Phong Nha – 10th May

On Friday 10th May Captain Caveman decided he was going to take us out for a meal that evening. At breakfast we let René and Ngan know we were off out and proceeded with breakfast. I had the noodle soup with greens and took out the fried egg for Captain Caveman to have. He had an omelette and we shared some fruit too. All of the guests at Greenfield Ecostay had gone out for the day so we had the place to ourselves and spent the morning in the pool or on a sun lounger. There were plenty of cows in the fields, making use of the rice harvesting residue.
Captain Caveman had said we weren’t having lunch again today and by 2pm René had brought him over a beer and me a glass of white wine as we chilled by the pool.

That evening Captain Caveman had decided on a meal at Phong Nha Farmstay so we cycled over for Happy Hour. We had a fair few 2 for 1 cocktails and ordered an olive and artichoke bread to share as a starter. Captain Caveman went for the Farmstay pizza, I had a traditional pork dish for our mains and the food was really tasty. Veronika joined us a bit later as she had been sat elsewhere with Deborah, hadn’t seen my message and didn’t end up having any food, when she joined our table. Deborah had the Nem Lui which is pork on lemongrass skewers made in to rice paper rolls with veggies and herbs. Here’s what we paid for our evening out, prices in Dong;

Phong Nha Farmstay
1 olive & artichoke bread 75,000
4 Gin & Tonics 100,000
4 Rum & Cokes 130,000
1 Pork clay pot 200,000
1 Farmstay 230,000
Total 735,000VND (£22.48)
Service 36,750VND
VAT 133,140VND
Total spent 838,320VND (£25.64)

The prices aren’t bad for 2 people with alcohol but it’s certainly not the cheapest place in town. As we were about to cycle home we saw Bich looking after someone’s baby and cycling about with it in the basket of a bicycle she was riding. The cycle home was hard work as Captain Caveman obviously raced ahead, as he does. When we got back we went straight to bed as it was already almost 9pm.