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Published: October 13th 2008
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Its about noon, on a Thursday, not that that actually matters. The weather in Chengdu has improved for my return from Qingdao, welcoming me back to perhaps my favourite city in all of China. The sun is out and bright, the sky is miraculously blue, it is hot. Hank and I are sitting out in our mong spot, out on the roof of our hostel. We are in tank tops (though mine is laying on the ground) sitting on rotten old wicker chairs that will barely support our weight. An old green tar can, leftover from blacktopping the roof, serves as our table. At the moment this is covered with a variety of delicacies from the pig: pig's tongue (my favourite), Pigs tail, and pigs snout/face with of course la jiao (spice) sprinkled into the little plastic baggies that holds them. Our beers hide in the shade of this green can and the energetic funkysounds of ZZ top "blast" from Hank's Sony Erricson mobile phone. After the week-long beer quaffing rush that was Qingdao, this is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered.
We are slighty stoned, we've already "pigged-out", and both of us are leaning back just enjoying what will likely be the last hot sunny day that Chengdu will see this side of the approaching winter. We talk of travel and soon drift off lost in our own thoughts. Mine, as usual, drifts off to what the future might hold... and to Vietnam.
I have a fantasy in my head of living in a nice, dry, cool apartment right near the beach in a small town in southern Vietnam. I am working as a windsurfing instructor, getting into great shape again and earning a fantastic tan... Life is slow here, and easy. My islandboy roots are back in good form and I feel every bit back in my element. Mornings I get up earlyish, write a little over a cup of coffee, catch up on the news, study a little chinese, vietnamese, spanish or french, and then go for a run on the beach, spending a long time strecthing out after and meditating. I rinse off in the ocean before heading back down the beach to work. On the way to work I stop off for breakfast at my usual spot, saying a warm good morning in vietnamese to the owner and the other regulars. At work its the same old same old. Different tourists, different wind.
When things are slow, I get a chance to take a rig out on the water myself. I pickout my gear and carry it down to the warm clear blue waters, working with the wind, not against it. Luffing out the sail I get my foot on the board and am soon planing across the chop, slightly upwind... The weather is perfect, I feel the sun on my shoulders and (forgive the cliche) the wind in my hair and my heart is carried back to my old island home and the simple esctatic joy of the 17 year old enjoying his Sunday in just this way. Now, I do it for a living.
As if that thought were a cue, I sheet-in and point my board downwind, instantly the chilled-out easy planing is replaced with a jolt of adrenaline as I suddenly lurch forward ,flying across the water... feeling, as I always do, like I'm on the edge of control. I let yet out a shout of pure, childish joy as I hit a bit of chop and launch into the air for those infinite weightless seconds. As my board hits the water again I nearly lose control as the back of my board trys to skid out from under me. I drag it back in though and regain my speed. Then, after executing a perfectly seamless jybe, I shoot back to the beach, one hand is on the boom and the other is reaching out and dragging in the perfect water creating a white shimmering spray behind me. I savour the feel of the water... this water is like fuel for the soul.
Evenings in Vietnam are just as relaxed. I can either meet up with my coworkers and/or the day's tourists in the local bar, in fact I help out there one night a week and am good friends with the owner. I keep a tab that I pay off once a week. Otherwise I head home to write, to listen to some long forgotten music, to cook dinner for the fun of it with my beautiful girlfriend, to smoke a small spliff and read...
Life isn't stressful here, it isn't expensive, and time is more abundant and easy going. I relish the opportunity to explore the other things in life that I enjoy. My job is simple and enjoyable and so I don't come home mentally wasted from four walls and a computer screen. My life is simple... true, but the simplicity of it is so... healing. Happiness and contentment abound...
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My phone rings, its LuXi telling me to hurry up so we can go to the bank. I return to reality. I am back on the roof, back in Chengdu, and back on the road... I finish my beer and get up.
Vietnam will just have to wait.
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