Arrival- a new home in a big, big city

I've arrived safely in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which shall be my home for the next nine months while I carry out my writing project. The city was dark as I flew over this evening although it was only 7.30pm local time (In Vietnam the sun will set at around 6pm for most of the year) but as we drew closer I could make out the snaking Saigon river by the lights of the boats and the scale of the city was laid bare in millions of tiny  lights. My host and friend Jessica met me at the airport, from where we took a taxi to her apartment, motorbikes zipping past as I tried to take in all the activity going on in the streets. During the journey, Jessica tried to explain the layout of the city to me, which is divided into districts. Hers is district seven, know as Phu My Hung, the home of the affluent international community. Built by the Taiwanese, it has a Chinese name meaning 'Rich, Beautiful and Lucky'! Coming from Leeds, England, I've always considered myself a city girl, but this is something else. District seven alone is about the size of Leeds, Jessica estimated, and a bus journey into the centre of the district from her apartment can take 20-40 minutes.

At home in Jessica's lovely apartment decorated with chinese art, I met her maid Thuy, who made us some supper of a noodle soup dish known as 'cats' ears', because the 'noodles' are not stringy, but thick balls of flour that supposedly resemble a cat's ear. I still feel homesick and disorientated from travel so I will try to sleep. I look forward to getting a better impression of my new home in daylight, as well as starting to get my head around the formidable task I have ahead of me!