9:45
Let's GO into Town !
I stop at my usual grocery store and start looking at helmets. Damn. NO half-shells, only 2/3 shells available. Since I can't keep borrowing other people's helmets I just buy one 200k. That's US$ 8.50 and I'd pay >> $50 for the same helmet in the West. The helmet is OK and at these prices I can afford to look for my Dream Helmet at a later date ;-)
The store woman smiles when she recognizes me. A carton of White Horse smokes (they went up by $1 per carton!), and 8 cups of yogurt, and the total bill comes to 437000 VND, less than US$19 for a carton of cigarettes, a motorbike helmet, and yogurt.
The Banh Mi from my favourite stand has gone downhill since the daughter in law took over the stand from the old lady. Gone is the intricate balancing of flavours....... Too bad.
WOW, so much sleep and I could sleep more.... but I'd miss the day !
No it doesn't look like a good swimming day, but jumping to get over the wave crests is exercise too. The water temperature is nice and it would be silly to not go into the water because of a few waves.
Things are changing at the beach.... on my terrace I can hear music wafting over from the Swede....I can even recognize the song.... Losing my religion.
Might as well go over there and have a G&T.
Yes, the music is way too loud, but at least the Swede has excellent taste in Music. Sweet Dreams are made of these is next, LOL.
What a trip down memory lane:
I was ~17 years old and in a discotheque on Majorca with a German girl who had the hots for me when this song first Blitzed its way across Europe.
That was in 1985, LOL.
17:00
I guess I should eat something.
So I hop on the scooter and head back to the soup place.
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| No, there is no other way out, LOL. |
I see Chau, Muoi, and Tu\ng getting on the motorbike when I pass their house and they follow me to the hotel. Things become hectic, LOL.
1) I return Chau's helmet to him.
2) I get the wine bottle from my room to fill a glass for him.
3) Now empty the Pho Bo into the bowl and EAT !
I procure a piece of paper to have Chau write down the names of his sons (I need them to set a password on a computer to be gifted ;-)
Tua/n & Tu\ng is the answer. The strange thing is, now that I see it in writing, I can no longer pronounce the names properly !
Meet me at my house at 10, he says then. I try to explain jet-lag, he listens to it all and then has his son (Tu\ng) write a note on a piece of paper. That means 2 things already:
1) He doesn't trust himself to speak good enough Vietnamese for Google Translate to translate properly.
2) He can't write.
Here is the note in the 10-year-old's handwriting:
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| I'm shocked that I can actually understand the whole thing expect the first 3 words of the 2nd line ;-) |
20:30
TIRED.
I run to the beach with my camera before starting my morning coffee.
.... if one wants to capture the change of colours ;-)
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| YEAH ! |
My market booty today consists of Banh Mi Trung, Trai Dua & Ot.
I thought I told the woman to compliment my pineapple with 20k VND of chili peppers and she shovels two handfuls into the bag, but when I hand her 40k, I realize that she understood to go up to 20k from the pineapple price of 15k.
So the two handfuls of peppers only cost me 5k ;-)
By now I feel confident of being able to find Muoi's house (just South of the bright turquoise house ;-) which is a good thing since I am supposed to show up there at 10:00.
9:55
time to go
Muoi is there when I arrive. After a few exchanges by Google Translate it becomes clear that I am NOT here to go feed the lobsters.
I am here to EAT the lobsters.
Chau shows up with two big bottles of water that he pours into a barrel. Because I suspect that they need the water to keep the lobsters fresh, I ask "nuoc muoi hay nuoc uong?" and the answer is: it is drinking water. I conclude that their house is not connected to a water supply.....
He also brings two lobsters...... here is my dinner while it is still alive ....
He gets a bottle of Dalat red wine out of the shelf and asks "Do you take alcohol?"..... Is the sky blue?, LOL. But I know that a bottle of wine is a treasure for poor Vietnamese families and he doesn't have a corkscrew anyway, so I get one of the latter and a fresh bottle of wine from my place. At least that way I get to contribute to this odd breakfast.
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| Tu\ng offers me to eat from this precious box of cookies. I know that this is an expensive thing for them to have, so how could I say YES? |
He cooked TWO lobsters for ME alone and he simply won't take NO for an answer.
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| the ashtray. LIKE ;-) |
Tua\n is no longer studying massage in Quy Nhon.
He now works in Nha Trang.
The kid is 14 years old and he is making money far from home. Try THAT in the overprotective West.
Now I am invited to come for dinner again tomorrow at 18:00 (sau gio toi)
Towards the end of the meal, they cautiously ask for when I will be leaving for Canada again. I already know the reason. They borrowed some money in October and are worried about repayment. When I answer 'End of February', Chau replies "we will sell the lobsters and do the money".
I am so much better off than they are and I would be perfectly happy if they repaid the loan by way of continued scooter rentals, so I just point at the 8-month-old unborn in Muoi's belly and say:
"THAT is the only thing that is important now, we can figure out everything else later".
Their smiles and outstretched hands say it all. They are happy & I am happy. Life can be simple and easy if you let it to be so.
12:00
Nap or swim?
Just before I doze off, I feel grateful. Vietnam is a country full of wonders.
Who would have ever have thought I'd find myself eating lobster with friends in the 'developing world' to whom I granted a microloan to keep their lobster-raising business going. Stranger than Fiction!
Another incident:
Muoi & Chao gave me a huge bunch of ripe bananas to take home, which I could not possibly eat before they are overripe. So I take 4 and leave the rest on the communal table.
The next time I am there, B asks me whether I bought the bananas or whether they were a present from M&C. When she hears that they are a present, she says "Take them away! We will NOT eat them".
The reason: Apparently my bananas spent a few days as an offering in a Buddhist family altar. And that INCENSES the very Evangelical core of B.
CAN'T have THAT in my CHRISTIAN house, she probably thinks.
Even my mention of "Love thy neighbour and love their bananas too" doesn't help any.
OUT of my SIGHT with these HEATHEN bananas ! (She doesn't actually say that, but .....)
Life could be SO SIMPLE ;-)
Tam just grins when she grabs and eats two heathen bananas. That's a statement in itself ;-)
Unfortunately she is leaving for her home town today, maybe even for 3 or 4 weeks. This place will be different without both Muoi & Tam around ;-(
For dinner, I reheat the left-over lobster.
How?
Just throw it in a simmering fish soup for 10 minutes.
Amazingly, I can't tell the difference to a freshly boiled lobster !
M's 80-year-old Father never had lobster in his life, so I split the tail in two.
He likes it ;-)
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