So according to a Canadian I met on the boat who's made the trip before,
these island tours (Mama Linh, Mama Anh, etc) have a long, long history
of, how shall I say, revelry. Times haven't changed.
They picked me up at our hotel at 8:45am and we went to the dock.
The first stop was near an Island for some snorkeling and swimming.
The water was very cloudy. We had been diving the day before and you
couldn't make out people more than 2m away under water. Most folks
just dove off the boat roof and swum around. I did the dive and took
off for the shore--covered with large rocks (point of order here, no beers
for Shawn yet). I was going to climb up and sit on the rocks and
hang out for a while and enjoy the view. Apparently, part of the
instructions we got that I didn't catch was NOT to climb on the rocks.
For at least two reasons, one envionmental--the other, they're covered
with very sharp oyster shells. So after some slice and dice on my
fingers and back (as the current pushed me into the rocks) and the guys on
the boat yelling at me, I swam back to the boat to dry up the wounds and
console myself with some 63-cent beers (10,000 dong).
It got better after that.
Then they broke out a great lunch. We all ate then had some beers and hung
out on top the boat enjoying the sun. Most of the folks on the boat
were other native English speakers. I met three other Americans on
the boat.
Next on the agenda was the entertainment-Singing and dancing. They
broke out this drum set made of old plastic barrels. I thought it
was a joke till the drummer sat down with his bamboo sticks and began
accompanying the guy on the electric guitar. They were good. Click
here for the video. Click
here for the second video. (It takes a bit for them to load, so please be patient. You can also right-click and save them to your computer to view.)
They had a song for Vietnam and all the countries of the travelers.
They cheated on a few and sustituted a French song for the Canadians and
an Austrian song for the German. But they had one for the Aussies,
Swiss, British, and Irish. When they got to me, I said
"American" and he said "later" and skipped me.
The Aussies got a big kick out of that. Turns out he was saving us
for last--it was the "Twist" and he got everyone on the table to
dance.
Then came the floating bar with free wine (some kind of local wine-Molava
or something...?). They gave us all plastic rings (probably
necessary at this point) to float around and up to the bar. Lots of
wine later, we climbed onto the boat to go to one of the islands.
There we hung out in the shade and had some more drinks. They had
jetskis and parasailing available, but... drunken watersports...???
Next stop was the island with the Aquarium. We didn't even get off
the boat to drink this time. We were hanging out in the bow of the
boat, when one of the Aussies hauled me up to the top of the boat where we
all dove off. The water was probably a good "refreshing"
idea although I didn't stay in long to swim.
So then we traveled back to the dock. I made plans to meet the other
Americans at the Sailing Club (local beachside bar) for drinks later, but
got back to the hotel around 5pm and went to hotel pool and slept in a
lounge chair till the poolside bartender woke me up at 7pm, and I went to
the room. I woke up briefly at midnight, then got up to enjoy
breakfast the next day.
Fun was had by all,
Shawn
