There was quite a bit of rain on Monday 11th July. Captain Caveman had left for his Son Doong trip and this time he was doing 3 tours in a row, working for the next 12 days. He’d given me some spending money so that I could go for a drink with Veronika or Tatas if the opportunity arose.
I had cornflakes for breakfast and caught up on some admin tasks. I’d attempted to get out another mystery freezer meal for dinner and made myself a cheese sandwich for lunch.
It wasn’t quite the Monday I’d been used to but I did indulge in a vodka, lime and soda with my evening meal. It turned out to be a satay sauce which I had with chicken, vegetables and steamed rice.
After the hectic Hanoi trip it was nice to have a day of not doing too much, just staying at Elements again.
More bad weather was predicted and storms were due on Tuesday 12th July. I saw on Facebook that the newly finished villa next to where we stay in Dalyan was up for holiday rental and it looked very nice. I had a buttered crumpet for breakfast which Captain Caveman had brought back from Hanoi. My lunch was leftover satay chicken with rice and I did some Turkish lessons in the afternoon.
Veronika had invited me over to share some fizz so I got a lift up to the Phong Nha Farmstay with Dung, a new driver. Veronika and Ross were staying in one of the Jungalo private pool villas so I went over to their place. We had a lovely glass or two of sparkling white wine, before walking to the Farmstay poolside bar for dinner. Veronika ordered a Shepherd’s pie (the Tuesday special), I had the chicken and cashew nuts which was really tasty. I’d eaten mine by the time Ross got his food and was sat talking to Bich under a fan. It got incredibly warm as her cook showed her the prawns she had bought. Ten minutes later we had a downpour of rain so we opened another bottle of fizz, the Lindeman’s which is a firm favourite. Bich was telling me they have changed the pricing at the Farmstay now, with immediate effect everything would be subject to 8% tax and 5% service charge. They were also reviewing the prices of items on the menu which had not seen an increase in some time. It reminded me of Turkey in that prices were increasing to allow for the new tourist season. When I got my bill it came to 1,000,000vnd (£35 for dinner and mainly wine) which wasn’t bad when you compared it to Western prices. I tried to wait for the rain to stop to leave but in the end we just had to go for it. I was easily home and in bed by 10pm but I didn’t sleep much, as the thunder and lightening was right overhead and kept me awake.
joloyolo 