Ho Chi Minh City outrunning cancer

Jessica and I went out to a jazz bar on Saturday night where we spent a few hours listening to live music and sipping cocktails. I'd been doing my Christmas shopping all day and Jessica had been at a book club meeting, so we met up in the evening in the city centre. It would have been a very unremarkable day if it weren't for what happened when we asked to settle our bill at the end of the evening. We could see that the bar staff were muddling over the bill for a while, and when they brought it over we'd been charged for an extra drink. I can tell you now that Jessica had three peach schnapps and I had a watermelon cocktail and one peach schnapps, but the bar staff were adamant we were wrong and did not hold back in telling us so.

Someone brought over the tabs from the bar, which said that we'd ordered one more peach schnapps than we had done. I explained that I'd had to ask twice for one of my drinks, so perhaps this was why they had an extra one on the tab, although I never received it. But they wouldn't have any of it. The angriest was a pretty waitress wearing a flowery ao dai. She claimed to be the manager and, when it became obvious that Jessica would not pay for the extra drink, began screaming and accusing us of lying. Jessica screamed back that she would never come to this bar again if they charged her for an extra drink. Of course, it wasn't the cost of the drink that mattered, it was the terrible customer service that could only be excused if the staff were dealing with incredibly drunk and aggressive customers (I promise we were very well-behaved). After ten minutes or so of "You listen to me!", "No, you listen to me!", it was finally resolved when  the fuming girl snapped "Ok, you are very poor, I will pay for this for you".

A Polish-American couple were sat on the next table watching this incident. "Welcome to Vietnam", the man said, leaning over. It turned out they had only been in the country about as long as I had so were probably not qualified to say this to Jessica, who has been here for fifteen years, but talking to them was interesting: the man told me his overwhelming impression of Vietnam was that everybody was trying to rob you in some way or another. At least, that's the polite interpretation of what he said. It was sad that he'd had this experience; Jessica told me she never usually had any trouble of this kind, and I'd certainly never seen anything like it before, in this country or any other. What struck me the most was that in the face of a threat of losing at least two customers forever, the waitress would not back down over a drink that cost about £3; evidently, she was far too proud. But this has not been my impression at all of customer service in Vietnam. Certainly, I have experienced shopkeepers becoming rude and angry when you spend time looking at their wares and don't buy anything, but I had just spent the whole day shopping and had been treated respectfully and helpfully. It's true to say that the notion of 'customer service' is not really recognised, but as often as you will experience poor treatment in shops and restaurants in Vietnam, you will experience friendliness and people going out of their way to help you.

We weren't too affected by the ugly incident; we both found it very entertaining and joked about the waitress during our taxi ride home. We weren't staying out late because we had an early start the next morning to take part in the annual Terry Fox charity 5km fun run. This run takes place over the world and is the biggest one-day fundraising event for cancer research, with around $500 million having been raised since the first run in 1981. The event is a commemoration to the Canadian cancer activist Terry Fox who began an epic cross-country run with one artificial leg after being diagnosed with the disease. He died in 1981, at the age of 21.

Jessica at the start line

It was a sunny morning with a strong turn-out of three or four thousand. Jessica and I joined our friends Yvonne, Jessie and Jasmine in the Puma team. There were people running with dogs and children on roller-skates, skateboards and bicycles. Naturally, it was a bit messy at the start, before 'proper' runners such as myself could weave out of the tangle. It wasn't a competitive event so racers weren't timed, but I was sure to check the time when I crossed the start and finish lines to see how much I'd improved since my last organised 5km run, at Mui Ne in September. I was thrilled to learn I had completed the run in 26 minutes, and didn't even feel too over-exerted. This was one or two minutes quicker than my personal best, and a whole seven minutes faster than my Mui Ne time.

We came home to the unfortunate news that the water was not working, in the worst timing imaginable for us. Jessica went off to the spa she is a member of, to have a shower and hair wash, and I had to make do with having a bath with three litres of bottled water. When I met Jessica later on at a buffet restaurant in Phu My Hung centre where she was having a book club meeting with her Taiwanese friends, she commented that I didn't smell bad. I explained how I had had a bath with two bottles of La Vie. "La Vie!?", she exclaimed as though I'd just told her I'd bathed in champagne. "We have a water tank in the kitchen!" I said I was sorry and blamed my indulgent behaviour on coming from a country were the value of water is not appreciated. It was about this time that I got some bad news: it had been discovered that the race course was only 3.6km, not five as it was advertised as! Somebody on the race had used a device to measure the distance and word had spread. So much for my new best time! It was a pity that the organisers falsely advertised the distance, whether purposefully or not. Nobody was running competitively, but it seemed that lots of people were disappointed that their surprisingly fast times weren't as impressive as they seemed.

I had lazily chosen to take the bus into Phu My Hung instead of cycling, leaving me with a long walk home after I'd had my lunch. I didn't mind though, because it was an unusually bright day with a clear blue sky. I enjoyed the gentle warmth as I walked along half-shaded paths and along the river. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy walking. Here, I only ever cycle or take the bus. Jessica and I take advantage of her company taxi card for the shortest journeys across the city centre; walking is a form of exercise rather than a means of transportation, reserved for power-marching around the  local area or climbing Mount Fansipan. The hour-long walk home gave me the chance to take in the scenery and mull things over in my mind that faster transport methods don't allow.

Jessica left for Singapore this morning and will be away until Wednesday. I have one week to go before Chris arrives, the start of several months of activity as we go travelling and my parents and best friend come to visit me. I have been looking forward to this time for months! Before she left, Jessica told me to make the most of my last week alone, because I won't have any time to myself for a while afterwards. Lots of long bubble baths and painting my nails? Possibly... But I will try to get some work done this week as well!