September 24

Just got back from the beaches of Mui Ne a couple of hours ago. As we were approaching Saigon, I couldn’t help but think about how much I dislike arriving at an unknown destination after dark . There was an almost self-congratulatory, gloating glee at having a home to go to while everyone else on the bus would have to go and find accomodation at a guesthouse or mini-hotel. Not a difficult thing to do here, but still, I had a feeling of get out of our way-We’re locals dammit!

This was the third time for Kat and I to go to Mui Ne. We went in November last year just before starting my present job (when we had a wreck in my then almost new motorbike) and also for New Year’s Eve. We could see a lot of differences from our previous visit nine months ago. A lot of new resorts have opened up, mostly going for the upmarket end of the spectrum at $50 plus dollars a night. That may sound cheap, but it’s on the expensive side for Vietnam- unless of course you are a middle class European tourist, in which case it’s still a bargain. Most of these new places looked very empty- it is the rainy season after all- but what tourists were there seemed all to be middle-aged Germans with a sprinkling of backpackers all religiously toting their Lonely Planet guides.

At a distance of some 200 Km (3 ½ to 4 hours by bus), Mui Ne is a reasonable distance for a peaceful weekend getaway from Saigon, but I think it will be some time before we go again. I missed Saigon’s culinary variety and soon tired of the Vietnamese food made bland for tourists and kinda Western but not quite dishes that most of the restaurants invariably offer. The service at these places tends to be somewhere between indifferent and this side of sullen. There are also the vulture-like xe om (motorbike “taxi” drivers) that descend on you whenever you want to take a stroll. Having said that, I can recommend Hiep Hoa as a quiet and friendly place to stay ($10 to $12 for bungalows) and The Green Cafe (opposite Bien Xanh resort) has some tasty set menus for about $2.50

September 21

It’s Saturday morning and I’m enjoying the breeze after an early morning downpour, sipping a coffee and eating toast with vegimite.

We had a lot of our new furniture delivered yesterday: a dining room table, a bookcase, a wardrobe, two coffee tables, and a bamboo bench for the garden. The wardrobe is absolutely huge and weighs a ton- and they brought it over on a cyclo! I don’t know how they do it really.

So the place is starting to look like a real home after almost a month living here. I’m really enjoying the peace and quiet. I’m trying not to take it for granted. The noise from the two or three weekly weddings at the banquet hall next door serves as a reminder of how really quiet it really is for the rest of the time.

September 12

It rained a lot the last couple of days. Otherwise it has been a fairly dry rainy season.

Kat’s grandma (“ngoai” in Vietnamese) has spent the last three days with us. She’s very sweet and keeps insisting I should eat more. We communicate using her two or three words of French, my slightly better Vietnamese and a lot of hand gestures. Beautiful, good, tired, sleepy and hungry are some of the adjectives I most abuse given my limited vocabulary.

New household purchases: a toaster oven, a grilled cheese sandwich maker, and a thermal carafe. Most wedding gifts in Vietnam consist of money rather than kitchen and household items, so we find ourselves enjoying purchasing these items now that we have moved to an unfurnished house.

Measured the distance from the new house to work for the first time: 2 Km exactly. I can make it to work in about 5 minutes if the traffic is light, about 10 minutes during rush hour.

Two very different memoirs having to do in large measure with dealing with the deaths of family members: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (2000) and Experience by Martin Amis (2000).