saturday afternoon

no rushhour at all

It's only sunday...

Sunday afternoon. Just awake from a nap. Time passes by fast, as always... Since two weeks now I am in Saigon, and it beginns to feel a little bit like home, not as Singapore of course, but a little home anyway. In this very moment I am liying on the bed of my nice hotel room in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City's Backpacker's Quarter. A soft breeze of warm air comes from the open window, and when I turn down the volume of my "Buddha Bar" music, I can hear the unique sound of Saigon entering my small kingdom as well. Motorbikes honking. Clapping spoons of Pho (ricenoodle soup) sellers. The city's heartbeat.
Today I finnished the first article for the Saigon Times. A story about "Xe Om" (motorbike taxis), which, if translated literaly, means "hugging vehicle" (even nicer in German: "Knuddelfahrzeug"), due to the fact that you sit very close to the driver, almost hugging him. So I am a little exited, wether the paper will print it...
Friday night, after work, I was invited by some of the colleagues for "di nhau" wich means drinking a lot and eating a lot of snacks, like porks kidney, spare ribs, all kinds of beef and so on. Haven't tried the dog yet. And to be honest, I don't want to. According to our Vietnamese book, "di nhau" is for man only, but there was also girl joining, and no, it was not the San Miguel promotion lady. The remains of the food, like bones, are just to be thrown under the table... mhh, interesting after four months of singapore brainwash. "Together we keep Saigon ok!" - never heard of!
Talking about differences to good old S-pore: Jaywalking of course is a big issue here. No other way to cross the crowded streets. The best thing is to walk very slowly just straight, and never, never ever, look into a drivers face. Otherwise he might think that you have seen him and so its your turn to jump away. Just close your eyes, or look to the ground. Once you entered the road the destiny anyway is out of your hands. So probably it's even better to hear loud music on your walkman as well... and see what will happen. Some of my readers might think this is a dramatisation. Well....

the new bike

First week is over, and now I have lotz of projects at my internship, but no clue ;-). Well, fair enough, you know, dear reader? Basicly I will work for the Saigon Times Weekly and the Marketing Department of Saigon Times. The projects, I have to deal with, range from writing, editing, marketing and media analysis to training of sales agents. So it seems that I have the possibility to use all the proffesional skills I gathered so far. But thats enough showing off. Lets switch to the hard facts: today I bought a nice twentysomething gear bicycle, which will give me the abbility to sneak through Saigon traffic, probably the craziest in the world. My adventures beginn tomorrow...

Back 2 Ho Chi Minh

Tired as hell due to some sleepless nights in Singapore, my homebase in the region, I am now back to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) after one and a half years. Pham Ngu Lao area, the backpackerdistrict, changed a lot, as all of the bars I used to drink the nights away in 2003 seem to have disapeared. But this time I am not here for drinking, of course :o). My two months internship at Saigon Times start day after tomorrow, and so I am quit exited how it will be. So while I am on the one hand, once again, quit sad about leaving all the great people in Singapore behind, i am really looking forward to my time here, and the improvement of my Vietnamese skills, which are still lousy... anyway, Singapore turned out to be the nearby city with only two hours flight distance. So you gotta know what this means :-)