Danang, Vietnam
May 11th, 12th 2002At this stage we were definitely getting more settled in on the boat. We'd become familiar with the Mirror Bar - the boat's cheesy answer to nightclubbing. Yes, it had lots of mirrors, and that's where many a night would be concluded. At least it had a DJ booth and we pretty much had the run of it, except for occasional nights when the Ukrainian crew wanted their fill of Eastern European trance.
Amy's birthday was on May 10th, celebrated with a few other birthday people in the very same Mirror Bar. This is
when Amy and I first hooked up, and the next day landed us in Danang.
I woke up groggily and went out to catch my first glimpse of Vietnam; we'd already docked at some ungodly hour of the morning.
My eyes were greeted with the sight of hundred of angels floating about in celestial white. These were to be our partners for the
two days in Vietnam. They were (almost all female) university students and other volunteers who were happy to hang around with
some foreigners for a couple of days. And they had kindly dressed in traditional long Vietnamese gowns, or "aozai".
At the enthusiastic recommendation of other staff members, most of us had signed up for a "cultural-exchange" tour. Each of us had a Vietnamese partner to accompany us for the two days. In typical tour fashion there was very little personal freedom and most people were chained to their partners for the whole time. After being introduced, my partner spent the morning with her head in her lap from car sickness - I just sat beside her uncomfortably, fanned her with her own straw hat occasionally, and held a plastic bag ready for when she needed to wretch. It turned out to be a blessing though, as I was able to escape the tour for the afternoon.
First we were bussed to an orphanage where we all shuffled around in the heat, a single small tree was planted, and everyone took a turn at shovelling one shovel-full of dirt over the roots. This seemed more for the benefit of the Japanese peoples' consciences than for the orphanage, but they may have made a donation too.
Our work done, we moved on to lunch, then some local hall, where any sense of
organisation quickly evaporated, and hundreds of Japanese and Vietnamese people hung around, waiting for the "events" to start. My partner
was sleeping at this stage and I took advantage of the chaos to escape and headed to a great cafe with Josh (and Kurt I think).
Josh was technically our boss, the coordinator of the language program onboard, but he was also my cabinmate, and we were just getting to
know each other at this stage, and probably still sizing each other up. This was one of the first times we'd just hung out and not been
meeting to discuss work or cabin arrangements.
Vietnamese coffee is something special. Brewed extremely strong, it's served in a little espresso-pot-looking object and drips down through the filter into condensed milk. The condensed milk makes it extremely sweet too, but it really has good kick, and is a lot of fun to drink. We chilled out in a lovely little cafe garden, under the trees, until I felt guilty and went back to check on the tour.
People were still swarming around and nothing had changed. By evening the music performances started, and the Vietnamese circle dances began. There is no dancing alone in Vietnam, or at least not in Danang. I didn't even want to dance to the appalling music, but I was making occasional movements just so people wouldn't come over and ask me why I wasn't dancing. It didn't make a difference, my hands were grabbed immediately, and I was brought into a circle to do the communal dance. With slight variations in shape and size, this happened about a hundred times over the night.
There were performances of traditional Vietnamese and Japanese music dances from both sides, and then something called Team SPACE. Good God, I'm not sure how to try and describe this thing - "spreading the message of peace through dance"...oh, where have all the flowers gone?! This was predictably mushy and heart-warming stuff, not my kind of thing at all. The only thing that saved it from drowning in its own saccharine excess were the couple of people who ran the project and were brilliant dancers. Still, one performance was enough for me, but it seemed to be a hit with the Vietnamese contingent - I think they loved any kind of group dancing, and a message of peace was just an added bonus for them.
After much of this kind of entertainment, interrupted by a run to some local restaurant to point at other peoples' tables and get something to eat, we all bussed
down to the beach - the infamous "China Beach" of Vietnam War and TV show fame (anyone, anyone?). Here some Vietnamese students gave us a traditional (?) fire-dance,
which finished with the lighting of a massive bonfire to set the night party off. From about 9pm 'til the next morning the quite huge sound system blasted out cheesy
pop and trancey songs, ideal for group dancing - the lowlight being "Who let the dogs out?!" - it seems even rural Vietnam wasn't spared that one.
You had to admire their stamina though, everyone was up and aprtying all night, like some kind of unending wholesome family-oriented rave. When not being put into
a circle-dance, we crept around in the shadows of the tents and found places to sit and have a few beers and get to chat more with people from the boat. I suppose we
were talking to the Vietnames guys too, but still lots of us from the boat hadn't really gotten to know each other yet, and a beach party in the balmy Vietnames night
was a great place to do so.
I believe we went swimming too - it seemed really bright, either from spotlights or the moonlight, and there was a gorgeous lightning storm in the distance over the sea. At around 4:30 I was ready for bed, but anytime I made movements to go, the Vietnames guys would start asking any random question to keep me there, because they hadn't had such an opportunity to talk in English or to foreigners before. Eventually I managed to squeeze away on the promise that I'd get up to play soccer at 6:30. I had no intention of keeping the promise, but "Who let the dogs out?!" woke me up anyway.
Day 2 started with a sore head and a few sandwiches on the beach. It looked much more like a scene from the Vietnam War in the hazy morning, with two lonely fishing boats
bobbing up and down on the sea - the little circular one-man jobs that I've no idea how they row them anywhere with a single long pole. Then we headed to the Hoh Chi Minh museum
- lots of war memorabilia and propaganda, but pretty interesting stuff.
Then we came full circle back to the community center we'd started at yesterday. I had to come good on my "maybe later" to the guy selling postcards. The last item on the agenda was a trip to the market, but I was sick of the tour routine and the market was exactly where I had ran to yesterday to escape the community center for a while. As we trailed down the street behind our guide, I spotted a few of the others, who'd wisely escaped beforethere was any sort of organisation, knocking back those great coffees under the trees, and tried to duck into the cafe again. This caused all sorts of agitation (No one is allowed to leave the tour!), and my partner looked ready to cry, so I had to promise to have just one coffee and catch up with them at the market.
If I remember correctly we sang accapella barber-shop-quartet versions of "Mr. Sandman" and Belinda Carlisle's "Circle in the Sand" to lighten the atmosphere, and then I did my duty and showed up at the market.
It was a good chance to pick up some cheap Vietnamese "whiskey" and a few drniking snacks for the next leg of the boat journey.
Back at the port, we said our goodbyes, and my partner suddenly blurted out with "I never forget you!" - this was the most she'd spoken to me over the two days, so I don't know if it was simply pre-prepared or she genuinely had a good, though at times nauseating, experience. Yes, my work here was done...
PEACEBOAT HIGHLIGHTS:
37th Cruise
DepartureShanghai, China
>Danang, Vietnam
Singapore
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Safaga, Egypt
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