Phong Nha – 3rd & 4th July

While Captain Caveman went to Phong Nha on Saturday 3rd July I packed my suitcases, one of which was a hand luggage case I’d borrowed from Vanessa in Dalyan, thinking I’d be giving it back 3 months later. I’d hoped for a message first thing about my visa extension decision but didn’t get one and so I had my usual pancake breakfast and read the news.
In Vietnam yesterday we had the biggest amount of cases in one day so far and this 4th wave was certainly continuing to be a worry:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/985492/viet-nam-sees-record-high-daily-increase-of-covid-19-cases-on-saturday.html
At 11.48 a text confirmed there had been no response from immigration as promised so we could perhaps assume I was still leaving, although it would still be double checked on Monday when they were back at work. This would mean that option 1 of leaving on Tuesday was definitely cutting it fine so when Captain Caveman returned we decided to go with option 2 of me going to Hanoi next Friday, but we would book the flight on Monday, which was Captain Caveman’s payday. This would also give me time to still attend my own leaving celebrations on Monday too. I researched new phones and found the one I needed which I would also be better off getting in Hanoi because of availability. I got a message from Funny Monkey’s to say that a friend from Dong Hoi had sent Captain Caveman and I a gift, what a lovely surprise. That night Captain Caveman made a massive mushroom risotto and we didn’t argue, he was looking forward to getting back to work and had even managed to be working on Monday, meaning he couldn’t come to celebrate me leaving Phong Nha.

There was some excitement on Sunday 4th July when we used our new gifts. Mo, from Earth cafe in Dong Hoi, had sent us each a cup for our morning drinks and it was such a lovely thing to do. I had jasmine tea in mine, Captain Caveman had Vietnamese coffee and I made more pancake mixture for my breakfast. For some reason neither of us had any lunch but we decided after some time in the pool that we would go to the Farmstay for sunset drinks. It was happy hour so to keep it cheap we both just had 2 for 1 Huda beer, which I hadn’t drank in quite some time. We watched the buffalo get fed and washed in the fields, we chatted about expats getting kicked out of Vietnam and cycling in hot sun with 2 of the Phong Nha Farmstay guests. The two of them were going to Son Doong next week and they were really looking forward to it.
Back home, while Captain Caveman cooked our dinner, I checked with East Hill that they could accommodate us tomorrow at 11.30am for my leaving lunch and started to get a bit concerned about fitting everything in that I needed to do!