After meeting Katie at her coffee shop only 40 minutes before our overnight bus to Ha Giang, we abandoned our plans and were surprisingly willing to eat $50 in tickets. She convinced us of her hospitality, network, and know-how and by god we were not let down.
She introduced us to Alex and Katja, two young whipper snappers from South Africa who were traveling through Vietnam as Katie’s lion cubs. It was an immediate joy to meet another sibling duo making their way through Asia and we were ready to learn more about them. In the corner of this meeting sat a reserved Tom.
We will catch up on him later.
Billy, Matt, and I joined their group to a staff/new years party at a Ha Long restaurant. We enjoyed one of the greatest buffets we have ever experience. Buttered Bahn Mi, melons, salads, pork wrapped mushrooms, octopus, beef, shrimp, French fries, squid bits, and even fried crocodile were given to us by the sheer hospitality of our new friends. The food was never ending as we helplessly thanked the kind strangers for cooking all of our food in the center grill and loading up our plates with big smiles.
They were especially pleased to share their happy water – a type of rice wine that never left our tiny shot glasses. One after the other and for no apparent reason other than to celebrate each others company, we all stood cheering “mot! Hai! Bah! Yo!” (one, two, three… cheers!)before gulping down another drink. There was never a person who sipped his drink alone.
After Billy ate a whole octopus and everyone threw down bets over an arm wrestling match, the dinner came to an end. Nevertheless Katie led party to a nearby beach. And by party we mean a small squat circle with even more snacks and a hefty sharing of beer.
We looked at the stars, shared music, learned some South African dancing, and billy enjoyed a gently amused audience for a small techno demonstration.
Although everyone was ready for bed after some proper digestion time, us tourists wanted to enjoy the exciting new beach and strangely arranged stars. Only Tom lingered with us on the beach… not quite as a friend but instead as a watching eye for Katie.
We were ready to relax at the sound of the waves and sip on the remaining beers, but by some cosmic act of childlike interference a pink balloon the size of a hefty beach ball hit me in the face. Matt, being the one always with a game ready to play, insisted we play Jackpot. This entailed one person throwing the balloon high in the air yelling a random number of points and whoever catches it gets the points. Simple enough.
It quickly devolved into a game of just chase and catch, my bruised face being the only faux pa of the night. That was our first of many shared joys with Tom.
That night we were put up in their lovely Sunflower hotel free of charge and were prepared to be shuttled off the next morning to Cat Ba Island. We learned to trust Katie’s advice dearly. Since this island was Tom’s home he was put in charge of everyone, maybe even dreading the responsibility. Though he definitely had his work cut out for him, I believe it was worth it in the end.
<3 I have very few pictures from this night, but in my next posts you will see plenty of evidence of our time with Tom, Katie, and these unruly new friends