Day 1, 9/14/12

Beautiful Vietnam! Our flight was pretty comfortable, I would highly recommend Korean Air as the airline to use when traveling across the world (~20 hours). I would also recommend buying benedryl, snacks and one of the horshshoe traveling pillow. Be prepared to watch at least 3-4 bad movies and using benedryl to fall asleep.

We cleared through customs without any problems. It is rumored that "paying them off" is common practice to clear customs. Our partner picked us up from the airport and we loaded 4 large luggage and 2 small carry-on into the taxi van and headed to our hotel in Phu My Hung called Alupoint. I walked out of the taxi and my glasses fogged up, it sure is humid out here.

We began to unpack our luggage and started charging up our electronics. We brought a powerstrip from the US and we had quite a scare. There was a large pop and a small fire, we need to figure out this whole power conversion thing. I plugged in a curling iron and almost burned down the bathroom. Our room smells like burnt plastic and my hair is only half curled. But I am happy to report none of us got hurt.

So I guess I'm gonna start blogging about our stay and share our experiences with you all! I hope our new lives will be mildly entertaining.

Day 2, 9/15/12

Surprisingly we got some sleep and woke up at 7am. We ventured out of our hotel and walked the streets of District 7 where the whole place is still under construction. You will see a large building fully built and the plot of land next to it is in rubble. Thank goodness for our tetanus shots, we are always walking over construction waste. The weather has been tolerable, and it was explained to me that it's because of the constant rain, it's cool the city down. While we were waiting to be seated at a restaurant called Nha Trang or the White House, a huge downpour happened and only lasted 30 minutes. During the rain, the scooterist and motorcycles simply pulled over and put on their ponchos that covered them and the front handles of their bikes. I was in awe over this very natural turn of events.

Our plan for the rest of the day was to go to District 1 to exchange US money to Dongs. We headed for a market because the currency exchange is much higher than the banks. I was told that the government is trying to regulate the market prices in order to have the locals use more banks. I wonder if that will ever happen. I had several hundred dollar bills, some crisp and never used and some that were circulated. The funny thing about the market is that they prefer the crisp money and you actually get a higher return. Every brand new hundred dollar bill I exchanged I received $208,050 Dongs and for the used hundo, I only got $206,000 Dongs. So when you guys come to visit, be sure to bring your spending money in crisp Benjamins.

The next thing on the list was to get a sim card for the unlocked phones we bought from Ebay. There are several different sim cards to purchase and here is the breakdown:

1. Phone numbers that start with 01-they call these garbage sim cards. It works like a prepaid card and you get 5000 minutes for $65,000D, which is about $3USD. You can recharge this and maintain the number but for whatever reason, cell phone numbers starting with 01-is looked down on, I guess only the poor use this
2. Phone numbers that start with 08-are for businesses and I think they are usually land lines
3. Phone number that start with 09-are the desirable cell phone numbers and it's for $99,000D.

To purchase a sim card, we went to an icecream stand, in Vietnam you'll find that product pairing is very unusual. Anyhow, they did not have the 09 number available but the 01 was, so we got one anyway. So it looks like we're starting off on the wrong foot.

Day 3, 9/16/12

We woke up at 4am, we haven't quite acclimated to the time change. Paul has been researching best vendors and they all appear to be in District 1. We learned about a bus service at PMH that runs about every hour and takes you to the center of D1 and it's only $15,000D. We're gonna look for the infamous lunch lady and hopefully get a chance to try her dish which usually sells out around noon. If you're a foodie, you should check her out at http://gastronomyblog.com/2008/08/09/meet-the-lunch-lady/.

We'll be exploring the Ben Thanh Market area for the best Banh Mi called Huyen Hoa and we'll be haggling with the shop owners for our much needed home products such as shampoo, lotion and etc. 

Stay tuned...

The City View bus from D7 to D1 was much easier to use than we expected. We bargained at the Ben Thanh market for a few hours and bought some a few DVDs, Expendables 2 and Machine Gun Preacher, I think these movies are in theater right now. Shortly after we cabbed it to Quang An where the Lunch Lady is and we had a dish called Hua Tiu (spelling?), it was delicious and worth the time tracking the place down. I walked away in a daze without paying and boy did that start up quite a commotion. I apologized and tipped them, oh by the way tipping is uncommon here.

We took a taxi back to Ben Thanh where an aggressive sunglasses salesman tried to get us to buy sunglasses, even though both of us had a pair of sunglasses on already. He wouldn't take no for an answer so we ducked into a travel agent store and met a really nice lady where we plan to arrange a visit to the Mekong Delta or floating market and the Cu Chi Tunnel, so if you come to visit us, these are 2 places you must go and see.

When the aggressive salesman finally left, we continued our walk towards the market and the craziest thing happened! Through a hotel glass window, my uncle from Australia was sitting there. My dad has 7 brothers and in a city where there are about 10 million people, I can't believe I ran into my uncle! Anyway, we're having dinner with him tonight after a business meeting. I'm so exhausted but priorities are priorities.