Spa and Lunch

On Tuesday morning we had an appointment at YKC, a spa named after the first letters of three of the owners. NOT to be confused with KFC or JFK for those who have read my other posts. Ha! After the hectic drive there amongst honking and veering motorbikes we entered the tranquil spa and were greeted warmly by the owner who is acquainted well with Eileen. She lives in VN but is of Chinese descent. When I told her we were going to Tibet on Friday she had a blank face. She asked questions about its location and still didn't know. I said 'Mt. Everest' and 'Dalai Lhama' and 'Buddhist' and she still didn't know. She commented that here she is from China and she still doesn't know where it is; she was so surprised about that! We laughed and moved on. It's just interesting to me that she didn't know. Her name is Cindy, the "C" in the acronym. Her son is Kai, the "K."

Here's what I had done at YKC: eyebrow shaping & dye, lash dye w/liner applied (Interesting! I've never had such a thing done but with no makeup-wearing in this climate it's great!), leg & feet massage, neck & arm massage, shampoo with 30 minute head rub, style with ANOTHER neck rub, AND a pedicure (French) with ANOTHER leg and foot rub for $58US. !!!! In North America that would have been the deluxe package, would have taken all day and would have probably cost at least $250, I think.

Lunch was near the pink cathedral that my room looks out over in the distance. It is a pancake restaurant. Stop thinking about pancakes as you know them. Instead, think of large pieces of flat soybean batter/dough with pieces of shrimp baked in the batter on a flatiron over an open coal and wood fire in lots of oil and filled with greens/herbs (mint, basil, lettuces of all kinds), soybeans (small little yellow beans), bean sprouts, and dipped in fish sauce and chilies. Yum!! Then we had coconut juice from a straw out of the coconut itself (common on every street corner) and cold tea. The price was again, ridiculously low at $15US for two people to eat but the price is not the notable part of this lunch - - these pancakes are amazing, unlike anything I've ever eaten. Every bite was an experience, a sensation that I didn't want to end. All the flavors from the ingredients mingled together in such a way that it was a pleasure just to chew it! See the photos of the street the restaurant is on (note pink spires), the kitchen for cooking and the kitchen for cleaning the dishes.

The only hard part about lunch is that there are beggars who come through selling stuff like postcards or little papers of some sort (like VN lottery tickets or something). They are all of a certain age so it makes me assume (probably accurately) that they have been wounded in the war. One guy is legless so walks on his hands while carrying a basket of postcards on his head. He's a pleasant enough guy who seems to have a lot of friends there (everyone who worked there was happy with him and talking to him - - maybe he's a relative or something). Then someone wheeled in a man in a wheelchair whose legs and arms were skinnier than they should have been but long enough as they should be. Proportionate but disproportionate at the same time. He was selling something only to the Vietnamese so didn't approach us as Westerners. Then there's an old woman with burns over her face, neck and arms... The begging isn't pervasive but it is not uncommon. It's not annoying but it is off-putting and makes me feel sad when I contemplate the Vietnam war and its physical effect on so many people. I say all this not out of pity for these people; not at all. And I don't say any of it in judgement of them as beggars or that I even think they shouldn't ask for money. It just really pulls at my heart to see so many people wounded (most in their 40's to 60's) in such drastic ways most likely from the war we came in to fight...