People here certainly seem to drink more than anywhere else in Vietnam and I think that there’s every chance that we are currently living in the most boozy neighbourhood. After 7 weeks now living in Cholon, and having visited the Mekong delta and Dalat in the central highlands, Saigonese seem to know how to party!
There is no issues with 0.7 mg/L blood alcohol either. There are very few cars in Saigon, but everyone gets around on the trusty Honda Dream and it seems to be the norm that when People are too drunk to walk, they drive home. We now have a couple of favorite restaurants here, and it seems that they are full every afternoon with post business lunch “meetings”
On more than one occasion we have seen a waiter holding up a customers motorbike, Just til he gets going… the best bit is this often happens in front of a policeman.. It doesn’t pay thinking about this when we are driving ourselves around Saigon roads on our trusty motorbikes.
Mot – Hai – Ba – Yoh! Is a cheer that can be heard a lot here in restaurants after about 2pm.
It basically means 1 – 2 – 3 – Yoh! The Vietnamese way of saying cheers! At some excited tables somebody may cheer this every couple of minutes, however then everyone must stand up and down at least some of their beer. We often get asked to join in. We found out pretty quickly that it is bad form to beat a Vietnamese man in a beer downing race. As they loose face they will keep challenging you until they win! Which of course means that you have to let them win to get out. Best way is to let them win first time. Although not by much, so it requires some strategic drinking and crucial timing to ensure a “damn it, just been pipped at the post again”. What’s worse (and this happens a lot) is when we get invited to drink at a local’s table, and they offer us beer, from their glass. Not something we are used to, but it is incredibly rude to say no, so hey, you’ve just got to drink their beer, say Cam on An, and thank somebody that you forked out for those Hepatitis shots before you left!
Heineken is big here! It’s a status thing. What’s odd though is that a lot of groups of men show off by drinking 500 mL cans of Heineken, which are twice the price, but they think are superior as they are imported from Holland. However all this beer is parallel imported, and oxidised as all hell, so tastes awful! Would be a hard one to educate them on this though.
Aside from Heineken, SABECO are the biggest brewery, with 38% Market share.
Photo: Locals here drink their beer with ice (Da) Saigon Do (Red) at 4.9% abv is their biggest brand, and is their more premium beer although they have no true premium brands. We seem to often be the only People drinking Saigon Xanh (Green). But I think it’s their best beer and at 4.3% and then drunk with ice (or DA as it is known here), it’s a great beer for this climate. And at 7,500 VND (60 cents NZ) it’s a bargain. About 1 in every 20 bottles is affected by oxidation and diacetyl, so I think they have an issue with a filling head, I tried returning an infected one once, that obviously never happens here ;-)
Photo: A pretty big night out last night! In Restaurants here they don't remove your empties, so there is no issues with the bill at the end! The other big SABECO beer is 333. Or Ba Ba Ba. Perhaps my favourite beer order is 3 333’s with ice. Which goes…
Ba.. Ba Ba Ba, Da! Even I can remember that one!
Photo: Another SABECO product Ba Ba Ba! It's OK but at 5.3% abv a little strong for this climate! I am leaving Saigon on Monday to head to Da Nang, which is on the coast in central Vietnam. A city and area I love, and of course it’s where China Beach is, which is all good. Mike and Soo Wuan are staying in Saigon a little longer, while I have a look around up there and catch up with an old friend Alan Spence for a Beer or 10! I’ll be in touch when I have more to report.
Cheers
Colin
Photo: IN Binh Tanh yesterday, this was a fence on a house, 10km East of Saigon CBD. Kiwi's get everywhere, eh?
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