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Other entries in Nha Trang

Ice Cream Saves the Day

In my last journal, i was expressing my disappointment with this country and its people's attitudes and behavior towards we foreigners. i still hold some of those thoughts but have had some better experiences since then, and therefore can relate some more positive thoughts.

we wanted to see more of the "real" vietnam after being carted from one tourist town to another on a bus route more popular with tourists than the lonely planet books. so we did the simple and most obvious thing: we went to a beach resort owned by a Canadian. its called Jungle Beach and sits about 60 km north of Nha Trang on an isolated penisula in the South China Sea. this man, Sylvio, had opened up this resort with his Vietnamese wife 4 years ago and advertises to show people "Vietnam at a slower pace". the place is beautiful, located directly on the beach but with nothing around it except lush jungle covered mountains and the poverous, concrete homes of the nearby small village. his staff is entirely Vietnamese and speak good if not great english. included in the 15 dollar a day price are all the meals, security (which consists of a two-man shift switching off at midday the responsibility of playing guitar in the shade at the gate to the beach), and your choice of lodging (either a room attached to the main house or a thatched roof hut in the sand about 30 paces from the water). the food was incredible, served banquet style every day with a variety of dishes each set in 8 or 10 different bowls on the long table. there was always too much but no one complains. sylvio is very laid back and ensures your comfort the entire time. the guests are as varied as the cuisine but were mostly couples and families. i would HIGHLY recommend this place for someone looking to escape the clutches of modern society. this place has nothing to remind you of the 21st century and would be an ideal place for someone looking to relax with only 10 days of vacation. but for me, as a slice of vietnam, it was not what i was looking for. yes, very nice and relaxing, but we left after two nights because we werent doing anything but go to bed and wake up early, swim in the ocean, eat like pigs, and swing in hammocks. but go there if you want paradise.

we returned to Nha Trang to find the familiar hustle. we had forgotten about the dangerous roadways and hassling vendors. we had no chance to do much that day because we got in so late so we ate dinner and prepared to go out that night. we had heard this place to be chocked full of fun night activities so we bought a bottle of rice whiskey and accidently finished the entire thing. well, it was no accident, just a mistake. we were both feeling drunk before we entered our first bar. i went over to play pool with some locals and quickly learned the home rules were different than mine back home. they suggested playing for money, i had to decline. when i went back to our table, david had morphed into not one, but two vietnamese men. so i went in search of my departed friend and found him no where in the entire building. after about 20 minutes of looking for him, i assumed he had gotten the drunken idea to go to another bar we had been to a few nights earlier. i angrily walked in the direction of the bar and was soon followed and approached by a prostitute on a motorbike. she basically paraphrased the prostitute lines from "Full Metal Jacket" so if you want to know what she said, watch that first scene from the Vietnam half of the movie when the guy gets his camera stolen. hell, you should just watch that movie anyway cause its great. david wasnt in the other bar so i bought a beer and walked out to find internet to write some alcohol-inspired emails. i was approached by another prostitute on a motorbike and this one actually dismounted and grabbed my arm and dragged me to the sidewalk for a frank discussion. for curiosity's sake, i stood there and listened to her pitch and found it not at all enticing especially with her "hands on" approach at negotiating. i said goodbye, got a baguet, and went back to the hotel. david stumbled in about 30 minutes later but it wasnt until this morning that i got a full account of his evening. he had apparently gone down to the beach next to the bar to lay down because he pretty drunk and thats why i missed him. he said he also had similar experiences with prostitutes on motorbikes. lesson learned here: if youre going to finish an entire bottle of rice whiskey, at least recruit one more person.

today we woke up and had a lazy day. david is still recovering from a stomach bug and i contracted some sort of hideous but not contageous rash that covers some parts of my body. so we are both in a bit of recovery. we used to internet far too long and then made our plan for the remainder of vietnam. we will take the bus tomorrow morning to Muine and then the next day take it to Saigon. there we will spend about 4 days before we leave for Calcutta.

we did do a few things of note today, however. we hired motorbikes to take us to a local pagoda which contained a 24 m tall statue of Buddha. the pagoda was amazingly beautiful and detailed. two girls who were apparently students there met and accompanied us thru the the grounds. they helped point out some of the smaller details, then they asked us to buy postcards. but the buddha was grand and looked to be about 24 m tall. we also found a great view of the entire city. on our walk home, we went into a photography gallery of Vietnams most famous photographer, Long Thanh. website: www.elephantguide.com/photographer/longthanh.htm. all of his pictures were great, but many of them were in fact moving. i was very impressed. we continued our stroll and i spotted some words i thought i recognized as a meal i had been craving. but david wasnt hungry yet for dinner so we continued to walk. around the corner we came upon an ice cream spot and the child wanted ice cream. but that would ruin his appetite for dinner so i had to put my foot down. but then he came up with an idea that would make all parties happy. we would eat now at the place i had wanted to and then we could get ice cream afterward at this place. i found it humerous that 3 minutes prior he wasnt hungry but then the prospect of ice cream changed his mind. we went inside the open air restaurant and sat on red plastic stools around a clustered table. we had to choose from four options written in vietnamese on a chalk board on the wall. we went with what i had recognized and the meal was one of my favorites of the entire trip. the meat (which david thinks was dog) was tender and flavorful and the sauces provided for the meal were perfect. after dinner we went to the ice cream place and after finishing our cups, had a postcard draft to divide the 10 postcards we had bought from the pagoda girls. a postcard draft follows simple rules. rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets first pick, and then the choosing trades off until all 10 are in their new owners hands. there is a certain strategy to the draft in that you cant show too much interest in the ones you want to save for later picks because that always leads to the other wanting those as well. so most internal debating is done with the faces of the cards showing only to the chooser. at the end of the draft, both parties eventually praise their own triumphs in the competition. i, of course, won this latest session of the postcard draft.

but the reason that ice cream saved the day was this: we found the area around the pagoda, photo gallery, dog eatery, and ice cream shop to be really quite pleasant. it was quiet, peaceful, and without the stress and hassle of the more touristy area near our hotel. we were two of very few foreigners and walking through the streets made me feel happy and relaxed. we didnt know where we were exactly or how to get home, but we eventually did, and it was getting lost in an off-the-tourist-radar part of the city that led us to these many enjoyable experiences. so remember, if youre ever in need of help, ice cream will save the day.

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