Friday, April 10, 2009

My new-found obsession with coffee shops

I've gotten back into the swing of things, and making up the classes I missed last week at the public school has kept me busy. Some of my classes at the journalism school are ending so I'm hoping that new ones will start up for me to teach. So, some days I have a little more free time than others. Yesterday I was busy pretty much from 2pm to 9pm but today I just teach from 3:30 to 4 then 4:30 to 5 and I'm free at night. Hopefully I'll be meeting some fellow expat friends. I've been hanging out almost exclusively with Vietnamese people lately, which is good, but there's something to be said about being with expats and being able to speak at full speed. With some of the free time I had on Monday, I started writing, and trying to realize the goal of making a novel about life in Vietnam, semi-autobiographical. As they say, you need to write a little bit everyday and get in the habit of it. Same as exercise or reading the bible or anything else, but since I tend to forget about my daily tasks until the end of the day, I usually don't exercise since doing a bunch of sit-ups before bed keeps me awake. Even though I'm tired, I'm usually able to write a little bit before bed and time will tell if it's actually cohesive. I'm just writing now and not worrying about what it looks like until later.
This week I've also been sick with a common head cold, which are so common here that people barely bat an eye if you tell them that you're sick. They just remark, "oh, it's the weather" and recommend some medicine for me to take. The medicine has been making me feel better and I should be back to normal soon.
Sometimes living in Saigon really gets on my nerves and I dread the drive to work. I think part of this is just the conditions of driving in general. From where I live, there are several routes to take to reach my school, and I often try different ones to test the traffic, but I keep finding that all of them are bad. There is perpetual construction on some streets that limit the width of the road to barely the width of a car, and all the motorbikes have to go on the sidewalk to get around it. There are some construction areas in the middle of the road which actually jut halfway into the intersection, and if you're making a left-hand turn, well, good luck. Because of all the narrow spaces, if a motorbike breaks down in the middle of it, it causes more chaos than the apocalypse.
Now, it appears that the rainy season has arrived early. Every day for the past week or so it has rained heavily in the afternoon, not for long but rather intense so that driving is very unpleasant. A light drizzle doesn't cause much of a reaction, but as it starts to pick up, you see many drivers who are stopped at the side of the road pulling their raincoats out of their compartments and sliding them on, then back on their motorbikes. One upshot is the cooling down that happens after a rain. But I still miss the cool, dry season.

Now I've been getting more interested in finding coffee shops, particularly when I have some free time. It's much better than sitting at home. I want to find one that is the perfect combination: good vietnamese coffee but not expensive, some light food options, free wifi, A/C, relaxing music, interesting decor, a nice upstairs area, close to my house. Sounds like a lot, huh? But it's pretty common, except the coffees are more expensive than I want. At the places I've been trying, coffee is 35-40,000 dong, which is about $2 or $2.25, but when I can buy it on the street for a quarter, it's overpriced. I guess I'm paying for atmosphere. Yesterday I had coffee at a nice place called Le Cafe de la May, which had a French theme and nice artwork, on a busy street but pretty quiet inside, and lots of plants around. A recurring theme of coffee shops here is the inclusion of nature, with some cafes being right outside with trees in between the tables, but I like my A/C so I'll take an indoor venue.

So, this brings me to today. I was enjoying my typical breakfast at home when suddenly the power turned off. I learned not to expect it back up again until 5pm, so I made plans to look for a coffee shop. I looked around near the street where I teach this afternoon but found some other places were missing power too. So now I wound up at the turtle pond rotary place, and found a place aptly named "Coffee Cup". I like this place a lot, although the coffee is still expensive and I decided to indulge in an iced cappuccino. Anyway, I like the music, it's some good instrumental stuff and now suddenly this song "quando quando quando" came on, this big band song that probably has a famous singer whom I should know but I don't. Now the decor here is really amazing, it looks like a 19th-century parlor. They have comfy old couches and chairs, along with standard coffee shop chairs. I'm resting my computer on a glass table with flowers on it, looks like it was taken from a hotel lobby. Next to me is a shelf with pictures and candlestick holders and mirrors and mood lamps with darkened shades. I have sort of my own little corner here. And of course, free wifi. Being close to Vo Van Tan and Nguyen Dinh Chieu, two streets where I teach, is convenient, and about 15-20 mins from my house. They even have these elaborate curtains on the windows, and flowerpots by the windows as if this were an old apartment building.
And now, a word on the "upstairs" requirement I have. You see, horizontal space is limited here. It seems that most buildings are alotted just a small amount of space to build on the ground floor, and this place looks like they probably also bought the place next door, because it's twice as big as the typical place upstairs. Anyway, this means that when downstairs, you're pretty much open to the outside, there's not much room to hide. I like to hide away in a coffee shop to read or do some writing or internet browsing, so I go upstairs to find a nice nook or an empty seat by a window to watch the rat race below. Nearly every building as at least one or two extra floors above the ground floor.

Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to report right now. Au revoir!

4 comments:

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) said...

Cafe Le May is back on the top of my list for quiet coffee shops. I had a meeting at Java Cafe yesterday, it was so loud.

thomas said...

Hey man, welcome to Vietnam. It's one of the best palces to live on this planet right now!!
My favorite coffeeshops are the SOHO. One is a t Thi Minh Khai.

henno said...

Just found your blog through Kevin's post. I bid you welcome and look forward to following your blog!

PS: Kevin - maybe it was loud because the whole Saigon Raiders football team were meeting there!
Rude buggers, they are.

Craig said...

Try Heavelnand Cafe for meeting with friends. I can't say where it is, but the atmosphere is great