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Chapter 5: Its All About the Connections| | Monday was, sigh, yet another day at the beach. Yes, we are suffering.
Ok, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but what is taking work is
trying to get BFF's skin to get some colour. The Muse formerly known as
Momma Hen's skin is a deep reddish-brown, my skin's well on its way to
Filipino boat driver levels, but BFF's still looking somewhere between
a corpse and those Crayola flesh-coloured crayons. He insists his skin
is getting some colour based on his forearms, but they're so hairy who
knows what his skin's like. Same with his legs; they're skinny like
pipe cleaners and just as hairy. We read on the beach, and then read
some more. Lunch was some more awesome street food, and then we all
split up. I went to the internet cafe, Jon took a walk, and The Muse
formerly known as Momma Hen went and, um, her muse thang. Yup, she met
up with Long, the famous (and later we learned, rich, well, by
Vietnamese standards anyway) photographer for coffee, who's like 56 and
married with 2 daughters. *cough cough*
We met up in the hostel again and then went out for, um, food again. If
you haven't guessed, food is an (ever)constant theme for (me)us. What's
surprising though is The Muse formerly known as Momma Hen and BFF's
belief that I eat a lot. Now for those TO folks who know George Ohki,
I'm not even in the same level as that. Ricky, when he first came to
UW, that one would eat his weight if there was that much food on the
table. I love these two guys both, but I'm nowhere near their
potential/peak eating abilities. However, I. do. love. to eat. food.
And dinner... ohhhh, dinner. Dinner was street seafood again. We had 2
small(er) lobsters, but BFF and I had 4 of the biggest tiger prawns
I've ever seen. They were almost the size of small lobsters that sell
in North America. They were so big, and tasted so good... it was an
emotional experience. If I had anymore estrogen in my body, I probably
would have shed a tear or two. But then that'd mean I'd have what the
Black Eyed Peas refer to as "My Humps, My Humps, my Lovely Lady Lumps,"
and that would just be weird. Regardless, no tears were shed, but I was
speechless at times.
Tuesday we rented a private boat to Hon Mieu. The boat didn't go all
the way to the island so we had to jump in these circular bamboo boats
and get rowed to the island. The rowers were Vietnamese women who again
thought I was vietnamese, but seemed cordial enough. We got to shore,
and they started asking for (an exhorbitant amount of)money, so we
shrugged them off and hiked through the little village. It was a small
fishing village, and it was really nice to walk around somewhere and
not be hassled to buy postcards, or sunglasses, or photocopied books,
or well you get the point. We hiked along the coastline trying to get
to what we thought was a big statue of a boat. Imagine our surprise
when we made it far around to see that it wasn't a big statue of a
boat, it was a statue of a giant shellfish-like thing doing something
completely inappropriate to a statue of a giant boat. Welcome to the
ugliest aquarium in the world.
We passed through the ugly (I do mean ugly, The Muse formerly known as
Momma Hen's got pictures) aquarium and made it out to a (almost)
secluded rocky beach. There was a few people eating at a little
restaurant, but after BFF almost bought a beer, they disappeared. This
is how cheap we are: We found out to rent beach chairs on this beach it
cost 5000 VND (30-something cents) for a day, and instead of paying we
chose to spread out on the cement dock nearby. Yeah, that's how we
roll. We had the whole stretch of beach to ourselves for the hour and a
bit we were there laying on our Korean Air *cough cough* uhhh I mean
Burberry *cough cough* blankets doing our best impression of a grilled
prawn.
We made it back to the fishing village in record time (The Muse
formerly known as Momma Hen guessed it would take and hour... it took
about 3 minutes) thanks to a path behind a locked gate behind the
aquarium. The fun began once we ran into our very (and I do mean
grumpy) boat captain. He looked at me, and muttered some likely dark
words and sent a very angry glares my way before leading us to the
boat. Of course, I didn't understand a word. Do I really look
Vietnamese? We had to go with the bamboo boat ladies again, and they
were all cordial. Til we reached the boat. Thankfully we were
forewarned of their coming tactics by a friendly local tour guide, who
told us what they'd do and how much the correct fee was. As I tried to
get out of my boat, they wanted me to give them 20,000 VND for each
boat, meaning 40,000 total. The price should have been 5,000VND per
boat, and really we all should have been in one boat. When we first
arrived they split us up into 2 boats, trying to get more money from
us. When I offered to give them 5,000VND they threw a huge fit at me.
The acting performance they pulled probably would have gotten them an
Emmy. Not an Oscar though, but an Emmy for sure. The Muse formerly
known as Momma Hen and I gave them 5,000VND, but BFF caved and gave
them a little extra. Nothing like the locals trying to scam you to put
a damper on the day.
I wanted to ask Long some questions about cameras and stuff, so The
Muse formerly known as Momma Hen put on her sultry voice, called him up
and invited him to the cafe where we were at. He came over on his Vespa
and we chilled for a bit, and then he invited us to dinner. We went to
this place called Crazy Kim's. BFF and I walked, and The Muse formerly
known as Momma Hen rode with Long on his Vespa. Crazy Kim's is an
interesting place, mostly cuz of the owner, Kim. She came by (Long
joke's that she's his 7th wife) and we talked with her too. She escaped
by boat from Vietnam 26 years ago when she was 20, landed in Singapore
at a refugee camp, went o Holland, then eventually made her way to
Ottawa working for Oracle as some sort of analyst. After 10 years of
that, she moved to Vietnam to teach at a university. On a whim she
bought out a tiny bar and then started running a bar. They've moved
locations and have renovated 3 times, and she's running a school in the
back for street kids. The school's open to any kid who comes by in the
morning, and they tutor english for free in the afternoon. All the
teachers are there on no pay, its a pretty cool setup. She also on a
whim decided to open up a new spa. We asked her how she does all this,
and she just shrugged and just said she doesn't, she just does it. She
tries something, and then just continually changes and adjusts it as
she goes. We offered to try out her new jacuzzi for her, but it won't
be ready til next week. Oh, and she runs a campaign trying to stop
child pedophilia in Nha Trang. Pretty cool lady. Long paid for dinner
too, which was sweet, since I'm not sure we had enough between the 3 of
us to pay for it. Yeah, that's also how we roll. hahaha.
After saying goodbye to Long and Kim, we grabbed our bags from the
hostel and said farewell to our next closest friends, the street
seafood vendors. Again, I'd shed a tear if I could. We hit up the five
dollar night bus to Saigon (as opposed to the twenty dollar train) and
I promptly tried to sleep. I managed to sleep but it wasn't restful,
and at least twice I think I remember rolling towards/onto BFF, who
then pushed/shoved me back towards the window. For some reason it
seemed we also stopped every hour for a ten minute break. The only
conclusion I can make of this is that the bladders of the Vietnamese
are correctionally proportional to their body, making their bladders
about the size of a thimble. In that case, I suppose a ten minute stop
every hour is wholly appropriate. If not, its just a big waste of time.
Saigon's a pretty cool place with a big city feel. The Muse formerly
known as Momma Hen and BFF crashed in our hostel room while I jogged
around looking for potential places to eat, buy/trade books, and browse
for second-hand cameras. I was initially fine with my bag/cameras/plane
ticket/house keys, etc... getting stolen, but hitting up some of the
used camera stores were bringing up some anger/frustration once I heard
some price quotes. Uh $6000 for a Leica with a non-interchangable lens?
I think not. Even the Fed 3, which was the camera I just got that sells
for $25-40, I got quoted for $250. The haggling just didn't seem worth
it. One my way back however I stopped by one last place, and in the
corner of a shelf, I spied a used (and I mean well-used) Lomo, quite
possibly my favorite camera. Its a slap in the face to Long, but I'll
send him an explanation over email. Frankly when you have zero cash
flow, you go with the $30 well-used Lomo over the $700 medium format
Hasselblad. Sorry Long, another time. The test film I shot didn't work
as it turns out the shutter's not opening, the but the guys returned my
money and promised to fix it by tomorrow. so we'll see.
We went around with a friend of the Yim's today, and it was great. He
was really friendly and was our de facto tour guide as well. He's been
here for 17 years and confirmed our suspicions (now almost a theorum)
about the chances of a foreigner learning (we're not even gonna say
mastering) Vietnamese. Let's just say it doesn't look good. He also
took us to a fantastic restaurant that cost around 5 bucks a person.
Dang. It was gooood. Don't worry Hedi, Ant, I got business cards.
We're about to check out a street sale somewhere that's got like
flip-flops for 37 cents and tshirts for 62 cents. Should be fun, unless
we get lost along the way. But that'll prob be fun too.
| | | Posted 1/31/2007 9:13 PM - 34 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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