2012 in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City Opera House.

There were a number of options for what to do on New Year’s Eve. Some of the people from our school went to a sea side town called Vung Tau for the evening whilst some other people went to a part on the sky deck on the biggest building in Ho Chi Minh City called the Bitexico tower. Both were good options but instead my flat mates and I hosted a house party. It was a good party and a large number of people attended. Arsenal were playing New Years Eve and the game finished at 11:50pm local time so I got to watch the football then watch the fireworks from our roof top terrace – happy days.

Nice building in the city

We are fast approaching the Vietnam holiday of TET which is the lunar New Year and their biggest holiday – more importantly this means my school is closed for two weeks so I can go on a road trip. Some more good news is that I have a 3 day break next week so I’m looking to get a 3 day, 2 nights trip to the Mekong Delta or Dalat. I’ve not made up my mind yet. For TET I'm thinking of going to Cambodia and seeing the things I ran out of time to see when I went back in July.

View of the City with the Bitexico tower

It will be nice to have a holiday as I've been working hard for the past 5 months albeit I did have a 10 week break before that. I've found out that my schedule for the next semester at my business school is very good. I'll be able to work a full week in four days in a row which means I'll have some good quaility time free to go on overnight trips away. 

Ive another great 'picture of the week' this week. See below.

Man having a fire by the side of the road.

I took this photo of an old fella having a fire by the side of the road which at first might seem strange but alot of people do this.I'm not sure why he was doing this but he looked really happy burning random stuff - I doubt this was to keep him warm. I've seen alot of people burn fake money in the past which I think is an offering for people use in the afterlife.

I'm not sure if the official currency in the afterlife is fake money or this gets turned into real money enroute or its part of a money laundering operation where they have to get this layered into the afterlife Banking system.

I should have asked the old man burning stuff but I don't think his English was that good. However it was good enough to ask me for a dollar for taking his photo so maybe I should have tried.