Rise of the Spiders

It has been quite the eventful week of seeings and doings so I figured I'd jot a few of them down.  Our weather has been impeccable, and my dad and I jumped through a few hoops getting my slackline shipped out to Da Nang (long story about never sending anything with text or maps through the mail

), so I took to the beach in search of the perfect place to set up and have some chill time with the line.
This proved to be slightly more difficult than I had anticipated.  I needed the right distance between palms, a soft landing level ground, and preferably out of constant sight.  As a westerner, I get enough stares as it is, I didn't want to attract even more attention, especially since I hadn't slacklined since July.
Finally, I found the perfect spot in a grassy area filled with palms just off of the sand.With the motorbike partially blocking view, I quickly set up the line and got up first try with surprising residual balance.  After a while, I saw a whiplash glance in my direction and the motorist pulled over, got off his bike, and sat cross-legged watching me from a short distance.  I waved and said "hello" in Vietnamese but he said nothing and did not smile.  So I continued with the silent onlooker until I left, again, parting with no reply.  Maybe next time he sees me he'll want to try the line!

My second time out...a few onlookers tried it out!  

Today, after seeing "Rise of the Guardians" (great flick - highly recommend), a small group of us headed to Da Nang's largest labyrinth - the Con Market. As I'm somewhat terrified of crowds, I'm glad we entered during national nap time, when most hagglers were home resting up for round two of shoving and bartering. Anything you could possibly need was within hundreds of narrow corridors lined high with goods. My favorite item was pointed out by a friend - ladies panties with butt cheek pads! Perfect for filling out those jeans. If we didn't keep careful watch of cardinal directions, it was easy to lose sense of direction. Despite careful tracking, we ended up exiting the labyrinth on a different side than we entered. I was happy to see the light of day again, although for the first time in two weeks, it was overcast and sprinkling.

After a yummy phở xào dinner (noodles and veg wok fried) and coffee with a new friend, I returned home to Stacey's beckoning. She said I better come upstairs and see who had been camped out in her bathroom, and then confirmed what I was fearing - the huntsman spider had returned, but this time, she brought an army of babies strapped to her belly. I had been toying with the idea of letting these gentle giants live if I ever saw one again, but the pregnant element intervened. If we had let this mama live, there would have been literally hundreds of them growing in our house.  Spider party!

Admittedly, I am a pretty big pansy when it comes to large spiders with egg sacks.  I have vowed to protect my roommate from any and all rats that invade our garden upon our entry and house (god forbid).  She has taken up the valiant role of spider slayer and boy am I grateful.  With a swift spray of Raid and a mighty clap of my Chaco sandal, she brought the mama down, but not without a few babies starting to escape the destroyed sack.  A few more slaps with the sandal sealed the deal and the slayed family was carried far from our front door.  I don't really like killing things, but let's just say I hope we don't have to do it again.