Phong Nha, Dong Hoi and Hanoi – 20th May

I was woken up by Captain Caveman sneezing at 5.40am on Saturday 20th May. It was going to be another hot day and I didn’t get up until 6.45am. Even though Captain Caveman had a day off today, he still had to go to the Oxalis office to sort some work related things out. We cycled there for 8am and sat overlooking the river at Oxalis Home cafe. The views were beautiful and the river was busy with boats going to and from Phong Nha cave, as it often is on the weekend. We ordered Bo Ne for our breakfast which is new to the menu since my last visit. I don’t eat the eggs so I gave them to Captain Caveman and I had some of his sausage. I found it to be really tasty although I wasn’t so keen on the bread which has sugar in here. After breakfast, we went back home and made sure Bluey, my bicycle, was popped away safely as we were off on our holidays this afternoon. We got our bags (hand luggage only) and went on Trigger, the motorbike, back to Oxalis. Captain Caveman had booked us seats on the Oxalis bus to Dong Hoi, but we actually got to share a car with 2 of the staff. It was a pleasant 45 minute drive and we got dropped off at Tree Hugger, one of my favourite cafes.

They had some new iced drinks on the menu which were made of mint, lime and soda water slushy and I loved them. There’s plenty of fans at Tree Hugger, but no AC so the drinks were very much needed. We ordered some lunch and I was trying to be healthy so had the beef and vegetable stir fry with brown rice. It’s one of my favourite dishes, Captain Caveman had his favourite egg salad sandwich and we were given complimentary passion fruit and water melon. Next we decided that it wouldn’t be a Tree Hugger visit without a White Russian cocktail as the afternoon sun got very sweaty. Captain Caveman paid so I didn’t take a note of the bill but it’s very reasonably priced.

Our next jaunt was a short taxi ride over to see Stu and the boys at their new house. My ankles were swelling up from the heat so I drank water, while Captain Caveman cracked on with Stu, drinking beers. By 3pm I had my feet in the pond, letting the fish nibble my toes. At 4.30pm we got a taxi back in to Dong Hoi town to meet a friend and ex colleague of Captain Caveman’s, who’d had a baby since I last saw her.

We met Thao at a small cafe where I had a mango smoothie and we played with baby Anh. It was lovely to see them after all this time and the cafe near her house was good and cheap.
By 5.30pm we were in a taxi, on the way to Dong Hoi airport where we were flying with Bamboo airways to Hanoi, I was hoping for a bit cooler weather.

We got good exit row seats on the plane and were in Hanoi by 8.30pm. Captain Caveman had booked us a room at Aquarius Grand Hotel near Hoan Kiem Lake for 2 nights. That evening he chose a nearby Indian restaurant for dinner. Aalishan was a small Indian restaurant with mainly all Indian customers so this was a good sign. We shared onion bhajis without incident but then my chicken tikka masala was so spicy I couldn’t eat it. I ate rice and nan bread, tried my chicken dish with loads of yoghurt in but my mouth was still on fire.
Back at the hotel, I had a bad stomach because of the chillies but hoped the swelling would go down because we had planned to go clothes shopping tomorrow!

Photo credit – some photos by Captain Caveman