This Expat Life (Month 44): Living in Ho Chi Minh City
After moving abroad in July 2014, I started compiling monthly roundup posts about life as an expat in Southeast Asia and all the nitty gritty that goes on behind the scenes here at Travel Lush. Check out my most recent monthly roundup posts: December, January, and February.
*Just a note: This post is absurdly late mainly because I’ve been super sick and so behind schedule. But better late than never, right?
It doesn’t take long for the high of moving to a new city to wear off. I don’t mean that to sound as dramatic or negative as it probably does. It’s just that when you move to a new place everything is fresh and exciting. There’s no room for boredom, there’s no time for too much thinking.
I spent my first two months living in Ho Chi Minh City going at a frenetic pace – a pace that matches the mood of this crazy city. I traveled to tropical Vietnamese islands, clocked in countless miles exploring Saigon, took hundreds of pictures, and ate all the noodle soups and spring rolls and banh mi.
In the period of two months, I moved and then I moved again…and then I moved again. I spent the month of February celebrating Tet (aka Lunar New Year), visiting floating flower markets, watching fireworks explode over the Saigon river, and just generally loving my new life in Vietnam.
For those first two months, things were frantic and crazy – in the best of ways. But then March arrived…and things just kind of calmed down.
That’s not a bad thing. It’s not. It’s just that once again life became a little bit more normal and, if I can be honest, a little bit more stressful. So many people think that because I live abroad that my life is a perpetual vacation. It’s not. I’m just like everyone else. I spend my days working and I spend far too many nights ordering in and watching TV.
I’m just a normal person, guys! So yeah, March was just normal. My days were spent working out of our new apartment and Aaron’s days (and weekends) were spent working at his new job.
I found myself, for the first time in a long time, spending most of my time alone. One of the blessings and curses of working from home. While I love having the luxury of working from my apartment, where I can chill in my pajamas, sing out loud to super cheesy 90s songs, and write without any distractions, the isolation always sneaks up on me. And that’s especially true now that I’m in a new city where I don’t really know many people.
By the end of March, I was kinda ready for a break. I suppose it was good timing then for my first visa run.
My first visa run…
Because I’m on a tourist visa here in Vietnam it means that I need to leave the country every three months. I had initially planned on revisiting my old home of Phnom Penh but at the last minute, I decided instead that I would pack up my little backpack for a much-needed weekend in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I last visited Chiang Mai in 2013. Aaron and I spent a few fleeting days there and left feeling very underwhelmed by the city. I always felt we hadn’t given it a fair shot, so I was excited to go back on my own. My plan was simple: eat tons of veggie Thai food, do all the temple hopping, and just walk around aimlessly.
And during my three days in Thailand, that’s exactly what I did. It turns out Chiang Mai was exactly the escape I needed. Sometimes getting away and exploring a new city on your own just helps to put everything in perspective. At least that’s typically the case for me.
I can’t say enough about how great of a time I had exploring Chiang Mai all by my lonesome. Until…
I woke up on my last day in the city with the sorest, most swollen throat. I didn’t actually feel that bad, so I thought maybe it was just a side effect of walking a whopping seven miles the day before in what I later found out was some pretty bad pollution. (I had no idea Chiang Mai had a pollution problem!). But after I returned home to Saigon I realized that I was actually just plain sick with a really bad cold.
My body felt awful and I was coughing up all sorts of gross stuff. I lost my voice for the first time in my life. Literally, I could only whisper and even that was too much of a strain.
I generally hate being sick but the timing of this illness was particularly bad. Thankfully I work from home so while I felt crappy, I was able to do my job. The real problem was that I was in the process of doing a few side projects, which required human interaction and brain power. Not being able to talk and coughing up a lung every other minute forced me to put my life on hold. And when your brain feels like a heavy lump of mush, writing isn’t the easiest thing to do either.
I literally left my apartment three times in one week: to go to the doctor, to go to the pharmacy for antibiotics, and on day seven to go eat a bowl of my beloved hui tieu (a Vietnamese noodle soup).
That was a couple weeks ago, so thankfully I’m back to 100% now. But it took awhile to get there!
Aside from my trip to Chiang Mai, the month of March was pretty meh. But so far April has ended up being a much better (and slightly weird?) month for me. I’ll write all about that in my next round-up post at the end of this month. As for now, I’m excited about a few things that are coming up on the horizon, including a visit from Aaron’s parents who will be here in less than two weeks!
Working
You might remember that I quit my job in Beijing when I left the city in late-December. But, I was able to come to an agreement with my company to keep working for them remotely here in Saigon. So I started working again – mainly writing for a website and managing social media accounts – in January.
This was all supposed to be temporary and still is. But it’s now April and I’m still working for them. And honestly, I’m super grateful for the work. I’m happy to be busy, making money and I’m really happy to spend my days working in my pajamas, even if I do get lonely sometimes! I’m still very uncertain about what my work future looks like but I’m OK with that. I feel confident that I’ll figure it out!
Blogging
Blogging? What blog?
Just kidding. Before this post, I hadn’t written a post in over a month! But I did manage to eek out two blog posts in March:
- The Dangers of Motorbiking Around Nusa Penida – This one was a little out of the ordinary for me, but I felt like it was an important issue to bring up. As travelers, we tend to push boundaries because we feel invincible but sometimes we need a reality check. After learning that a young woman had died while motorbiking around Nusa Penida, my heart dropped. I’ve made a lot of reckless decisions while traveling and I’ve made quite a few on my motorbike in Nusa Penida. Hence, this post.
- This Expat Life (Month 43): Living in Ho Chi Minh City – All the highlights from what ended up being an amazing month of February, including celebrating Tet in Vietnam, meeting up with one of my oldest and dearest friends in Saigon, and so much more.
Travel
Because Aaron’s parents will be visiting at the end of the month it means that we get to play tourist here in Saigon. There are still a lot of places I haven’t visited – including some of the city’s amazing rooftop bars and excellent restaurants – so I’m excited to have an excuse to tick some of these things off of my list.
We’re also planning to take at least one little side trip because let’s face it being in Saigon for too long can be a bit overwhelming. So we’re thinking of either taking a trip down to the Mekong Delta or perhaps just heading to the beach in Mui Ne for a relaxing couple of days. We’re not doing the best job planning but it’s cool. I think we’re going to have a blast no matter where we end up!
I’m usually not one to take tons and tons of photos in cities. I guess I’m more of a landscape kind of girl. But I’ve really been enjoying taking photos here in Saigon. This city might be rough and gritty around the edges, but I find it to be really picturesque and beautiful. It’s making me really want to take the plunge and finally invest in a new lens for my camera!
Where in the world are you? And what have you been up to lately?
Well I’m finally settled back in Melbourne, which is nice! But I have to say that singing along to 80s/90s music is also what I do when I’m working from home 😉
Ah, Melbourne sounds lovely. I want to go there someday! One thing I miss about living in California is having a car. Singing in my car was one of my favorite things. So yeah, when I’m all alone working, I’m often singing. Glad to know I’m not alone 😉
Great article, can’t wait to visit you guys and get the tour!!
Can’t wait to see you guys!!
” *Just a note: This post is absurdly late mainly because I’ve been super sick and so behind schedule. But better late than never, right?” – hahaha that was all of April for me in a nutshell.
Haha, seriously. My life has been hectic lately. But yours sounds waaaay more hectic than mine 😉