Life in Sai Gon
For the first month of
life in Ho Chi Minh City we lived in a
hotel on the backpacker street of Bui Vien. It was my first time
to Vietnam and was perfectly
comfortable but you can't live in a hotel for long. It's cheap
enough here (you can get a hotel room with en suite, air con and
cable for $12-20 a night) but two people in one hotel room is a
bit much for your personal space and can get really boring. So
our priority was finding somewhere more permanent to live.
You may be interested in:
►►► Sai Gon excursions
►►► Mekong tours
We found a flat through an agent near our
hotel. We wandered
down a small alleyway to a glass fronted room with motorbikes
blocking the entrance. It didn't look very promising, but when
we climbed over the bikes and went inside three young smiling
Vietnamese people with a good level of English listened to what
we wanted, showed us some pictures and then took us by taxi to
view some flats. They handled all the negotiation with the
landlord (who does actually speak English too, which is helpful)
and the contracts and they only take payment from the landlord,
we don't pay them a penny. It's a good service.
We originally wanted to be right in the centre of
Sai Gon
city, in
Districts 1 (the middle where the backpacker area is and the
main posher tourist area) or 3 (just North of the middle - where
most of the big language schools are). We thought it would be
great to be able to walk to and from work and to be close to all
the action at night. We saw a couple of flats in the middle of
the city and they seemed ok. Big and light and airy, if a little
old and run down.
Then our agent took us to see some flats slightly further away
from the centre of the city. It was obvious of the trade off
that you were paying to be in the middle. These flats were huge,
bright and modern and cheaper. We decided that the trade off of
distance was worth it for what we got. And perhaps being a bit
further away from the action will mean we are less tempted to
spend money all the time and indulge in western comforts. A
month of living in a hotel in the backpacker area had shown us
how easy it is to go out all the time when it's right on your
doorstep.....
You may be interested in:
►►► Tours to Trang An and Hoa Lu
►►► Train tickets to Sapa
So we now live in Binh Thanh District. It's just across the
river from Districts 1 and 3 and we can walk into the centre of
the city in 30-40 minutes. Whilst Districts 1 and 3 are very
westernised and full of foreigners, the short walk across the
river takes you to a very Vietnamese area. Narrow lanes, local
stalls and shops, very few white folk and few people who speak
English.
Do I eat it or play with it?
We live really close to Ba Chieu market. The whole area is full
of stalls selling fresh fruit vegetables, tanks of prawns
swimming around, more varieties of shellfish than I knew
existed, buckets of live fish, women squeezing milk from fresh
coconuts, women chopping up and selling big chunks of meat with
no refrigeration, shops with huge bags of 20+ types of rice
(again, more than I knew existed), clothes hanging up for sale
in the street, piles of flip flops, bras and pants, stacks of
old books and magazines... The road is full of potholes which
fill up with the water that slops over the side of the bowls as
the live fish trash about and mixes up with bits of vegetable
leaves. As the streets are so narrow, they are also completely
packed with motorbikes doing drive-by shopping. It's really
interesting.
The selection of live food that is for sale is quite
mind-blowing, and we are never totally sure what is supposed to
be a pet and what is for food. After a year in
Hai
Phong where a
dog and cat restaurant is advertised by a picture of a fluffy
kitten and an alsatian, it's not surprising. We are assured that
dog and cat eating is not so common in the south of Vietnam, so
perhaps the cage of kittens on the back of the woman's motorbike
is to sell as pets? I don't know. What about the frogs? The live
crabs?
The other day we were walking into our building and an old woman
was leading a live crab across the floor on a piece of string.
She seemed to be trying to entice the toddler she was with into
playing with it.
You see, you can never be sure.
Our flat is amazing. It's on the 10th floor of a big 18 storey
apartment building. It has two bedrooms, one en suite. There is
a huge living room with a kitchen, big sofa, tv, study area and
another bathroom off it, complete with top loading washing
machine. It also has a balcony with a city view which is lovely
at night when the city lights up. On the ground floor there is a
small supermarket, a cafe and a bar/restaurant with a pool
table. As I said, it's an easy walk into the centre of the city,
or a short taxi ride from the taxi rank right outside. We're
close to work and can easily get a motorbike taxi - or xe
om there and back. Kris has a bloke who picks him up from work
at night and nips through the city with Kris on the back in a
Disney helmet complete with goggles.
You may be interested in:
►►► Vietnam Ethnic travel
►►► Vietnam trips
