The welcome pack of information from ILA Vietnam is mainly geared to getting set up for life in HCMC rather than elsewhere in the country. Some of the info is useful regardless of where you are, so I follow the directions given, find a phone shop and buy a SIM card with credit. My VN phone number for those interested in such things is +84 (country code) (0) 935417269. (Because I’m still under contract with Optus I’m using the Aussie number for international texts – cheaper for you and more cost effective for me!)
Then ‘what to do, what to do’ to fill in time until I’m collected from the hotel and taken to the ferry wharf. Bought some cut pineapple (germophobes avert your eyes here!) and went into the park on Pham Ngu Lao to eat it in the shade. Was approached here by Ny to practice English.
She is studying fashion photography at one of the technology universities in HCMC, and is a native of Danang in central Vietnam. Has been in HCMC for the last five years and has one year to go in her course, with designs on taking an MBA after that. She says – and perhaps it’s true – that I’m the first person she has ever approached to practice English having always been too nervous and shy to do so before. My unassuming demeanour and good looks obviously have done the trick!Back to the hotel to be picked up by Luke the Teacher Welfare Coordinator from ILA Vietnam and delivered to the ferry wharf. Luke is from Canberra, has been working for ILA Vietnam for two and a half years, and speaks (to my dull ears) passable Vietnamese to converse with the street vendors at the wharf. Not for the last time I regret travelling with such a heavy set of bags. On to the hydrofoil at 12.30 and it’s off down the Saigon Riverto Vung Tau.
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