Captain Caveman was working on Thursday 19th November and had gone to Tu Lan for the day. I was off to Dong Hoi later and could pick up my passport but I realised I hadn’t got enough money from Captain Caveman to pay for it so had to arrange for Saturday. Previously I had been using a friend’s visa agent in Hanoi and had been lucky to get 3 month extensions but now only 1 month extensions were allowed. This time I had used Kimmie Nguyen, an agent located in Dong Hoi and everything had gone according to plan. Of course, doing the visa extension with a local agent meant the cost was much more expensive than in Hanoi but overall meant I didn’t have to spend money on travel to and from Hanoi, plus accommodation while my passport was with immigration. I also needed to attend my physiotherapy and so I didn’t want to travel to Hanoi just to renew visas. I had a dragon fruit and an apple for breakfast then crisps for lunch before heading off to physio in Dong Hoi. Physio went well and I was definitely improving now, there was hope I might be able to walk without too much of a problem by Christmas. Thuy gave me a gift which came wrapped in newspaper, was hot and had salad with it and it looked big! When I got home, I opened the food package to discover a whole duck with rice and salad – and when I say whole, I mean whole duck, with the head and it’s tongue sticking out of it’s beak! Captain Caveman was on his way back but had been invited to the Farmstay for a BBQ dinner as part of the weekend’s cycling event. I had a whole duck to eat and so it was a good job I was hungry but Captain Caveman had to help me eat it! I watched repeats of The Big Bang Theory on Netflix while scoffing away and it was absolutely delicious. I saved all the bones and skin for Captain Caveman to make a stock with, it was a big duck! I finished the night off with jasmine tea and went to bed early, before Captain Caveman got home. The weekend was going to be exciting – Saigon Children’s Charity were in Phong Nha!
