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Published: February 13th 2007
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Final night together
Ueli telling me how good The Dominator is in bed. "Zey don't call her ze Dominator for nussing you know!" Zoinks!
Greetings Fellow Phlebotomist',
Today the blog comes courtesy of the Peoples Committee for Roasted Peanut Sales and Animal Husbandry, where Sarah has been doing some consultancy work. She is after all one of the world's most reputable Animal Husbands.
This blog will be a mixture of events and happenings since our return to Saigon after trying to get to Phu Quoc, like the time Sarah was so drunk that she spent the night in a Vietnamese lock-up after she climbied the flagpole of the Peoples Committee Building in downtown Saigon and replaced the Vietnamese flag with a piece of Vegemite on toast...But more about that later.
Well the Swiss arrived back from Phu Quoc for a day in Saigon before they left. We hung out and laughed about our failed attempt to reach the island and the fact that it rained for most of the time while the Swiss were there (nothing like poetic justice). But the good times always end and the following day they had to return home. It was an emotional farewell with both the Swiss literally inconsolable and weeping unashamedly at mine Saartjes feet. Saartje, in her usual brutal way, told them to "stop
Some fine stuff!
"This is the finest Coffee I have smelt!" Ueli impressing both Dom and the shop-keeper by using his finely tuned sense of smell to gauge the quality of the local coffee on offer. Unfortunately for Ueli he was sniffing tea... degrading yourselves Swisses and stop crying on my feet, you're ruining my nail polish". I, on the other hand, was a little more conciliatory and told them to "get the f#@*k up, you look silly." So they dragged themselves off the ground and we all walked to the taxi. We hugged and Dom tried to pash me and Ueli tried to pash Sarah it was embarrassing. We said our goodbyes; they hoped into the taxi for the airport. All jokes aside Dom and Ueli are two wonderful and fun people. Two people we were very lucky to meet and two people that we hope we can see again soon. So big cheers in the direction of Switzerland for you both, thank you.
So the plan was to hang around Saigon and try and find some work for a couple of months. But it didn't really pan out like that. Well I have to say Sarah was more committed to the task than I was, I was on holidee and kind of let the side down a bit. There were other factors as well that we won't go into, but Sarah turning up to interviews clad in a two piece
Baggy Green!
Taken after my match winning effort with the ball against the poms. Immediately after this photo was taken I was contacted by Ricky Ponting who begged me to fly back and save Australia from the Poms. I said no. bikini and munching on KFC didn't help. Sarah just LOVES her fried chicken.
I managed to score a spot in the Saigon Australian Cricket Club after turning up to training one Saturday afternoon and throwing down a few of my legendary thunderbolts (just ask Fox, Pistol Pete and Juggers about these). I think it was the brutal short pitched delivery that hit the Captain in the throat that got me the gig....so the next day I was in the side to play India B...as twelfth man! 30 overs a side, max 6 overs per bowler. As it turned out the S.A.C.C (a very unfortunate acronym…) lost their first ever game since the competition started 3 years ago. I don't need to tell you what their mistake was....the next week we played the English Singapore Cricket Club who flew in for the once a year grudge match. This time I was inserted into the team. They batted first and we rolled them for 117. I bowled first change and took 3 for 8 off 6 overs....and we scored the runs in 20 overs with the loss of 3 wickets...if only they played me in the previous game...It was great fun,
Kiss Army
Sarah introducing Em Yen into the world of the KISS army. although it was slightly surreal in the middle of Vietnam playing cricket. It was almost a colonial affair, with marques, sponsorship and silver service! Ludicrous!
During our stay here we have been spending some time with the lovely girls at Innoviet (the kick arse tour operators that we bang on about so much) and considering they couldn’t get rid of us they decided to invite us to Em Yen's birthday party. This was a funny occassion. These girls and guys are all in their mid 20’s and the party was less to do about drinking and more to do about having innocent fun. Such a contrast between what 20 something Australians would do. There was beer, but I think this was more of a nod to western culture than anything Vietnamese, for example everybody was allotted two beers each! The party kicked of with some games. There were blown up balloons taped to the wall and in these balloons were little slips of paper with little tasks or dares on them and everybody had to burst a balloon. For example the balloon I burst contained the task of cleaning the joint up after the party, Sarah's task was to
I was made for loving you baby...
Em Yen practising her Peter Criss impersonation at her 27th birthday party. draw cats whiskers and nose on the birthday girl with the icing from the cake and another girl had to speak to Yen like she was her boyfriend, just funny little innocent things like that. Then they wanted to know how we say cheers in Australia. Well I saw Jack Thompson in "The Sum of Us" say "Up ya bum" to his Gay son and boyfriend as a way of saying cheers. So we told them this was what we said. So they all said "Up ya bum'. Then after a while they wanted to scull the last part of their beer and it was Em Yen's turn so she promptly declared "Every body it's up my bum" to which Sarah and I were in stitches. They decided they needed a chant to go along with the sculling so they decided to chant "up ya bum" except somehow "up ya bum" was replaced with "Happ-y Bum, Happ-y Bum, Happ-y Bum." The boss got wasted on her two beers and had to be taken home in a taxi! Priceless. It was a wonderful night of good old fashioned fun.
The next day one of the Innoviet tour guides (Em Toan)
Up My Bum!
Em Yen practising the time honoured Vietnamese tradition of sculling a beer while your friends chant "Happ-y Bum Happ-y Bum" invited us out to the house where he lives with his Aunt in district 12 for lunch. It was a side of Saigon that we had not seen. Dirt roads and poor communities. It was a wonderful day, with wonderful people and wonderful food and we were even treated to some break dancing Vietnamese style! It was a great day even though I was forced to sing Karaoke in Vietnamese and continually swap the beer Toan’s uncles kept pouring me with the beer the uncles actually had in front of them. I was also finding it difficult by the end of the day to put up with everybody grabbing my shoulders, forearms and legs and squeezing them; they don’t see too many people of my size around these here parts. Sarah, as usual, shone through as a true warrior for peace and good will in the world. She is truly wonderful and utter proof that there is beauty in the world.
Life in Saigon is a mixture of curios smells, curious people, thousands of motorbikes going in every direction, confusion, street stalls, markets, kids running barefoot and utter craziness. Included here are some pictures of daily life in Saigon.
Lunch in District 12
Jaso, Saartje, Em Huong and Chi Luong eating a wonderful lunch at the table. Enjoy.
Fine and sunny with the chance of underground exploration in a former VC tunnel complex.
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Leanne
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Wonderful Entertainment
Hi there~ Stumble across your blogs while researching for my trip to Vietnam. You have made me cry with laughter reading your adventures. Keep up the fantastic work! Peace out