My week started having breakfast at the Phong Nha Farmstay on Monday 6th July with Keith. He had come over to pick up his motorbike and so we met up one more time before I headed back to Dong Hoi. Keith attempted poached eggs on toast but had to settle for fried while I had bacon, beans and mushrooms.
My physio sessions had so far totalled 35 hours and I was about to embark on another 2 hours per day for the next week. I had already booked a car to take me to Dong Hoi when Caroline and Andrew said they were going and we could share the car and had contacts who could get a cheaper fare. The two of them were booked in to physio from 2pm and so we had time for lunch at a local cafe which Andrew (and Tatas) both recommended, called Nha Hang A Tran. I had a rather tasty My Quang and a can of twister, the food was very cheap and the place had steps up to it which I managed to get up unaided. After physio, which went really well, I went back to the Nam Long Plus hotel where Thuy, the receptionist, made a video of me trying some local food which they had made at the hotel – it was really tasty. Captain Caveman came out of Son Doong but had his next briefing that night and so he would be back in the cave the next day. For dinner I tried a place recommended to me by Phuong, of Phuong’s Transfers, called Com Tam Saigon. I wanted to try the ribs without chillies so asked for help from Thuy to order it – I got chicken, steamed rice and veg with chillies and although it tasted really good I had a bad stomach straight after.
I didn’t bother with breakfast on Tuesday 7th July because my stomach was still dodgy from the night before. I chilled out, did some Turkish, wrote a bit and watched Netflix before ordering a lunch delivery from Tree Hugger. I was feeling really hungry by lunchtime so I had fried veggie spring rolls, french fries, a passion fruit smoothie and complimentary herbal tea. I also ordered fruit salad with yoghurt to put in the fridge for later. As I was leaving the hotel the staff were all making more local food and this time Banh Loc, so I ordered some for tomorrow to take to physio. At physio Thuy, the boss, got to work on my leg and gave it a really good session. The other members of the Triple Cripple Club (Andrew and Caroline) were also there and they looked like they were definitely experiencing more pain than me.
Back at the Nam Long Plus hotel I had my fruit salad, a relaxing bath and chilled out. For dinner I had chicken fried rice from 7th Heaven which was really good and they remembered not to put chillies in.
Before bed I did a tally of the corona virus data to find that while Vietnam had reported another 14 cases and 7 recoveries in the last week, something odd had gone on with the UK figures. They had adjusted the amount of cases reported to 23,500 less than on the 1st of the month (even though the previous day had 900 cases recorded) but had reported 700 deaths in the last week. Turkey had remained similar to the previous week and were reporting 7,900 cases and 100 deaths for the first week of July.
By the 7th July there were almost 12 million cases and nearly 6,000 deaths reported worldwide.
When I woke up on Wednesday 8th July my knee was a bit sore but my ankle swelling had gone. I had pho bo, orange juice and a banana at the hotel for breakfast and then got on with some more writing and Turkish practice. I had a Tree Hugger lunch again but this time chose a beef and veg rice plate with passion fruit smoothie and herbal tea.
Physio was busy especially now that the Triple Cripple Club had taken over and the Banh Loc I took were well received . Andrew was getting the full treatment from his therapist and looked in agony. On the way back to the hotel I went to the ATM and my card got declined twice so I was a bit concerned but when I checked on the online banking system there was nothing wrong with it. That evening I had pork and veg fried rice from 7th Heaven again and an orange, then relaxed with a bit of Netflix.
My breakfast was the usual pho bo, orange juice and tea at the hotel on Thursday 9th July. For lunch I just had some bananas before heading off to my physio session. Today marked 14 days since the news in England showed hundreds of people on the beaches and I wondered if this would be reflected by an increase in the number of Corona cases or deaths but as the figures had been reduced to show a minus figure I couldn’t tell.
At physio Thuy and I discussed pain management and she gave me some fairly strong medication along with some stomach medicine to offset any side effects – I had to take one of each that night.
Tree Hugger is open daily until 6pm and so I pre-ordered a chicken salad for dinner which was delicious and enabled me to take all my medicine – I didn’t realise at the time but it was taken in the wrong order. After an hour any pain had gone, I could pick up a tissue with my bad foot and I even made a video of it. I was so excited to be able to have more pain free movement in my foot and ankle.
I went to bed tired but feeling a bit nauseas – by 3am I was wide awake!!!
joloyolo 