back in the hoach

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I’ve now been back in Ho Chi Minh City for about 6 weeks. It feels great to be back. As much as I enjoyed living in Hanoi, I’m glad to be back in the madness of the south. I’m not sure that much has changed while I’ve been away, but not being a local I doubt that I’d notice too much. I still work for the same company, but am now working at a school near the airport. The traffic is pretty insane trying to get there each day, but the view out of the windows whilst I teach is great…and I now have no problems teaching students what airport/take off/landing/airbus is…it can be distracting at times though…I’ll be in the middle of explaining something and suddenly my eye is more interested in the 19.50 Air Asia flight from KL that is making a wobbly looking descent into Saigon…

About a month ago it was the Tet holiday (lunar new year, didn’t I explain this already?). As I’d only been back in the city a couple of weeks I decided to stick around for most of the holiday. Saigon was quiet during Tet…ok, quieter…didn’t do much, just went out for food and drinks…the decorations and fireworks around the city were really cool. I watched a load of fireworks from a restaurant near the guest house I was staying in…I liked the fact that as soon as the first salvo had exploded, the fire station up the street sprang into life and went tearing up the road.

I also went to Dalat for a few days with Nick and Loan. It was a pretty sweet couple of days…I played a lot of cards with Loan’s family, went to a funfair where you can win fags and booze on every hook-a-duck/darts/air rifle game, and where a man can enjoy the timeless wonder of
Vietnamese bingo…basically two transvestites accompanied by a ragga baseline, growling out the numbers to the crowd…I kid you not, it was amazing…if only I’d had a way to record it, I’d be doctoring it into the next UK dance craze single by now…I also saw midgets juggle swords, the world’s crappest ghost train (no train involved) and managed to go up to my groin in mud in Dalat lake…happy days…
When I got back from Dalat we had a few problems with the house we were hoping to rent…the landlord had decided to gazump us during tet, but then changed his mind, so I’m now sharing with Nick again in a nice two bedroom place in leafy district 3. It is such a nice part of the city to live in, brazilian steakhouse round the corner, nice neighbourhood bar, good noodle places nearby… its 15 mins from work and 5 mins from going out uptown…althogh i'll spare you the details of what i was offered this evening at midnight from a 'red nail chicken' standing at the corner of Dien Bien Phu st....

The other day I had a big argument with the guy I rent my bike from and have now decided to buy my own bike, a Honda super cub probably, as I can ride it without a licence and they are pretty groovy looking. Other than that, not a lot else going on. I met up with a friend from Loughborough Uni last week who was passing through…was good to see her (Dawn, come and work in Saigon…it’s a trip)…I’m also trying to organise a regular film night at one of the local coffee shops to try and fill the cinematic void that fucking shitty 3D Avatar(dance with aliens) has created in an already limited-for- choice film going climate here in Saigon. I’m also planning on getting in on some festival action this summer with a trip to Borneo for a world music festival in a rainforest…’til next time…all the best everyone....

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Photos

leaving Hanoi
me, sam, kristi

tet
me, Nick, and some random members of Loan's family...