Vietnami tuba: First bunch of experiences

Okay. Now I see I’ve left the comfort zone.

I arrived to Ho Chi Minh City after a paralizing 18 hour flight and was warmly greeted by local AIESECers and the humid air. A ride to my host’s place gave me the first glimpse of the city that is going to be my home for the next 2 months – roads had 7 lanes going in one direction, with little attention turned to the white lines separating them. Motorbikes were swarming in from every direction like bees, honking their horns for no apparent reason.

Eventually all the motorbikes always just blend into one big foc

There were houses that looked grim – missing walls and windows, with electricity wires giving them the image of a true prison - and next to them shops with either a Las Vegas luminosity or blinding bright white lights.

A city of contrasts

My living district

Women with don ganh (a bamboo pole with load of food on either side) were walking in the middle of the street among the cars and motorbikes. (pictures of that coming soon)

When I got to my host’s place, I quickly learned that the easiest way to sleep is on the chilly stone floor. It actually sounded like quite a relief in the midst of the hotness. The room is very universal – in one corner there are kitchenware, in another – some blankets and pillows, and there is a door that leads to the bathroom. A traveller’s tip: the Vietnamese don’t usually use toilet paper.

center: bed material, lower left corner: kitchen, lower right corner: career building

Who needs windows in this climate ?

Our not-so-trustworthy roommate. He still lives here.

Going to fetch some food in the evening was a short, albeit sightful trip. We crossed a river, which had been freely littered with everything you can imagine, strolled through streets with food stalls selling fresh salad, live fish, and other food items right on the sideway. Because the sidewalks are filled with booths, locals always walk on the roads, with cars and motorbrikes densely hovering past from every direction.

Once we had sat down to eat in a little streetside diner, my medicinal worries about the tap water being contaminated with parasitic protozoans were quickly ridiculed, as everybody around me was drinking ice tea with ice cubes made out of that same water.

The following night was to be warm, stony and short, but yet very refreshing. What woke me up(but not my host, who seemed to have the ability to shut off his hearing capabilty while sleeping), was the cacophony of hammers, saws and Vietnamese construction workers’ shouts on a house right next to ours. Work here begins at 7 AM and it’s, and the construction men are doing a ruthless job.

A view from my living place

We started our day with a steaming bowl of pho bo, a beef and noodle soup with lemongrass and mint. We used a motorbike to travel everywhere that day, and the rides offered a great view into the lives of ordinary Vietnamese people. On narrow streets babies were being cradled and fed while motorbikes angrily rode past them, families had lunch on the road in front of their houses and the market booths were so plenty that it was hard to pass by them. The amount of fresh (including living) food is jaw-dropping, but the fact that they're sold in the middle of the traffic, the crowds of people and an overall setting of filth makes it somewhat undesirable. The best markets are the ones where the streets are so narrow that motorbikes can't navigate through them.

Kelly, my girlfriend, with some interesting groceries

Cafe Compactdisc

I have by now also experienced my first hard tropical rainfall. Within 15 minutes from the start, the little streets became so flooded that you could barely lift your feet from the water. Kids came out of their houses to have water fights and the market keepers did everything to prevent their food from becoming one with the flood. It was when I was walking through the flooded little streets that I remembered the parasite Schistosoma japonicum's ability to drill through the skin of the feet and start wreaking havoc in the body. However, the combination of the unearthly hard rain, the halt of the otherwise intensive bustle of people and motorcycles, and the kids playing in the rain was touching, and the parasites never crossed my mind again.

In the next blog I'll write about the visit to an orphanage of HIV+ children and more about the thus far incredible Vietnam !

Here is a selection of some other highlights: