Hah! For some reason, I have no mosquitoes today. They’ve been around all week, no matter where I’ve been. They may be where you are, or not. There could easily be a holiday for them…
Wow, What a Trip! So a friend from Seattle is visiting right now, and she’s really helped me have some interesting days. She’s been traveling around the SE Asian area for about a month, and hadn’t been to a beach yet, so I was that Huckleberry. It was funny, she even landed about three days after my two week vacation, so three well-placed vacation days created a 6-day weekend that she and I turned into a beach adventure trip.
So we began by hanging out a night in Saigon – which thanks to a great promo crew by the name of The Beats Saigon – who brought MSTRKRFT to us. Hell yea! What a night! We had a table shared by a dozen others propped right over the decks for a tip view.
Fresh art near the beach by a visiting guitarist.
Then we lept to Mui Ne, where the beaches beckoned and the cool drinks flowed. We lounged in resorts and bungalows for the next week poppin all over the place. First night was 50% comped by a resort that has an interesting proposal for some consultant/management work to bring their club back to flash. Got a nice tour inside… Take a look!
View from the stage to the right.
Midsection
So this is the thing itself from the inside.
Question is whether or not a viable management collective can be devised to make it work.
Time will tell.
Over here we have what it looks like from the audience’s perspective.
A bit dusty right now. It’s been closed since September, and will be for a few months more.
So in the meantime, I’ll see about pulling together a crew that has the straight wherewithall to make it, or let it float into the night of the sea.
Otherwise, I’ve been relaxing on beaches, snorkeling, visiting with this friend of mine, and we have been eating our way through the country. Of course I had to take her out for pho, local style – and some com trua, and then we got creative.
Two lobsters by the Seafood Fairy
Before the lobsters, we had begun with a plate of conch, fresh broiled in the shell, while we waited, and enjoyed them and the wine before the three lobsters all told, that we ate there. After them, because all you can really take from those types is tail, and we weren’t done yet, we got another half kilo of conch, and a half kilo of scallops. It freakin rocked!
The scallops - broiled fresh - and topped with peppers and peanuts ahhh.
Needless to say – we were hella pleased – we had just spent the day on the water, where we took a tour of islands on a boat that was staffed by a crew that was eclectic to say the least. They struck up a full rock band half-way through the day. They danced like the Monkey King eating peaches from the side of the boat and were slinging cheap wine like it was Dionysus’ birthday. In the meantime, we had a few stops that hit reset on the day like four times.
First stop – after being told that we weren’t going to be snorkeling like we planned – was a giant sculpture of an aquarium. It was the size of a four or five story building in the shape of an old Spanish galleon and had been installed with all sorts of tanks. Most of them were unfortunately way too small for the fish that were in there, and that was soundly annoying as a concept, but the thing itself as a physical sculpture was really interesting. We walked in through a giant lion-fish to get there, and there was ice-cream on site. Luckily we left swiftly.
When we did, we left for our actual snorkeling adventure – which of course turned out a bit odd for this random traveler, but then, most things are. When we got there, the guy said “and on this island – everything’s free!!!” – so we went to sit down and a guy came over to charge us to sit. We wanted to lock up our gear and a dude tried to charge us for that. We locked it up, and told him to stuff it – he could bill our captain. The snorkeling was cool though. After finding a mask that didn’t crush my Roman nose too much (a consistent problem, not their fault), I found brilliant fishes swimmin’ in a little reef that was fairly live given the location, and amount of people coming through. It was really chill. No Hawaii, but a beautiful spot none-the-less.
For our third adventure out of four, we went to some other random island, lashed the boat to a construction site and proceeded to watch our boathands turn into fratboys on spring break. They broke out the cheapest wine on planet earth, and pulled out a special floating raft that acted as one man’s bar and dance stage as he proceeded to dance and sing to the music as he poured wine into the little plastic cups that were given to the patrons of this tour we were on, as we all floated leisurely in the water. I found myself unable to enjoy the wine or the style of dancing the man seemed to be an adept at, and simply turned around and reveled at the view of the mountains and islands that had been behind me before. It was simply gorgeous. Floating in the water on a sunny day with techno music behind me looking out at a pristine view of distant islands jutting up out of the water – a brother really can’t ask for a much nicer float. That was nice.
So I felt better for crushing my nose and seeing the giant groupers trapped in a tiny little cage of water a little bit… It, it got better.
We were brought to a resort that was off the tour guide’s itinerary, and you always gotta be skeptical when a tour guide says – “now I know we didn’t tell you about this, and we can’t do what we said we would do, and this is gonna cost you about the same price as you paid to get on the boat in the first place – but it’s real nice – you’ll like it!” – you know what I mean? But it was about the sweetest accident I’ve had lately. We were charged a grand total of five dollars entry – and we were welcomed on a resort that was wide, lush, had something like five connected pools, waterfalls, a transplanted historic mini-village – complete with people staffing the old store which sold homemade liqueurs, one of which was a brilliant sweetness that reminded us of mead-wine. I bought two bottles, one at first, and one more as I left, realizing I’d never see this sweet nectar again. These make the first two bottles of distilled spirits I’ve purchased in the country. I just don’t drink enough to justify it normally. These were justification is flavor. Anyhow – we decided to relax by the pool, to get some nice mixed beverages and enjoy the sunshine. There was a spot that was remote, and surrounded by poolside/a giant ancient treestump of a sculpture, and a palm grove where we decided to enjoy our remaining time there – it was good. Very relaxing. The old buildings were also beautiful. Everything was hand-carved, had signage in both Vietnamese and English, and even then, the font was an elegant script carved in wood and inlay-painted in a way that added to the clear thoughtfulness that went along with the installation. In all, it was a very impressive experience.
So then we left with the goal of finding seafood and good wine – and you know the result of that already. Nha Trang was a hit, without a doubt. I had to get back to Saigon for work Wednesday morning, so we spent the day of Tuesday on a 12 hour busride back. I jammed a little music with some kids in the evening, took a nap, woke, taught, came back, and finally let my hair down.
She and I later got another epic meal that I will only say was probably one of the greatest meals I’ve ever had and leave it at that.
Okay – I won’t. First, we walk in, the owner recognizes me, Crystal recognizes the wine, I recognized the freshly made noodles on the menu. We were all in concert. She picked the wine, we both picked a pasta, and the owner rounded out the edges like a champ! He started off by sending a mozzarella and rosemary thin crust pizza to our table while we waited for our meals, and when they arrived, oh my god, so brilliant!
She had the lobster and crab ravioli in the king prawn sauce, I had the lasagnette (think linguine) with a cream and salmon sauce that was simply brilliant! We ordered more wine, and enjoyed the time it took to eat the food with conversation about life, living on the planet and the flavors in our mouths. We decided to have desert, and the man sent over Lemoncello to go with the mousse that we ordered. We enjoyed it easily, and as the mousse lasted longer than the drinks, he sent over snifters of amaretto with one piece of ice, it was epic. So we simply reveled in it beyond comment – which was lucky for us, because as we were ready to leave, he was nowhere to be seen. Saw the chef on the way out – told him thanks – and made it home a bit late, but not too much so to wake again in the morning to teach the gaggle of tenth graders that are both a joy and my bread and butter.
Good thing she’s gone off to the Me Kong Delta – I’d have too much fun if she was around – wouldn’t be able to retain my emo lifestyle. Thank goodness for Johnny Cash on the music box. I can sit and think back a bit. Once in a while, along the way, life’s been good to me. No mosquitoes today.
