Maria's Birthday Party

Maria turned 23 today (though here they call that 24), so Stefan and I took her out for her birthday. Stefan is a nice fellow from Sweden whom I befriended here in Mui Ne. Maria is a girl who works at Gecko, out favorite bar/restaurant in Mui Ne, owned by a Frenchman. Her real Vietnamese name is Thanh, but like a lot of young Vietnamese girls these days, she's adopted an English nickname. She mentioned yesterday that her birthday is today and that she really, really wanted a birthday cake. Stefan and I discussed it and we decided it would be fun for the three of us to go out and celebrate Maria's birthday.

There's not much in Mui Ne, so we hopped in a taxi to the next bigger town. First stop was the bakery, and Maria picked out the biggest cake they had. We had them write her name and age on the cake. By then it was lunch time. I love goat meat, so I picked the restaurant -- a place called Lao De (Goat Soup), and we ordered the Lao De and also BBQ goat. We went to an outdoor fair and took some birthday photos. Then we went to the mall to buy some small gifts for Maria. Stefan bought her a pair of earrings, and I bought her a book and a balloon and a photo frame. Finally we went to the Karaoke place. They give you a private room and your own karaoke machine. We alternated between singing Vietnamese and English songs, and ate some of the cake. All in all it was a fun day, and Maria was thrilled and very, very happy. Of course Stefan and I paid for everything. Maria makes about $68/month in her job. We probably spent about that much in total today, so she'd never be able to afford something like this on her own.