The Art of War

During breakfast today the hotel lobby has a few people gathering for what looks like a book group and there is a table set up with a man who appears to be reading palms, using a laser pointer to point out the lines as he relates what he sees, one of his legs is bouncing with a nervousness that out does mine when I’m sitting still. I head out for fruit salad and coffee at Anne’s Café where I have been frequenting the last few mornings. As I approach and sit down we smile and wave at each other and without words Anne brings over my “fin café sura da” and some small banter. She appears to be in her early 20s and wears 1970s Elton John type glasses with giant yellow rims and starts the day here and finishes at the sister café around the corner where I first met her having dinner last week.

During my morning read I decided that Hai from the reception at the Blue River is right and I haven’t been doing very much exercise so today I will go for a decent walk and take in the HCMC Museum of Fine Arts before I spend some more time going over the material for tomorrows looming classes.

First I go back to my room to grab my bag  and as I get there Mun has nearly finished the house keeping. Mun and Min (I’m not joking) are about 20 and they do all the house keeping and odd jobs around the Blue River and if you could see the size of the place it is no mean feat as I have seen them go over - every square inch of the hotel - floors, windows, rooms, stairs - with cleaning cloths – everyday. Min cannot speak English and is very shy but Mun speaks a little bit and we chat while he finishes my room, he lectures me on smoking (I know, I know) and after discussing his education I give him a short lesson in the difference between S and SH, something the Vietnamese (and probably a lot of Asians) have trouble with. He is a keen learner and leaves my room chanting “I will stop at the shop”, I will test him tomorrow.

I will try to spend a bit more time walking, exploring and expanding the area of District 1 that I know on my dyas off. I am in shorts for the first time in a week today because I put my jeans in for cleaning and along the walk I decide to pull out my “real” camera for the first time since I have been here, now I look like a tourist! Once I get off my block it is ok as the bike riders are not so pushy and they stare at me with more of a stunned “lost tourist?” look rather than swarming me, if I wore my shorts with this camera around my neck on my block it would be like wearing a neon sign saying “rip me off and con me into buying crap!”

It only takes about 20 minutes to reach the Art Gallery but in this heat when the sun is out that’s quite a lot of sweat, I have taken to drinking a bottle of electrolytes early each day to compensate. When the sun ducks behind a cloud for a while it is actually quite a lovely temperature and today is a good day. It has not rained for the last 2 or 3 days which is the first time I have experienced dry days in HCMC and by the look of the little bits and pieces of news I have seen it appears to all be coming down in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos quite severely before it gets here but that’s normal, it’s monsoon season.

I spend what unexpectedly turns out to be 2 hours in the Art Gallery which is 2 buildings with 3 floors and has some great art on display both contemporary and traditional with an entire floor in building 1 of statues, vases and various carvings some of which date back to the 7^th and 8^th centuries.

After the Art Gallery I wander without direction to see where I end up, generally I have an idea although I’ve never been in any of these streets before as the Bixteco building can be seen from most streets and I know if I walk away from it I will be heading back to my block.

Along the way I check the list on my phone of things that I need and since I got the traffic face mask yesterday all I need now is some colouring pencils and white board markers (Lizzie said it would be wise to bring my own as the school equipment is not great). I have not been able to find these things in the markets or around where I am staying and as I close the phone and put it back in my pocket I look up and……….yep, a stationary shop! Oh Buddha we are in sync today! I get these supplies and 15 minutes later through some back streets I emerge on a main road and recognise where I am. I take the long way around along the back of my block where I have not been since I arrived though I am familiar with this area as I got my Tattoo and bought many pairs of glasses around here last year - or the year before. When I got my Tattoo in 2009 it had only just become legal to open a tattoo shop – they are everywhere now.

 I stop for lunch at Vihn Café which is actually 2 cafes across from each other, one cooks and the other is more of a bar and they run across the street to deliver food or beer when someone orders. I arrive flustered and didn’t notice Joe and the other English boys who say hello, they are on their lunch break from their study at ILA, a Cambridge based school with a 4 week intensive TEFL course that will get you work when you graduate, it’s $1400 here compared to $3000 in Australia.

After lunch I head back to the room to go over tomorrow’s lesson plans one more time and have a shave before heading out for a few chapters (this book is blowing my mind), beer and eventually dinner before an early night with a movie. Walking around the block the girls have mostly stopped hassling me to buy crap, we smile and high five and just chat now, initiation over!

Thuy, The girl I first bought something from a week ago, her smile is so infectious and the book lady sneaking up for the kill until she realises who it is.

                                                             The boys at Dung Cafe.