Wednesday 28th April was not as calm and relaxed as I was hoping. The loud tannoy announcement at 5.30am woke me up but I tried desperately to ignore it. I read the news to find it was getting worse in Cambodia for Corona cases, should Vietnam be more worried? Here’s the article:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/international/20210425/cambodia-closes-markets-to-curb-covid19-thousands-plead-for-food/60554.html
Tatas was on the train back from Hanoi by 6am and was hoping to meet me at the Farmstay later, all being well. I had been sworn to secrecy about Caroline being in Dong Hoi as she was on her way to Phong Nha to surprise people and she had booked to stay for 1 night at the Phong Nha Farmstay. I’d said nothing and agreed to meet for lunch, so I got there early (cycled the short route) and was the only person by the pool aside from a rather warm Ben, who was moving furniture. When Poison_I_Vee (Caroline and the dog on the Himalayan) arrived I managed to get a video and watched her unpack the dog from her special doggy back pack – they looked hot!
We decided to have lunch by the pool and I ordered the bun cha, Caroline ordered a salad and just a beef patty for her canine companion and we had a glass of white wine each. Veronika joined us for lunch then a few more people arrived in the afternoon to say hello to Caroline and Vee and I decided to do the sensible thing and cycle back home while I was still sober and have a shower and change for dinner later.
I got a lift back with Duyet and I was very sensible and didn’t have the pizza I wanted as my stomach had been dodgy most of the afternoon, even though I’d not had anything with gluten or dairy in. I had the beef in bamboo for dinner which I really enjoyed with red wine and we had all eaten by the time Tatas arrived, fresh from a business trip to Hanoi. The night finished with just Caroline, Multi, Tatas and me chatting on and trying to prevent Multi from riding his motorbike home shitfaced! We even had to pretend we were going home to convince him to leave and then we came back and had another bottle of wine – this confused the staff who also thought (hoped?) we had paid and were leaving! We had a good evening and Tatas stayed at mine, the rain was very heavy as we left but we still arranged to go to The Villas tomorrow to see Caroline again and hopefully meet for a cocktail – instead of a Margarita Monday we would have a Thirsty Thursday, perhaps!?
joloyolo 