New Year's Eve 2010. Having a delicious meal at Al Fresco's (an Australian owned restaurant in HCMC) turned out to be perfect. It's one of those places where, get this, they actually understand Western standards of customer service. Oh, sure the bathrooms were disgusting and one of our party didn't get served for about 45 mins, still overall, it was pleasant.
I must say after 1 year, 5 months and whatever days, my low expectations of Vietnamese customer service is easily exceeded.
Anyhow, after dinner we unsuccessfully tried to make it to a party via taxi. We sat for about 15 minutes , only making it one street over, and decided to head back to where we were, to ring in the New Year's at Vasco's. Unfortunately, Jon (my BF whom I will speak of repeatedly) REALLY wanted to attend the party where a lot of his friends were. So, being the kind, modest, magnanimous woman that I am, I said goodbye to my friends, kissed them HNY (Happy New Year's) and we hurried outside to catch motorbike taxis.
We told the drivers that we would pay them extra if they got us there quick, and then held on tight. As anyone knows, a xe om (motorbike taxi) driver is usually a little bit crazy, but will get you there as fast as they can. This means, death defying weaves through crowds of other motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians, trucks, cyclos, food cart vendors, other cars and taxis. I just held on, and chilled. After all, I've lived here for a year and a half, so whateves...
Jon was thrilled of course that we were heading to the party, and was taking pictures of the crowds, grinning broadly at me, and over all being that chipper guy that just got his way. I really wasn't bothered, as I was happy to see his friends, and all I really wanted was to spend HNY with my honey. Of course I didn't let him know that, and proceeded to make it seem like I had made a HUGE sacrifice for his happiness and would use this to my advantage at a later date. Duh!
We made it to the party! Rang in the New Year, and then got in a taxi to head home. The driver was clearly on drugs and wanted us to pay double the rate because there were still large crowds and traffic jams to get through. By this point I had a massive headache and didn't care. Jon thought he only wanted 20% more and by the time we got to our destination it was already too late. Not a good end to the night. We just paid him, because seriously the guy was on DRUGS and went home. All in all it was a good night, but I was ready to put 2010 behind me. Onward with 2011!
Love it...
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