When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": Ho Chi Minh City ..... Four Fun- & Frenzy-Filled days of it !

I already had considered eating Bun Cha on my walk from the airport bus to my hotel..... but the line-up was too long, so walk back to the restaurant line-up after checking in and showing my face at GS1 ;-)

In retrospect I am shocked remembering that I haggled (in Vietnamese) with a street vendor for a finger nail clipper ... must do better next time.... but that earns me some praise from a Vietnamese woman also waiting in line ..."your Vietnamese is very good". Yeah right, LOL.
All Mr. Bun Cha has to say is "No bowl today?" LMAO, I guess I did bring a bowl a few times to feed Huyen. Right now I'm only feeding myself!

I visit Huyen again though.... and she has a present for me: Chocolate M&Ms! Which is kind of funny because I brought her Peanut M&Ms .....

Back in my room I receive an e-mail from today's visitors:
Their flight seems to be late they e-mail me while sitting in the plane on the tarmac.... and I can see it in real-time.

16:00
I already did my sink laundry to kill time.... and I should get ready to meet these people, before I start noticing how early I got up this morning ....

17:00
I can't sit in my hotel room any longer ! Time to walk across town.....

A sure sign that one is getting old: The people you went to university with have a grown kid!

Bun Cha, what else?

WHY do we follow Moe's directions when we are looking for a place to drink beer? Alpha-Man has never been here before! .... but we humour him anyway...

NEVER EVER eat or drink here! RUDEST owner EVER !

The roof-top bar of the Grand Silverland Hotel is a nice change..... for my presently achieved state of Vietnamization it is a tad too colonial, but it is NICE to sip beer, chat, and look down on Ben Tanh Market !

After way too many beers it's finally time to walk back home..... which means I have walked 7 km today ;-)

The usual suspects already sit in the street in front of my hotel.

Let's hope Huyen never sees this picture, LOL.

Ouch.... things HURT.... where am I?
What time is it?
6:45!
I've SLEPT through the SUNRISE ????
OMG is that a HANGOVER I'm feeling?

An e-mail from Sylvia? The German Group???? OMG, memories of a distant past !

9:00
Is it time to slowly get ready???

The trip to Coopmart gets me bon chai ruou va mot cai ao mau tim dep

And I get back to the hotel in time before the rain hits.

16:00

Drinks on the roof terrace of the Grand Silverland again... G&T this time .... and I learn something new and IMPORTANT..... Canada & the USA are MINING airline passenger data for departure and return dates of their citizens.... the airlines obviously have no choice in the matter..... so the avenue of massaging my departure dates to reduce the time absent from Canada to maintain my permanent resident status is NOT available to me...... and it's a very fortuitous thing that I learned this ;-)

Good thing there is a Plan B:

I will swear allegiance to the Queen of England!

Time for more food......

I need to PEE !

This time it's BBQ seafood across from my Bun Cha place

Responsible parenting ;-) (I had my first sip of wine as a 5-year old at Christmas )
OK, so maybe I am not the best example ....

20:30
I'm back in my room ...... and after all this social frenzy I feel bored ....... WTF?

21:45
Where are the usual suspects? They are NOT sitting in the street drinking & chatting? I'm shocked how quickly I have got used to that apparently NOT-never-ending routine ..... But Chuong is cheering me up a bit..... He want's to quit his University-English program (He DOES speak MUCH better English already) and he doesn't know what to do afterwards...... which IMHO is a healthy attitude for someone in their early 20s.

22:30
Another bit of revelation..... it's nice to live in a place where one can follow the phases of the moon.... it adds a sense of continuity to life.... it was a full moon on the first day of the village festival just a few days ago.... and now it's a waning moon ....

23:00
I have to tear myself away from watching more of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix .....
... but then it will still be there tomorrow ;-)

5:00
I'm slow & sluggish today... and only manage shaving & showering by 10:00

Time to go to Coopmart for more wine & a power bar....... The ONLY thing I HATE about my room is the fact that the power outlet is BEHIND the TV. So EVERY time I want to plug in my laptop, I have to TAKE DOWN the whole friggin TV.....

.... but this nice brand-new power bar (67,000 VND) will hopefully eliminate this annoyance forever ;-)

11:30
Let's see whether Huyen is hungry ;-)
She's not even at her desk!
Then she arrives, tries to put a ring on my finger, and then disappears...

12:00
Time for Bun Cha.... I don't know how the man manages to smile all day .....

.... I notice two Germans sitting kitty-corner-across from each other at a table for 4..... and there is a line-up outside..... to be considerate of others no longer seems to be part of the German culture ;-(

12:45
I think I'll have a NAP now ;-)

15:45
WHAT THE FUCK is this BANGING....... someone moved into the other top floor room and was nice enough to drag hard-shell suitcases over every single step of the stairs .... bang bang bang bang bang bang .....

Just before I have to leave at 17:30, I check my e-mail ... a small downer.... and I'm torn between giving in to my future neighbour's demands to build their stairs on my land and standing firm because I'm already putting up with their Beach Bar right at my property line..... Ah, better to forget that right now and sleep over it.

It's time to go to a SHOW !

Ben Thanh Market

old and new

The Saigon Opera House

The Caravelle Hotel reflected in the best tea I've ever had ;-)

European style cherry cake on the left and stick-rice sweet on the right
I can't decide which one is better !

18:00

The use of cameras & cellphones is NOT allowed during the performance and that's a GOOD choice.....I remember how furious I was during the last water-puppet-show at all those idiots waving their cell phones and using flash photography...... so here are some of the Teh Dar promo shots:

This is what Cirque du Soleil wants to be but never achieved.... I cry through half the performance..... the choreography, the lighting, the movements, the music, the bodies, the weightlessness, the joy..... I am entranced....

Time to walk back to my hotel....

Did Uncle Ho ever imagine himself in this spot or position?

I race back to my hotel because I am HUNGRY...... and Huyen grabs my camera....

.... but she doesn't give it back! Oh, P-Lease, NOT again!

Screw it, I'm starving!

20:00

Bach tuoc

Back at the hotel, Huyen still refuses to give the camera back....

And do I really manage to say "Ban uong nhu mot con ca!" (you drink like a fish!) ?

Quoc, One-Eye, Mousy Face, Skinny Fruity Guy, and Muscular Straight Guy do their best to drink me under the table ....

...but they don't succeed......

well, not properly ....

Two whole bottles of wine fall victim to this debauchery with the Viet crowd in the street.

...but then they aren't too sober either anymore...

There is a saying in Vietnam.... Khong say, khong nha ...(not drunk, not home, i.e. you can't go home before you're drunk).....but I am definitely drunk enough when I leave the group at 22:00......

"Chris, Wait!" is what I hear from Chuong. OH NO! I instantly know that something is NOT right and I am proven correct when he grabs The Shirt from under the counter. He was wearing this absolutely fabulous shirt 10 days ago and I complimented him on it (in retrospect: I should NOT have asked him where I could buy it). Now he gives it to me as a PRESENT.

I am embarrassed !

It gets worse...... I ask him what his shoe size is..... planning to repay him with a pair of fabulous Native Art Print Converse High Tops from Canada..... and all he says is "I know what is going on" and doesn't give me his shoe size.

WHAT am I to DO ?

Relax, I guess.

Then there is the issue of Quang wanting to build a staircase on my empty land strip......

23:30
SLEEP

4:30
Too early....not really enough sleep.... but my head is racing..... too many things on so many levels happened yesterday.... I can always have a nap later

6:00
SHIT. I put my back out .... This hasn't happened in SO LONG now....years !
But I'm back to limping bent-over around my room.....

9:30
Lisa calls from The Beach.... it's about the stairs again .... and about my wall.... why does all this crap come up when I'm NOT there ?

A young guy with an old mechanical sewing machine is always sitting next to Bun Cha 145..... I'm bringing my big North Face backpack there to have him fix the little slit that has been opening along the zipper of one of the compartments.... Come back one hour, he says.

I end up back at Bookworm's Coffee for breakfast.... and I order the King's Breakfast.....

NO idea why I order expensive calorie overload.... probably because my back hurts and I need comfort food.

An hour later, my backpack is fixed. Better than new! For 45k! (less than 2 Dollars) Amazing ;-)

A few hours of trying to alleviate the back pain by laying in bed don't really help.... FUCK, it SUCKS being decrepit !!

17:00
I'm out of WINE ! I wobble towards coopmart and the walk seems to relax my back temporarily..... I am GLAD that I visit Huyen afterwards (even though she harbours some kind of odd grudge), because I finally learn what was so funny about what I said yesterday....