We're in!

I still haven't taken any pictures, so I'm sorry that I can't show you our new apartment.

What an awful 2 weeks it has been!  In fact, it's not even 2 weeks - it will be 2 weeks tomorrow.

I was so angry with the Sweethome Apartment manager that I could barely look at her by the time we actually left.  I know it's probably some weird Vietnamese cultural thing, whereby she tells me what she thinks I want to hear, and then I am expected to do whatever it is she wants, even if that is the exact opposite of what she says.  But the woman came to visit me, and said that we didn't have to move at all, and apologised.  And then two days later Martin's company confirmed that actually, yes, we DID have to move.

Plus the whole business with Mr Tony.

Dan, the little wee real estate agent showed us lots of places, but in the end it was a third agent Ms Trang who showed us the winning apartment.  Ms Trang speaks English OK, but doesn't seem to be able to understand spoken English at all - despite the nodding and smiling.  And so there have been some annoying communication problems with her.  Also, it is Tet. And really, all Ms Trang was interested in was collecting her commission in advance of the Tet holiday.  As she eagerly demonstrated with several text messages:

Hi Martin.  Can you confirm you take the apartment and when the deposit be paid so I can collect my commission. 

Hi Martin. Please ask your company to transfer the rental because the landlord don't receive any information from your company. At least, please let her know when they transfer. She want to know to make sure about your company before she goes back to Hanoi tomorrow. Thanks, Trang. 

Hi Martin. You shall talk to Ms Thao (the HR Manager at Martin's company) about transfering the rental. Because the end of the day, the landlord don't receive anything from you and your company. She calls me many times to ask but I don't call Ms Thao yet, maybe she is very busy. Please let know now and send the receipt. Thanks. 

These are just the ones that came through to my phone - not even Martin's.  I like the way she changed her tactics, to make it sound like the pushing was coming from the landlords end.  But Martin spoke to the landlord's daughter (who has perfect English) and also to Ms Thao and the landlord was in fact happy with the arrangement we had in place.

Because of the urgency of our situation, and also because of the fact of Tet, and because of the need to deal with Martin's company for the contract and paying the deposit etc - we had all agreed that the contract would be signed on Tuesday (which it was) and that we would move in on Wednesday (yesterday).  But, because Ms Thao needed 2 signatures to get the payment activated, the bank transfer couldn't be made until late on Wednesday or maybe Thursday morning.  The landlord asked me to give her a cash gratuity which she will return to me when the full payment has gone through - so I gave her 2 million dong (about US $100) yesterday, and she will give it back to me when she gets back from Hanoi after Tet.

I think that Ms Trang maybe didn't understand any of that, and so was hassling the landlord, the company and us to try and get us to speed things along - which we couldn't do.  Ms Thao was very fed up with her and not answering her calls, and it wasn't until Martin called the landlord again last night that she finally has backed off.  Anyway - I think the payment will have gone through by now, and so we'll probably not have to deal with Ms Trang again.

It is surprising to me how expensive accommodation is in Vietnam.  The rent on our new place is US $1,100 per month - which is more than double the average Vietnamese educated office worker's salary.  Serviced apartments are much more expensive, and unfurnished apartments are a little bit cheaper - but not by much.  Most Vietnamese people own their own homes and live together with their extended families - with women moving out to join their husband's families, and young men buying their own homes usually before they get married. I think most Vietnamese people if they had to rent could probably afford to pay about $100 a month, and I shudder to think what quality of accommodation that would be.  Probably a very small room and maybe a toilet room with a shower over it and a very small, possibly external kitchen.

We are living in relative luxury - a luxurious apartment even by NZ standards. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a massive open plan living room and kitchen area.  There are some things about it that are not to western tastes - no oven in the kitchen, and not many drawers - no bookshelves - fluorescent lighting tubes in every room (eek!).  But it is by far the biggest and nicest place we have ever lived in (though Sweethome was nice too), at 150 sqm. 

There are some things to get used to (traffic noise! It's unserviced - no maids so far...) and some things that are a huge bonus (supermarket on the ground floor - enough space for dancing).  I will give another apartment update after we've been there for a couple of weeks, and try and get some photos for you all.

My next focus now after the unpacking is finished is our trip to Singapore.  We are still going - leaving on Sunday this week and coming back next Friday.  I have been told that Singapore will be crazy busy with Chinese New Year activities - so hopefully that will actually be quite fun!

Today - worse than yesterday

Today has been another day of apartment hunting. Dan picked me up on his motorbike at 9 am and showed me at least 6 apartments.  

I still double-take sometimes when I notice the size of Vietnamese people.  Dan is a tiny little guy - he is about the size of an 11 year old boy in my mind - and I'm not even exaggerating. 

He is just tiny, but he drives a great big motorbike. I don't know the brand of bike but its kind of sporty and new looking with fluorescnt orange mag wheels.  A very desirable bike in Vietnam for young men.  

A few of the apartments we saw were ok, but Martin and I couldn't agree on any this afternoon so we are still nowhere.  Mr Tony keeps emailing me reminding me that the landlords here want me gone.

This is a complete nightmare situation for me.  To top it all off we're out of milk. And water. And bread.  No, I don't want to go shopping. 

 

 

 

 

 

Comedy - good husband quality

Text conversation with my husband:

MR MARTIN

Got hold of Dan the apartment guy.  He will txt you about seeing places tomorrow. 

MR MARTIN

I mean he'll txt you soon. To organise seeing places tomorrow. Loves. 

ME

Roger

MR MARTIN

No. His name is Dan.

A few minutes later:

ME 

9:30 am for me and Roger

MR MARTIN

Roger, Clarence.

And yes, folks - that does mean that we are DESPERATE, for a break in the misery as much as for a new apartment.

Oh the melodrama.  There has been tears. Many many awful angry-cry tears.

On Saturday, we went looking at apartments with Mr Tony The Untrustworthy.  He showed us two apartments, and while the first one smelled of mould and had no window in the second bedroom, the second one was perhaps acceptable.

There was a small swimming pool on the ground floor, and access to the roof garden - which is much better than the facilities at Sweethome.

But the kitchen was just a tiny kitchenette on one wall - ok for tea and toast, but even less functional than the kitchen I currently have.

We almost said yes to that.

On Monday, Martin told his office HR person what was going on and she got on the phone to our apartment manager, who immediately came to see me and suggested that I just stay where I am.  Don't move out. Don't move to the other apartment.  Oh, and by the way - did I realise that they asked Mr Tony before signing the contract with the other people what our plans were, and he told them we were moving out?

But by Wednesday that deal was off again.  We fired Mr Tony (of course) and are back to square one, with even less time up our sleeves than before.

We are meeting with two different agents this weekend. This Dan guy (not Roger) and another woman on Saturday.

Please please please let me find somewhere nice. And soon. And let moving house in Vietnam be less bitchy than in NZ.  When we moved from NZ to Vietnam we got packers to come and pack up our stuff and move it all for us.  I'm DEFINITELY doing that again this time...

One foot out the door.

Last night I was driving home from the orphanage and feeling quite happy with my life. I have work for this year - though not full time, it is good, interesting work.  I get to cuddle babies regularly. I have found a tailor near my house who will make dresses for 300k dong (around $17 NZ). I have an iPad, and a haircut, and an electric piano. 

And then, when I walked into my apartment building feeling all contented, the receptionist asked to talk to me.  She pulled out a calendar and pointed to a date circled - Jan 20th. That's when the people they have leased our apartment to are moving in.  When am I moving out?

They've leased our apartment to someone else, and given us 10 days notice!

Just to be clear - we were NOT intending on moving. 

Our dodgy real estate agent, Mr Tony tells us that "I think they are OK.  They like you, they say you are very nice and kind."  As if that was supposed to make the sudden eviction notice all right. 

So, we are now apartment hunting, with some urgency.  Thank goodness my job is only 2 days a week at the moment, and I will be able to dedicate some time to this. 

We had intended to go to Singapore for Tet - (Jan 22 - 27), now I am worried that we might not be able to go. 

So please cross your fingers for me that we'll find something easily that won't be too expensive. 

As a side note - we're pretty certain that Mr Tony is complicit in the whole thing, so we don't really trust him all that much.  We will be looking at some apartments with him today, and then we will be looking for another agent as well.

PS: Mr Martin says: "I like how you've got an electric piano and everything else and you don't mention a loving husband. Just saying."  So now I'm homeless AND my husband is mad at me. 

We're here!

Dreadful flight! 

But it is now the next day and we are well-rested - staying with Martin's boss's family.

We are planning a nice quiet day for today - a short walk and a swim and writing to family.  And hopefully our luggage will arrive this afternoon...

Will post again later with photos - I promise to take some!

One and a half more sleeps

We have two more days left in Godzone. 
It is now very early on Monday morning.  I am awake but no one else is.

The first item on today's agenda is literally herding cats.  They all need to be rounded up and boxed and driven to the cattery.  We are planning on a breakfast time ambush. There are four of us and three of them.  So I figure that it will be one grownup per pussy cat and maybe we can get Oliver to hold the doors of the cages open. William is really good at non-passive resistance when it comes to cat-cages.  He does that thing where three legs are rigidly gripping the perimeter of the opening and the fourth is aiming directly for your eyeball, claws extended.

The afternoon will be dedicated to banking, printing tickets and the Final Pack.

Tomorrow is the drive up to Auckland, dumping the dog on the way and sending everybody off on their flights.  Ours is at 8:30 am on Wednesday. 

10 days till lift-off.

Most people who know me, know that I spent most of 1997 and the early part of 1998 in Thailand. And so most people - and this perhaps most foolishly includes me - might think that I would therefore be prepared for this.

It's true that I've lived in Asia and there are some things that I am prepared for:

• I know what a rambutan is.
• I know how to eat noodles with chopsticks.
• I have ridden on the back of a moped.
• I know how to be modest with the soles of my feet.
• I know to beckon with my palm faced down.
• I know to duck my head.
• My brain has learned an Asian language once before.
• I have been vaccinated against TB.
• I can competently and unsqueamishly use a squat toilet. 

There are some very significant differences that I'm not sure I am prepared for - but at least I am aware of.  Most importantly:

• Thailand is not Vietnam
• 1997 is not 2011
• Exchange student is not expat wife
• My mother has Skype

The things that are frightening me now, though - that are keeping me awake at night and making me burst into tears at any time of the day are all of those things that I am not prepared for, and that I know I have no idea about.  I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but I get asked them almost every day:

• What are you going to do in Vietnam?
  This is the most common question I get, and it is usually served with meaningful emphasis on the 'you'.   I don't know - is the honest answer.  I like to tell people that I am going to "drink during the day!" or "complain about the heat!".  I recognise that I have an opportunity now to find something interesting and inspiring to do with my career.  I am terrified that I won't find anything, to do or anyone who likes me, that I will spend my days in Vietnam chasing geckos off the walls and swearing at CNN, that the pinnacle of my career would have been and gone already, that the most interesting thing I will ever do might be some mundane thing I have already done and the rest of my life will be spent waiting for my husband to get home so that I can have someone to complain to about how the air conditioning wasn't working properly in the last taxi home from the shopping mall. 
• Where are you going to live?
  The company are going to help us find accommodation. The problem is, that I have so little idea about where we are going, and what kinds of places are good to live in there, that I don't even know what to ask them for.  Should I live in an apartment, or a house.  What do those words even mean in Saigon?
• Are you going to get a maid?
• Are you going to ride a motorbike?
• Is it easy to be gluten-free in Vietnam?
• Are you going to learn Vietnamese?
• Can you get good medical care?
• What about dental?
• Are you going to wear your hearing aids?
  I'm a bit deaf. Just a bit - not like post-deaf. I don't really understand speech I am not actively concentrating on but I can hear a lot of stuff.  I do have hearing aids. They sit in a little box, usually in a drawer, but now in the lid of my suitcase.  I haven't worn them for at least a year. Currently, they don't even work properly.  My mother frowns at me almost daily at the moment and says unhelpful things like: put your lugs in. Will I be able to cope without them?  This is my greater worry: will I be able to cope with them? A deaf life is quite peaceful. Because I have been deaf my whole life I find the unamplified world much easier to interpret.  I am afraid that I will struggle really badly with communication and making new social connections once I get to Vietnam because of my hearing loss. Hearing aids might help. Hearing aids might make it worse.
• Will you have enough money?
• What will you do when this assignment ends?
• When are you coming home?

A year ago I had sort of an idea of what my life would be like in five or ten years time.  But now I don't. I don't have sort of an idea of what my life will be like in five or ten weeks time.  I have a lot of hope, and I firmly believe that going to Vietnam is a good decision for us, for our careers, for our relationship.

But make no mistake: Vietnam is giving me the shits.

Planning's for pansies

So, all those plans, like the flight to Danang and Christmas in the tropical beach huts - they were good for about six hours.

Last night we got offered a house and driver in Saigon for free from Dec 17th to Dec 26th.  In exchange we have to comb a cat every now and then.

It's a ragdoll cat. No - this isn't the actual cat - but I suppose it looks something like this.  Martin will be in heaven. 

A driver, people!  Just call me Miss Daisy.

Take the blue pill

Even though most things are now organised, I still feel anxious a lot of the time. I know what you will suggest:

[I was going to insert an image of some charming little pharmaceuticals here - but Blogger's being difficult so you'll just have to imagine them].

We have done:

• Passports
• Visas - visitor visa is sorted.  Work Visa can't be sorted until after we arrive.
• Notarising (but not authenticating)
• Moving
• Poor little William
• A Budget

We still need to do:

• Banking
• Medical things
• The Accountant
• Wills?
• Sell the car
• Sell the TV
• Finish work
• Plan the rest of the holiday
• The Family Party on Nov 27th

We have sorted some holiday things out.  We are going to stay here for Christmas. 

And  I have purchased flights from Saigon to Danang on Dec 18th - which is the holiday kick-start. So it's real!

Anyway, as part of the coping strategy Martin and I have decided to have Family Meeting Time after work each day.  Tonight's agenda item is banking.  We'll try not to kill each other. Sortof.

How to decide what to take to Vietnam

So, if you're trying to move to Vietnam, this might help you decide what to take (click on the picture to see a bigger version):

Who needs sleep anyway?

It has been a week without William.  Martin says he is sleeping MUCH better. That will be because every night for the last three years he has been woken up in one way or another by the cat.  Either because the cat wants out, or because the cat wants to play, or to have something to eat, or just because the cat was lonely. 

Before we moved to Pt Chev we used to often get early morning deliveries from William - of little animals, or parts of little animals.  Dead or alive.  But the hunting grounds at the beach have not been so fertile, for some reason - lucky for us.  I wonder how he'll get on in Hamilton - there are lots of birdies in that big old oak tree.

I am sleeping badly, though.  It is, I suppose, the anxiety of moving.  I'm very grouchy all the time when I'm awake, and when I sleep I have anxious dreams.  Silly really - because it's all going quite well, actually.

We have flight bookings almost confirmed - Dec 15th.  We have the packers organised - they are coming next Friday, Nov 5th.  The new tenants in the flat actually WANT us to leave stuff behind for them, and have even given us some money for it.  Bless them.  I have paid all the bills - including the FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS of parking tickets I didn't even know I had until I got the Court Fines the other day in the post.  That'll be the last time I'm ever tardy about getting my registration renewed. William is rehoused. We have LOTS of undies (hooray for Bendon sales!). Most of the major worries are taken care of.

Outstanding worries:

• We need to get confirmation of no criminal records from the Ministry of Justice, and then get them authenticated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  
• We have to get academic records notarised and authenticated.  A lawyer friend says she can do the notarising. Problem is, a couple of years ago, Martin accidentally disposed of my degrees, which were in a poster roll. So I am in the process of requesting letters from the universities confirming that I am, in fact educated.
• Martin's Passport - Martin accidentally disposed of his passport about a month ago.  (Notice a pattern here? Also, this morning I was mad at him because I think he accidentally threw away my shoe.) So we are waiting for the new one to arrive. Martin's passport is needed for EVERYTHING - flight bookings, visa, shipping - EVERYTHING.  Hopefully it will arrive in the next few days.
• Medical - we need to go and get vaccinated for, probably, every disgusting thing on the earth.  Despite being told several times by everyone to do this, we still have not begun the process.
• Sell the car. I have never sold a car. Am counting on Martin's extensive car-worldly family to help with this one.
• Work.  I'm really hating being a Dead Woman Walking.  There's not much longer to go, I keep telling myself. 26 Nov = last day. Martin finishes a week ahead of that on Nov 19th.

But, hey.  Look at this:

http://www.timflach.com/

Neat, huh?