I wake up earlier than usual as I had to run to the bank and make a withdrawal for the Nha Trang trip.
I took the number four bus up town and got off on Cong Hoa. I was dozing off in the bus so I actually missed my stop ha. As a result, I had to walk about half a mile to the bank on Truong Chinh. My cousin, Xuan, met me up at the bank afterwards and took me over to her Mom's house for lunch.
At O Vinh's house, I ate two bowls of her signature bun bo hue. Xuan's brother, Bay, came home from work and hung out with us. There were a couple other older folks there also. I don't remember their names.
I do remember my sister calling me and telling me that it's raining like crazy in Vinh -- that all flights are canceled. This report meant that she couldn't fly in later that night and will have to miss the Nha Trang trip. Her two buddies, Trung and Cuong, are also out.
I hung out here until about 1:45PM, that's when Bay took me to his label printing business for a tour and because he had to sign off on some papers. After the brief visit, he took me across town to the corner of Bui Vien and De Tham, where I met up with Tony and his homey. Bay drops me off and I get on Tony's bike.
We rode across two bridges out to this spacious and well-guarded venue. However, when we got there, we were told that the gym is off limits. I wanted to just pay the man off to let us in but the crew had already alter the plans to go play outdoors near the Reunification Palace. On the bike ride back to the city, I called Linh to go into my backpack to pull out 3 of the train tickets and get the refund. She got it done.
At the outdoor park, there was an occupied full court with two half court games going on and one bootleg full court that was empty. The bootleg full court was really only a half court cause one of the rims was out of order. We played 3 on 3 to start it up while we waited for the others to show. About 6 minutes in, it started sprinkling and then about 7 minutes in, there was a thunder strike and down came the southeast Asia rain. Everyone grab their belongings and headed for the verandahs. We chilled hear for about 10 minutes, hoping the rain would stop but that was only a hope that never went full circle.
I said goodbyes to all the new basketball friends and picked off a taxi for home.
When I got home, I did a little research on Nha Trang, called Monkey to make sure he leaves my aunt by 8:00PM, packed my suitcase, ate dinner, and relaxed.
Sonny and Momma comes over around 9:00PM, and we book the taxi out to the train station (Ga Saigon). The train station is only 10 minutes from my cousin's place but we're suppose to arrive 30 minutes ahead of time so I called the taxi around 9:55PM. The taxi comes around 10:10PM and we all get in except for Monkey. We all wait for him in the taxi wondering what he's doing. He comes out about 10 minutes later with a trash bag with wet clothes. He was doing his laundry. Not too many people own dryers in Vietnam and this list included my cousin. Even if he did own a dryer, there was no way in hell my brother woulda been able to dry his clothes in time. Crazy Monkey.
Anyway, we still were able to board the train with about 17 minutes to spare. We were in the last cargo so we had to walk a ways after crossing the gate.
The train is a normal size. There's about two sets of ten rows facing each other. The middle of the train symmetrize the 20 rows of seating. The aisle in the center splits each roll of seats into a pair on both sides. There are big bus-like windows on both sides that make for a good view of the outside world. There's a small and ghetto bathroom at the end of the cargo. The seats felt dirty and the ventilation was terrible.
The realization of 3rd world sanitation made it hard to fall asleep so I dug inside my backpack for some help. I put on my sunglasses and a couple earplugs, closed my eyes and said goodbye to Saturday, July 30th, 2011.
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