Vietnam: A collection of short true stories....

Story #1: The Virrg.


Vietnam, Night #2.

Its a sweaty, humid, bass-beat-throbbing night. Its 10pm and we've just left the room to explore and experience the lochness monster rumored across continents: Nightlife in Vietnam. Wandering the streets we glimpse a goliath in the distance: The Crazy Buffalo. Hours later, deep into beers, hookah and multiple games of pool we are approached by Virgil "The Virrg"... Last name unknown.

He strikes up small talk, pulling a chair to our table. His age is impossible to guess: M guesses 23, I guess 26... Fashion appears to be his forte. Friends rumor him to wear only shirts with cut off sleeves: Plaid, Corduroy, Checkered and Denim materials.... Accessorized by his beloved beret, the bill turned slightly to the left.

Our conversations are stimulating and humorous. When the Crazy buffalo shuts down, we head across the street to the next spot, a tiny, crowded bar that sprawls beach lawnchairs out into the sidewalks and streets of Ho Chi Minh City... Our conversation takes a dive into the realm of the schizophrenic, topics ranging from Virrg's love for animals and his ever intensive studies to become a forest ranger( a lifelong dream)... to the explosion of global media attention towards Australia in the 1980's due to the release of the renowned francise, Crocodile Dundee starring Paul Hogan.... All the while there is a constant battle with  the local vietnamese population peddling cigarettes, lighters and other nightlife paraphernalia. "you like cigarette sir!?" becomes a eternal mantra, repeating over and over again in the mind...


The night ends around 530am, the conversation consummating around the agreement that M must watch and enjoy the crocodile hunter before she is allowed to say anything else... We part ways exchanging the generic: " yes of course we'll hang out tomorrow, no doubt about it."


Unknown to us, we would encounter the Virrg the very next morning...

12-21-2010:

M wakes up hungry, I had already been awake for an hour or so and had consumed an iced "Ca Phe" and a steaming hot bowl of Pho Bo. We leave our hotel and walk to the nearest food cart. Maya begins to eat and in between bites gazes out into the street. She starts laughing and points: " Is that the virrg across the street??". Coincidentally sitting at the bar across the street is none other than the virrg himself, only he has a companion: A vietnamese woman who appears to be consumed by his beret, cut off shirt and australian accent. He waves and crosses the street to speak to us. The conversation involves 3 things:

A- He wants to become facebook friends.
B- He wants me to take a picture of M and himself.
C- He would like my opinion on whether he should use a condom when he takes the vietnamese woman back to his hotel room to:" Service her", as he puts it. I warn him to definitely use protection and to be careful where he puts his mouth, warning him of the multiple strains of the clap, clamidia and syphillus, at which he exclaims loudly:" oh I've had almost all of those multiple times! no biggie."

I think that we shall see him sometime in the future, perhaps in Guatemala, strolling around the humid streets in his beret and cut off shirts... But the last we ever see of the Virrg in Vietnam- He is being fed a glass of orange juice through a straw by the vietnamese woman...