October 13, 2018
We thought we were in for a quiet day but boy oh boy were we wrong! It all started with the morning dawning grey and misty with the continued rain that had fallen all night. Yuk! What would we do? Sleep in, that’s what we decided so it was back to bed for a bit. Once the hunger pangs were strong enough we ventured out to a little restaurant across the street for a bowl of morning Pho. Delicious! And....we made a new friend in the process. No one in the restaurant spoke any English and so Lynda located the desk clerk from an adjacent hotel who’s name was Thien or as he explained...”friendly” in English. Friendly hooked us up with our pho and some Vietnamese coffee which kicked off our day in fine style. From there Lynda set off in search of water, Darlene and Gail went back to the room and I decided on a head and foot massage which was perfect. :-)
Once we’d all had a few minutes of sleep back in our rooms and it was apparent that the rain was not about to let up any time soon, we were ready for a game of cards or something to pass the time. So....Gail and Darlene came up to our room with an extra chair in tow. The really funny thing about this is that in order for them to fit in the elevator with the chair, Gail had to sit on the chair for the door to be able to close! After a few hands of cards everyone agreed...it was time to head out in search of dinner.
We located dinner within minutes of our hotel and what a fun evening it turned out to be! We were led up to the second floor seating area and as soon as we’d placed our order a large group of 14 men and 1 woman were seated right next to us. Not a single one of them spoke any English but they were sure happy to visit and chat with us. One of the men at their table had a flask of whiskey that was the size of a Volkswagen Beetle! He’d pour the whiskey from that flask into a couple of bowls on the table and then use a wooden label to scoop the whiskey into little shot glasses for everyone - including us! Yes....somehow we had become one of their group! I’m not sure what they expected but based on the look on their faces I don’t think they really expected us to shoot that whiskey with them. But...we did Canada proud and kept up with the best of their crew. As soon as we’d downed the first shot they refilled our little glasses and then there was a third and well...you get the picture. Somewhere in there they all decided they could count in English and so as they went round the table taking turns showing us their ability to count in English we were required to celebrate each of them with another shot. Yep....this was getting dangerous! By the time we were through about 1/2 dozen of them Lynda had cut straight to “20” which meant it was time for another shot regardless of anyone’s ability to count. LOL
At some point in all of this we’re pretty sure Lynda got married to the guy at their table who has the same colour hair as her. And we know for sure that within 2 shots of that snake whiskey Gail said, “bring on the fish”! For those of you who know Gail...you’ll know that she does NOT like fish at all so this sudden shift is worthy of note!
One of the funniest moments of the entire evening was when Lynda attempted to order something off the menu from a man she thought was a server (even though our server was a young woman). No matter how many times we tried to tell her he wasn’t a server...it was as though she didn’t hear us....that man was one of the fellows from our adjacent table. He was such a good sport that he was trying to take her order. When she finally figured out what we were saying to her about him not being a server I think she almost fell off her chair with laughter!
We decided that we’d like to pay the other table back for their generosity and so we ordered 15 beer to be delivered to their table. The look on their faces when that beer was delivered was priceless! They didn’t know what to do and we’re not sure if they don’t like beer or if they’ve never had a beer bought for them. In the end the beer was a hit with several of them and by the time they were ready to leave one of them came over with his beer and taught us how they close out their evening. Each of us had to pour the rest of our bottle of beer into our mug and then one by one around the table we had to say “ta ma tam” (which I’m pretty sure means bottoms up) and then we had to chug that beer till it was gone. As each person finished their mug it was a mini celebration and at the end of it all our Vietnamese friend drank his down and then it was handshakes all around as their group left for the night.
Once we’’d finished our meal and were ready to leave we discovered that the desk clerk from our hotel was also working in the front end of this restaurant! He had four chairs lined up for us in front of the fire and little mini cups of very strong green tea. For anyone who wanted it there was also a big bamboo water pipe and some tobacco so you could have a puff to finish off your meal. All very civilized until I tell you that those mini cups don’t get washed in between departing guests and that I’m guessing that water pipe is also used for a puff of opium by those who prefer something a little stronger.
All kidding aside....we had a wonderful evening full of laughter and honestly for those of you who are reading this....please know that it was all innocent fun and no animals were injured in the making of this story. :-)
We’re back in our rooms for the night now and it is still just after 8 pm. The time moves very slowly here....in a good way..... OMG! We just looked out the window and for the first time today are able to see across the street. In fact, we can now see the lake (even though it is dark out). Wow! Maybe tomorrow morning something magic will happen and this low hanging cloud will stay lifted long enough for us to be able to do the gondola after all!!! Fingers are crossed.
That’s it for tonight...so till next time,
Darlorlyngai
No comments:
Post a Comment