Where I’m At: May, 2018 – Saigon edition

Greetings from Saigon and another edition of Where I’m At; a monthly update of what I’ve been up to and general site news.

Where I’ve Been

Melbourne

After transiting through Kuala Lumpur I started the month in Melbourne, my old home city. In case you didn’t already know, Melbourne is one cool city. If I hadn’t already spent a large proportion of my life living here I would consider living here for a while. For now though I am sated with a yearly visit.

My trip is timed to be there in Autumn, though I missed the leaves turning by a few weeks so next year it will be a bit later.

Here are all the things I noticed on my annual visit – 2018 Edition.

Castlemaine

Something that’s on my mind when I visit Melbourne every year is that I need to make time to see more of my homeland. Last year I flew back to Melbourne from Bali, via Darwin. I still haven’t been to Tasmania, and I’ve only been to Perth so it doesn’t feel right to say I’ve been to Western Australia. In Victoria there is lots to see, and I had the chance to visit Castlemaine which is a short train trip from Melbourne. More travel in the Goldfields region will be next.

Here is my full trip report: Castlemaine – the gold-rush era city in the goldfields region of Victoria

Saigon

After my visit to Australia I returned to my current home base. My plan was to do some travel in Vietnam but time and work got away from me. As with my “do more travel in Australia” resolution, I also need to do more travel in Vietnam. It’s a comfortable home base here and when I get into a rhythm I’m not in a hurry to leave. I did book nine new flights for the coming months though, so more travels are coming up in the next few months.

As always I make the most of my time in Saigon. I like wandering around far-flung districts, looking for new cafes and places to eat. I’ve been using construction projects as a target to visit an area, and then go exploring from there.

April 30 is Independence Day in Vietnam, and in the week before the holiday you start seeing the propaganda posters going up.

It’s a double holiday as May Day is the next day, and this year they fell on a Monday and Tuesday, so it was an extra long weekend holiday. If you haven’t already left then I would advise against travel as the roads and airports are busier than usual. The streets were deserted over the holiday which makes for a surreal site to see the streets so quiet.