VN8 - Monks and Monkeys
Today is supposed to be an easy day, to recover from the last two, and we slept in at least an extra hour, before the requisite 12-course breakfast. Then we headed out the coast to the giant buddha! It's accordingly huge. I'd forgotten my cell back in the hotel, so I was shooting with the DSLR which is always fun. Lou was back on her "running ahead like a small child" bullshit, so I stuck to my now-traditional walking slowly with grandma and grandpa sheepdog routine. After viewing the temple, we sat down to wait as Lou got back from wherever she got off to... and noticed the monkeys. They have monkeys! Hell yeah. So I spent like an hour chilling shooting photos of the monkeys, swapping lenses constantly. Monkeys fighting, monkeys playing, monkeys stealing waterbottles from tourists, monkeys holding trash... One of the babies even came up to sniff my boots after I'd perched on the edge of the steppe for a few minutes without making any scary movements. And sorry/you're welcome, gonna dump a shitton of monkey pictures:
Lou finally reappeared, and lead us on a long wander around the rest of the site before we headed back toward the city... but stopped at a café. Because it's an insta-trap, I think. Lou wanted to fly her drone despite an off-shore breeze strong enough to push my empty coke-can off the table... I wasn't about to be responsible for turning a quadcopter into a submarine, so I just watched, waiting for the inevitable... Lou got the drone up and back during a relatively calm spell, so I guess it wasn't inevitable.
Instagramming over, we got back in the car, this time to a spot I'd requested, a pull-off on the side of the road, looking out over the bay and all the docked fishing-boats, with the city in the distance. It was a very quick stop but a very cool view:
From there, we went to a local market! This is what China used to have (and probably still does, just not in the cities I visit). Hundreds of stalls, selling everything from dried fishes to fried dishes, including clothing, fake rolexes, grave decorations, kitchen utensils.... We stopped in the dining wing for lunch - Similar rice-paper wrapups as last night, but with middle school cafeteria levels of background noise as shouting carried on almost continuously in the background. Good food, very cheap, and very local.
Then, back to the hotel, for the recuperation part of the rest day. Grandpa took his pants off and fell asleep on his bed, I started reading my book, grandma came over to our room and fell asleep on grandpa, and then I woke up two hours later. I'm not a man who naps, but the past few days have taken it out of me, and I was thankful for the rest.
Lou really wanted to go to the beach, so (of course) we did! However, we walked the entire mile there, and by the time we arrived the sun had set. There were dance-aerobics on the boardwalk (really, an extra wide sidewalk, but same difference), and Lou and I walked the sand for a bit before deciding we were done with the beach. We caught a cab back towards the hotel for dinner.... I forget what dinner was, because grandpa and I were watching the soccer game on the laptop set up next to the register. Vietnam vs Thailand for the Asian title. Vietnam lead 1-0 when we arrived, and we'd finished dinner at halftime to a tied game. Soccer is big in Vietnam. All day, sellers had been hawking red headbands, and most our waitresses sported cute Vietnamese hearts on their cheeks. Grandpa and I were on a mission to see the end of the match, but Lou was on a mission to see the dragon and lead us several blocks in the wrong direction. We got to the riverfront at 9 exactly - dragon time - just in time to see the dragon blow two puffs of smoke and quit. Apparently all that extra smoke last night came from something important..
1-2, Thailand scored. Grandpa and I were both anxious to continue to the sports bar a block from our hotel, Lou was appeased, and grandma is such a slow walker. Instead of heading straight to the bar, we had to try another bar first. They had set up seats spanning the sidewalk for the entire block, but they were all claimed. So we continued slowly walking, and as we finally got close, the parents gave up. The bar was standing-room-only (and apparently we care?), so we walked across a small park to a local coffee shop who had chairs and a projector set up outside, and some of the chairs in the back were empty. And then, despite everything I just said, we stood in the street so we could see better. I didn't care though, I could finally watch the end of this match.
Vietnam is big on football, as we saw a week ago in HCMC. Even though this was a coffee bar (smoothie bar? I don't know and didn't care), there were hundreds of people (mostly highschool kids?) watching, and this was the case at multiple businesses on every block, and presumably the same in every city. With 15m left, a Thai player catches a (deserved) red, leaving VN with a single player advantage. The crowd goes wild. The already high levels of energy are all kicked up a notch. With 10m to go, we heard screaming and honking across the street (their stream must be ahead of ours). Our crowd responded in anticipative energy - unsure of what was about to happen, but sure it would be exciting. A sudden breakaway, a shot that looked like the goalie would save it, and a very unfortunate tip by the Thai defender.
2-2
The crowd erupts. Screaming, jumping, horns, hugs, high-fives, and a chant that sounds very much like "Get Dem Ball In" (I later learned it was "Viet Nam boi em" - Vietnam Number One). The most hyped I've ever seen a crowd, and that was just for a tying shot. As the final minutes tick away, every strong play is met with raucous cheers. Shot on goal? Cheers. Good clear of the ball? Cheers. Foul? Cheers. Shot saved by our goalie? Thunderous screaming. End of regulation? It looked like 300 people had all simultaneously won the lottery. I've only ever watched an hour of Asian football, and I couldn't help but to be caught in the tide of elation and totally surrendered to it, caring more about this game than I had any in my entire life.
At this point, there were scooters lined up in the street as passers-by pulled over to watch the final minutes. Overtime continues much the same, a pretty even match, a crowd hyped to 11 and only getting more electrified the longer the match goes. And then, with one minute left in overtime, we scored. Choas erupted. Screaming, running into and down the street, hugging everyone, and of course GET DEM BALL IN on repeat at the top of our collective lungs, punctuated by blasts on dozens of horns both human-powered and scootered. And instantly, the crowd starts to dissipate. Only a third of us remained to see the final minute of the match - in the hearts of the masses, it was over, and it was time to party.
Which meant scooters. Everyone loaded up on scooters and took off towards the dragon-bridge, honking the entire time, and a good percentage carrying flags. I thought this initial surge was impressive, but in retrospect it was barely a trickle. As the waves of riders from the outer blocks converged, the streets became clogged, packed solid with scooters. All screaming, chanting, celebrating, and honking. We stood in the median cheering the scooters, the scooters cheered us, it was a great time. And it continued to intensify.
Across the street at the sports bar a ninja climbed into a tree overhanging the scooters, waving flags. Celebratory items appeared in the crowd of scoots: people banging bowls together, waving entire palm fronds. I saw a potted plant go by, and a dude wearing the box from a crate of beer covering him from his waist well past his head. There were costumes in the crowd, and cars with children hanging out the sunroofs. And honking. Constant honking. Near-painful levels of honking, but who cares, we won. I was chanting and taking selfies with other people on the median, and then I figured out a trick. If you point a fancy camera at scooters going wild, they go wilder. So I began wading into the sea of scooters to snap "special idiots" as I thought of them. Those who were going even harder, or even weirder, than everyone else. Some dude snapped his spoon in half banging it on a kettle right in front of me. It was great. Another dude ran up to me for chanting and hugs, then offered me a ride on the back of his scoot. I said no by reflex, and still regret it. Drones were flying overhead, cell cameras everywhere. And constant honking. Fireworks on the street, while a frog danced dangerously close to them. Police showed up to cut off traffic to the overwhelmed bridge. Scooters continued to sneak through, but the majority were diverted, so we headed down to the dragon bridge where the scene was repeated. Here we found a contingent that would wait at the light, and when it turned red, they'd rush into the crosswalk. Hundreds of people, waving signs (breakfast half price!), flags, jumping and chanting. Then the countdown would reach the single digits, they'd rush back to the medians, and the scooters would roar across the intersection, honking.
It was the best party I've ever been to, and when we called it after two hours at 12:30am it was still raging. From our hotel, we could see the bridge still flooded with scooters. I fell asleep at 1, to a thankfully-muted but omnipresent sound of honking.
And now, another photo dump:
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