents don't claim that he was. What we do know is that at one point Christianity was desperate to become the official religion of Rome and that one of Rome's biggest religious festivals was the Saturnalia, which was focused on spiritual cleansing but involved a lot of nonsense, and which took place regularly in December. You get the feeling from the Bible that God doth protest too much about the whole there is no god but me thing, so I imagine the mixed up sourcing of beliefs and idols and symbolism we see in Thailand is much closer to the natural state of how humans do religion. As the hippie backpacker might say, maybe we're the ones that are weird maaaaaannnn. raton fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Dec 26, 2014 |
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Dec 26, 2014 19:14
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Squalid posted:Why does Ganesh, the elephant headed hindu god, show up all over Thailand? Are there still traces of Hindu religion in the country? Go to the Erawan Shrine and find out. One of my favorite things in Bangkok.
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Dec 26, 2014 19:42
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Club Advice for Saigon would be nice too, what's good for a solo American bro who prefers hanging with locals. Also, I'm one of the rare guys who actually enjoys dancing. Here in Korea, all the clubs are identical with awful music. For instance, when I go to Cebu, I will sometimes just sit at a table with a random group of Filipinos, say hi, and then ask them if I can tag along because I like new experiences. My best night in Cebu started that way, and ended up at a university student house party. Also, my Irish bro is going to be in town for his 30th Bday. It will be 4 of us bros, what is a good place to give him some birthday debauchery?
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Dec 26, 2014 20:10
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Sorry to break up Viet nightclub chat but I just thought I'd remind everyone that the tsunami was ten years ago as of today.
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Dec 26, 2014 22:14
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Also I would like to remind everyone that Thai people love to put plastic wrap on remote controls.
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Dec 26, 2014 22:21
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And 7-11 bags on their heads during rainy season.
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Dec 26, 2014 23:27
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I haven't seen plastic wrap on remotes but all the light switches and power outlets in my fiancée's house are covered in the stuff. I haven't really thought about why. Horatius Bonar posted:Go to the Erawan Shrine and find out. Is that the one with the giant pink Ganesha statue on the river, with some other big colorful statues? If so I'll second this idea, but the five-headed rainbow-scaled dragon was my favorite one 
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Dec 27, 2014 11:13
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C-Euro posted:I haven't really thought about why. The air compressors in my refurbished condo still had the plastic wrap on them when we moved in, tripping the breaker every time we tried to use the AC until I looked outside and saw why. It's one of those cultural things that is completely ridiculous, heh.
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Dec 27, 2014 11:35
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ReindeerF posted:It's one of those cultural things that is completely ridiculous, heh. Like putting ice in beer? That's the only thing that's come close to offending me on this trip, Chang is actually OK as far as macrobrews goes buy I can't imagine it being any good watered down even more than it already is 
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Dec 27, 2014 13:42
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You saw it here first guys. Drinking Chang for the flavor.
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Dec 27, 2014 13:49
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Atlas Hugged posted:You saw it here first guys. Drinking Chang for the flavor. C-Euro, Chang is considered the worst of the major beers here (Archa would probably be the absolute worst - only ONE GOON likes it, ahem). We all drink it from time to time, but it practically needs ice because it's so strong. Ice in beer is one of those things most people adapt to (not all) and it's a great way to keep beer cool while limiting consumption, though obviously if you're off drinking your Triple Latte Bacon Artisanal Quiche IPA then you wouldn't want to put ice in it
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Dec 27, 2014 14:23
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I drink Chang because all the beers here are poo poo. Choosing between Leo, Singha, Tiger and Chang is like picking between four different flavors of diarrhea.
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Dec 27, 2014 14:40
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Eff you guys, I like Chang for what it is and every Thai person I've drank with on this trip likes it  I did promise a couple of my fiancée's friends I would take them on a beer tour if they came to visit us in the US, I'll show them what strong beer really is (I went to the international beer place in Asiatique on my first night here and was disappointed that they had no American beer on the menu)
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Dec 27, 2014 14:41
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Leo is great. It's just super depressing drinking Thai beer when I was drinking glorious Taiwan beer for so many years. At least Beer Lao comes in bottles here. Beer Lao in a can? That is packaged disappointment.
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Dec 27, 2014 14:46
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Atlas Hugged posted:glorious Taiwan beer What a sad fate to have never tasted true beer
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Dec 27, 2014 14:48
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eviljelly posted:What a sad fate to have never tasted true beer Look, when you live in Asia you drink what's available and that becomes the new baseline. Taiwanese Beer>Japanese Beer>Thai Beer>Chinese Beer>Korean Beer.
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Dec 27, 2014 14:54
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Maxsmart posted:Club Advice for Saigon would be nice too, what's good for a solo American bro who prefers hanging with locals. Also, I'm one of the rare guys who actually enjoys dancing. Here in Korea, all the clubs are identical with awful music. Well it's gonna be awful music, no matter what. But: DC Club, FUSE, Gold Club are places I remember to be mostly locals and full of hot women.
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Dec 27, 2014 15:42
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Hey, Tiger's actually decent for a mass-market beer. Also, Beer Lao and Kingdom are pretty good. Singha is good, but their marketing has gotten so comical that I can't buy it in good faith unless it's on tap. loving trying to stick us with half-sized bottles for full price, come on!
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Dec 27, 2014 15:55
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I'd drink Taiwan Gold until it killed me.
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Dec 27, 2014 16:09
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ReindeerF posted:Kingdom Sadly I still seem to be the only person here that actually likes the stuff. Honestly, as much as I like "proper" beer, lovely light beer + ice actually suits the climate here pretty well.
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Dec 27, 2014 18:04
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I met a guy from Bavaria on Koh Lanta and I was like 'hey so you must miss good beer' and he goes nah actually I like Chang a lot  Currently looking for someplace to live for the next 4 - 5 months in Bangkok. A nice quiet soi off Sukumvit probably.
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Dec 27, 2014 19:04
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Well I had a great time in Turkey with my "girlfriend" and she is now planning our life in Cambodia together. She insists on staying there because she's getting her "dream job". Personally my sights are set a bit higher than 'do paperwork for free' as a dream job but there you go. Having said that I'm going to have to do a CELTA so I can at least get a proper job and live like a (poor) king. I'm not sure how I feel about this but hey, experiences.
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Dec 27, 2014 19:35
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Tytan posted:Sadly I still seem to be the only person here that actually likes the stuff. The arguments between the Anchor and Angkor drinkers are fun as well. Is Chang still trying to market itself there?
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Dec 27, 2014 19:43
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duckmaster posted:Well I had a great time in Turkey with my "girlfriend" and she is now planning our life in Cambodia together. She insists on staying there because she's getting her "dream job". Personally my sights are set a bit higher than 'do paperwork for free' as a dream job but there you go. Welcome to TEFL club! Please to be enjoy!
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Dec 28, 2014 00:50
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