I was heading to blanc Restaurant in Ho Chi Min City, a restaurant that hires Deaf people.
Having only half a day before catching my flight back to Sydney, I had to make to best of my last Silent Experience in Vietnam.
Exploring Vietnam was such a rewarding experience! Compared to other countries, I had the chance to meet a lot of Deaf people.
In Hoi An, I found a Tea House called “Reaching Out“, where only Deaf people were working.
Later on my trip, in Hue, I had dinner in a local restaurant, run by an energetic and funny Deaf man!
Finally, in Hanoi, I had a chat with a Deaf entrepreneur in his own hair salon, while I was staying in an Airbnb hosted by a Vietnamese Deaf couple.
As you can see, it’s a lot to take in! But I was thrilled to walk in blanc Restaurant and see what was it like.
How to find blanc Restaurant in Ho Chi Min City
Address: 178/180D Hai Bà Trưng, Đa Kao, District 1Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Stepping in Blanc Restaurant was like entering a fancy restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. The atmosphere is relaxed, with comfy couches and ambient music.
A young guy, who was the manager on duty that day, showed us the menus. They were written in English, Vietnamese, and in Sign Language as well. He explained to us a bit about the restaurant while taking a tour upstairs.
There, each table had a small book with some useful signs, like “excuse me” or “Can I have some water?”; plus a pencil and some paper.
I also met a super nice Deaf guy that, with a big smile, was teaching me some new signs and compared them with mine. Thanks to him, I learned that Ho Chi Min City Sign Language is about 60% different from Hanoi Sign Language. As a result, Deaf people in Vietnam can’t totally understand each other, even if they belong to the same country.
After the quick tour upstairs, we headed back to our sofa and a new waitress, Deaf as well, arrived with our drinks. The young lady showed me her sign name and told me she was super happy to work there because she could use Sign Language (which she’s proud of) and can be surrounded by other like-minded people.
Blanc & Noir.
Next to blanc Restaurant, there’s another building, which definitely caught my attention. It was another restaurant, where you can experience dinner in total darkness. That’s noir. A restaurant whose waiters are all Blind.
That was something really unusual and we decided to give it a try.
This time, the menus were written in English, Vietnamese, and Braille. After we choose our dishes, we needed to get used to the dark. For this reason, we had to play a little game while blindfolded. After that, we met our waiter, who brought us into the dining room.
It’s incredible to be in a place with your eyes open… and still not being able to see the space around you. It was hard to believe, but I couldn’t eat properly! Firstly, I had no idea were my cutlery was, even if the waiter had shown me that already, and secondly, I kept missing my mouth, which made everything hilarious. I was lucky nobody was able to see me!
Immediately, we noticed that we did recognize our food but we were not able to name it. Some Asian vegetables were particularly tricky, while others were famous to my taste buds, but I still couldn’t name them.
After dinner, the manager came to us with the picture of our food, explaining to us what we had just eaten and listened to our experience. This follow up was really important, as some of the dishes were completely new to me.
It was the end of my half-day in Ho Chi Min, and I couldn’t be happier. This should be the purpose of traveling, right? Meeting different people, getting to know a new culture, and start planning the next adventure!
Have you ever try a dinner in the dark experience? And in which country? If you haven’t would you like to give it a try? Let me know in the comment section below! 🙂
