Mr Bond, your transport has arrived.

So I got to Saigon, did a manic 2 hour 'settling in' period and then went out for the night with my ridiculously enthusiastic housemates who are serious ex-pat party bunnies. The house, as it stands this week, has 2 kiwis, 2 aussies, 1 irishman and a canadian....oh, and the live-in vietnamese house-keeper (I will burn in hell for that at some point in the future ;-).

That was Friday night, and Saturday morning was more food shopping/nerd-essentials-getting (SIM card, keyboard and headphones for mac). I also attempted to get a modem cable (try miming THAT!) which I did accomplish ('how long you want?' 'errrr, 4metres?', 'oi, 4 metres!' and the dude out the back makes me a cable!) but, in true Vietnamese style, it didn't actually fit the hole in the wall. So, using that very minor excuse for avoiding going back to dial-up hell, I have opted to stick with the ADSL net cafe 2 minutes walk from my room that is fully loaded with voip, webcam etc (and free iced tea when you arrive!) for a grand total of 3000 Vn dong per hour...and yes, that IS 20 Australian cents!

So, on Saturday afternoon it was determined that I had spent enough time settling in and was sent off to get tickets for myself, 2 flatmates and a friend of theirs to head to Vung Tau - the nearest 'seaside resort' town to Ho Chi Minh City.

Succeeded in doing that (100,000 dong for Vietnamese nationals, 150,000 for foreigners thank you) and we left last night for a whirlwind visit to the housewarming party of the previous tenant of my room who is now teaching english and living like a king in Vung Tau.

Transport was down the Saigon river on this fantastic Soviet-era hydrofoil which looked like something out of a 70s Bond film on the outside, and like my nana's living room on the inside...(paisley anyone?)


You got onboard by crossing 3 of them that were lined up next to each other at the dock - the top space on all top of them was conveniently occupied with wet clothing that was presumably drying.






There were also some very cool rubbish bins ('Winner! Waste Bin. Happiness to Everybody')...



...and emergency procedure signs (yay for emergencies!)




Got there, had dinner and 'hit the town' - as much as is possible in a country that closes by decree at midnight.

Went to the 'Ollywood' nightclub, tried not to look at the crusty old white guys with their by-the-hour Vietnamese companions and was serenaded with the techno dance remix of 'Happy Birthday' - no shit.

Woke up this morning and James the medical intern from Florida had acquired a spectacularly swollen lip from an insect bite (we assume)overnight - so he and I headed back a little early, in the direction of decent medical centres (well, one).

We hailed a taxi to the Saigon ferry and our driver, hearing the word 'Saigon' only, started driving us on a 3 hour road trip to Saigon...we put that to an end pretty sharply when we realised but not before being ripped off a few thousand dong.

Got to the ferry and the 11am was inexplicably cancelled so we went to the restaurant across the road ('captive tourists r us') and got some brunch. Mine arrived with a good 60cm-long Vietnamese hair wrapped so tightly through it that I literally had to unravel it. Was sitting there contemplating a little extra fibre and, to my amazement, another local diner had seen it, hailed a waitress and sent her to us. Within seconds my food had disappeared and the woman manager was flagellating herself and replacing it - I was seriously impressed. Yes OK, the hair wasn't a great look to start, but I didn't expect such an impressive response - customer service orgs in Ostraylia could learn something from that!

So, back in Saigon and guess I should be getting ready for work tomorrow - let the chaos begin!