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Published: August 24th 2007
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Lunch Time at the Beach
Tracy does tummy exercises before we eat our shrimp. With such a long trip, things can't go on perfectly forever. Especialy during a time when you are racing around to try to pack as much fun into a short amount of time as possible. It's bound to happen that people get sick, timetables change, and unavoidable things can happen with transportation. All you can do is roll with the punches and hope to get back on track soon.
In Nha Trang is when things finally began to catch up.
At first we were having a blast. Since we didn't have time to make it to an island, this was our beach bum time. During the day we would pick out chairs laid out with long pillows, get a round of beers, and wait for the food to come to us. Women covered from head to toe to protect themselves from the sun would constantly walk by. They had mangos, bananas, and pineapples, offering "special" prices for whatever part of the day it was. Once we had made our selection, the seafood ladies would approach, offering piles of freshly caught shrimp, crabs, and sometimes lobster. Because of the size, we would agree on two shrimp apiece, bargian for the
Freshly Prepared
Charcoal grilled to order. price, then sit back as the lady began to fan the coals. While they were grilled before us, a sauce was quickly made of fresh lime, fish sauce, chilis, and black pepper. Delicious. More beers were ordered and we would spend the rest of the day fighting off massage ladies and girls selling mentos.
This didn't always work out. Ryan and I made a return from a trip to the ATM one afternoon to find Suzanne pinned down by 3 Vietnamese women. She had been talked into "threading"; a process where a string is tied into a special knot and then used to pull out hair in long rows. Suz had agreed to let the women thread her armpits. Since she had just shaved the day before, the ladies didn't have much to work with, but rather than let the business pass by, they did the best they could. One woman pinned Suz's arms over her head and held her down while the other two attempted to yank the short hairs in her armpits out with string. Judging by the panicked look in her eye, and her continued yelps, it appeared that while the process was entertaining for us,
Salt Farm
The scenic salt flats outside Nha Trang it wasn't very enjoyable for Suzanne.
The beach was nice to lay out on, but the water was terribly polluted with trash. While cooling off in the water, we would frequently freak out when something would grip our leg, only to find out that it was yet another plastic bag. In an effort to escape this and the eyesore of a shoreline it created, we rented motobikes to search for the rumored clean beaches a little farther north of Nha Trang. We explored the highway on the first day, and somewhere back in the city I was suddenly overcome with nausea. Not like the slight sickness you get from the constant breathing in of diesel fumes in Vietnam, but the I-gotta-go-home-and-lie-down version.
Once I had returned to the room I was done. I broke out in fever to the point of mild hallucination and tried to take my mind off the nausea with some equally nauseatingly bad television. Suz's illness in Hanoi had managed to claim another victim. I had just 7 hours to get better, because it was going to be another all-night bus ride to Saigon that evening. When the time came to catch the bus,
First Timer
Tracy cruises the highway. I limped downstairs and prepared myself for what would undoubtebly be the worst ride of my life. I could only pray for sleep to come once the ride began.
It became a moot point when I loudly sprayed chunks all over the lobby bathroom.
The hotel was nice enough to reschedule our bus ride for the next day, with the hopes that my fever would break by then. I spent the night drifting in and out my own delusions while the rest of the crew partied in the upgraded "penthouse suite" that Ryan and Tracy had acquired on the top floor. Suz came down to check on me occasionally, only to finding me picking at a grain of sand in the bed completely convinced it was a bedbug.
The next day I continued to fight off my diminishing fever while the group headed out. They rented motorbikes and explored the northern beaches, finding blue water and clean beaches inbetween amazingly large salt farms. Tracy was riding solo; crawling along and trying to keep up with Ryan's new found love for speed, but still happy at the thrill of the coastal highway ride. The scenery was gorgeous around
the salt flats. Workers would open up parts of the coast to the waves, then shut them off to trap the seawater which would then be dried by the sun. Piles of sea salt stood like white monuments to the backdrop of the mountains they emulated. Two or three times their journey was interupted by cattle crossing the road, allowing them time to look around and take in the ancient Vietnamese way of life.
We made our trip that night to Saigon with me managing not to get sick on the bus ride. Early the next morning we were dropped off in a large park, surrounded by the elderly of South Vietnam doing exercises and practicing badminton. Short on time from missing the previous day, we ate a quick breakfast and stared at the spectacle of women in their 60's doing pelvic thrusts and throwing their arms around. By the time high-noon rolled around, we were waiting with the masses at an incredibly hot and sweaty Saigon airport. Waiting to exchange money for Cambodia, I felt as if my skin was going to melt off and slide down the storm drain. At least it took my mind off my
Pretty Beach
The OTHER beach in Nha Trang 48 hour flu.
We boarded the plane and settled in for the short journey to Phnom Penh. Once in the air, with the iPod going, I noticed that the plane was in a sharp turn. At first it seemed like the plane was only headed back the other way, but after another 30 seconds, it was obvious that we were circling. Many other passengers noticed as well, and a quiet murmur began to grow louder in the aircraft as people gazed out the window looking for some kind of answer....
The stewardess came on over the loudspeaker: "Ladies and gentlemen, this aircraft will now be returning to Saigon due to technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvienience."
Now I don't know about you, but the words "technical difficulties" is right up there with "fire!", and "brace yourself!", on the list of things that I don't ever want to hear come out of an airplane loudspeaker. All I thought about was the Jetblue flight that I saw on TV that had to land with it's front landing gear turned sideways. But based on the slow and steady approach back to the runway, and the calm demeanor of the
Saigon Airport
I would have thought I was at a really popular sauna if it wasn't for the planes. flight attendants, I figured that it was nothing
too serious.....maybe just a severe shortage of peanuts or something.
We landed with a bumping noise and a slight rattling of the airplane. Nobody would answer us as to what was wrong with the plane, but we had a full escort of emergency vehicles and our own parking space that was suspiciously far away from the terminal. I could swear I saw a flat tire when we disembarked.
An amazing 2 hours later and we were back on another flight. We were kept in the dark as to what happened, but I can't say enough good things about how quickly Vietnam Airlines got us back up in the air. Even with the events of the last few days, we were a little late, but still on schedule with our trip. Now I just needed a new pair of underwear.
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railay1
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one of the wittiest blogs on here in ages