SaigonNezumi.com

Finally I am able to get a good night of sleep in my house.  It has been so long.

About a week ago, I decided to turn my mattress over.  I found that it was harder and more firm like the mattresses I use in the US.  On the first night it felt like I was sleeping on the floor but I got nearly 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  Now I am used to it and sleeping very well.

I am also drinking a cup of hot camomile tea about one hour before I sleep.  It is working very well.  One night I forgot to take it and was surprised that I could sleep.  Now I will keep drinking it daily.  What they say about the benefits of camomile tea is true in my case.

I think for many of you, the next time you see me I will hopefully no longer have the black bags underneath my eyes.  I myself am beginning to notice the difference.

Finally I am becoming a bit more focussed again

I just downloaded this nice application on my HTC Touch Cruise.  Once installed, you can make free mobile calls to anyone who has this application installed on their mobile phones.  It connects with popular IMs such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Twitter, etc.  I just chatted with my friend in Denmark with fring but I have not tried to make a call to his computer.

This program seems to be able to run on my mobile platforms including the iPhone (still in beta).

Download it, get online and lets test this out.

http://www.fring.com

Acclimate

One of the biggest complaints about living in Vietnam is the heat, this is from both Expats and Vietnamese.  A cool day in Vietnam is roughly in the low 80s F (high 20s C) which is a hot summer day from where I am from in Seattle.

One good way to acclimate is to NOT use the air conditioner whenever possible.  At home, I try not to use the air conditioner until I go to bed.  I then leave it on and sometimes will set timer to turn the aircon off during the night.

If you live in a nice quiet alleyway with a good breeze, you can just leave your windows and have a nice fan blowing on you.  I cannot do this now since my alleyway gets real loud at 6 AM in the morning.

You will notice that when you start to rely on the air conditioner less, the outside air temperature seems to cool down a bit.  For me, I consider 78 F  (24 C) as cold now.

Lastly, another great way to acclimate is to trick your mind.  I always set the temperature on my mobile phone or web browser to Celsius.  When I see 30 Celsius it seems like a cool temperature even though it is actually 88 Fahrenheit!!!

I was a bit concerned when I heard last year that Yahoo was going to scrap Yahoo 360. Yahoo 360 is one of the most popular blogging applications in Vietnam. I actually communicate with a lot of my Vietnamese friends through Yahoo 360. Yeah, Facebook and MySpace are popular around the world but Yahoo 360 has got both of them beat here.

I guess Yahoo took notice. They will be launching Yahoo 360plus just for the Vietnamese market. That’s the positive.

The negative, since Yahoo 360plus will not be connected to the universal profile with other Yahoo products, this could be the death blow to Yahoo 360 in Vietnam. The strength of Yahoo 360 is that it enabled Vietnamese bloggers to connect with other Yahoo 360 users around the world. If Yahoo 360plus just focuses on the Vietnamese market, many 360 users could move over to Facebook which is rapidly becoming popular among students and friends.

Unfortunately for you English speakers, Yahoo 360plus is only available in the Vietnamese language.

Troi oi!!!

Interesting story from Thanh Nien News today.  The article looks at three women who use a special tool to collect metal scrap from the streets.  Not only were they collecting all the loose scrap metal we see on or near the streets, they also collect the bent nails motorbike tire repairmen throw on the streets to ‘increase’ their business.

Normally I get a flat tire once a year.  It is always punctured by a bent nail.  The majority of flat tires are usually caused by bent nails.  Coincidentally, every time you get a flat tire, there JUST happens to be a tire repairman within walking distance of where you got the flat.

Seeing women like these collecting the bent nails is a positive sign.  I think I may just tip these ladies, or others that clear the road, about 10,000 VND each time I see them cleaning the streets.

(Source: Thanh Nien News)

Amazing, I am at Java Cafe on the corner of Hai Ba Trung and Dong Du in District 1. I just tested the bandwidth here with Speakeasy. 4418 kbps Downloads, 473 kbps Uploads. This is the fastest internet bandwidth I have tested in Saigon yet!!!

Du Mien Cafe, located in the Phu Nhuan District, used to be one of my favorite cafes to sit and relax with friends. It was quiet, music volume was low, it generally was a very peaceful place. I used to visit Du Mien at least once or twice a week.

Now, Du Mien is like many of the other local coffee shops. The volume of music was quite high. The noise from the conversations made it difficult to speak to the person you came with. At one point, we asked the waiter to find us a quiet area so my friend and I could have a meeting. He could not find one. We ended up leaving for a quieter coffee shop.

Saigon is sure changing so fast

(Entrance to the once peaceful Du Mien)

(The table in the corner was so loud that I could not hear my friend opposite of me)

Here is an interesting YouTube clip shot from an ambulance maneuvering through the hustling traffic of Saigon. Motorbike is still faster

Yesterday evening I was rushing to District 1 from the Phu Nhuan District at about 6:45 PM. I started to notice people lining up NKKN with small Olympic flags. Then I remembered that the Olympic torch for the Beijing Olympic Games were coming through. I needed to get down NKKN fast before the street was closed. Whoops, too late, I had to detour towards CMT8 and head towards District 1 from there.

Took about 30 minutes due to the heavy traffic. Near the Reunification Palace, traffic just stopped. I had arrived just as the Olympic torch was leaving for the airport. I was able to get some shots of the caravan following the torch. Sorry, no torch shots, too many people were in the way…

(Traffic just stopped all of a sudden)

(I think the torch is going by here)

(The Olympic torch caravan)