And so it begins. I have arrived in HCMC via Hanoi for the 2nd Asia Pacific Injury Prevention conference. Hanoi was full of learning and 5 star luxury. After having arrived in my far more basic accomodation in HCMC I am left wondering where my bathrobe and complementary slippers are.
First impression of Vietnam though... its crazy but the people are very friendly. The traffic is mental. Constant horn-honking which I have decided is more about saying hello or letting someone know you are there rather than as something that should be reacted to. Also not many seatbelts (sorry Dad) and I have only seen one sign regarding speed limits in the time I have been here.Crossing the road is an art form, there are pedestrian crossings however its really optional for motorbikes if they want to stop for people, cars never will. At first my instinct was to run across the road to get out of people's way, however, as counter-intuitive as it may appear, you need to walk slowly across as motorbikes will usually swerve to avoid you. But there is traffic everywhere and arriving in HCMC in peak hour, it took over an hour to travel about 20km from the airport to my hotel.
Today was spent performing orientation, walking around the streets, sorting out roles and
responsibilities and plane tickets. Tonight there will be a dinner with some of the current AYADS, including two of the girls from my intake that I met in Canberra.I also managed to meet up with all of the Hanoi based AYADS whilst there for the conference. We went for some French food and I enjoyed my first beer, delicious!!! Also the coffee with condensed milk is amazing and I can see that this year is going to do nothing to stem my coffee addiction.
Well that is really all for now, just initial observations really. After the conference and learning more about drowning prevention I am incredibly motivated to achieve some amazing things whilst I am away. Hanoi this month alone, has experienced 500+ mm of rain, 5 times the average rainfall for the month and around 40 people have drowned. But this is something I will be working towards minimising.
Please comment and let me know you are reading. Hair Watch 2008/09 (or should that be Puff Watch???) is coming soon as will the rant and rave list that I will steal from Mike's blog.
Keep in touch
Amy
