Vietnamese 70's Rock Cover Band? Check. Magician? Check. Crazy Drunk Australians? Check. Halloween on the Beach? Priceless.

It's a little unusual celebrating a holiday like Halloween in a foreign country.  Apparently not everyone dresses up like a luchador and begs for candy.  I wish I could have found a luchador costume.  Instead I dressed up as a guy who had just been beaten up, torn shirt, and fake blood galore.  I spent Halloween in Nha Trang, a beach resort city.  It's really touristy and normally wouldn't have been my bag, but I was there visiting friends.  I went to a party at the Sailing Club, a luxurious bar that sits right on the beach, and caters mostly to foreigners.  On the beach they had tables set up, with a dance floor, and a stage for the house band.  They played mostly covers of seventies rock tunes, and I was kind of having my Martin Sheen at the USO moment from Apocalypse Now, but it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun.  The place was packed and I was hanging with a group of people that included both locals and expats.  They had a costume contest.  I voted for the chubby guy in the bikini, because lets face it he deserved it for having to look ridiculous all night.  He didn't win though.  The Vietnamese seem to value scary over funny and creative.  We also had a group of dancers preform "Thriller," which while I hate Michael Jackson as a person, this is a great song.  Following this was Dragon Dancing and a magician who had come in from Ho Chi Minh City especially for this night.  I stayed out till like three in the morning so this was the latest night I've had since being in Vietnam, so it was a lot of fun. There is of course the unusual contrast between natural beach paradise and constructed tourist trap in Nha Trang to contend with.  I dressed up as a guy who had just been beat up, Aileen in the picture is the Black Dahlia, and Mai was Waldo from the books.