90 meters down Dao gives me the thumbs up and in 3 seconds my feet touch the ground. There is no slow and steady belaying in Vietnam. He dropped me like a rock and I stood up, laughed, and asked Hau which route I should do next.
I'm at the first-ever rock climbing gym in Vietnam. There is a team of three guys assisting me: Dao - he belays for me.. and I think the only English he knows is 'on belay' (which is the ready signal to start climbing). Hau - he ties me in and picks which route I'll do next. His English is pretty good and he helps me to figure out how to climb a route as I'm going up (ie most strategic place to put my hands and feet). And there is the last guy.. who's name I didnt understand. And nor did I understand anything else he was saying. He was my cheerleader.
Apparently women don't rock climb in Vietnam so there is a growing crowd of people watching me. I'm trying not to be embarrassed.
An hour of climbing is exhausting - especially when you're not belaying for anyone.. just climbing over and over again. I wanted to do one last route. My arms are shaking and I'm halfway up the wall. I'm exhausted. My hands hurt. Like stinging and burning hurt. Voice in my head tells me to shut up and push harder. I climb a few more meters and catch my breath. I wipe the sweat off my face and I can see why my hands hurt so bad. I'm bleeding. Everywhere.
I'm bummed. how am I supposed to go to yoga later?!
I get bandaged up, thank the team, and head off for more adventures. I duck into a high end department store (in search of air conditioning) and find there is bowling and arcade games on the 4th floor. I'm a sucker for arcades. I head up and grab a snack at the bar.
I have no idea how much the video games cost but they have House of the Dead- ALL four versions of it. I conclude I'm going to be here awhile and buy $6 worth of tokens. Which is apparently so many tokens the guy has to find a plastic bag for me.
30 minutes later I have:
1. used about 10 cents worth of my tokens
2. realized that girls don't play arcade games in Vietnam, especially shooting ones, so I have another crowd around me.
A Vietnamese tiger woods-look alike asks me if I want a partner in my two-player game. I laughed, and played House of the Dead with (a name that sort of sounds like) Vincent - who lives in Atlanta but is in Vietnam visiting family. He wasn't that good at House of the Dead, so I thanked him, left him with $5 worth of tokens, and headed off for more adventures - a cooking class.
Except the they won't do a class unless there are two or more people (damn traveling solo!). so I conclude that I smell awful and go back to my hotel - which happens to have one of the nicest spas in Ho Chi Minh.
In theory, a coconut body scrub is a great idea. In reality, it just makes your mouth water for the entire duration of your spa service. When it was time to rinse off - I looked like I had been running around naked in the snow. HAHA! Got a massage and decided I still needed more pampering.
Headed down the street to a recommended salon and thought: I don't know which will be scarier - rock climbing or letting someone in Vietnam cut my hair.
I walked in and was greeted with some faaaabulous English-speaking Vietnamese divos. Perfect.
I have a new 'do. I dont know how I feel about it but my divo hair stylist claims: 'I make you very attractive!!'
maybe he's right. for a guaranteed good meal I've come back to the nice restaurant I ate at the other evening and several gentleman have asked me to join their table. I guess I could use some company to toast my last night in Asia! turns out they are three architects from England and Australia living in Hong Kong. We had dinner together and toasted to my trip!
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