Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Boat trip from Phu Quoc

I feel eyes upon me and look across the aisle to see a sweet little Vietnamese girl giving me a toothless grin.

I smile, wave and say "hi," thus utilising 50% of my Vietnamese vocabulary. Her mother encourages her to say "hello" which she does. I take a photo with my iPhone and show the screen across the aisle. She gets curious and takes a step closer. I hold out my hand for her to shake. It takes her a minute and lots of encouragement from her mother to gather the courage.

She's interested in my phone and I wrack my brain for apps that might be suitable for kids. I've got a little fireworks application that responses to touching the screen and this keeps both occupied for the next half an hour as we send explosions and flashing lights around the screen.

Tired of fireworks, we move on to my photo album. She's able to look through by swiping her finger across the screen. Her mother looks across the aisle with interest. I show them photos of Switzerland and try to mime that snow covered alps means that it's cold.
Every time a western woman appears in a photo, the girl points at the innocent Swedish girl sitting next to me and asks me a question in Vietnamese. I have no chance of explaining that my dark-haired ex-girlfriend in the photo is not the blonde Swede sitting next to me. I nod enthusiastically. "Sure," I say, "it might as well be her." The Swedish girl raises her eyebrows and gives me a side-wards glance. Regardless of how many different western woman come up, she points at the Swede asks the same question. I nod agreement. We get to a photo of wedding in a park I once visited. The girl points at me and the Swede and asks a question in Vietnamese. In for a penny... "Sure," I reply. "Our wedding in Russia was very lovely," I tell the Swedish girl. She gives a laugh

We look at photos of my Cambodian trip 10 years before. There's ONE photo of me in there standing naked under a waterfall facing away from the camera. My bare, white buttocks cause much giggling for everyone. I tap on to the next photo and the girl swipes back to it. More giggling. Well, serves me right I guess.