Greetings,

This is the video of preparing a King Cobra Curry in the Mekong Delta. Supposedly if you eat it’s heart and whatever “gon” is while it’s still beating it brings you some kind of, something. Either way in true SHABL fashion, it had to be done so… It got done.

When shooting odd animal internal organs you don’t really taste it so its not that intense. Drinking the blood was another story and that will be uploaded later this week or next week. This was all done on the private Mekong delta tour that started with some gent approaching me while I was having a breakfast.

The curry was alright but the experience is what it was all about. If you’re in SE Asia, go to Vietnam (one of my fav countries) and go on a private tour if you can. The organized tours “just aren’t the same”. If you enjoyed this be sure to watch the “Eating Rats in Vietnam” video as well.

I also have footage of eating all the ginger left from the blood which was arguably the grossest thing of the whole process. Also have one of eating hot chili’s. It doesn’t look like much but after you see the tour guide refuse and the guy he makes eat it take a small bite then spit it out it gives you a better idea. Of course, that is coming as well.

The dude in Pj’s is missing a finger from a cobra bite. He had to cut his finger off then drive himself to a hospital god knows how far away. He said if he didn’t cut his finger off, he’d be dead. He catches the snakes and when random tourists come through on a private tour … They can order them from the menu, if he has any in stock.

That’s about it from SHABL for now.

Tips hat,

Hello and good day?

How art thou? That’s good to hear, I’m fine thanks as well.

Now that the small talk is out of the way, let us get to the very important matter of what’s on the menu, shall we? Monkey brains are a little crass, the Mekong was difficult to fish in, couldn’t even catch a bass, rats. On the topic of RATS let us discuss the very important matter of picking, preparing and well, eating rats for dinner.

The video below is VERY graphic in nature, you have been warned…

Lots of taboo associated with eating rats, why? Many parts of the world do not have the luxury of just showing up at some massive big box grocery store and picking finely procured meat products. Yet many sit back and look down at eating common vermin, we here at SHABL believe the key to understanding is experiences. Considering we had had King Cobra the night before and nobody wanted the duck heads, we thought it only made sense to move a little down the food chain…

Supposedly rats taste like chicken and many prefer it to chicken, believe it or not.. Also the rats one can procure at local markets in the Mekong Delta are field rats, or let us just say “organic rats”. There is a difference, if you know, please let me know.

Personally, not a fan of rat and most likely won’t eat it again unless it’s served to me at a formal black-tie dinner party, you know, tuxedo and top hat affair of such. Think that’s crazy? In Sapa I met some gents at the coffee shop and went back to dinner that one of the gents wives had been preparing. We had shaved pig ear salad to start and pig intestines for the main course followed by a bottle of Jim Bean.

When one is invited to such affairs it would be rude and uncalled for not to partake, also in case you have been living under a rock, we here at SHABL (myself and whomever I’m with) are down for anything, anytime, anywhere. Life is a lot more fun that way, you should try it sometime if haven’t already.

Suffice to say my favorite part of the rat was it’s inners, lungs, heart, all that jazz. Kinda like “extreme pate” We’d have more footage of us eating it and our favorite pajama wearing chef cooking them had we not ran into an old school hippy and, well, gotten distracted. The chef threw them on the BBQ, I’d rather some type of seasoning…

The rats cost us 200,000vdn a kilo or $10US. Still think that was a steep price but it was cheaper than cobra and more expensive then goose heads and none of us wanted monkey brains. Above is my favorite pajama wearing chef. Not only is he down for cooking ANYTHING, he’s always down for a laugh and of course, a cigarette, miss that guy!

I met the gentlemen who joined me for this dinner party in Saigon. After meeting “Mr. X” I ran into one of the gents who was on the same bus as myself while enjoying beers on a street corner. He was with the two other fellows. I mentioned the private Mekong Delta Tour and they were in. Great group for such a trip, remember that when you travel alone, mini-crews form all the time, don’t wait for someone else to come, just go.

Above will give you an idea of what else is coming up on the menu this week here at SHABL. Naturally it was all prepared by our personal chef. Once you have a private cigarette smoking, pajama wearing chef, the rest, seem quite vanilla and incredibly boring, I dare say. This is also where my crippling sugar cane addiction began, thanks guys!

Tip of the hat,

P.S: Enter here to win a free 1st class eurail global pass.

P.P.S: If someone suggests you attend a Long Island Ice Tea breakfast party, I suggest you decline.

Search Du Jour?!: “don’t have boring tuna” – Search.

Good day,

Been going through old travel content I collected over the last 12 months, lots of interesting stuff. Next week will be “eating odd animals week” featuring videos on eating rats for dinner from picking them out at the market to eating their lungs or whatever the insides were to eating King Cobra heart and something else (still not sure) while still beating and of course, drinking its blood.

Then for whatever reason found videos of eating all the ginger that was left in the bottom of the king cobra blood mix and hot chilli peppers that our guide would only eat the tip of then had to spit out, the others wouldn’t even touch them. Lot’s of people I have met didn’t like Vietnam saying the people weren’t friendly, odd? I found them to be some of the most fun people on this planet… ~Shakes them~ What’s wrong with you people!?

Here is a sneak peak, too lazy to process videos so the rat one will be up Monday and the King Cobra will be up later in the week. Looking through this content makes me realize that more odd things must be eaten.

This was all possible by taking a chance and trusting a random moto guy who approached me at breakfast and said I should go with him for a private tour of the Mekong Delta where we could do anything… Arguably best tour of the trip and went with some dudes I met a day or so earlier through most random circumstances, naturally. Ever wonder WHY you run into the people you do? You’re on similar paths, indeed.

That is all,

P.S: Considering I’m “settled in” and only like doing things I enjoy, lots of updates coming daily. We here at SHABL believe in abundance aka some is good but more is better, for most everything.

P.P.S: Don’t forget to enter to win a Free 1st class Eurail Global Pass.

P.P.P.S: Walking around town in slippers is the first step to walking around in public in your Pajamas, very popular in Vietnam by distinguished gentlemen of the highest order.

Random Search!?: “An exray of my brain would show I am insane and boring” – Result.

Not feeling bloggy, this will be brief but hopefully loaded with photos. I went on a private tour of the Mekong Delta and had an amazing time. Here is a brief outline of how it went down and whatnot. If you have not already read this, I suggest you read it first.

We got picked up near our hotel at 10am and made our way by moto to the Mekong Delta. Once arriving went on a boat ride through the tight lanes and visited many places from small villages to candy shops to places where they make all sorts of whiskey. Sample everything and move on. Best part of a private tour? You can leave whenever you’re ready.

After that check out the small village, some fish farms and hang out at night to see the large volume of fireflies. For dinner we decided to eat King Cobra. They caught it in front of us, prepared it and then we eat it. It’s an honor to eat it’s heart while it’s still pumping and it’s liver as well. I eat both and felt like more of a man, or something like that.

The snaked turned into an amazing curry and for dessert, we drank it’s blood. Supposedly it helps your eye sight, I think it worked. I have LOTS of video of this entire process which I will update, one day, when I’m bored. That said, more you travel harder it is but stay tuned. At one point, the cobra spat on one of my friends arms, he immediately rinsed. Supposedly it is “ok” but if you have a small opening or you start scratching later, not so good.

The next day we took off to the floating market, that was pretty cool but not what I expected, saw more people making candy and whatnot, eat some good food, drank some good coffee and just cruised. Spent a good portion of day just driving around in the boat going places. Lots of small lanes that are like side streets and people live right on the river. The market didn’t have “that much”, mainly just people selling ridiculous amounts of pineapple and other things of that nature.

I should have added photos to last update, it was quite thorough, looking back. On the way home ~1 hour or so we stopped at a local market and bought some rats. The guide said he liked rat more than chicken so we thought “sure”. The process of them killing and preparing the rat on the side of the street is also on video and will be shared at another time.

The rat tasted gamy to say the least, I won’t be eating rat again. One of the gents we were with quite liked it actually. I’d much rather eat cobra than rat any day. Then again cobras eat rats so that kinda makes sense. This market had everything and everything was alive. It’s insane how back home people are so removed from the process of killing something to eat it. We just buy these neatly packaged portions like you’re buying a back of chips, quite the opposite over here.

Final day, did a bit of fishing then we checked out the snake museum which also was an anti-venom hospital for locals, soldiers, etc… Actually it was more of a zoo than anything. It was a good time and then we made our way home before checking out the Chinese Pagoda, 250 years old.

On the way, we saw a guy with a basket on the back of his moto stuffed with dogs for the market. Saw the same with pigs the other day, these dogs look like they came from someones couch. It’s odd how we feel for dogs but have total disregard for whatever else shows up on our plate each day.

The trip was good, 3 days was plenty. Our guides where knowledgeable and quite nice. I never once got the vibe that anything sinister was going on. It’s good money for them and a great experience for us, it’s collaboration at it’s finest, ladies and gents.

Since being in HCMC I’ve just been relaxing, except for the night I wrote the last update, making a move soon. I recommend visiting the Mekong Delta if you are in the neighborhood. Private guide was cool, we could do whatever we wanted out there, literally.

If you are a friend of mine and want our private guides number, just ask. I will make a video blog out of the eating rat and king cobra experience that will be shared at a later date, hopefully not too much later.

Cordially yours,

Hello, Bonjour, Hola, Sin Jaue!?(sp),

Greetings from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in Vietnam. I just got back from a private tour of the Mekong Delta with a taxi moto driver. What’s cool is that after going on it, everything everyone ever wrote was true AND MORE. At the end, I even left a note and obvious a link to this here website.

Let’s just say it was something you’d never get on some hotel / tour office / whatever vendor. There was 4 of us, it was the the “Commonwealth” to as it had a few major players such as Canada (~1/3 it’s total land), Australia (Up there as well), England (Obvious). Ironically when you hear “Commonwealth” the largest player in terms of citizens is actually India with an extremely insane 1,000,000,000+.

Considering most of Canada is totally uninhabitable for most who are still enslaved to the old paradigm of labor for cash. As the the volume of those who earn exclusively from some mechanism that is totally devoid of time and space expands, demand for places that typically would seem “unthinkable” will begin to look QUITE desirable.

Digressing into an unknown tangent of real estate. I’m curious if you can purchase blocks of property that include a lake and it’s actual spring source drilled to whatever level is required legal to be “on your land”. After that, build a cottage and sell EXCLUSIVELY to extremely interesting people who have a means of arriving there. The most likely method would be a plane to some airport, another to a smaller than a float plane.

Ok, now that that’s done, you could sell water forever if you owned it. I had this idea about a half decade ago or more. Someone told me legally in Canada you cannot own a spring or something of that nature. That said, I have not looked it up or even thought it for a near half decade before typing this, here.

Back to a trip to the Mekong Delta in the Vietnam… First it’s really dirty, so dirty you wouldn’t want to swim in it unless your boat capsized and you had no other choice but to go in the water at last possible moment. People do everything in there from the most basic daily needs to a “boat & moto” shop on the side that has a floor covered black with oil that just drips. Garbage is definitely plentiful but not overwhelming. The smell is alright for the most part but at times you’d be smelling something rancid.

Going down the Mekong river is cool, the floating market in Bai Kai (sp?) is worth checking out. It’s a market but not really, just lots of people who sell egregious quantities of pineapple at rock bottom prices. Loving pineapple, this was alright. You check out all sorts of stuff along the way from coconut everything candy to snakes you hang out with. They also have this authentic old school Mekong band. They have instruments not seen elsewhere and gents who master them. They play some songs and then these ladies take turn with vocals in different songs. At the end, the ladies hand you roses, you roll some cash in there ~10,000-30,000 depending on what it did for ya and pass it to them.

You check out this local village of ~200 people who live on this island in the middle. It’s quite cool and in keeping with the whole “live anywhere if you don’t have to show up to work to get paid”. The people were really friendly and had some sick flat screen TV’s. Not all but some, obviously.

This place is truly out there from the city or anywhere really. Lots of places are still inhabitable due to potentially live munitions. We went with a crew of older moto taxi gents who were ~47-55 years old. Drive fast enough to keep up, pass the laggards, even start the “school” but NO unnecessary risks considering the ridiculousness of driving around this area on a moto. Saturday at 5:15 on not even a seriously main artery of the city was some crazy stuff a gent on the trip caught. I mean it’s just pure bedlam, drive and avoid.

A lady friend of mine was driving in Phnom Penh, It was quite insane. When she returns to Canada, people criticize her of driving slow.  Germany has the autobahn and in Canada we have ~100 speed limit where ~120 is an often pace of traffic and people may go over that to pass part of the school moving, at a decent rate.  Back home, people see a green light and JUST GO. I mean, running a red is consider “no mans land, bad news, no good, whatever.” Many places here, it’s just no mans land. People who are used to driving here automatically drive slower and are usually cautious at intersections.  It’s really congested, extremely congested, those arteries are clogged.

What I do like is the fact that they have roundabouts, what drives me nuts and makes my mind want to explode while my blood boils(I don’t really care at all) is the fact that we have almost none. Ottawa has at most a handful of roundabouts, none more ridiculous than the one center of town. Anyways, it’s a 3 way in and a yield… Being used to the “regular roundabouts” if I should even have to qualify what one is. Anyways, I used to honk at people aggressively going around there and just flow like I owned the place. This one time, I honked this person to h3ll and it turned out this be this lady who freaked out point at the sign, last time I honked there.

I unplugged my battery hoping that miraculously this dead lousy battery is working again considering the charge said 47%, I was quite happy. Long story short it was getting low so I unplugged it hoping not to drill it to 0 again which could!? have been part of it’s demise and I lost a lot of text, let alone my train of thought.

It’s 5:17am and I’m going to bed after I push some photos on to this thing. Full Mekong Delta update to coming including but not limited to stuff that never crossed my mind until I got there. Moral of this diluted story is, if you’re going to go, get a private guide.

The other gents on the trip who had cameras and took these pics, full hat removal tip to thee.

Good day to you kind whatever you consider yourself,

Let’s talk about some craziness involving my camera situation and madness that can only ensue when you jump on the back of a smiling motorcycle taxi dude in the craziest traffic I’ve ever seen, pure madness, man I love this stuff.

First, I drink waaaaaayyyy to much of this cough syrup last night. It is supposed to last 5 days, I just chugged it to “speed up the process”, mistake. After like I dunno 30 minutes I did not feel well, at all. I start reading the label and taking to much is a bad thing, why am I telling you this? Simply because I’m DJ EXHAUSTO and if I didn’t update this shiz everyday, I’d be sleeping or or laying face down on a filthy guest house bathroom floor.

I passed out last night at 4am and at 9am, this dude was fixing his motorcycle aka revving it like crazy non stop, (there is a gecko crawling near my screen, I love geckos) while another guy was nailing these spikes into steel or something, so loud, non stop. Then again, there IS a curfew here, when in Rome, whatever. The cough syrup and ridiculous amounts of raw ginger did the trick though, sorta.

~flicks ash in old coke can~

Wake up like a zombie, but I have stuff to do. I’m so NON ROUTINIZED that the fact I have a trip tomorrow, it is bothering me. I hate having things organized whatsoever. I mean it’s almost a drag. Anyways I get up and meet Mr. X, we drink coffee and call my Aussie friend about the Mekong Delta Trip, “he’s in”.

Blah blah blah, find a nice Canon camera for 270US and I’m like ok, all my old cards fit, all my spare battery packs fit, this is good. Go next door, find it cheaper, even better. Buy it with great vigor and zeal and Mr. X drops me off. I offer to pay him, he says “no problem”. He takes off, into the messy traffic.

Take all these photos, I’m dedicated to this blog, despite the fact that NONE OF YOU ever comment, you lazy sacks, I know you come here. Then again, most other travel blogs only get comments from other travel bloggers like some big travel blogger circle …. hah, I just derailed my train of thought.

~flicks ash~

At 3:30 I meet the Aussie and he is with the British Blokes, 1 guy is 100% in, other is maybe. I call Mr. X and he comes to meet us, after meeting Mr. X the last guy is like “I’m in”. I’m sure I could have bargained more but if we’re trusting our life with this guy and it’s cheaper anyways, why not let Mr. X be thrilled about the deal and treat us proper.  3 days 2 nights on our own boat with hotel and 2 guides in a boat that fits 20 people in the Mekong Delta, hahaha.

Anyways the camera is crap, half the time I take a photo of stuff moving it’s blurry and the video has like a line in the middle. I’m mad, upset and annoyed. It’s getting dark and stores are closing soon so I do a backflip down the center of the stair case and land in a fish bowl before drying my feet off and sprinting through the streets to find a trusty “moto man”. I come to this big gang and says “WHO WANTS TO DRIVE ME 10 minutes for 30,000dong ($1.50us) all these dudes wake up, smile and jockey. This one guy caught my eye (not like that) as he was first up and I take him.

~pitches smoke out window~

We get there, explain to the guys I can’t have this camera… It’s not good enough.  My old one was like $500US before tax in 2007, it’s so dope. It’s a first gen flip cam, it’s like a James Bond cam. These point and shoot are vanilla like working for a crappy corporation and getting a fake watch before you leave.

Anyways, they don’t want it back. I just stand there like a kid selling cookies until finally he takes his calculator and offers me $210 for the camera, I take the calculator and punch in $220, he looks at me, I look at him with a smile and say “you just made $10 for nothing man” he gives me the cash we bounce. Get back give him the 30,000 and we have a a big laugh as I thank him for helping me ditch that crap.

I went to the canon dealer and they MAY be able to back order me a new one of this discontinued model. The lcd screen flips around every which way, so I can be on the back of a moto fliming intense traffic, I can walk through crowds with the camera low while keeping an eye on the LCD, it’s hands down coolest camera I’ve ever seen. Those big ones are for dorks haha. Like, what next, am I going to carry a god d@mn purse? How do you club with one of those, it has to fit in your pocket.

On a side note, reading Canadian news makes me want to slit my wrists with a plastic airplane knife. In Canada, some dude drown going to his ice fishing hut and now some “not sure what to call them” are saying “we should ban ice fishing in huts on that river”. Really? These dudes know what they’re getting into. Ask any other fisherman and they’ll tell you where to go.  On that note, in Britain, they have this law where a kid seat is needed until 12 … Reason? It “could” strangle the kid if they get in an accident. Here? You have kids with no helmets sitting on their moms lap on a moped next to a bus. Many countries need to relax a bit, I believe.

If you’re taught that everything is dangerous and everything is bad, won’t you be scared of everything? Then again, won’t you also be a complacent worker who will probably live a really boring life? Hmmm, never thought of that did ya? Neither did I, actually.

Tips hat,

P.S I love all the alleys here, so much life off the main roads, it’s awesome. So far, I’m loving Vietnam.

P.P.S: These are the decent photos, 50% of the photos that involved movement were so blurry, I don’t care about much but it was so bad that it even bothered me.