1999

Prior to last week it was all busy, working, busy. So it is only fitting that last week was party, party, party! To say that there was a lot of alcohol drunk last week would be a bit of an understatement, actually there was an awful lot of beer drunk! Why? Because it was a party week! On Tuesday Kiem Lam held their annual staff meeting, this finished at 11am. As soon as it was over we were off to Hung Restaurant for lunch and rounds of beers. Seeing as it was only 11am, and because there are some advantages to being female, I was able to wuss out of this heavy drinking session. Instead I joined in the rounds of nam-moui nam-moui and tram-by-tram with my glass of seven-up. Dan wasn’t so lucky, by 1pm it was all over and we had to head home so Dan could sleep off all the beer he had drunk! Then Thursday rolled around and it was off to Restaurant 36 at 5pm for Dominic’s (the project’s German intern) farewell. Again, an awful amount of beer was drunk! But not only beer, two of the German project workers from Bac Lieu province were very evil (in my opinion!) and bought a pot of rice wine made by ethnic minority groups up near Dalat. The rice wine smelled terrible – much like dirty, sweaty, old feet – and the taste was not much better! Everyone had to take turns to drink the rice wine through long, thin bamboo straws. As soon as the pot was nearing empty it was topped up with beer – this did not do much to improve the taste! After 5 and a half hours at the restaurant it was time to head home. Needless to say, Friday was not the most productive day. And so on to Saturday and another dinner at 36. This was not really a party, more one of the last chances for Dominic to eat at 36. We had bbq prawns, chilli squid and fresh crab. And lots of beer. Dan and Dominic had a grand plan of finishing off a crate of beer between them at 36 – they did this and more on Saturday night (though me and the waitresses did help). Then we went to Restaurant Bung Huu, one of the few places in Soc Trang that stays open after 10pm. There we had raw beef with lime and some kind of very small bird, possibly a pigeon or a sparrow. And more beer. We finally made it home at about 1pm – this is the latest I have stayed out in Soc Trang, and also probably the latest I have stayed out anywhere for quite a while! So now party week is over and it’s back to work for two weeks. Then Dan and I are off to Singapore and Malaysia – I think we need a holiday from all this working and beer drinking!

Drinking rice wine

mmm...doesn't that look tasty!