Autumn has always been my favorite season of the year. Some of my fondest memories are from autumn when Lena and I, all wrapped up because of the chill and the rain, would race down the hill to the feijoa trees  by the library and trudge back laden with books(mostly comics), and fat, ripe, unbelievably  yummy feijoas. At home I would lie in bed (having taken off my jacket, hat and gloves), and read and read and read, enjoying the sound of the rain on the roof and the bounty of fruit on the floor by my bed, and the feel of the cosy, warm winter sheets; sometimes playing music on my cd player or, if I wasn't reading, an audio book. Bliss

We don't have autumn or feijoas here, so i'll just have to make do with dragon fruit!

A Coconut At Turtle Lake

Yesterday, after a stop at turtle lake, which happens to have no turtles and no lake, certain people in our group were feeling hot and tired. After a quick debate between ourselves, we chose a restaurant across the road to grab some lunch before heading on to the language school.. Amberly had wanted to go to a sushi club that was nearby. When we arrived, however, we discover that they were only serving drinks, presumably because the chef was out. Mum ordered a banana smoothy, I ordered a drinking coconut, and Isaac and Amberly ordered chocolate milkshakes. A few minuets later I was in heaven. Ever since trying one in a cafe in our first week in Vietnam, coconuts have been my favourite drink. Drinking coconuts (also known as jelly-nuts or tender-nuts) are unripe coconuts that have been cut open at the top to reveal coconut "water" and mushy,slimy (but tasty) coconut flesh. Coconuts are actually a type of fruit that contain sugar, dietary fibre, proteins, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and provides an isotonic electrolyte balance. Today we learnt how to say ''can you give me a coconut please'', then we went and bought one of the street and successfully used the phrase to purchase 4 coconuts.

The ladies on the bus get hot, hot hot ...

This is me today - red and dripping with perspiration; it was running down my front and back making sitting down, standing up, generally moving or not moving rather uncomfortable. All it takes to end up in this state is walking for 20 minutes in 34 degrees, trying to find the number 3 bus to get home. When it didn't come to the first bus stop we were waiting at the kids were all in favour of just catching a taxi but I didn't think I had enough dong in my purse so we were committed to a bit more walking, eventually getting aboard at the main central bus stop across the way from Ben Thanh market. But it is so satisfying to eventually get where you want to get using the cheapest means available. And ice-creams are cheap too!

Something cold to keep us going as there was a little walk from where we got off the number 3 back to the apartment.

Our first formal lesson in Vietnamese today was awesome! We have a lovely teacher who told us she has never taught teens before, only over 30s and when Isaac asked how we compared she said the adults were more patient and didn't ask as many questions.

Our friendly teacher, Miss Thao (rhymes with cow and you say it like a question)

Class is in session - once we had walked from the bus stop (via Gloria Jeans) then climbed 4 flights of stairs to the classroom.

Vietnamese is really hard! Some of the sounds we have to make have no english equivalent (imagine saying oo with your mouth set in a half smile as if you were saying ee) but Thao was lovely and patient and repetitive which is what beginners like us need. After this first class we went out and ordered 4 coconuts from a street-seller in Vietnamese, Isaac even asked the price and understood the answer - so cool!

Bus-t a move!

As usual, this Wednesday was our travelling day, so after a quick breakfast of pancakes, we figured out our route and caught the bus. Our first destination was Turtle Lake, a little known feature in District 1. When we got there, having walked from the nearby bus stop, we noticed a distinct lack of turtles. And lakes. What we found was a polluted pond that probably didn't support any life forms larger than microbes, in the centre of which was a large concrete sculpture of a lotus flower. When we researched this, we found that there had once been a statue of a turtle on a plinth (which still remains), but it had been blown up in an attempt by a minority group of nationalists in an attempt to awake the mythical dragon of South Vietnam and revive the South after the fall of Saigon. Obviously, it didn't work, leaving the oddly named place we see today.

Having met our cultural learning obligations, we popped in at a promising looking restaurant next to the roundabout Turtle Lake was on, looking to grab some lunch. However, when we tried to order the waiter communicated, through a mix of pointing and head-shaking, that no food was being served, only drinks. Disappointed, we all ordered a drink, then headed to our next stop, the Saigon Language School, on foot, grabbing a banh mi each for lunch. At the SLS, Mum paid half of the total fee and organized when our English lessons were going to be. With that cleared up, we left by bus again for Metro, the supermarket we had visited, after talking to a lady who wanted to say hello at the bus stop. Once at Metro, Mum showed her passport in order to get a day pass (Metro is similar to Gilmours in that you have to join and become a member, or do what we did and show our passports for a temporary membership) and we went through, just buying a few things we needed as we still had distance left to travel and didn't want to carry too much.

All finished, we left by taxi to our final destination, Souled Out, the church youth group. Sadly, I am the only boy older than 13 or so, but that can't be helped. Once youth group was over, we stayed around a bit to talk to the family who runs it, then headed home.

The Bus Stops Here

Today was one of the biggest traveling days we've had so far during our Vietnam trip. However, what made it remarkable was the fact that we traveled almost entirely by bus. We left before lunch, and our first stop was a bank to convert some NZ dollars into VN dong. Accustomed somewhat to catching a bus, we went to the stop, sat down and waited for the No. 3 bus to arrive. When it did, however, it was so packed that Mum balked and insisted we wait for the next one. Luckily, it arrived quickly and was nearly empty, so we hopped on, paid the tiny fare (about 30 cents each) and headed off. The thing about taking a bus is that you have to pay a lot more attention to where you are in order to get off at the right stop. As we went through the streets, I was sure that I saw the hotel that we were supposed to get off at. Mum hadn't noticed, so I pointed it out, but she seemed confused. Eventually, we got up and off at the next stop, which was the one we had aimed for. It seemed I had misheard her when I thought she said we had to get off at a certain hotel, but we ended up at the right place anyway.

As we searched for out first stop, the bank, we passed the infamous waffle seller. When she said "100,000", it took a second for me to realize that haggling was required. Once I did, I tried to get her lower, but Mum was so willing to pay the higher price that the best I could get was 70,000. We were later told that this was over 3 times what they were worth. Oh well, lesson learned. We found the bank and got the money converted, then our next stop was a hobby shop that I wanted to visit. Again, we took the bus and managed to get off at the right place, which was a large roundabout. We walked around it until we found the street we wanted, then headed down it. As we walked down, we were looking for number 15, so we kept track of the numbers: 2, 4, 6, 8... Wait a moment. We looked over on the other side of the street, expecting to see odd numbers, but there was only a large wall that continued down the street for 50 meters or so. Confused, we asked a nearby cop/security person for directions. This consisted of us saying "mui lam, mui lam", which means 15, and pointing to the street name. Eventually, he got it and pointed us down the street and across. Ok, so the odd numbers were just a while down. Luckily for us No. 15 was at our end of the street, so we quickly found it.

Inside, there were several RC toys ranging from miniature helicopters to helicopters as big as a dog. I found one I liked the look of, a replica of a twin-rotor thing from Avatar, and we asked to test it. Unfortunately, the batteries were nearly flat, so we couldn't try it properly. It looked quite difficult to fly, as the left toggle could also move left and right to give more power to the corresponding rotor. Used properly, this could be used to strafe the helicopter sideways, but it would be very easy to just flip it instead. I didn't quite have enough money to buy the one I wanted, so decided to come back another day once I'd saved up a bit more.

We headed out from the shop and back to the roundabout in order to catch the next bus, popping into a nearby mall to cool off. Again, we caught it with no difficulty and headed off again. After the longest ride so far, we ended up about a km from our next destination, a massive supermarket called Metro. The entire walk was alongside a large canal, extremely dirty but apparently fishable, as there were several people there with rods. Once we reached Metro, we had to find the entrance, not as easy as it sounds. We found the entrance, but not the trolleys, so had to carry everything we bought, which was just stuff for lunch. By this point we were running late for our youth group, Souled Out, so we caught a taxi for the short ride there. We munched down on the buns, bananas and yoghurt there, then it was time to begin.

After youth group, we hung around for a bit to chat to the Tarrs, who ran the thing, then headed off to meet Dad for dinner, again by taxi. We ate at a thai place down an alley, off a small street, off a main street. Joining us were two of Dad's workmates who he wanted us to meet. The food was very nice, not too spicy, and we left feeling full. One last taxi ride home, then we were done for the day.

WAFFLE RIP OFF!!!!

Suddenly the face that had been so friendly turned serious. ''100,000''  ''What?!'' I heard mum say. ''that's really expensive!'' I was thinking the same thing. 100,000 for 3 small bags of waffles? Yikes! Thankfully Isaac came to the rescue just then and haggled it down to 70,000, which is still ridiculously pricey. We probably should have stuck at it, but mum was too soft. I wasn't the only one to notice. As we walked away another lady persistently tried to sell us some books. ''Very good book madam, very cheap!'' When mum said no, she pulled out more. she was probably thinking that if we payed 70,000 for some waffles, why not for her books? but when we finally convinced that we didn't want her books,  (it took at least 3 noes) she looked quite annoyed. The rest of the day was also fun, but I really shouldn't waffle on any longer!

Waffles and Literature

Yesterday, we went for a walk in downton Saigon looking for a money exchange place and we passed a street seller selling those crispy waffle things.

Spying a business opportunity, she hastily gave us a multitude of free samples ("sucking us in" as Mum would later put it!) Mum finally gave in and said she would buy a few bags. Instantly the middle-aged lady's face shot from warm and cheerful to dead serious. "One hundred thousand dong!" she said, (later on Mum explained that this was close to eight NZ dollars) but Mum was adamant that this was too expensive and managed to haggle it down to 70,000, although Isaac insisted that he could have gotten it to 60,000. Just as we were about to leave with our purchase, a bookseller, obviously thinking we were easy customers, came along and started shoving guides and atlases in our faces.

When we refused, her look of outrage said it all: "But you just gave her 70,000 dong for a few waffles!" My lesson learned? Stay away from waffle sellers!