PJ’s sister, Hildegard arrived around this time and we had one more person to add to our little crew. She was a great asset as she is fluent in Vietnamese. With her around, all the prices seemed to miraculously drop and for the first time we had a translator. That night Nada, the woman that had first taken us in hosted a Christmas party. We had a great time and met many new people. Even my whiskey thieving acquaintance was there and I took the opportunity to (jokingly) remind him about the debt that he owed me. We spent the night playing many different drinking games and eating a lot of food. After a while some of the folks grew tired. For Ilrok, PJ, Hildegard and I, it was time for the real fun to commence. The four of us loaded ourselves on to my poor little scooter and sped off in true Vietnamese style. Ilrok was crammed into the foot area of the scooter. Behind her was Hildegard who was the driver. PJ was sandwiched in next and finally was me, dragging my feet as we zoomed along. It was far from comfortable but it beat walking. Our first stop was a disappointment as it was being shut down by the police due to the curfew system. We then shot off to the local beer hall which was also closed. It suddenly dawned on us that our only option was to visit the Anh’s. They almost fell over laughing when we arrived because of our drastic over loading. Having Hildegard there was a perfect opportunity to get to know them better. After interrogating them with a translator, we were once again hungry. Hildegard barked some Vietnamese at them and Jo Anh hopped on his motorbike and took off. He returned with a parcel of beef which he quickly hacked up and threw into his paraffin fuelled fryer. He added it to the mixture of ingredients that were left over from the Anh’s supper. It was surprisingly good. Now that our stomachs had been re-lined, we were ready to continue drinking. Needless to say, it was another late night.