From Saigon, Vietnam—Big changes (Thursday, 5 June, 2008: 12:30pm)

In the morning (Wednesday), I just didn’t feel like running, even though it was our last day is Australia. The options for trails were a bit limited so I didn’t feel like I would be missing out on anything. After Seth returned from his last trot out in the bush (by himself), we spent the rest of the late morning eating as much food as possible and tidying the campervan so we could return it. (This included hosing off the red dust that seemed to have seeped its way into every crevice—lingering evidence of our forbidden excursion to Gunlom.)

We left Annaburoo without buying petrol and hoped the next stop, Corroboree Park, would be cheaper. With our luck, of course, all the electricity along the highway was out due to construction and would not be on again until the afternoon, and so the pumps could not be used during that time. We didn’t have enough petrol to carry on (the next stop was about 60km down the highway), so we hung out at the rough and dusty roadhouse, hoping it would not take too long since we had to be back in Darwin to return the van within a few hours.

When the power finally clicked on we hustled back to Darwin and ran a bunch of errands, including returning unopened food we had bought to Woolies, topping off the petrol, and finding a bank to deposit most of our Australian currency before leaving the country.

We returned the vehicle in one piece and it was checked out with no fines (always a HUGE relief!), and we managed to ring up Derek, the brother of John (Paola Coluzzi’s husband), who is living in Darwin. As we waited for him to get out of work we hung outside the rental place, in the company of chooks and barbed-wire fencing, and watched fighter planes fly past as we tried to polish off the rest of our food and made peanut-butter, date and honey sandwiches for the road.

Derek was kind enough to pick us up and drove us to Fanny Park, right on the edge of the ocean, and the three of us walked along a path and watched our last sunset in Australia. He was a wonderful guide and also drove us through town for a brief tour, then took us to the wharf for a barramundi dinner. He was really interesting and friendly, and I couldn’t believe how wonderful he was to us after we had only met him once before.

As it was getting late, Derek offered to let us get ready for our flight over at his house, but we decided it was best to go right to the airport with lots of time to shower and repack before enduring Tiger’s check-in process. I am glad our last impression of Australians was a particularly good one, as it reminded me of how generous and welcoming many Aussies have been to us.

We were super prepared for our flight with Tiger this time, and even though we had bought a few gifts, we knew just how to pack (and wear) everything as efficiently a possible to minimize weight (though we did have to dump the sunblock we just bought a few days ago).

We took the red-eye from Darwin (saying good-bye to Australia!) to Singapore, where we had to actually get our checked bags, go through customs, and recheck them (Tiger only flies point-to-point and won’t transfer luggage to connecting flights, which is one of many tricks they use to keep costs low). Despite the intense heat and humidity, which was enhanced by the fact that we were coming from the warm, dry Northern Territory, as well as cold, dry Canberra, the airport at Singapore was super cute (very nice bakeries, Oprah on TV, wireless internet, little hard candies at the immigration desk, and random steel drum music), and I wish we had time to explore the country/city. Next time.

We took our next flight to Ho Chi Minh City, trying to catch an extra hour or two of sleep before landing at 8am. When we arrived at the very empty airport we checked in at the visa desk to pick up our on-arrival visas and get our passports stamped. I had, in my mad rush to plan the trips and finish my thesis, completely overlooked the fact that we needed to pay for the stamping fee in cash ($50USD) and we only had what Seth just so happened to have on him when he left the US, which was $43. There were no money changers or ATMs in that part of the airport and we nearly began to panic, when a young British couple overheard that we needed some cash. They just handed us $7 on the spot and told us not to worry about it. I think we will be owing some fellow travelers favors for a little while to balance out the karma!

My Aunt Gai, Uncle Kiet, and their youngest daughter, Julie (age 7) came to the airport to pick us up. I hadn’t seen them in probably 10 years so was worried I wouldn’t recognize them (I had never even met my little cousin before), but they looked just the same! They hired a taxi van and drove us through the crowded streets of downtown Saigon to the hotel in District 1. I remember a good amount from when I was in Vietnam 12 years ago, and boy, have things changed. This was also my aunt’s and uncle’s first time back in 18 and 20 years, respectively, so they also noticed lots of differences. One big thing that I found right away was there were hardly any bicycles on the roads—mostly mopeds (~85%) and quite a few SUVs (~5%) with a scattering of taxis and taxi-vans (~3%). I think it used to be about half and half bicycles and mopeds before. Having more motors and fewer bikes makes the streets seem even more dangerous, and the SUVs are really disturbing: they are all medium/large size and brand new. I suppose everyone is allowed to have modern, western conveniences, but I don’t think anyone, anywhere, should be allowed to drive an SUV. There also seems to be huge disparity in the classes of vehicles: people either drive mopeds or bikes, or they have shiny SUVs; one can hardly find any sedans or older cars!

When we got to the hotel I met with my other cousin, Tammy (age 10?), and grandmother. The five of them arrived a few days ago and will be hanging out in Saigon for most of their three-week trip (they are staying in the same hotel, in the room right across from us). It is nice that Seth gets to meet some more of Mom’s side, particularly my grandmother. She doesn’t speak much English, but it is good for us to see her.

Seth and I quickly got to business and prepared for a very scary run in a very crowded city. Luckily, there is a small yet well-maintained public park across the street. We loaded up on sunblock and carefully crossed the street. We started running around 10:30am and the heat (about 30 degrees) and humidity (about 95%) got to me really fast and I could only run about three laps—a whopping 19minutes. It was good, however, to stretch my legs and get moving a little. I think tomorrow we will look into visiting a fitness centre.