Monday - Six Weeks in Saigon

Started with a slight hangover so I went straight to Santa café for eggs, baked beans, mushrooms and a pork chop, of course with coffee and orange juice. Back at the hotel Thay says that today is the day she would like to take me out to lunch. Wah and I head off to the school for the last time to collect my pay and when I get there it is actually prepared and although they took out twenty five dollars tax that they will not actually pay but pocket for themselves I really couldn’t be bothered protesting and am just happy that the rest is there. I got four and a half million Dong (approx two hundred and fifty dollars) for eighteen hours work although I did volunteer an extra twenty eight hours initially on top of that, it will cover a week and a half of my accommodation, not bad for someone without any experience or a work permit. 

I get back to the hotel in time to go for lunch with Thay, she asks Mun to come along I think as a kind of chaperone and we have an amazing lunch at a great popular road side stall and then have a coffee at a trendy coffee shop next door with framed albums of Johnny Cash, Val Doonican and Nana Mouskouri.  

Mun drives me back to the Blue River where I step into the door way to see Zoe standing before me, she has returned from Mui Ne and checked into my hotel. It is so nice to see her and we go for a beer and a catch up. She has to go to the dentist after our beer and I go back to my room to crash for a while. 

I wake at four to a phone call from Dan who asks me to come for a beer and after his five weeks off drinking I am a little concerned and go along to keep him company and keep a protective eye on him. He’s on a bike and takes me down to the water end of District one where we are going to meet Charlie, the bike is a bit wobbly and Dan stops for a phone call at one point so I get off and walk the rest of the way.  

Dan, Charlie, a grumpy bargirl and Me.

We meet Charlie in a kind of upscale ex-pat bar which is not sleazy but non the less, the girls are very sexy dressed in low cut tops and mini skirts. Charlie is a very interesting character, Malay born, his grandfather was the first Malasian Emmisary to the British Empire. He was educated in all the finest schools in England from a young age and is invited to all sorts of tea parties at the palace having met the Queen many times. He is also a high energy ratbag who always creates lots of attention wherever he is - in a fun way. You may recall a few weeks ago I commented on seeing a guy ride past on a bike smoking a pipe as he went past - that was Charlie, the pipe is his signature look.

We hang there for a few beers, Zoe calls me for dinner with her and some guy she met while she was away but I decline, I could not sit with her and another guy. We are just friends but my feelings are obviously much more than that.

A beautiful old fifties BMW

She calls me later on to catch up for a beer and I meet her back at our hotel, tonight will be the last time I see her as she is going to the Mekong first thing in the morning. We walk around the block and have a few drinks at Thi bar where there is a rocking band and after a few we decide to go to the bar on top of the skyscraper near the park as we discussed last week. 

We arrive up the top to an incredible view and have a few more drinks until two in the morning at which point we walk back to the hotel so she can get some sleep before her six am alarm. We have a hug farewell and wish each other the best, she is a special girl and I will miss her but - I will see her again.