7 Beach, dead electronics, off to the countryside

5/14/09

BEACH! The island Vung Tua

Didn’t write about it in the notebook, so my timeline was screwed up, 5/14/09 was written in retrospect, sorta, and ….etc.

Beach was good, got burnt, way too burnt. You gotta pay 10.000 for a shower, ate awesome food, apparently we only went because I was (rightly) bitching to get the fucking out of the house, but I guess I was obligated to buy lunch…coo. I’m fine with that, Sammie just brings things up like I should have known..she’ll jabber to me in Vietnamese sometimes, so she probably just assumes I know whats going on, haha.

Prior to leaving had some sugar cane..awesome stuff

5/15/09 Is the VietCong plotting against me?!

THE NORTH RISES! (?)

Watching Southpark (seasons 1-12, for $12) HA! I got The Soprano’s 1-5, Sammie got the aforementioned SouthPark, The L Word (“Ahhh yes ma’’’m we haf L Wahd raht thear! SIR! Please look at deese DvD’s! Prease Rook!”) Spent a lot of Vietnamese money, 700.000, which is $30-40 ($38 via this cpu’s calculator). Had a break using the CPU, but the VietfuckingCONG, er Voltage, is killing my USA devices. Like pungi sticks in the muck..ahhhhk.

Victim 1: small 2” fan, fried really after the first night

Victim 2: (the final?!) $30 fucking router from WalMart was BRUTALLY murdered in broad daylight at 10 AM, which is like 2PM US time (as I wake at 9-10AM in the US). The router, after much lamenting over by my overheated brain worked for 2-3 days after my buckets of sweat and confusion over TCP/IP protocols and other silly things…randomly quit. No smell like a burning…anything, just..FRIED! HAHAHAHAHHAHAH. All this stupid work (new cord, power adapter, time wasted) and it just quits. The voltage here is 110, but I can’t even remember the US. The family here has a big 1×2ft box which has 4 different voltages, but, the poor router was fried. At least I got up some pictures to facebook..I’m more worried about something stupid happening to my laptop and losing pictures then anything else (as I’ve had to empty my camera a few times, good video).

I pray for my laptop and camera-battery charger…pray.

I think the US is 120 / 240, but that sounds weird, more like it IS 110 / 220, but, who knows.

Beach I got SO fucking sunburnt yesterday, and have patchword spots of intense (1^st or less, wait, is that right? Is 3^rd the worst? I can’t believe I don’t remember..anyway, NON blister, which is 2^nd, so…must be, LESS then a 3^rd, anyway, I’m looking for the LESS then the lightest of the graded degreed burns, lol). Yet, my clothing hurts like crazy.

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Its amazing when you can sit in a chair (no padding of course, makes it too hot, hence why great aunties will sleep on the tiled floor) and begin to sweat more profusely then if you ran some tabata interval sprints..blah. Fucking loony.

It started raining, and though it “feels” cooler (temp stays the same on the surface of things), the humidity bombs you into oblivion, sweating your cloths literally almost wet to the touch.

Why do I suck so many years now (5) at putting on sunscreen? Silliness, but it makes a good story (and some silly photo’s).

We took a cab, then a old-plane converted boat thing to this island (sammie’s got it on her facebook, the name at least), and had a blast on the beach.

We frolicked, scandalized the uncles and cousin (hot) when Sammie “did my back,” which is STUPIDLY the only fucking spot without weird severe burns…

Put Sammie on my shoulders, which was hilarious, dived into pounding waves, etc.

Salty ocean, VERY dirty beach, the food was crazy good though. But, the next morning I was dead in the guts. More on that later…

Walked around along the beach by my lonesome for a bit, saw two white people (HI GREG AND JACK!) mostly got weird stares, took some pictures of this awesome island…now HERE is where I’d want to live in Vietnam, much cooler with the ocean breeze, even if Puerta Vallarta kills its water..I guess “The Island” is a 4 hour drive out from Sammie’s place, and that’s where some actual clear-water and less salty intense ocean’s lie in Vietnam.

The lunch was only ~300.000 or something, and as I said, I treated them all (hah) which is fine. We grabbed some coffee, then more as we missed the boat “to hang out” as the uncle said, but he had to grab some crazy crab and non-crab (weird spotted thingers, Sammie doesn’t know what they are called, but they have a more intense crab-flavor and are smaller).

Sammie bought me and her a smoothie later, and her uncles freaked out “WHOSE MONEY IS THAT!??!!?” lol. Little princess is definitely encapsulated within a nice bubble.

I think the hubby (of aunti) uncle wanted to drink, but we both collapsed..the boat ride is an hour ride, and we were both dehydrated from the trip.

Did I ever mention I probably drink more water then this entire FAMILY daily? Its weird, no one drinks water out here…granted they never have any ice, so I’m used to having warm water…but jesus, the sheer volume of water you lose just by SITTING on your ass is amazing, much less doing anything laborious..which I would hate to do in this humidity. I’d need my goddamn black pajama’s with silk underwear or something…

5/16/09

Hrmnmmm I’m missing a day. I know ONE entire day went between the Country and the Beach…so I think Sammie is just off saying we left on the 16^th…I believe we left for the countrsyside on the 17^th.

Anyway, I was sick as a dog later this morning: we had some awesome green’s, which is pretty pricey in the US I guess, but easy as dirt to get here, but it had a field day with my intestines. Muai Thai on my guts please, thx in advance.

 

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Some knockoffs, and “expensive” $25 ish (425.000 ish) sake..which we drink on the last day.

I guess Sammie’s mom got sick later too, so were blaming breakfast, plus all the mixing from the beach (lots of different shell fish, which I’m not used to anyway). Got some ginger tea, pepto bismo tablets, and ate some tums I found…didn’t do SHIT all day, I don’t think?

Just packed probably. (Wait, I think we did leave the 16^th, were just there a day)

Scaring the Auntie..

 

Dinner was some good crab (and a crab variation, smaller, spotted and more potent (good) taste), prawns, bamboo shoot soup with some excellent fish..I MISS Vietnamese food so much, its insanity.

5/16/09 OFF to the Countryside! (the Bush)

Written in retrospect (still confused on the days, where one day I was very sick in the morning, then the next morning we left for the Country…THAT ALL could have been the 15^th…[EDIT, I figured it out writing about it later…16^th is when we left FOR the countryside in the early morning, then left THE countryside the 17^th the next day)

5:30 AM No breakfast (time for), just grabbed some sub sandwitches which have: some veggies, pork, some other fatty meat and mayonnaise.

Cab .5 hour

Bus 2 hours

Read up on the rest on the 17^th :D