Coffee Corner

Out to Lunch said:
It is chrysanthemum tea usually served together with coffee -robusta. Vietnam is now the second largest coffee exporter in the world and has a rich and varied coffee culture that even Starbucks has not been able to crack. Saigon is a great place to be but it's better not to leave your camera on a coffee table since it will disappear fast. Considering your interest in architecture, while Hanoi is good for French colonial architecture Saigon is the place for Modernist architecture. Cheers, OtL
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Noted.

I was hoping for something more 'alcohol' than coffee. I was in Hanoi about twenty years ago, but I no longer recall what we drank back in those days, but surely there must be a 'chaser' to go with one's morning coffee, especially when one is hung over or lethargic after a big night out.

Yes, as you wrote, the architecture is worth staying a few days to walk the streets with a wide angle kit and record the colonial heritage of that city. Until I went I thought most of the pre-WW2 buildings had been bombed into oblivion by American Air Force raids during the war - but then I saw how much had survived, and in a way my faith in humanity was restored.

I was in Saigon in 1975, just before the big takeover. In late March of that year all the camera shops in Cholon began discounting their stocks of cameras if one paid in foreign $$. I had Canadian dollars then, which nobody in Asia usually wanted, but suddenly any or all foreign money was eagerly accepted. I bought a Nikkormat FTN and some Hanimex lenses. In retropect, I should have bought Leica.

On April 17, 1975 I flew out of Saigon on a commercial flight. Oddly, it was about three-quarters empty. Across from me a German came in with a large carry bag which he lavishly tipped the in-flight attendant to leave in the spare seat. We got into conversation and he opened his bag to show me his stash of at least a dozen Leica and Leitz lenses, which he said he bought at bargain prices from the Chinese shop owners. Back in Germany he must have made a killer profit on his purchases.

Moving' on. What a relief that Star*ucks have yet to make inroads in Vietnam! Much the same has happened in Melbourne, where many of the American industrial coffee providores have closed up shop over the years. Now and then I would hang out in the Hudson's coffee palace in Lyon street, Carlton where one could go up to the second floor and sit in comfortable sofas to read newspapers and magazines and sip (mostly forgettable) American-style coffee. Now long gone. Yet the Italian coffee places go on and on. When one has a good product...
 
DownUnder said:
On April 17, 1975 I flew out of Saigon on a commercial flight.
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What were you doing in Saigon? I know the Canadian Control Commission left in 1973. A gig with the Embassy? The Vietnamese do not like Arabica coffee, instead, they love the instant high of Robusta. Also, the American hamburger sellers are not doing well. Price related but also because the Vietnamese like to share their food which is hard to do with a hamburger. Unfortunately, the pizza and chicken chains are thriving and child obesity is becoming a thing in the big cities.
 
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