No matter what type of travelling you do, the first order of business when you land in a new place is to find a place to stay.   We knew that when we arrived in Saigon, we would be exhausted and potentially jet lagged, so we pre-booked a guesthouse for the first two nights.   We found a relatively inexpensive one down a side street off the main tourist drag on hostelworld.com for US$8 per person, per night.  It was a small room with two sets of bunkbeds so things were tight for the first two nights but we made do while we looked for something more long term.

There are essentially two options for longer term lodging in Saigon.  The first is to rent an apartment.  I had done some preliminary searches for apartments and they were a bit over what we had budgeted per month to spend on accommodation (max $200/month).  I checked online, on Couchsurfing and even Facebook groups – many people were looking for roommates and offering apartments and suites, but for too much.   Also, we got burned at our apartment in Istanbul where the bitch of a landlord would only give us back half of the substantial deposit we put down because she claimed we had not cleaned enough and there was water damage (you’ll have to trust me that we SHOULD have received every penny back).  So with that fresh in our minds, we went with option two.

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When Jen, Nick and I arrived in Istanbul, we were charged with two simple missions: find housing, find jobs. This is the story of the first.

We were actually out that day to find jobs, walking merrily from our digs at the time with CouchSurfing buddy Kerem toward Sultanahmet. The walk was pretty long, and before we knew it, we’d stumbled into an interesting, but completely non-touristic part of the city, called Beşiktaş. Walking through the back alleys, we noticed a local real estate office (peppered liberally throughout all neighborhoods of Istanbul) with an attractive ad in the window. 4 + 1, YTL 2,000 per month. We wanted to see the place on a whim. We walked away with an apartment.

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We’re now in Istanbul, and we’re trying to make this destination work for Season 4. Unfortunately, it means a lot of walking in the meantime– today we explored Sultanahmet up past Taksim Square, looking for housing and ESL schools. Here’s a partially incomplete map of our journey.

We’re bringing you the second installment of our famous “Cribs” series, once again focusing on the Minh guest house. This episode showcases not only our luxurious accommodations, but also the dysfunctional relationship between Matt and myself. Enjoy.

We’ve got a look back at what life used to be like in Vietnam.  A short glimpse into what it was like to live in Ho Chi Minh, and our home there.  Housing in Vietnam had its own style, but one things for sure – it was cheaper than Tokyo.