Nha Trang: The City Nobody’s At
Monday 5th December, Perfume Grass Inn, Nha Trang, 3:30pm
Well! We’re in Nha Trang! And boy are we happy. It’s amazing here, and it’s going to be even more amazing when it clears up. It’s extremely overcast, which sucks, but it’s still wonderful. It’s almost deserted as well, because the weather has been so bad. But the plan is to just chill out in our room for a couple of days, catch up on some reading and writing , and recoup our financial losses a little (well, we actually haven’t lost anything at all yet, we’re doing really well financially, but we just want to save a little while we’re in Nha Trang).
Nha Trang is a resort town right next to the beach. From our hotel balcony (we ensured we got a hotel room with a balcony and ocean views), you can look to the left you can see the beach and the ocean (through a few powerlines), and if you look to the right you can see rolling green mountains. It’s stunning. As we were driving here, I was saying “mountains!” and looking left, then looking right and saying “beach!”. We also saw a lot of rock-falls, so it seems like the road to Nha Trang has been dug pretty much straight out of the mountains. It is low season here, though, but you still get the idea of how incredible Nha Trang would be during the summer months. I’m sure we’ll get at least one day of sunshine here, since we’re planning to be here for at least five days. It’s just so relaxed and laid-back, and we have a really nice room that cost less than we were expecting. In truth, though, all we wanted was somewhere with a balcony, ocean-views, minibar and TV. Actually, that’s quite specific, isn’t it? Anyway, this place has character (as you can imagine with a name like Perfume Grass Inn!). When we first arrived, we were hustled up to the reception desk, but the room we wanted wasn’t quite ready, so they gave complimentary coffee (which furthers my growing belief that Vietnamese coffee is incredibly amazing). One of the staff strummed a guitar and sang softly while we drank our drinks. We have always had such amazing service throughout Vietnam. Our room is on the third floor, and we’re going to pay for our laundry to be done, and we’re going to settle in, and we’re so happy here! We just need to chill out in a place that’s quiet, easy and pleasant. And here we are! We’re watching “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle” though, which isn’t exactly relaxing. James hasn’t seen it before, so he’s watching it while I’m writing.
But first, I must tell you about our bus trip because it was weird. We left Dalat around 7:15, to be transferred to the office the real bus left from. The drive from Dalat to Nha Trang was meant to be another six hours or so. The distance between cities is insanely long. This is a warning to anyone coming to Vietnam. You really had to put aside entire days for travel between cities, because it’s just so time-consuming. And the train is even slower, because it’s one of those old steam trains (but not a Hotham Valley novelty train, more a “we’re going to die” train. Plus there’s only one train line. Literally. So don’t ask me how they deal with trains heading in both directions). The bus to Nha Trang was much busier than the bus to Dalat. And the guests I want to talk about are a Dutch couple in their sixties. And their Vietnamese companion. And I don’t mean a lady companion. I mean a boy. A boy in his teens, who was charming, affable and spoke brilliant English. And he was not their adopted son. He was guiding them around Vietnam in some way, but even then it was strange because he was so young. His feet and hands were tiny, but his face was sharp and wise-looking, so that his age was almost indeterminate. But then he’d have these playful bouts where it was very obvious that he was quite young. He slept on a pillow, hand-made of material with cartoon animals on it. The Dutch man took a photo of the boy sleeping, while the woman cooed and giggled about how sweet the boy looked. Here are some of the clues that made it clear that the Vietnamese boy and the Dutch couple were not related or in some kind of ongoing familial relationship:
1) The boy at one stage offered the woman his pillow, and she asked him what it was. Later, the man asked the boy about a thermometer on his bag, and the boy explained how it worked. If they were his parents, adopted parents I mean, they would know every single possession he owned.
2) At one stage, the man said that “the young man” was organising something for them. He sounded awkward when say8ing it, as though he didn’t quite know how to describe the relationship they had developed with the boy.
3) As the bus trip continued, the boy and the couple began to get more affectionate with one another. The boy often tenderly took the woman’s face in his hands, and the man occasionally touched the boys cheek, arm and back. The touches were light and surreptitious, and I only saw because I’m nosy and was sitting directly opposite them. The touches were also a bit hesitant, and did not have the natural instinctive feel that occurs between parent and child. They stood out, they didn’t feel right. And it wasn’t because I was instilling their actions with my own presumptions. You know when you have a gut feeling that something isn’t right? Well that’s how we both felt. And later, chatting to the Swedish boys, we discovered that one had also noticed and thought it very disturbing.
The boy was also very flirtatious, and he even had me wondering if he fancied me at one stage. He chatted and mimicked my actions with a charming, beguiling smile and could sucker you in without you even noticing. And that’s when we realised something. Maybe the Dutch couple weren’t that seedy or paedophilic. Maybe the boy was a total player. He had them sucked in hook, line and sinker, and I bet he was being paid to be their guide, as well as having his food, accommodation and any extra treats being paid for. Sure, we could be jumping to huge conclusions, but that boy was a total player. He moved between the Dutch couple and another single, elderly man, who was equally charmed by the boy. He asked his name, and he joined the Dutch couple and the boy for lunch. Then the way the boy acted with me, I was suddenly like, “fuck. This boy is an absolute pro!”. He told stories, he smiled, he acted coy, he giggled. But the whole time his eyes were calculated, I could see his mind ticking away. He knew exactly what he was doing. And it probably wasn’t sexual at all, it was probably affectionate, and the boy was probably simply offering the Dutch couple the joy of his company. Perhaps they always wanted a son. Basically, we think he charmed the pants off them, and is conning them all the way to the bank. And I’d say he’s not the only boy out there that plays the game. Some other points that didn’t sit right with me:
1) At one stage, the boy was practically sitting in the man’s lap
2) The boy never so much as flinched when the couple touched him, but occasionally he would look over at me as it was happening, to see if I was watching. I always made sure I was only looking out the corner of my eye, so he couldn’t tell, but I saw the looks, and they weren’t frightened, or innocent, or oblivious. He knew.
3) When we left them, the old man had his arm linked through the boys, and was stroking his upper arm.
4) The boy spoke outstanding English. He was from the Central Highlands, but he was the most English-literate Vietnamese person we’ve met since being here.
So, with all that in mind, we’re going to go to a bar here that donates all proceeds to stopping child prostitution. We’re hoping to talk to the owner about it, and see whether we were right to be suspicious. Because we could be jumping to a whole heap of wrong conclusions, but the whole thing was immensely bizarre and disturbing. It was very relieving to hear the Swedish guy say he’d thought it odd as well. Any thoughts? Reckon he was a little hustler? Or were they a travelling paedophile couple? Or was he just a very affectionate tour guide??
And a few final notes: We’ve been seeing loads of baby animals around. It’s so exciting! But the alarming thing is that we keep seeing loads and loads of puppies, but not many adult dogs. Disturbing, huh? Laughing Cow cheese is sold everywhere here, so baguettes with cream cheese are very popular for breakfast among the backpackers. When we driving through the mountains, we saw a random guy just standing by the road. There was nothing around for ages, and he had no vehicle, so…it was weird. And the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere for a pee-stop, and all the guys scrambled out to wee into the bushes, but most of the girls stayed on the bus. I was like “uh…can we actually go to real toilets??”. And there’s a really annoying blonde English chick who keeps ending up on our bus. She has a lame lip piercing and tacky brown roots in her peroxide hair, and whenever we talk to her she doesn’t really seem to care or listen. We just ended up avoiding talking to her, and just talk to the Swedish boys instead.