I have found accommodation thanks to the people at Habitat for Humanity (HfHV).  We went looking on Friday for apartments and looked at about 8 in total.  A volunteer from HfHV is leaving on Monday so I will take her place.  This is the entry to my street

The big find of the day was bubble tea.  My addiction is safe here in HCM City.

I suppose the other thing note worthy is I have a place to live!!!!  I am taking it over from another volunteer who leaves on Monday.  Location is perfect, close to work and close to the city.

This morning was laundry day, and Grace had helped me scout out the place yesterday.  It cost me 30,000 Dong for 2kg, which is about $1.90 AUD, pretty good and takes two days.  I could get use to this. 

This is my daily commute to work and I cross these streets.  The trick is to start walking and keep going looking ahead.

Today’s main task is to look for an apartment. It is about 38 C, very hot and humid and we are walking around looking for apartments.  On my travels today I learnt that while you are getting your hair cut, you can also get your ears cleaned. 

Second day in the office and I had a meeting with my manager and the people I will be working with.  It went well and now I have a slightly better idea of what I will be doing.  Myself and Thao (HR person) then took a taxi to the New Zealand Consulate to get my degree certified.  It is a complicated process with lots of paperwork to fulfil the obligations for my work visa.  Anyway, I found out that John Keys, our Prime Minister is coming to Vietnam this weekend, probably because he knew I had just arrived.  Anyway, our schedules don’t match so he will miss seeing me.  So because of this visit, it takes two days to have my degree verified now:(

Last night I went out for a lovely dinner with two people from work, Grace, my fellow volunteer who I am taking over from and Loan.  We had a hot pot and in that we had finely chopped banana flowers.  My favourite was the fish balls, delicious!

First full day here, and I managed to order 3 things on the menu that weren’t available and I still don’t know what I ended up with but it tasted good. I will miss Boutique Hotel in Cambodia

Flight was good, again on a propellor plane.

Wondered around this morning and went to the Habitat for Humanity Office and met the team.  We went our for lunch and I had a beef rice dish, soup and an ice tea for $1.58 AUD.  I worked out what I had last night, a pork chop. 

I have my first teleconference today so that should be interesting.

Main observations on the differences between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh is that it is a lot cleaner here in HCM, more orderly and food is cheaper but a lot busier.

I am lucky enough to be here on the Cambodian Independence Day, and this was established to celebrate the anniversary of Cambodia’s independence from France on 9 November 1953.  So I went to the Independence Monument to see what goes on.

Lots of balloons were let off along with white doves.  A few seemed to be on strike and I ended up with one as a friend for a while:).

From there I walked towards the royal palace and I saw the King.

I then spent some down time at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club, an expat hang out.

I made it with all my bags and uneventful flights to Cambodia via Vietnam.  I even went on a propellor plane.  Phnom Penh has changed a little bit since I was here in 2012, more cars (big 4WD things) and coffee shops.  I did a bit of exploration this morning and got caught by heavy rain in a Tuk Tuk

I cruised around and watched the goings on in the rain and the aftermath.

I had a massage and then with my fellow Engineers Without Borders (EWB) volunteers went out for lunch and wondered around the markets.  Apparently we are not called volunteers now, we are called field professionals, this is to stop confusion with the tourist volunteer industry that is popular here.  Here is one of the sights I saw

Overall it has been a great first day and here is where I am staying for the next week with a pool, it is a tough life:)

I now have a week of in-country training where we get briefings on security, health, EWB and language lessons.  I will keep you posted.

I have had a good two days here in Melbourne learning about what I am getting myself into in the up coming months.  My bags are all packed and ready to go

I can’t believe it has come around so quickly, I am both nervous and excited.  I had a great dinner with Nicole and Mal tonight.  Nicole was one of my references for EWB, so a big thanks to her.

I left Brissy (aka Brisbane) this morning, weighed down with 40kg of gear.  It was an emotional farewell with Niels.  I then flew into a storm and circled Melbourne for an hour.  I have completed one of two days of my pre-departure training (PDT) with flying colours and I caught up with an old friend from my university days, Brendan.