March 27, 2015
Part 1
I explained to her my childhood; growing up I had a dark past filled with bullying, fighting, family issues. I explained to her how I had gone from a small quiet and introverted boy, to someone who was more confident in himself. That I had changed during my travels, I had become someone different and open to experiences. She seemed fascinated that I wasn’t much different than her, that she too was a shy. She could relate to my inability to express myself and the difficulty we had making friends.
Finally it was getting late and time to part ways. We said our goodbyes and exchanged phone numbers, but it would be the last time I ever saw her.
When we awoke Wayne and I had decided to visit My Son sanctuary together. This would be our first excursion together so we decided to rent a motorbike. This is where his talents would come in handy, Wayne is a funny man and also fairly decent at languages. His favourite words are “hello” “how are you” and “too expensive!” We decided to stop at a place which offered us a bike for 200,000 VND, even though the standard price for renting a bike is around 100,000. We tried to haggle our way down to 100,000 but they slowly stopped at 120,000. Wayne tried asking around if there were other places that offered motorbike rentals, but they all seemed to point at the one store we had tried. We headed back and the plan was to try for 100,000 once more, otherwise we’d have to take the bike for 120,000 VND.
On our way back a woman waved us down and asked if we wanted a bike rental. The price was 100,000 and there was no need to haggle. I was the first driver as I seemed to have more confidence than Wayne did. “I’ve driven a few times” Wayne said to me. However it sounded more like he was making an excuse to not drive. The drive wasn’t that bad, but a lot of focus was put on google maps and navigation. It was my first trip driving a long way, so we had to be careful we were driving on the right path. We took one pit stop to grab something to eat and decided on rice with meat. Wayne explained that he enjoyed ordering noodles because they always offered an abundance of vegetables to add to the soup. However he wasn’t accustomed to receiving a side bowl of soup with his rice and in all honesty rice is a lot more fulfilling than noodles.
Wayne had no money for his share of the motorbike and explained to me that he would pay me back, but this was a reoccurring theme as he did not have enough money for his meal either. Me being the kind hearted person that I was, offered to pay for his share and would “get the money back later”.
Along the way we found an house that old and worn down. We stopped there to check it out. Wayne was really into checking out “old things” especially when nature has “taken over”. The building wasn’t over run by plants or anything, but it definitely was missing a few windows and doors. It appeared to be a school or at least that’s the way it looked from the sizes of the room and the boards hanging on the wall. In the back there was a few plants and we could see plenty of beautiful butterflies. It was a little nice to take in the moment.
When we arrived at the My Son temples, Wayne was planning out ways to enter the sanctuary without having to pay the fee. He had told me stories where he drove through the gate or entrance and the guards did not bother trying to stop him. When we arrived at the entrance he had attempted, but stopped when the guards yelled at him. “The sign said please walk over bridge” he said “I thought it was for a religions preservation”. I didn’t think much of it, maybe he did think that way, or maybe he was just all talk. We began parking and Wayne wanted to “scope out” the environment to see if there was alternative ways to entering the sanctuary. He explained to me that he had “looked up” blogs which talked about entering the site without paying. I barely believed him and simply nodded my head. After going to the bathroom and Wayne finally accepting that there was no other way to enter, except for purchasing a ticket, we accepted our fate and paid the fee.
My Journey In Life 