24th April 2011
We’ve abandoned the stupid trams and have been walking around Melbourne instead. Which is great, because the centre of the city is compact and attractive and has plenty of grassy spaces around it. There are no important must-visit sights in Melbourne so you can just explore. It’s Sunday today. Not only that, it’s Easter Sunday. Most towns and cities are hard to like when they’re shut up for the day of rest but I still enjoyed our day out in Melbourne. I would probably want to move here if I could experience it on an ordinary weekday!
For dinner tonight we wandered into the suburb of Richmond and found ourselves in Saigon. Or at least, in a road packed end-to-end with Vietnamese restaurants, many filled with Vietnamese people.
We picked one of the most grungy and popular, with big jars of pickled chilli sauce and a thermos of jasmine tea on each table. We ordered three dishes and they were huge. They were also pretty insipid, with only the rare beef salad having any kind of punch at all. When we gave our order the waitress actually checked that we really wanted the salt-fish vermicelli, because “it’s a very strong taste – very Vietnamese – are you sure?” Which was mind-boggling, as the fish and noodle soup which appeared was unthreatening enough for an English granny raised on lamb stew and boiled potatoes. I’d put this down to “catering for westerners” except that the place was clearly hugely popular with local Vietnamese. It’s a mystery.
Anyway, Melbourne is nice. Wish we had a couple more days here but the road is calling.
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