What I love about rock climbing is the fact that I can completely switch off. Whenever I’m on the wall I can’t think about anything but the next move. I can forget about all my problems and sorrows and just be in the Here and Now. I thought that climbing is the only activity where I can do that. But I was wrong. I found something similarly challenging. Riding my scooter during peak time.
When I went into district 1 for the first few times, it was a bit of a challenge. But because it was the national holiday and a long weekend back then, half of Saigon wasn’t in Saigon. So when I went last weekend, it was different and busier. But today I realised that this was still peanuts. What I’ve experienced today is beyond words. There were scooters everywhere. And everybody tried to be first. First at what, you might ask. I don’t know. Maybe the first to jump a red light. Or the first to overtake somebody and be first behind the next row of scooters that can’t be overtaken because they are behind a car. Or the first to stop in the middle of the intersection, because of all the scooters coming from all directions (due to the ignored red traffic lights). Or just the first to toot. The Saigonese are experts at tooting. If you try to forget the negative connotation tooting has (at least) in Germany, it sounds almost like a concert. All the different horns, tooting different melodies. Some just give a short “tut”, others do it a bit more often “tut, tut, tut”. Again others give the longer “toooooot” and then there are the really melodic ones: “toot, tut, tut, toot, toooooot”. And the ones that go “toooooooooooooooot” in an either very high-pitched or very loud and dark tone are usually right behind me, ready to overtake me. On the right side of course. And I’m dying from a heart attack almost every time.
Maybe I should also mention why I was in the city during peak time in the first place. That’s another great story. It starts with me looking for running shoes. I don’t want to buy Nike or Adidas and I’m not a big fan of Fila or New Balance either (I don’t like these big enterprises and don’t want to wear their names as an advertisement. And don’t even get me started on human rights violations). I’ve been looking in a few different shops but I couldn’t find anything apart from the ones mentioned above. Then my workmate asked me if I would like to join him to the gym that he discovered yesterday. I told him that I’d love to but that I still don’t have shoes. He said that they sell some there so I thought I should give it a try. I’m pretty sure I told him that I don’t like Nike and Co. but he said they have heaps of shoes. Well, when we arrived there I instantly felt out of place. I don’t want to go to a big muscle factory where everybody is showing off their latest (Nike :)) shoes and clothes and how skinny respectively musclely they are. And then I saw their shop. Nike only. And not even heaps of them. I found more this afternoon when I went to a more or less big shopping centre in An Phu. The girl at the entrance was really sweet. She showed me all the shoes and asked me for my favourite colour and even made me try on a pair. But as I was sitting there I felt worse and worse. This is not a place where I ever wanted to go again. I tried to give her some reasons why I didn’t want to buy the shoes but I’m not sure if she understood me. I made a run for it and felt a bit weird. Why can I not enjoy what others enjoy? And why can I not live an easy life but always think (too much)? Sometimes I really envy the plain people. They never worry about anything and just close their eyes to the uncomfortable things. Well, I soon had to stop thinking because I jumped onto my scooter. At 6 pm. In the middle of Saigon.
Miss Saigon 