First Night on Phu Quoc

First Night on Phu QuocI must admit that it’s not very often that I get a chance to make love to a woman, this is something that I was reminded of quite often as I walked thru the summer streets of Saigon, so when such a rare opportunity presents itself to me, for better or worse, I feel as if it marks time in a certian way.I remember reading somewhere of how the famous philospher, Rene Descartes, who I suppose must’ve also been a surgeon as well, once said or wrote somewhere, ‘every surgeon carries around with him a personal graveyard of all the souls he’s lost, everywhere he goes’ And at the risk of sounding melodramatic, I suppose that the same can be said about a shy young man; that he carries around a number with him, of the different women he’s slept with. To me this number is more so a visual map of my personal history, than any form of bragging rights, not that I’d really have many people to brag to if I wanted to, which I don’t. Anyway last night, after not having made love to someone for awhile, though the last time, was sad and beautiful and passionate at once, I found myself with a girl again. I met her on Phu Quoc island off of the western coast of southern Vietnam, where I’ve settled for a while to work on a novel. I booked a flight here a few days back as I felt like I wanted to get out of Saigon; the place felt too much for me; too loud, too garish, too much tourism, too little nature, too many constant reminders of my unsanted desires and loneliness. I’d been in Saigon for about a fortnight. I had a little room off of Bui Vien street, the main tourist drag. Large roller shutter doors were locked up over the front of my hotel at midnight and you had to loudly knock on them if you wanted to come back in any later than then; Ms. Nga, the pretty, short, 30 something caretaker, would then grumble to herself as she reluctantly got up from where she slept on a mat behind the front desk, to open the shutters up for you. ‘Why you always come back so la’ hey? It no goo’ It no goo’ for me’ she’d then say to you, and other things to this effect. My room was on the second story of the hotel and had its own ensuite bathroom. The view out of the window was of a brick wall, about a foot away from the glass, making the place always dark unless you had a light switched on. The idea of a beach, a veranda in front of a bungalow perhaps, to sit and work at, appealed to me a lot. I’d seen nice photos of Phu Quoc island in the various travel agencies around Bui Vein. I’d also looked the place up online and read some nice things; of how there were very beautiful pristine beaches there and of how some 60% of the island was buried in jungle. ‘I could rent a motorscooter and drive out to the jungles’ I’d thought to myself at the time, ‘nature, a****ls, adventure… And hopefully I might make some friends with fellow travelers on the beach too’ My flight came into Phu Quoc island at about 7 in the evening. As I stepped out of the air conditioned airport, into the oppressive humid tropical heat, towing my roller suitcase behind me, a hustler came up to me. ‘You need a cab man?’ he asked me. ‘There aren’t any buses or anything are there?’ ‘No, no buses man’ he replied with a slight laugh, ‘only taxi. You want taxi? I can get you taxi, ver’ goo’ price’ ‘Oh great’ I thought to myself, ‘here comes the part where I get financially sodomized’ After some bartaring with the man, I soon caught a cab to the tourist district. I didn’t particularly like the sound of that, the tourist district, but I supposed it was a necessarily evil if I hoped to make friends, that I could spend time with, when I wasn’t writing. Not far from where my driver dropped me out at I soon found a beach resort with rooms for 10 dollars a night, a price, which I diligently knocked down from the first quote of 20. I put my stuff in my bungalow and laid down on my bed, with my noisy ceiling fan rattling away above me. I soon watched the end of Dirty Grandpa on my laptop, which I’d started on the plane. I then decided to check out the beach. I’d learned from the staff, when I’d first checked in, that the beach was in easy walking distance from the resort; that I just had to keep heading down the hill from my bungalow and I wouldn’t miss it. As I made my way down the hill the patchy grass soon gave way to sand, and I soon could make out the sound of the surf crashing away in the distance. There were occasional palm trees about me and I could also hear cicadas and other bugs droning away in the distance. At the bottom of the hill there was a small, about two metre high, brick abutment, then beyond it was the beach. I soon saw where there were some concrete steps set into the middle of the abutment. It was high tide and the waves were coming right up to the base of the abutment. I took my sandles off and left them beside the steps. I then rolled my jeans niğde escort up and started to make my way down the beach. There was an orange crescent moon in the sky and a tapering line of orange light quivered over the dark waves until it disappear off over the horizon. I could see the silhouttes of more palms in the distance before me. I listened to the crash of the surf and the droning of the bugs as I walked on. I enjoyed the feeling of the sand on my bare feet. A sudden deep wave, soon got the bottom of my jeans wet. I soon saw some lights in the distance, and walked up to them until I came to a beach front bar, which I soon learned was apparently the only one open on the island, as this was off season. I soon got to talking to a young woman and a man at the bar. I had no money on me but the man offered to buy me a beer, which I graciously accepted. I asked the pair if I was imposing on anything here, but the girl told me not to be silly. I drank my beer, and swapped some travel stories and anecdotes with the pair. I soon promised to buy a second round for the group to show my appreciation, for the beer. I also told them that whilst I was back in my bungalow I could grab my sketchpad, so that I could do a drawing of the pair. I set off back to my bungalow and soon returned with some money and my sketch pad, tucked away, with a box of crayons and some pencils in my worn old canvas satchel bag. ‘Are you sure I’m not imposing on anything here?’ I then asked the pair. ‘Yes, I would say, don’t be silly’ the girl replied. She then asked me if she could see my drawings. I told her sure and watched as she contemplative flipped thru my sketch pad. I then bought us another round. I soon did a rudimentary, yet sincere sketch of the pair in my pad, with a black crayon. They seemed to like. ‘Really, you must tell me if I’m impossing on anything here’ I told them. ‘It’s fine’ the girl replied, ‘you don’t have to keep saying that’ We continued to drink, ask each other questions and swap travel stories. I soon learned of how the girl was traveling to Thailand the next day. She soon excused herself as apparently she had to get up early the next morning. Not long after she left the man did as well. I continued to drink on my own. I soon got rather drunk and tried to goad some of the people in the bar into coming night swimming with me, but none of them seemed to want to go in for it. After awhile I followed some young English men, I’d been drinking with into a nearby club they knew of. The club was only a short walk away from the bar. It was in a small subterranean room, and had a rather large amount of young Vietnamese people inside. The electronic dance music inside was up so loud it felt like it was doing serious damage to my ears, but by that point I felt too drunk to care. The English boys soon laughed at me as I had no shoes or sandles on, and my wet jeans were dripping onto the floor. The boys and I soon laughed at a handsome young Vietnamese man who was dressed in rather effeminate clothes; a very short pair of denim shorts, a black crop top and denim jacket, as he danced in a rather effeminate and rambunctious manner. There were several pretty Vietnamese girls in the club. I took a rather expensive, at least by Vietnamese standards, can of beer from the bar, and slowly drank it as I watched the girls in the club dance. I soon took a second can of beer from the bar. I soon noticed a petite attractive young Vietnamese woman in a white silk romper with prints of roses on it dancing; to drunk to be abashed by then, I soon went up to her and started danced with her. This went on for a shortwhile. I soon finished my can of beer and left it on an already quite cluttered, round black table. ‘This is bullshit’ I soon thought to myself, ‘I don’t like clubs. The music’s too loud, these people aren’t your friends’ I got up, left the club, and sat on a curb not far from it, so as to take a breather before I headed back to my bungalow. I soon watched as a young Vietnamese man grabbed at the small girl in the rose-printed romper. The pair were yelling at each other in fast Vietnamese. I soon got up and approached the pair, ‘Hey’ I said to the girl, ‘Er, are you alright miss? Is there any sort of problem here?’ The pair both looked at me blankly. The harsh sounding rapid fire Vietnamese then continued. I shrugged then went and sat back down on the curb. ‘Maybe they’re like lovers’ I thought to myself, ‘and I don’t know what their deal is…Probably best not to get involved’Soon the girl came and sat down beside me on the curb. I was quite drunk and tired and didn’t know where the young man was. The was a pressed bitumen road in front of us. Occasional motorscooters went by on it. ‘Hey…’ I said to the girl, ‘English? You speak any English?’ She shook her head. ‘No English?’ I asked her again, ‘What’s your name?’ escort niğde She shook her head again and pouted.‘Ah well’ I replied, ‘y’know, at times like this, I wish I smoked cigarettes, just, it’s silly being pensive without a cigarette to smoke, you don’t look anywhere near as cool. It gives you something to do with your hands for 5 minutes while you sit on a curb thinkings about things, nothing, just feeling things maybe… If you’ve got a cigarette, at a time like this, you’re a cool guy smoking a cigarette, as he thinks about things. If not you’re just a bum sitting on a curb doing nothing basically, right?’ The girl looked at me again. ‘Yeah…’ I said, ‘hey, do you reckon I could do a sketch of you. You’re so cute. You’re such a cute little thing’ The girl continued to look at me. I then got out my sketch pad and started to sketch her in pencil. In the middle of this the girl mimed to ask me if I had a phone number. I shook my head at her and shrugged, then returned to my work on the sketch. Before I could finish it, the young man from before walked over to us. I gave him the thumbs up symbol, then the peace sign, then the o-shaped perfection symbol. He smiled at me, then began talking to the girl in rather violent sounding Vietnamese again. He then tried to grab her by the arm. To which she shoved him off. ‘Hey man, what’s your deal?’ I said to the guy without getting up from the curb, ‘I mean peace and love and all that but you just can’t go grabbing people by the wrist like that, that’s, that’s just not cricket’ A cab soon pulled up on the curb, the girl got up and tried to pull me forward by the wrist. ‘Wait!’ I said. I put my sketchpad back away in my satchel refastened it’s clasps, then followed her into it. The cab drove on for a while. I assumed I was heading back to the girl’s place which was quite a distance from the beach. I soon kissed her on the cheek then on her mouth. ‘Oh you little bitch, Im going to enjoy this’ I thought to myself. As the cab drove on the girl frequently looked out of the back window behind us, apparently aprehensive that someone might be following us, perhaps the man from before on a motorscooter or something.After awhile the cab driver pulled over by the side of the road and got out, I think perhaps to smoke a cigarette or to urinate, though I was still quite drunk, wasn’t looking, and can’t say for certain. The girl and I kissed rather violently while we were alone in the back of the cab. Soon the driver came back and we pressed on. Soon we pulled up at a rather austere looking two story apartment block. The girl had no money on her; only her old nokia phone, which she kept tucked in her bra, and her sandles, so I paid the 25 odd dollar taxi bill for however long we’d been driving for. A young man soon came up to the girl and I. ‘You stay in hotel?’ he said to me. ‘What?’ I replied. ‘This here, hotel, you stay here in hotel? 10 dollar one hour. You pay 10 dollar one hour’ ‘You’ve got to be fucking k**ding me, no’ ‘Ok, how much you pay?’‘Nothing. This is fucked.Ah man’ I then said to no one in particular, ‘I’m really going over this. I’m in the middle of nowhere. I’m running out of cash. I don’t have any shoes. I don’t even know the name of my fucking hotel, man.I mean are you in with this guy or what?’ I then said to the girl, ‘What’s going on here? I’m leaving, ok? I’m leaving’ I started to walk off, then turned, looked back at the girl and said, ‘Are you coming or what?’ She ran back to me. I soon slipped my hand into hers as we walked on then said to her, ‘I’m sorry it’s just—argh, you can’t understand me anyway can you?’ She looked at me and smiled. I kissed her again, gently holding her back as I did. ‘Let’s just go back to my place’ I soon said to her as we walked on hand in hand, ‘the trouble I just, I don’t even know how to get back there. I don’t even know where the fuck we are now…Do you live around here? Can we go to your place? Have you got a mother who’s strict or…?’I looked at the girl. She looked back at me and smiled. ‘That’s it’ I soon said, ‘my keyring. My hotel keyring’s got the name of my place on it, hasn’t it?’ I took it out of the inner pocket of my satchel bag and sure enough it did. I showed the keyring to the girl, ‘here’ I said, ‘my place, my place. You want to come?’ She nodded. The girl and I walked on to a main road a short distance from us. As we walked on down it I stuck my thumb out and tried hitching a lift for us from the occasional passing motorscooters, but none of them stopped. The girl soon noticed me doing this. She shook her head at me, then tried to pull my extended arm down as the scooters shot by. Soon she approached a man in a taxi cab parked by the side of the road. The pair said a few things to each other in Vietnamese. ‘Look, dude, no, ok?’ I then told the girl, ‘can we stop spending money on things? niğde escort bayan I can’t afford it. Can’t we just hitch back?’ We then walked on together down the road. Another cab soon pulled over to see if we needed a lift. I had about the equivilent of 30 dollars in VND left on me. ‘Ah, fuck it’ I said, ‘let’s just catch a cab’ I gave the girl my keyring and she showed it to the driver then said some things to him in Vietnamese. It costs us 6 dollars to get back to my place.‘It’s not much, but it’s home’ I said to the girl as we walked back into my bungalow together, ‘never mind the mess…’ I turned on the lights, then walked into the bathroom. Over my bathroom sink, beneath the mirror, there’s a little glass shelf, which had a toothbrush and a small single serving tube of toothpaste, inside a clear plastic packet, resting on it. There’s also a plastic comb, also inside a clear plastic packet, and a small bar of soap, inside a white plastic packet, resting on the shelf. ‘Here’ I said handing the girl the toothbrush packet, ‘you can use this to brush your teeth with’ I then did a little mime. ‘I’ll use my own’ I then told her. I then went and dug my toothbrush and tube of toothpaste out from my suitcase. The girl was already brushing her teeth in the bathroom when I got back into it. I started to brush my own, and soon sat down on the toilet, with the lid down as I did so. The girl looked at me from where she was standing behind the sink as she brushed her teeth. We soon went back to my double bed. I got up and turned the ceiling light off. I then tried to turn the lamp on my bedside table off but the girl shook her head at me and turned it back on. I felt rather drunk and tired. The girl soon started to kiss me. We soon made love. Soon after we’d finished, I watched as the girl sat on the end of my bed and started to dress herself again. I was just in some cotton boxer shorts that I’d put back on shortly after our love making then. ‘I still never got your name’ I said to her as I watched her put her black bra back on, attaching the clasp at the front of her chest first, before turning the bra back around. She shook her head at this and smiled. The girl then started to pull her romper back on. Midway thru this she pointed to the door, and smiled wanly at me. I pointed to the bed, shrugged, then said, ‘you’d be welcome to stay if you wanted’ The girl shook her head at this while wanly smiling then proceeded to slip both of her arms, thru the thin arm holes of her romper. ‘Wait, wait’ I said to her. I then gently pulled the sleeves of the romper down from her shoulders, then lowered the garment till I could just see one of her brown nipples, ‘let me sketch you once more before you leave? Please?’ She looked at me blankly. ‘Wait, wait, please’ I told her, ‘hold on’ I then picked my canvas satchel bag up from where I’d left it on the floor beside my bed, and took my sketch pad out of it. I turned to a blank page, then proceeded to start sketching the girl in pencil as I sat beside her on the bed, frequently looking her in the eye as I worked on the sketch. ‘Who is this person?’ I thought to myself. When the sketch was finished some twenty odd minutes later I handed it to the girl, she held it before her, look at it, then put it down on the bed and kissed me again. She then pointed to my jeans on the floor. She then picked them up and pointed to the pocket my money was in. ‘Look, no, ok’ I said to her, ‘I can’t give you any more money. I can’t afford it’ She then put the jeans down on my bed and pointed to the pocket again.‘Look, no, ok? You’d be welcome to stay here if you want, but I just can’t give you any more money, alright? I can’t afford it. I have to pay rent here’ I pointed to the door, mimed someone knocking on it, then said, ‘landlord come and ask for money for rent’ I then pretended to hand someone some money here, ‘And I must pay him. You understand?’ She shook her head then pointed to the pocket of my jeans again. She then mimed someone driving a car. She then took all the money out of my pocket, and put all the bills back down on the bed, save for a 500,000 vnd note, about the equivilent of 25 Australian dollars, and showed it to me. ‘Look no, alright?!’ I snaped at her, then snatched the bill from her hand, ‘Fuck off, ok? You’re welcome to stay if you want, but I—‘ Cutting me short the girl got up, grabbed her phone from where she’d left it on the desk at the foot of my bed, then headed out the door, shutting it behind her. ‘Ugh, god damnit’ I sigh as I collapsed back down on my bed.I laid there for a shortwhile, still feeling quite drunk, then got up, pulled a tshirt on and headed out to try and find her. I walked for 20 odd minutes until I got to the end of the guest house lined concrete street, that my resort’s at the end of, and back out onto the mainroad. I couldn’t see the girl about anywhere. ‘Hello?’ I called out, ‘Hello? Look, I’m sorry, I just—Hello? Are you there? Hello?’ ‘Ah god damn it man, fuck this, fuck this’ I then said to myself, then made my way back down the concrete street to my resort.