G- Damn! We forgot to say we wanted cold beer.
P- I always forget that because it only seems normal to me that I'd want my beer to be COLD!
G- Dorothy, you're not in Kansas.
While we waited for our food, we cracked ourselves up reading the menu: (written exactly as read)
club vegetable fry with seafood
momordica charantia fry with egg
a sort of sour soup with snake head
crab soup with basella alba
tomatose soup with beef
snake head soup with ferment
sour vegetable soup with rib
dracantomelon soup with rib
soya-bean curd in banana and medium-size edible snail sauce
braised duck with citronella
boiled pig's trotters
roast fat & lean of pork
sweet & sour squid wallow in the flour
sulfurization squid with ginger
steamed glutinous rice in earthenware
rice earthenware smash and throw
Lunch was good, although nothing came out as we expected. My pork dish had been slow cooked and was almost as good as Phyl's roasted pork. She had a sweet & sour pork that she enjoyed and we shared sauteed eggplant. We contemplated eating the citronella duck to keep the mosquitoes away, but decided against it.
G- (talking quietly to Phyl) We are not letting this Mofo cut in front of us! Stand very close to me and if the woman exits my way and cuts me off, you move in and tell the ticket agent what we want. If the lady moves to the right, I'll move in.
P- No problem. Just make sure we don't let that jerk cut in front of us.
G- Don't you worry sista. It ain't gonna happen. I'm drawing the line today.
G- (turned around in surprise) We've told so many people, but for one, they don't understand what we're saying, although I have no doubt they get the gist of it, and I don't think they care.
Guy behind us – Keep telling them that it's not ok to cut in front of you. They need to be educated!
He then started fussing at the cutter, in Vietnamese. The cutter looked very surprised, ticket lady looked surprised, and the older lady buying the tickets looked surprised. Then the ticket agent said something to the cutter, who said something back to our hero. I looked at the ticket and pointed to the girl next to the older lady, then to us, then to the cutter. Our hero reiterated that the girl was next, then us, then the cutter. Finally, the cutter looked dejected, although he never moved from his position at the window. When the older lady finished, I indicated for the girl to step up to the window. After she was finished we stepped up.
G- (to the Guy behind us) Thank you very much. We are so tired of having people cut in front of us.
Guy – It's terrible that they behave this way. I don't know why they think it is ok. You keep complaining to them.
G- We will. Thanks again.
We walked away very pleased with the way that situation had turned out without us having to come to blows with the cutter. Although I was fully prepared to pull my elbow throwing techniques, learned playing high school basketball, out of mothballs. We headed back toward the beach, stopping at a grocery for toothpaste, toilet paper, deodorant, and snacks for tomorrow's train ride.
It was a cool and very windy day, and virtually no one was on the beach. After a while we passed a woman, holding a baby of about 8 months old, standing next to a man who was presumably her husband. She began to talk to us (in Vietnamese) and held up her baby's hand to waive at us. We stopped and smiled and told the baby hello. Before we knew it, she had her hand over the baby's hand and was patting Phyl's breasts.
P- (jumping back and grabbing the woman's arm) NO! You are not permitted to touch my boobs.
The woman continued to reach out, still trying to cop a feel, and just laughed and said something to her husband, who looked embarrassed and unsure of what to do.
P- What the hell is wrong with you?
The woman continued to smile as we walked off, Phyl with her hands up protecting her boobs.
P- WTF?! What is wrong with these people? They have 0 boundaries!
G- I don't know, baby. I realize that they have never seen breasts as large as yours, but I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why she thought it would be ok to touch you.
P- I am not a circus freak!!!
G- I know, muffin. You want me to punch the shit out of the next woman who tries to touch you?
G- Now that we know they'll go so far as to touch you, we'll be on guard. It just never occurred to me that we had to watch out for that. I was watching for pick pockets, not boob grabbin women.
P- That's the other weird thing. At home it's men who leer at my boobs. Here, the men don't leer, the women do. And I'm wearing a shirt that comes up to my neck. It's not like I have cleavage showing to entice them. I'll never understand this.
G- I'll be ready for it if it happens again, and I'll open a can of whip-ass on that bitch!!!
We then headed, with purpose, to an Indian restaurant we had seen advertising cheap beer. We had a few beers, ate dinner, and watched tourists walk by.
P- How's the bathroom.
G- It's fine, the usual bathroom, but I had to wait for someone to finish taking a shower, so the whole room was wet.
P- I hate that!
G- Me too. This dude must have gone crazy because water is even dripping from the ceiling.
P- I'd stay dirty before I bathe in a restaurant bathroom.
G- Well, when that's the only bathroom in your house, and it's all you know, you'd bathe in it.
We were back in our room early, repacking our bags and preparing for the morning. Our train was scheduled to depart at 5:30 AM.!!
