Nightlife

This weekend my Friday and Saturday nights differed greatly. On Friday, I had some beers with some teacher-friends and then we got some seafood and then called it a night. It was nice, low-key, and I was able to wake up early the next day and be productive! Hooray! Saturday night, in contrast, I went to some nightclubs. First, I spent the day shopping and finding vegetarian places to eat (I wanted a meat-break, they eat SO much meat here). I got some practice on motorbike (I think I'm doing pretty well!). Sometimes I think Vietnamese people are probably talking smack about me but hey, I don't understand what they're saying so whatever! It's kind of nice having no idea what they're saying. For dinner I went to the backpacker's area where I found a restaurant on trip advisor that was supposed to have good vegetarian food ... it was delicious!

After dinner I split a bottle of wine with a friend, Kelly, and then we went out "clubbin". In Vietnam, a club is pointless. Vietnamese people apparently don't like to dance. They just get dressed up, standing around tables and drink with SUPER loud dance music playing. So they can't talk to each other, they aren't dancing, what are they doing ... ? That was exactly what the first place was like and I was confused. We didn't want to order bottle-service (all they had) so we left. Then, we went to this other place a friend was at, which was an after-party for this fashion event (look how trendy I am!). There were a lot of expats there so there was some dancing, which was fun. No tables, a regular bar, and moderately-loud music with people dancing. Then, we headed back over to the first club although we found out there was a downstairs with live music - Vietnamese reggae - which was fun. Again, more expats and dancing.

A friend had told me that Vietnamese clubs are pretty lame so the first club was what I expected, though still found super weird. Apparently they feel stupid dancing? Or something? Well they look stupid standing around and not being able to even talk to each other.

Here are some pics!

 Cute little kitties running around the restaurant (normal)

 Seafood place

 Taking a break from meat and having some Western food ... mmm (it was pretty sub-par but edible) That fresh squeezed watermelon-strawberry-mint juice, however, was delicious.

 I still haven't wrapped my mind around this one. These people sell these everywhere - they are flattened, dried squid. Basically squid-jerky. Who buys these?! I've never seen anyone buy one.

 Vegetarian curry ... this was delicious.

 I know this is a picture you wouldn't really be able to tell if people were dancing anyway but don't you feel like they should be? With all of these theatrics?

 Just standing around ...

 This was the 2nd place we went to ... they love flashy lights here.

 Reggae