Aku Bukan Orang Vietnam

“Hello Miss, Are you Vietnamese or Malaysian?”
That was the first thing the guy next to me said when I boarded the plane. Geez… Is that supposed to be a compliment? Do I have this exotic Vietnam look. Haha.
Ok, Malaysian don’t really know Malaysian that well.

But get this, upon arrival, at the immigration counter to get my passport stamped, the officer started talking confidently in this strange language. And the only thing I can say is, “I’m not Vietnamese. Sorry”, with that cheeky smile. He smile back, obviously embarrassed.

I guess I get that a lot during my 1 and 1/2 day stay. It’s good though, because I can just blend in with the crowd (except for the clearly different fashion statement).

Vietnam is a nice city, and I was already imagining myself working there one day. The things are cheap and the people are all warm and friendly. Motorbikes are everywhere in sight, but it is not too crowded. But, I wouldn’t imagine myself driving there, ever.

I thought about walking by myself in the city, plain sightseeing. But these people in motorbikes keep bugging me to let them show me around. “Miss, 50 thousand Dong for one hour. I can bring you to the museum, the Chinatown, etc2…..” I smile and walk away, up to a point where I felt suffocated and decided to call Shah’s wife. Luckily they were somewhere around the place. She picked me up and we went shopping in Bentan, a famous tourist market. Got myself this silk top, and a bangle for my mom. It was already late, and the driver had to go pick up those who played golf, a 45 minutes away from the city. I end up lepak-king at their apartment, having instant noodles and watching teen hilarious flick, John Tucker Must Die.

Bestnya jalan2. I wish I can go travel the world, and discover the culture of other countries. Wouldn’t life be more interesting then for me.

The next day was the boring meeting, which I tried so much to stay awake. I know I’ll be asked about it later. The whole time I keep telling myself, Be awake Su, wake up! Ding dong!

I wish I could have stayed longer, but I know for a fact that my boss was quite reluctant to let me go in the first place. So, off I go catching that evening flight back, alone. Yeah, occasionally people come to approach me, and speak Vietnamese. I was seated to this old lady in the 80’s who couldn’t speak any English. Very much a disaster, but she was nice. We had sign languages flying around, and I taught her few tricks also. Haha. I guess it was her first time taking flight.

The weird thing is, there were a few of the stewards who started making conversations with me. We started chatting like old pals. This guy, whom clearly was hitting on me, suddenly asked me out. Ok. I never had THAT kind of response from stewards before. Hahaha… I always thought that the stewardess would normally hit on passengers, but never the steward. I thought that they are all gays… opsie... Hahahahhaha…

Anyway, it was a good trip. Wish I can go back, or go someplace else plak.

Can I quit my job now?