Swimming and boozing seems to be the secret to a good night's sleep?
OMG.
I only JUST realized.
I am going on my first Viet "Fishing Trip" on a FRIDAY THE 13TH. Good thing I LIKE the number 13 ;-)
A quick ride to the market to get my morning fix of Banh Mi Cha Lua and I'm back in my room at 6:25.
Early? NOOOOO
The market already was PACKED with people and must have been so for some time before...
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| FREE food ! |
Time to worry (WHY am I such a worrier?). What to wear? What to bring? (put that bottle & corkscrew into the backpack, LOL). How much should I give him as Thank You? I am LOST and I wish Thi Lan would be here. She would know EXACTLY what to do.....
6:55 OK, I'm just going to jump into it .....
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| NOT ! |
Oh Captain, My Captain. Where art thou ????
No skipper around.
He was supposed to be here at 7:00. Did he get scared of his own courage or am I just not adjusting to Vietnamese Time ?
7:40
Phap calls me from my room
The skipper has arrived.
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| well-used lobster cages with feeding tubes |
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| every one of those vertical tube is part of a lobster cage |
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| there are lobsters below me ! |
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| time to dive? |
Muoi's husband is not a rich man. The pontoon I'm sitting on and the lobster cages underneath belong to someone else. He shows up with his son. At first we share the small space in silence while he cuts dead seafood into lobster-sized bites.
I've been wondering the whole time why they brought a huge 12V battery to the pontoon in their little round coracle. What would they want to power out here?
Mr. Cleaning-Fish stops cleaning fish and connects the cables of the machine in the red box to the battery. As soon as he does it, I hear the characteristic sputtering of a pump.
OMG. That is his DIVING OUTFIT!
A car battery, an aquarium air pump, a long greenish aquarium air hose that he sticks it in his mouth. Then I notice the short segments of standard plastic piping filled with concrete that are fastened around his waist on a string.
He clamps the green tubing between his teeth and JUMPS IN.
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| Note the green tubing top centre of the picture. He is DOWN THERE and breathing THROUGH THAT ! |
All of a sudden the sound of the pump STOPS. The kid looks moves one of the clamps
Now Muoi Husband is done from feeding his lobsters and offers me the diving goggles. OH FUCK IT. Enough whimping out. I'm going IN.
I am trying to dive down to the lobster cages (it's only 2 or 3 meters). I try it feet first. I try it head first. NOPE, I am a CORK.
Next plan: I try to pull myself down there by one of the cage suspension ropes. This is when I realize that even baby barnacles are SHARP. I start bleeding on my fingers and decide that I have had enough.
Next problem: HOW do I get back up onto that pontoon? There is no ladder. The Viets are all grinning and my Captain already pulls his Coracle close. NO, that's even more difficult. After 3 attempts I finally get my nipples over the level of the pontoon and have my hand in a hand-hold. KEEP PULLING. By the looks on the Viets' faces, I look like a fish trashing on dry land or a drowning elephant. I finally make it back onto the pontoon. Husband sees my bleeding finger and gets a cigarette out. OH YEAH, I could actually use one of those now. WHAT is he doing? He is flaking the tobacco, pressing it onto the bleeding wound, and then covers it in the cigarette paper.
If this is what they do then this is what I will do !
I'm sure that it would have stopped bleeding on its own but I'm sure that the nicotine, which is a strong toxin, killed a few germs which got into the would from the barnacles on that rope.
Oh, by the way. Through MY whole diving extravaganza, the guy with the green tubing in his mouth has NOT surfaced. He is STILL DOWN THERE when I climb back into the coracle and we head back to the shore.
I am overwhelmed again by the friendliness of the Vietnamese. Everyone in the surrounding flotilla of coracles and pontoons is looking at me. The courageous ones raise a hand with an expectant look and then give me that BEAMING smile when I wave back. The more shy ones only look, but as soon as I wave at them, it's the same result. Waves and Smiles.
By the time ride the coracle back (It's only 9:00) I am HOPING that we are NOT heading for a fishing boat now. I am exhausted. Every time his paddling directs his round coracle towards a fishing boat, I mentally voice "OH PLEASE NO".
We finally get back to the shore. An old woman waves her hand. I say to Muoi Husband "Cam on nhieu, ban!" She looks at him and repeats my words, having a hard time believing that this white person speaks even one word of tieng viet.
Noon.
Still a whole day ahead ...
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| Diving wounds LOL |
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| Bethlehem? |
Muoi packs of cigarettes. Sua Chua. Tam. Khong Duong (Eight yogurt without sugar). THAT is progress !
A WHOLE carton of cigarettes, TWO bottles of Chilean wine, 8 yogurts two cigarette lighters and I'm out CAD$ 32. For the CHEAPEST alternative of these products IN Canada, I would have to ADD more than CAD$ 130 to that bill. Phouuui!
15:15
Yeah,I think I go for another swim. I joke around with Muoi for a while and send an e-mail to a friend. I wasn't looking for this image, but it strikes a chord.
be that as it may .......Hakuna Matata !
Quang and Loang are there. I invite myself for breakfast tomorrow. Given that he wanted me to have breakfast with them every day, I HOPE that is not an imposition, LOL.
18:30
It's getting darker and the bats have been out for quite a while. But it's not too late to see the bright-red kite against the darkening sky. Next time I have to bring the two Phnom Penh kites from Vancouver !
Is it too early to go to sleep?
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