Last night while strolling in the streets, we came upon a new sight.   At one road junction, there is a  sort of peninsula formed by two streets, and on it, there are usually people gossiping, or a few musicians,  and it seems a centre for social activity.

Yesterday, there was a big crowd, an orchestra of local instruments (5 in number) and a man and woman engaged in what looked like a patter song, intoned rather than sung, until I noticed that the audience had small wooden paddles, about the size of a paperback, on which were inscribed three symbols each, and each one different.

Presently, between the singers and the band were hung larger paddles, rather like cricket bats, on which were also inscribed 3 symbols.   I realised I was watching something between a fruit machine and bingo.   If your paddle had one symbol from each of the 3 large bats, you won.   When that happened, and there seemed a bewildering variety of possible symbols, there was a fanfare from the band, a man blew a whistle, and a silk flag waved.  Then the paddles were collected, resold and it all began again.

The streets are always alive at night, because although the Vietnamese usually eat at home, they come out afterwards for sweets, cool drinks and sociability.  On An Hoi, there is a large sculpture park beside the river, and it all happens there.   Near the fancy bridge into the old town, there are the breakdance youngster, with a boombox playing hip hop and they always draw a good crowd.

Further along at the little kids who kick a ball, or play complicated games or pretend to be cyclomen.
Cyclos are bicycles with a two-wheel peramulator in front for the paying passenger.  They are rather expensive.  There is a miniature version of this which kids (or rather their parents) can rent by the hour and a proud 9 year old will be seen riding around with his 4 year old sister as passenger.

Near our end of the island, which has fewer restaurants and hotels, the riverbank is colonised by tiny tables and chairs where the young hang out, drinking fizzy drinks, flirting and chatting.  If it is an all boy group, they may smoke and drink beer, but if girls are present, then it is a milkshake and no smoking, since Vietnamese women do neither.  There are always a couple of card schools going and sometimes a whole family, including small children will be taking dessert and catching up on the day.
It is really the best time of day, no high temperatures, a slight breeze off the river and romantic lighting from street lights.

Everyone is extremely well-behaved.   Our local restaurant, 100 yards away from the flat, has a large concrete standing beside it, and this hosts a wedding about once a week.  A kind of marquee is erected and plastic chairs are decorated with covers and bows,   By law, you can only take three hours for such an affair, because the loudspeaker is really loud.  There is always a boy pop singer, sometimes a girl also and they sing soulful songs but no-one dances or joins in, but sits decorously, in best costume, and listens respectfully as if it were church.

Another day in the life of the world's greatest food tourist - Calvin!
He went out the other day to visit an English-speaking computer guru - a rare thing here, and found a restaurant offering fried oysters for US$5.00 per kilo, so he had a kilo for his lunch.  This came to 11 oysters.
Later, that evening, we went out to supper and chose a Vietnamese/Japanese restaurant which specialises in Duck, and employs the mentally and physically disabled.  I had a delightful duck salad, but then I am very cautious with my stomach and Calvin had shrimp sushi.  

But on the menu was a drink he had never heard of, so he had to have that.   It was a kind of liquor/fortified wine made from sweet potato and looked like vodka.   Apparently, very pleasant.  While I  ordered Jasmine tea and a Moringa cookie (a kind of green biscuit flavoured with Moringa leaves), whatever they are, Calvin had a rum coffee and a plate of roasted lotus seeds.

So, you see, the adventure continues, even if we do not always understand where it takes us.

More about food, weird and otherwise.    We have encountered, and eschewed tasting, duck embryos, which are extracted from the shell before feathers form, and are cooked in a stew.   There is also a whole frog stew.  Now, we have both enjoyed frogs' legs in France, but somehow the whole animal is less than appetising, but I have long been of the opinion that human beings are totally irrational about food.

Most of us will baulk at insects (although Calvin, typically, has tried crickets), but cheerfully eat shrimps, which are only sea insects after all.   Similarly, crab is relished, but spiders are not, and both are as ugly and many-legged as one another.  Lobster is hideous, but tasty, but scorpions, which, being smaller, are less hideous, are avoided by most of us.   None of it makes any sense, really.

No-one has offered me rat, yet, although I know they are eaten here, as are dogs, but with the fat pampered pets I see around town, not, I think, in this area.   Life down on the Delta is much tougher and therefore many of those things are eaten there.

The other night, Calvin tried mixed offal, and was rewarded with sliced liver, sliced kidneys, and sliced tripe.  He thought he had died and gone to heaven.   It's a sort of 'differen' mixed grill.

In addition to the roosters which wake us every day, and the hens who cluck beneath our windows, we now have a resident heifer in the palm plantation opposite our door.   She comes and lows at the fence whenever she sees us.   I think she is lonely, but musn't get too friendly, as I do not think, this close to town, she is destined for a long life!

Our fully furnished and equipped apartment has some strange Vietnamese interpretations of these words.    We have 10 sets of chopsticks, two spoons and two forks.   No knives.   When I mentioned this to the landlord, he promptly produced a chopping board and a cleaver!

Similarly, we have 10 rice bowls, two plates and two mugs, plus teapot, but enough glassware, in every size, to stock a respectable bar.   Obviously, Westerners only drink!

And when you try to remedy deficiencies, you find how provincial Hoi An is.   No respectable sized towels, except one we were offered printed with Teddy Bears, which is obviously a baby blanket made of towelling.  And we have this wonderful extra-length kingsize bed, and are unable to buy sheets that will go anywhere near it.

Obviously. a trip to Da Nang is called for, and the list is growing by the day.

One of the furnishings of our apartment, is a gigantic TV with 125 channels.  That may sound impressive but at least 100 of them are Viet, Korean or Chinese and the 8 sports channels are also not in English.  That leaves Nat Geo Wild, Discovery. Animal Planet and 4 film channels which show exclusively violent action stuff.

However....attached to this monster, is a small box, would you believe, of streamed movies in an external hard drive.  So there are some 2000 of these to choose from.   OK, there are still, Viet, Korean and Chinese (but some of the latter, at least, I know) plus Japanese classics, but for the rest there is everything from The Gold Rush to Paddington and 50 shades of Grey,plus series from TV like CSI and Sherlock and The Game of Thrones.

Among the offerings, we found The Salvation, the Danish western filmed near Joburg, in which Calvin took part.   So we watched it, and he is clearly visible at least twice.   The film, itself, is very grim and unrelentingly miserable, and everyone is very wooden and unemotional.  Not recommended, but of course we had to see it, and Calvin says one of the lead roles has been entirely eliminated and much of the rest truncated, and its still too long an ponderous.

Because this is a tourist town, the Vietnamese tend not to advertise their more weird culinary tastes, but we found one last night which, in addition to "normal" fare, offered pig's brains, pig's ears. jellyfish stew (which, even if I were not allergic, would not be on my list) and silkworm salad.  I could see Calvin's eyes light up but we settled for roast suckling pig and duck curry.   But I have a feeling, he will want to return to sample some of their more esoteric delights.

And here is Calvin engaged in a favorite occupation, drinking Bia Hoi.  This is a freshly brewed beer which sells for ridiculously low prices compared with the imports.  R3.50 is standard but if the outlet is a bit desperate, it can be got for R2.50.  The prices of food on the back wall, can be divided in two to arrive at the Rand price, and then divided by 10 to arrive at the US$ price.

Here I am in our apartment, writing up this blog.   As you can see, I sit at the marble counter which divides the living area from the kitchen, trusty pot of tea at hand.\

Vietnamese coffee has long been a mystery.   It is inky black, but strangely mild.  Now the puzzle is solved.

Apparently the Vietnamese use a fairly low grade of Robusta (they export the best) and dip it in burnt caramel before roasting and grinding.  Hence the midnight look and the faintly chocolate aroma of the finished brew

Moving to a new country, where you do not have the language is always a bureaucratic nightmare and achievements have to be measured in tiny victories each day.   I think  I have had my passport photocopied at least 8 times already.   First there was the guesthouse, then the estate agent, then the landlord for the lease, then the police to register our presence in town, then the notary ( 3 copies -God knows what he does with them all).  Then after we moved in, the landlord borrowed the passports again, for some unspecified reason.

I can understand in a Communist country that the government wants to keep track of the strangers, but, that said, we have no address!   We live down an alley, off another alley (both unnamed), off a boulevard which does have a name.  And our building has no number or other indication of its nature or occupants.  The best one can do if you want to direct a visitor, or taxi driver is to say that we live down the alley between The Little Hoi An Hotel and the Nova Villa Hotel.  Go to the end, turn right and we are the 2nd building on the right.