On February 3rd (New Year's Day here) we took a taxi to our friends house for dinner. We were standing on a corner, thinking their house should be right "here", but didn't realize their house was about 50 meters off the street down a small side street (while bearing an address from the main street?). As I called to get some direction from them on my cell phone, an older man standing by us, began to help us, even though we had a language barrier.
Four hours later, we were back on the same corner, having said goodbye to our friends. There were few taxis passing by and the ones we saw were occupied. The driver of a mid-size private bus must have noticed two foreigners trying to flag a taxi. He pulled up across the street from us - held up his cell phone and evidently asked if we would like him to call a taxi. We nodded, smiled and gestured. And in three minutes a taxi arrived, the driver telling us he had been contacted.
These kinds of gestures you might expect in any small town, but this is a city of 8 million plus. We have regularly been impressed by the general friendly attitude found among the people of Saigon. From nods and smiles when we walk to the local market; greetings from security people in our apartment; the very practical help of our next door neighbour; the handing back of a 100,000 bill when I should have given a merchant only 10,000. (I've never before dealt with so much cash!)
People here make it easy to enjoy life in this city. And we do.
By the way if you notice that sometimes I post twice in one day, and miss another day, it is due to the twelve hour time difference between Vietnam and where google blogs are hosted. As I write this latest blog, it is 11:00 am here on a Saturday, but only 11 pm or earlier on Friday evening in North America.
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