Saigon Times

Two more weeks and my internship at the Saigon Times is over. Another month of travelling is waiting for me and Mr. Löwi, who will join me. It's his first time in Asia and so I planned a nice and entertaining schedule of things to do... after some weeks of eating dogmeat, spiders and delicious cockroach-soup, illegal motorbike races, gambling, using open air restrooms with a shower instead of toilet paper and drinking cheap homemade booze Mr. Löwi will become as much a friend of Asia as I am :o) But please, don't tell him what adventures await him. It's gonna be a surprise ;o)
What happend during the last two weeks? Well.... one of the major events was my telephone bill. I was stupid enough to make some IDD-calls on cellphones in Jakarta and to Germany from my hotelroom & so - surprise, surprise - I had a 150 US$ bill to pay. Thank heavens, the family running the hotel really cares for me and locked my phone, so I can not ruin myself anymore :-) anyway, I still can recieve calls.
Yesterday I had a funny encounter. I just was having breakfast at 2pm in one of my favourite hangouts in the backpackers district (it was sunday... so don't blame me for sleeping in), eating some müsli with fresh fruit and yogurth (that's super Vietnamese, I know) and drinking a iced coffee, whatching the people & freaks walking up and down Bui Vien, when this guy who was sitting on the table next to me asked wether I live in Saigon. I looked at him and somehow his face seemed to be familiar. I turned out that he is a Viet Kieu (an overseas Vietnamese) from California, whom I met about three years ago, during my first trip to Asia, in Bangkok's infamous Khaosan Road, and later on in Saigon and Hanoi. I can tell you I was really surprised. The global village and so on... you know? Strange anyway.
Work was not that exiting during the last two weeks. I wrote some articles, wich hopefully gonna to be published very soon, developed a slogan for the Saigon Times and spend some time surfing the web. Besides that I started to apply for another internship from mid-april onwards at some advertising agencies, but I got now answer yet. I also signed up for evening classes of Vietnamese at the university, after Craig, an American I met in Singapore, told me about them.
Friday nite I was out with some Vietnamese friends and we had some Lau, that's a hotpot with noodles, vegetables and meat or seafood... This time we had Lau Bo, which means with beef. But my friends had a special surprise for me, as it was not just beef, but all kinds of bowels and other strange parts of the animal. From stomach, over kidney to toes, everything was there. When I encountered a almost whole tongue swimming in my soup, I had to stop eating this stuff. Normally I try to eat everything, but this time it was just impossible. So I had no choice but drink some glasses of homemade booze, which not made me feel better, and try to make the mystery meat somehow disapear... In fact I felt terrible when I came home, and decided not to consume all this kind of stuff again... but I am not sure. If my friends invite me to go out with them it's sometimes hard to say no.... Surprisingly I did not feel bad at all the next day.
Some of you maybe wait for new pictures of the MotorbikeCity... Quiet soon there will be an update, I promise!
Before I stop writing for today there will be a special feature.....
.....the SHOUTOUTCORNER:
todays shoutouts go 2 the Boy in J-lo-karta - let there be rock!, Reaggaebabsi in Singapore (I think) - u gotta swing the town!, the Surferbabe & Bruno the Master - where ever u are in SEA - let there be rock!, Löwi aka MC Porno aka Kampfmaschine aka Gymnastandi - It soon get's krass in Nam! Sergej in Moscow - what abou Russel?, my grandma in Nordhorn - thanks for calling me!, The Felix O. - one day u gotta come here with ur nice car! but before we have to do a roadtrip to Italy again, visiting Marina di Cecinas beautiful beaches..., Jasmin in Munich - one day we also become KRASS!, Miriam - Lucky Hormons rule! & miss u, well....(Singapore was "real life", u know?) anyway: world keeps turning..., the Mitbewohni - Satte Söhne Südstadt Revival in autumn!, my parents - thanx for everything!, my sister - good u decided to go on!, Martin S. - thanx for all the birdflue updates!, Alex 334 - only the hardboiled!, Sisi in Singapore - never confuse the elephant spray with the anti-elephant spray, you know?, Nella & Clemens - hope to see in like Amsterdam one day!, Sophie & Florian - enjoy the rest of ya trip, Juttababy in New Zealand - if u got some holiday just drop by here... it's not to far.. and be careful if racing with urself ;o), Lenz in Bruxelles (?) - never forget Pham Ngu Lao & Saigon Bar, my aunt in Wuppertal - thanx for ur aid!, Simon & Loan in Saigon - let's have a ca phe sua da!, Linde soon in Singapore - would like to rock the Lioncity with u but I will stay in Vietnam till August..., Lasse & the Eifel-Crew - u rock!, Hanna in Kiel - have not talked to u way to long..., Anke in Bonn - how is the new flat?, Perle 334 - hope things are allright!, Sascha in Kairo - there is only one RocknRollOverHuman: YOU!, Bea in Spain - herna 24 nonstop!, Krasse Truppe worldwide - next destination Amsterdam?, LeZyn - What about Synergy?, the punny Pinnish feofle (Aku, Heikki, Josi, Aslak, Lauri) - Perkelle Satana!, Murrat & Christos - Merhaba güselkes nasselsn & same in Greek!, Fiona - Ur one of S-pores number one rockers! Rule the PGP!!!!!!!!, Camilla - kid na soniee (my Hindi sucks, I know), Charlotte - How cool is that?, Nicblume - Mayahiiiiii!, Manu & Darwin - rock the city!, Phuong - Xin chao dong chi thay, hen gap tuan nay cho mot toi vang!, Habi aka Darling - enjoy Munich! One day u will be a star!!! I enjoyed ur pic in the maroccnet :-), Nadine in Cologne - Thanks for the update on ur graves! Hope New York City is great and u meet lotz of important artists :-), Dan back from Korea (?) - Thainachten was great!, Martin everywhere - whatch out! An Oliphant!, Veronique in Saigon - only some more days sau do di choi!, Anton One in Moscow - hope u have good weather in the nearby city!, Minh & Thomas & Flo in Singapore - c u @ the Wiesn!, Ina in Syria - take care of u! I miss u a lot! Südstadt rulez!, Max in Berlin - long time no see! Just bought "Off the rails in Phnom Penh" its crazy...., Sing Pou & Julian & Tam - rule the cluster!, Julia & Tri & Nguyen & Dung & Be & Kai & Toan & Luan & Thien & Phi & everyone else in TPHCM - luon luon di nhau! luon luon an lau!, W-Mann in Berlin - How is little Julius performing?, Agnes - Where are u? Still in Berlin?, Volker - how u like the city on prozac so far?, Everyone else I might have forgotten - in S-Pore, Saigon, Germany & all over the world - send me a complaint & take care of u!