GI Joe, street food and improper visa queues

Timothy and I arrived successfully in Vietnam on Monday, following 12 hours on a plane to Kuala Lumpar watching back-to-back hollywood films (Tim was disappointed at the lack of Jason Statham options but perked up at the sight of GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra). We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City airport disorientated but pleased that we hadn’t lost each other or any of our luggage, apart from two lots of confiscated insect repellant – probably a secret attempt to sabotage foreigners using stealth mosquito squads. For our first activity we disregarded traveller rule 101 and handed over our passports to the bored visa official and watched him walk away. However we were distracted from any panic at the loss of our official documentation by the disregard for proper queueing ettiquette displayed by our fellow asian traveller. Before Tim could begin his lessom on the formalities of queueing we were surprised by the return of our passports with a visa and no need for any invasive body cavity searches.
We weren’t met by the wall of heat as we had expected but a fellow teacher by the name of Sam, who informed us that his time in Vietnam had been the strangest year of his life. Interesting choise of adjective.
We spent the first day disorientated and took up with an Australian, of all things, to explore the tourist traps fully, despite his collection of allergies he decided to bring with him. In the following few days we have managed to progress to eating cheaper food on the side of dirty, dusty streets of sometime indescernible origin with a side order of pollution to set us up for the day.
We were delighted to find that the school not only exists but that they let us in and weren’t at all surpised at our arrival and the demand to stand in front of vietnamese in a classroom environment chanting English words. We have inductions and observations to fit in around our general bemusement and start work on the 3rd of December. Remember remember the ? of december.
Following some teacher recommendations we have booked ourselves into a new guesthouse while we look for a proper apartment, which is a large clean room with a bed that isn’t made of stone and a balcony so we can lord it over the commoners like colonists of old.
From our state of shock following our introduction to the traffic system in the city we have managed to calm down to a state where Tim and I are quite excited about getting a motorbike each to tour around the city, in fact I have almost forgotten the feeling of terror that throttle me after my first motorbike taxi ride.
Mum – its perfectly safe and looks really easy to master.
So we are escaping the beach next week for much much needed rest and recuperation after all the stress of doing nothing before returning for work and life in HCMC.
Much love.
Christie)