Apartment Hunting Day 2

Since our first day out, I've been working on my connections in the HCMC real estate business. On Monday I received a contact from another teacher at the school and have tentative plans to meet up with her to see apartments on Friday. I made an appointment with Nice House to see a one-bedroom pace in District 3 at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday and I've been in contact with Dung (pronounced "Yoouu") aka Donavan, whom Steven and I have grown fond of since our first meeting at the airport, and had arranged with him to see some places on Wednesday Afternoon.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took my second moto taxi ("xe om") ride to the school - the first on Tuesday, which was technically "Apartment Hunting Day 2" but since we only saw one three-bedroom apartment, in another modern high-rise, very much out of our price range, I won't count it. I loved my xe om driver and tried to memorize his face (I need to learn how to say "what is your name" in Vietnamese) so that I could find him again. He was a very unaggressive driver, which made for a pleasant ride, quoted me a very just price which I didn't even have to bargain down and knew exactly where he was going, even with a short cut, as oppossed to other drivers who are agressive, high-bidders who have no idea where they are going! If I had money or anywhere to go on a regular basis, I would have tried to hire him full time!

When I arrived at the school, Dung wasn't ready, so I visited with Steven in his new classroom (I'll have to take pictures next time) where he showed me his fancy projector that can instantaneously project what is on your laptop on to the whiteboard and told me about his day. At 4:30, we joined two other teachers, Paula and Andrew, in a taxi with Dung and headed out to the first apartment. It was in the Binh Thanh District, which is just North of Districts 1 and 3, but not too far from the school, which was an area we had not yet been.

I immediately liked the neighborhood. It was very residential with rows of what now seem to be traditional HCMC three or four story houses that I love and wider, less congested streets. My enthusiasm waned a bit when we rounded the corner along the canal and pulled up to an enormous old apartment building that looked like something straight out of an 80's horror flick, complete with gated porches and an unkempt front plaza. We followed Dung and the landlady up to the top (17th) floor where we exited the elevator onto a similarly horror-movie-esque hallway with gated accordion doors. But when she opened the gate, revealing a nice modern dark wood front door, which led into an extremely bright and homey apartment, I was hooked. The walls, if I am remembering correctly, were two toned, top and bottom with a thin tile strip separating the bright orange from the bright red. The door led into a small hallway leading to a living room with bright orange sofas. From the living room, at the far end, you could walk out on to the gated in balcony with a washing machine and an incredible view of the city. Directly across from the balcony, to your immediate right upon entering living room, was the entrance to the dining room/kitchen/bath area; a small dining are with a table, chairs and shelving area separated from the kitchen by a thick tiled partition wall that stopped a few feet from the ceiling, with one-foot-square "window" holes into the kitchen. The kitchen, about the same size as the dining area, housed a mini-fridge (about half the size of a regular sized fridge in the states, or twice the size of a dorm fridge), a mini-stove, and a regular sized sink and counter space. The entrance to the bathroom was located to the left on the back kitchen wall and was a regular sized bathroom with a shower stall with a sliding door. The entrance to the bedroom was to the left of the entrance to the kitchen, off of the living room and was a nice sized bedroom painted a soothing blue with a full sized bed, armoire and a vanity desk. The view out the bedroom window was identical to that from the balcony. I immediately loved the little place with its bright walls, bright furniture and arty touches, forgetting that it was on the 17th floor of an apartment building on Elm Street. Steven, although not as enamored with the paint job as I, also seemed to like the place.

We left the landlady with some questions and the idea that we liked the place and would follow up, to see another place in the same building. We took to elevator down to the basement entrance, which seemed less forbidding and more practical through my new potential resident perspective. In the middle of the front plaza, we noticed what seemed to be a club house with a garage-type gym and pool area. Another plus.

When we arrived at the other side of the building we learned that the other apartment we were scheduled to see had already been taken. I immediately thought of my little Mexican Cantina Apartment on the 17th floor and wondered how long it would be on the market if we waited too long to weigh our options. Still wanting to see a little more of what was out there, Steven and I decided to keep our appointments on Thursday and Friday and take the chance that the apartment may be rented before we make our decision.

After returning to the hotel, we went with Paula and Andrew to see a neighborhood in District One referred to as the "white ghetto," where Paula had her heart set on a place. We walked straight from our hotel to the Dong Khoi area which caters to the cities many expats and well off Vietnamese. Paula led us past countless upscale hotels, designer stores and fancy restaurants before turning into a nondescript alley way, informing us "now this is where the fun begins." As soon as we stepped into the neighborhood, the noise of the street ceased as if we were stepping into a vacuum. The dimly lit alley led into a labyrinth of narrow streets lined by narrow row houses with ornate balconies and well manicured gardens.

We wandered around admiring the buildings, noting the many "Room for Rent" signs and decided to see one just to get an idea of what was available. At the first few houses, we were told that either the rooms were no longer available or that it was too late to see them. Finally at the fourth place we tried, we found a young man playing the piano, and his mother, willing to show us a room she had available.

Many of these buildings are set up similarly to a smaller Vietnamese Hotel, with a small living area and maybe a small kitchen on the first floor, separated by a the bottom steps of a beautiful spiral staircase which leads all the way to the top of the building. Each floor houses a room either with, or without, an individual kitchen (a "kitchen" being a furniture piece the size of a small entertainment center with a sink, counter top burners and cabinets both below and above the counter). The room that we were shown had a separate entrance off of the small courtyard, which would allow the occupant to avoid having to go through the communal living room to get to the room. It was a big room with beautiful dark wood furniture and a full sized bath. Paula fell in love immediately and it was neat to be there to share in her joy at having found a place.

Although the area was nice, Steven and I decided that we wanted to keep looking for a multi-room place in a more Vietnamese neighborhood.