Notes from around the world: Being stranded in a lagoon and seeing a shooting star

View from our boat

This weekend has been nothing but full of adventures. On Saturday we went to the Tam Giang lagoon. We left by car from the hotel, took one boat to a restaurant on bamboo stilts and then took another, bigger boat to go out in the lagoon. We went all the way till a temple that the fishermen pray at for safety. We clearly didn't pray enough or leave offerings because on our way back, perhaps at one-fifth of the way, the motor stopped working. The boatmen made many but ultimately futile attempts to revive it. Before that happened, we did start drifting back and another boat and the buoys and ropes sort of worked together to prevent that. The currents had definitely picked up by the evening.

The view from the temple

We were stuck/stranded there for almost two hours and they were made longer by the fact that we were not sure what was happening. At one point I learned that the boatman was cursing the boat owner for taking so much time to send a new boat :). Dusk slowly turned to darkness and finally the engine roar we heard was the one coming to rescue us. The rescue did not involve a transfer as I had originally imagined but the smaller boat pulling our bigger boat by a rope. Of course this was much slower and the journey back felt much, much longer. The weather was lovely, almost perfect, not hot nor cold. We saw an infinite number of stars and I saw my first shooting star. You can imagine what I wished for.

The boat that took us to the temple and broke down

As we were returning, another boat joined us. At this point it was unclear whether it was to support us or to be carried along. Apparently a fourth boat was sighted as well a little later but eventually this daisy chain of boats caused the rope to fray and had to be dismantled. One of the sad or slightly upsetting things on the journey was a young girl who really had to pee (because we had been in the water for four hours by that point). It was an awkward situation and I cannot imagine that it would have been the same for a boy. There was a little bit of teasing and mocking but as I grow older I worry about this and I don't think we should do it. There should be no shaming of young girls for peeing and menstruating and all other natural things. Oh well, that is a story for another time. Honestly by the time we reached the restaurant on bamboo stilts, I had lost all enthusiasm for dinner. We had cancelled and remade plans for a really busy Sunday, which will be a separate update, and I just wanted to be in bed. Plus it was also a seafood restaurant so the traveling vegetarian in me had little hope. But folks must be fed and up we climbed on the bamboo structure.

Their existence was helpful.

I must say that at no point did we talk about safety in the entire trip at all. Our second boat had life jackets but if we had overturned I feel it would have been pure luck if you got one. I do miss speaking a language in which I can ask several questions, even if it annoys people around me. I would have liked to know the depth of the lagoon, how would we rescue the non-swimmers, if the bamboo restaurant had ever collapsed and other such things. But since I was in no position to do any such thing, I just enjoyed myself. I had also choked very badly before starting while drinking water and thought there was more dignity in any other way I died than choking while drinking water. The others had a multi-course meal, while I used chopsticks for the first time in my life to eat vegetarian noodles specially prepared for me. The noodles were nice and I was able to do them justice.

Before we started

We were fairly late and I think we kept up the family that runs the restaurant. The owner apologized to us and then there were musicians in the (connected) shack next to ours, who sang an apology song. From what I understand that was typical Hue music, which puts words to music, and the closest comparison is the blues. We finished a hearty meal, topped by passing around the fruit Durian, which people have a love or hate relationship with. Mine definitely wasn't love. We then got into another boat, headed back to the shore, then to the car, then to our hotel, and then to bed.