Today I really have to study so after breakfast I duck out to read a few chapters over coffee and fruit salad for a vitamin boost as my back is a bit sore as is my stomach, which is relative, all due I think to the restless nights sleep I had and waking up in some strange positions, crazy dreaming. I decide on a massage to put everything back into place and head around to the place i've been before, a shop front full of paintings with the massage upstairs. It’s a great little business with no sleazy vibe at all and although all of the girls have their different techniques, they all know just how to hit the spots that matter and I am walking on air after an hour ($14). The only downside is that they play the same instrumental piano CD on loop Ad nauseum and I find myself unable to stop humming “Careless Whisper” for the rest of the day.
Ok, study. I manage to wave a hello to Tom and Glen without stopping for a beer (Glen was leaving HCMC for the third time last night but still doesn’t seem to have made it out yet) and actually make it back to my room and go over one of Saturdays lesson plans. My second lesson on Saturday will be a teenage class and Tessie could not find the material for that so I’m guessing I will receive that in my 15 minute break between classes - The seat of my pants had better be sturdy.
My stomach tells me lunchtime is approaching and I decide to head across the park to familiarise myself with and explore more of the other side of District 1. Two girls from a Uni stop me in the park for a quick Q and A on tourism then 20 minutes later another gent (a tailor) stops me for a chat in the park behind
Reunification Palace and then a bike rider who is not hitting me up for a ride but just a friendly chat. One recurring theme of conversation seems to be how bad buisness is this year, not just the usual "feel sorry for me and buy something" complaining but a genuine drop in buisness for everyone. I eventually stop at a restaurant for spring rolls and a beer which rather than sweating straight out as it usually does, goes right into my blood stream. Today is pretty hot and humid and after little sleep last night I make it back to my room for a short nap.
I don't care how immature you think it is, this napkin from lunch is funny!
I wake about 4 and head out for some late afternoon reading and bar hopping after perusing the school books once more and meditate amongst the peak hour traffic. Weakened a little I give in to a couple of the seller girls and get myself a pollution mask for the bike rides and yet another packet of tissues!!
After some James Blunt and Bob Marley at the GO2 to shake out the “Careless Whisper” which still permeates, I head to Dung Café for dinner and a couple of Heinekens.
When I say “bars” I should like to explain so you don’t get the wrong idea and think I’m becoming an alcoholic. Every second shop front on this block is a bar/restaurant/café and they all offer mostly the same menus that are available around the clock and usually arrive within 10 minutes, varying slightly from place to place but essentially containing:
- coffee/tea/soft drink/juices/shakes/ beer/spirits
- breakfasts from cereal and fruit salad to bacon and eggs
–every possible asian food with a page each for chicken/pork/beef/shrimp/fish/seafood
- entrees
– sandwiches and burgers (the “Aussie” has the pineapple – still looking for one with beetroot)
- pizza/pasta
- mexican - cajun
- salads
– a vegetarian page
- dessert
– and then a specialty page with something exotic or specific to that bar like cordon bleu or steak with veg and mash or duck hotpot or smoked eel
My friend Louise who went to teach in Korea 2 months before I left, suggested I consume foods I will miss while over here and I ate a lot of lamb before I came - but it's the beetroot! You can get it in a shake but they rarely use it in a burger or on a plate - but I will sniff it out.
If I'm not hungry when I arrive, by the time I'm halfway through reading the menu I am salavating and ready to eat. Tonight I try Dung Cafes pizza, Vietnamese pizza is among the best you will find and theirs does not disappoint. I tried to be sensible with one small pizza but it wasn’t enough so I over ate with a second and waddled back to my room for an early night.
