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Last Friday was the official Grand Opening Party at the Hard Rock Cafe Ho Chi Minh City.   Last month was the soft opening.

Leon Sikes, the Managing Partner at MNG Joint Venture Partnership, and I were given invites by the Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company, or VTI for short.  For those of you that do not know, VTI is the owner of Highlands Coffee, and the master investor for Hard Rock Cafe HCM.  MNG, which focuses on global commerce and trade, intends to distribute Highland products in Turkey with hopes in expanding to the Central Eurasian region.

Since Leon and I did not have our invitation passes, Derick from VTI walked us in.  Once inside, I forgot I was even in Vietnam.  They did an amazing job with the interior of this Hard Rock Cafe.  Since it was the grand opening, the drinks and appetizers were free.

Hard Rock Cafe HCM was a bit packed since there were actually two parties, the 6 PM and the 9 PM (for VIPs).  At 9 PM, the early group just stayed, I would not have left either.  Run-DMC was the star of the grand opening.  If you did not get an invite, you really missed a great party.

Hard Rock Cafe HCM is definitely the place to go to hang out, have a drink and listen to good much in Saigon.  Actually, I would say it beats all the other clubs in Saigon now.

Photos and 1 video below.  Sorry, I used my G1 Google Phone so the picture quality is a bit lacking.

(Hard Rock Cafe HCM from the front of the Intercontinental Hotel)

(Entrace of Hard Rock Cafe HCM)

(First band playing)

(Run-DMC playing)

Today I watched Proposal at the Parkson’s MegaStar Cineplex.  MegaStar is the best cinema in Saigon right now.  The theater is clean, spacious with great sound quality.  The movie was great as well.  It made me homesick since I really miss the mountains.  Next week I plan to see District 9 there.

(Highlands at MegaStar Cineplex in Parksons)

(Very colorful inside)

(Entrance to the movies)

(District 9)

I got my first flat tire on my Yamaha Nouvo LX today.  It was a screw that somebody screwed into my tire.  This is the second time this has happened on my motorbike.  I need to watch where I park my bike from now on.

After pushing my motorbike to Le Van Sy street, I found a tire repair shop.  It took them about 20 minutes to repair both holes in my rear tire.  This is a bit frustrating since it means that I will have to replace the new rear tire within a month.  The one main puncture was pretty big, very hard to seal.

Flat tire on my motorbike

(The screw)

(He is taking the screw out)

(Repair kit)

(It was not easy to repair both holes)

Just got back from a small sinh to cafe near my house called Vitamin Bar located in the Phu Nhuan District.  Vitamin Bars seem to be small franchises located throughout Saigon.  I am not sure if it is a real franchise but they are quite convenient.

I had my favorite, sinh to cam dau (Orange/Strawberry Shake).

(Vitamin Bar – Quite busy tonight)

(Their competitor across the street had little customers)

(The road will be repaved within a week, or two, or three….)

Today I had some really great excite over at Patrick’s place in The Manor.  I got to play with his new Xbox 360 that he recently purchased from the US.  This was the first time I ever played any video game on a 42 inch HD LCD TV (Toshiba).  Let me tell you something, it was addicting.

Patrick first showed me how to play Fallout 3.  It took some time to get used to it but then we played for about 3 levels.  After one hour, we switched to Halo 3.  Wow, I got addicted.  While Patrick was editing some pictures for me, I kept playing.  I forgot how long I played but it took a long, long time before I got killed (actually my player was killed earlier since I did not know how to fire the guns correctly.  Once I figured out….).  Finally, a grenade killed my player and we ended the night.

Looks like I will have many more nights playing with Patrick’s Xbox 360 in the near future

Below are some Fallout 3 pictures on Patrick’s HD LCD he took for me:

If you are interested in getting legal copies of the above games, please visit Gamescorner, a store run by my French Viet Kieu friend.

Patrick has an interesting Vietnam and Southeast Asia blog at this URI: http://www.westernkennedy.com/news/