Phong Nha – 27th April

At 8.45am on Saturday 27th April I was asked to move rooms at Highway 20 to accommodate a large group of Vietnamese who were coming for the Reunification weekend. Of course I was happy to move, especially as I had a second cockroach in the bathroom last night plus Jeff had brought a friend who had been even nearer to the toilet. Nga’s husband, Quan, had to go remove it as I was too scared. Nga said to leave my stuff and she would move everything for me, except for the bugs. I had arranged to meet Hoan and Chung at the river side coffee place, closest to The Villa’s. When I arrived, it was after 9am and I parked Bluey in the shade as it was already looking to be a very hot day. Lan and Minh Thuy (from The Villas) were also there and were having some drinks. I ordered a fresh coconut as I was only on 59 syns so far this week so I didn’t mind using 5 more. By 10.15am Hoan, Chung and I were back at Phong Nha Vegan and I was invited to join the staff lunch. They had papaya salad, winter melon and braised eggplant with chillies so the chef had made me a Bun Tron without chillies. It was very nice and I really enjoyed it but I knew I’d be hungry again later as the dish is very light.
As it was getting rather hot, Chung gave me a lift on her motorbike to pick up laundry from Oxalis. I paid 120,000VND (£3.69) and Chung gave me a lift to drop it off at Highway 20, where I picked up the key to the new room, then went back to the Vegan.
Later, I intended to cycle home but it was so hot and I didn’t have any suncream on, so I called in to The Villa’s. I had a mango smoothie, 1 litre of water, 1 pot of Jasmine tea and a vegetarian pizza for 260,000VND (£8). I took half of the pizza home with me as it was quite large. It was my 3rd consecutive day of no meat and no alcohol as I was determined to get back on the Slimming World plan this week.
That evening I was at the Vegan from 6pm to 9pm and it was busy again. As I was leaving though, I was given a kilogram of mangosteen as they know they are mine and Captain Caveman’s favourite fruit. I ate the rest of the veggie pizza for dinner and saved the mangosteen as Captain Caveman was due out of the cave tomorrow.