I Saw Her Standing There

Today I woke to the room phone, I tried to ignore it but it kept ringing. I answered and Hien asked “Hello Simon are you awake?” “I am now" I said but the humour was lost on her. She wanted to know when I would be down for breakfast, she has arranged dumplings for me for something different and is quite excited about it. so after a shower I go down but the dumpling shop was closed so it’s just noodles again. This morning I went straight over to the bench and said “today I will make my coffee and show you how I like it”, now Hein and Miss Vai both know how to make a strong coffee with just enough sweet milk, hopefully from now on I will have good coffee at the Blue River. 

After breakfast I put my backpack on with camera and MP3 player at the ready and start walking south, the only direction I have not explored yet. There are western style cafes along the way but I prefer the little roadside stands, the people are very appreciative and always laughing and happy to try to communicate. I walk for an hour or so finding Pagodas and landmarks, this is the clothing district, clothing shop after clothing shop and so many roadside food stands, Chinatown.  

The first temple I found was this tiny one when I just happened to see some if it's bright colours down a tiny laneway, it was very quiet and I stumbled upon this scene, I quietly snuck my camera out to get this shot of an old monk glued to the swimwear models on fashion TV, he didn't notice me at all so I just quietly left him to it.

I got a bit peckish and could not find a Coffee Bean shop for a bagel so I stopped at a bakery, all the food looks so good, sweet and fluffy. I settle on what looks like a Danish with cocktail frankfurts in it. I expect it to be like sausage roll pastry but no, it is sweet and even for me, a wacky taste with the sweet bread and the frankfurts. Just before I went into the bakery I was taking a picture of a shop across the street after which two bikes collided right in front of me – I missed the photo literally by two seconds.  

I stop at a little Chinese café in a leafy back street for a seat and a coffee with my pastry. All of a sudden about twenty metres down the road a junction box on a power pole explodes, sending sparks flying out over the road and people. Funny thing to see, after the bike accident and the junction box explosion, everybody stops and stares for about thirty seconds (some of us smiling at the chaos) then as if nothing had happened continue on their merry way. Across from the Chinese café there is a roadside BBQ stand with two chickens in a cage and a rooster just roaming around, I guess you could call him free range. I watched the rooster for about fifteen minutes while I had my coffee and he wandered to the edge of the road and along the curb in either direction but never left the boundary of the shop front, even while there was some sweet smelling chicken sizzling on the BBQ. leaving me to ponder the deep philosophical question – did the chicken even cross the road?  

At this point after my coffee I started back towards District One. I came across this beautiful Caodaist Temple. I went in and it looked like a hotel foyer inside so I turned to leave but a young man came running over and invited me in for a tour. We went upstairs and there was the first of several prayer rooms. He explained that Caodaism is a Vietnamese religion blending Catholisism, Tao, Buddha and Confucius (whose birthday it is today) set up by a Vietnamese man in 1937 who was raised Catholic but decided to blend the religions, in their decorative figure heads they include the three Asian godheads and a pope but only represent the three Asian ones with their colours – blue – Tao, yellow – Buddha, red – Confucius.

After exploring the five levels (and I don’t mind admitting I got a little bit of vertigo at the very top where there is a great panorama of Saigon) I saw two guys jamming on these weird violin/banjo instruments, I bought one home with me last year and Eliot is looking after it for me. El, I found out how to play it! You put the bow right down at the base on a severe angle so that you are bowing the neck and only the bottom big string – then with your left hand you hold down both strings together and just use your fingers as if there were frets – I was playing “When the Saints Come Marching In” (my default tune on any new instrument) in no time. 

I was invited for lunch. It was impolite of me to gratefully refuse but better than all the food I would have had to refuse because I was full from the frankfurt Danish. I walked on for a while and getting closer to District One I became hungry so I gave in to the urges I had for fried chicken after passing several KFCs and Lotterias. I stopped at a Lotteria and had a great cheese burger and two pieces of fried chicken – yum.  

My feet are getting sore now and I am covered in sweat so I head back towards my hotel when a gorgeous young redheaded English girl with blue eyes stepped out from a shop in front of me. I introduced myself and we got to chatting. She was looking for Ben Tahn markets and was freaked out at the prospect of crossing the road, she has just left Australia after three years and been here two days. So “knight in shining armour” I walk her across some of the roads to the park and point her in the direction of the markets, an easy walk from there. I hesitated for a split second before she walked off but courage kicked in and I asked for her number or email, she gave me her email and we parted ways. As long as I keep thinking she will not email me back I will be ok. Her name is Rosamund – I am smitten. 

When I got back to the Blue River I am informed there is trouble with the water in my room so they asked if I would mind moving down to 101 – are you kidding me? Apart from being grateful for a change after three weeks now I only have fifteen steps to the first floor instead of the sixty steps to the forth floor. The door is much stronger and has a security chain, the air-conditioner is quieter, the shower runs at a constant temperature and as well as a normal light the room has a very sexy blue light! What a great day! 

During helping me move rooms Mun asked what I was listening to so I lent him my MP3 player and he is ecstatic.  

I head to school early to look over the books after coffee at a local shop I frequent upon arrival now. Turns out I have had both these classes before and the first one is a talk and listen lesson on California so we breeze through that one except for Cindy.  

I’m not sure whether she knows the material or not because despite being an utter chatter box when my back is turned she goes all shy and diminutive when I ask her a question. Tonight she is hugging her bag with one arm inside which probably means she is texting her friends and she is obviously not paying attention. After a couple of idle warnings I ask her to put her bag on the ground.  

Well! …………I am met with an intense nasty stare and all I can do is play the game, I stare back silently, you could cut the tension with a knife. Fortunately there is an air in these situations where the rest of the class just wants her to do it so they can move on with the lesson and all eyes eventually turn to her, I win, I’m not sure if this would work to my advantage in a western school. After putting her bag down she continues the stare for at least fifteen minutes as I carry on with the class and I wear a big happy helpful smile and ignore her while the rest of us go on with the lesson. 

We come to poetry and rhyming and to my surprise they don’t know what these things are so suddenly I am in my element. I put them in groups to come up with a simple four line poem. As they are doing this, off the top of my head I start writing on the board and come up with, 

Simon is a bad teacher,

He makes me work like a slave,

Maybe he would be better,

If I would behave. 

Genius! One by one they all start to look up from their pages and giggle at the poem, when I see Cindy finish reading it I look at her with a neutral expression, she cracks a smile and the rest of the class is fun without any more tension. Phew! 

The second class is three teenagers who know their stuff but just need help with pronunciation and listening so we go through the book and I take them off in tangents, distracting them from the book and getting them to speak. It took me fifteen minutes to get May to put her tongue between her teeth to pronounce TH, something they have trouble with but by the end of the lesson she was doing great with “they threw the soap in the bath”. 

Wah takes me home, I can’t even be bothered to change except for a T-shirt and head to Dungs for pizza and beer and head back to my new blue room exhausted – I wonder of she will email me back………….