Back in Viet Nam

Mui Ne, Viet Nam is known as the kite surfing capital due to usual favorable winds and weather. The sky is filled with flying surf boards and I really wanted to try it but:
1-There is a 12 hour instruction course before you are allowed to kite surf on your own.
2-The classes are fully booked for the next 4 days.
3-The course of instruction and supply rentals cost $540.
Well, if I were only 25 or 30 I think I would overcome these challenges but for now it looks like it ain't gonna happen

When I left off I was in Hong Kong and enjoying that fine city, so I was happy that my explorations prior to flying to Viet Nam had a happy ending. I flew from Hong Kong to Saigon on 14 November on Cathay Pacific, an airline which regularly is rated among the world's best. It was a good but non exceptional flight. I did enjoy the meal service on the short flight--- probably the best meal I had since arriving in Asia.

I arrived Ho Chi Minh City 6 PM on Monday afternoon. I obtained my visa upon arrival in a procedure now familiar to me. (Rush to the service window with passport photo in hand, take a barely readable xeroxed form to fill out, complete the form and return it to the service window and wait, but hopefully less time than the other arriving passengers who have been less aggressive in getting to the agent accepting passports and dispensing visas.) I recovered my luggage after finishing the above formalities and bargained with a taxi from $25 to $9 to take me to Pham Nu Lau Street where I knew I could find a hotel without problem. Traffic into the city, always congested, was worse than usual being rush hour on Monday afternoon, so I generously tipped the driver an extra dollar (actually 20,000 Dong).

Ho Chi Minh was predictably energetic and I always like the feeling of the bustle of District 1. I met my friend Phu whom I know from previous trips and he sat in Allez Boo bar with my luggage while I went to find a room. I checked in to a place I had stayed another time but decided that I would upgrade the next day and I was very satisfied with my new lodgings. The internet was a little dodgy there, but everything else was peachy.

Among my first orders of business were to get a haircut and shave ($5), massage ($10) and maincure/pedicure ($5). For $20 I underwent a revitalization, and I expect I will enjoy the same procedures over and over, especially at those prices. If nothing else I hope to look well groomed.

Yesterday (Saturday, 12 November) I traveled to the beach town of Mui Ne. My friend Phu told me he was going there to make some sales calls and asked if I would like to go along. I agreed and that is where I am now, sitting outisde my beachfront room writing this report. Mui Ne is a resort town for Vietnamese, but mostly whom I see here are Russians and most of the signage here is in Vietnamese language as well as in Cyrillic alphabet.)

It is great to be back in Viet Nam. I hope that I will find an apartment next week and I will change from visitor to resident, at least temporarily. I have some leads on apartments which I found on Craig's List, which is also the same machine which helped me sell some of the things left from my moving sales a few weeks (It seems like ages) ago.