Ho Chi Minh City

After 27 hours of travel, having confirmed our luggage's arrival in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) the following day while we were in Seoul, Steven and I arrived in our new home city.

While I dealt with our luggage claim/confirmation for Friday Morning (which did arrive, thankfully, as promised), Steven went outside where he met Donavan, one of the schools coordinators, who had a new mini-van (i.e. school bus) waiting for us.

Our drive from the airport was pleasant and we both felt rested and full after some long naps and tasty food on the plane. We were taken to the hotel that we would be staying in for the next two weeks, the Lan Lan 2 and immediate partook in a hot shower. We spent the next hour or so unpacking our carry on's, which I had uncharacteristically packed for just such a scenario in which we would have to live a few days without our luggage, checking out Vietnamese cable channels (no CNN or BBC, much to our dismay - although we found later that we can get CNN without the picutre, but we can still see the news) and settling in.

We woke the next morning and headed down for breakfast, which turned out to be, not the french baguette and coffee I had expected, but a huge spread of fruit, rice cakes, two types of Vietnamese noodle soup, chicken curry, two types of stiky rice, sauteed corn and a variety of other dishes.

At breakfast we met a few of the other teachers from AIS and learned that we would be picked up at 2:00 p.m.for a tour of the elementary and middle/high schools. We spent the morning seeking out familiar places and found our old hotel and a few other familiar spots and checking out life on the street. The only noticable change from 2005 was the dwindling number of cyclos on the street. Apparently the government is trying to phase out this mode of transport due to its adverse effect on the rapid flow of traffic, which is sad because so many of the cyclo drivers are former South Vietnamese Soldiers who can't legally work for the government and have limited employment opportunities, not to mention limited funds required to purchase the next class of "taxi," a motor scooter.

At 2:00 p.m. we were taken on a brief tour of both the elementary school, which used to house the entire school population, and the middle and high schools. The schools were both very nice and modernly equipped. We also met some of Steven's future co-wokers, both the international staff and the Vietnamese administration, all of whom were very friendly and welcoming.

After our tour we headed back to our hotel where we met up with another fellow teacher and headed to the market for dinner. The market is surrounded by tents housing fully set tables and chairs and an open kithen, serving up delicious meals at very inexpensive prices. Steven, Paula and I settled in for a delicious meal of grilled red snapper, grilled morning glory with garlic and rice, with an ever present side of fish sauce which I adore, and two drinks all for the bargain price of $12.

After dinner, with the exhaustion of living for two days on the other side of the world from the one we're used to, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.