Today’s song choice is from a band I went to see 10 years ago and reminds me of my Abandoned Valley day tour in 2016. As Thursdays are now often used for ‘throw back Thursday’ posts and pictures I thought it appropriate (plus I’ve been to so many parties recently I was too hungover to write much today).

 

Last March I went on to a one day tour with Jungle Boss tours, here in Phong Nha and I thought the Abandoned Valley trip was amazing despite me being more of a city girl than the active sort. I was due to go on another caving trip in a few days time so this would be a warm up to get my legs used to all the walking. It was hard and I regretted wearing my new Salomon grippy shoes as they were hurting my toes on the way down the massive winding, rocky hill to the valley of the jungle – the thick greenery and the steep rocky walk was like something from another world for me. We had snacks of dragon fruit and choco-pies (like wagon wheels) after almost 2 hours of trekking before donning helmets, lights and gloves for a scramble over rocks into Dark Cave. It was a total of about 700m in pitch black and we even sat at the end of the cave and turned our lights off and sat in silence for 5 minutes to get a sense of the nature around us. (Yes, I was scared but after a while just relaxed and it felt weird).

 

There were 8 of us on the trip and of course I was the fattest, slowest, unfittest and oldest. The others were 2 Americans, 3 Germans & 2 Dutch and I made friends with Janou and Emma, the Dutch girls, who were fantastic trekking buddies. The guide was my good friend, Uy, and there were a couple of porters and a national park ranger.
After dark cave we walked along the river going in and out of it to cross the trails – the German man by this time had stopped removing his white plimsoles and rolling his jeans up.
We stopped for a delicious BBQ pork lunch in the jungle next to a swimming spot and although the sun wasn’t out it was warm and the area was beautiful.
After lunch we swam in a very cold pool that lead into a massive cave so we swam with lights on to the end, about 200m and floated on our backs in the dark. I wasn’t so keen on the bats in there but it was a nice swim.
Afterwards we set back off trekking up the massive hill back to meet the bus. I was shattered but had a good laugh and was wishing I had ordered beer, not 7up, for my drink at the end.
In the evening I ate with my new friends at Bamboo Café before heading across the road to get drunk at Easy Tiger’s with Uy and some of my fellow customers from our tour. The night ended in the karaoke til very late, singing to random songs that most of us didn’t know.

The day after my birthday party I woke up with a hangover and a craving for a bacon sandwich. Captain Caveman had already gone across the road to meet his fellow cavers at Ho Khanh’s. Ho Khanh is the man who first discovered Hang Son Doong, the biggest cave in the world, here in Quang Binh and now has a homestay and café that probably has the best coffee in the area.

I joined Captain Caveman and the usual breakfast group but with the intention we would go over to the River House to see if they needed a hand clearing up from last night and make sure the bill had been paid, before having breakfast. Typically by the time we got there we had left it too late as all was tidy and breakfast was finished.

Our next attempt at breakfast was at Rustic where I asked Captain Caveman to order me a banana smoothie and a bacon sandwich (they do really good bacon sandwiches here). After a while I’d finished my smoothie but there was still no sign of my food so I mentioned that it seemed to be taking a long time. Captain Caveman had forgot to tell me that when he ordered, an hour ago, he was told we couldn’t have a bacon sandwich as they were out of bread – I wasn’t happy. Even the resident puppy seemed disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to have any leftover scraps.

We cycled the 2km in to town and went to Easy Tiger, still chasing the bacon and finally got a great sandwich just exactly how I like it, finally.

In my hung-over state I had almost forgotten my drunken promise of lunchtime karaoke so I then spent over four hours in a private karaoke room, at Phong Nam in town, with great friends and more beer while Captain Caveman escaped to the pub.

The famous song ‘It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want to’ by Lesley Gore back in the 60’s, was playing in my head a couple of times on my birthday – it’s one of my favourites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPqaG8sVDE

We had arrived on the overnight train leaving Da Nang, later than expected, at 11.30pm and were met by the driver outside Dong Hoi station just before 5am meaning we were back home in Phong Nha before sunrise. I really wanted to go back to bed so that I wouldn’t be too tired for my party at the River House that night and so ignored Captain Caveman has he unpacked, did washing and generally made a noise for an hour.

By lunch time I was hungry and so we went to Capture for birthday brunch and beer, I had a very tasty salami and cream cheese sandwich and temporarily forgot we’d fell out about me needing too much sleep (I’m not the one who fell asleep in the cinema). I was hoping for a birthday massage however we ended up having another beer in Easy Tiger where we were joined by Chrissy and then another of Captain Caveman’s colleagues, who I’d not seen since I left Phong Nha 6 months ago.

A beer in Capture café, on my birthday.

 

 Easy Tiger beer, spare salami and sunflower seeds – what more can a birthday girl need?

My party was arranged for 6pm at the Phong Nha River House so at 5pm Chrissy invited me to hers for a celebratory drink which was much appreciated after an argument with Captain Caveman about a plug socket and my strength. The party was a great night, despite Captain Caveman being sat between two blokes I didn’t know who talked about caves and work all night; he wasn’t even seen at the amazing buffet. Lots of my favourite people came over to celebrate and Chrissy organised a delicious carrot cake, I got some lovely gifts of a gorgeous scarf, a much needed notepad/journal and (at last) a bell for my bike.

I had lots of beers and didn’t even have room for a whisky night cap when I got home.

On Saturday (7th January) we were ready very early and awaited our bus pick up for 6.45am outside our house with hangovers. The attitude on time keeping in Phong Nha is very relaxed compared to back home and so after a few pick-ups and stop offs we were finally leaving town and heading to another wedding about 50km away from Vinh. Captain Caveman and I joined Watto & Chrrisy on the bus with the other Oxalis employees and arrived at Dung and Huong’s wedding at 11am. I was still feeling a little fragile so I opted for the tea offered rather than the rice wine. There were lots of friends and family there and the happy couple looked very nervous as the speeches and singing, by various people, continued at volume. There was the traditional pouring of the red, fizzy wine into champagne pyramids followed by a sip with linked arms as people clapped or took photos.
The day was warm and the sun came out making it pretty hot by the afternoon when the food feast started – there was beef, pork, chicken, bread and sticky rice washed down with too much rice wine and cans of winter melon (both are an acquired taste).
After the wedding we were driven by car to Vinh train station where we would be getting the overnight sleeper train to Da Nang then going to Hoi An for a couple of days with Watto & Chrissy. As there were a few hours to kill before the train that evening Captain Caveman and I went for a walk around the town and found ourselves in an empty Bia Hoi place drinking Huda beer and eating beer snacks. Back home bar snacks would usually consist of crisps or nuts but here they are a little healthier with their offerings, we were given rice crackers, cucumber and a vegetable we affectionately call eyeballs – related to the aubergine and has the ability to suck all the moisture from your mouth with one tiny bite. We also tried a Vuvuzela restaurant but weren’t particularly impressed with the food although the beer was good.
Our overnight train journey was OK despite having a carriage door that kept swinging open because of a broken catch, so a little sleepy we arrived to the car waiting to take us to Eden Homestay on Cua Dai Street. Chrissy and I have stayed here a few times and so Chrissy had managed to get a good deal by booking directly with the hotel. We had a good walk to Dingo Deli for our breakfast as this was a place all of us had enjoyed eating at in previous visits and it wasn’t quite as good as usual – I prefer their lunchtime food over the breakfast and was glad we had booked breakfast at our homestay for the next two days. While in Hoi An we visited a tailor, shopped for DVDs, ate Vietnamese and Indian food, drank wine in nice places. Captain Caveman found the best fish and chips at a place called ‘Chips & Fish & Stuff’ while I enjoyed their famous Hoi An dish of Cao Lau (a pork noodle dish).
On Tuesday Watto & Chrissy headed back to Phong Nha while we headed to the dentist in Da Nang for our check ups. I was glad to hear that my teeth were fine and needed no treatment – Captain Caveman was all good too. We treated ourselves with a trip to the cinema in Da Nang where we watched Arrival, a pretty good film despite me not liking sci-fi/alien types. The overnight train from Da Nang back to Dong Hoi was good despite an elderly man on the bottom bunk of my side not turning his light off all night so again we didn’t really get much sleep. My birthday started with me being annoyed at Captain Caveman for being tetchy with the old bloke.

Friday 6th January must be considered an auspicious day in Phong Nha because we were invited to three parties all on the same day, some of which overlapped slightly.
The first party was for a house warming just round the corner from us for one of our Vietnamese friends who has had a new 2 bedroom house built. Captain Caveman and I were the first to arrive at 10.30am (they do like to start celebrations early over here) and we had a look around and went up on to the flat roof where the views are lovely. As the other guests arrived we moved down in to the front room where the westerners were given seats and a table full of delicious food with beers while the Vietnamese guests sat on a floor mat with a hotpot style dish. We all enjoyed doing cheers (chuc suc khoe, in Vietnamese) with our generous host, Hoan and her father Mr Nguyen before having to make our apologies to leave as we had been due at a wedding across the street at 11am.
The wedding was huge and the brightly coloured venue was already filled with lots of guests and the loud dance music was pumping out. Bang and Yen looked great and they had very generously filled the tables with food and provided lots of beer. Half way through the frivolities a South African man was planted beside us at our table and he was plied with food and beer for about an hour before he mentioned that he had just arrived with his wife and she might be wondering where he was. I managed to dance quite a lot, mainly with a couple of the Vietnamese men who really know how to dance well. The Vietnamese women are usually much more shy and reserved at weddings so it was no surprise to see that it was just me and men on the dance floor, until Captain Caveman managed to drag a couple of passing tourists in to join us. By 2pm we were pretty merry and were conscious we were already late for Mr Hung’s house warming, which was a ten minute cycle ride towards the town. As we were getting ready to leave the wedding a big procession of really brightly dressed local people came walking towards us, filling the width of the road. It was a funeral and so we stopped dancing and just watched them go by unaware of who had died.
Captain Caveman and I arrived after all the other westerners in our party and had been saved a space at an overflowing table of food and yes, more beers. We were immediately welcomed and given food directly into our bowls, as is the Vietnamese way at parties like this, with a few rounds of cheers.
Despite being already drunk we managed to give the party a good go and I even did cheers with an elderly local woman who looked like she was tasting beer for the first time – she left the party straight after which was also our cue to leave. I needed an early night as the next day we were heading three hours north for another special celebration.

Here’s a list (my first of the year) to whet your appetite, aptly named Things I’m looking forward to in 2017.
• Seeing my parents after what will be 6 months away from them. I can’t wait and am already planning an itinerary for us to spend 2 weeks together in Vietnam.
• Getting a job. As my fixed term mortgage deal has ended and therefore increased my payments, I’m twelve hundred quid per year worse off, so I need to find a way to earn money that can go into my UK bank account while I’m out here. Any suggestions welcome as I make a concerted effort this month to secure something.
• Having a full body massage for my birthday, I’ve been dying to try the new spa in town and it’s been 6 months since I last had a treatment – it could be a little different to Champney’s though.
• More wedding celebrations – we’ve known about Dung and Huong’s wedding a while so have planned accordingly but Bang & Yen surprised us with 24 hours notice.
• My birthday – we had planned to go for an ‘all you can eat’ brunch at the Intercontinental in Da Nang on the Sunday following my birthday but had to cancel as Captain Caveman was due to be away 12-15th in Son Doong. Instead my celebrations consisted of a visit to the dentist and visiting Hoi An for a couple of days with Watto & Chrissy before coming back to a party at Phong Nha River House.
• Tet holiday celebrations – the end of the year is always a string of celebrations lasting up to 5 days.
• Having a quick holiday for a visa run at the beginning of March – still looking at where is cheapest to go so it might be somewhere new or it could be and old faithful like KL.
• Colin visiting for 3 months from February.
• A possible Australia visit in July – Captain Caveman is going to a caving conference for a couple of weeks in Sydney and (if I can afford it) I might go along for a trip as I’ve never been to Australia before.
• Captain Caveman and I are hoping we will be able to fit a few weeks in Turkey at the end of his Oxalis season.
• I know it’s a way off but I’m already thinking about celebrating my 2018 birthday in Vietnam, or at least Asia.
• Finally figuring out this blogging lark and getting my JoLoYoLo shenanigans out there for anyone to read – I still haven’t worked out how to really use wordpress and so will welcome any tips.