-^-for posterity-^-

one of the lures of an giang province is its stork garden. it is wonderful and curious and i had yet to see it. we saw it a couple of weeks ago with my parents, brother and a troop of english teachers.

we drove there on motorcycles. it's about an hour away. the road is bumpy and chaotic as always and we ended up at a small bridge where there was a dirt path heading parallel to a tiny tributary. that's where we were conned.

i don't like to be gypped (terrible word), juked or in any way taken advantage of. over here, foreigners are obvious, lumbering targets. we were with a large group of vietnamese people. i thought we were safe.

the group was talked into taking a boat down the river to see the storks. the river and a path to drive motorbikes ran parallel. something smelled fishy. the logic behind the decision was this: it might rain and the path might become muddy and we didn't want to have the motorbikes muddy. the counterpoint was this: it wasn't going to rain.

it was already late and we were beginning to think we wouldn't be able to actually see the storks. you see, the gardens are so incredible because thousands upon thousands of storks come to this one place to roost every night. their return is supposed to be breath taking. i've been told that they cover the sky and everything is a confused mass of flapping and swooping. they all mysteriously return to this garden as opposed to any one of the surrounding gardens. this is a magical place. this place attracts birds in droves. this place was touched by the pinky of god.

we carefully boarded the boat and headed up the tributary. the engine died. i walked to the front of the boat and tried to keep us moving forward with a bamboo pole. you see, we were heading up stream. i struggled but enjoyed it. the boat boy worked on the engine but didn't look like he was having any fun. all the while motorbikes were zipping by us, there was no rain and the sun had fallen beneath the horizon. things looked bleak.

we finally reached the garden. we walked over a bridge and climbed an observatory. it was dark but we could make out thousands upon thousands of white dots in the trees. there were storks there, i was sure. i pretended to be in awe and suppressed frustration.

we floated back down the river to our motorbikes and headed home. i'll go back one day by myself.