nha trang - in an octopus' garden, in the shade, day 7

i beat the wake up call and have a breakfast and walk to coco diving company. run by ludo, a funny man from luxembourg and very knowledgeable instructor. along with us are 2 swedish ladies, karin and linn, who are traveling an extensive trip after graduating high school. we are immediately off to the island of koh mun and i go through the basics with a frenchman named ben with sharon. they take care of most of the movement on this first dive and i like to think it came very naturally to me.

in short, diving is a completely different world. the colors are so visceral and iridescent, sometimes, i think my eyes are tricking me. diving beats the living daylights out of snorkling! sure, it's more expensive, but to witness the gift of depth and not hurrying yourself while you are down there, you really experience the ocean for what it is. to me snorkling has become similar to reading about the moon and diving is landing on the moon and picking up some moon dust and showering yourself in it. the clarity is absolutely amazing and despite the fact ben is literally pushing me everywhere, the first dive blew my eardrums and mind. we have a little baguette lunch and then talk about the upcoming dive on a different site. this dive, my handler was the vietnamese gentlemen, whose name i forget. on top of pushing me around underwater, he is in charge of the underwater photos, so he is really relaxed about letting me go on my own. it's astounding to me how peaceful and calm i am when i'm underwater. the amount of energy necessary to maneuver is extremely low. the other awesome thing about diving is the hand signals. obviously, my accent is difficult to understand underwater, so they have sign language to communicate universally. the 'ok' sign, which is completely derogatory in brazil, means ok with a question mark and can be used as the response to the question. thumbs up is go up, down is go down, wishy-washy is something isn't good and you point to your ears or goggles; my favorite is the madonna-esque 'like a virgin' pose which signifies you are cold. the water is like bathwater, but at times cold currents come through and they can actually be freezing! the body can go into hypothermia at 95 degrees and you dissipates heat 25 times faster than in the air.

after the dive, the salesman at the shop recommends we go get a massage with the blind. apparently they think vietnamese massages are better than ones in thailand. i politely disagree. i've got a high pain tolerance when it comes to deep tissue massage, but this was a different story. the masseuse put thumbs into the small of my back and if i could have swiveled my head 180, i'd bet i'd see a handstand. my 14th vertebrae thanks you heaps.

i've been pretty accommodating to sharon's vegetarianism. she isn't my girlfriend; she's just someone i ran into on the plane who was headed the same direction. i don't think you can get a good feel for the food in vietnam if you stick to vegetarian food either. she starts in about how we won't stop being cruel to other humans until we stop eating animals and i decide to play devil's advocate akin to my philosophy days in college. i tell her that something must die for us to live, (she could have given the example of fruit in hindsight, but that's not enough to live on), and she can't come back with an actual argument other than you can't see/hear plants suffer. i can tell i've struck a nerve though.

nha trang beach with the locals

sharon is pretty eager to travel to dalat, and although it's close, i want to have another dive so i am certified. she makes a couple of weak arguments and i don't relent. i guess that was that and she headed up to dalat and i stayed in nha trang. safe travels, that's all you can wish a fellow traveler when you part ways.

i then go back to the hotel, shower up and go out for dinner. this night, a guy at a electronics booth convinces me to eat at the indian restaurant adjacent to his shop. i ask if it's really that good or if he gets a cut. he concedes it's a bit of both, as when he gets a diner to go there, he gets a free meal. i try it out and wasn't disappointed. i had the tikki masalla (sp? jay?) and it had lovely smokey flavor. sadly the nan was bland and buttery. onward to the sailing club, a dance party on the beach. it's pretty wild out there. i did hear of a fight this night and saw a fight the next.

the club is situated directly on the beach with a huge bonfire and fire twirlers. they specialize with drinks in buckets and they are cheap and strong. the dance floor gets loaded even though the decibel level is similar to what i imagine the who's concert where most of the audience and pete townsend went deaf. i'm getting used to these beach dancing anthems and it's good fun. i met an aussie dad taking his son on a trip around vietnam. we laughed and watched his blitzed son try aggressive dancing to lure a partner. i went out to take in the bonfire more and got asked to sit at a table with some girls, within the first three questions a not-so-meek hint escapes, 'you have money?'. yeah sweety... but not for you. walking home as a single guy in nha trang is physically and mentally challenging. their blocks give vegas a run for the money and on the way home, a solo gentleman of my stature is propositioned for 'ladies', coke, x and marijuana at least a half dozen times. the best thing to do is ignore them and keep walking. they don't seem to understand the word 'no,' even if it's in vietnamese.

i still have to study for my test, so i stay up really late and watch the dvd ludo gave me. then i pass out reading the book.

nha trang - beach bummer? no way! day 6

i've truly been lucky that i keep getting wake up calls on time. even though i usually habitually wake up before they manage to call me.

i organize a cab to danang and have another regrettable breakfast at the hotel.i befriend two vancouverites in search of a chiller beach than nha trang randomly. duffy and lindsay are traveling a bit and lindsay is on the same search as myself. as my conversations run, it can be a bit of a time trial to see how long i last without talking about music. it turns out randomly, duffy is in a band who my roommate matt's buddy recommended to me ages ago called ladyhawke. small world indeed. they are very nice and i thoroughly enjoyed chatting with them. they gift me some tips and are off at nha trang's airport north. 

as luck has it, an israeli living in rome named sharon saddles up next to me on the plane and we decide to be travel buddies since she is alone too. besides hinting at being a hardcore vegetarian, convinces me i should try diving in nha trang. after chilling out on the beach, she spends quite a bit of time looking up vegetarian restaurants and we look for diving shops. for lunch, the meal was cold and regrettable, but dinner was fantastic as i got a claypot meal; my favorite dishes in vietnam. we stroll around and find the diving shop and set up the dive. we then head out to a local bar, the red apple club, which would be at home in any city in america with free shots and an aussie promoter. i've been watching what i drink as i've been traveling alone. since we are getting up early, we shove off around 12:30ish to be rested for our virgin dives.

upon the walk home, i'm accosted by motorbike after motorbike, (moto!), pedalling ladies and drugs. they followed me for blocks some times and it was a little disturbing because i was alone, but i feel pretty safe in vietnam. 

tomorrow jacques stevso? zizzous?

hoi an - part deux, day 5

6am, another mind melting, sunny day in hoi an. i love the sun, but i'm beginning to believe it's only goal is to turn my pasty white physique to a lobster red shade I've only seen worn by dad after forgetting to apply sunblock in brazil under an umbrella. after a forgettable breakfast at the hotel of a bagette and boiled eggs, i start another stroll around town. it is short lived as i stop to wipe the sweat from my brow with an ice cold beer. to my surprise i run into the first south american on my trip. jineth is from colombia and interestingly enough, she is wanting to tour the marble mountains so we walk over to quyen, who breaks into his usual spiel and apparently doesn't remember we arranged a bike for the day. he told me he is a veteran of the vietnam war and was on the american's side. he promises to find another easy rider for her, and i'm supposed to be back by 12.






 

food, sometimes we consume it, sometimes it consumes us. while enjoying my fried duck stuffed with shrimp and i got chitchatting with some parisians, time flew by. i really don't recommend running, or many other activities, for that point, in 34 degree weather with insane humidity. a human stuffed with a duck, stuffed with shrimp usually maintains a landspeed of 2 mph, but i managed to kick it up a notch and squeezed at least 3mph out of my greasy duck fuel and was only 15 minutes late.

riding cyclos in vietnam has freaked me out, rightfully so, as they bomb the opposite direction in hanoi, obey no stop signs, wear no helmets and strap gear equivalent to space shuttles on their backs. easy riders have a much better rep, authentic ones at least. i was pleasantly surprised at quyen's ability to maneuver, even if the traffic wasn't a tenth as dense as hanoi. he pointed out weddings and buildings of note as we cruised through the country side to the marble mountains.

the marble mountains are something to behold. especially the 'water' one we climbed. they even have a new elevator quite like the one i encountered in salvador, brazil for the really fat tourists. i will admit the steep steps did cause me to perspire a 125% more than usual. at the top there is a gigantic white buddha and a temple. jineth and i wonder into the caves atop the mountain first. they are huge and hold the buddha which i'm standing next to in the photo for perspective. there is another cave with an adorable pair of buddhas, one sitting and another laying down behind the sitting buddha. it's as if he is the older buddha watching over his younger buddha brotha. then we venture to the pagoda atop the hill. seeing it from the ground gives you more perspective and appreciation towards the pagoda. even though they take great care of the pagodas and temples, i don't think they feed the lions much; one tried to munch my head a little.

 
we get back down and chat the marble locals up. i thought i would be more useful in conversation due to the fact i bought granite and marble for 5 years, but their family has been at it for 100's of years. we hop back on the hogs and head into town, where we tour an important governor's house kept up by his relative proudly displaying all the instruments of his grandfather, even a casio radio which looks like it was made in 1995. he did live to be 102. i was about to try the medicine potion they had in the front but a huge group of tourists came in and we left. jineth splits and i wonder around town trying to find the night life again with some new friends of friends. dave lived in japan for a while, but is bartending and managing a restaurant in indianapolis. we strike out again and they head to bed and i meet some girls from california.

the second highlight of the day behind the mountains is when i break into the locked pool and float on my back drinking beer. since there is not much light pollution at all in vietnam, the sky is amazing. the subtle sounds of the water splashing against the edge of the pool seems to charm the astral display brighter, (eat your heart out risinger). the bad part is when my ears aren't under the water, i'm listening to these 23 year old girls talk about money and their sex lives. they work in the medicine field and are going back to school to earn more. they seem completely fixated on marrying rich and doing nothing else. they did relay trysts and infidelities which i ended up holding my breath underwater for as long as i could to drown them out, (pun intended). i finally concede and retreat to my freezing room, thanks to my overzealous airconditioning!

tomorrow, i face the town of nha trang, sharks, pirates and discos! will steve continue his travels or be eaten, plundered, or turn forever into a dancing machine? tune in shortly.