Fili’s world

His mouth was moving with strange words coming out and I was completely puzzled as to what English he was using. I listened carefully as he repeated the sentence again, but no luck - I couldn’t understand a thing. Only as he repeated the sentence the third time did I realize that Mike, Laura’s acquaintance, was actually speaking Hebrew. Hebrew? Did I forget how my own language sounds? Hearing myself respond in Hebrew was odd, since it didn’t come out the way it usually does. I was struggling to find Hebrew words to answer the Hebrew speaking South African and finally gave up the effort mumbling something about the need to speak English for Laura’s sake. I guess that at some point, after not talking to Israelis for a long period of time, you lose your touch. My brain switch is now turned to English mode, and even some of my dreams are now dubbed in a broken-English. Talking to my family and friends on the phone, at the 3rd month anniversary of my travel, was energy consuming - I had to think every sentence twice and it sounded like a broken record.

That was all a while ago. Laura is somewhere down south, and I haven’t talked to any westerns in ages. It’s only been Vietnamese people lately, and there are so many that I’ve met and have come to love.

I adore my hotel staff …

Tam : The one and only.
Minh : The smart friendly gal.
Han : The smiley cook lady.
Tham : The looker.
Ann : The sharp one.
Annh : The cute small one.
Law : The sassy one.
Vie : The fancy cloth boy.
Yum : The boss’s daughter
Oy : The only one that comes to swim with me in the pool.
“Ms. Big Boss” : The tennis player.
I took Tam, Minh and Han to a fancy breakfast one day and had a great time picking up Vietnamese music at the local CD shop.
Minh and me just came back from going going for some Com Ga (chicken on rice) on LeLoi street and then sat to eat Kem (ice cream) at the place right across Hoi An hotel. I think I was very proud of the fact that the local owners over at those places actually recognized me from eating there before.
Oy and me went for a small Vietnamese Billiard this morning. When I saw the weird pool table with no pockets I knew this is going to be different. Two white balls and a red one, you have to hit your opponent’s white ball and then the red one.
After finishing up Lunch in the Indian resturant I asked the small 15 year old energizer-bunny kid to teach me the local Tien len Vietnamese card game. I handed him 3000dong and he ran out excited to buy a pack of cards and I got to know this amazingly simple game. Coming back to the hotel later, I spent most of the afternoon playing with Tham at the reception.

I’ve become a really good friend of sweet-Nhung, the shoeshop girl just outside my hotel, and her brother Thanh - my barber. Thanh has taken me to his house to have lunch and watch some very emotional Vietnamese music VCDs, then later - he gave me a ride on his motorbike to meet up with some of the family on the island and later to visit his wife’s (yet another) shoeshop. Every time I come back to my hotel, I stay a few moments to check out on Nhung and have a few laughs. She has one of the sweetest widest smiles this world has ever seen.

I play some Ping-Pong every other day or so with Hai, Wee(d) and the two small ones who’s names I keep forgetting.

I come by the local hassler’s CoTuong place to drink Vietnamese Ice Tea and play a round or two. By now I recognize some the steady folks by face, remembering the games I lost to most of them.

Everytime I go visit the market I stop by my two friends - Loan and Thao, who are suppose to sell T-shirts but when I come over they’re just chitchatting doing nothing.

There’s Minh, and her 3 years old daughter - Na, that have a stand outside my hotel who I grew to know and like buying my daily supplies of two diet-coke cans and a big water every day. They keep reminding me that their whole existence is based on my consumer actions, and I try to live up to my great responsibility. I’d do a lot to see that little girl smile, starting from buying her kem from the street and thinking about getting her gifts when I’m going through the market.

And that’s not including all the people I met in the resturants/street-food/shops/internet-places and all the girls that have been pushed my way with a marriage proposal.

So, I’ve now reduced to speaking and understanding small-vocabulary street English and an even smaller vocabulary Vietnamese that I’ve been picking up. I don’t mind all of that, I just love the locals.