Every time you drink at a pub here, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be approached by someone trying to sell you something. Sunglasses, lighters, lottery tickets, cigarettes…. The list goes on and on. There are a ton of kids running around wayyyyyy past their bedtime trying to sell little packs of gum (for those of you have been to Mexico, I guess its similar to the kids selling chiclets). Little did I know, apparently whenever these kids come around, you basically adopt them for the evening… Both of these kids hung out with us for hours. Cute little boy? He likes to play the game of poking you under the table with a stick and putting sunglasses on upside down. Cute little girl? She likes to play games that she always wins, and apparently has no problem whatsoever with groping mine and Jen’s boobies, trying to make out with Ben, and sitting on strangers laps. The question has to be asked, but where in the hell are these kids parents?

The one thing I said I would NEVER do when in Ho Chi Minh was eat dog.  I’ll eat snake, mouse, crocodile, anything else but dog.  I just couldn’t do it.  I’ve had a couple canines in my life, and most recently I semi-adopted my landlords/coworkers/homies pet, Neptune, as my own.  Something about the idea of eating your pet just felt morally wrong.  
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As far as money goes, I’m at about the same spot as I was before.  I’ve been spending about an average of $16/day ($120/wk ish), including our lodging which is a significant chunk of change at $6/day.  Some expenses have definitely gone up (clubs here charge wayyyyyyy more for beer than our little local pubs, and well, I’ve been exploring the club scene a bit) but I’m not to my magic scary number of $400.00 yet.  Good news is I have a job, I should be starting teaching soon, and I’m the only one here who gets paid every two weeks as opposed to every month.  So hopefully that $400 mark never gets met, that would be nice.  Here are some of the significant expenses I’ve run into the last couple weeks:

Entrance into factory party: 100,000 dong ($5.60)

Beers at factory party: 50,000 dong ($2.80)

Beers at Cage Nightclub (free entrance): 60,000 dong ($3.36)

Ladies Night at Lush Nightclub: FREE

Ladies Night Booze at Lush Nighclub: FREE (I LOVE THIS PLACE)

“Hooker Noodles” (as coined by the Saigon cast in Season 1): 25,000 dong ($1.40)

Ban Minh (sandwiches filled with deliciousness)- 10,000 dong ($0.56)

Bus Ticket to Vũng Tàu Beach- 110,000 dong ($6.16)

Motorbike Taxi (used for four hours for the job search)- 200,000 dong ($11.20)

Total Money Spent since in Vietnam (3 Weeks): About $350.00

After hitting the pavement for a day, I found a job!  I immediately hit it off with the girl interviewing me and I thought I was all set. There have been a few little problems though….

1) Remember how awesome it was that we found cell phone for $16?  I now understand, you sometimes get what you pay for.  My new boss has called me six times and every time I have to hang up and run back to the guest house because my cell phone is good for nothing except text messages.

2) The place I’m working doesn’t have the best reputation in town.  I’m beginning to understand why.  After receiving my schedule which included a solid ten hours of class next week, I get another phone call 10 minutes later explaining that all my classes have been cancelled.

So technically speaking I’m employed.  But I’m not working any hours this week, nor am I working any next week, so we’ll see how this all ends up.  I may just have to hit the pavement and see if I can find something a little more…. reliable.  I need a lucky penny for a day or something.  Or a lucky 1,000 dong bill.  Whatever works.

I got the death cold here in Saigon. Sniffles, body sores, whole shebang. After two days of laying in bed and being pretty upset I couldn’t go job hunting, our friend Nguyet (this girl ends up in a lot of our stories, she never ceases to amaze me) who’s English can be hard to understand at times, tells me “(something, something), sick, (something something), back, oil, (something something), it’ll make you better”. Cool right? Nguyet is totally going to come upstairs and give me a sweet ass massage? WRONG. Check out her Vietnamese “cure” for a bad cold. It involves some weird Tiger Balm smelling oil, and a key gouging out the top layers of skin on my back.

FYI, its the day after this lovely incident and I’m still sick as all hell, but hey, the red gashes on my back have turned into more of a lovely shade of a light magenta after 24 hours. It was totally and utterly, not worth the pain. Although I can now say I royally got my ass kicked by a Vietnamese chick that probably weighs 80lbs.

Oh, and I also have good news, but you’re going to have to wait for that one. I like to add some suspense to the equation. Duh, duh, duh.

Admittedly, this may be an “American specific” post.

The Vietnam War Museum is one of the most popular attractions in Saigon. I’d heard from friends that its pretty traumatic, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a museum so emotionally draining in all my life.

An American Warplane in Saigon.

When the new cast actually got a minute to sit down, get settled, and have a conversation about how we planned on portraying our lives on Jet Set Zero, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to be completely and utterly honest.

One of the hardest things to be honest about are our relationships while on the road.  For the most part, we don’t have any problem divulging all the gritty details of our lives, but when it comes to relationships, it can get tricky because that begins to involve other people in what we’re doing.  We’re four pretty liberal girls, and yes, when we’re out on the road, there’s a pretty likely chance that we may get involved with some men.  So here’s my honest story of how things went for me in Turkey:
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We’ve been in Saigon for two weeks now, and still no luck on the English teaching job front. Honestly, I didn’t really try very hard for the first week and a half. I was soaking it all in, getting massages, and being lazy, because I could. When the realization comes that you need money, and you need it fast, all of a sudden the urge to get a job becomes much stronger (go figure?).

There are a few things I didn’t think about before I left when it came to looking for jobs:
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Our new friend Nguyet, who as mentioned before, works in the travel agency downstairs at our guest house, was invited on a tour of the Mekong Delta as a way to check it out so she could recomend it to her customers.  We decided to tag along, well because it was a full day tour for $8 and you can’t really beat that.  Little did we know how freakin’ rad this tour would end up being.

We were chartered a couple hours out of Saigon by bus, and immediately shuffled onto a boat right on the delta. The boat took us across to the other side of the delta, where a jungly paradise lived.

Boat #1 Accross the Delta

It’s so nice to know that whenever I begin to miss Turkey, I can walk about 20 meters down the street and feel right at home.  I find this photo particularly odd considering there isn’t exactly a large Turkish influence in this country.  But hey, I’ll roll with it.