Phan Thiet Oct '11

The first weekend in October took me a little by surprise. I had expected a quiet weekend as I had nothing planned but Anna and I went for coffee on the Saturday morning and all of a sudden it hit me that it was going to be a busy weekend. I don't know why I suddenly had this feeling, but I did. I received a text from my friend Nhi asking if we could meet her, I said yes and we went to Win Cafe, one of my favourite cafes and the one I go to to do some computer work. It turned out that it was her birthday and her birthday party. It was nice to see her and her friends and it was a very relaxed way to celebrate someones birthday. The evening was spent in Mui Ne and it wasn't an early night either, but then it never is when I go out there. I had some pool time the next day at Novotel and just as I was going back to the Hoang Kim I got a call from Mr. Tan asking me to go for a drink. I agreed and he said that he would drop by and pick me up. I walked down from my room to find him and the hotel owners, the Lans, having a full blown shouting match. I think the Lans thought that he was my boyfriend and had refused to let him up to my room. I made it quite clear that he was not my boyfriend and literally had to drag him away. When I got him up the street I told him that there was no way I could hang out with him, the whole street had witnessed the shouting match and I was so mortified. I apologised profusely to the Lans and spent a quiet night in my room. Heaven knows what they think of me. Funnily enough I am more embarrassed by this incident then all of the times they've seen me stumbling in drunk! So much for my quiet weekend. I should know by now that it doesn't matter whether I have plans or not, something will happen. The first week was actually quiet, the only thing of interest was that Anna and I went to view a house for rent. Ms.My, our office manager at school had been disappointed by how our boss had treated us over the whole issue of finding accommodation for us and had decided to take it upon herself to get us a house. Ms. My speaks great English and is our translator when the two of us have a meeting with our boss so she knows everything that he says. The house has two bedrooms but only one bathroom, everything else is OK. It's an older house but the rent is only $250 a month, so between the two of us we should be able to save money on what we are both paying for our hotel rooms right now. We decided to take it and we would move in on the first Wednesday after pay day. On the weekend Anna and I cycled out to Mui Ne and stayed the night at our favourite resort, we only stayed one night but it did feel like I was on holiday. And I shouldn't need a holiday but I don't always relax on my weekends off so it's good for me to take myself out of my everyday surroundings. The ride out was tough, it's the first time that I've done it since I've been back and I haven't done any real long bike rides. I've just been cycling between home and work and that's not very far and pretty much flat, the worst thing I have to face is the traffic, which seems to have increased over the past few months. I think Phan Thiet's population is growing. The ride back was long as Anna and I had to keep making a dash for shelter in between rain showers, it's the rainy season right now. On Sunday evening we were invited by Trung to his house for dinner. Trung was a guy we had met at some traffic lights and then we had had beers at his house. This time we met his wife and daughter. Dinner consisted of cold cuts, watermelon and beer with just the three of us, his wife ate upstairs with her sister and mother. Weird. Unfortunately Trung had an ulterior motive for inviting us, he's moving to Ho Chi Minh City and wanted us to rent his house. He seemed most put out that we considered that the house only having one bedroom to be an issue and we were not willing to share a bedroom, let alone a bed! We played nice and suggested that we might know someone else who would want to rent the house and that we would ask them. Trung has spent most of his life in the U.S. and most of that time in jail. When he came back to Vietnam he was caught carrying a gun and sent to prison again, there he killed someone but still got out in seven years! When Anna first met him she told me he was a "gangsta", she was right! The first couple of days of the second week in October were a bit fraught. Anna, Ms.My and I were trying to get everything ready for us to move into the house. There seemed to be a lot of things to be sorted out that I thought had already been done. It was even tougher for Ms. My I think, she was our translator and she ended up having to produce the lease contract for us. She really does go above and beyond for us and I don't know what we would do without her. We often try to take her out to dinner to say thank you and at the end of last year we arranged for her to have a massage but she didn't go. This time we bought her some dress fabric she wanted, it was the least we could do as nothing would have happened without her and I would still be stuck in a hotel room. I was so ready to have my own place and was prepared to rent the house by myself. This was something I had to consider as Anna and I have training scheduled with Dr. Jason for later in the month and Anna didn't know if she would be able to deal with him and if she couldn't, he might fire her. Therefore she was hesitant about committing herself to a house contract, which I completely understand, I would totally feel the same way. However I am sick of having to do everything in what is technically my bedroom and especially unhappy that I can't invite people to my place. This is especially an issue in Vietnam as if you invite someone out for a coffee or dinner, you are expected to pay as you invited them. So large parties are generally out. On the Wednesday morning we met Ms. My and the house owners at the house and signed the lease. There was also a guy from the internet supplier and we agreed a deal with him for six months internet connection and a modem for $25, not bad. I went to work in the afternoon and then moved my stuff by taxi in the evening after school. Jan had supplied some cheese and wine and we had a very chilled first night in the house. And I needed the wine. The house has only one bed with a mattress, the other two beds have only wooden slats covered by a bamboo mat. Considering what I was sleeping on, I slept reasonably well!