Leaving on a Jet Plane (and then a turbo prop)

Up at eight, not much of a hangover but a bit sad about my slip of the tongue last night and to be leaving today. It feels very strange to pack my backpack after living here for over six weeks. I go to Dung café for breakfast and over a few texts Simon is gracious enough to forgive me under the guise of alcohol induced stupidity.  

I go to my room and pack everything up and settle my monies owed. Dan gives me a wake up call and we head out for a farewell coffee. It is very sad to say goodbye to everyone at the Blue River, they have been my substitute family since I arrived. Into a cab to the airport at one and the travelling begins.  

Vietnam airlines from Saigon to Hanoi, they are always a good experience to fly with, more leg room that western airlines, ironic seeing how short the locals are. Then with just enough time to check in at the Lao counter I head to the gate and get on the turbo prop Lao plane and we are off to Laos.

It’s only an hour flight to Luang Prabang, Nick and I actually landed here last year briefly for a stop over from Siem Reap to Hanoi. I get out some Kip from an ATM and get a taxi into town where I find a hotel, slightly rough but with all the amenities, oh except running water in the bathroom basin but there’s hot water in the shower. 

Yes Miss Sam, my first Beer Lao as promised.

The night markets are five minutes walk down the road so I go and find some food. There is a money exchange place open so I trade two million Dong into Lao Kip, I’m not quite sure how it all works but I think I lost about fifteen dollars in their conversion but at this point it was so convenient and I am so tired it doesn’t really matter.

Bed time.

Wednesday

Today started with a phone call at nine from Dan to come and pick him up from hospital through yet another hangover. I head over there to collect him, he has chronic rheumatoid arthritis and had an attack early this morning, rushed to the hospital and passed out from the pain when he got there. So I helped him walk out when he was released by the doctors, he has had three hits of morphine so he’s a bit wobbly. 

This old banger was on display at the breakfast cafe we went to.

We stop at a nice café for breakfast then head back to the block. He has a job interview today so he goes to get ready for that and I go back to the Blue River for a shower and head out to say some farewells. I went to the GO2 and said farewell to Doyen. 

Farewell Doyen

The biggest bike i've seen here, it's a thousand cc.

I went for a massage to say goodbye to the girls.

Yen, Me and Nah.

I’ve arranged for a farewell beer with Simon at Santa café, I meet him there about six. It turns into a few drinks and a few laughs. I get to say farewell and have a few beers with Simon, Tom and Dan. Without going into detail, watching my mouth after a few beers for the last six weeks something extremely stupid slips out of my mouth and may have blown my friendship with Simon…………. 

Farewell Thuy

Simon, Tom, Dan and Me.

This was taken before my slip of the tounge as a joke but somehow appropriate as my last picture of Simon.

Everyone heads off, Dan has gone to the GO2 and txt me to join him, I go for one drink but I’m not in the mood anymore so I head home feeling sad and stupid for letting one stupid little thing slip out of my mouth and maybe ruining my friendship with a really decent guy. 

Tomorrow at this time, I will be in Laos.

Tuesday

Slept in until nine, went to Santa café for greasy breakfast then set out on my last mission before leaving Saigon, Bixteco Tower. Wah gave me a lift down there and for ten dollars I got the elevator to the forty ninth floor, just under the helipad, I had been waiting for a clear day to go up the tower and today is great.  

The helipad just above.

I couldn't help thinking of the nine eleven jumpers from here.

This is the camera through the binoculars, right in the middle is Santa cafe'

This is the reverse shot from the front of Santa cafe'

I walked back to the block from there and caught up with Charlie at Lam café for lunch and he was concerned because he hadn’t heard from Dan so after eating we went to his hotel and woke him up. I left them to it and went back to my room for a lie down and some air-conditioning, it has been a hot few days.  

We found Dan alive, great view from his balcony

I got a call from Dan about four to come and meet some recruiters for a school, I went down to meet them but I am not interested in teaching now, I am on holidays. After a coffee Charlie invited us back to his house for some beers which was really nice to spend some time in a local house instead of a hotel or bar.  

A three hundred year old time piece of charlies.

Just in case you weren't sure.......

The three stooges.

Into the evening we decided to hit some trendy bars in the trendy part of District One……………………by one am I made my excuses and headed back to the block near my hotel and decided on one last drink at the GO2. I chatted with some hookers in the bar who tried flirting with me and decided I had had enough.

Nub the street girl.

Someone's had too much

Walking back to my hotel I decided to have just one more at Alley Booz and was approached by another hooker. I asked her to sit down and bought her a drink but made it perfectly clear “no boom boom, just talk” we chatted for a while and I decided it was time to go back to my hotel………..for real this time, it was a fun night.

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.

Schools Out

I did get more than five hours sleep last night so slightly better than yesterday. Breakfast and off to school with Wah. I stop in at Joo’s for a coffee and her daughter is there this morning, she is pushed into conversation with me but the communication is poor, I try to tell them that today is my last day but they do not understand. 

I did not do any study for today’s two classes and just as well, they gave me the wrong pages once again. I have had both these classes before and they are a good bunch about eight to ten years old. We get through the work and play a lot of games which allows me the chance to get rid of excess stationary as prizes. Only the staff know I am leaving (and they think I am coming back but I doubt it) so as we are finishing the last class I write my plans on the board and get some kind words from the kids, they will miss me too. 

Anna and Lisa won't leave until I pack up my things and shadow me out of school to Wah's bike for one last high five - so sweet.

Tessie, Hoon, Me and Han

I have not told Wah that I am leaving yet but in a very odd piece of synchronicity for the first time in about thirty trips to and from the school, as we leave he turns left at the first corner instead of straight ahead as we always have and we take a different route back to the Blue River. There is a strange feeling on the ride back, I have just finished work to go on holidays for the second time in as many months – how cool is that?!? (Broad smile under my pollution mask) 

When we arrive back at the hotel I ask Hai to translate to Wah that I have finished teaching and I am leaving Thursday, tomorrow morning we will go and (fingers crossed) collect my pay for one last trip.

After a quick shower I head to Dung café for lunch and top up my phone credit along the way, I have finally used up fifteen dollars after five weeks. After lunch I go to the GO2 for a slow relaxed beer, listening to my MP3 player, get my weekly fix of the “Daily Telegraph” and have a chat with Doyen. She requests that I come to see her Wednesday to say goodbye before I go, I was going to anyway. 

I wander to the massage place where Trang sorts out the minor aches and pains I have, I am treating myself to some indulgence today. I am fairly tired so I head back towards the hotel trawling the seven elevens for peanuts, my latest food craving. I don’t want to hang out with the drinkers and drink more beer at Santa café but I could do with a coffee and a chat before I crash out when suddenly a hand appears on my shoulder, it’s Dan who is having a coffee just near our hotels (he’s only about five doors up from me) so we hang out for an hour, it is five in the afternoon so i'm not going to crash out now anyway. I have a special bond with Dan in that “brother from another mother” kind of way, we are very much in synch with our thoughts and plans. During our coffee Thay turns up so I buy some chewy from as her as promised in my funny slip up last night and closely behind is Lan who stops by for a chat, I offer her some time before I go for some English tutoring as we discussed last night, I think she will miss me, I will miss her.  

I go back to the hotel to wash off the massage oil after wandering to watch the sun go down in a beautiful display over the park and find some peanuts, it’s crazy you can get cashews by the bucket load in any shape or form but a simple packet of salted peanuts is harder to come by.  

After a short rest I head out for dinner at Dung café where I get a call from Dan and he comes down to meet me for dinner. He just got a mobile phone back from a repairer that his English girlfriend had been using until she returned it to him a couple of months ago when he was in England but she did not think to delete certain upsetting information he has just discovered so for the first time in five weeks he has decided to have a drink. Although I am very tired I have just started my holidays so a couple of drinks suits me and what are friends for? We head down Biu Vien for a couple of vodkas, nibbling on peanuts and quail eggs from the street food ladies and discussing betrayal. I reach my limit (two vodkas ago) and he is happily chatting away to a stunning girl so I leave him to it, say goodnight and head back to my room to finally get some sleep, it has been a glorious day!

Sleepless in Saigon

It was one of those nights I just couldn’t sleep, I saw three on the clock and the alarm went off at six. The ride to school helps the waking process a little followed by one of Joo’s coffees.  

The first class is a fun young group, I fake energy and excitement to keep them focused, helped with knowledge this is my second to last class at this school. (I told Tessie I didn’t want to work Monday)  

The game “Six” is priceless. (Write down six fruit – I write down six fruit – I dramatically call them out one at a time – one point if you wrote one I call out) When the kids get restless during class I call a game of “Six”, they can be distracted and rowdy but by the time I am up to slowly revealing the second or third answer – they are hanging on the edge of their seats for me to reveal the next one.  

Damn cute midgets keep running up to me and saying “hello teacher” and “hi-fiving” me during break time, I guess I’ll miss them. One of the students from my last two weekend classes “Sally” chatted to me during a break last week and told me her birthday was Friday. I asked if she would have a party or get a present, she said no, her family was too big/poor for that. She’s an ok student but a dreamer, every time I would walk around checking their spelling as they were writing answers, Sally would be drawing the most amazing anime pictures so when I was shopping this week I bought her a really nice refillable sketching pencil with refills and gave it to her today, she was stunned and her smile made me melt, it is rewarding work. 

The second class is a new group for me, only five students with a reasonable grasp on what I am saying and the class goes well except for the air conditioner. The mounting bolts are loose on the wall and the whole room vibrates with a loud hum as it cools us down and it is too hot to turn it off. 

Totally zapped of energy I slump on Wah’s bike for the hot midday shoulder to shoulder traffic back to the Blue River for a quick shower before Dung café for lunch. I walk back to the hotel the long way around for some exercise and to maybe bump into someone for another beer – thankfully there was no one I knew about so I went back to my room and crashed under the air conditioner for a couple of hours, not too long or I won’t sleep again tonight.   

After dark I head to Anne’s café for dinner. Thay drops by for a chat and asks if I want to buy some gum, I say no. She walks into the café behind me to sell to some customers then Lan comes by to say hello. My regular readers will know I have a small crush on Lan and I haven’t bought anything from her for days so after a chat I say I’ll have some gum, I forgot Thay was behind me and she happened to walk back out past me at the exact time I asked Lan for the gum, well………….aren’t I in trouble now! We all have a laugh about it and now I “have to” buy something from Thay tomorrow, it’s all a bit of fun for a few cents, they never really pressure me to buy and they always stop by for a friendly chat, unlike the other seller girls. 

After pizza and two beers I head back to my room to try and get a decent nights sleep or the kids will crush me tomorrow.

The Day After Yesterday

Woke early today so forced myself to stay in bed and watch a movie (The Ghost Writer – pretty good) got up around ten and went out for breakfast. Tom and Dan were at Santa café so I sat with them and tried a Santa breakfast. Their Vietnamese food is quite bland so I haven’t eaten there much but wow – pork chop, baked beans, sunnyside up eggs, chips and a roll, best breakfast yet! They are also one of the few places that have chips as opposed to McDonalds style “fries” and those of you that know me know what a chip freak I am. 

Dan headed off for a school interview and Tom and I talked of life, love and dreams. He’s a tough beer drinking guy, Oxford educated guy who served in the armed forces unlike me however we are very similar in that we are the same age and enjoying the freedoms our life styles afford us but in our more vulnerable moments, pondering the future that will lead us to. 

Shortly after this photo was taken this chicken was taken over to La Vang for lunch - if you know what I mean.

I head off for one more quiet coffee to catch up on my WWF games and retire to my room for the afternoon watching TV, studying for class tomorrow and resting, ah the life. 

Out to Dung café for dinner and a couple of beers then back to my room for an early night.

Gimme a Ticket For an Aeroplane

I slept until nine today, the best sleep for over five weeks. I met Dan at Texas bar to shoot the breeze for breakfast during a great thunderstorm. He has chronic rheumatoid arthritis so he went to find the natural therapies centre and I went back to the Blue River where Hien organised my flights and VISA for Laos, I leave next Thursday! I called Tessie to let her know, I am working Saturday and Sunday then she is giving me one last class on Monday and has agreed to pay me before I go. 

I went shopping where I finally found a few things that had been building up on a list including some decent aftershave and some thongs with grip for the wet sidewalks, dropped them back in my room then went to Dung café for an afternoon lunch. Went to GO2 for a quiet beer and to catch up with Doyen (we swapped emails because I am going away and I found out her name is spelt Tuyen) then I went back to my room to watch a movie or two, catching up with Lan along the way. 

I promised Anne I would go there for dinner tonight so I did. As I am heading back to my room I check in at Santa café and some of the boys are there so I stop in for a beer or two, or several………………. 

A successful but listless day, Saigon is a bit less bright without Zoe around..........damn her! (sorry, an in joke between us)

I fought the Law and the Law Won

I woke up at five and rolled around trying to get back to sleep but gave up and had noodles for breakfast then went back to sleep for an hour. I called Dan and we went over to District Five for coffee and a chat. We haven’t really spoken much before, just in passing at Santa café but we talked for three hours on philosophy, teaching and politics in a roadside stall, very stimulating to have some intelligent conversation.  

Dan got a call from Charlie who had six young university girls at Lam café and asked him to come over and meet them, I tagged along for the walk but didn’t stay. I needed to eat then go back to my room to psych myself up for a visit to the police station to see about my police report – FROM FIVE WEEKS AGO! Breathe in – hold – and out 

Hai came into work early to go with me and translate to the non English speaking police. I entered and left the station with a big forced cheery smile on my face, I had no idea what the conversation between Hai and the policeman was but it resulted in the usual dodging of work and responsibility. The officer who took my original report is the only one who can fill in the report that I need and it seems he is away for three weeks. I am aware that the right manoeuvring and passing of money could get the results I need but Hai is scared of this approach and I cannot push him. 

I return to my room and call the insurance company and discuss the whole thing, of course I don’t talk to the actual insurance company I talk to a girl from the company who takes these calls for the company – why are all the people I deal with from companies that work for companies who report to the company I am actually involved with? What a messed up system of irresponsibility, the bank card replacement people were the same, “I’m sorry sir we are not the ANZ we are the card issuing department of the blah blah blah” Time for a beer…… 

I wander down to the GO2 for a comfortable seat and to watch the afternoon traffic go by, Zoe is there. We sip a few beers and play each other songs from our MP3 players as the rain moves in and the night descends.

There is a Tibetan café she wants to try so we find the address and head off across the park near the cathedral. After about twenty minutes of walking up and down the street we decide we are not going to find it so we just look for a place to have dinner, and look and look and look…………two hours later after looking at dozens of menus we just decide to go back across the park to Dung café for pizza.  

After way too much pizza we agree on “one more” at Alley Booz before retiring but really “one more” this time – we mean it! There is a two for one on the cocktails we ordered so we get an extra one but the music is so bad we are in no danger of drinking too much, Zoe is getting out of Saigon early tomorrow for a few days, we say goodnight before eleven and disappear into the night.

Hazy Tuesday

The power is off when I wake up around nine and the room is hot and sweaty. I’m too seedy for a hotel breakfast anyway so I go looking for bacon and eggs - walking through these streets hung-over is surreal. I find a great breakfast at the Texas bar and let the grease absorb the alcohol as a gentle rain helps a feeling of freshness wash over me.  

I wander on to Santa café for a coffee with Simon and Dave, another teacher from New Zealand and a new WWF opponent. I run through my current options and thoughts about continuing working versus leaving for Laos and the boys throw some good food for thought my way, I think it’s time to leave and enjoy some travelling for a while.  

Back at the hotel the power is still off and the room is still hot but I need to lie down for a while, the power comes back on mid afternoon just in time to watch “Fargo”. 

After the movie I have a craving for Lotteria so I wander into district five and pass a temple I have seen closed before but it is open today so I stop in and thank “O Beautiful One”. After my fried chicken fix I’m feeling better but a massage should finalise recovery so I go and see Na and she works her magic. Feeling better I sit amongst the peak hour traffic with a coffee and my MP3 player on, it’s a beautiful thing as the city buzzes past silently to my own personal soundtrack. 

"Coldplay-Fix You" always puts a smile on my face and a melancholy warmth in my chest.

Back in my room relaxed and sated I wait for Zoe to finish booking her trip and go to meet her for dinner, she is getting out of Saigon for a few days on Thursday.  

We go to an Indian restaurant and have a wonderful meal with a bottle of red, Zoe is making the most of the curry and red wine before she gets her permanent crowns put in at the dentist. I walk her back to her hotel and after a mostly hung-over hazy day and the red wine I should sleep well.