A Lovely Day

I just returned from the afternoon out with my lady friend and one of her girlfriends.  They took me to a place called Vegitable Village.  The place was very pretty…loads of flowers and veggies growing everywhere.  After that, we went to the beach and had a wonderful lunch.  We had boiled and grilled squid, boiled and grilled shrimp, fish soup (Head still attached, eyeball looking me in the eye…), steamed clams…all quite lovely. 

We chatted about each others cultures, and I learned a good bit about Viet culture.  My friend is named Yung.  She has an older brother, father, and step mother.   Seems her mother died while giving birth to a child who also died when my friend was 8yo.  Her father is the town drunk.  She said that if I went to her village and mentioned her fathers (my apostophy doesnt work on this pc…) name, everyone would know him because hes the drunk man who always sleeps on the street…she seemed to think this was funny.  She told me that she is paid really well because she speaks English…about 50US per month.  The keyboard totally sucks…have of the keys dont work.  She told me that girls and guys dont live together prior to marriage here.  She said that couples do have sex prior to marriage but that a man doesnt want a woman who has had sex with a man other than himself.  She said that its alright for men in this country to have multiple sex partners prior to marriage, but its not ok for the woman to.  Id like to know who the men are having sex with!  Girls typically wed between age 25-30…after age 30, no one wants them.  I was suprised to hear about prostitution…its pretty much non-existant, with the exception of Saigon.  I thought this was odd because so many of the prostitutes in Cambodia are actually Vietnamese women.  She works seven days per week, starting at 800am and finishing at 2300…some work day!  She has only been on holiday one time and went with the people from work to the city I just left…Hue.   She uses her money to inprove the standard of living for her family, even though shes the youngest member of the family.  If a viet wife dies, the man must wait for three years prior to marrying again.  If the dude dies, the chick can never remarry.  Not very fair… 

When the bill came, I offered to pay as it was quite expensive.  She refused and refused and told me that she insisted on paying for her and her friend.  I finally put money on the table and walked away…her part of the bill would have been one half a months work!  Nutty! 

She is a very lovely woman with an incredible smile.  Laughter comes very easily to her, and her laugh is quite pleasing to the ear.  Shes super short though…probably about five feet. 

Im off for the airport in the morning.  Ill be riding to Da Nang, then flying to Hanoi. 

Peace