Last night started out just like any other night we’ve had in Chiang Mai so far. Go out for dinner, ride around the town, and indulge ourselves in the night life. Over dinner one of the cast-mates (Tyler) had a bright idea to do some karaoke. Tyler’s friend from Chiang Mai, David, knew just the place to take us. After dinner we hopped on our scooters and drove about fifteen minutes outside of the city to a small local karaoke bar. I warmed up the crowd with my take on “Play that Funky Music White Boy.” After my performance, it was inevitable that Evita was going up next; she serenaded the crowd with “I Will Survive.” And Tyler belted out the lyrics to “Stand by Me.” After many more performances, some good and some… not so good, our eyes grew tired. At midnight, we decided it was time for us to head home for some shut eye. Little did we know that a monsoon was going on outside. With a hunger for sleep, we decided to brave the torrential rain and set out on our scooters. Tyler and Bogdon, (one of the producers) on one, Jean-Pierre and Evan (another producer) on the other, and me and Evita on the third. Tyler was gone in the blink of an eye, so me and Evita, and Jean-Pierre and Evan, were left to fend for ourselves. We drove as slow as humanly possible through the freezing rain. I was shivering uncontrollably but I continued to drive. About ten minutes into the drive the rain became heavier (as if that was possible). So we pulled over and took cover under a palm tree. Most people might find a situation like this to be extremely frustrating, but I used the opportunity to make myself feel like a child again. I couldn’t tell you the last time I played in the rain. I stomped through puddles and let the rain wash away all of my responsibilities. Like I said in my previous blog, (The Beauty in Life) I came out here to see the world in a whole new perspective. Instead of running for shelter from the rain, I embraced it. Slowly but surely I am learning to live again.
Vietnam has treated us to some spectacular skies. The atmosphere is delightfully fickle. A vast expanse of blue, which brings punishing heat and humidity, can become a monsoon-level downpour in less than 30 minutes. Rain can pound the city so heavily that every sloped roof becomes a waterfall. Clouds lumber over the city, massive and ponderous, sometimes releasing a payload of water and sometimes just passing over silently. One literally never knows what the skies have in store. It feels like living beneath an Olympus dining table during some raucous feast of the gods. I love it!
I had thought that Montana would always have the crown for the more impressive skies, but in Ho Chi Minh City, I’m constantly reminded why the sky is sometimes called “the heavens.”
One recent afternoon I wandered out to our balcony and beheld this giant cloud haloed by the setting sun. The sky slowly evolved into something even more stunning and perhaps just a tad unsettling.
The saucer-shaped cloud was a little unnerving, but we reasoned that if aliens came to glass the planet, a la “Independence Day,” HCMC probably wouldn’t be high on the target list…
The pictures can’t do justice to the sight. At the top of the cloud, the fringes of a rainbow were peeking out through the misty edge. We all watched silently as the approaching evening slowly wrapped the cloud in night. Seeing such skies makes me remember that “awesome” comes from the word “awe.”


