Day Five

Ice milk coffee, ice milk coffee. We're saying that a lot here. They repeat after us with 'ie mew cohay' - close enough to validate our order.

Today was our day in the sun. We woke up and meandered our way to the breakfast table overlooking the rolling sea and almost cliche sounds that are sampled on those Sharper Image sleep machines. Pancakes (which were very similar to crepes or Jaydee mentioned roti) - a fresh baguette with cherry jam - a fresh fruit platter of a delightful tropical variety (with an unidentified white fruit with lots of seeds and a very watery, sweet and almost salty flavor - kind of weird tasting) - and of course 2 ie mew cohays. (The coffees had just a subtle hint of coconut flavor to it - very delicious!)

After a lovely little breakfast we trotted a good 15 feet over to our spot for the day, 2 loungers under a thatched umbrella with little built in table. We took a big bottle of water with, and unfortunately no big bottles of sun screen. 'Ah heck, it's only 8:30am - we should be fine for a while.' We sat reading - chatting - dozing off - relaxing to say the least.  It wasn't long before our two cute little smiling Vietnamese women found us.  Jade did the talking and ordered me a pedicure - pumice and sand scrub for my scratchy foot bottoms, and an impulse back hair removal. She took out a thread and strung it thru a few fingers on each and and one end of the loop held in her mouth.  She proceeded to gently remove the hair from my back - all the while saying 'yo huban loo beautifoo' to Jade.  Jade smiled and giggled and took photos. It stung a little but hey, a small price to pay to loo beautifoo.  I laid there reading my book - wow did I feel like a snob from the west!  After they finished, we worked on our 'do you know your spouse' booklets compliments my mom as a little honeymoon gift for the beach.  It had questions like 'if you'd like to make her unhappy, you'd bring this home for dinner - and then fill in the blank.  I nailed that question - Little Caesar's Pizza - boom, I'm good!  You keep score to see who knew who the best, and Jade knew me a little better than I knew her...  I probably owe it to the recently learned 'most annoying trait of mine'.  Zoning out when she's telling me something.  The booklets ended up lasting us thru lunch.  By about 10 we positioned our loungers completely out of the sun, but by then the damage was done - but hey - we needed to give the locals something else to stare and giggle at - two red skinned little Americans.  Our burns aren't terribly bad, we're fairly red though.  Jade whipped out the after-sun and saved the day.

We dipped in the sea several times throughout the day to cool off.  It was a foreign but memorable feeling being refreshed by the water and getting a little salty taste here and there.  Jade screamed out during one of our dips - she stepped on something sharp - in her mind a sting ray - a moray eel - a snarly bottom feeder. I hushed her and said chill out, it was probably just a little rock - and then almost instantaneously I stepped on something really sharp and happily agreed to head out of the water.  Karma...

After we headed in for the day and cleaned up - we would head to the night market for a peak - a snack - dinner perhaps - we had no idea what to expect.  A short 2 minute taxi ride up the coast and we arrived at the 4 block long night market with tons of little vendors toting anything from corn to pho to sandwiches to fresh sea food of every variety.  Earlier in the day I realized a need for sunglasses to read in the bright mid-day sun, so that was our first item to scout. There were dozens of little stands selling sunglasses - so it wasn't hard.  We stopped at the first, I tried a few on, and settled on a black pair of plastic Ray Bands (or a knock off no doubt).  I asked how much and was disappointed by the 900,000 Dong price tag. She asked me to type in how much I'd like to pay on her calculator, I said 200,000 and she said no. She typed in 600,000 and we parted ways with thank yous.  About 30 feet down the way, another stand with the identical Ray Bands so we stopped.  The young woman welcomed us and began handing me glasses to try. Huge aviators and I mean huge.  I wouldn't have needed sun screen on my face with these puppies.  I said no to a few more suggestions and then I tried the black plastic knock offs on again.  Pretty good - and if the price was right - perfect for my rather limited need for them.  I asked how much, and she tried to communicate that she wasn't sure of the price - I said 100,000 Dong - she countered with a mean 120,000 Dong - I said deal and paid promptly.  On the walk away from her stand I realized how ridiculous our little bargain was, I said four dollars and fifty cents - and she countered with five dollars and fifty cents - made me feel far from home, a perspective of which I have been enjoying.

We headed up the way a bit and settled on a little sit down place with a larger stand and about 6 tables next to it - for kind of a fast casual style dinning ala Chipotle or Noodles. I ordered us a seafood Hot Pot (whatever the hell that is) and Jade contributed an order of 2 corns (looked like corn at the State Fair - roasted smothered in butter).  I also ordered a Saigon Green - local beer that was similar to the pilsners in Prague - but they called it a Lager.  At a little over 50 cents for a 24 oz bottle - it's a steal (just like everything else in this country accept for wine apparently).  The corn came over first and looked delicious, and we should have done just that, looked at it.  It tasted awful.  Almost gelatinous in texture - I jokingly said after my first unfortunate bite 'Mme this corn has gone bad!' Jade shushed me but agreed whole heartedly.  And then for the finale of the night, a seafood Hot Pot.  They gave us a huge plate of fresh seafood - squid - shrimp - several different fillets of fish. It was accompanied by a plate of rice noodles - a plate of greens - two small bowls of seasonings and two bowls to use for eating.  Then they came out with a large bowl of soup with fresh herbs and vegetables sitting on a little burner to keep it at a boil.  I was about to dip in my first raw fish fondue style and noticed a local family next to us dumping the whole plate of meat in the center bowl at once. It was a bit concerning that Jade and I were tackling a meal that an entire family might normally eat for dinner (there was a father - a wife - and older woman and 3 kids in total).  But we took their cues one by one of how to do the Hot Pot.  Everything in for about 2 minutes then scoop it back into our little bowls for an endless little seafood soup buffet.  It was remarkable in taste - the seafood being perhaps caught that day on the island. After several bowls and picking out all of the good stuff from the center boiling pot, we were ready to head out.

We walked down the street - outside of the market and did a little shopping - but we were tired and full and not in the mood to buy - so we called it a night - headed back to our cute little sea-side room and slept like wild Vietnamese dogs.  (On Phu Quoc, there are thousands of wild dogs roaming around, eating whatever people will give them - very nice dogs - they are happy to get a pat on the head - but they spend most of their time sleeping in the shade where ever they can find it. I peaked out of our window after dark and saw one of them had hopped up on a padded lounger for a comfy night's rest.)