"Good-bye, Vietnam!"

 A university in Guiyang emailed me to say that I am hired. So, with that, I packed my bags and got on the bus to Saigon, then took a taxi to the airport. However, I still want to remember my sweet find of a guest house in Muine because (who knows?) I might want to come back here for a vacation. 

To the left of the Sea Winds Resort is a Mexican restaurant run by Russians. The pretty owner can speak perfect English, too. They play Spanish music all day and night. It's happy music.

Anyway, onward and upward. I took the bus to Saigon and a taxi to the airport and before I knew it, I was in China. Again. And, boy was the weather a shock to my system. I didn't have the right clothes for it so I was freezing. It was rainy, chilly, breezy and I was unprepared.

In China, they take the weather as it comes, leave their windows and doors open year round and don't usually use heaters or fans. Air conditioning is unheard of. For the first week, I wore the coat I had bought while teaching in Maisai. But, my feet were in sandals, getting soaked in the rain. No wonder I got a cold straight off.

The dear agent who met me at the airport took me to a room in an apartment on the 23rd floor of a brand new high-rise. This is the view from my bedroom window.

 I'm surrounded by towers! The little low-rise apartments are being replaced with giants and this city is in a state of constant construction. There are 42 floors in my building.

On my arrival, I realized that there was still a firewall in place in China to prevent us from getting onto Google, Facebook, Youtube and even Guru, among other places. So, my first task at hand was to find a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that would allow me to bi-pass the wall. I found a free sample that lasted for 5 days and then ended.

I'm on here now through another free sample that will only last for a few more hours. Then, "the lights will go out again" on my "Google World". One never realizes how much they use these sites until they are inaccessible.

Well, at least the weather changed. Now it's intolerably hot and humid. The humidity is like a thin, wet blanket that is trying to suffocate you. Even in the classrooms of the university, there are NO FANS. Compound that with the smoking in the hallways and you have a recipe for discomfort.

I better quit complaining, though. After all, there IS a Starbucks right in the square at the foot of the apartment complex where all us "foreign" teachers live. And a Walmart! Or, as it is called here, "Wu ar mar". 

Back to Muine

Not to be negative, but I simply couldn't tolerate Saigon anymore. Something about the stench of urine saturating the sidewalks and the constant drove of motorcycles veering dangerously close to my being makes life unpleasant. I won't go on to mention the abundance of the sickening flow of trash in the city. I understand.

I understand that people must make a living and life is hard and it's just too time-consuming to put your trash in a garbage bin. And all that. But, I had to leave. Later for Ho Chi Minh, the city that bears the name of... well, Ho Chi Minh. What can I say? It's his city.  

So, I went back to Muine and got my old room. Well, I didn't get the exact room, but one like it. Then, after two nights, when a smaller room was available, I took it.

Number 4 at the Sea Winds Guest House. That dark brown door gets piping hot in the morning sun!

There's a brood of cute baby ducks waddling around the grounds but they refused to pose for me. The manager agreed to rent me the little cabin or cottage for 5 days at $50 US, or one million dong.

I've looked around and found this is the best rate for a private room. Although perhaps the Backpackers Village may come a bit cheaper if you want to stay in a dorm. To be brutally honest, the downside I have discovered with dorms is that couples like to "do their thing" in a mixed dorm. I mean, I understand how they must feel, but I always wonder why they don't just "get a room" by combining both their expenses on the dorm. Go figure. Anyway, it doesn't happen all the time and dorms can be a good place to have English conversation in English with other English speakers. If you're fed up with trying to communicate with those who can't. Speak English that is.

 The pool across the street is in the restaurant where I usually eat breakfast for about $5 US because it's all-you-can-eat, including bacon, eggs cooked to your specifications and a ton of tropical fruit and cakes. So, it's enough food to last me all day.

 Cute or not? Cute, BUT a little warm for this kind of weather, don't you think? But, really cute if you happen to be on your way up north.

So, the thing is, the electricity went out. The first time it was for less than an hour, but the second time, I think the lines were blown down. So, it went out for 5 hours. In the heat of the day. That's FIVE HOURS of intense heat with no fan or air-con. I finally went down to the beach and ran into my landlord who promised it would come back on at 4pm. It DID. And BOY was I EVER THANKFUL. "You never miss the water till the well runs dry." It's so true. You never fully appreciate your fan and blessed air-con until it's GONE.

 Here's the old bird who talks in Vietnamese like a little girl. I think he recognizes me.

                                                                   Lovely plants

 This is the walkway to my room. On the left is a crazy Mexican restaurant run by Russians who think a fajita is a taco.

I think this is a cherimoya. It's a delicious fruit with a thin peal that just easily peals off revealing a soft, fragrant fruit that tastes a bit like a pear. I do love them. They're not usually THIS huge though.

Back to Saigon

It seems that everyone calls Ho Chi Minh City by its old name, Saigon. That makes me think that dear old Ho Chi Minh was not so highly thought of. For whatever reason, the old name has hung on. So, after packing my little-ish bag, I caught a taxi to the bus station. It was fairly cheap. But, taking the taxi from the station in Saigon was a bit pricier since we had to travel quite a distance to the hostel that I had stayed at last time I was here: Vietnam Inn Saigon.

As we were coming into the city center, we passed by a McCafe! Wow! This was quite a revelation to me! You mean there's actually a McDonald's in Vietnam? So far I hadn't seen any. So, after I had taken my bags to my bunk, I went down to the front desk and asked one of the English-speaking staff if there was a McD's anywhere. Turns out, there's one right down the street!

 While walking in the park one day in the merry, merry month of March, through the trees all around, what to my wondering eyes should appear but two golden arches of a McDonald's Restaurant!


 

 I know it's pathetic, but I really, really needed a cup of coffee. What I had been drinking for over 3 weeks was flavoured syrup water of some strange, yucky stuff. Sorry. My personal interpretation.


 

It's a lovely park that runs the length of the street right outside of the hostel where I'm staying. You'll spot loads and loads of Westerners from all over the world. 

There's a bit of water, like a stream in the park, surrounded by fencing and sitting there were these two boats. The bigger river boat is still under construction.





Coffee first, market second. These are crocodile heads. Obviously. Any animal rights activists reading this? Well, if you're of the mind, you can come here and throw paint on these guys. They cost a fortune too! I think they're asking $75 US. Come on! I don't even know what they're good for. At first I thought they were really ugly wallets. I even thought you could open the mouth to put your money in. But, not. They are some sort of strange and different ornament. I can just see somebody taking one home and putting it on their coffee table to scare the poop out of their visitors. Then, little Jonny gets the bright idea to sneak up on Grandma and wave a crocodile head in her face. (I'm way ahead of you guys. Don't DO such a thing to your poor, sweet granny!)

 This shop totally fascinated me because of all the pretty trinkets and utterly useless junk they had. But I wanted to buy it all. Don't ask me why! There was a shell I had a particular attachment to but it was outrageously priced. They cut the price down a quarter and I almost got away but another lady took my arm and remonstrated how she hadn't sold ANYTHING ALL DAY because it was SO HOT today. She seemed so sincere that I almost believed her. Then she cut the price in half. Although it was still too high, I CAVED. Now I am a proud owner of a totally useless sea shell. But it's SO PRETTY.

 She's the younger, cute shop vendor. I mean she's cute, not the shop. What the heck IS all this stuff?

 Ok, it's useless clutter, but, isn't most everything we buy? A guy at another booth very proudly showed me his buffalo horn pickle forks. I mean, shouldn't everyone have a buffalo horn pickle fork?

If I could afford it, I'd buy two of these for everyone I know and ship it to them because I DON'T have a HOUSE TO PUT THEM IN! Ha! Saves me from buying a lot of clutter.

                                                                                 A colourful fruit stand.

 Even up close, these plastic flowers look real. When I saw a guy spraying them with water, it made me think they were alive. I had to go and touch a stem to see it was plastic.






 Pretty but fake. But, still pretty.

 Wait a minute. What's that over there? Can you see it? YES! A coffee shop!

I couldn't resist. I ordered a cappuccino and was pleasantly surprised to get a nice big bowl-sized cup!

Vinh Long City

Here's the hotel room where I stayed for 10 days or so. It was comfortable with air con and a fan as well as a hot/cold shower, Western toilet, large flat screen TV, cable and double bed. All this for only 120,000 Dong per day/night. (If you only stay at night, the price is less.)

The cleaning ladies would come in every three days or so, but I have to say, their floor washing water smelled like cat pee. I don't think they put cleaner in their water. One time, I took the cleaning lady's mop and sprayed it with a green cleaner I'd bought for the bathroom. She was really perturbed when she caught me red-handed spraying her mop. I told her, "It smells nice. Don't worry." in sign-language.

 Here's my motorcycle gang. We travel in gangs here. Down back alleys, over pot-holes, bouncing through gullies and over narrow strips of gravel road. It's adventurous. If you like that kind of thing.

 Here we are at some reputable restaurant hidden out in the jungle somewhere that I'd never be able to find again. You know, even if I really loved the food and wanted to return.

 I don't remember seeing a name on the place. Maybe they should call it "Red and Blue Little Stool Restaurant". The funny thing is, they bring you the food and you get to cook it yourself on a bar-b-que type cooker thingy that heats up the place even more.

                            One of the students. She kindly co-operated to have her picture taken.

Here's Harry trying to teach me some Vietnamese. I learned to count to ten and a few other things.

               It was Mei's birthday so she's opening some presents while we wait for our lunch...

                                                                      Here's the cooker thingy.

 It does warm up the place but you get to cook your own food. What did we cook? Mostly frogs!

 This is my boss, Ms Theu. She is actually married with two kids but calls herself "Ms".

                             Harry offered to take my picture with the group. That's me in the red.

Ms Theu told me that the gov't required an official letter from the CEO of my former school stating that I had worked for him for 5 years. So, I waited for two weeks to get an official letter from him that never came. I guess it's a good idea to prepare this kind of thing ahead of time. After 2 weeks waiting for the letter, I decided to leave. Besides, this kind of small town mentality just wasn't my cup of tea. No offense, but I hate being gawked at by the locals. After a while, you start to feel like a circus freak show. It's just really annoying. And I say that with all the empathy I can muster.

I taught for 5 days at the school. They asked me to come in at 7:30 on Saturday morning but I simply couldn't make it after having stayed awake most of the previous night. (There's a huge window in my room with no curtain on it, just a thin layer of mac-tac that doesn't keep out the light from two fluorescent lights that are directly outside of said window.) Ms. Theu called at 8 am or so and I ambled into the school a while later. Had I known they had no intention of paying me, I would have stayed back at the hotel that morning.

After the fifth day of teaching, I asked about my salary. The next day, I got a call from a teacher telling me that the Police had come to the school so I shouldn't come in that day. They wanted me to wait for my visa. (That's when alarm bells started to go off and I thought, "I'm sure they'll pay me. They wouldn't not pay me, would they?")

Three days later, with no reply from my former school, I decided I should move on. I needed a job and this town just wasn't cutting it for me. I mean, it was boring. I guess if I had some vocabulary of Vietnamese, I could have made some local friends, but, who knows?

By the time I moved out, I had to pay a 10-day hotel bill and the school only paid half of it. They told me it was a "donation" from the school because I was really only "playing" with the kids. Lesson learned: Always communicate up front about your salary. One day of free teaching is fine, but I never expected to work 4-hours a day teaching several different classes and not get paid for it. Most schools I have worked for will provide housing and food as well as a salary. But, not in this school. I have yet to discover how other schools in Vietnam operate.

I was very polite but I informed Ms. Theu that I could not afford to work for free. I asked her if she could afford to work for free and she said, "No." She said that other foreigners would do it, so that's why she thought I would. But, then she also said that the Police had shown up at her school conveniently right after I had asked about my salary. My reply was that I was surprised that anyone could afford to work for free.

Usually, if you're looking for work, it's because you need the money.

                                                                           My bowl. It's octopus. Chewy.

                They really cooked the frogs well until they were black. But the octopus didn't turn dark.

  Frog! Does it taste like chicken? I DON'T KNOW! I WOULDN'T EAT IT. Call me a chicken.

Vietnam is a Relaxing Place to Visit!

Here's a cute little turquoise house with a flat roof. Notice the mess of electrical wires overhead. Electricity is run out to these rural areas nowadays but the power is not totally dependable. It does tend to go off every once in a while.

 
 
 Here's a picturesque little shelter. It may be for the farm hands to take a nap in.

 

                              Dragon fruit trees sheltering their red fruit like hens under their feathers.

                                                                                Nothing fancy but it's home.

                                    Getting close to the city, we can see a pagoda off in the distance...

 There it is! Ho Chi Minh City... or as most people here call it, Saigon. Coming into the city, we were immediately surrounded by passing motorcycles by the droves. There are zillions of them!

 Vietnam is socialist, they say, but I'm thinking there are lots of communist type posters around. Albeit, the Police or Military never jump onto the bus to check your ID in Vietnam as they do in Thailand. In Thailand, we wouldn't be on a bus for more than half an hour before the bus was boarded by Military men checking identification. Maybe they were looking for criminals. But they asked me once to show them my passport. Mind you, it only happened once and they were very polite about it.