Oc om bok in Prey Nako

I was invited to join the Oc om bok party organized by the Khmer students in Prey Nako (Saigon). They had a meeting before hand with motivation speeches given by a distinguish Khmer elder here  as well as the head monk of Chanrainsy pagado and the ar-char (priest?). Unfortunately because the speeched were given in Vietnamese or so called universal language (pea-sa-sa-kol) here, I was only managed to get a gasp of what they were talking about. They were motivational for the students never-the-less. There were some special guests there too from the local government/party.

After the serving of num bonh chok (Khmer rice noodle) on serve and as om-bok followed by rom-vong. There were around 120 students there but I heard there are around 600 Khmer students studying at various universities in Saigon. People told me last night the party was big, up to a thousand people and lasted til 3am!

Rom vong at Chanrainsy Pagoda, Saigon

Visiting Reunification Hall

It was interesting to visit the Reunification Hall Dinh Độc Lập formerly known as Norodom Palace. There is so much history in there and I’m sure many important decisions were made by both France and the Republic of Vietnam Government.

During the tour to the basement, there were war rooms with many maps hanging on the wall. One of them is a map of Cambodia and a map with the population list of all provinces in Vietnam. Back before 1975, there were only nearly two millions people in Saigon, nowadays some estimated up to 10 millions people.

Suoi Tien Park

I went to Suoi Tien park (I hope I spelt it right) just outside of Saigon last weekend. It’s a huge park and a lot of things to see and take photos. I took the adventurer’s way and decided to ride on my bike to get there. I was driving max 75km/h on the highway. It did feel pretty fast, of course we were wearing helmets. It’s the law here to wear helmet if you travel outside of the local area and on high way. I think in December it’s compulsory to wear helmet at all them when riding motorbike.

Anyway, here are some pics

A free performance including magic show, comedy, and signing.

A HUGE statue of a Vietnamese hero, I think it’s Tran Hung Dao. It’s built to look like a small mountain from afar.

Afternoon nap at the office

At this time of day, people at my office are having their afternoon nap. I’m not used to having a nap during the day, even if sometime I do sleep during the day I would feel more tired. But people here find the most comfortable place to sleep whether it’s on the couch or their seat, or two seats put together…they nap away and I walk around trying not to make noises.

Although I must admit, seeing people having a nap makes me feel kinda sleepy too. I don’t think I can get up if I do go to sleep though.

A day in Vung Tau

Our morning start late because I couldn’t get up early as initially planned for 8am departure. Luckily the boat leaves every hour so we took the 10 o’clock speed boat, took about an hour an half to get from Saigon to Vung Tao – the closest beach to Saigon. I slept most of the way there since I couldn’t really see anything outside the window because of glass was foggy.

Off the boat, we jumped on the taxi and 8km later we were at the beach. For hot Sunday afternoon, there weren’t many people swimming and no bikini babes for a conservative country like Vietnam. The whole time I was there, I didn’t spot any Westerners – but that due to we hang out a bit further from the big crowd.

As we sat and relax, there were many people came to ask us to buy food and stuffs. There were even card readers (fortune tellers) asking up if we want to be read – a lady trying to entice to me to use her service said “by the look of your face you can woo and get any girl, just that you don’t”. Me and my Phuong just sat there looking at each other and laughed.

The beach was dirty and filthy full of rubbish. As they sell food on the beach, people ate and throw the left over right there. The water was murky due to the brown sand.

We didn’t tour around Vung Tau as I was told there weren’t much else to see. We only walked up to the big statue of Jesus. Great view from up there.

Yes, Finally!

Finally I’ve got access to the Internet from my apartment room even though I have only a single bar for my wireless signal. I have taken my landlord nearly a week to bring the signal up to my room. So far it seems to be working good. The link to Australia is around 140ms (through VNPT). That isn’t bad comparing to other IXP which would be around 240+ms.

Catching up

I arrived in Prey Nakor (Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, I will use the name interchangeably but you know where I’m talking about) on the 16th September 2007. Time flies in the almost a month I have been here. I feel as though I have only been here for a couple of weeks. I had the chance to visit Hanoi and Ha Long bay, just a few days to relax before I started work.

I’m getting used to the heat, my skin are much browner now and I bet people now can tell that I’m Khmer. Talking about identification, I’m told there are a lot of Khmer in Prey Nakor but I could not identify any of them. I could guess that anyone with a darker skin tone are Khmer but I could be wrong as some Vietnamese are brown too, plus a lot of Khmers here have light skin tone also.

I was first overwhelmed by the traffic congestion but since learning how to drive a motorcycle, it’s becoming the norm battling through the busy street of Saigon. I had a few close calls driving around as I’m not 100% confident on the bike. I normally drive around at night because it’s cooler; during the day I sometime take taxi when it’s crouching hot and the pollution is bad.

The night life here in Prey Nakor is great. Discotheque, karaoke bar, live concert and so on keeps me entertain. Food here are cheap, I think I’m putting on weight. My friends said I would probably loose weight when I’m here, but I don’t think that will be the case

Last weekend I took a few days off work and went to visit my relatives in Preah Tra Peng (Tra Vinh) province. I was hoping to catch the Don Ta festival but apparently I got the day mixed but and turned up a couple of days early. When I was there, there were heaps of people who work in the Saigon return home to celebrate Don Ta, it was great to meet up – well…about 14 of us went to have coffee at the local market, it was quite dark and I couldn’t really see all their faces. I wonder why there were no street lights in the area or even in the market, I mean they have running electricity cable on the street. Even though it’s dark, kids still walk around and hanging out with friends. There’s a sense of security there, where in western countries you wouldn’t dare to walk in the dark where it’s quiet.