Ringin in the New Years in Nam
Trip Start
Oct 23, 2006
1
26
51
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
Saturday, December 30, 2006
01 Oh the grandeur
. to cater to the crowd; mind you this is still the off season for tourism. A while ago while I was in Taiwan I had said that Taipei was the scooter capital of the world, it is now time for me to take back that comment because the title truly belongs to Saigon. Just crossing the street in the China town region of this immense city is a feat of courage and skill. Once out in the street we walked around, found some food, ate, then made went in search of a local watering hole with a pool table.We didn't have to walk far before we found a really empty bar with a tiny bar and the most rugged pool table I ever saw, it was similar to the pool table that was in the cabana of the Hamilton Pool, only worse. As we entered the joint, we were approached by two scantly dressed Vietnamese woman who immediately led us to a table and split up to give each of us some one on one attention. The girl that came to me showed me my seat, pulled one up for herself, and asked how I was doing. I said I was fine, then asked if there was a drink list. She fetched the drink list and took up her seat right next to me again. After quickly perusing the menu I noticed that there were only five bears available and that the bar was nothing more than a shelf with a couple bottles of spirits on it. The girl continued talking with me until I ordered, telling me all the while that I was handsome and would I like to buy her a drink. In a minute I would find out that Mike's girl had already placed a hand on his thigh and asked if he would like some company for the night
02 need I say more?
. Shortly after we each had a beer in our hands, we were glad to see that there was a small group of travelers playing a game of pool. I got up and asked if we could have a go at the winner. One of the guys there, a Frenchmen, said that I wasn't dressed well enough and that I should put on my white hat and matching three piece suit. I didn't recognize him but he recognized Mike and I from when we had our custom suits made in Hoi An. Then we met the whole seven or so of them and drank a few beers, played some pool, and got the hell away from those women. We all laughed at the fact that this bar was such a front for some underground business, I mean they really didn't try very hard to make the front even half way convincing.We all got a few games in before returning to our respective hotels/hostels, we were sure to exchange emails since we all knew how likely it would be that we would end up bumping into each other again. The next day we were set to meet up with Claire and Erica, the two awesome fun loving, funny accented, dynamic duo from Manchester whom we had me in Xian, China. This reunion was planned over a month ago, so when we finally did meet up we had more than a little catching up to do. They had flown from China to Thailand and were making there way in a bit of a circle from there, thus they had some great advice for us especially regarding Cambodia and Thailand. We met them up later on at night and I think they were as happy to meet up with us as we were to meet up with them
03 The miracle
. They had really tanned since we last met, Mike hardly recognized Erica at all because of it. We also met a friend of theirs they had just met on the way to Saigon named Adam. He is a really nice chap from Australia with a pretty good sense of humor and mustache experience. The whole gang didn't know we were playing mustache chicken, so we informed them of our trials and tribulations regarding the excessive facial hair. The English call a mustache a ''ronnie'' or a ''tash'' whilst the Australians are a big fan of calling it a ''Mo'. If a girl has wee little bangs they call that a girl mo, I love the Aussie sayings sometimes. Another great Aussie saying is when they describe a copious helping of alcohol, most natably beer, as ''the way forward.'' After we all got acquainted Adam told us of a place nearby that offered a liter of beer for 7000 dong a pop, or just over 50 cents. Mike and I couldn't believe it and Adam replied that it was true and that ''yea roit, it's the way foh-wohd moits,'' so we made our way forward and stopped by this place. It was nothing more than a collection of rickety tables and kids plastic chairs, making up its lack of quality was the sheer quantity of people filling the place out. We found a table and got to. Erica and Claire told us that they had bought a bottle of Remy Martin Champagne Cognac for the next night's celebrations, however once we got to talking about it, Claire got excited and brought down the bottle from her room. We ended up cracking that sucker and by the nights end, the five of us had killed it
04 England and Australia
. Though this sort of sounds excessive we made sure to eat throughout and we took a long time in accomplishing this task. In the end we all went to bed totally sober which I think is a feat in itself. Oh and by the way, the whole time Mike was not feeling one hundred percent.Allow me to elaborate, the last day in Moi Ne Mike had to have his banana pancake fix. He ended up getting a really dodgy looking banana pancake that apparently was more of a banana omelet on account of there being more egg in it than batter. Well, this really fucked his stomach up for the next couple of days, at first there was too much output, then a few days later there was a complete stop to all output. Poor guy ended up going through a three day stretch where he didn't shit once. Without going too much into that, he was basically about mid way through his recovery when New Years happened. The upshot of this is that he couldn't drink very much at all, Buddy I tried but you know I had to look out for the boy's health too. It was actually kind of funny because his flow became a daily topic of conversation not only among him and I, but with other travelers too. I don't think Claire and Erica were really in on it, but the next day when Andreanne joined us, she was well informed. Which brings me to New Years eve.
Andreanne and JP arrived around 6:30pm on this day, Mike and I were already with Erica and Claire when their bus came
05 All the ladies at new years
. JP had a flight scheduled a few hours after he arrived, so he basically arrived and left. Andreanne was without a room as Mike and I were supposed to book her one the day before, and we did, but shortly before she arrived we found out that the person we booked her room with didn't tell anybody or write anything down and her room was assigned to someone else. So after being in Saigon for no more than an hour, she needed to find a room to stay in for new years eve and it was already 8pm. After about an hour of searching she was able to find one, shower, change, and then meet us all up. In the end New Years eve was a bit of a dud, the prices for alcohol were insanely inflated, all the bars were way crammed, and the momentum of the area died a bit early. At least we managed to all have a decent time of it, though it was the first New Years Eve that I've gone to bed completely sober in years. The next day we all woke up pretty early, and though we had allotted the day for recovery, there was nothing to recover from. The five of us set up a rendezvous for the next day at 2pm to watch some pre selected movies, the nature of which you will read in the next entry. 
