My new home

Hmm ... has been a while, so the news is getting stale.

anyway - I have moved to my new home in Vo Thi Sau street. I am very glad to be here. It is great to have some space and my landlords have set me up very well - new fridge, washing machine, microwave, rice cooker, iron and cook top. The gas bottle was connected up on Thursday, but I haven't started cooking yet.

The house is in a secure compound with two security guys, so I have to ring a bell each time I come home, so that I can get in the gate. They look after my bike (of the mountain variety) at night, and put it away/get it out for me whenever I go out.

This is the main house.

The apartment is a big studio, no separate rooms except for the bathroom. The promised new entry door (on the side of the house) was installed in place of a window, so it is massive! Huge bed, nice TV.
There is a big garden with many mango trees, a couple of coconut trees and some herbs and green vegies as well. The Vung Tau lighthouse is close by, and over the roof you can see the back of the Jesus statue.

The storm that wasn't

Monday just gone (17 November) the hotel staff told me to expect that there would be a big storm in the afternoon. Big storm! Well, what they actually were referring to was a typhoon that was expected to make landfall in south Vietnam that day. When I came back later in the morning I was given a note - here's what it had to say:

Please be informed to all of you that the big storm will be coming to Vung Tau city at 16:00pm today 17 November 2008.

We would like to informed you some things as below:

1. Electricity may be cut when storm coming so we will send you the light and candle for replacement of power
2. For more safety we required all customer at 3rd floor from Room No 301 - 309 will moving to the second floor

Note: Please bring some valuable thing such as money, computer ... with you when you moving.

NB - I am on the 3rd floor in room 304 (having relocated after the roof leaked in room 306). Well, I packed up a few things in preparation for a move and waited a while. In the afternoon as 4pm approached I went and asked whether I should move and was given the key.

In preparation the hotel staff were filling sandbags and putting them on the roof to hold it down in the event of winds.


I got a call from ILA and later a text message to say that classes were cancelled (I wasn't teaching :( ). And so we waited. In the meantime the high-rise construction nearby continued unabated, people continued to go about their normal lives, and I started to get cabin-fever.

So I went out to Front Beach, looked at the sky, felt the wind (light sea breeze as usual) noted the absence of clouds, rain etc, and thought well ...

During this time David called and asked about the typhoon because he had been talking to someone in Ben Tre (further south) and learned about the preparations there. Later I met up with a Vietnamese friend Linh, and he was able to tell me that although Vung Tau almost never experiences typhoons 2 years ago one did come ashore here in the early morning. Noone had believed the warnings because it just didn't happen so they just went about life as usual. Unfortunately for the early morning exercisers this was not a very good idea. About 55 people were killed in Vung Tau, and since then the city/provincial authorities have figured precaution is much better.

And for the record although we didn't experience anything of it, the typhoon has come in further along the coast. Yes we are very relieved and a little bemused by the precautions but on the other hand ...

Getting set up - home and transport

After many false starts as well as the invaluable assistance of David Vuong (travel agent back in Newtown) in finding some contacts, I have finally settled on somewhere more permanent to live. And it's a place that I looked at in the first week and initially decided against because ... well, because I didn't know any better I suppose. It is an apartment in a villa in Vo Thi Sau street close to Back Beach. It is actually a very nice - luxurious? - large studio, owned by one of the property tycoons of Vung Tau, and it seems that I will be the only other tenant in the place besides the owners. Don't have a pic to show you yet - I am signing the lease on Thursday and move next Monday.

Because I am moving to Vo Thi Sau street I have to do something more about transport than just my daily lift to and from work with Quang, walking and the hotel's dilapidated one-person bicycle (included in the tariff). So I asked Steve about Waltzing Matilda's - the hotel/bar/travel booking agent who he rents his motorcycle from - and went in on Monday to enquire. And to say "I can't actually drive a motorcycle - could someone teach me". After everyone fell about laughing at the prospect of this green round-eye wanting to learn, they have been very kind and given me 3 lessons - all the while I'm waiting for a motorcycle to actually become available. (I do wonder where there is a sub-text here!)

The thing is, the idea of riding the motorcycle is much easier than the act. In principle it's not that much different to driving a manual car, in fact there isn't even a clutch. But I have enormous trouble using the pedal to change gears down, and then there's the need to keep your balance, not veer into other traffic when you're trying to change gear and lane and get ready to make a left-hand turn (remember in Vietnam we are driving on the right hand side of the road, so it's the left-hand turns that take you across traffic), ... oh and slowing down for turns at traffic lights and intersections. The people at Waltzing Matilda's have been very patient and assure me that I'll get it ... but I think that I could make the roads of Vung Tau whole lot more dangerous.

Seriously considering buying a push bike instead and just getting a xe om driver when I need it!

The health check part 2

hmm ... after the time that has lapsed since the health check this post might turn out to booorrrinnng.

So you've learnt about the urine sample, the dental check and the x-ray. We returned to Le Loi hospital on Thursday to complete the various checks. If you think in terms of an overall medical you could say that this is quite a thorough procedure. However, if you think about it in terms of the value of the various examinations, well ...

• height and weight recorded. Nothing much that you can bodgy up on that. We all have mass and span!
• ear nose and throat examination. Now this was an interesting one. We watched each other receive the examination which was over in about 60 seconds. It was a little bit more involved than 1. nose - do you have one? 2. both ears? 3. can you swallow? - but not much more. I think the essential thing was to check that they were all connected together and not blocked up!
• eyesight test. We really didn't know what to expect with this. Noone was asked whether they needed glasses to read. Some of us had to read the letters on the tenth line of the chart, others on the sixth. For the tenth line we are almost certain there was a letter in Russian, so what is the right response when reading the line? Skip the letter? Say what you think it is as an English letter? Anyway all of us appear to have 20/20 vision - including Annabel who wears contact lenses. And the health of our eyes seems fine - we can look straight ahead and to the left and right when we're asked to
• ECG. This was the real deal. However, it took place in the accident and emergency room, and around us were people who were in pain or suffering from various cuts and injuries, and it was a little disconcerting that once again we seemed to be using up resources that would be better given to the real patients.

Anyway - that was just about the end of the medical. We were asked to check all the records made - which was an interesting proposition what with the form being in Vietnamese - and they've now been sent off to ILA Vietnam in HCMC for use in applying for our work permits (along with four photos). There are some teachers who have been waiting for work permits for 15 months but we've been told that procedures and timelines have been tightened up. So stay tuned to hear whether I have to get a new visa in January instead!

the health check - part 1

As part of getting a work permit a group of us had to go the Le Loi hospital for a health check. Noone knew exactly what to expect although when we were told that the five of us would have to go twice and to expect it to take 3-4 hours we knew there would be a lot of waiting involved.

Here's a picture of Annabel, Elsbeth and Steve doing some lesson planning while we were waiting for the fees to be paid to the hospital and the paper work to be collected. And here's a picture of Mr Dat from ILA (in the middle) paying the fees and collecting the forms.

We had to bring a passport sized photo to be attached to the paper work. (This was medically very important as you will soon read!)

Actually I should start by saying that anyone who comes to the hospital has to fill in forms and carry them around with them to various treatment rooms, so we weren't any different.

The first stop was a dual thing - blood was taken for testing (we presume) and we had to give a urine sample. The urine had to go into a very small test-tube (I wish I had the picture for this! I think that Elsbeth has one.) and then was left in a rack - identification for the blood and urine was via a number - but without being sealed!?

After that we went upstairs for a dental check. However, none of us made it into the dentist's chair. Probably a good thing because every treatment room we went to there lots of genuine patients waiting. The thing is our dental records were assessed via our photos. Now seeing that my photo was one taken for a passport, and seeing how for Australian passports you are not allowed to smile or show your teeth, I'm not quite sure how the condition of my teeth was assessed.

The other important stop on this day was for a chest x-ray. We are not quite sure what this was looking for - maybe to check lungs - but we are each now the proud owner of an x-ray which we can give to our doctor or throw away (Mr Dat's advice). Mine has a big white area on it - anyone able to diagnose my problem?

(Stay tuned for what happens on the second visit to the hospital)