Channel Steve

Written in a cafe on Wednesday November 10th.

Got in early for work after a call to substitute, only to find that a Vietnamese teacher is doing it. Usually I arrive just in time to teach, so don’t get time for lunch. Today I get breakfast AND lunch.

It’s been quite eventful so far. I’m in an exotic foods cafe on Ba Thang Hai and am waiting for my Chicken with Bee Honey dish to arrive. Would you eat any of these? I wonder where they get the creatures from?

The chicken I am about to eat escaped 10 minutes ago and flew up to the power lines. They finally got it down and recaptured it, but not before chasing it around the restaurant for a while.

It took nearly 45 minutes for my “Steve McQueen wannabe” to finally reach my table. All I’ll say is that I think all that exercise during The Great Escape toughened it right up because it looked a whole lot better than it tasted. With only soup, coffee and Soda Chanh (lemon soda) to accompany the chicken, I left the restaurant still feeling hungry.

My surrounds and the never-ending sights of fascination are keeping my mind off the overly-attentive, under-dressed but average-looking girls waiting on my every need. I only need the chicken, but I wonder if they give shoulder massages?

A middle-aged woman has just dropped her bike right in front of the restaurant. She has hurt her ankle and left thigh. Unlike my accident, people came running from everywhere to help. What is most remarkable about this accident is that there was no-one near her when it happened. You don’t see much empty space on a Saigon street, so perhaps the shock of being alone affected her balance.

Looks like a Mobifone outlet is right across the road, so I might mosy on over later and try to get this iPhone connected to data via GPRS.

Postscript: no luck with Mobifone. Despite posters everywhere showing data plans, & Thu on the phone to them giving Vietnamese directions, they seemed not to know what a data plan was. I showed them the very plans I wanted to consider, pointed and drew circles, said the words “GPRS” and “Edge” quite clearly, yet the girls didn’t have a clue. This is a new store, and all the signage promotes data plans so I don’t know what their problem is. Guess I’ll try the main office on Friday afternoon.

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