Image by Rock Portrait Photography via Flickr
As stated in my Twitter update tonight I wrote three of my best blog entries yet on my phone over the last few days. I had to change batteries this morning and now I find that all three have disappeared. I can’t tell you how angry I am about that.
I’m too angry to try to write them all in detail again, so sadly a poorly written summary of the last three days will have to do.
Day One – Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok
As I was leaving the apartment it was a beautiful sunny day and I wanted to share my thoughts on the view with the taxi driver. I also wanted to share how hard it had been to organise the taxi with no Vietnamese to draw upon. Of course, I could do neither, could I? Well, I start lessons next week, so I hope they don’t take long to kick in.
Taking a taxi along the same roads I take to work I was able to see things I don’t normally see when riding the bike. The open seafood and meat markets that spring up on the side of the hot and dusty roads really do make you think about food handling in an entirely new way. Still, I haven’t been sick from food poisoning so perhaps we worry too much in the west.
The other thing I noticed is how many girls walk around in tiny, badly fitted nightgowns without a care in the world. Nobody else notices, but I still think it’s unusual for such a conservative country. I have seen a few naked girls swimming in the rivers bordering Nguyen Van Linh Boulevarde, and once again no-one but me seems to notice.
Then again, Vietnamese don’t seem to use peripheral vision when riding bikes, so it’s not surprising.
Day One – Bangkok Airport
I used to rave about my Sennheiser earphones. Not anymore. They broke recently and with two hours to kill in Bangkok Airport I finally had time to replace them. With 5 different brands and at least 2 models per brand I had no idea where to start. I didn’t want the 4500 baht noise cancellation phones, nor did I think I’d be happy with the 1100 baht “optimised for MP3″ model.
The salesman knew what to do. He took me to the Sony 2500 baht set and guaranteed me I’d be happy. I was dubious, but they were in the right price range and they were pretty.
Sitting in the Bangkok Air customer lounge, marveling at all the complimentary food, drink and wi-fi, I plugged in and was promptly blown away. Wow! So punchy and full of air. What should one listen to when discovering new headphones? Well, Iron Savior’s awesome cover of Judas Priest’s “Desert Plains”, of course. I was very, very happy. Goodbye Sennheiser, hello Sony.
Day One – Phuket
Met a couple of Aussies, as one does when going to Phuket, and realised I can pick the Melbourne accent. Gidday Paul & Maree. Hope you had a great night with me at Rock City. Sorry for bailing on you after the AC/DC tribute band, but that waitress was getting on my nerves.
As we were driving up the mountain that guards Patong Beach there was the usual traffic jam. But instead of being caused by a large truck with no low gears, this time it was half the road missing. A giant hole big enough to fit a car had opened up on our side of the road. Couldn’t really tell if anyone had fallen in there as it was so deep. Of course I was too busy looking to actually take a photo!
It had been raining for 3 days in Phuket before I arrived, and it continued to rain for most of my time there. Didn’t bother me any, as I was only there for one thing. No, not the touts, tuk tuks, massage girls or ladyboys – all of which there are far too many in Thailand to ever let me feel comfortable there. I proved one thing – my initial thoughts about Bangkok and Phuket were accurate. Those places are not for me.
I was there for Rock City.
Nights One and Two – Rock City
I slept during the days, so not much to report there other than I did a whole lot better finding good food this time than I did last time I was here.
Things were a bit rocky (pun intended) on the first night, as the rain had come through the roof and was getting into all the electrical equipment. The band couldn’t start until everything had been painstakingly taken apart and blow-dried. This took two hours, so the open bar was extended another two hours to compensate, giving us four hours of free drinks. My advice – order spirits when this happens, as they pour three quarters of a glass of whiskey, and one quarter coke.
I missed out on watching Gun (spelling?) sing as her set had to be cancelled. But I did get a good long chat in. She remembered me from the old place, as did James (singer for another of the line-ups) and one of the bouncers. I was rapt to be remembered. Finally a band was able to start, and James kicked it off with a short setlist including my favourite from him – Breaking The Law.
What followed blew me away. The AC/DC tribute show was as good as Thunderstruck back at home. And that’s saying something. The guitarist, whilst really good, is not up to our own guy who is as good as Angus himself (I’m talking about the original Thunderstruck, not the new version), but the singer was incredible. He was Brian Johnson through and through. No. In fact, he was better than Brian. I spoke to him the following night after being amazed that he would sing like that two nights in a row. He told me he does it six nights in a row! He’s also the son of one of LRB’s main songwriters (can’t remember if it was Birtles or Goble) and was in Magic Dirt for a few years. Cool guy. I was supposed to hang around afterward to tell him about Vietnam, but forgot about it in my rush to get away from that annoying waitress.
Actually, girls in Rock City seem to have a bad habit of annoying me around 2am, as it happened the night before too. Only that time it was a couple of blow-in worker girls from one of the nearby bars. They’ve got tickets on themselves some of these girls, even though they really don’t have much going for them. These two decided to not let me get past them to go to the bar, as they thought they were both irresistible. I tried to break it gently to them that they certainly weren’t, and I don’t think they took it too well. Fortunately, my status as a “Rock City Important Person” ensured the bouncers threw them out, not me.
The second night, the annoying waitress suffered short-term memory loss and tried to make me pay for Paul and my drinks twice in a row. You can be sure that didn’t go down too well either, especially when Thailand is, to me, a land of people wanting nothing but money from me.
All in all, I had a great two nights. My neck is telling me so (headbanger’s neck) and I took advantage of a long delay in Bangkok airport before I came home to get all the kinks sorted out. Best massage I’ve ever had. Don’t worry Adriana, I don’t compare massage to myotherapy 
Your elbows still rule.
Day Three – Bangkok
Not much to say about Bangkok that hasn’t already been said. Three letters – Yuk. It’s just a sleazy, intimidating city. The hotel was good, though. Nice change, that.
Went down to Soi Cowboy to see if I could find the two Aussies I met last year who said they practically live there. No such luck, so I drank a couple of beers and watched the circus instead. What did happen is that I got caught in the heaviest rain and lightning storm of my life. I thought the flood outside my school last week was bad, but this deluge in Bangkok was something else. It was like someone above the street was pouring the contents of a giant dam directly onto the road from big buckets. The noise was deafening, the light flashes were quite frightening, and the streets were deep enough that within minutes of it starting I was caught in a river up over my knees. I gladly paid four times the going rate for a taxi to get me home fast.
Day Four – Ho Chi Minh City
More rain, and caught in a traffic jam. Even the taxi driver was showing frustration, and you don’t see too much of that over here. I did have to direct him to get me where I wanted to go. I’m starting to get to know my way around here, and I am able to say more of the street names well enough to be understood.
I am so glad to be back here. But there’s no rest for the wicked. I have to be up at 6:30am to head out to Vung Tau for a couple of days. I’ll be offline until Thursday night, after which my life returns to normality.
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Posted via email from RockPortrait in Vietnam
