URBAN DOMAIN 2024

GOOD MOOOOORNING MELBOURNE!!

It seems both incredibly recently and incredibly long ago that we were saying goodnight with our bags packed, waiting in anticipation for the day of departure to arrive. What seemed almost dreamlike, a distant, fantastical plan, is now becoming a reality. Our feelings this morning were a curious combination of excitement and anxiety, both for the knowledge that we were entering a new world. Tears were surreptitiously shed, and laughter resonated through the bus, and continued into the airport, annoying our fellow travellers. Similarly, the eight hours on the plane seemed both an eternity and an instant; the monotony of flying becomes undefined, the map projected at the front of the cabin becomes utterly inadequate to portraying the enormity of any journey. Only seeing Vietnam appear below us, familiar and yet alien, could bring these dreams into reality.

The instant we stepped off the plane we were met by a continuous wave of humidity. The air is stifling, and we have yet to see if air conditioning can dispel it. Many of the things we take for granted in Australia have become a survival challenge in themselves; the roads are chaotic, and seem to follow unspoken rules (they are traversable, if one looks straight ahead and doesn’t flinch); water becomes a commodity, and cannot be obtained simply buy turning on a tap; and traffic lights, and all the other implements of civic order, are almost nonexistent. 

Our tour guide, Xuyen, met us at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City (it’s pronounced “Sweeyen”, for those of you reading this aloud at home), and gave us a brief tour from the bus. We proceeded to the hotel, where excitement levels increased, due to opportune room arrangements, and went out for our first Vietnamese dinner. The food, as promised, is amazing; we shared everything, and tried everything. The city itself is truly fascinating. It is an eclectic combination of traditional Asian culture and modern Western influence. It maintains its past, and yet embraces its future. We walk its streets, and ride its roads, and try to determine one summative idea, by which we can define it. We look at what is lost, and what is gained; and whatever conclusions we draw, it cannot be denied, that Saigon truly is a modern, thriving and extraordinary city.

It’s an unveiling experience, that we cannot wait to explore. 

(To worried parents – we are being careful. Don’t be nervous. We are having an uber time.)

This has been a broadcast by Emerson and Dima. 

Below photos: Vietnam Red out and about after dinner in Ho Chi Minh City and at the departure gate at Melbourne Airport.