Another morning of coffee and fruit juice in bars reading. Yesterday I finished “From the Meadows of Gold” by Masudi a 9th century Muslim historian (thanks Ben) so when the book lady put her book tower down in front of me (and when i say "book" i mean $5 fake photocopys of the originals with contact over the cover) fate and location instantly drew my attention to “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. A classic Bob lent to me years ago that I couldn’t get into at the time but today it has been rocking my world. I was peckish by 11 so spring rolls at Bar Pao seemed to justify a Heineken, breaking my no drinking before midday rule, as long as I go back to my room and study for the afternoon after one beer I assured myself it was ok. On the way back though, I bumped into Tom finishing his elevensees before work so it would have been impolite not to have another, right? Tom headed off to work and introduced me to Glen and I was buried under another wealth of knowledge.
Glen is a 60 year old English gent who has lived here for 16 years and taught English for 11, trying to support his 2 local kids he now finds himself driven out of HCMC by the recent boom of American/Australian/English graduates fresh out of Uni flooding the teacher market moving here because of the lack of work in their own countries. He also informs me – no degree = no work permit = no job. Unlike my consultancy firm who told me it was no problem that I had no degree. They also told me there was no hope of getting a position in Danang which would be my preferred destination to live but Glen tells me they are desperate for teachers up there (and Hanoi, my second preference) because all the new arrivals don’t want to leave HCMC, I have no idea what’s going on! At the same time I have enough cash to live on a beach for a year or more so I can’t say I’m too concerned.
Glen also filled me in on a bit of recent local history, relating the Vietnamese governments’ ability to take control of situations, unlike our own. In the mid 90s’ District 1 was full of Nigerians claiming to be footballers that the Vietnamese embraced because of their love for soccer until they tried to take over the Vietnamese drug trade and within a month their VISAs were cancelled and they were gone.
The large beautiful park I have referred to in the centre of District 1 was a shanty town back then also but was torn down to make way for a giant opera complex but that fell through at the last moment and was left boarded up in corporate limbo for a few years until around 2005 when within 2 weeks the park just suddenly appeared. Also in the mid 90s’ the only bike you could buy here was the Honda Future until the early 2000s when Vietnam lifted restrictions on Chinese imports and the price of bikes went from $3000 to $500 overnight, thus the plethora of bikes, all of which I found very interesting.
I got back to my hotel to find my replacement bank cards had arrived and the last thought of study flew out the window, I may as well continue sipping beers and reading today. I still have more than $500 from the $1000 advance even after spending $100 on my room and $200 on school clothes. I spent some time with Doyen (above) who was working at Alley Booz and finally bought some worthless basket junk (a lighter and a packet of tissues – it does pay to have tissues on you!) from Hi, my favourite seller who earlier, had accused me of lying when I told her my wallet had been stolen but she will be the first one I buy something from when my cards come, making her day. Actually I lied, I did buy a deck of cards for school games from another one after class a couple of nights ago just to shut her up on the proviso that she didn’t tell any of the others so now she walks past with a smile and a wink when the other girls are hassling me to buy.
I finished up with my regular dinner at Dung Café, I mention this mainly so you can get a giggle from the name and make up your own jokes about the quality of food there but seriously I have been frequenting the place for dinner the last few nights and for $4 I get a great meal and a couple of beers. That’s also when my tobacco supplier drops by with a new ($1.25) pack each night (the others are too young to sell it) but I haven’t learnt her name yet……….I’m nearly a white local.
