It's been awhile since I posted here, huh? Saigon and I got off to a shake-y start, and I tend to have less to say when I'm blue about something.
Our air shipment from BKK was supposed to arrive in Saigon in about 5-7 days, but it took closer to two-and-a-half weeks, which meant that we had no toys for the kids for about two-and-half very long weeks.
Our sea shipment arrived at the port about three days later, which was a pleasant surprise in some ways. A week later, the boxes were delivered to the house we'd rented. That was a really frustrating day for me. I realized that our landlord hadn't had the place cleaned or the paint touched up where it was damaged as promised, which was upsetting. We managed to get part of that rectified over the next day and a half. The unpacking was stressful I had no idea where the Transpo guys were putting anything, and like in BKK, they'd just dump stuff on any surface they found.
The day before the kids and I left for our holiday in Canada, we received the memo from Chris's company about what sort of security modifications they require for homes for employees living in Saigon, and we actually did need to make a major modification to the house. We requested a contractor to come and install a door that day, and the gentleman arrived the house, told me about a wonderful door that he could install for us, took measurements, and 1.7 million Vietnamese dong deposit, and then told me that the work would be completed in 10-12 days. What? He was hired to complete the work on the same day. After about forty minutes of discussion about the door and how no, it couldn't be worked on the next day b/c I was going to be on a plane, and how any darned door would be fine at this point, and why would he accept a job and then change the timeline (ugh!), he decided that he could return in a few hours with a door and have it in that night. Chris and I were on pins and needles, thinking that this guy had run off with our money, until he showed up just after seven in the evening. I think that both Chris and I were both rather irate about how this move was handled by the relocation company and his employer. Why did they not give us this memo weeks before? Our lease was finalized in May, for goodness sakes.
Can't forget to mention that on the same day, we requested that our cable tv be activated. For some reason, the cable company came by to turn it off instead. Figured.
Moving to Bangkok was so seamless and free of hassle, in comparison, and I can't tell you how much I miss our apartment and community there. The one thing that worked right about the move was having Chris's mom with us. Having an extra set of hands to take care of our kids saved our behinds a lot that week.
