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Chapter 4: The One About My False Sense of Security| | You realize I can go on and on about food. The street food here is ridiculous, every little place we pass looks amazing. More often than not, we (at BFF's or my urging) stop and try it. If we don't try it then, we at least stare at everyone's plates to see what it is and make a mental note to come back later.
On one hand, Nha Trang is great. Beaches, food, cheap stuff, what more could you ask for? On top of that, the weather's been so nice that we've become so laid back we're practically horizontal. This leads to: left behind cameras, jackets, etc... while all that we remembered quick enough to go back and retreive said forgotten items, the ultimate culmination was when I didn't put my sidebag around my shoulder, I stuck it in the basket of one of the bikes we had rented for the day. Not 2 minutes later, 2 guys on a motorcylcle reached in and grabbed my bag and took off. I gave chase in my dinky china-ish bike, and followed them for 2 street turns before i lost them completely. Thankfully my passport wasn't in it, it was back at the hostel. Monetarily speaking, I didn't lose much in total, but regardless it adds a lot of hassle to my life. [Note: Charles, I think I'm winning again.]
I lost: 1) My Holga medium format camera, with about 1 or 2 pictures away from finishing that first roll. Its not worth much, maybe 15-20 bucks, but i do really like the pictures that come out of it. 2) My new/old Russian Fed 3 camera, a present from some friends in TJ. I got it 2 days before we left for vietnam, and while I did have 1 roll back in the room, I was just about change out the current roll and put in a new one when it got stolen. Again, it wasn't expensive, about 35 bucks, but again, it looked like it took nice pictures. I'm pretty bummed about this one. 3) My travel notebook from the last 2 years, which has all my phone numbers/emails/contact info from everyone i've met in korea, china, mongolia, etc... Also another bummer. 4) Extra passport photos. Apparently for Angkor Wat you need a passport photo for the 3-day pass, so now i have to go to a photo place and overpay for some passport photos. crap. 5) 200 kuai. I need chinese money for when i get back to kunming since i'll be there for a day or so hanging out with adam. Not that big a deal. 6) My good book. I'm hoping maybe one of the thieves can read english, and he'll get convicted after seeing and return it to me somehow. Realistically, it'll prob find its way to one of the used bookstores. 7) My bank card from canada. I was able to come back and cancel the card before they used it, but I can't access my account without it, so i'm stuck without money until, well until somehow i get a new card. My mom's coming to china late February i think, but that's over a month away. Thankfully Momma Hen's got enough to cover me for the rest of the trip, but again, extra hassle I didn't need.
On the other hand I now have less things to worry about getting stolen, since well, they got stolen. Literally the only things I have of worth are my passport and cell phone, which isn't even that great anyway. Oh yeah, crap, I had some chinese character flashcards in my bag too. Nuts.
Onto a new topic. I've always known that my last name gives people fits, in that if you've never met me, its almost impossible to figure out where I'm from. Its not a Kim, Lee, Park, Cho or any of the obvious ones. Its also not a vowel-alternate japanese-ish name either, like tokagawa or the like, nor is its vietnamese-ish with a dong, nguyen or tranh. Its Chee, like cheese minus the last two letters. What has been surprising, to me anyway, is people's difficulty in guessing my nationality based on my looks. In every asian country I've been in, I've been mistaken for that nationality, or some other nationality. Chinese, Japanese and Korean are the most common guesses; however when I was in the Philippines last year I was mistaken for a Filipino. Back in Kunming, Samara's friend Emily was pretty sure I was chinese, and a woman at an art gallery there was pretty sure I was Thai. Yesterday a vietnamese woman thought I was vietnamese, and someone else thought I was from Singapore. I'm not counting Malaysia, since well they don't have a generalized "look." In addition to the southeast asia "look", some malaysians are descended from indians and mainland chinese that immigrated years back, so they're all over the place in terms of a stereotypical "look". I am a little confused by, well, everyone else's confusion over where I'm from. Let's just say this isn't helping the identity stuff I've been trying to work through recently.
Although, if it could mean getting some vietnamese food at a discounted price, I'd probably claim some vietnamese blood in me. Even if my shoe size is in the double digits.
Yesterday was a late morning, since Momma Hen went scuba diving (unfortunately, not with the Chuck Norris look-a-like) and so BFF and I rented bikes and headed north. Our grandiose plans were cut short with my bag got stolen however. After a late lunch BFF and I hit the beach, where he tried to sleep off a cold, and I got down to reading. After about 20 minutes of getting into a Douglas Copeland book, I was sexually harassed. Well, i suppose in North America it would be considered sexual harassment. Here apparently its just good selling technique. The harassee, moi, was lying on his stomach on the beach, minding his own business reading a book, when out of nowhere, the harasser, an old vietnamese woman selling fruit, snuck up on him and slapped him on the ass. After the harassee was startled out of his mind, the old (and I must reinforce this, olddddddd) woman just cackled, and then said, "you wanna buy some fruit?" I tried to combine the vietnamese words I knew (hello, thank you, 3, noodle in soup, beef, chicken, pork, motorcycle) into some sort of strong rebuke, but alas, my mind failed me. So did BFF. He said, "sure, do you have any pineapple?" I went back to my book, and after some mild haggling with BFF, the woman patted (I was going to say caressed, but that was just too freaky) my butt a few times, said sorry, cackled again, and then ambled off looking for her next customer/prey.
Last night, um, more lobster. it was properly scrumptious, not "scrumtuous" like a certain Halong Bay boat tour. Oh we had crab too. That was also really really good.
Today we rented mopeds after a late brunch of some more good food (yes I will have a fresh mango shake at 62 cents please) and rode around the coast. Defeated by the lack of continually coastal road, we turned back to Nha Trang and looked up the gallery of a vietnamese photographer that we read about in the LP. After a few wrong turns, we found his gallery and were pleasantly surprised to find him open. The LP says he's closed on Sundays; they're wrong. The photographer's name is Long Thanh, and you can see his work here: http://www.elephantguide.com/longthanh/galleries/index.htm
He was present in his gallery, and he gladly spent an hour or chilling with us, and generally putting up with our special brand of nonsensical talk. His friend had just bought a camera, so Long Thanh was testing it out for him, so he took a few pictures of us. Oh wait, he took pictures of Momma Hen. And just Momma Hen. He was full out posing her, having her sit on the ground by his vespa and everything. At one point Momma Hen even asked him, "Hey do you wanna take any pictures of them (BFF and myself)?" He looked at us a bit, and then resumed posing Momma Hen. We've now started (unofficially) referring to Momma Hen as The Muse. Anyway, he's an awesome photographer, and if I still had my cameras, I probably would have seen about hanging out with him more and picking his brain about photography. We went to his darkroom to watch him develop film, and looked at the dozen or so notes on the wall from other people/photographers whom he's spent time chilling with. We've invited him to come to Cambodia with us; but we'll see if he shows up. He doesn't seem to leave vietnam much.
I dunno how interesting the rest of our day will be to you, the reader, since it just involved more eating. A fair bit more. Momma Muse went for a jog this morning; I may have to join her tomorrow morn.
| | | Posted 1/28/2007 11:22 PM - 17 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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