September was a crazy awesome month!

on vacation

My birthday was at the beginning of September and it was a pretty amazing day.  I got a phone call from my project manager asking me if I would like a promotion.  Originally I didn't want to consider anything until January because I was really enjoying the job in Kota Tinggi and the teachers I was working with were some of the nicest people I have met in my travels.  They all welcomed me into their work lives and trusted in the things I was telling them.  I wanted to finish the school year with them, but alas it was not to be.  I have moved into another area of Malaysia called Pontian.  Ocean side town, fairly quiet and, as usual in Malaysia, filled with nice people.


Now I am living in another house.   I think these places are called terrace houses.  All connected, side by side.

The front of my new place

This place is a lot smaller then the last place I had (which I am happy about.  I miss my one room apt's in Japan.  Can't collect as much stuff in those places.).  It's also a lot older, but its been kept in pretty good shape by the owners, so it will do the trick for the next year.

The view from the front door.  I have a workstation and a dinning room table.  There was one of those free standing screen thingy's so I put it up so that the neighbors can't see me walking around in my undies when I get up.

The view from the hallway looking at my living space.  The land lord bought a smallish TV for me.  I have cable coming sometime in the next week. (just got internet today.)

My bedrroom.  Still a little messed up, but working on it.  I managed to collect a lot of things in my six months in Kota Tinggi.  I came to Malaysia with 2 suitcases and a backpack.  Now I had a full car load of stuff I will need to get rid of next year.

My bathroom.  Probably the most Japanese thing I've seen in this country.  I barely have enough room to sit on the crapper and taking a shower in this room isn't much easier.  The positive thing is the water heater has more pressure then the last place I was living, so that's something at least.

And finally the kitchen.  Lots of room here and even lots of cupboard space for me to put all the new stuff I collect.

All in all, I am happy with this new place.  I am paying the same amount that I did in Kota Tinggi even though this is only half the place that was.  But considering what I saw in this town for RM1000/mth I think this is the best I can do.  I'm happy.



As far as the job goes, I am enjoying it a lot so far.  Even though there were a lot of challenges at the very beginning and there are a few more in the coming weeks, I think it will be a very good experience for me.  In the end I hope it works out better then the last two times I dipped my toe in the management pool, but even if it doesn't, it will only be for one year and I think I can handle that.

The teachers here are very nice and I feel like most of them have welcomed me into their work environment without any drama.  I hope I can build as good a relationship with them as I did with the teachers in Kota Tinggi.

If that was all that had happened in September it would have been a good month, but I went to Vietnam for the first time.  At first I was a little uninterested in going here.  After I had booked my trip I realized I didn't really want to go by myself, but then an amazing thing happened.  Not two days after booking one of my friends from Japan contacted me and asked when I was going because she had some vacation days coming and she wanted to join me there.  Now, I was more excited to go.

say hi to Noriko.  One of my favorite Japanese people

She was only there for the first two days that I was there, so we tried to do as many things as we could.  On the first day we went to china town and looked at a couple of temples.

This is inside one of the temples.  For some reason I don't like seeing markets inside temples and churches.  I think its from a sunday school lesson I had when I was little.  But it is interesting seeing how other parts of the world view their holy places and its uses.  But there was some really nice statues in the middle of the temple.

 Noriko isn't a statue but I think she would make a good muse for one.

 Me, not so much.

This was a refreshing area inside the hustle and bustle of making a living for the Vietnamese.  The vendors in these markets are hard core.  They will actually grab a hold of your arm to prevent you from moving past their stall.  The first time this happened to me I wasn't expecting it and I almost punched them, thankfully I restrained myself and tried to compress my sense of personal space.

 I think this was the temple Noriko wanted to see the most.

After a lot of walking around we took a taxi back to district one and went up what I think is the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City.

 there is a bar two floors up from here.  I didn't find out about it until the next day.

The big red building in the middle of this pic is the Cho Ben Thanh market

 For dinner we were going on a river cruise.  I guessed that this was the boat we would go on. (the brown one.)

Like I said we had booked a river cruise dinner date.  I was really looking forward to it cuz, you know, I love floating around in boats.  Here is the boat we had booked.

As you can see I guessed correctly.  A very nice Chinese Junk.  The meal was pretty tasty too.  I don't have a picture of the food cuz I always forget to take pictures.  By the time I remembered I was almost finished eating.  But the inside of the Junk was nicely done.

The next day we met up with Noriko's brother who lives in Ho Chi Minh City.  He showed us around the markets and district one.  We went to a palace and looked around inside.

There is an underground bunker in this building that was used during the war.  Got to see sleeping chambers and radio rooms and strategy rooms. It was pretty interesting .

After this day Noriko went back to Japan, I got a little depressed being there by myself so I went to the market and spent a lot of money on watches and silk things.  Made me feel better.

One of three watches I bought.  I know they are all knock-offs but I really like them and so far they are still working, so I say money well spent.  I look almost respectable when I am wearing them.

After moping around for a day and spending far to much money I decided I should book some day trips to fill the rest of my time in HCMC.  I chose the tunnels (I had heard of them before I came) and a trip to the Mekong Delta.

The tunnels were interesting and if I was considerably smaller I might have been able to get some pics inside the tunnels, but I barely fit inside them so I didn't have enough room or interest to try.

 There was a time when I could fit into a hole that small, but it was about 50-60 pounds ago.

 another entrance to the tunnel system which was over 200kms long. 

a couple of traps the Vietnamese set to catch/injure Americans

If you ever go to this place I highly recommend you do not watch the documentary at the end.  It is one hundred percent propaganda and promotes hatred of Americans.  It really disappointed me.  Having said that, most of their musuems (at least in HCMC) seem to be dedicated to hating Americans (because they were the only ones fighting in that war apparently).  The war remnants museum is another example of this.  All the military equipment is American and there are several rooms dedicated to showing you the results of the American campaign to use Agent Orange on the Vietnamese peoples.

Anyways, the next day was probably my favorite of the trip.  I went to the Mekong Delta and rode around on a boat.  It rained most of the day but that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride.

highway rest stop on the way to the boat

 Not the boat we took, but one exactly like it.

 This lady rowed some of us down this channel.  The others went with different rowers.

 Life in Vietnam.  In some ways I think it would be amazing. Getting back to nature and all.

I think these people live on these boats and sell fruits to people as they pass by.

My last two days I decided to take it easy.  I spent a lot of time in a couple of the nice parks they have in the city.

A looked at some of the architecture in the city.

 Notre Dame Church HCMC not the one in Paris

The Post Office.  

There was a lot more I did in HCMC and I took pictures of a lot of it, but you will have to go to my facebook page to look at all the other pictures I have. 

 Here's a link:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152227227801307.1073741846.720066306&type=1&l=5497c59cc5

That's about all for September.  My next big event will be my trip back to Canada for the first time in three years.  Looking forward to that.

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