Eating Dog Meat in Saigon with Wayne Kerr

Overnight in Saigon – Dog eat Dog

My first stop was Saigon to catch up with old friends. They are dog meat aficionados and quickly rushed me off to their favourite dog meat restaurant upon my arrival. Dog meat is well liked by most Vietnamese and even young teenage girls are known to get into it these days.

Dog meat restaurants are everywhere in Saigon and dishes typically set you back about US$1-1.50. The taste is pretty bloody strong and I was hoping they'd order 1 or 2 non dog dishes to go with it, but no it was all dog meet and Vodka Hanoi.

^ This was the first dish served – sliced dog leg	^ Then the dog meat sausage came

^ This was some sort of minced dog meat with all sorts of special herbs and spices – KFC Saigon style	^ Then the dog meat soup came – this was mostly dog tail and brains with a selection of vegetables	^ The was some "Kanom Gin" (don't know what it is called in English) to eat with the soup

^ Fortunately we had some Vodka Hanoi to wash it down

This vodka seems to have become quite popular over the past year and is a little more expensive than my favourite "Nep Moi" the whole dinner set us back 170,000 Vietnamese Dong with a whole bottle of grog, around $11 US.

Showed Wayne Jnr the pics this morning and he was worried that the local soi dogs would smell their friend in my stomach and start following me around - I wish I still had an imagination like that.

Tan Son Nhat Hotel - Saigon

I ended up staying at the Tan Son Nhat Hotel. It used to be the office of the President of the pre 1975 government and I learned that most Vietnamese government guys stay there as they can get good rates through their communist party connections. Anyway it has great ADSL connection, lovely grounds, and only say 5 minutes from the airport for about US$21 a night tansonnhathotel@hcm.vnn.vn.

^ Tan Son Nhat Hotel - Saigon

I had to fly out of Saigon at about 6.00am so it was an early night. Had a bit of an interesting encounter at the airport with some unruly Vietnamese passengers not so happy about a gate change for the Phu Quoc flight. They were pushing the police around and I only got a minute or so of footage before I got a tap on the shoulder by a big Vietnamese bloke in a dark suit telling me to put the camera away. It turned into more of an all in scuffle after this with the police whacking a few of the guys that where really out of control. I think they'd been drinking all night and traveling back to start preparing for the lunar new year celebrations.

Other members visits to Ho Chi Minh include A Ho Chi Minh Holiday, Bobcock in Vietnam, Saigon - Paris de l'Orient and Saigon to Hanoi.

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(SGN) Ho Chi Minh City Airport, VN The airport is 6 km north of the center of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Flight information is provided by FlightStats, and is subject to the FlightStats Terms of Use.