Morning Excersize

I decide to take a jog around the lake this morning as opposed to anymore tossing and turning in my hostel dormitory. I'm out there by 6:15am and it's swarming with people. Grouped tai chi led by boomboxes, weightlifters, and badminton are some of the activities. There's a lot of people doing their own routines as well, involving repetitive arm swinging, head scratching, ball balancing, and just all around "booty shaking". After three laps (I'm thinking 3 miles, or 4.8 kilometers) I'm soaked with sweat. The humidity here in October isn't awful although it's nothing like I'm used to.

I finish up with some breakfast, a steaming bowl of noodle soup (why not? Something hot!), the ever famous pho ga (chicken style)*. It's a minimal scene: 8 plastic stools are setup on the sidewalk. No menu. I sit down in line with everyone else. I look up and I'm facing..... a wall. There's a communal table and atop sits a fistful of wooden (and recycled) chopsticks, tin spoons, conveniently sliced thumb-nail-sized limes (the fruit part is the color of egg yolk), and a vinegar infused with chillies (hottest damned things) and garlic.

From a nook in an alleyway is a lady spooing the hot broth over a heap of flat rice noodles, her stock pot a sweltering scene of liquid, chicken's feet, and scallions. To finish up onto she uses shears to portion out the chicken (skin on), tosses in some diced green onion and cilantro and a dash of black pepper. A "waiter" relays my meal to the plastic bench in front of me. The silk-suited man next to me, he's drinking some sort of liquor from a plastic bottle, gets up and takes a bowl of MSG from the "kitchen". It's all about personal garnishing.

I love it.



*For all you other "pho-oodies" out there the proper pronunciation is something like fer, almost like "fur", shortening the "r" sound as much as possible. Pronunciation here is EVERYTHING.