Some eating and a lot of drinking

So the last few days have been much of the same... wake up, apply for a bunch of jobs, find some food and drink some beer.

The parks are full of random exercise equipment. You see people in all sorts
of attire doing their daily exercise all over the city!

Lunch in the park

Laughing cow cheese, cucumber and lettuce rolls - yum!

The Opera House. When funds allow it we'll definitely have to come and see
a show.

The old and the new. 

On Saturday, we thought we would find some open space and go and visit the botanical gardens and Zoo. After finding our way there quite easily (we're starting to get to know District 1 better), we parked our scooter and bought a ticket. The place was packed! Half of the city had the same idea as us! It was still lovely to see some green and some animals - a little (very little) taste of home. The zoo isn't in the best condition so it was a bit sad to see some of the animals, but it was still a lovely afternoon. On our way out we saw a bar called 'Vuvuzela'. We had to stop for a drink!

Acrobats performing at the zoo. There was also a magician
and a singer.

Ross the giraffe

Chicken and noodles for lunch. We also sampled Vietnamese ice-tea for the
first time (it's super cheap, only 2,000 dong, about R1) 

Any bears in the cave??

'Goldilocks' and the three bears

Elephant shaped bushes. The Vietnamese sure seem to love their topiary!

We had to stop here!

We each ordered a beer, Mel won!

That afternoon, we made our way across to the University to see what the rugby club was all about. We met Craig there and the guys had a good run around. The sweltering heat and lack of recent exercise meant that they were both exhausted after 2 hours of intense touch rugby. Afterwards, we met some very nice guys and did a bit of networking. Everyone reassured us that we'll definitely find jobs soon, so more hurry up and wait! What was quite encouraging is that we seem to be ahead of the curve in terms of getting familiarised with the city - we found the rugby club in week 1 (it usually takes 'newbies' a few months to find out about it), we have ourselves a scooter and we are riding around a lot and we have already sent our CVs to the better known (and better to work at) schools around the city.

We had our first taste of night time riding on our way back to the hotel, and didn't find it too terrifying (it helps that we have become a little more orientated). We had a delicious dinner from a street side vender (fried macaroni with shrimp and veg) and then met Craig for a beer. We went to an awesome roof top restaurant (why didn't we know about this on Thursday night???), where the staff were friendly, the beers were cold (and cheap) and the view was beautiful. We couldn't stay there too long, because the Sharks vs. Hurricanes game was being shown at a pub down the road and we didn't want to miss that. It turned out to be a festive night and we only got back to our hotel after the Lions vs. Stormers game (at 3 o'clock in the morning!).

On Sunday we had a well needed sleep-in. Once we had dragged ourselves out of bed, we went into the streets and bought a delicious baguette which we ate in a nearby park. We went for a walk to explore some of the blocks around us that we hadn't seen yet, and just to get out of our little hotel room before cabin fever set in. We went to the market and bought some fresh produce before heading back to base.

Our first week in Vietnam is virtually behind us. It has provided us with many fantastic memories already, and these two little birdies can't wait to see what Week Two has in store!