Phong Nha – 19th May

I was so hot that I couldn’t sleep and was still awake at 1.40am on Friday 19th May. I got up and drank a lot of water with Oresol in, to keep hydrated. At 3.15am I was checking out prices of my return flights with Scoot and they were quite pricey. I had about 6 weeks left until I was due to go back and I wasn’t quite sure how I would survive this heat. I also remembered I was meant to have applied for my next visa as I was only allowed to stay in Vietnam on the 15 day exemption until 28th May. I dozed off around 3.40am and woke up with the loud speaker at 6am, which was irritating. Of course Captain Caveman’s lost watch went off at 6.45am then I went back to sleep, despite the room being a bit warm already. I’d arranged to meet Veronika at VRV for lunch at noon, so I got myself ready for a cycle in red hot sun. I borrowed Captain Caveman’s trousers and a T-shirt to protect me from the 38°C sun and I took a dress to change in to. I have Factor 50 sun cream with me but I find it runs off quite easily.
Veronika had been looking after her eldest grandson for a whole month, while Ben and Bich were in Australia. She was eager to get out and celebrate her freedom as they were back in Phong Nha now. When she arrived she had a bottle of our favourite fizz in the fridge and she asked for it with an ice bucket and 3 glasses. Another lady, Jenny, was joining us and we decided to order lunch too. I had the courgette salad, Veronika had the duck and Jenny had a pho. All of the food was good and we were having a lovely lunch when a customer started chatting to us. It turned out that the customer and her lively young son knew the Wiringi family and had come here on Melissa’s recommendation.
Captain Caveman arrived back from his Son Doong tour and came to join us around 3pm at The Villa’s restaurant before he had to go to his Gala Dinner at 5.30pm. He was a bit cross with me that I’d still not got round to applying for my 30 day visa so he did it for me, he also brought me a backlight for my cycling home in the dark. Veronika had booked to stay the night at VRV so she went for a Nannan nap, Jenny went for a swim and I started work. I only had 2 hours left to work this week so planned to work 4-6pm and today I was working on something new. At 6pm, Veronika came back to join me, as well as Tatas, Jenny had returned to the Farmstay. I decided to be naughty and ordered my favourite Villa’s pizza, the Showstopper. It had salami, blue cheese, fig jam and spring onion on and is not in the least bit Slimming World friendly. It was delicious and we had a great night. Captain Caveman rejoined us after he’d finished work. I had some work queries and corrections which needed finishing so I had to do another hour’s work from 8.30-9.30pm so that the task wasn’t left until Monday. This meant I would only work 15 hours next week which was fortunate as Captain Caveman now had at least 2 weeks off, with a possibility of it being 17 days holiday. This was great news, as he had been working a lot recently and he really was ready for a break. He’d also planned a really great holiday for the two of us, including a trip to Thailand, starting from tomorrow!

My bill for today’s food and drink at The Villa’s restaurant was as follows:

Mango Lassi 85,000
Pot of Jasmine tea 50,000
Zucchini salad 175,000
3 Huda beers 105,000
1 7up 25,000
Showstopper pizza 240,000

Total spent 680,000vnd (£23.12)