Home alone

Jessica left me for Taipei this morning and I won't see her again until the middle of next week. It's only my second day and now I'll have to fend for myself! Fortunately she has arranged for friends and contacts of hers to be available to help me out over the next week if I need it.

I took advantage of Jessica's absence to spend some time relaxing, after having such a busy day yesterday. I spent the morning writing letters and emails, and trying to access my Facebook account. I've had trouble with this since I arrived in the city, only once briefly being able to get on to the site while I've been in Jessica's home. This has been very frustrating for me as Facebook is my main way of communicating with friends back home. I asked Jessica why I couldn't access it, whilst she can, and she thought it could be possible that Facebook is banned by the Vietnamese government. So to get on it you have to make some complicated change to your wifi settings (I'm no computer whizz). This confused me, however, because I had once managed to get online. After doing some research, it seems that the government has an 'unofficial' ban on the site, so access to it is sporadic. I followed some advice online and happily can now access Facebook, albeit with a very slow connection.

At lunchtime Thuy had prepared me some food, very similar to that which we ate yesterday lunchtime. Lunch consisted of delicious soft broccoli cooked with garlic, crispy fried fish, purple-ish coloured ground rice, a broth with fresh vegetables and tiny fish with creepy-looking eyes, accompanied by a dish of soy sauce with tiny hot chilies. For the first time since I arrived I had a good appetite so I ate plenty. Jessica has a very healthy diet, mostly organic, vegetarian and dairy-free. I thought I had a healthy diet back home too, but Jessica informed me that my family eats too much bread and dairy products! She must be referring to the yummy weekend breakfasts my dad prepares- boiled eggs, toast and bagels, jam and nutella, yoghurt, coffee, hot chocolate and orange juice. Here it is avacado salad or fruit for breakfast!

I think the fish Thuy prepares is eel. I found this out yesterday lunchtime, when Jessica was telling me I had to tell Thuy if I didn't like any of the food, as she knew that English people often don't say what they really think. I made a reference to the HSBC advert that was on TV several years ago, in which a Western man politely eats up increasingly large and grotesque plates of eel, which his Chinese hosts continue to produce, convinced he is not yet full.
"Well, I can tell you now that I won't be eating eel", I joked.
"This is eel!" said Jessica, "You've just eaten it". And it was surprisingly nice and not at all slimy as I'd have expected!

Today, Happy the dog sat expectantly beside my chair as I ate, as Jessica normally feeds her with her chopsticks. I have been trying to get a good photo of Happy for the blog, but she is camera shy. Jessica thinks this is because she has recently had most of the fur on her back hacked off due to a skin irritation, and is feeling self-conscious. Even so, she is a very pretty dog, small and squat with a large head and foxes' ears, and white fur with brown splodges, where there is any. I tried to bribe the dog with peices of fish in order to get a close picture, but she was very anxious of my camera. Then I realised she was upset by the flash of the camera in her eyes, and felt very guilty. It will be slow progress getting Happy to trust me, made slower by me undoing my work so far by treading on her foot yesterday. I want her to like me so she can be my new pet in the absence of our old greyhound Kizzi and noisy black cat Rita back home, who I will miss very much!

After lunch I took a fairly uneventful trip to the central post office to post my letters, but it was significant in that I proved to myself that I can take the bus to and from the city on my own (not so simple- the buses are infrequent and there are no marked bus stops, as though it is a conscious attempt to keep tourists away. I have had to learn which tree or bench to wait by).

I worry that transportation could become a problem for me. Phu My Hung is a significant distance from the city centre, so walking is out of the question. With a modest daily budget, I can't afford to take taxis every day, making me reliant on hourly buses (which at least are cheap- 15,000d or 50p for a half-hour journey). I could do with getting a motorbike, the primary mode of transport for most Vietnamese, but I have never climbed onto one before, and also I suspect my mum may have something to say about it when she reads this. It is possible to take a motorbike taxi around the city-  a wrinkly old man on a bike will give you a helmet and you just hop on the back. Much cheaper than a regular taxi, I'm told, and probably much more fun too. Alternatively, Jessica owns several bicycles, but this would only be appropriate for me for riding around the local area. Roads flocked with thousands of bicycles was once the postcard picture of Saigon, but these days bikes have been replaced by motorbikes and cyclists are now few and far between. I certainly wouldn't feel safe doing so. So for now I will have to stick with the buses.

I returned home at 6.15, and Thuy had prepared tea for me- spaghetti with vegetables. She was eager to know what I thought of it, as she had never cooked it before. It was delicious, I was impressed by her skill and she was very flattered that I enjoyed it! I was hurried after tea because I was expecting Jessica's friend Yvonne to pick me up shortly for the seaside trip, and my bag was only half packed. Yvonne met me at the house in a taxi. She is a Taiwanese friend of Jessica's who works for the footwear company Puma and has lived in HCMC for three years. A coach had been hired by Yvonne and her friends to take us to Mui Ne, and it was near-filled by friends and Puma colleagues, all of whom will be taking part in Sunday's run.

The coach journey was long but comfortable and pleasant. I am currently sat outside next to the pool at the beach resort we are staying at. I can hear the waves hitting get beach just ahead of me, but can't see the beach as it is dark. The resort looks lovely although basic. I am sharing a room with two girls called Karen and Jasmine; although I didn't know anybody on this trip before this evening everyone has made me feel welcome and they seem to be a fun and lively bunch. I feel excited about tomorrow, spending some time on the beach and taking a tour of the town.