A Moment of Clarity

Yesterday, after a week of 2 bananas, 2 fried eggs and a fresh baguette with coffee for breakfast, Hien, the young receptionist who does the morning shift said I must be getting bored with the breakfast and offered to make me some Pho today.  I gratefully accepted so today started with a phone call from her asking when I would be down for my Pho (the national dish, 2 minute noodles, those that know my passion for them………how could I not love this country?) It was a much welcome change however this was not Pho Ga (noodles and chicken) instead it contained a mixture of cut up arteries and intestines. After noticing me picking those parts out she laughed and apologised, realising this was not a very usual western type of “meat” to eat, tomorrow I am promised chicken.

Downstairs to finish my coffee with a cigarette, Thay, the manager, the kind of woman whos' stunning, delicate beauty cannot be contained by words, both inside and out, maybe in her 30s and has owned the Blue River for 6 years, sat down with me and we chatted for a while. She has been most gracious and although I gave them $100 towards my room after I received the “saviour” money as a show of good faith, she refuses to accept anymore until my new bank cards arrive. I can not over express just how good they have been to me. She has offered to take me out of town next week to visit an orphanage run by monks, a pilgrimage she makes a few times a year. Last time she donated 200kg of rice and asked the monk how long that would last - 4 days………there are over 200 boys! Obviously she is Buddhist and is the person who told me about last nights full moon “Mother” festival.

With 4 days to my first class I have decided that today shall be another holiday and I will start reviewing the material tomorrow (or knowing me, cram it all in on Friday) So off I head for another coffee to finish reading my book. Sitting there I noticed “Tom the Pom” across the road drinking a long neck of beer with his shirt off in the stinking hot sun sweating profusely. I met him briefly a few days ago when I overheard it was his birthday and leaned across to congratulate him, he is also 42. I went across to say hi and you’ll never guess what he does………he’s an English teacher who has been working here 3 years and lives just down the road from me! He says he starts at 1 so he’s having elevensees, too hardcore for me. Half an hour later I am once again loaded up with all sorts of incredibly useful information, contacts and offers of help in finding work, it’s a funny old universe, especially when you are free. The voices in my head have stopped the endless distracting Banter and are singing in choral harmony, and that’s why I came here.

I love the view from here, looking down Bui Vien St. Down the next corner you can just make out the Crazy Buffalo and in the distance the Bixteco Financial tower, 68 floors with a heli pad jutting out on the 50th floor, only completed last year.

Dinner under a 95% waxing gibbous moon