Ms. Weber didn’t seem to believe me. She said something to Captain Vu, and he took a new heading.
I asked, “Where are we going?”
“Oh, I thought we’d call it a day. It’s pushing 3 P.M.”
“What happened to Pyramide Island?”
“Oh… right. Do you still want to go there?”
“Yes. Now.”
She smiled. “That’s where we’re headed. You’re so basic.”
Susan sat back in her chair and lit a cigarette. The wind was blowing through her long hair, and she looked very good. She said to me, “When I first met you, I had the initial impression you were a little repressed.”
“I was.”
“Then I realized you were just putting on a cool act.”
“I was being professional.”
“Me, too.”
That, I thought, depended on her profession.
Within half an hour, I spotted land dead ahead. Captain Vu turned to us from the open wheelhouse. He pointed and said, “Hon Pyramide.”
We approached this tiny island from the west, and Captain Vu pulled back the throttle while the kid got out on the bow to look for coral reef and sandbars. I could see a long dock extending out from the shore, and there were about a dozen boats of all types and sizes tied up there.
Pyramide Island indeed looked like a pyramid with steep rocky sides that sloped up to a blunt point at the top. There were people rappelling down the rocks for some reason.
Captain Vu pulled alongside the dock, and cut the engine while Minh and I jumped out and tied the boat.
Captain Vu came out of the wheelhouse, and I said to Susan, “Ask him what those people are doing on the rocks.”
Susan asked him and said to me, “This is one of the islands where they collect the sparrow nests for bird’s nest soup.” She added, “The higher the nest, the bigger erection you’ll get.”
“You made that up.” I said to Susan, apropos of nothing that was being discussed, but something that was on my mind, “Ask Captain Vu if he’s seen any Russian warships while he’s been out fishing.”
She hesitated a moment, then asked him. He replied, and she said to me, “Not so much anymore. But they still come into Cam Ranh Bay now and then. Maybe once a month.”
“Ask him if he’s seen any American warships.”
She asked, he replied, and she said to me, “Lately he’s seen a few. Why are you asking?”
“Just curious.”
Captain Vu gave us directions to the nude beach and said to me, in English, “You like.”
We took a few Cokes, put them in the tote, and told Captain Vu we’d be back at sunset. The kid wanted to come along, but Captain Vu wanted to fish, and he needed the kid for the nets. Minh didn’t look happy.
Susan and I walked along the dock to the shore and turned onto a trail that cut through the brush along the shoreline.
We didn’t say much as we walked, and I think we were both a little tense about this. I mean, swimming in the raw is not that big a deal, but with someone you’ve not seen naked before, it could be a little awkward.
After about fifteen minutes, the trail curved around a rock formation, and on the other side of the rocks, about fifty yards away, was a beautiful sandy cove beach nestled in the cliffs of the pyramid. There were about fifteen women on the beach and in the water, all naked.
Well, there were men, too, but who cares? Susan and I stopped a moment, and she said, “I guess my information was correct.”
“Who told you about this place?”
“An expat in Saigon. I thought he was kidding, but I checked with the desk clerk, who said yes, though nude swimming is forbidden.” She looked around at the cliffs, the sky, the sandy beach, the turquoise water, and the trees near the shoreline. She said, “This is beautiful.”
We walked down the sandy path to the beach where people were swimming and sunning. There were about thirty of them, all Caucasians, except for one young Vietnamese couple.
The beach was only about fifty meters long and about that wide. The rocks formed a sort of amphitheater around it, making it very private, except for the guys on the ropes way up on top of the rock pile who were looking for bird’s nests.
Susan and I found a flat rock on the sand where she put her tote.
The closest couple was about twenty feet away, lying face up on a blanket.
I said, “Well, time for a swim.” I took off my shirt and kicked off my sandals.
Susan pulled off her shirt and sandals, too, and took her slacks off and laid them on the rock.
I peeled off my bathing trunks, and Susan took off her bikini top. Then she slid her bottom off and threw it in the tote bag.
We stood there a moment, naked in the sunlight, and it felt good.
Her bathing suit hadn’t left too much to my imagination, but my imagination wasn’t as good as the real thing. She had a well-trimmed bikini cut.
We walked across the beach, down to the shoreline. The women ranged in age from about twenty to fifty, and there was not a bad body among them. I wondered if I should include any of this in my post-mission report.
We stood at the edge of the beach and the gentle surf washed over our feet. The sun was to our front, hovering over the hills behind Nha Trang, whose shoreline we could see about twenty kilometers away. The sun sparkled on the water, and the sky was filled with gulls.
We just stood there and took this all in — nature at its most beautiful, surrounded by total strangers who, like us, were naked and without a sign of worldly goods, and whose station in life was completely irrelevant and totally unknown on this one sunny afternoon.
A very nice-looking woman of about forty was coming out of the water, and she walked toward us, clearing her eyes and nose of water. She said to us in accented English, “Good temperature. No jellyfish. Very safe.”
Susan said, “Thank you.”
“Americans?”
“Yes.”
“Not many here. Mostly Europeans and Australians. I am from Sweden.”
Even stark naked, we looked like Americans. Must be my circumcision.
So, we stood there and chatted with this nice lady, and her husband joined us, and we talked about where we were staying, about restaurants, Nha Trang, and Vietnam in general. The funny thing is that after a few minutes, you forget that everyone is naked. Well, maybe not forget, but you keep good eye contact.
The guy said to me, “May I ask if you were here during the war?”
I replied, “I was.”
“How does it seem to you?”
“Pleasant. Peaceful.”
“War is so terrible.”
“I know that.”
He waved his arm to take in the beach and sky and said, “The whole world should be like this.”
“It was,” I reminded him. “Garden of Eden. We blew it.”
They both laughed. The woman said, “Well, have a pleasant stay.” And off they went.
Susan said, “They were nice.”
I replied, “Yours are nicer.”
She laughed.
We dove into the water, then swam along the beach and explored the rocky cliffs. There’s something very different about swimming in the nude. We swam for about half an hour, then came back toward the shore.
We walked in the water until we were up to our chests, then stopped. I turned Susan toward me, and we put our hands on each other’s shoulders and stood looking at each other. We wrapped our arms around each other and kissed. Our hands slid down to each other’s butts, and I pulled her close and felt her pubic hair against my penis.
She broke away and took a deep breath. She said, “Let’s go lie on the beach.”
I replied, “You go. I need some time to let down the periscope.”