Once upon a time

Sunday, July 18, 2011

8:47 PM (Vietnam Time)

Last night, Scott and I went to our first club in Vietnam. PVNF has an annual “Summer Service Camp” each summer where a group of 100 people, doctors, medical students, undergraduates, and high schoolers, travel around Vietnam to set up clinic and give medical care to communities in need. Quoc, Richard, and Thu were coming to Rach Gia! After their first clinic on Saturday, Quoc, Richard and the rest of the PVNF volunteers decided to go clubbing and invited us along. Scott and I, being the old couple that we are, were comfortably in our pajamas and watching a movie on Netflix. But, we told each other that we had to rally for it would be a fun night! We got dressed up and headed to Zara Bar in Khu Lan Bien, which was right next to our favorite restaurants and coffee shops all this time. We walked into the club and trance music was pumping so loud that I could feel my entire body pumping to the music. My eardrums were vibrating to the base as if they were base speakers themselves. Scott was the tallest one there and one of 2 Caucasian males. Colored and strobe lights were flashing to the beat, and Scott and I made our way to the dance floor, where we did our goofy dance as we always do. Quoc and Richard were being extremely social and mingling with all the volunteers. We tried to meet a few, but the music was just too loud. Around midnight, we had to leave because the owners of the guesthouse lock the gate at night, and we didn’t want to wake them up too late to unlock it for us. We headed back to the house, found out that we weren’t the only ones coming home late, felt better about ourselves, and finished watching the movie we started on Netflix.

Today, we went to Ha Tien, a coastal town where many of the locals go to the beach, with the rest of the PVNF group. We met them at their dining hall at a hotel in Khu Lan Bien, and the group set off in four small buses toward Ha Tien. The drive was extremely bumpy, and I could feel my stomach sloshing around during the 2 hour drive. We finally arrived in what seemed a random and underdeveloped town, but it turned out to house one of Ha Tien’s precious pagodas. We climbed a large flight of stairs to the pagoda which was basically inside of a mountain. Once you cross the entrance, you stand before a large Buddhist altar and two monks sitting off to the right. The interior of the pagoda is cool and water drips from deep crevices overhead. We explored the cave and climbed up stairs to overlook the view of the countryside outside. We could see the mountains of Cambodia just on the horizon. At the top of one of the faces of the mountain, Ngan told me the story of this pagoda:

Once upon a time, an evil man imprisoned a good man inside the cave with a large mystical bird. The man was able to tame the bird, and together, they shared the cave. A beautiful princess lived nearby, and one day, the bird gathered the man and princess and flew them to freedom where they got married and lived happily ever after.

It was a pretty story, and I probably missed half of it from lack of understanding. We walked around and marveled at the beauty of this ancient cave. It was such a peaceful place.

Ngan and Audrey at the cave entrance

Entering the cave pagoda!

Enjoying the views

Scott, Richard, Audrey and Quoc

Cave explorers

Steep steps lead back into the cave

Surrounding fields and rice paddies

Scott getting artsy

Kind monks looking after the pagoda

Ngan and Audrey telling stories

We then got back on the bus where we headed to our next destination. Lunch was set up for us in an outdoor dining hall, and the food was prepared. About 100 of us sat at round tables right on the beach. For lunch, we had shrimp, lau (hotpot), and some pork. For dessert, we had delicious mini-bananas. The bananas here in Vietnam are so incredibly sweet, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some are small and fat like little sausages, and some are normal-sized and with green skin even though they are ripe. Scott and I ate so many that we stole some from other tables. After lunch, everyone went out to the beach to lounge or swim. The water was brown, which I think is due to the rainy season, but there were still many people of all ages playing in the water. Slowly, everyone started peeling off their overshirts and jumping into the water. Before we knew it, there were about 20 or more people splashing around in the water. Scott, of course, has his white Frisbee with him wherever he goes, so he pulled that out, and we were tossing it around in the water. Funny, how one Frisbee can bring a group of strangers closer together. After awhile, we got out and went to rinse off to head back home.

Project Vietnam volunteers take over

Of course Scott brought out the frisbee

Relaxing on our beach day

Back on the bus, it was still bumpy, but I was able to fall asleep. At one point on the ride home, I woke up and looked around, and the entire bus had fallen asleep. I guess the day had really tired us out. We had dinner with the PVNF group in a large dining area where we first met them, and everyone headed to sleep early for the 4:30 am wake-up call for the medical mission and clinic the next day.

-Audrey

Typical view along the road in the countryside