Essential Characteristics

If you were going to build a bridge over a river, and you were going to make the suspension arches look like the body of a dragon complete with scales, and you were going to include the dragon's underbelly on the underside of the bridge, and one end of the bridge would be a dragon tail and the other would be a dragon head, and you were going to name it Cầu Rồng which means Dragon Bridge, so that's a lot things you were going to do, what else would you do to totally sell it, complete the dragonness of the entire thing? What is the essential characteristic of a dragon?

The dragon's head

I think that the essential characteristic of a dragon is breathing fire. Yes, for those into D&D (like me), some dragons breath other things: acid, ice, electricity, poison, but setting that aside, classical dragons breathe fire. So if you were building such a bridge, wouldn't you want it to breathe fire?

The dragon's underbelly

If you are the Vietnamese government, the answer is yes. The Dragon Bridge of Da Nang breathes fire. I know, that sounds dangerous. But no worries. It doesn't breathe fire all the time. It does it at 9:00 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and some holidays also. Alrica and I went to see it happen last night.

The bridge is closed to traffic during the ten minute display. Though they let cars go along the bridge right up until the fire begins. Like, cars didn't stop entering the bridge until about ten seconds before the fire began. First, you see a fire light in the mouth of the dragon. Then in intervals, it blasts out like a flame thrower for about 15 seconds. Then it goes back to just being in the mouth, but a minute later it blasts out again.

Make a save versus breath weapon!

This happens a few times and then the fire goes out. After that, the dragon sprays water out of its mouth. Like the fire, this happens in bursts and then there are pauses in between. The pauses are a bit shorter for the water.

The water is a bit harder to see than the fire, but I think you can tell what's going on.

Seeing it happen was cool, very cool even. I applaud Vietnam's commitment to completing the draconic features of the bridge. But this was not the most amazing experience Alrica and I had last night.

We walked from our apartment to the bridge. It was maybe a 35 minute walk. We planned to stop somewhere and eat. But endeavoring to not only see the restaurants designed for tourists and expats—there are so many foreign people in Da Nang—we turned on various smaller streets. And along the way we passed an unassuming restaurant called Quán Nhậu Hồng Hải, but it was crammed full of people. All of them were locals. So we figured it had to be good. We went in and got a table for two.

I took this picture on the way home. The restaurant was a lot busier when we arrived.

Lucky for us, there was one waiter there who did speak English. He brought us a menu that was in Vietnamese, English, and Mandarin. (I think it might have been their only copy of the trilingual menu.) He advised us to try two of their bestsellers: fried oysters and fried scallops. We agreed. Then we sat back and just enjoyed the scene. There was so many happy groups, chatting in Vietnamese, laughing, one of them even had a waitress get a picture of them together. At the table next to us were two middle-aged men enjoying Tiger Beer. A plate came to their table and they started speaking to the waiter (not the one who spoke English.) I saw one of them gesturing to Alrica and me. Eventually that waiter came over and set down the plate, two fish, like the whole fish, fried and served with some green leafy vegetable and a bowl of a green sauce that turned out to be based on chili peppers. He got out his cell phone and used a translation app to show me that this plate was being given to us by the two men at the table beside us and they had already paid for it. I said thank you to the waiter and to the two men (several times) which is one of the few phrases I know in Vietnamese.

But the question arose, how are you supposed to eat this? There are no forks. There are only chopsticks. How do you eat an entire fish (head, eyes, and scales still on it) using only chopsticks? Well, we muddled through. It was pretty easy to peel away the scales. And the meat inside was so tender it came off the skeleton easily as we gripped it with our chopsticks. I did get the occasional bone in my mouth, and I did move it to the front of my mouth with my tongue and use my fingers to get it back down to the plate. But for most of my bites, I didn't have that problem. I enjoyed the green sauce, Alrica found it a bit spicy. And the green leafy vegetable, I don't know what it was, but it had that pungent effect of horseradish or wasabi. I liked that too.

So we are doing great with our fish, right? And our scallops and oysters arrived a bit later and they were amazing! Alrica was in love in the scallops. I think she is more in love with me that the scallops, but that could just be optimistic yearning on my part. But back to the fish. I finished eating half of it, the half facing up. You could see the main spine and all the bones coming out and under that was the other half of the meat. So here's the question? How do you get to the other half? Do you try to pick out the skeleton (with chopsticks)? Do you flip the fish over (again with chopsticks)? I went for the latter, flipping it. I didn't fully succeed. I ended up using my fingers to assist in the flippage.

Incidentally, this entire meal, the oysters, the scallops, and bottles of water for each of us, cost us less than ten dollars. Phenomenally good seafood for under ten dollars? Pretty spectacular.

When the men at the next table got up to leave, we also stood. We shook their hands and thanked them again. They said some things to us which we didn't understand. But they stopped the one waiter who spoke English, and had him translate. They wanted to know how we enjoyed the fish and we told them it was fantastic.

Why did these two men send of a plate of two whole fish to strangers? I don't know, but I think they wanted us to experience some of the real flavors of Vietnam. I think they were excited to see some of the foreigners in this restaurant which probably serves locals 99.8 percent of the time. Or maybe they realized, by the time it was served, that they just didn't want it. Whatever their reason, it was super generous and kind. It made the entire experience unexpected and heart-warming. And we super appreciate it.

Isn't having unexpected (and hopefully, at times, heart-warming) experiences what you hope for in travel? Maybe, if I'm not overstating things too much, it is one of travel's essential characteristics.

First Impressions of Da Nang

My, my, I haven't posted in a while. Well, apologies for that. Let's catch up.

We spent most of January in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our daughter was with us for half that time, and then it was back to the two of us for the other half. Today is Tuesday and this past Sunday we flew out of Kuala Lumpur and into Da Nang, Vietnam. First, where is that? Well, Da Nang is on the coast along the East Vietnam Sea. It is close to the middle of Vietnam in the north-south sense, with Hanoi being in the northern part and Ho Chi Minh City in the southern part. Da Nang has a beach, it's near the mountains, and it has a river, the Han River, running through it. 

So far, we really like Da Nang. But our Monday was spent in trying to find a place to live. We are staying in a hotel, the Hilton Da Nang. This is a fantastic hotel, very comfortable with a beautiful pool and an amazing breakfast. (It is surprising how much more thorough and extravagant hotel breakfasts are outside of the United States.) But we set out to find an apartment. And I think we have one. This afternoon we should be moving in.

The Han River Bridge showing off

Our hotel is just across the street from the river. There is a lovely river walkway including sculptures and views of the bridges. Our hotel is very close to the Han River Bridge which lights up in a colorful display at night. Further downriver is the Dragon Bridge which looks like a dragon. I've read that at certain times, the dragon's head breathes fire. We will definitely have to go see that! It is supposed to happen at 9 PM sharp on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

The Dragon Bridge (orange, but it changes)

One lovely aspect about Vietnam is cheese. And bread. Two, two lovely aspects of Vietnam are cheese and bread. Vietnam was colonized by the French, and when the French left, the Vietnamese held on to the bread and cheese. You don't realize how much you miss those things until you are in parts of the world where they are uncommon. We actually went out for pizza our first night here. I was craving pizza near the end of our time in Kuala Lumpur. And you can get pizza there. But Alrica pointed out that Da Nang has lots of pizza places, so we bade our time. And it was worth it. Great pizza!

I suspect she turned to stone because she was out of the water too long

I know, you're saying "Erich, your first night in Vietnam and you had pizza?" Yes, you're right, but I have plenty more chances for stir-fries, pho, and spring rolls. In fact, I had pho as part of my breakfast today, and it was good! Plus, we had banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) for dinner on our second night.

The temperatures have been great! Generally in the 70s, which is so lovely, though the Vietnamese find it chilly. It does rain off and on, but when it is sunny, the city sparkles.

And wow! Amazing fire hydrants. I've found three different styles already.

Flat Yellow Top, Two Small side fonts

Different colors, different covers, taller and thinner

Short and squat with a high crown

I will have more to post once we are settled.

Tears On My Algae

This is what it sounds like when algae cries.

No, those are not very large crying algae. They are, as you suspected, monkeys.

Don't worry if you're mystified, all will be clear soon. However, first I must fill you in on some of the prerequisite knowledge you need to continue, given in no logical order, just as it occurs to me to list it.

• You know how some flavors are just more popular than others? Like consider ice cream. If you ask people for their favorite ice cream flavor, you will get many answers. But you are going to get a lot more people who answer chocolate than those who answer pistachio or birthday cake or (shudder) durian. Well, in some parts of the world, durian will rate higher, but you understand my meaning. Mosquitoes must have similar variation in which humans they bite for blood. Different mosquitoes like different humans, but some humans are the favorites of more mosquitoes than others. In the big picture of mosquito preference, I am a pistachio, not highly favored. My daughter is a chocolate; many, many mosquitoes love her. And while it is nice to be loved, it's less nice when what they love is sucking your blood.
• There is a musical called The Scarlet Pimpernel based on the book of the same name. In that musical, there is a song called The Creation of Man. And in that song there is a recurring line
  La, but someone has to strike a pose
  and bear the weight of well-tailored clothes.
  That is why the Lord created man.
• It is common, in Southeast Asia, to visit a public restroom and find that, once you have washed your hands, there is no paper towel nor hand dryer with which to eliminate the remaining manual dampness. This is not exclusive to Southeast Asia, either.
• Our daughter, Syarra, is visiting us in Kuala Lumpur during her winter break.
• This past Saturday was the night of the new moon.

These bullet points above are preparatory for my new discovery, a second benefit of pants. You would assume the first benefit is to keep your legs warm. That may be true, but I dismiss the obvious. Consider the third bullet point above. What would you do after you had washed your hands and there was no practical drying mechanism? I don't want to speak for you, but I will speak for me. I would dry them on my pants. And when this occurs, frequently, I sing some variation of the following to Alrica:
When you soap your hands and rinse them clean
But find no towels or blowing machine
That is why the Lord created pants.

Reference the second bullet point above if needed.

As you may have guessed, a lighthouse.

On Saturday we took a trip out of Kuala Lumpur by van to a smaller town called Kuala Selangor. It is along the Selangor River. The drive out was about 90 minutes and then we visited a few sites. First we went to Bukit Malawati or Malawati Hill. It is a high point in the region where, at one time, there was a fort and there is still a lighthouse. The historical aspects of the hill were somewhat lost for us. We did see a rock called The Bedrock. And a sign told us either it was a place the Sultan liked to sit so he could look down on the city or a place where people were beheaded. Who knows? Maybe both. There was no real explanation of what the history was. But there were monkeys, many monkeys on the hill.

More monkeys!

Our next stop was a seafood restaurant for dinner. We had fried rice, seasoned vegetables, a fish dish with a savory sauce and other vegetables, a chicken dish with a different savory sauce and different other vegetables, and fried prawns with no sauce and no vegetables. We also got Chinese tea to drink. Tea is not a particular preference of mine (not as low as durian, but not as high as pistachio.) But I'm adjusting.

Sunset over the Selangor River

After dinner, we got on a boat in the Selangor River. First, the boat took us upriver to an area full of fireflies. We slowly trolled through the water near the bank, looking into the bushes and scrub full of flickering lights. It was interesting to me, because this is not at all the way I remember fireflies (or what we called lightning bugs.) When I was a boy in Iowa, the summer nights were full of lightning bugs. They would fly around, light up, their light would stay on for several seconds as they zoomed around, and then it would go out again. Here, these fireflies just blinked on and then almost immediately off, over and over in quick succession. It was like looking at flickering Christmas lights. It was also interesting how many people have never seen fireflies before. You don't see them in the summer in Iowa anymore. I imagine our many pesticides have done a wonderful job of wiping them out.

They gave me a life vest for a man twice my size. Glad I didn't fall in.

After seeing the fireflies, we finally got to the main reason we had chosen this tour. It is called The Blue Tears. The boat took us downriver and out into the Malacca Strait. Then the boat slowed to a crawl (crawling on water so would you call it a dog paddle?) and the driver gave us all small fishing nets. We dipped our nets into the water and saw something magical. It was a blue glow being churned and caught in our nets. Since it was a new moon, there was little light in the sky, and it was very easy to see.

This is not the only place in the world you can see this phenomenon. But here in the Malacca Straight, what you are seeing is algae. It is a marine plankton algae called dinoflagellates. Within these single-celled organism is a chemical called luciferin. I'm sure it is named for Lucifer, but not so much in his aspect as a devil. I think it is because Lucifer means Light-bearer or Light-Bringer. When the algae are agitated, they come in contact with excess oxygen. This makes the luciferin in them glow blue. So when we dipped our fishing nets into the water, we were agitating the dinoflagellates and a stream of blue streaked in our nets and just behind them. If you pulled your net out of the water, the algae left in your net continued to glow for several more seconds.

It was fascinating to see. I tried to get a picture, but my cell camera was incapable of picking anything up. The pictures are just fields of black. But I have memories of it in the photo album of my mind. Along with what it sounds like when algae cry.

But wait, what does this have to do with the second benefit of pants? Understand, it was dusk or past dusk while we were on the boat. The mosquitoes were out in force. We had applied mosquito repellent and perhaps it helped. One can only wonder what would have happened had we not. Personally, I didn't have much problem. Remember, I am at best pistachio to the mosquitoes. But Syarra, well, she was much more popular with them than I. The good news is that Syarra was wearing long pants. A woman sitting across from us, another mosquito favorite, was wearing shorts. And she was being eaten alive. Syarra, unfortunately, was not wearing long sleeves, so she still had her share of unpleasant mosquito affection.

Seeing how strongly affected was the woman in shorts, this gave me a second reason to sing the praises of pants. I present it to you herewith: Or forthwith: Whichever with is the proper with:
La, when insects need to feed their eggs
Why offer a buffet of your legs?
That is why the Lord created pants.

Thai the Loose Ends

Our time in Thailand ended. Thailand is an amazing place and we are going to miss it.

Later today, our daughter arrives to join us in Kuala Lumpur where she will spend her winter break. She is spending her spring semester studying abroad in Amman, Jordan, so when she leaves us she will head west again.

We are excited about that, but because we enjoyed Thailand so much, here is one last post about the end of our time there and just some of the fun things that Thailand has to offer. That's in addition to super kind people, delicious food, great public transportation, and affordability.

Chinatown in Bangkok

Our last "adventure" was to head into Chinatown in Bangkok. There we had a delicious dinner including pork on a stick and fried balls of coconut custard. And then we headed to the Chao Phraya River to see a drone show. Except, we didn't see a drone show. We saw fireworks and expected some sort of drone show either before or after. But we did not see one. If there were drones doing anything amazing, it wasn't where we were. And there were lots of other people around, so we weren't the only ones watching.

Those are fireworks, not an apocalypse, I promise.

On our way back, we went through a walking district (called a walking district though there were still cars driving on the roads, so what's that about?) Here we saw a play. It was being performed on a raised stage right at the side of the road. It was in Thai, so we had no idea what was going on, but it was interesting to watch for a few minutes.

Here are a couple of other sites we beheld that night:

How'd you like to spend Christmas in Bangkok, Thailand?

Even in this mostly Buddhist country, some of the stores are brimming with Christmas items for sale.

Do you need somewhere to lay your weary head?

While others are selling penis pillows.

And here are a couple of items we saw in Thailand, not during our Chinatown adventure.

I'm sure they are going for a pun on "excuse me" rather than "execute me" but I would still be wary.

I am amused that it has a cartoon on it, but says it is "Adult Toothpaste"

Now this second one we bought. I know you're thinking, seriously Erich, you needed childish toothpaste. Brace yourselves. This one wasn't me. Alrica wanted it. Not so much because of a cartoon character that we don't know, but because she wanted to try peach flavored toothpaste. And you know what, it's good! And it's for adults. It says so right on the tube. So back off, haters!

Farewell for now, Thailand. I'm sure we will be back.

Beating the Odds

Let's talk about beating the odds.

Alrica, I realized today, is a rare and unusual woman. Yes, you are all saying "obviously, Erich" and you all have a variety of reasons. But let me explain my reason: If we let C(X) be the number of countries that person X has been in and we let Y(x) be the person's age (the number of years they have lived, rounded down,) for most X, we have C(X) < Y(X). However, C(Alrica) > Y(Alrica). Saying this in a less mathy way, though why would anyone want less mathy when more mathy is an option, the number of countries that Alrica has been in is greater than her age.

The next time you want to say Alrica has a big head, note, it is still not big enough to fill her big hat

This came up today because today is Alrica's fiftieth birthday. She had previously set a goal she called "Fifty By Fifty". As you might have guessed, this meant she hoped to have visited her fiftieth country before she reached her fiftieth birthday. She accomplished that goal when we arrived in Costa Rica.

The birthday girl buying from a peddler

Since then, we have added three new countries: the Philippines, Taiwan, and Cambodia. So on the day Alrica turns 50, she has been 53 countries. Her number of countries exceeds her age.

Even on her birthday, she goes out of her way to give the gift of her help

But this is rare, I think. Consider the example of me. I have not yet reached that milestone except trivially. What do I mean by trivially? I mean, it has only happened in the uninteresting edge case that is true for almost everyone.

Alrica (and the other thinkers) are pondering my premise

When we are born, we have suddenly visited one country, yet our age is zero. So almost everyone on Earth spends at least the first year of their lives having visited more countries than their age. I was thinking it was true of everyone, but then exceptions occurred to me. What about people born on a vessel in international waters? Or flying in international airspace? Those people will have been in zero countries and also have an age of zero. But I would think all of them have to arrive in a country before their first birthday, so they are also in the trivial case, just they get there a bit later.

After thinking it through, Alrica decided to sit out the rest of my mathy diatribe

For me, since I turned one, I have never again been in the situation where C(Erich) > Y(Erich). Though I suspect I will get there sometime in 2026. I wonder at what age most people get there. If they get there.

All of this, thus far, is just a rambling preamble (dare I say preambling) to the point of the post: what did we do to celebrate Alrica's birthday?

Not counting our recent trip to Pattaya, which was in celebration of her birthday, but wasn't on her birthday, we still did a few things on the day itself. And I should point out that when I say "on the day itself" I refer to the day on the calendar in our current location. So, for example, when we went to a bakery today and bought her a birthday cake, it was not yet her birthday in the United States. But it was her birthday in Thailand. I consider that to be "on the day itself". Alrica feels that not only should all day today be her birthday, but it should extend to 3 PM tomorrow. You see, she was born in Pacific Time, and it won't be until 3 PM in Thailand that Pacific Time will pass out of her birthday. I'm reasonably okay with this idea, though I have some fear that Alrica will later suggest that since we added an extra 15 hours to her birthday, we have to balance things out by taking away 15 hours from mine. (I'm not that afraid. My birthday is over seven months away. Most likely when it comes she won't even remember that any balancing is necessary.)

The birthday cake

In addition to buying a birthday cake, we headed into Bangkok today. We got lunch and used buses to reach a shopping area called Asiatique. The shopping area (also full of entertainment) wasn't our true goal. That was the pier that is at Asiatique. You see Asiatique is on the Chao Phraya River, the main river of Bangkok. And tonight we took a sunset cruise on the river that came with dinner and performers.

A bit off topic, just a funny sign we saw today (not on the cruise.) The illiterate do not drink tea.

We had fun with both our exploration of Asiatique and the sunset cruise. It was hot today, but beautifully sunny. The sunset was magnificent from the boat. We also got to see bridges up close. We had to stay seated and lean as we passed under one of the bridges. You probably think I'm exaggerating, but this I mean literally. The boats haven't been allowed to go under that bridge for awhile. Today was the first day that the river was running low enough that the government allowed it. And it was barely low enough. In the States, there is no way a river cruise company would have done it. If some idiot had thrust up his hand or his head, it would have been badly damaged, and then the cruise company would get sued. They would have been way too afraid of litigation to go under that bridge. But in Thailand, well, I can only say we did go under it. And no one on the ship was stupid enough to thrust up hand or head.

This is us approaching that crazy low bridge

We got to see amazing sites. The Wat Arun is perhaps the most spectacular. We saw it twice, going upriver with the sun setting behind it. and going downriver under the night sky, but the wat is well lit and equally splendid as in the day.

I can't capture the full majesty of the Wat Arun in a picture

Alrica was given a birthday cake (which was 12% cake and 82% icing and 6% mini cookies set into the icing.) She wasn't alone. There were over a dozen people who were celebrating their birthday on the cruise. That seems weird, right? (WARNING: I'm getting mathy again.) Let's talk about beating the odds. You would think only one out of every 365 people on the boat would have a birthday today. That's probably about true in the population as a whole. But not on a sunset cruise. Why? Well, because if it is your birthday on some Wednesday, you want to do something to celebrate it, right? That's exactly the kind of reason you take a sunset cruise. Hence, (using all my best math words,) there is a higher proportion of people who have their birthday on that day on the cruise than you find in the population.

Alrica with her other birthday cake

So today was a celebration of Alrica. But it reminded me of how lucky I am. I get to share the adventures of this rare and unusual woman.

Talk about beating the odds!

The rare and unusual woman with her adventure partner

Red Light, Green Light

The title of this blog post sounds like a children's game. But this is not about a game, and it is not meant for children. Because this isn't about the game Red Light, Green Light. This is about Pattaya's redlight district.

Alrica and I watched the second night of the fireworks festival. It was again very beautiful, artistically put together. Then afterwards, we walked along the beach road, heading south. If you head south far enough, like 1.5 km, you reach Pattaya Walking Street.

You might think that this is a pedestrian only area. You'd be right, cars are blocked from entering. You might imagine it was a pedestrian shopping district with cute clothing and cozy cafes. Well, it's not that kind of shopping. There are a few clothing shops and restaurants. But the majority of Pattaya Walking Street are businesses that open up at 10 PM.

I'm talking about clubs, some of which feature live music. Some feature go go girls and pole dancers. And some feature a lot more explicit things than that. As we walked through the district, people came up to us with signs that had pictures of people having sex in various positions. They were selling live sex shows. You could choose what positions you wanted to go see.

All the nudity you could desire, and you can get kebabs! Win win!

Honestly, it was fascinating to see. I found it a bit overwhelming, very crowded, lots of flashing lights, different songs blaring out of different locales. But it was interesting to see. And one part that interested me, and Alrica too, is the Thai people's simultaneous tolerance and intolerance of moral questions. Pattaya Walking Street is not surreptitious. It is out there. It is screaming, look at me! Come see sex acts! And the region has a police presence, not to tamp down on any immorality, but to discourage pickpockets or drunken brawls. It's there to keep tourists safe.

In some ways, this makes a lot of sense. Thailand is known for being pretty open to a lot of things. Bangkok itself is a city where you can do most anything you want. So you would think that the Thai don't legislate about moral behavior. And yet, alcohol sales are limited in Thailand to certain times of day. Recently marijuana was legalized, but that was recently. And visiting pornographic websites is not allowed in Thailand. They are blocked.

It's a confusing question: Are you opposed to these behaviors or do you just shrug. Why is it against the rules to watch recorded sex acts over the internet, but if you are willing to pay to see them live inside a club, then hey, go for it. What's the reasoning?

Personally, I have no problem with Pattaya Walking Street (aside from the overstimulation, which is a dangerous word to use in this instance.) I'm also okay with a community or country passing laws to protect its culture and respect its limits. But what I don't understand is the partial nature of it. Why is A allowed and B prohibited? It's like the laws themselves are a game of Red Light, Green Light.

Pattaya Fire Air and Water

In Pattaya, Thailand, there is an annual Fireworks Festival. This year, it happens to fall on the Friday and Saturday just after Thanksgiving (in the US, which is not a holiday in Thailand.) But that made it a perfect set up for Alrica and I. Both of our jobs are closed for Thanksgiving. So we took a bus trip from Bangkok to Pattaya.

My picture doesn't do justice to the fireworks

Bangkok is not on the Gulf of Thailand, but is upriver from it. Pattaya is on the Gulf of Thailand. So we got on a bus which took a bit more than two hours to drive to Pattaya. We are staying in a nice room that is just a block off the beach. And the beach is the location of the Fireworks Festival.

View of the Gulf of Thailand from our balcony

We arrived on Thursday and got settled in. We did some exploration of the region around where we are staying including a romantic walk along the beach. We stopped for dinner (pizza) at a cute outdoor plaza with lots of food stands. It's much like a park with food trucks all around, except the stands aren't trucks.

The plaza full of food (one of many in Pattaya). Also Alrica.

Naturally, the fireworks don't happen in the day. So on Friday, we took a snorkeling trip. A bus picked us up at our hotel and we drove all around Pattaya picking up other people. Then we headed south into Amarin City Village. Here we got our life jackets and got on the boat. It made three stops for snorkeling and one just for relaxing at the beach.

Heading down the dock to the boat

It was an interesting company because one of the big features is that they take lots of pictures, including underwater pictures. At the end, they dump them all into a Google Drive and you can go hunting for the ones you want and download them. But it isn't just the pictures of Alrica and me. It's the pictures of everyone who was on the boat with us. So there is a lot of hunting. Also, they were obsessed with gestures. We pointed, gave two-finger peace signs, three-fingers I Love You in sign language, the Korean finger hearts. What's amusing is that it isn't always obvious who the person is behind the mask and the fish. It was easier to find the pictures of me, as I was wearing a blue swimshirt. I was the only one in that shade of blue. But Alrica was wearing a black bikini, and she wasn't alone in that. Still the front of her mask was white, she didn't have on a watch, and so bit by bit we were able to, by process of elimination, figure out which ones were here. (And some of them look like her, so it wasn't always hard.)

Alrica signs "I love you" to the fish

Snorkeling is a lot of fun. It isn't hard to do, and one can see a lot of fish. When we went snorkeling in The Philippines, I learned the real secret of it. Don't look down. I don't mean this like when you are crossing something high. You aren't afraid of falling, the buoyancy of the water isn't going to let you drop. But if you look straight down, you won't get to see as much. You have less field of vision, and your presence often scares away anything nearby. Looking more in front of you means you get to see a lot more.

Peace Clown Fish, Peace.

We got to explore a whole section of coral reefs too. It was an unexpected pleasure to have this underwater view. Not only could you see the coral well, but you would be swimming along, rounding a corner, and then it looked like you were at the entrance to a canyon. A canyon of coral. You had to be a bit more careful here because the waves really could push you into the rocks and corals. They are sharp! How do I know? Well, I wasn't careful enough. But I just got scratched up a bit, not even blood. So it hardly counts.

The couple that dives together thrives together. That's a thing, right?

Hanging out at the beach was fun. I tried the standup paddleboard (though it was a kneel up paddleboard in my case. I didn't manage standing, and I was wearing my glasses so I didn't want to try for fear of losing the glasses if I pitched into the water.)

Paddle on, kneeling man.

After we got back, we cleaned up a bit and then headed over to the beach. There are hundreds of food vendor stands along the beach road. We bought some meals. Alrica got a pad thai, I got a pork with rice noodles, and we got some meat on sticks to share. It turns out the pad thai was quite spicy whereas the pork with rice noodles wasn't spicy at all. So we traded. We found a spot on the beach to sit (surrounded by our fifty-three thousand closest friends) and waited for the fireworks.

When they came, the shows were very impressive. There was music being broadcast and the fireworks were (sort of) timed to the music. But that wasn't the impressive part. There are just so many artistic fireworks out there. it is amazing to see what they can do, how they can be timed, the colors and effects like sparkles or streaks. And they are loud! Before the show began, we saw some bats in the sky hunting for dinner. I felt a bit bad for them, because once the fireworks were going, that has to interfere with their echolocation, doesn't it? Maybe the frequencies are far enough apart that it's no problem, but those loud concussive blasts must do something.

A still picture can't capture the sparkling effect, but imagine it.

Luckily I am not a bat and I was not hunting for insects. (By the way, if I were hunting for insects, there are food stands selling various cooked species of insects, so I could have gotten my fill without any need for echolocation.) For me, the fireworks were delightful and desoundful.

No, I didn't get to have a traditional Thanksgiving. But there is sure plenty I'm thankful for.