Sandy Bottoms and Hammer Pants

Thủ Đức, Vietnam, the city north of Ho Chi Mihn City, or Saigon, has been our temporary home away from home. This last week concluded two weeks of teaching English to a gregarious and fun group of nuns. The road beckons as we resume travels to northern Vietnam. Before our trip started, Saigon would have never been a city where we’d plan on staying for a month. Mui Ne commanded a visit too.

Mui Ne’s Wind Tunnel Of Relaxation

After an intense week of classes laughing with studious nuns, the road sheepishly called. It gauged our interest in traveling it again. Something small. Just a quick weekend trip. The road missed us. We instinctively knew it was time to see each other once more. Surrounded by clay hills, long beaches, and surfable sand hills, Mui Ne was the beach town of choice. Early morning plans only included sun. Sun from the beach and on top of crimson sand dunes.

Certain characteristics of the place caught our attention on the walk. Unlike Thủ Đức, Mui Ne combined 1) tourists, unless of course you count Nadine and I, and 2) every wind and kite surfer on this stretch of the South China Sea. The wind shot someone high in the air or dragged them across waves on every skiable section of water. Must have spooked the hell out of the fish with boards randomly passing overhead.

Mui Ne was the perfect place to surf. Wind slapped you in the face or nudged you down the beach like an aggressive shopkeeper in Da Nang nagging you to buy three suits instead of one, “like the last customer”.

A nearby paved tree-lined road provided brief reprieve from the aerial escapades, but not recent history. Within the hour, we ran into travels past. One being a girl from Quebec, and the second a couple from England. The Quebecoise girl was from the Vietnamese embassy in Laos a month earlier. The first encounter with the English couple transpired in New Zealand back in July. I’ve a strong suspicion that the English couple may be following us. After the “random” encounter, plans for dinner were still made.

We strolled back to the cloudy beach where windsurfers zig zagged through massive waves battering their boards and bodies, but apparently not their souls. An old scraggy dog played with an old fishing net. Oh, the pressures of travel.

Sand In Every Crevasse

Just to add pressure to a leisurely weekend, we hired a jeep for the Mui Ne sand dunes leaving just enough time to catch a bus back to Saigon.

From atop the first set of white sand dunes, walked to the top of a couple of steep sand dunes a wind blew like an angry stepmother and it felt like small needles piercing our skin. A smaller, less windy hill beckoned.

After sand many orifices, we shook them out as best we could in the jeep to the Red Canyon. This small clay canyon was a great spot for panoramic photos of the South China Sea, Nadine, and some red clay. On the way to the peak, a group of monks disregarded all marked paths and climbed straight up and over the rocks to the top.

Later on, Nadine asked a local why that area had been fenced off, they promptly responded “some of the rocks had been crumbling and falling down, so officials didn’t want anyone to get hurt.” Oh! Maybe we shouldn’t have come down that way. Can’t believe a pregnant woman like Nadine would make that type of dangerous decision. Shame on her.

We rushed back to the hotel like a fat boy in a buffet line, packed our stuff, and waited on the street corner for the bus. Unfortunately, it was about as on time as a nine fingered Albuquerque kid with a date with a hand model, not very. More accurately, our bus was two and a half hours late. Several sets of jumping jacks on the sidewalk and a strawberry shake filled the time.

The Grind

Teaching English in Thủ Đức for the past two weeks created a solid daily routine. Wake up at 6:30. Get dressed. Catch the local bus to the nunnery. Eat a healthy breakfast with fresh orange juice. Deliver some solid English lessons for an hour and a half. Take twenty minutes to snack while trying to avoid eating all the delicious food. Finish our morning session at 11. Healthy lunch of fish and fruit. Follow that with either a siesta, check email, or both. Teach again from 2 until 4. Eat dinner with the nuns or on our own. Go to the gym to lift. Sleep. A routine is nice every once in awhile. But then again, two weeks of arduous work, time to start traveling again. It’s amazing what two weeks of hard work will do for you.

Studious Students Study

We have tried to make the past two weeks educational AND fun for Sisters Vianney (Sr. Fix-It), Thuy Linh, Thu Trang, Tuyet Tring, Rosa Bong, Marie Marthe, and Mi Hanh. Language lessons included Go Fish one day, bingo another, and a few entertaining Scavenger Hunts. Once again, we went in wanting to give of ourselves in a concrete way to a wonderful, dedicated community, but we came away feeling that we had received so much more than we were able to give to these Sisters.

As Nadine’s belly expands, and positive it’s not gas, our clothing must adapt to her burgeoning belly. Nadine left Thủ Đức with a tangible gift, reminiscent of the 1990’s, a pair of fat pants. Not just any fat pants, but the same pants M.C. Hammer wore back in the 90’s. Big, baggy, colorful, and so big you can pull them over your shoulders, or even hide a small animal.

You probably have a pair yourself. If you would like to be in solidarity with Nadine, pull them out this weekend, and sport your very own pair of fat pants. Even if people laugh at you, just think of the fact that Nadine is wearing hers around the world and not letting it bother her at all.

Once again, we’re both energized to complete the last two and a half months of our epic around the world trip. There is barely have enough time to break the ice in that tiny country we call China. Hong Kong, Macau, South Africa, and Italy will then follow.

In alphabetical order, what coutries border Vietnam? Spelling counts!

Peace and love from Vietnam
JW