No we didn't...

Yes we did ... and then, no, we didn't. That's the problem doing business in VN. It's hard to get them to keep their word. So there goes Kindy No 3. The excuse - they need to complete the toilets and need another 6-12 months!!! 12 months to complete a toilet??? I must say they totally and completely have no imagination - can anyone help them come up with a creative excuse not to rent to us?

Rambutan and Durian Season

It's the rambutan season now over in HCMC - or chom chom as they are known here in Vietnamese. There seems to be two varieties - the cheaper, bigger ones going at 3,500 (30cents) to 5,000VND (40cents)/kg (or sometimes 3kg for 10,000VND) and the smaller, sweeter but more expensive cousin at 15,000VND/kg. Wonder how much is a kg of rambutans in Singapore now?

Durians are also in season now, the ones I buy are 25,000VND/kg and they're good.

Yes, we got it ...

Yes, we got our third kindergarten at a reasonable rent today. Unless the owners change their minds tomorrow (which is highly common here), we will start our new school year on 7 Sep 09. Seems like the preparation time gets shorter with each kindergarten that we have. This 3rd one will be a real rush. We have barely 6 weeks to get everything in place and ready. The good thing, like I said earlier, is that it is in a move-in condition. So we only need to equip the place and clean it up. More updates later.

Third kindergarten?

This is a location recommended by one of our students' parents and so we went to take a look. It's a nice place tucked between 2 blocks of apartments, and there's a swimming pool. It's quite self-contained with a kitchen, classrooms and offices and definitely in a move-in condition. Problem with the place is that there are only 4 classrooms which means a limited number of students - quite a waste of space.
















































Indoor swimming pool















View from 2nd floor of kindergarten

Bryan's New e-motorbike

Bryan "donated" his old e-bike to TAIK so that Huong can make his way to and from ASYC. So he got himself another bike for 6,500,000VND today. And had it blessed with showers of blessing - it just had to rain today.