Chúc mừng năm mới!

New Years Eve, I started out workin' hard for my money - a four-hour block of classes, scheduled to end at 9:30pm.  A highlight was that only two adults showed up for the second class, allowing us to conduct a very personalized speaking-centered two hours.  After class, I rushed home, changed into a sparkly top (which I then covered up with a homely-looking sweater of course) and headed out to meet a great friend for drinks at one of the swankiest restaurants in town.

The Memory Lounge

The Memory Lounge is a large bar/restaurant perched the edge of the Han River.  From the outdoor deck, you can only see water and lights trailing up and down the cable rainbow-lit bridge.  Our table was surrounded with button-back armchairs.  The place had an air warmth and elegance.  We had a few cocktails - mine, a margarita garnished with chili salt!  Then, a traveling expat (who I had met earlier the same day) joined our table and suddenly, our lighthearted ambiance was met with tension.   There was just no pleasing this guy.  Our very sweet server regretted they were out of the appetizer he ordered (which prompted an obnoxious eye roll and accompanying loud "well I guess I'll order the wings!").  A few other fun exchanges led to the pinnacle melt down when his bill was not totaled correctly.  Andy and I hid behind whispers of check settling while this embarrassing hothead loudly taught our poor server how to feel like crap.

For the sake of everyone in the world, if you have a short fuse, PLEASE DON'T TRAVEL.

With fifteen minutes to go, we learned that Memory Lounge wouldn't be doing anything special for midnight.  Gasp!  There was a stage set up in a park somewhere in Da Nang, and we had to gamble which one.  With the scary expat still waiting for the two dollars he felt scammed from, my two friends and I jumped on our rides and hightailed it outta there.  We picked the sad animal zoo park and screamed through town.  Approaching the park, we were met with darkness and the typical night crowd idling around food stalls on the street.  We chose wrong!

"What do we do??"
"It's midnight in six minutes!"
"Back to the river!"

We raced East in high hopes of reaching a bar that might be celebrating the calendar new year.
Ahh!  My front wheel came within inches of flattening a rat the size of a football.
We hopped the bikes up the curb of trusty Golden Pine and reached a familiar crowd just as the sweet sounds of ABBA's "Happy New Year" blared out of the small, packed bar.  I think I've heard that song about fifty times since moving to Vietnam.  Somehow there was one table left outside and we grabbed it, along with cocktails (definitely inferior to the ones we had had at Memory Lounge) and two kilos of mangosteens.  My first ever, and new favorite fruit.