Miss Vai is the “Mother” of the Blue River Hotel, cooking breakfast, washing the clothes and all round domestic expert. She has no English and any time I have said anything more that “hello” or “thank you” in Vietnamese she shyly turns away. Today she is a little braver and laughs when she sees me put some chilli seeds from the fresh chilli on the side plate into my noodles and motions waving her hand in front of her mouth like a fan, we both laugh, “yes hot, hot” I say to more laughter. The ice is broken and a few minutes later my face is on fire. Must not touch my eyes with my fingers - Must not touch my eyes with my fingers - Must not touch my eyes with my fingers. But as I head off down the street I do – idiot!
I arrive at Anne’s she is not there. “Same same?” the other lady asks me, no I will just have coffee this morning, I am full from the Pho. Today is a free day and as well as trying to knock over a few chapters of “Zen” I am contemplating trying to get my drivers licence replaced. I need a new photo – easy enough, but I also have to go to the embassy to get a Consul to witness and certify my passport and my signature and give me an official Embassy stamp on the paperwork. As I am deciding if it is worth the effort (I could just give the cops fifty dollars if I ever needed to present it but it would be good to have another form of ID) I get a txt from Tessie, she has made a mistake and double booked me so I don’t need to go to school tomorrow – it’s like work calling to say you have a sickie – two days off, excellent! So yes I will go to the effort and it will be good to explore and visit the Embassy.
A while later entrenched in the book I hear “hello”, I look up in a daze with three quarters of my brain still in the book “hello Lan, how are you today?” “I am ok, how are you?” “I am great” she notices the postcards I bought from Hi I am using as a bookmark and says something about them “I bought them from Hi a couple of days ago” not wanting to appear biased I say “so I suppose I must buy something from you today?” she giggles, more tissues. I give her a dollar, four times what they are worth (oh yeah, like a good pimp I look after my girls, he he) she thanks me and leaves. As she walks away I glance her figure – wait – that IS Hi! I’m not completely sure what just happened and return to the book.
I head back to the room and laptop to get the details for the Embassy and call them, if I turn up at ten tomorrow morning someone will sort me out. So I head back out again to get the required photo, I stop to update Lin and Wah that I will not need a ride to work tomorrow but I will get a lift to the Embassy, partly to stem their disappointment and partly because I am lazy, I will walk back though.
I stop for lunch and a beer at Jin's street stall bar but pretty soon more loud mouth Americans come and sit too close and I can’t concentrate on the book anymore so I go back to the room for a movie to avoid the midday heat.
As I approach the room Mun is knocking on the door to deliver my clean laundry, he starts telling me excitedly about his English class last night and I ask him to come in. I have prepared a piece of paper with his new S and SH exercise, yep the old “she sells sea shells by the sea shore” when he can’t think of a word in our conversation he writes it down in the most perfect cursive and I point out how good his writing is. Enthusiastically he says “yes in my class I am number one at writing” then quieter he struggles out “but not good in pronunciation” I tell him that I will help him get better. He points out the smell in the room and I say thank you, I noticed earlier that it has been deodorised, I smoke out the window but of course it still smells in the room, tch tch. He heads back down stairs muttering “sssee ssssels sea se se shells ……”
I print out the RTA forms and head out to pick up the developed photos and get a few more chapters read. After a beer at “Le Pub” I go to the GO2, as well as the western music they have the most comfortable seats on the block. Halfway through my first drink Aikku, a young Finish girl asks to join me, she’s not really my type and I’m more interested in reading but I’ll have a chat. Halfway through our second drink after a short forray into poiltics she leads into religion (she's Christian) and I warn her “don’t get me started”. Halfway through our fourth drink I can see I have shaken her faith a little and she looks like she could be close to getting upset so I back off and change the subject. I call for the bill and she’s lost the $50 she had so I pay and she tags along to Anne’s Café promising after dinner we will drop by her hotel and she will pay me back the money. Anne greets me with a hug. I am being patient even with the dull headache that is coming on from my polite forced smiling and her habit of ending every second sentence with “exactly” even when her view point is the opposite. After dinner I pay the bill and we head off, when we come to the corner where she goes that way and I go this way I tell her not to worry about the money, I give her a hug and walk back to the Blue River with a nice cooling breeze and a few drops of rain past the ladies of the night on Pham Ngu Lao who enquire if I would like a special massage………Saigon has worn me down today.
