JakerVibe06

saigon :: week one

Hello everyone,

I made it safe and sound. The flight was quick. I was picked up at HCMC airport and escorted to my hotel provided by crumpler. Silke, a designer from Germany was with to keep me company. She is an attractive 28 year old and was great to have conversation with. Her English was quite good and I was keeping up with the discussion, but was being distracted by the sights as we zipped by through the night. The air smelled surprisingly good, like lemongrass and jasmine rice. We got to the hotel around Midnight HCMC time ( if anyone is wondering the time here is an exact flip of US central time. your PM is my AM ). I'll be here for the first month and will have to find an apartment in the mean time. lookin for a quiet place that's near the energy of downtown Saigon, but close enough to work as well. Gotta have a kitchen though so Cori and I can cook. If you look at a map of HCMC district 2/ An Phu is where the crumpler campus is and across the Saigon river is all downtown mostly. Still need to explore though to get a feel for where I want to be.

my digs for a month

This morning I met with Joerg (the design director) his girlfriend and the dog Loki who they are dog sitting for a friend who is out of town. They treated me to a french breakfast near the hotel and walked me around the local villages as we talked about work, the design process, living here etc. As this went a long Loki poorly trained and living up to the name was splashing around in the not so clean gutter water. We later hopped in a cab and headed to the crumpler office and had a brief look. (I mean brief look by climbing half way over the wall and peaking in. Joerg forgot his key to the gate. looks really nice though. You all have seen it in previous emails I sent. We hopped back into the cab and Loki hopped onto my lap.Spreading all the crap that he had been walking in onto my shorts. Damn you Loki! I split with them and headed in to Downtown to explore.

I hitched a ride with a motorbike driver over the river and into city center. (the ride was around $1.50 USD). It was so cool on the back of this guy's bike as we spead by everything that I was seeing for the first time. As we entered the city I noticed an interesting blend of old and new harmoniously sewn together in a jungle environment. New buildings, old temples, hawker centers/ alleys sprinkled in with Banyan, palm and bamboo green ways. It's beautiful. I gave the driver a destination, but who knows where he dropped me. I just paid him and started walking. It's a good thing I didn't have a map or an agenda to adhere to because I knew right away that I was going to be lost all day. So much commotion. Motorbikes, vendors and people. AAhhh South East Asia again. Honestly, I didn't feel strange or intimidated if anything it felt like I had never left. Just moved on to a new country.

everyday saigon traffic

street sweeper taking a break

ho chi minh statue and museum

I walked around voluntarily losing myself for two hours or so and finally stopped off under the shade of a
canopy for some Pho. The famous Vietnamese dish pronounced "fur" with a soft "R". It was so delicious. Gotta love fresh ingredients and mystery meats. It all cost me a little under $1 USD. MMMmmm yeah gotta love that. After the grub i got lost again for an hour or so. A midst the aimless wandering I stumbled across a Chinese temple. I could smell the incense a ways away, but didn't see it until I was at the gates. As i entered there was a large figure statue with offerings of mandarins and lotus blossoms beneath. It went back pretty far and through out the entire temple conical spirals of incense hung from the ceiling. Something I had not seen in previous travels. It was unbelievably peaceful inside. It was a refreshing break from the hustle and bustle of the day. I snapped a couple pics and went on my way. Passed by an under bridge market and more alley ways. It's amazing how diligent everyone in this country is. This is mid-day on Saturday and everyone is working there ass off. Each stall along every road has it's own specialty. A guy who makes motorbike seats, next to him a guy who does motorbike body work and custom detailing, next to him a textile vender, next sheet metal, next kitchen appliances, next metal rod threading. well you get the point. Each family owned and specialized.

pho

chinese temple incense

I was starting to fade a little on energy so I found a little shaded cafe for some Vietnamese coffee. This was a great experience. You say "Mawt Gawp gaa fe, spelled (mot coc ca phe)" and out comes four items. One is a tee pot with a glass of ice accompanying. This is to drink while waiting for the coffee. The coffee comes at the same time, but takes about 15 to 20 minutes to slowly drip into the cup. The arrangement is a small metal pot that rests atop a glass filled with a small dose of sugary condensed milk. Boiling water is poured into the small pot on top which contains the super finely ground coffee. It hypnotically drips into the cup creating an opaque black layer atop the white milk. After the percolating process is finished you stir the two ingredients and pour over a cup with Ice cubes. Ready to drink. And WOW is this stuff good. The best coffee I've had easily. All Vietnamese coffee is uber strong so i just got wacked afterwards. Next time I think I'll skip the condensed milk. I do ok on crack, but when i mix speed and crack i'm a mess in the come down.

coffee

I walked out of the cafe and hitched another motorbike to head back to the hotel. On the way the driver pointed out some war memorials and instead of saying thats a jet thats a helicopter he made the sound effects of each. As most of you know I am a guy of sound effects so after each one of his I made my own and added hand gestures. he seemed to like this a lot. We both laughed hard. We drove straight in to a rain storm and had to duck under an over hang. As we waited we tried to cut through the language barrier with conversation. It took a little bit, but luckily across from us was a Chinese motorbike dealership. he went on describing how bad the Chinese were at making everything. I think there might be some historical resentment involved, but I'm not quite sure. He said American, Japanese, German, Italian all the best. I said i am American and he got really excited. He started playing air guitar and singing. I mimicked. He said "hotel California", I agreed and sang, he said "Michael Jackson and billy jean". I agreed and sang. I then taught him the moon walk. Me and this guy were good friends by now. He was a quick learner and for all I care the best damn moon walker in Saigon.

moon walkin motor bike driver

After returning to my room I cleaned up and headed out with Gyonne my (French neighbor/ crumpler colleague) to meet up with the other designers for dinner. We ate at a rooftop vietnamese barbaque place and though a little pricy ($10 USD) it was delicious and worth it. The part of the team that I met was James and Rebecca, a couple from Australia, Bernard from Ireland, Katinka from germany, Tracy from the US, Silke from germany and Gyonne from France. After dinner we grabbed some ice cream then headed to the bars. We drank got acquainted and played pool. After a few rounds the girls took off and us guys went to a different bar called lush. i guess it is saigons premier dance club. It was cool and the music was pretty good. Heavy house mostly. James has a great lanky gangle dance style. Funny.

ice cream. bernard and katinka

james and i gettin down at lush. apparently this is my "this music is so on" face

I rode home with Gyonne around 2am and we exchanged mp3s until about 4. I woke up the next day around 10 am and headed back downtown for some more action. My first stop was the jade emporer pagoda. An incredible two story structure with multiple rooms, shrines and hallways. Out in the courtyard they have a pond with thousands of live turtles in it. On special celebrations wishes and prayers are written on the shells of the turtles and released back into the pond. Not 100% sure, but I think this is either to wash away bad thoughts/ actions or to carry messages to loved ones in the after life. since that is how they are carried into the next. By boat. Afterward I hitched a motorbike to Cholon Saigon’s China town to follow suite with my so far Chinese day. Walked through the open markets for a while. stopped for coffee and headed to Pham Ngu Lao/ the backpacker district for lunch. Met an English guy named Sam that has been living in Asia for six years. We drank some beers and chatted for about 2 or 3 hours. He gave me his card. I'll call him. He runs the trivia section of the Saigon newspaper. The man is a walking library of useless information. Not in a bad way these were his words. He ran a trivia bar in Ko Samui Thailand for 2 years and they called him Samui Sam. Now of course they call him Saigon Sam. guess he's destined to only live in cities that begin with "S". No worries, there's tons of those.

I 'll keep ya'll posted.

cheers

-jaker

posted by jaker81 @ 4:00 AM