So, by 4 AM on Sunday, we were all wide awake, still sniffling and sneezing and miserable, and just waiting for breakfast to open because we all skipped dinner and barely ate any lunch.
We had a whole day to kill, because we couldn't move in until Monday, and aside from a few logistical details like working out the time for the move-in, we really had nothing to do. Since Kiddo was the most rested, he was not about to do well sitting in the hotel room all day, so I went for the simplest approach to killing time that would get him out of the house so Gynn could rest.
We walked to the Saigon Zoo.
Now, this would not have been my first choice for tourist destinations. It does not treat its animals with anything close to Western standards. But "zoo" was something the Kiddo could understand and readily agree to, and it was 25 minutes away walking, and there was enough to see there that the trip would easily use up at least half the day. Also, it opens early in the morning, even on Sundays (Sunday is pretty much business-as-usual here, being that the majority religion is Buddhist).
So off to the zoo.
As expected, I cringed a bit at the less-than-ideal conditions the animals were kept in (not horrific, as I said, way short of US standards). However, the zoo also had plenty of amusement rides, which were pretty reasonably priced, plus lots of plain walking through the botanical gardens portions.
We got lunch at Subway on the way home (easy, and air-conditioned), and ended up skipping dinner again, and once again waking up in the pre-dawn hours to pack for the move.
We had our last hotel breakfast, loaded everything into a cab, and headed out to D7.
After some time spent dealing with setting up cable and wifi, we found ourselves in our new home. First stop was the pool! Did I mention it's on our floor? I've been in it every day since we mvoed in except one, and I made up for that by going in twice today. SO nice! Kiddo loves it too!
Now that we were settled in, we were faced with a new problem: Money.
Let me digress a bit to tell you about the VND, or Vietnamese dong. That's their unit of currency. GZo ahead and giggle. We did. I'll wait.
So, the exchange rate is approximately 20,000 dong to the dollar. There is no bill smaller than 500 dong that I've seen. Everyone just deals in thousands. If you want to buy a Coke and the cashier asks for "Eight", they mean 8000 VND. $50 is about a million dong
Now the apartment requires first, last, and security deposit, just like in the US. The landlord was happy to take US dollars, so we paid him $1200 in cash when we signed the lease, which was slightly less than half of what was owed. The landlord is an elderly gentleman who seems very nice, but has no idea how to deal with electronic fund transfers, and we were essentially out of US dollars in cash.
So the solution was to pay the rest of the upfront costs ($1350 US) in VND. Starting to see the issue here? That amount is over 28 million dong. And the withdrawal limits on the local ATMs were almost all 2 million. Now there is apparently no limit to the number of transactions you can make, but I was being cautious about not wanting to just stand there making withdrawal after withdrawal all at once.
About fourteen trips to the ATM later over the course of the next two days, and we finally paid off the deposit and I felt like the apartment was offically ours.
Here are a few pics of the new place.
The den, AKA the guest room, AKA the war room (so named because I am in the process of hanging maps on all the walls).
The master bedroom:
The pool (!):
Of course for the place to truly be home we needed the whole family here. Melody was delivered later that afternoon by the gentleman who had kindly taken care of here while we were in the hotel. And when I say she was delivered, I mean by motorcycle, of course. That's how just about everything gets delivered in this city.
Melody was a bit frazzled upon arrival, but is settling in nicely. We all are.
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