Ho Chi Minh City

1st impression when approaching the landing runway from Tan Son Nhat Airport was a strange feeling of finding some building structures similar of France. Getting closer though, this 1st impression faded away as I comtemplated the density of palm trees along the Mekong river.
At the customs, I soon realised that I will need to pay 25 USD for my entry visa, knowing that before taking off from Melbourne, my credit card got refused while trying to withdraw some USD from the forex exchange before the departure gates: Great, i felt stupid to ask if I could pay with my little plastic card... The customs woman at the desk, the hand full of USD, indicated me a chair that I would be sitting on until all the plane passengers could get their visa and found myself the only remaining traveller in the terminal.
All right, I guess that would be my turn. The woman stamped my visa and asked one of her comrade colleague to escort me to the ATM machine, behind the customs. He took my passport (as if I would be stupid enough to try to run) and led the way. Once at the ATM machine, I had no idea how many Dong to withdraw, as I did not checked the exchange rate. All right, I am now millionnaire with 2 million Dong.
The Custom guy asked me 500 000 Dong in exchange for my passport. wow, that goes fast ;-) I made another stop at the foreign exchange where I became once more multi-millionnaire.

I headed then to the Air traffic Control Center and start working with Mr Trung and his team.

After work, it was night. Apparently nights come early here. I hopped in a taxi and headed to the Hotel downtown in Saigon. There, I 1st tasted the frenetical life of Ho Chi Minh City's traffic which mostly consists of 2-wheels.
there is a tremendous feeling of freedom and madness at the same time:
-freedom for the total absence of helmets, the moto that I would learn from Mr Van "no cop, no stop", the women in skirt riding as amazons, holding their man in front (hence the term "Xe om", or "hug vehicle")
-madness for the density of scooters, the driving style "follow the flow" or "anchovy flock", people driving to/from/across the left/right, overtaking on the wrong lane. In Europe, we drive right, in Australia we drive left, in Vietnam they drive more right than left...
Amazing 1st impression on the land of my ancestors.