Aid Expedition, night 1

so it continues...

after we enjoy our first dinner together as a group, we part ways (we weren't ohana yet). Tram "battlin bgirl" Nguyen, Nga "lap dance" Ly, and Tu "Rookie's cheerleader" Ly head out to a rockin karaoke bar called Gossip, the staff head back to their rooms, Don and Anna go to the hospital, while the rest of us head back to palace.

Michelle, Phuc, Duy and I start off with drinks on the rooftop bar of the Palace Hotel. From the top of the hotel, 14 stories up, Saigon's city lights are beautiful and romantic, leaving us with no other option than to take someone's virginity, in this case, it was Duy's alcohol virginity. For an hour, Michelle, Phuc, and I actually teamed up to get Duy to drink. He was quite resistant at first, but we get to him, and get him to chug a kamikaze, a beer, a shot of tequila, and whatever Phuc was drinking. It's not much, but definitely enough to get Rookie very buzzed.

At this point, we do decide to explore a little bit to try to find a local bar. We only go a block before Don calls us to let us know that he and Anna are heading back to the hotel. Surprise, surprise, Anna didn't need surgery and it was a joke. We head back to check up on Anna, and let me tell you, it's always interesting to hear how American visitors actually TELL the doctor the correct diagnosis, lol...

Dr: You have 3rd degree burns
Anna: How can this be 3rd degree? at most, it's 2nd degree
Dr: Aye! who's the doctor here!

She ends up getting it bandaged with a lot of gauze, and realizing that there wasn't enough in the EMT bag that Don brought to replace her bandages daily for the next 9 days, she flirts with the pharmacist guy until he gives her an entire shopping bag of nothing but gauze. Go anna!

Anyway, since she was all bandaged up, and Mike Tran ended up over at the hotel, we all figured we should use the last hour we had before we had to get on the bus at 11pm. We hit up the hotel club, which is on the 2nd floor.

Vietnamese clubs are really different than what I'm used to. First, they're very into house and trance music. I'm not so much a fan anymore. Second, they're all set up like lounges. There's really no dance floor, just a lot of tables and chairs, which makes it hard to dance. Third, they are SOOOOO OVERSTAFFED. 1 out of every 5 people in the club is working there. For awhile, I was very freaked out, because I thought they were all security folks. They kept tailing us, and 2 of the guys were always positioned around our table. Oddly enough, they also poured our drinks, not meaning that they made our drinks, but that they literally poured our drinks into our cups. They would pick up the beers that we ordered and pour it into our cups for us before going back to their stations. Of course, I end up learning that Mike who? Mike Tran! had actually tipped these guys pretty well to hang around. What I thought of as intrusiveness was actually kindness. Go figure.

So we leave at about 10:45, since we have to get ready to go. Turns out we were real early, since the bus arrived pretty much an hour late. It wasn't too bad though, because while we were waiting, Phu and Yen Khanh came to visit. Apparently, they were on a vacation in Vietnam, had traveled up and down the country, and just happened to be in Saigon the same time we were. Makes Vietnam seem like a small country right? Or that EVERYONE wants to hang out in Saigon.

They hang around for awhile, but then have to leave, since they're getting ready to go home. We just wait, so I snap random pictures of folks sleeping while we wait for the bus. Tu thought it was just a bit creepy, so I took more.

Once we get on the bus, it was bedtime. Most of us realized that we were going to need the energy. I was one of the few who didn't realize that, so I took more pictures. I learn a few things, like Anna can actually fit across two bus seats while lying down, even if her feet pop out just a little bit. Don sleeps with his mouth open, all the time (can somebody say "opportunity"?). People are really sensitive to camera flashes. I even got a nice one of Andrew "Never Sleep" Nguyen (who apparently cannot sleep anytime the sun is up), flipping me off. It was a real turn on.

Eventually though, I do sleep, and our adventure for the next day begins while we are still on the bus.