Sweet, two Apocalypse now references back to back, with the title of this blog being pretty apropos. Two nights ago I met up with my friend Phi, a Vietnamese girl I met with her boyfriend Thieu last year while I was traveling to Hoi An. She took me to her father's restaurant, which was close to my hotel, located on 70 Nguyen Thai Binh street, district 1. It was a glorified street joint, but it had a fairly deep menu, and it specialized in Chinese food. (Phi's father is of Chinese descent) Phi ordered a bunch of different things, the best being these small cooked clams. She then told me about this crazy bug he serves, which she called doung. I told her I'd like to try it, since I never ate a bug before, at least not intentionally. They brought it out first alive, these two giant larva things, moving around on a plate made of straw. They then took them back to cook them. It was actually pretty good, but it definitely felt weird, since it was filled with this milk-like substance that poured out into your mouth when you bit into it. (You eat it whole) I have pictures, but I can't upload them now. It was a great night, and I also met with Phi's friend named Houng.
So, yesterday was a really crazy day. In the morning I walked around the city, checking out some sights. I bought a $4 bottle of Hungarian champagne for new years, and then went to the river to sit and chill. In Saigon, there are all these people walking around, carrying these large flat displays with sunglasses and lighters, trying to sell them to tourists. Like everyone who peddles things to foreigners, they can be pretty annoying and pushy. While I was sitting at that bench, one of them came up to me, a guy in his late 50's. I told him I'm not interested, thinking he'll go away. He put his display down however, saying he needed a break. He started to chat with me, and when I told him I was from America, a big smile came on his face. He immediately told me that he fought on the American side during the war, which is how he learned English. He then told me about his life, that was from Danang, where his wife and grown children live. He has an apartment in Saigon, and sells crap to tourists for a living. I was pretty shocked at about how open he was about telling me he fought for the Americans, which he brought up several times, and even bragged about killing "four VC" at once during a fight. We talked for about a half-hour, and then he got up, picked up his display, and went over to a nearby bench with two tourists, trying to make a sale.
Later that night, I met up Hien, a friend of Ben's who works for an English school. She introduced me to an American friend of hers, Chad, who works at the school, and a friend of his, Polly, from Chile. We went over to a nearby park which had this big international food festival, with booths selling food from various countries. We had some pretty kick ass tacos, a somasa, some beers, and a lot of Vietnamese food. I also met up with Phi there, who was with Thieu, Houng, Phi's aunt and brother, and Houng's friend Tuan.
So, while everyone was at the festival, me, Houng and Tuan ended up going to a coffee shop to have a meeting. The previous day, I told Houng that I worked in the TV and film industry, and that I had some interest in maybe working on something in Vietnam. As it turns out, her friend Tuan worked in the TV industry in Ho Chi Minh City, and that he's looking to start his own cable channel. At the coffee shop, he gave some papers describing his business plan, and we talked about me me being an adviser for him. Vietnamese productions are pretty ghetto, and he said he's keen on having an experienced person from the U.S. helping him make a higher quality product. I told him that I would agree to help him out, and said he can use my name to help get him funds from investors. It was definitely a great conversation, and I'm not sure if anything will come of it, but I would love to be able to work on something out here. It's crazy how I was talking about wanting to get a production job abroad for a while, and then out of now where, I'm talking with a guy I just met about helping start a production company. We'll see if anything comes from this.
I later returned to the festival, where Phi took me to a booth where they had these giant snails, which were pretty good. Phi and her friends left, and I went with Hien, Chad and Polly to a nearby bar. We're sitting there, and then out of no where, Justin and Dana - Ben's cousins - just happen to walk by with their friend Natasha. It was great, since I wanted to meet up with them while they were in town, but couldn't reach them since I only knew their Facebook pages, but Facebook is blocked by the government in Vietnam. (While there is a way around it, for some reason, it stopped working) Hien and her friends peaced out, and I met up with Dana, Justin and Natasha for drinks. I got really shitfaced, and I think I drank snake wine, which is vodka that has a dead snake soaking in it. It tasted like ass, but it sure got me drunk.
I got home late and slept until 11:30, which made me late to a lunch meeting I had with Phi this morning. After lunch, her brother Han took me around the city on a motor bike, showing me a couple of pagodas in Chinatown. We drove around some, and then we met up with his friends for coffee at an outdoor cafe. Tonight,I'm meeting Hien for dinner, and then possibly Phi for the New Years countdown
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