Currently

Currently sitting in perhaps my favorite space in Saigon-La Fenetre Soleil. It would probably be the perfect hipster paradise back home. Everything is “distressed” enough to make the place feel fully authentic. The cracked marble tables, old barn plank style wood floor and the cobblestone floor curtained verandah with faded exposed brick walls and lightly stained crown molding that runs around the entire premise, allowing for a cool and naturally lit center room. All are perfect design touches, my favorite design touch of the French colonial period though is the roof with its sloped ceiling and exposed wood beams providing an uncertain amount of support but a great amount of aesthetic value. It’s already slated into my dream room.

We went to the only truly “American” BBQ joint in town with a bunch of friends. We had only been once a few months prior and afterwards we realized why we had only gone once before. BBQ is on the very short list of things that are more expensive here than in America: wine, ice cream, BBQ. I used to eat BBQ a minimum of twice a week for four years in college but I’ve done an amazing job of moving past my BBQ addiction since coming to Vietnam. I’m afraid once the shock of the spending what would probably be like 3-4x Memphis BBQ prices wears off, I might have awakened the metaphorical dragon that is my love for BBQ. In fact I’m kind of craving it right now.

Anyways on our walk back home from the restaurant we had a totally Vietnam moment that Libby suggested go in the blog. We walked past a group of guys sleeping in their hammocks or on a mat just on the side of a busy street, a man with a literal peg-leg that seemed more at home in a pirate movie and two street-cleaner/garbage workers finishing up their shift. It’s crazy to get glimpses at the large side of Saigon that sleeps on the street day after day and the fact that the only reason the city maintains a semblance of cleanliness is because an army of workers go out day after day and do quite a meticulous job of picking up boatloads of trash by broom and hand. Most everywhere in the city can be considered a trashcan.

I can tell that I’m getting burnt out of teaching because the weekends keep leaving me feeling emotionally and physically drained…the sad part being that my hours keep going down. I did 8 on Saturday and 8 on Sunday for a total of 16. When I was doing 22 hours in a 48 window, 16 would have felt like a breeze. But for some reason it doesn’t…don’t know what to make of it… Maybe it’s the cold-that-never-quite-leaves-you-once-you-catch-it syndrome (I’m pretty sure can be attributed to pollution and possibly the festering tropical heat that never leaves). But it’s only 2 weeks and 2 days until we’re boarding a flight for Manila and then on to Palawan. Pretty sure the cold will vanish the second my eyes touch the beaches of Palawan.  Which leads us to our trip update.

We kind of had an awkwardly long time between us ending the pay-period (Jan 28^th) and our flight to Bangkok (17^th) and on to Burma…which we had initially centered on Tet. It  definitely won’t take three weeks to fully explore the delta so we decided to switch things around a little and use this sizeable chunk for Palawan, with a stop in Manila along the way of course.  

Jan 30^th-February 16^th  : Philippines (Manila, Palawan)

February 17^th-21^st : Bangkok

February 21^st –March 7^th : Burma/Myanmar

March 7^th-21^st : Vietnam (Sapa, Halong Bay, Hanoi, Saigon)

March 21^st- March 27^th : Vietnam (Delta, Vung Tao, Mui Ne, ect)

March 27^th -29^th : Kuala Lumpur (Formula One Grand Prix)

March 30^th – April 20^th : Indonesia (Raja Ampat, not sure where else)

April 20^th – May 4^th : Northern Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Pai)

***Up in the Air portion***      

May 5^th- May 12^th : Laos???

May 10^th – May 27^th : Nepal???

May 5^th – May 27^th : India???

Also, I celebrated my birthday yesterday.  I was feeling very self-pitying because I had to work that night, but my amazing girlfriend made the day meaningful.  She started with my favorite breakfast food: bagels which are hard to come by here and a blueberry muffin.  Breakfast in bed was completed by freshly squeezed orange juice mimosas.  Then, I was whisked away to my favorite spot: Cat Moc Spa where I enjoyed over 3 hours of treatment! The Rejuvenation package includes a 90 minute Thai massage, 60 minute essential facial, and 30 minutes of sauna/steam room; the perfect combination.  But because it was my birthday, they threw in a complementary 40 minute foot massage.  All this for under $40.  My body feeling great, Libby picked me up to go to my favorite pizza restaurant, 4P’s.  They have homemade burrata cheese (super fancy mozzarella that spills out onto the pizza).  Then, it was naptime before getting to VUS at 5.  I walked into my classroom to a bunch of wild kids bopping each other with balloons and big letters spelling out Happy Birthday in the background.  I was touched thinking the 11-year-olds with no TA did this themselves when I learned that Libby came to school to set up while I was getting my massage.  She then walked in with a cake and we sung happy birthday.  Although she provided me with Big Hero 6 to watch during my class, I felt that went a little too far in totally giving up so we just played games all class instead.  I got food delivered for dinner, and after class, met a bunch of friends at Bia College, a bar with cheap and large beer towers.  The day was completed with a homemade leather bound book and silk boxers!