Bai Bien Cua Toi (I)... Disillusionment & Disappointment followed by Ecstacy

2:00

The guests in the room next door are sitting on their terrace and are talking LOUDLY....... GONE is the peace and quiet this place used to offer at night .....

Together with the new info that Lisa's planned beach bar will be situated RIGHT NEXT to Chez Chris has severely dampened my mood.... 
I have to come to terms with the idea that Paradise will no longer be quite the paradise I imagined it would be....

OMFG, the neighbours are still talking loudly and banging doors at 3:00 ...... Some people's kids!  Do I really have to move to the central highlands to get away from disrespectful Westerners?

So much for sleeping more... I might as well stay up, call Grandma at 4:00, and ogle the dawn at 4:45....

Grandma sounds well & happy.... a relief!

5:45

The dark thoughts of night quickly evaporate as soon as the light returns......

... and there is NOTHING better than having the sun illuminate the back wall of your room ;-)

By 6:00 the ecstasy has returned ...... A married couple walks by and I bid "Chau buoi sang" to them...... I can hear the woman comment on that to her husband..... NO, white people do NOT speak tieng Viet, LOL.


6:30
Time to go the market.....I buy cam quyt, trai du/a, banh mi trung.... and I can't help but ask to take this picture.....

.... and after I take the picture, the woman with a big smile lifts another long and skinny piece of pig...... a pig penis?

7:30

9:00
I apologize to Mathias for my grumpy comments last night.  I have brought some of the rash behaviour patterns common in the West back to Vietnam..... toi xin loi !

12:00 - 14:30
A clandestine meeting at Bobby's with Lisa & Quang..... We drink & chat about what to build how and when and where.... OMG, it's starting to look like Chez Chris might become a reality sooner than I thought ...

And I see something ENTIRELY NEW again, as I do almost every day in this mircaculous country..... 

A Lizard Hunter stuffs the last of his catch into his net .... I have to ask Quanq what the little salamanders will be used for .... Western terrariums or dinner plates......and the answer is:  they will be eaten... the man earns 400,000 VND for 1 kg of salamander ....

I re-read the blog post of the time after Grandma fell ......  WOW, I am in a much better place today 

Time for a beach walk....

I talk to my new neighbour, a German man working in Development Assistance in Siem Reap..... interesting .... but he's a tall FAT WHITE GUY.... what does he know about the needs of hungry little brown people?


Pho Bo as dinner.....

.... and I need to get some sleep!