First day, first priorities :

• getting a mobile phone
• finding a house to rent
• shopping for food

(CC BY-ND) Photos credits — Marion Plisson

My first mission of the day, acquire a smartphone for Marion and figure out how to get mobile service for both of us. Accepted!

I decide to walk and try the local shops that we’ve seen during our taxi ride and some that are on Google maps. In order to walk to the shop, I have this 2x2 lanes street to cross… Easy, right, look how the locals are doing. It seems simple enough: look, wait, look, walk, slow down, look, walk, watch out… There are only many, many scooters and some cars going through the street I need to cross. I go for it as if it was a dance, figure out the tempo and keep it in mind while walking through the lanes. Yeah, I made it unhurt, stressed but proud of this accomplishment. Little I know about what’s about to happen next.

I finally reach a phone shop where I see a smartphone that would be great for Marion, I ask about the price, no bargaining power for a newcomer like me. I buy the phone and ask also for unlocking and a sim card for my phone. That’s where things get complex, one specialist of the shop tries to unlock my iPhone but it’s not completely working. I wait, and wait while they try different techniques. Finally, this guy tells me he has to bring my phone to another shop where they have the device to make a full unlock. He shows me his scooter and I understand that on my second day in Vietnam, I will have my first ride on the back of a scooter, in full traffic, in the middle of Saigon, gloups… my stomach takes a hit while I gather my courage and hold tight.

This ride is epic (as my daughters would say), I call it frightening and an initiation. After these minutes of slaloming between buses, cars, trucks, scooters in fluid chaos, I consider myself adopted and thankful to be alive!

Meanwhile Marion is on top of our house hunting as the real-estate professional that she is. She schedule visits and get the scooter ride experience on the back of the real-estate agents’ scooters in D2 (District 2). A few (many) visits later, she found our perfect house. As promised to our daughters, it has a pool (aka “How to convince your children to move to an unknown country on the other side of the Pacific”).

(CC BY-ND) Photos credits — Marion Plisson

Now that we have a home and figured out how to pay for deposit and rent, we still have to explore more another basic: food.

We loved everything we ate so far in restaurant and street. We now have to start shopping for food to cook. Technically one does not have to cook himself in Vietnam to eat fantastically and cheaply everyday. But, hey, we’re french after all, we got that in our culture.

Funny find, a “european cookie” named after my wife first name

(CC BY-ND) Photos credits — Marion Plisson

Turns out the supermarkets in Vietnam have a lot of cookies wrapped in multiple packaging. I assume it’s for preservation under this hot humid weather which may make another topic for a future post.

(CC BY-ND) Photos credits — Marion Plisson

In our exploration of D2, we found our headquarter: “Snap café” ! This is a concept that should exist in every city: restaurant, playground, live music, pool table, great food and service, small shops (butcher, toy store, kids clothing, fruits & veggies, furnitures/decorations).

(CC BY-ND) Photos credits — Marion Plisson

Did I said we love Vietnam ? Well I just did. {:-P