Chad’s Blog

If you’re looking for a five foot tall cement tiger signing karaoke, I know where you can get one.

I was more inclined to buy Chinese New Year decorations to celebrate the advent of the year of the tiger.

What better way to get settled in a new apartment than a trip to Ikea.  It’s not quite the shopping experience I had predicted, but it was definitely an experience.

I went with a couple of colleagues on my first Saturday morning in the city. I knew it was going to be interesting when I saw tour buses unloading hundreds of people taking an organized day trip to Ikea. Not only is the store absolutely huge, it’s absolutely packed.

Seeing everyone hanging out made me realize that I needed to come back with my camera. Luckily, the next weekend I realized I also needed some new lights for the apartment.

I particularly liked the beds and couch sections where everyone was just hanging out.

A huge number of people just went from one well decorated room to another taking photos of themselves.

The LA Times even ran a story last year on the fun that could be had at the Beijing Ikea.

I didn’t see much on my way into the city since I arrived at night in a snow storm. Here’s what I woke up to.

Just for fun I’ve logged in to ICQ. Seems no one uses it anymore.

Every weekday for 18 months I’ve walked out of my office building and chatted with Thao who sells roses and gum. She’s possibly the best thirteen year old saleswoman I’ve ever met. It seemed fitting that we would part ways with a photo and one last bouquet of roses.

I’m sad to be leaving Ho Chi Minh City, mostly because I’ll miss the friends I’ve made and the people I work with. I’ll also miss the food. At the same time, I know new adventures await.

I’m used to frozen pre-packaged dinners coming in little cardboard trays and tasting like the cardboard they’re packaged in. In Vietnam, the alternative is a clay pot. I found it along side the freedom fries and meats on sticks that dominate the frozen food section An Phu Supermarket.

It was frozen, wrapped in plastic, and labelled with concise instructions to, “1) Thaw and 2) Cook.” The pot is, in fact, made of clay. It was filled with fish, lemongrass, and a broth for it all to simmer in. It weighed over a kilo and cost a shockingly low 27,000 dong ($1.50 US). It was an impulse buy that I couldn’t resist.

It took about fifteen minutes to cook on the stove top and was absolutely delicious. It’s by far the best frozen dinner I’ve ever had.

I only pulled out my camera twice while in Hoi An. Here’s the result of one of those occasions.

What do you think when you receive an email from a travel agent that says, “Thank you for booking with us. Your flight is fully booked?”

I think it’s reasonable to go to the airport expecting to get on a flight. That wasn’t exactly the case when we arrived at the airport on Friday afternoon.

Arriving at the airport we found out that the flight didn’t exist. After waiting two hours for the travel agent to return from lunch, she said, “Your flight was already full so I couldn’t book your tickets. Didn’t you get my email?”

Instead, I had a long conversation that led to tickets being purchased for the next flight to Danang. My bag contained a couple pair of surf shorts and some t-shirts for a short flight south to the beach. Danang is North to the cold rain.

Thankfully the nearby town of Hoi An is famous for its tailors that can turn out clothes for tourists overnight. I had two cheap long sleeve shirts ready for me at 8:00 a.m. Saturday so I could explore the city somewhat insulated.

The caption reads, “Keeping the Sabbath holy: An orthodox jew is chased by an Israeli police officer during a demonstration at a Jerusalem carpark which operates on Saturdays.”  It was associated with an article in The Australian on October 17.  I couldn’t find the photo online so I scanned it.

I’m not going to comment on the silliness of the situation, I just happen to think the expression is hilarious.