Hello Saigon and thank you.

This will be a blog, for the moment, with no photo. It is just words to say that after almost a year here we are feeling a part of this crazy zany city.

There was no bread in the fridge tonight! Given that all the "western" bakeries had closed, and would have required way too much effort to get to, I said to Jaom I would race out and get a couple of "banh mi" the local baguette for about 10 cents a piece. On my way there nobody treated me like an oddity and the street stall owner served me with familiarity as if I was a local and then on my return I stopped at the local grocery store to buy a "banh bao" (Chinese steamed bun filled with meat and egg) and the lady asked me where my boys were. That was nice.

So being a part of this place is not so much us accepting them, but them accepting us as a part of their neighborhood. We can feel as much a part of this city as we like but it is not until they see us as a part of this city are we actually becoming a part of the city. Perhaps this is true of our Vietnamese (and other migrant) counterparts who make the journey to Australia.

Don't get me wrong. I may have my residence card and recently obtained my Vietnamese driver's licence (to the fascination of locals who see it!), but I am still far from being Vietnamese and never will be nor want to be. My language is atrocious and I just don't seem to be able to shake that white skin of mine to being a beautiful golden brown. But being smiled at and being asked about my children in unintelligible sentences I just don't understand can make all the difference.

From another perspective, Jaom, the boys and myself had a small epiphany the other day.

We were in the heart of the city, the area where locals, traffic, business and tourists all mix to create a cacophany of sound and a menagerie of people. As we were walking along I saw a small alleyway that seemed to lead to a small hem (a group of houses). These exist everywhere in the city - a place where houses tend to face each other instead of out to the world. So for the first time I ventured down. I beckoned Jaom to join me. We stumbled upon humble local dwellings in the heart of the city and local people sharing lunch at a local street stall. We were welcomed to sit down and have rice and fish. As we ate our lunch there was no noise from the outside world and we could have been anywhere in the heart of Asia where no foreigners enter. This was travel - this was why we came to Vietnam and yet we were no further than 100 meters from THE main tourist drag. Soon word got out that two blonde boys were in the "hood" and all the old ladies came out to look. When it is genuine interest and care our boys love the attention and play up to it. But we also know that they are in good care even when we don't know the people - somewhere in this experience I am sure the boys disappeared for a few minutes out of site to see the pet birds or to be shown the "ba" (older lady) who can no longer walk.

Forget the 5* hotel Jaom and I were just about to go to in Nha Trang - this $1.50 lunch was worth a million bucks.

Hello Saigon and thank you