I Miss You, Where Are You, Darling? and Steames Crab full of Fat

On my 4th day here in Quy Nhon and starting to find my way around. It's Sunday morning here and the weather has turned nice, i.e., the rain has subsided. I walked past the Quy Nhon cathedral and walked inside the open gates just to look around. As I approached the church, I was met with the sound of a choir of children singing inside. The church seemed a large wooden music box resonating with the childrens' song. Very peaceful and nice.

Later I made my way out to a park by the water and was stalked. By a group of giggling Vietnamese girls. I could hear them practicing their English phrases as they followed at a distance of 30 or so feet. This happens often in Quy Nhon. The kids all want to practice their (usually very limited) English skills with any foreigner. See pics below. I also met a couple of college students whose English skills are very advanced and spent the better part of yesterday with them. I rented a motorbike and they showed me around to some nice area beaches. The woman at Barbara's hotel who rented me the motorbike did not expect to see me alive again! She told me I had to turn off the bike's engine at every stop and restart it to proceed! I soon figured out she did this only out of concern for my well-being. Or perhaps that of the bike. But I was soon zipping along in the Quy Nhon traffic like a native. A native of the USA that is. No, it's not so bad here especially compared to Sai Gon or Ha Noi.

Last night I was pulled into a group of sidewalk diners and enjoyed a pre-dinner of bia hoi (the local microbrew) and some tasty appetizers of squid and beef. Some of the group also tried very hard to get me to properly pronounce some Vietnamese words. It's tough. I finally strained and contorted my voice enough to parrot some words well enough to get some cries of appoval and the torture ended. I proceeded to a very good seafood restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner. One item on the menu was 'Steames crab full of fat'. I normally wouldn't indulge in the easy and endless game of pointing out amusing and puzzling instances of English usage here, but this one caught my attention. It's especially amusing and I really don't know what it is! Perhaps I should return tonight and order it.






The Quy Nhon Cathedral.

Stalkers! The one on the left's top reads 'I Miss You, Where Are You Darling?'!

More stalkers. One really needs to keep one's guard up around here!