After sadly parting ways with our guys, we settled in and ventured out for a walk along the beach. Marj saw this Louisiana restaurant, named La Louisiana, on the map and wanted to go check it out, her being from Louisiana and all. We got there and well, it was everything except Louisiana. You could get Vietnamese food, English food, burgers/fries, Chinese food, shakes, some seafood stuff and the whole nine, the only thing it was missing was some Cajun style food. What I imagine Louisiana to look like does not include classy, fancy pants rich folk eating on fine china and I had a hometown gal with me to confirm, so we moved on to bigger and better. That being a little canteen style whole in the wall serving vegetarian Vietnamese for less than $1 a plate....yes, that's more my style. We met this really great couple from San Francisco; the man had lived in Vietnam until he was 10 and had been in the states since (he was 45 years old), but still spoke Vietnamese fluently and so it was particularly great to hear about their experience here. He had a few great opportunities to bust out his language skills when people were planning out some scams and shit, priceless!
Marj was headed off to bed and I decided to stroll around the city and grab a beer. As much as I like going out with others, I really enjoying going out by myself sometimes because you often meet really cool people. Bar one, I met the Australian Manager who was nice but a little too arrogant for my taste and so we had chatted a bit and then I carried on. Passed a bunch of bars that were packed with big groups and weren't appealing for me, as a party of one, and then I approached a bar with a guy out front giving out free shots. Well, cheers to you, thanks guy. Then he hands me a ticket for a free vodka drink and tells me to go have a good time. Well, don't mind if I do....a girl on a budget can't turn down a free drink. The adorable Vietnamese-all-man staff seat me and say "all alone?" to which I reply with a " yep" and a little chuckle for the kind reminder. I sit down and I was one of those annoying people on their iPad the whole time, debating on getting a drink I had to pay for. I have to admit, I kind of gave into the staff peer pressure and bought another one for fear of seeming like a mooch. As I put my iPad down, 3 guys sit down next to me and we instantly were besties. They began by teasing me about America and when I didn't get offended and joined in the joking instead, they said that I was good to go....gee, glad i passed your test! Don't worry, we teased plenty about Sweden as well and just had a good time talking and dancing the night away. They had told me they were in a band and their ages ranged from mid to late 20's - we had a number of conversations revolving around their band and I got all into it, trying to convince them to make me their manager. Later, when they walked me home, they told me they had been joking with me the whole time - they were not in a band and their ages ranged from 20 - 21. Why is it so hard to find people my age AND how do I keep running into these guys who bust my chops like this? (Remember the boys in the Philippines who told us their friend was running for governor as he smoked his joint?!) I figured, eh, just semantics...either way I got met some cool people and got my night of dancing in!
The next day, I overslept by like, a lot of hours. So we spent the afternoon strolling around on bikes, I went for a nice evening run along the beach, and Marj and I got some Indian food for dinner. On the walk home we passed a few of these little restaurants that had tons of men hanging out watching a soccer game. I have yet to speak of these cute little plastic tables and chairs that most of the traditional Vietnamese places have as their seating option. When you have coffee or a meal, you are sitting on something similar to an American kids "house" set up. I'm obsessed with it and find it so charming. At these places, it's usually men sitting around drinking coffee, beers and smoking cigarettes. Marj and I have no idea when anybody works because these places are packed all day and night, typically with men. Either way, I had been wanting to sit and hang with the guys at a mini table since I arrived. We thought it was cute having stumbled upon a scene similar to men watching football at a bar in America, but different at the same time. Marj went next door to watch tennis with this cute old guy and as they cheered away, I sat my hiney down on a mini chair not knowing if I'd ever have this chance again. I didn't order a beer but just sat, watched the game and chatted with this young guy who spoke English pretty well. We left shortly after and I felt very satisfied.
The next day we walked to a well-known pagoda/temple in the city. Because vegetarianism is the way of life for the monks, there was a veggie restaurant associated with the pagoda, that I can't lie, was the big draw for me. The pagoda was quite nice and the lotus salad I got after didn't disappoint either. We finally were coming across more bakeries and so I picked up a few baked goods to sample the local cuisine and in memory of my times with Erin in the Philippines. We hung out and relaxed on the beach until our over night sleeper bus came to pick us up at our hotel. The bus companies usually have an option of sitting or sleeping, which consists of actual beds. The sitting is cheaper so that's what we chose leaving Saigon, but we didn't have an option leaving Nha Trang, which was cool because we'd been curious about it. It was a much better night sleep and we woke up the next morning in Hoi an, refreshed and ready.
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