Phan Thiet Christmas

Anna and I got out of school on Christmas Eve just after 5pm, Denise had had to leave earlier to catch her bus to Saigon. We left our bicycles at school and took the school bus to Mui Ne. On the way I saw a Santa on the back of a motorcycle, complete with present sack. We were going to treat ourselves to Christmas Eve dinner at Sankara. Unfortunately it was not to be. Although I was not feeling festive that didn't mean that no one else was. Sankara was all set up for a $35 festive Christmas seafood BBQ and these days I rarely pay $35 for anything. We left and walked up the street and went to Guava for dinner. We were the only people there and now having eaten there I can see why. The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either and there is a lot of places to eat in Mui Ne. Anna and I opened our Christmas presents from school. I was pleasantly surprised, it was a bag and not too hideous,it was actually something I would use. In Vietnam it seems as if things are 80% correct but the last 20% makes all the difference and that makes things weird. For example the building of the school, give the building a once over glance and it looks great. Unfortunately it leaks like a sieve,the floors are all covered in a very slippery tile and the balcony originally had railings that came up to my primary students' chests. Not ideal.
We finished dinner a lot quicker than we anticipated and caught the bus back to town. It was just as well we hadn't taken our bikes, the road back into Phan Thiet was rammed. Lots of houses on the main road had been decorated and people were doing the tour on their motorcycles to see the lights. It felt as if the whole of the city population was out and about. The traffic was at a crawl the whole length of the road. Half way back into town there is a guest house and hotel for sale, next to each other. In front of the guest house was a huge manger and a Santa, doing a roaring trade by the looks of it. Once in town the bus normally makes a left turn but the intersection was so busy there was no way the bus could make the turn so he went straight instead. Anna and I were hoping that he would turn further up the road and then resume on his route but no. He got to Tran Hung Dao,turned right and stopped, whoever didn't want to go to the bus station had to get off. Since the bus station is in the opposite direction that the bus goes, everyone got off. Anna and I had to walk back to Le Loi street. We were a bit concerned about the level of traffic that we would find when we got there. You may have guessed, Vietnam is not terribly pedestrian friendly. We got to the top of our street and there was a police manned barrier there, they were stopping traffic going in, making the road one way. It was cool to see someone actually thinking about this kind of thing. We wandered around Le Loi looking at some of the lights and then went to the first half of the Christmas Eve service at the church. We went back to our guesthouse for the second half and finished the day off with a beer. Not very Christian I know, but we didn't have any wine!
I was awake fairly early the next day despite not having to get up. I now generally wake about 6am regardless of what day of the week it is. I went to the coffee stall nearest the Hoang Kim and got settled. Anna joined me for a short time but then she had to head off and catch her bus to Saigon, she had an earlier flight than me. After coffee I went to the Binh Minh and had brunch, then back to my room to get my stuff together. I had spoken to Darren and my parents the day before as I knew that I would be travelling most of Christmas Day and I wasn't taking my computer with me. The bus ride to Saigon was fine except the last hour. For the entire last hour we were in the city limits and so I felt that we must be close to the end of the journey. And in terms of distance we might have been, but it felt like forever before we pulled into the station. Unfortunately I needed to use the bathroom,normally all railway and bus station bathrooms should be avoided at all costs. I was waiting for a free cubicle when a lady walked around me to the front of the cubicles,I was thinking "Oh no lady!" when she suddenly dropped her trousers and went to toilet over a grate in the floor. I was very British and ignored her. At least she did it over a grate I guess!
I took a cab into district 1 and had dinner in an Indian restaurant. The food was good but unusual. I had asked for my curry to be a little spicy and instead of using spices to achieve this they dropped in a load of chili peppers. I don't know why they did it this way, the chef said he was from the Punjab. I caught another taxi to the airport, the driver didn't understand the word "airport" and I had to show it to him on the map. I decided not to check my luggage, I only had my small Samsonite hand luggage, my new brown bag and my handbag and no liquids. Check in was OK and I was headed off to Japan.