Saigon week 1

I'm writing this post 4 weeks after my arrival in Saigon.

The airport is much cleaner and more spacious than I remembered. & despite warnings of corruption & such at the airport, I breeze through customs & security without even a mention of "money for coffee" - so different from my experience 12 years ago.

& just outside, in the large crowd of folks waiting for arrivals, I see my uncle, who hasn't changed much all these years. He looks a lot like my dad, so pretty easy to recognize. I arrived late in the evening, just after 10 pm. I wheel my luggage over to my uncle and we walk towards a taxi. He asks the driver, how much? The driver says, 200,000. My uncle shakes his head and we walk to a different section. Again, he asks the price, and this time seems more agreeable. Bargaining is such an integral part of this Vietnamese culture... only the beginning.

At my uncle's house, I get settled into my cousin's room for the next couple nights. The house is tall and narrow. There are 4 stories - the bottom front room is rented out during the day to a group of ladies who sell clothing. The back of the first floor hosts the kitchen. My aunt's sister and brother-in-law & mother live in the two rooms on the second floor and my uncle, his wife and two sons live in the two rooms on the third floor. The fourth floor is a roof-top garden and also has an area for washing and drying clothing.

The house was recently built about 5 years ago, but its walls are covered in grime, and show the evidence of a tropical climate and what looks like crayon/marker drawings of young kids.

In the middle of the night, I'm awakened by the sound of a neighborhood rooster crowing... every 2 or 3 minutes... by morning, I'm irritable and tired. The rooster had an active night. Sigh.Only 1 more night of this before I head to the quietness of a hotel.

In the Vietnamese culture, it's not proper for two unmarried people to travel together. In fact, according to Vietnamese law, it's unlawful for two unmarried people to stay in the same hotel room together (if at least one of the two is a Vietnamese citizen). Fortunately, this rule does not apply to us, so we're in the clear.