Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Food
Bot chien

72 Tran Dinh Xu, Quan 1
Bot chien or fried rice cake is a Vietnamese street food that resemble Singapore fried carrot cake. It is usually serve with shredded green papaya in fish sauce.

Try out this stall at Tran dinh xu, open morning 7am, taste is pretty average. Stall owner is over 70 yrs old but look energetic when comes to cooking bot chien.
Saw a recommendation from Foody, some people support this stall because of the stall-owner age. Cost 15K per plate.

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

The blind leading the blind.

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

This available in most neighbourhood market selling morning....cost between 25k to 35k for market stall sitting on low stools and roadside...:)

Since I dun eat beef...only order 2 sunny side up eggs and pate...with baguette cost 15k...:)

If you eat in a shop will cost more...:)

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

If ignorance is bliss, you must be ecstatic. :D

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

In case anyone didn't notice, there are some here who seem to be trying to squash discussion of sex in the thread. Spamming. I suspect business reasons.

They promote myths such as that Google Translate doesn't work. All I can say there is: try it. You'll see. All the girls here use it now. It works.

Another favorite is that it's dangerous to participate in the hobby here. Or it's hard.

It's not hard and it's not dangerous. It's no Bangkok, but you can definitely find what you are after. You don't need a tour guide.

Another myth: website girls are bad. They're not Just read back through the forum and you can see plenty of positive reports. Some negative too. Honest reports.

See my links below. Go out, try, and report back here on how it goes.

Keep sex alive. :D

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Google Translate is not perfect but possibly the best tool out there in the market to communicate with someone who can't speak your language and probably the same for them too unless you know of something better and if so, please share (other than learning and being able to speak their language). :)

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

So pls tell me what "di choi ko ru" means using your Google Translate?
How about: "Vjet saj ma ng khac hjeu thj cug 0k ruj"

No cheating by asking local friends, ok?
You are the expert. My tv is zero. :o

PS: Btw "ru" is not a short form as u mentoned. But pls teach me more, I am eager to learn frm the expert.

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Google translate is not perfect, even for Mandarin to English translation. But it is good enough to hold a simple conversation with a Viet bu. I used it to talk to a Cafe girl last week and I input simple English for the translation. The girl has no problem understanding it. At the end of the conversation, she gave me her numbers.
At the moment Google translation is the best you can have.of course, it can't beat human translation.

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Haha! Expert?!?!? If I was an expert, I wouldn't be using Google Translate! Yes my tv (short for "Tieng Viet", or "Vietnamese" for those here who now think you don't own a television) is not far away from your own. :eek: (you and I are the infamous v-tards here) But that's the point. I'm now fully capable of communicating as much as I want with anyone here in VN.

You're trying to challenge it now with messages that would only happen if you were receiving SMS from someone who doesn't know you are a foreigner. If you are there with the girl, she would never write either of those messages.

I already said bad grammar and abbreviations (your first example) will make it not work -- and of course if they omit entire words and punctuation the same goes. (your first example LOOKS like a single clause but is really 2 -- yours has 2 (like 2 separate sentences) but appears to have one the way it is written -- it lacks a subject in the first and subject and object in the 2nd -- go play not invite -- that's word for word -- but it really should be 'you went to play, but you didn't invite me". Note the omitted words and comma, all very important. And for sure no girl sitting with you who knows you are a foreigner and using Google Translate is going to type that second example. After the very first translation she will get that she has to write normally, not in SMSese. And actually these days most girls ALREADY know how to do it. Nearly all of them already have the app on their phones and they have used it a lot.

Obviously, your 2nd example, if someone types replacing all the i's with j's, deliberately misspell words, using a zero instead of o, etc. yes of course that would take a human to process. The app can't mind-read. I've been using the app a couple years now and no girl has ever written me such a message when we are sitting there in person, or who knows I'm a foreigner, and I only ever got ones like that when the person on other end presumed I was Vietnamese, and that is only website girls.

In real life, 2 people will be sitting together trying to communicate. If one translation fails, they will just try again, adjusting the words so the meaning comes through. One bad translation is an insignificant obstacle that's quickly and easily overcome.

Hoian, if you have zero Vietnanemse (or television), this app is exactly what YOU of all people need. I would think you would be the last person here who would be against it. :confused: This app will now enable you to go out and communicate here. This is GREAT for you.

My side of this issue says in the end: GO OUT & TRY IT YOURSELF AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK.

The anti-GT side on this issue can't honestly ask that question. Best they can hope for is to impress naive people who let themselves be persuaded by hearsay and never try.

As soon as anyone goes out and tries it themselves, people here who claim it is terrible lose credibility.

You aren't in VN now right? I'll give you some scenarios to go try it in when you do come here:

• Go to Mi Fa cafe on Vinh Vieh and try to use it for conversation with any girl there, preferably one who speaks NO English (I've only ever met one there who speaks English in about 4 yrs).
  
• Go to a market (but NOT Ben Thanh market, where most vendors speak English). Use it to tell them specifically what you are looking for, or to bargain for items you want to buy.
  
• Go to a Vietnamese oriented nightclub (this is my favorite scenario btw) and get a hot hostess girl and use it to have conversation. The great thing here is that the music is so loud that no one can have conversation, and it's just mindless yelling of Yo Yo Yo and so on. but now YOU can converse with your girl when others can not. And that will be very interesting to her, unusual, a nice respite from the typical night's duties, wow she can actually converse with a customer, one who actually seems to care about what she says and thinks. You stand out. It gives you the UPPER HAND in a nightclub setting.
  
• Go to a typical street food vendor. Use it to ask them about the ingredients. OK on 2nd thought, maybe don't do this one. There are some things you may not want to know. :D

In all the above, I'm confident anyone who tries it will succeed. No one needs a guide any more. Now we can all do everything ourselves.

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

And if you are there talking with a girl in a cafe, which would you prefer:

• talking to her one on one, the 2 of you alone together, getting cozier if things go well, using the app
  
• a real guy there with the 2 of you who speaks fluent Vietnamese, sitting in the middle or close by and translating what each of you say for the other one
  
• don't even try, stick to only the places that speak English

I know my choice -- and yours too :D

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Even myself will still use google translate once a while if I don't understand the whole sentence.

Got better than none. :)

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Food
Phong Cua

1019A Binh Quoi, Quan Binh Thanh
This is a cheap and nice local place for crab.
Usually crowded with local, you select the crab yourself.

This place about 30 mins drive from District 1.
Be sure to try the Cha cua or crab pie, something unique.

http://i68.tinypic.com/5a3vhy.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/15megjs.jpg

http://i63.tinypic.com/s2zmup.jpg

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Food
Vietnamese Braised cat fish in Claypot

Quan Com so 7, 03 Nguyen va Trang, Quan 1
This place is popular for their Vietnamese braised Cat fish (Ca kho to) and Sour soup (Canh chua). It is always packed with locals during lunch hours.

The Sour soup pretty average but braised cat fish definitely worth eating.




Saw many local eating this as a side dish. (see below pic)
Any bro know what is that?
http://i68.tinypic.com/2ivf9s9.jpg

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

LOL, I need that app like I need a bullet in the head. Whenever I am in VN, I am mostly catching up with local friends and we communicate via telepathy as non of them speak English. Duh! :rolleyes:

Re: Vietnam - HCM (Thread 3)
 

Missed your sharing of difficult to understand tv sentences in the Tieng Viet Lover club thread :) Your TV seems to have improved tremendously :)