Trapped by Twinkle Lights

So, you'll never guess where the last two weeks of travels have taken us-- Saigon, and more Saigon! Aside from our three-day jaunt down to the Mekong Delta last week (which was a fantastic time), we've pretty much been stationary in Vietnam's biggest city. There's a certain pull to the place that we're having trouble putting our fingers on: during the daytime, it often feels like just any other city, exciting enough and different, but just another place where the goings-on of everyday life happen. There's some sort of switch that happens as soon as the workday is over: around 4:30pm, the streets are crammed with motorbikes (good luck crossing by foot!), the sun starts to dip lower, and as soon as it's nearly dark, HCMC's lit up with a billion neon signs and there are strings of twinkle lights everywhere... and that's when we fall in love with the place all over again. Or maybe is it just the slight change in temperature that does it?!

We've been flirting with the idea of staying in HCMC, landing English teaching jobs (or better yet, media and web jobs, if they're out there), getting motorbikes of our own, learning Vietnamese, and settling into expat life here. We even got going on our resumes and started making contact with the English-teaching world... but after more than a week of flip-flopping between staying and making a go of things, or continuing our leisurely travels, it seems fate is pointing us in the way of the holiday. Contrary to the impressions we had before, it's NOT as simple to slide into a decent English-teaching job here without getting a TESOL type certificate (something we're not prepared to fork over a lot of our savings for, at least while in Vietnam-- ie. $800-$1200 USD a person!). We've met a good bunch of English teachers who are loving the life in HCMC, but right now there aren't many classes going (the Tet new year celebrations have just finished= not so much spare $ to go around for English school) and people are lucky if they get 10 hours a week! And then there's all the set-up of starting anew... something we know so well from our various homes in Australia. Our hearts just weren't totally in it. And then, on the morning we were about to start printing resumes and getting serious about the job hunt-- OUR AUSTRALIAN TAX RETURN APPEARED! Now if that's not fate, we don't know what is. So it looks like we'll be taking the travelling option once again, and see what happens...

Not that we haven't immensely enjoyed relaxing and really getting to know Saigon! We have found the BEST coffee--in a suitably dim and ancient-looking coffeeshop which feels like we've stepped into 1970s Saigon; ridden cyclos, those bicycle-cart thingies; observed the after-work routine of kicking around a shuttlecock in the park; sampled much random food (OK, there's been quite a bit of eating involved!); and have explored street after street. [Check out our new photos!] On Saturday we'll head north to Dalat, a charming mountain town about six hours from the city, and then onward north to explore this amazing country...

Tunnel Rats

Well, we've truly entered the "tourist" realm--yesterday we booked a tour. We would've been more adventurous to rent a moto-scooter and just make our own way around. Yeah, we wimped out a bit, but once you see the massive flood of scooters zipping every which way you'd understand! At any given time in HCMC there are about 4 million scooters flying through the streets, this makes crossing the streets a little nerve wracking. The key, we're told is to wait for a lull in the traffic of scooters, start walking - slowly. Cars don't stop, buses don't stop, trucks don't stop, but at least the scooters can manoeuver around you easily.
Anyways, back to the tour! Our destination: the Cu Chi tunnels. Yes, the infamous tunnel network that spanned hundreds of connected tunnels and even onto a US firebase. Using these the Viet Cong could launch raids against the Americans and easily disappear.
Dug from the earth itself with no supports of any kind, the Viet Cong made everything from living quarters, kitchens, and hospitals underground, some as deep as 10 metres. It's tight, hot, and stuffy when you make your way through them. We'd recommend practicing your 'duck walk': Adrian had cramping in this legs for the rest of the day. (Dayle was just fine, thanks to wussing out at the tiny tunnel entrance and opting to stay above ground!)

But cramping and claustrophobia couldn't totally stop us from experiencing the war first-hand. Conveniently located on the tunnels grounds is a shooting range where you can fire a multitude of weapons used in the 'American War' (as the Vietnamese call it). M16, AK47, M60, M1's, its all there. Naturally we went with the AK47, and 10 bullets - total cost about $20 AUD ($12 USD), for everything else there's Mastercard.
Loud doesn't even begin to describe the sound, but the massive ringing in your ears that follows does go away in a few hours.
We got some great video, that we'll post soon. And yes, even Dayle squeezed off a few rounds for the 'revolution'.

All in all, it was a great side trip. We sort of feel like cop-outs (hopefully we'll go back to "adventure travel" soon, ie. travelling with the locals and learning via doing things the harder way), but there was a lot of back story that our guide helped to clarify about the war and it's a definite must for fellow travelers!

Spending Like Millionaires.... of Dong

We've just woken up to our second morning in Vietnam a little fuzzy-- maybe from the 4 hour time difference from Melbourne, maybe from the million or so dong we spent on a big day of eating and drinking. EEK! OK, so a million dong (that's the Vietnamese currency) works out to be about $90AUD, and less than that in Canadian, but we've now learned it's still definitely possible to spend lots of money, even in a place with prices as cheap as Vietnam. So today we'll live frugally! Except for our "extravagant" hotel room, that is-- with TV, free internet, A/c, balcony, ornate sculptured ceilings, private bathroom, fridge, and enough room to fit two dressers and a desk-- for $15 USD. Sweet!

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at about 8pm on Feb 20, and were immediately awestruck by all of the people and the lights-- the neon light signs were visible even from the plane! After spending so much time in the vast empty parts of Oz, riding streets alongside hundreds of buzzing motorbikes was a trip! We checked into out guesthouse and hit the town with our friend Warren, who is teaching English here (Adrian used to work with him at ANZ bank). Good times on the tourist strip-- eating great noodles from a street vendor on child-size tables and plastic stools!-- for less than a $1 USD pp., drinking Tiger beers for next to nothing too, and people-watching... welcome to Asia! Warren's been enjoying the HCMC life for about 8 months now, and isn't at all ready to say goodbye to the city-- something we're starting to understand as we get into its energy, which is sort of laid-back but a little nuts at the same time. Got scared half to death by a giant rat scurrying through our laneway on the way back to our hotel (seriously bigger than the stray kittens hanging out on the street) and we were thankful to be staying on the 4th storey of our building.

Yesterday we woke up with that "Oh my god, where are we?" feeling that happens on the first morning of any trip and ventured out in the humid sunshine (29 degrees). I grabbed a Western breakfast and Adrian went straight for the pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and we took a walking tour of part of the city, marvelling at the scenery and practicing our street-crossings. First lesson: There are crosswalks painted on the roads, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference where you cross. Lesson 2: Find a tiny gap in the constant barrage of cars, buses, and motorbikes, and start walking across very slowly... something that goes against all instinct when a speeding bike's coming at you, but if they'll steer around you with ease if they can tell where you're heading and how fast. Cars are another story-- GET OUT OF THE WAY! is about the best advice to follow.

We wandered through some street markets (vendors very grabby in parts) and managed to find the necessities-- a SIM card for our phone ($6 AUD!), a plug converter, and a bath pouffe-- which all took a bit of Charades and Pictionary, as we're finding Vietnamese is a very hard language to pick up quickly! But we've learned a few basics already and we're working on mastering the conversion math [11,000 Vietnamese dong equals $1 Aussie dollar; $1 USD equals 16,000 dong. We'd like to eliminate one currency, but our savings are in AUD and some of the prices here are in USD and some in VND.... and then there's all the bloody zeroes to deal with..... yarrrrrrrr!].

We met up with Warren in the late afternoon at Fanny, a great ice cream shop with delicious flavours and very artistic sundaes (I had a Canard, ice cream in a duck-shaped basket with wafer wings!) and the evening went on from there-- to gorgeously decorated, swanky coffee shops, a Pho restaurant, and a bar or two. But most memorable of the night was when I got entirely lost in the city on the back of a motorbike taxi-- it's scary enough being right in the thick of the traffic, but then my motorbike taxi driver lost Warren and Adrian, who were on Warren's bike and said "Follow us!" and zoomed off to disappear into the crowd. Everything looks mildly familiar in HCMC, but the street names are long and difficult to remember, and I have a terrible sense of direction without a map or the sun to guide me. So I spent about 45 minutes on the back of this old man's (who didn't speak a word of English) motorbike, reading street names aloud and hopelessly trying to communicate with him. Of course, Adrian had our phone, the hotel key, the backpack.... I was lucky we split up our money in the morning and had 500,000 dong in my pocket, as I'd left my wallet in the backpack on Adrian's back too! I also had our new phone number in my pocket but didn't know how to use a payphone, let alone speak the word "telephone" to the driver. Eventually he pulled over and had me speak with some other motorbike drivers, and I managed to write down our hotel's address, as I guess I'm hopeless at pronouncing it properly.... and then my driver couldn't find the street.... it went on and on.... finally in some miracle we came across it, and I had to run around trying to change this big VND bill to pay my 50,000 ($5) fare. Somehow Warren had a feeling to check our hotel, and I was just about to call the guys when he appeared on his bike to save me! We zoomed back to where he left Adrian, and who was Adrian hanging out with but the old motorbike taxi driver who didn't know his way around town! We decided to go to a bar close by, this time split up the mobile phones, and when Warren and I got to the bar, this time it was Adrian who had disappeared.... well, I guess we shouldn't have used that driver's services again, cuz he dropped Adrian right off at our hotel, despite the driver and Warren's agreements to meet on a certain street. At least Adrian's ride was a bit cheaper than mine.... needless to say a lot of beer was necessary after that.... and that's about all I can say about our second day in Vietnam!

PS. If you can figure out how to call/text Vietnam, we'll be reachable for the next month or two at +84 (that's the country code) 1265772662. Good luck & miss you all! xoxoxo Dayle & Adrian