6.22.2010
6.12.2010
Home Sweet Saigon
For me, Saigon was definitely NOT love at first sight. It's hot, humid, loud, overcrowded. There's a constant layer of smog hanging over the whole maze of winding streets. Like most big cities in this part of the world, foreigners are treated either as a nuisance or as a dollar sign, or quite often, as both. But, like most places that you linger long enough to sink beneath the surface, it starts to grow on you. We've been here almost a month now... (sorry for the horrible slacking on the blog front! Quick update: we decided to settle down in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), moved into a house and are chasing careers as English teachers) ...and intriguing mysteries and endearing quirks abound.
For example. The other night Christian was chauffeuring me home from my new tutoring gig in some far reach of the city. (The chaotic motorbike traffic continues to terrify me and I haven't sucked it up enough to get my own motorbike. When I'm feeling really brave I drive,but this usually only happens in the middle of the night...) Anyways, we decided to try to find a shorter route home. About an hour later, that plan landed us on some dark street in some unknown district, nowhere near home. Totally lost and disoriented we made an amazing discovery: inner-city shrimp fishing!
Picture this: next-door to a soccer field, a manky-looking swimming pool rimmed by Vietnamese men, women, and kids- fishing poles in hand, staring intently into the murky water. Every now and then someone reels in a huge prawn and throws it into a hot-pot on the table or skewers it and puts it on the grill. Naturally, we had to try. Sadly, we failed miserably. After two hours we left with seven shrimp, five of which were generous "gifts", aka pity donations from our fellow shrimp-fishermen. Considering how utterly lost we were, chances of finding this gem again may be one in a million, but we will definitely try!
Of all the things we could have ended up doing that night, I never would have guessed we'd be posted up at a muddy pond trying desperately to catch shrimp for dinner. It's for reasons like this that I find little cracks appearing in my initial dislike for this city. I have a sneaking suspicion that as time passes these cracks will just grow wider and wider. Only time will tell..
XOXO, Em
For example. The other night Christian was chauffeuring me home from my new tutoring gig in some far reach of the city. (The chaotic motorbike traffic continues to terrify me and I haven't sucked it up enough to get my own motorbike. When I'm feeling really brave I drive,but this usually only happens in the middle of the night...) Anyways, we decided to try to find a shorter route home. About an hour later, that plan landed us on some dark street in some unknown district, nowhere near home. Totally lost and disoriented we made an amazing discovery: inner-city shrimp fishing!
Picture this: next-door to a soccer field, a manky-looking swimming pool rimmed by Vietnamese men, women, and kids- fishing poles in hand, staring intently into the murky water. Every now and then someone reels in a huge prawn and throws it into a hot-pot on the table or skewers it and puts it on the grill. Naturally, we had to try. Sadly, we failed miserably. After two hours we left with seven shrimp, five of which were generous "gifts", aka pity donations from our fellow shrimp-fishermen. Considering how utterly lost we were, chances of finding this gem again may be one in a million, but we will definitely try!
Of all the things we could have ended up doing that night, I never would have guessed we'd be posted up at a muddy pond trying desperately to catch shrimp for dinner. It's for reasons like this that I find little cracks appearing in my initial dislike for this city. I have a sneaking suspicion that as time passes these cracks will just grow wider and wider. Only time will tell..
XOXO, Em
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