Category: Vietnam

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In Passing Vietnam

Books

The night-time reading habit that I restarted seems to be working, so it’s more of the same.

After polishing off Ugly Americans , I’m now onto The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

Ugly Americans, a ‘true’ story of American stock-market traders operating in Japan and Singapore in the 90s, is about a three-star read, good enough to lull one into relaxation for the night ahead.

‘Tis a strange thing, but bedtime reading, as opposed to button-pressing on the phone, fosters a forgotten , foreign sense of … contentment.

Mezrich’s book – picked up at the seocnd-hand store for ~= NZD 3.30 – uses some of the techniques showcased way back by Tom Wolfe, and others, in The New Journalism ( 1973 I think ). That is the use of fictional devices in reporting, and, especially in the case of one Hunter Thompson, the author inserting himself into the story.

But in Ugly Americans it’s unclear for dunces such as myself when we have fiction and otherwise. The descriptions of opulence get a little tedious, but the characters are interesting enough.

Spoiler Alert

The ending does come as a pleasant surprise, and satisfies in a strange way.

For my next outing, I went back to the new bookstore, which is well-stocked, and offers cheap new English-language titles.

There are a gamut of self-help books, even some that are relatively fashionable, but otherwise the menu is lots of Classic Victorian literature. Which for me is a PITA for it’s hand-wringing Christianity and moralism. And they’re forever banging on about class.

I chose Conan Doyle because he’s less about all that, and more on the science and problem-solving end. Plus, Carl loved him, and to my shame I don’t think I’ve read any of it, so time to plug that gap.

And, hopefully, continue improving habits as I go.

Categories
Vietnam

Happy Days

The blessed day came today, and I’m now a plaster-free zone.

A week or so earlier than schedule, too! An x-ray at the hospital prompted a smile from the doctor – the ankle was 70% healed, he says.

Henry’s Vietnamese, and my best attempt at a winsome look must’ve turned the tables, and he gave the green light.

This means I’ll be able to have a normal shower, without all the palaver of keeping the leg dry, and I’ll be able to go swimming.

Things are looking up for my final month here in the Socialist Republic.

Categories
Vietnam

Looking good

In a rare case of accidentally following official advice, I got encouraging ‘news’ today from the NZ Govt. website, safetravel.

An email pointed NZers toward the flights I’d already booked and paid for.

Which is all very promising, and is starting to look like – barring foobars on my part – I will indeed manage to get back to the Land of the Long White Cloud next month.

Following is the guts of it, Trev;

Kia Ora New Zealanders

For those of you who are wishing to return to New Zealand, Singapore Airlines have announced that they are now operating from both HCMC and Ha Noi with flights via Singapore to Auckland. New Zealand has restrictions on the number of passengers that can travel into Auckland, therefore seat availability on each flight is limited.

For departure from HCMC, the best connection would be on the following flights:

HCMC to Singapore:

SQ177 on every Sunday, departing HCMC at 12.30pm local time, and arriving Singapore on the same day at 3.30pm local time.

Singapore to Auckland:

SQ285 on every Sunday, departing Singapore at 6.40pm local time, and arriving Auckland on the next day at 8.15am local time (9.15am from 27 September 2020 due to daylight saving time).

In other return news, today I booked tickets from Nha Trang to Saigon for September 19, the day before I leave Vietnam. In a turnout for the books, I successfully managed to use credit from the cancelled April flight to pay for 90% of this new plane trip.

Whoop whoop! Seems I might finally be getting a tenuous handle on this travelling business…

Categories
Food Vietnam

Glorious food

First things first…

I’ve booked a flight SGN -> SIN -> AKL on September 20th.

It arrives in Auckland Sept. 21 at 0815. The suspense of it all was taking a toll, so I’ve bitten the bullet and stumped up $1100+ USD, on what I hope is good advice that the flight will more than likely get off the ground.

So that leaves 32 days, or so, to finish exploring Vietnam. And, of course, the food adventures continue. Above is the result of this morning’s haul.

I have other plans, as well, for the last days in this here tropical paradise;

  • Get this damned leg plaster removed, I’m hoping by the end of August latest. I suspect and hope that I might have recovered a little faster than doctor’s expectations. The ankle is starting to feel stronger, and is giving me less gyp day-by-day.
  • Once that’s off, get back in the briny. The sea, and riding a bike, are two things I love about Nha Trang.
  • Maybe take a 3 – 5 day trip to DaLat, the inland high altitude city which I always planned to at least visit. But that depends on this-and-that, including organising Visa.

It’s a huge relief having bought the ticket. Anything could happen in the meantime, of course, but I’m betting that the flight will get off the ground.

Categories
Food Vietnam

To Market, to market

Above is the local market on Lạc Long Quân St, Nha Trang. It’s 5 minutes walk from my apartment on Van Kiep. As you look at the map below, follow Lac Long Quan down, and to the right, and Van Kiep is the second street.

The hobble, on crutches, has become a daily morning ritual, before the blessed caffeine injection.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d974.7636905655337!2d109.18374446715525!3d12.244571404802663!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x31705d81a7c67257%3A0x5f6ebbf73d35b628!2zTOG6oWMgTG9uZyBRdcOibiwgVHAuIE5oYSBUcmFuZywgS2jDoW5oIEjDsmEgNjUwMDAwLCBWaWV0bmFt!5e0!3m2!1sen!2s!4v1597709169610!5m2!1sen!2s&w=800&h=600]

Categories
Food Vietnam

Old dog, old tricks

I finally got it together to pull some old tricks in the New Place.

The dodgy looking … matter in the bowl is my first successful Vietnam attempt at almond bread / cake. Ingredients are pretty simple – baking powder ( mixed myself from baking soda and cream of tartar ), a duck egg, and almond flour, or ground almonds.

It soaks up anything – I could use it to mop the bench – and is healthy and satisfying.

In today’s case, it’s on the menu with the crockpot dish above. That’s Basa fish, red peppers, pak choi, and carrots. Here’s the directions – throw the veges in with some water, bring to the boil, let cool, add fish. Maybe some salt. Simmer. Forget until hungry.

At chow-down time, I’ll usually add coconut cream, and maybe turmeric, but today, I’ll be sampling it with said almond bread.

Phwoar !!

Categories
Vietnam

Some oompah in the day

Early this morning I’m greeted by the pleasant sound of a brass band giving it the ‘oompah’.

The video follows, and meanwhile I’m trying to find out what occasions this jollity at 6 a.m.

Categories
Vietnam

News From the Embassy

A couple of recent emails from the NZ Embassy in Hanoi have injected some urgency into my languid bones.

Things change quickly, of course, but it’s on the cards that there’s an affordable route back looming on the near horizon. Late August, according to the emails below, which is sooner than I bargained for.

On the upside, it would mean avoiding some ongoing costs, i.e. rental + electric etc ( ~NZD 330 / month ), and Visa renewal ( ~ NZD 175 / 1 month, ~ NZD 278 / 3 months ).

On the downside, it gives me that much less time to prepare. And for

  • Securing the insurance payout I’m due for the bike accident. The company will only pay a Vietnamese bank account. So if I left before they cough up, I would need to rely on a Vietnamese friend – yes, Henry – to launder the money through his account, and send it to my NZ account.
  • visiting Dalat, as I’d always told myself I would do after the end of school term, June 30.
  • Enjoying the beach, which I can’t do now with my leg in plaster. It’ll be 8 weeks, and time to remove it, near the end of August.
  • Sampling more fully the beautiful Vietnamese food.

So I’m torn between episodes of loving it here ( most of the day, and especially early morning ), and wishing I was home ( for example overnight, especially at the infamous four in the morning – thanks Leonard Cohen ).

So without further warbling, here are the emails from New Zealand’s fantastic Embassy staff member in Hanoi. She’ll remain nameless.

Email August 8

If a flight is going to go ahead generally we will have some idea 2 weeks out. That is plenty of time to organise a ride from Nha Trang into HCMC.

In regards to transit through Sydney. You can apply for an exemption to the 14 days in quarantine. If your transit time is over 7 hours and less than 72 hours then you will be required to leave the airport and go to a quarantine hotel during that time and it is payable, though not at the same cost as 14 days. You would not be permitted to do that because you cannot enter Australia.

There sounds like there may be a couple of options on VN Airlines coming up late this month so we can see if Air NZ has resumed flights from Sydney to Auckland by then. I will keep you posted.

Email August 10

The last flights that were going from HCMC to Sydney were around $1100-1300 NZD and then there was the onward flight from Sydney to NZ which fluctuated depending on what baggage you had but I think they were around NZD 400.

This sounds promising. But given the wild fluctuations in flight prices, that price is far from Gospel. A day or two ago, I found a flight listed on Google for around $1300 NZD, and found that the airline website, through which I had to book, was charging $11,000 or so.