Crackers?

A lot of life in Vietnam is sort of hurtling towards death. I don't just mean the motorcycles - though that's an obvious example.  Consider rather the demented bloody-minded ants who are thriving precariously on my kitchen bench.

Or the enormous, at least seven centimeters long, oily cockroach - whose rattling feet are audible on the tiles  even to me* - who was just sitting in the corridor outside my place this morning, waiting for someone to tromp on him.

Yesterday there was a lot of commotion around the canal - and a lot of people fishing too.  Overnight, someone had dumped A LOT of golden fishes - little ones, and great big ones and schools of them in all the sizes in between - into the murky waters.  And they swam! 

It's always surprising when someone pulls a live, usually quite menacing looking, fish out of the canal.  Just looking at that water I imagine that any organic material would dissolve on contact.  These fish were so alive yesterday that they attracted a crowd.  And this morning they were there still, swimming. Mr D slowed down so we could get a good gawk over the side of the bridge. 

What does goldfish taste like, anyway?

*Reverse cookie bite - look it up if you know me in real life.

Weird things people say

This morning somebody said to me:

"Wow!  Nice tan!"

And I went, Really?

And he went, "Yeah - your weekend really betrays you!"



I can only assume he was being sarcastic (though his demeanor didn't suggest as much).  I don't have a tan. I have what the Melanoma Foundation calls skin type 1: pale, freckly, always burns.  I've never had a tan in my life.

Furthermore, my weekend was spent either indoors at the shopping mall or indoors at home. I didn't do anything remotely interesting (hooray!).

What I think he was actually reacting to was the fact that today  I'm wearing no makeup (mascara is not makeup), and this is unusual on a weekday for me.  It's not a tan, it's a natural glow...

Robble robble!

What do I have to say about Saigon today?

This morning on my motorbike commute to work I was reminded yet again about how much driving in Saigon is like being in a video game. You get points for starting at the intersection exactly 3 seconds before the light turns green, and lose points every time your foot touches the ground*.

Last weekend we went to Mui Ne, finally.  If you discount Vung Tau, it's the closest beach resort town to Saigon - and one of its most redeeming features is that you can get there on the train in only 3.5 hours.

Mr Martin says the train is OK

That's Damon sitting next to Mr Martin, there.  You may remember him from such early blog posts as this one.  We had a visit! Damon and Lynne enjoyed Mui Ne too...

At the Russian restaurant, listening to the smooth tones of a Vietnamese one man band rendition of Tie A Yellow Ribbon...

Apparently there's a beach at Mui Ne.  I did catch a glimpse of said beach, but I was too busy trying to dissolve myself in the swimming pool** to be bothered with dry land, even of the sandy variety.  Oh, and they very kindly put a spa pool on our deck at the resort...

Mr Martin says the pool is OK, too...

Because it was a bit of last minute decision to go to Mui Ne, the only train that still had seats left to bring us home on Sunday night was the 10:35 pm one.  Which would have got in at around 2:30 am, and factor in another half hour to get home from the station would have equalled a very late school night indeed.  So we hired a car and driver instead - and I can recommend Saigon2MuiNedotcom if this is the kind of thing you'd be interested in pursuing.  It only cost $105, which divided between 4 of us was a bargain, and it was a really nice car and the driver drove as safely as he reasonably could.

Which leads me to: Vietnam's roads are such a nightmare.  We saw the aftermath of two different crashes on our way - both involving trucks and motorcycles, and neither I think resulting in positive outcomes for the motorcyclists.  As in - I'm pretty certain that at least 4 people died on the same road we were travelling in our comfortable car.  And I'm very grateful that we are so rich that we don't have to ride motorcycles on the highways.

Vietnam's roads explain some of Vietnam's religious practices perfectly:

 This from the street corner outside our apartment building.

*Mr D had to put his foot on the ground for - oh, about a millisecond? He was VERY ANNOYED about it, and emitted a small grunt.

**I DID manage to dissolve my sunglasses so that the cheap black plastic stuck to my face and I looked like the Hamburgler - but that's another story...