Very short(not so haha) update

I could have just gone without updating today but significant events have transpired. I had bad luck with trying to shit our (the group, yes I speak of us as a whole) stuff. Mitchell calmed me down and came up with an idea. The other day I met the guy with the 2x mint ARVN rucks and LW Ruck bags. He mentioned and I posted here that he can ship to us in Canada from South Vietnam. I went back to him and told him the post office won't ship our stuff and he said that he could. Now that's all I know. He can ship with a tracking number and wanted to see how much stuff we had as I didn't want to hump 30kg seven blocks and not get our stuff shipped. Luckily I had the pics I took and I emailed them to him. He said what I thought, no way the claymore or M16 mag will go, as it'll hit Canadian customs and be sent back to Vietnam, and I'm cool with that. Just came up with an idea of what I could do with them in country still :)

I went to the market to touch base with the zippo guy, as he wanted to invite me to his house to talk to his kids as he's trying to teach them english. Doc Jay's a teacher now! :P haha. On my way to the market I walked through "The Dutch Lady". There's a dutch park in downtown Saigon and I have no idea why. Anyway I fought with a vending machine (see video) and cut through the park, as crossing the street and the centre of the roundabout is dinky dau (very crazy) and I was stopped by a younger guy (fuck I feel old haha) and he asked me the usual, where I'm from, how long have I been here, etc. I talked to him and two girls come up, and they start talking to me too, asking about Canada and why I'm here. Well two more people show up and I had at one time seven people listening to me and asking me stuff. Half way through I thought enough to record it haha. What can I say? Asians love me, and it's not because of my dong (Vietnamese money, ass haha). Hit the market and talked to Zippo guy (lets call him Tran). I hit the post office and shipped the legal things, souveineers, keepsakes and all that jazz. Got back to Pham Gnu Lao (my neighbourhood) and went for supper. I went to the same place for breakfest and wanted to see how Vietnam tackles one of my favs, Fettachini Alfredo. They can do banana pancakes since it's a thin long pancake and two cut up bananas. They fucking bombed my Alfredo. I ate it but it was the 2nd worst one I've ever had (the worst I didn't finish). On top of it the service sucked and I'm not going back, even for breakfest.

Tran came to pick me up and I met his wife and father in law (VN familes are tight). Went back to his place and invited me into his home. I met his kids and we chit chatted and after that Tran wrote questions for the kids to ask me and handed them out. They had to say it without help and I'd answer. I'd turn it back on them like "What is YOUR favourite colour?" and they had to try and answer me. We snacked on grapes with seeds (I hate seeds but sucked it up) and then we had some meat. It was actually reindeer jerky covered in jam haha. I didn't like it but Tran kept giving it to me so I kept chewing and chewing and choking it down. He showed me where my dock was for the hydrofoil tomorrow and drove me home. It's Halloween and I had no idea the Vietnamese were so into it, they're all gathered at the centre of town to watch fireworks from their tallest building and tomorrow is a holiday so the post office is closed haha. Makes me mad that I gotta get up for 6am and hit the docks for 8am. The good thing is I get to dip my feet into the pacific and see the Australian AO. After that I head back to Saigon to ship our stuff. I was told by the one company it would be like $300 something to ship. If it's under $300 I'll do it on the spot. If it's over I'm not sure what I'll do. I want to send it home, but I don't want the guys to get fucked over on the shipping percentage. At the same time, I still want to be on vacation. I might have to suck it up as this is the only chance we're going to get a lot of kit from Vietnam. I'm also going to scale down my vacation a bit. I'd like to spend another week in Saigon, hit the National Parks, the 173rd areas, see some mountain people, climb a few mountains and hit the tourist stuff, Hoi An, Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang, the DMZ and that's it. Hitting every town in Vietnam is too ambitious and un-needed. I found out after missing the Long Binh area. There's nothing to see and it wouldn't change my trip if I cut it out. I'm going to bed because I wake up in 7 hours. That and I need sleep so I wake up on time! Peace out y'all!