Phong Nha – 21st & 22nd June

I didn’t get much sleep so when Captain Caveman went to Phong Nha on Monday 21st June I had an extra hour in bed. I made my pancakes with banana and honey for breakfast and was getting used to the buckwheat texture combined with the almond milk flavour. I noticed we had some new kitchen utensils on the worktop next to the oven and they looked really good. I decided to do more Turkish language learning on the Duolingo app as I’d not been making time to do it recently. I got a reply from the lady with my passport who apologised for still not returning it yet but I could get it back at Victory Road Villas.
When Captain Caveman returned he had some updates, including that there were potentially some Son Doong tour dates for the beginning of July, with customers who would be coming from Hanoi. He also wasn’t going to Phong Nha tomorrow so wouldn’t be able to get my passport. I contemplated taking Bluey (my bicycle) and would endure the heat, sweat and probably tears to get my passport back. Captain Caveman was less confident on whether we would still be able to go on a holiday as he thought he might need to do some work and now waiting for the passport had taken longer than anticipated. I had leftover Sunday dinner for lunch, a diet coke and shared some mangosteens with Captain Caveman. In the afternoon Captain Caveman was busy on his phone, as he is most of the time when he’s at home, so when I interrupted him to ask about anything he seemed more pissed off than normal but I just put it down to him hating questions and being taken away from his phone. He had already said he wanted to make a mushroom risotto for dinner but it was getting later and there was no sign of this happening so I had some peanuts which then gave me a bad stomach. By 7pm I was fed up of waiting and hungry so I had a slice of dry bread and tried to suggest I would make dinner instead, but Captain Caveman was having none of it. I was not expecting the evening to end as it did but when Captain Caveman brought a lovely looking bowl of risotto each to the table, and before I’d had 2 mouthfuls of it, started a particularly horrible argument where he told me he’s sick of me not going anywhere and staying in all the time, I’m too needy and I should get some friends and go out more. I was more upset that he was spoiling me eating what would have been a great meal for me, so I got upset and asked him to stop talking until I’d eaten my meal. He ignored me and went on to suggest I should cycle more often!! That I have changed too much in the last year and that I used to be the life and soul of the party. I was absolutely fuming, especially given that when he’s at home he is so lazy and never off his phone, even in the pool.
My thoughts on the situation differed a lot from his opinions; I’ve never liked cycling and I’m certainly not going to cycle just for fun in over 40°C heat, especially if there is nowhere to go to at the end of the route. Even if I did go out more, I would need some money, which at the moment we don’t have spare and I’m doing my best to be frugal by not going to happy hour, eating and drinking out or buying wine and spending unnecessarily. But what really cheesed me off is that I’m not here to entertain other people, it’s not my job!
I left the rest of my dinner, which takes a lot to have gone cold in this weather, and decided to say nothing and revisit my plans to stay here. Perhaps giving Captain Caveman more space away from me would suit him better – leaving Vietnam might be the best option if he wants me to ‘get a life’, that’s for sure! He didn’t speak to me for the rest of the night, nor did he apologise so I went to bed so mad with him but determined not to back down or speak to him either.

I hardly slept and woke up still in a mood on Tuesday 22nd June, with Captain Caveman at the side of me on his phone and not saying a word. I’d been thinking about the argument, it was evident that while it was fine for Captain Caveman to be as anti-social and lazy as he liked, he didn’t want me to do that and wanted me to be out and about being everyone’s best friend, an entertainment and sportswoman of the year, perhaps! It was definitely something I didn’t want and the more I thought about it the more I knew I was right. I used to do quite a lot of organising and inviting people places but it’s not a priority to spend money doing things at the moment. As for the going out cycling, well I think Captain Caveman had lost his marbles there; I have never enjoyed cycling and probably never will and to suddenly want to turn me in to some outdoors sort after almost 10 years of knowing that I’m totally an indoors type is ludicrous. Granted if I was bored, had nothing to do and it was a cool temperature then I might enjoy a cycle to the nearest bar or eatery for some light refreshments. I used to go almost every day to the Farmstay and have juice, tea, pho or spring rolls but those costs soon add up and it’s cheaper to eat at home now. As I saw it, I could humour Captain Caveman and go out in the heat, get dehydrated, and spend more time with Phong Nha friends and spend more money, or do what I thought was sensible. Usually, I am the first to chat and try to resolve a situation but today I was not in the mood to placate Captain Caveman so I decided I would try my best to ignore him as much as possible, I’d not speak, nor ask any questions and see how he reacted.
I made gluten free pancakes with dragon fruit (we were out of bananas) and honey and had some jasmine tea for breakfast. I checked the news and the latest Corona death was very sad, dying only 1 week after diagnosis, more info here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210622/vietnamese-woman-dies-one-week-after-being-diagnosed-with-covid19/61667.html
Captain Caveman’s approach was to pretend he’d not said anything and act as normal but it was too late, he’d said it now. After he’d got back from his cycle to Phong Nha and an Eggs Benedict pizza for breakfast at The Villas, he went in the pool for the rest of the day. I stayed in the AC, the room temperature was at 30°C as the Aircon struggled to cope with the sun on our side of the villa, outdoors it was a ‘feels like’ 43°C. For lunch I had the other half of the dragon fruit and a small carton of almond milk and then had a bad stomach (for no reason). I felt tired so I had a sleep then watched the second episode of Hinterland – I was quite enjoying seeing the Welsh scenery and wet, cold weather.
Eventually Captain Caveman, who had probably been really enjoying the silent treatment came in and said he was going to cook Beef Luk Lak for dinner (one of my favourites), I asked if it would be served with an argument and he said not. Seeing as Captain Caveman is an excellent problem solver I asked what he thinks the solution should be but he didn’t have one.
The beef dish for dinner was lovely and although the beef was a little tougher than the one we had last time, it was still a bargain and I enjoyed my dinner, even though I had a bad stomach half way through eating it and there was no gluten or dairy in it. Before bed I was hoping for a ‘sorry’ from Captain Caveman but, obviously, I knew better than to expect one.

Phong Nha – the 3rd weekend of June

On Friday 18th June I woke up aching and sweating profusely, my left arm wouldn’t move and my hip and shoulder were a little sore too. I was disappointed as we had arranged to cycle to Karst Villas to meet some friends for lunch but there was no way I could go, I struggled to put knickers on and definitely couldn’t manage a bra. Luckily I had taken advice from family to take paracetamol which was helping with the strange headache I had. Captain Caveman had gone to Phong Nha while I rested and read the news. In Saigon the Corona case count was getting worse, more info here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210618/ho-chi-minh-city-detects-nearly-150-domestic-coronavirus-cases-its-largestever-daily-count/61600.html
I managed to get myself a banana and some gluten free cake for breakfast but was a bit naughty for lunch and had a ham and cheese sandwich with just a bit of uncooked cheese on – I expected to be ill but was fine.
When Captain Caveman got home he said our friends might join the pizza night later but they were finding it difficult and expensive to get a taxi from Karst Villas to town and so they weren’t sure. I managed to dress myself by the time Ben came to pick us up for pizza night. At The Villas there was a few of us for pizza; Andrew, Trang, Chung Son, Veronika, Bich and Ben. I had a couple of glasses of wine and only managed 6 slices of delicious pizza. I was so tired that we decided to go straight to bed when we got home, before I’d cleaned my teeth and got in bed, Captain Caveman was already snoring away!

We woke up to a muffled noise in the living room on Saturday 19th June so Captain Caveman went out to have a look. We were having new cushions on the sofa in a brown fabric and they looked lovely. I also checked to see if I’d had a response from my message to Minh Thuy asking for a photo of my visa stamp in my passport, there had been a few cases where an extension had been granted but with the XC on it which meant having to leave at the end of this extension and I wanted to check if it had that. Now that I had received one jab I would really like to get the second one before I have to leave, and obviously just wanted to know but I got no reply.
After a month of Danang having no more Corona cases in the community there came a news article to say there was one, reported as coming from Saigon, more here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210619/da-nang-records-first-local-coronavirus-case-in-one-month-related-to-driver-from-saigon/61603.html
My arm was still aching and the headache was still bad enough for paracetamol, which I had almost ran out of, plus I still felt more tired than usual – it was hard to tell if it was the jab or the heat which caused it though! I didn’t bother with breakfast but I decided to have one of the frozen sausage rolls which Captain Caveman had brought back from Momma D’s. I knew I shouldn’t but it was really tasty and not bad for 40,000vnd (£1.24), still not sure if it was worth the bad stomach though! In the afternoon my day took a turn for the worst when I discovered that my SD card (in my phone) was not working and had corrupted with a huge amount of photos on it as well as the laptop deciding it was not going to work either! I was so mad because it now meant I couldn’t add any photos to my joloyolo blog so was taking longer than usual. Typically, it looked like we needed to get a new laptop, but that was going to cost too much so we would try to buy a memory stick to take stuff off the laptop and free up some space to be able to check my phone’s SD card. For dinner Captain Caveman made prawns with rice noodles (after I had deveined and cleaned them up) and I had no alcohol, which is unusual for a Saturday.

On Sunday 20th June I spent too much stressful, and wasted, time trying to move photos from my phone to the laptop, only for me not to know if it worked as I was unable to view them on either device! I made myself 2 gluten free pancakes which I had with banana and honey and made enough mixture to last a few days. My arm was back to almost normal, unless I touched it, and the headache had gone.
In the Corona news here announcements were made of Danang closing down after 23 cases in a day, more here:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/977893/da-nang-closes-off-beaches-and-sit-in-dining-again-as-new-covid-19-outbreak-emerges.html
Overall there were still not too many deaths but Vietnam were now up to 64 in total as deaths 63 & 64 were reported on, read the details here:
https://vietnaminsider.vn/vietnam-reports-two-more-covid-19-deaths/
For lunch I had peanut butter on toast but didn’t join in on the drinking by the pool with Captain Caveman. I decided I would like to go to the Farmstay Sunday roast this evening and we booked Duyet in for 6.30pm to take us in the jeep.
I had 2 glasses of red wine with my food and I asked for it without Yorkshire pudding (which I love) and the side of cheesy pasta but I did have a bit of gravy. Veronika had already drove her motorbike up to the Farmstay so she could have a swim and then her and Ben came to join our table for their dinner. Captain Caveman had cheesecake for pudding and he took mine home, along with some leftover dinner for me to have. It was a nice treat to go out for dinner but it did mean we would need to keep an eye on the budget for the rest of the month.

Phong Nha – 17th June

Back home, on the afternoon of Thursday 17th June, having had my first vaccination, I made myself a ham sandwich and some tea. I had organised Ladies Night for later so I decided to rest up as I didn’t want to feel unwell for my night out. Captain Caveman was in Phong Nha for a bit longer and by the time he got home I had various messages from some of the ladies to ask questions, change arrangements or to cancel. I got a message from one lady to say that 3 people wouldn’t be able to make it because they had been vaccinated and weren’t feeling well. With 15 minutes before we were due to leave I was asked if we could move the event to next week instead, but Tatas was already on her second cocktail and wondered where we were. Momma D, had been the first to arrive and was sat next to Tatas. I sat next to Tatas, opposite Bich, who was next to Shannon, Veronika sat next to Shannon and Momma D. On the other side of me was Hong and Hạnh, then Ngày and Moon. Hien and Trang joined later so we had a full table and only 3 people unable to come. I decided to try the sangria and a burger but I was conscious that having the jab I might feel a bit fragile so I took it steady on the alcohol. The food was great and I couldn’t finish the burger, it was so big! I had one glass of wine which Tatas shared with me, as she bought a bottle to share with some of the others.
It was a good night and everyone said they really enjoyed it and agreed to arranging another Ladies Night, the next one would be at Momma D’s and I created a Ladies in Phong Nha group on Facebook to pick a date and add the event.
I think Captain Caveman was as surprised as I was that I was home by 9pm after a Ladies night out and even more shocked that I was sober. I did feel incredibly tired though and my vaccinated arm had started to feel a bit heavy. By 10.30pm I was so cold that I was shivering and had to layer up with clothes and a scarf in bed, the room was at least 26°C but I felt like it was freezing. Captain Caveman snuggled up to me and held me tight to keep me warm, until I fell asleep.

Dong Hoi – 17th June

Captain Caveman woke up early on Thursday 17th June and was off to Phong Nha early because he’d been told he would be getting his second Corona vaccine today. I was also excited because Captain Caveman’s boss, Chau, had kindly added me to the list for my first jab. I made sure my phone was on, that I’d had a banana for breakfast, got my mask, hand sanitizer, water, emergency Fox’s glacier mints and was ready to walk the 10 minutes to the pick up point to join the Oxalis bus.
While I waited for the call I read an interesting article about the concern over visa extensions and the recent issues expats were facing:
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/expats-fret-as-vietnam-tightens-visa-policies-4290502.html
It was also good news to read an article about the encouraging of tourist businesses to register for the Corona vaccine:
https://vietnamnews.vn/life-style/975444/travel-enterprises-support-governments-vaccine-efforts.html
At 8am Captain Caveman tried to call me on Messenger but he forgot that while he was walking away from the office to get on the bus that he was going away from the WiFi and so it wouldn’t connect. I got my stuff together and tried to set off but then he rang again, it still wouldn’t connect, I tried to call back. When he called me on the normal phone number it was to tell me he had set off and now I was wasting valuable minutes in setting off to meet the Oxalis staff bus. It was hot already and the walk felt hard work, after just over 10 minutes I was nearing the road, I saw the bus approaching and flagged it down. I was glad of the Aircon and a comfy seat, having only just made it. We went to a hospital in Dong Hoi, but not the main Kuba hospital and we had to get a form to complete. This involved a lot of pushing, shoving and fighting over pens which were attached to the kiosk or small table, I wish I’d took my own to make it easier. Captain Caveman completed both of our forms, which I then had to push in to sign and get a read stamp on my arm from the no-nonsense lady at the kiosk. Next we went to the main entrance of the hospital, it was very busy and we had to wait for staff who spoke better English so that they could go in with me. When Thin, the vice director, arrived we went through to the next section which was undercover but outside and I had to fill in more forms which I was helped with. Captain Caveman was told that his name wasn’t down for his second jab so he couldn’t get it and he was disappointed. I gave him my bag, which was a mistake, and went in to what I thought was a small vaccination room. There was about 6 vaccinators at tables then about 30 people sat waiting. I had to be asked some questions about my health and medication, had my heart listened to and my blood pressure taken then moved to the next table where I sat on a small (not very robust) plastic stool. I chose to give my left arm as I knew it might feel painful the next day and I faced the wall, didn’t look and willed myself not to faint.
There was no time or room for fainters and I later translated the list of observations the medical staff were waiting to see, one of the adverse reactions was fainting. I didn’t want to end up on a ward and on a drip because of being a fainter so I sat on a crowded bench opposite a rotating ceiling fan and messed with my shoe laces so that the blood could rush back to my head. I desperately wanted the water and a glacier mint but they were outside and we had to keep our masks on, anyway. By 9.20am I had experienced my first Astra Zeneca vaccination and it was good to see a lot of people wanting to get the jab, including the Vietnamese army who stood patiently waiting to roll up their uniform sleeve. We ended up waiting 40 minutes in the observation section and I realised that, as the only westerner, I had been prioritised ahead of others, including the boss. He asked me if I was ok and I said I was fine, I thanked him for letting me get the jab too as I was extremely grateful. We could expect to have the second vaccine by the end of July, which was great news. One of the staff had a high temperature and so she was sent to sit with us to cool down but they checked her a few more times, with different machines, then told her she couldn’t be vaccinated. I got my certificate and went outside to Captain Caveman, water and mints at last, then told him to see if he could take the girl’s place for his jab – they wouldn’t let him. Back on the bus I felt fine and was super pleased with myself for not fainting. I was dropped back off at the road and the walk home in the hot sun was a relentless one which I felt took way beyond the almost 12 minutes to walk home

Photo credit – Thin, Oxalis.

Phong Nha and Dong Hoi – 16th June

I was looking forward to this week’s shopping trip, at 8am on Wednesday 16th June, Veronika and I were waiting outside when Bich pulled up in the car with the 2 kids. On the drive to Dong Hoi I checked the Corona news and read that a health worker who had the job of collecting Corona test samples from people, had tested positive, more info here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210616/health-worker-in-charge-of-collecting-samples-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-in-ho-chi-minh-city/61552.html
There was news of vaccine progress in Vietnam:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/976011/viet-nam-to-conduct-largest-ever-vaccination-campaign-with-all-data-to-go-online.html
Meanwhile the vaccine program speeds up in Turkey as they get to over 40s:
https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/turkeys-covid-19-jab-drive-speeds-up-with-new-groups-mobile-units/news
I overheard a phonecall Bich had which meant that the member of staff dealing with my passport had some bad news, there had been a death in her close family, the funeral was this afternoon, this also meant that my passport would be delayed and that holiday was looking unlikely (again)!
We arrived at Tree Hugger and we went upstairs to eat, I ordered peach tea with my pancakes, fruit and honey. It was really busy today and so we were there for about 2 hours in total and I took half of my breakfast away. As we left Tree Hugger the boys were moaning that they didn’t want to go shopping and they were bored but luckily for them, we only had time for a trip to the organic shop and the VinMart. When I got back home I took out the last piece of chicken from the freezer, not realising it had bones in, and I’d not been able to get any more chicken breasts in Dong Hoi. I ate my leftover Tree Hugger breakfast for lunch and then chilled out by the pool. Later, Captain Caveman made us a chicken salad baguette, a bit like being at Subway, but the chicken wasn’t ideal for this kind of meal and would have been better in a stew or curry. We shared a bottle of red wine as I tried to finalise the plans for tomorrow’s Ladies Night!

The Shopping Trolley:

As is usual I made a list of my shopping so you can have a nosey as to what was in my basket or trolley. £1 is about 32,200vnd for ease of working it out and I listed the cheapest items first. As we are on a stricter budget while we wait to find out when Captain Caveman will resume work, I didn’t buy anything too frivolous.

Organic Shop
130g baby carrots 12,350
1 pack of natural peanuts 22,000
Coconut rice crackers 25,000
1 dragon fruit 30,940
6 mangosteen 67,650

Medicare
Dove deodorant 63,000

VinMart
3 pack Alpenleibe sweets 15,000
1 pack Fox’s Glacier mints 15,100
2 baguettes 18,000
2 cans diet coke 19,000
6 bananas 21,911
Washing up liquid 23,000
2 red peppers 27,373
10 eggs 27,700
2 yellow peppers 28,974
Mushrooms 31,000
Pringles 32,500
Garlic 34,540
1 pack Ham 38,800
3 X 180ml almond milk 69,500

Are there any items that surprised you this week? Did anyone notice the absence of alcohol?

Phong Nha – 14th & 15th June

Monday 14th June was a nice quiet day, gone were the days of Margarita Monday with the last one I went to being 3 months ago now. It was helping my ‘so called’ diet though, which was a good change. Captain Caveman went to Phong Nha and I decided to attempt to make a gluten and dairy free mushroom and rice noodle soup for breakfast (a kind of vegan pho). Of course it wasn’t that nice but I managed to eat most of it and was just finishing it as Captain Caveman returned, a sweaty mess as it was hot again. He was off to Hang Va tomorrow with Watto and Colin to do some safety/inspection work so he was happy to have something interesting and cave related to do.
In the news Corona was now in all districts of Saigon as it was spreading quite rapidly, more here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210614/coronavirus-spreads-to-thu-duc-every-district-of-ho-chi-minh-city/61488.html
It was unfortunate that only 0.05% of the Vietnamese population had been vaccinated so far too, but plans to ramp up the vaccination program were in place. We had leftover chicken, potatoes, onion and carrots with extra asparagus and BBQ sauce for lunch and in the afternoon I had plain bread, no butter and a Strongbow.
Captain Caveman cooked a gorgeous gluten free, dairy free and booze free mushroom risotto for dinner and for afters we had more of our favourite fruit, mangosteen. Captain Caveman also cooked the tortilla for tomorrow and popped it in the fridge. I hadn’t heard if my passport had returned safely from Dong Hoi but I didn’t check again, hopefully I would hear tomorrow.

On my quest to work out what is effecting my stomach I’d been trying to avoid dairy to see if it made any difference however I had read that some people with gluten intolerance could start to develop intolerance to dairy and egg. On Tuesday 15th June I had 2 pieces of tortilla (made with egg, potatoes, onion, garlic and pepper) with a few gherkins and was ill straight after. I’ve never really eaten eggs because I don’t like them but if they are an ingredient in something I have not avoided them. Looking back, I have had a reaction to them from time to time so this was another thing to watch. Captain Caveman had gone to Hang Va for work, although it wasn’t with customers, just colleagues. He said he would be back late and so not to plan to have dinner together as he would go out in Phong Nha tonight.
In the Corona news Ha Tinh had another 12 cases while Quang Tri remained at 3, we were still so lucky, in Quang Binh, to have no cases at all. For lunch I had bread and jam (no butter) but had a bad stomach still with that. I asked if I had got my passport back and if I could possibly get a photo of the visa but it was still in Dong Hoi and would maybe return tomorrow. I was ok with tomorrow and I would still have it back to go on a short holiday before we had to hand it in again, hopefully. After a rest I got in the pool and did some exercises, the sky was very pretty tonight and I enjoyed just chilling on the balcony for a bit.
Captain Caveman went to Momma D’s for dinner and had a sausage roll for his dinner and ordered 3 frozen ones to bring home – I love those sausage rolls so much. I made chicken with rice and sweetcorn for my dinner and my stomach was fine after that. I had a Strongbow and relaxed until Captain Caveman returned having had an unproductive and disappointing day.

Phong Nha – 12th & 13th June

I’d mentioned to Captain Caveman that the weather forecast had predicted heavy rain and thunderstorms on the morning of Saturday 12th June but he cycled in to Phong Nha regardless, believing it wouldn’t rain. Veronika must have thought the same thing as she also had already decided to cycle to The Villas so she could retrieve her motorbike, left there from yesterday. I had some bread and a banana for breakfast and watched the rain come.
Vietnam had now surpassed 10,000 Corona cases in total since Jan 2020, and people were getting more concerned about this 4th wave causing more potential lockdowns. Info here:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/972684/covid-caseload-tops-10000.html
I still felt safer here as I read an article showing why Vietnam is doing better than a lot of other countries:
https://vietnaminsider.vn/vietnam-has-much-lower-levels-of-viral-transmission-due-to-greater-levels-of-government-and-public-vigilance/
I checked again about my passport and it was confirmed it would be collected from Dong Hoi on Monday, so I probably should stop worrying – there’s just something very unnerving about not actually having your passport.
When Captain Caveman arrived home, soaked to the skin, I put a towel and a bathrobe in the downstairs bathroom for him and he tried to find a bucket to fill to wash his bicycle, there was still no signs of Veronika. Captain Caveman and I teamed up to make a chicken salad for lunch which I had with jasmine tea and he had a gin and tonic. The rain stopped and it even started to fine up enough for Veronika to drive home later, having been at The Villas all day. I had a couple of rum and diet cokes and some cashew nuts from Funny Monkey’s (they are much better than the ones in the shops). For dinner Captain Caveman made a kind of gluten free macaroni cheese with bacon and spinach as we embarked on testing my potential dairy/lactose intolerance. The food didn’t look too great because of the macaroni being made from white rice but it tasted amazing. Unfortunately, the conclusion was that I definitely could not tolerate the cheddar cheese. We agreed from now on I would continue eating small amounts of gluten but no lactose and see what happens!

Sunday 13th June started with Captain Caveman making me breakfast in bed. I was pleased to get brought a bacon and mushroom toasted sandwich with brown sauce but when I bit in to it I could taste butter – I never have butter on sandwiches but as I was meant to be cutting out dairy it meant I’d failed at the first meal. Captain Caveman realised he’d cooked the mushrooms in butter by mistake and I suspected this is the kind of thing that is happening to me whenever I eat out as I never thought of people cooking with butter, which they do. I read in the news that reports of fully vaccinated staff at a hospital in Saigon were positive, but mostly asymptomatic (as you might expect), more here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210613/coronavirus-hits-employees-at-covid19-treatment-hospital-in-ho-chi-minh-city/61475.html
Captain Caveman decided we were off on a bicycle ride and I had to be ready to go straight away, he had a trip out planned and was off to pump up Bluey’s tyres. It had been a while since I’d taken Bluey out because it had been too hot for me so she needed her cobwebs dusting off and plenty of air. Captain Caveman set off and I pushed Bluey out of the gate only to see she had a flat tyre again. Captain Caveman came back and sorted her out and the sun was starting to come out already. We cycled towards the Phong Nha Farmstay but kept going past until I was in to uncharted territory, we were off to see Andrew and Chung Son at their house, which I’d never been to before. I’d asked Captain Caveman if there were any hills and of course he had said not, but there was a big one which I had to get off and push Bluey up. I was tired and had to walk slowly as I passed a lorry with a brick delivery on. The one way journey took me 20 minutes and 4 seconds for both cycling and walking. When we arrived I was a sweaty mess but luckily Andrew had some iced green tea available, he served it to us in massive glass jars which I thought was a great idea (I might steal that idea). We sat on the front step and admired the views around and they certainly live in a very nice rural area with friendly farmer neighbours. When we cycled back I forgot to start my stopwatch but I think we did it 4 minutes quicker and I even dared to cycle down the steep hill, definitely testing Bluey’s brakes! From the Farmstay back to our place I did time it and we did a leisurely 10 minutes 25 seconds, not including the stopping for a snake. I spotted the cute little snake just slithering along the road and shouted snake (as is the protocol) so that Captain Caveman would stop, I had to stop, otherwise I would have run it over. He followed it to get some photos and it was a bit too quick for a video. He later got it identified as a buff striped keelback which is harmless so I’m glad we watched it go off in to the grass.

A buff striped keelback snake, photo by Captain Caveman

Back home I had a fruity lunch of 1 banana, 2 mangosteen and half a dragon fruit with some walnuts before getting in the much cooler pool for a dip. The housekeeping staff came to clean the room while I sipped gin and pink grapefruit on a sun-lounger feeling rather privileged.
As we were trying our best to cut back on spending while Captain Caveman had less/no work, we had to forgo the Farmstay Sunday Roast dinner tonight and instead we made a chicken dinner together at home for less than a sixth of the price. I doubled up on the roasting of the potatoes, onion and garlic, in Veronika’s three-legged oven which I’d recently found out works quite well, so that Captain Caveman could make a Spanish omelette with the spare. It was still a lovely dinner and although I was missing having wine whenever I felt like it, I was definitely having less calories so hopefully I would be seeing the benefits this week! I wouldn’t have been able to have a Farmstay dessert anyway because of the avoiding of dairy so we were happy to make the sacrifice.

Phong Nha – 11th June

While Captain Caveman went off to Phong Nha on Friday 11th June, I did some blog writing and watched Hell’s Kitchen on Netflix. I also checked the news then had a banana and a mangosteen for breakfast.
In Vietnam there were more deaths, and the count in total was now at 57, the majority of deaths were with people who also had other illnesses:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/972250/two-cancer-patients-die-of-covid-related-complications.html
Captain Caveman came back and said it had been officially communicated that Oxalis had said there will be no Son Doong tours with any guests coming from outside of the Quang Binh province, for a few weeks due to the pandemic affecting travel from other provinces. This was disappointing as it meant there would probably be no work for Captain Caveman and money would be very tight. I did ask if we would be able to go on a holiday during this time if we wanted and the answer had been yes, so at least we might get away when I get my passport back. For lunch I had already set the rice cooker going and Captain Caveman made chicken, green peppers and cashew nuts to go with it, for afters I had some dragon fruit.
That evening we got picked up for our usual weekly treat of pizza night at The Villas and there was quite a few of us out tonight; Andrew, Trang (and their kid), Tatas, Hanh and Hien (plus her daughter) and of course the Phong Nha Farmstay family. We sat outside but there were quite a few people inside, all ready to enjoy the all you can eat pizza (with a beer or soft drink) for a bargain 150,000vnd. I had 2 glasses of wine as that was all I was allowed, not just because of the tightening of the budget belt but because of my drunkenness on Wednesday. Bich mentioned we should start a ladies night out for all the women we are friends with in Phong Nha so I volunteered to rustle something up. We would do the first one on 17th June and I would create an event on Facebook.

Photo credit – Captain Caveman

Phong Nha – 10th June

When I woke up on Thursday 10th June I had a bit of a woolly head but was under the impression we had ended the night in a nice, civilised fashion but I’d be wrong!
Captain Caveman had the face on with me but was at least talking to me enough to point out where it had all gone a bit too messy! After the vodka shots I had become a bit of a nightmare and, while Momma D had taken herself off to sleep on a couch in the hotel reception I had refused to walk home! Tony had given us a lift but apparently they had to stop the car on the way back because I was messing about in the back and Tatas wanted to switch seats with Captain Caveman as I was being annoying. When we got home I refused to go in the house and wouldn’t take off my shoes and I layed on the bench wanting a quick snooze. Captain Caveman said he knew I’d get eaten by mozzies and be mad at him if he didn’t get me in the house so he tried to physically get me through the door, I fell off the bench (twice) and was insisting I wanted to sleep outside. When Captain Caveman decided to pick me up I apparently slapped him and started screaming like a child because I didn’t want to go to bed! I didn’t remember people leaving the party, I wondered if I’d eaten all of my steak but apparently I ate some but was making everyone have a bit! I was in the dog house big time and my punishment, as well as thinking I might be sick and feeling like I was on a boat, was that Captain Caveman would do the shopping trip at 9am by himself – how fortuitous!!
I managed to make myself some buttered toast for breakfast and had orange juice, then had a bad stomach. Momma D messaged to say that she too hadn’t been able to remember anything after the vodka shots.
I read the Corona news which had an article about another woman who died:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210610/vietnamese-woman-dies-from-heart-attack-in-covid19-quarantine-ward/61419.html
I reheated some pork, broccoli and potatoes which I’d taken out of the freezer (left over Sunday dinner with a hangover isn’t good) and I had a terrible stomach after so went back to bed. Captain Caveman returned home about 3pm having been to 7th Heaven for lunch and visited 2 shops, 1 of which he didn’t get a receipt for and I was too hungover to remember what he said he had bought.
That afternoon I got a call from Tham at the Lake House and I thought I might need to apologise for my behaviour, she was calling to invite us to Tony’s birthday meal at 6pm and I optimistically said yes. By 5.30pm I was still in bed and feeling very fragile so Captain Caveman took one for the team and went to the Lake House while I ate cashew nuts and crispbreads for dinner and went to bed early. I promised never to drink long island iced tea ever again!

Captain Caveman did the shopping because I was hungover, he only got a receipt in the Organic Shop so here’s what was in his basket in that shop:

1 pack of baby carrots 34,675
1 bundle of asparagus 39,100
800g of mangosteen 104,650
4 beef steaks 142,500
400g prawns 261,450

Total spend 582,375vnd which is about £18.64.

Photo credit – Captain Caveman and Phong Nha Lake House

Phong Nha – 9th June

Wednesday 9th June was the date of my visa expiring, we had a lay-in and Captain Caveman had a bit of a hangover after last night’s party. There was no shopping trip today, it had been moved to tomorrow this week. For breakfast I had the gluten free cake from Ly Ly and some crispbreads because I was still peckish. News about my passport, was that my visa was ok and that I would get my passport back, probably in a few days. I was relieved that I wasn’t leaving Phong Nha today or tomorrow and Captain Caveman was glad too – finally I might shut up about it!! I made prawns with rice noodles for a late lunch and it was very tasty, the prawns from the organic shop are definitely great quality. At 3.30pm Tatas arrived at Elements and we were off out to celebrate being allowed to remain in the country for one more month. We walked to the Lake House which took about 24 minutes and it was still hot and sunny. On the way we bumped in to Andrew and his son so we invited him along and when we got there it was just a few minutes before the other guests arrived; Shannon, Craig Davis, Momma D (and Kevin the dog), Trang, then later the owners, Tham and Tony, joined us too with their dog, Snowy.
Tatas and I had promised Ania and Hamish that we would celebrate them having left Vietnam with the Polish vodka she had left with me so I had took it along. Momma D was excited to be celebrating being given her 2 year work permit and had ordered some nibbles, we also took full advantage of the happy hour cocktail menu and the shoddyness of the long island iced tea which was unbelievably strong but a bargain. Of course it turned into an amazing night where I couldn’t remember getting home! I only vaguely recalled eating, and getting others to try, my steak which is always a favourite meal of mine. I do remember insisting on taking selfies with everyone and then a slight recollection of some tequila shots – I think we did Hamish and Ania proud with a wild night out!

Phong Nha – 7th & 8th June

With just a couple of days left until my visa expired and my passport at Dong Hoi immigration, I double checked flights and PCR test logistics, on Monday 7th June. Captain Caveman was not worried at all and had every faith in the immigration department agreeing to give me another stamp – I hoped he was correct but I didn’t share his confidence. While he headed over to Phong Nha at 7am I had a cheeky lay-in and then had orange juice, a banana and some gluten free biscuits for breakfast. There were a few little sparrows who were nesting in our roof and had decided to destroy some insulation foam and chuck it in the pool and on the balcony – I watched them drink from the pool. It just so happened that there were no flights out on the 9th but one on the 10th so this then lead me to checking out how much overstay fees I would get charged and if the spare dollars Captain Caveman had given me would cover it, if needed. Because of all the faffing about required I would probably have to leave Phong Nha on the Thursday or Friday and then fly from Saigon, which was also 1 week in to a lockdown because of the rise in Corona cases there, but that was another issue I didn’t need to worry about, just yet!
Captain Caveman called at the Lake House to collect bread on his way home and then made me a bacon sandwich for my second breakfast/first lunch. I received a message asking for the payment for the visa extension which was excellent news and meant that I should be getting the visa extension stamp on the 9th. I refused to get too over-excited until I at least saw a photo of it but Captain Caveman paid the money and assumed that was the end of that and maybe I would finally stop mentioning it!!! The weather was nice and cloudy so after a couple of (not quite) celebratory cold ones and some homemade Baba Ganoush we had time in the pool. Our day finished with a rather tasty dinner made by Captain Caveman; chicken, pumpkin, garlic, green beans and salad and all seemed to be going well.

At 6am on Tuesday 8th June the loudspeaker was back with a vengeance and playing incredibly loud music. Captain Caveman went off to Oxalis, I had a banana sandwich and some gluten free cake for breakfast and watched a bit of Netflix. Captain Caveman returned having paid 1.6 million vnd (£50) for our half of the electricity, which was a big bill due to the pool pump and use of Aircon this last month. He also had a few updates for me; the old Easy Tiger building was reopening as a pool table place, Phuong from Little Leaf was extending his homestay, little Ha from Bamboo Cafe was enjoying being a mom to her second kid, and (most importantly) positive changes to the Son Doong schedule were afoot. I had crisps and cider for lunch and a bit of swimming was had before Captain Caveman had to leave for the Oxalis 10th anniversary party, at Oxalis Home. I created a Facebook event for a night out tomorrow at the Lake House which would either be for me to celebrate another month here, or my impromptu leaving do. I made myself a prawn and rice noodle dish for dinner and Captain Caveman managed to come home drunk from his Oxalis party on his bicycle with a flashing red light tied to his backside because he has no backlight on the bike itself!

Phong Nha – 6th June

We stayed in bed until 8am on Sunday 6th June because Captain Caveman didn’t get up and go to Oxalis today, he did get up and make us a great breakfast, though! I had bacon, mushrooms and brown sauce on the fresh baguette and it was fantastic.
Captain Caveman and I decided to roast some veggies so that we could have them for lunch and dinner later, I made a tray of roasted pumpkin with garlic then Captain Caveman did aubergines for his Baba Ganoush. We ate some of it for lunch and it was pretty impressive on toast, so much so I demanded a second helping. I had a couple of Tootsie Roll cocktails in the afternoon at home by the pool and did a bit of swimming as it was cooler today after some rain yesterday. It was a joint effort on dinner as we had chicken, lettuce, cabbage, spinach (which was actually amaranth), radishes, and gerkins in a baguette with roasted pumpkin and garlic. It was delicious and the amount of bread I’d eaten today hadn’t affected me badly at all. Our conversation after dinner was mainly around what I’m going to do if I have to leave next week and where I will go. Given the risks and restrictions in England, it looked like the sensible option for me would be to go to Turkey.
We shared a couple of mangosteens for a dessert and then changed our plans for tomorrow. We were meant to be going to the Lake House with Tatas and Hanh but moved it to Wednesday instead, as that was the day I would know if I was leaving or allowed to stay 1 more month.

Phong Nha and Dong Hoi – 5th June

Captain Caveman was up at 6.30am on Saturday 5th June and cycling to Phong Nha once again while I did some blogging. I agreed to be ready at 9am, though, with a bag full of Captain Caveman’s clothes to be altered by Thao’s mom, as we were off to Dong Hoi. In the meantime Veronika and the rest of the Farmstay family were on an Oxalis family tour.
The news reported that Vietnam has now had 53 Corona deaths but the daily new cases seemed to be calming down slightly.

We went to Co-op Mart first and I always find it so frustrating shopping with Captain Caveman because he has the shopping list on his phone but won’t shout anything out for me to help. When I eventually got him to tell me some vegetables or fruit to select I was getting one or two at once, then taking them to the counter, next to the stinky durian, for the assistant to stick the price on. I went there more than 5 separate times because of this and it was a bit ridiculous. In the end I just walked up and down each isle pushing the trolley and letting Captain Caveman look for everything himself. While he was at the checkout I went over to the Minigood shop to look for some easy to get on and off shoes for kicking about in, I found some excellent shower shoes in a strange colour but they would do the job. It was too warm for trainers and I had nothing else that was comfy, even my porter sandals give me blisters these days. Next we went to Toan Viet Gourmet where Captain Caveman again didn’t say what he still had on the list and so I went round asking ‘do we need this?’ to which he didn’t answer so I left him in there and went back to the car. Our next stop was the Vincom shopping centre where I stayed in the car while Captain Caveman went on a mission to get every item I had missed from Thursday’s shopping trip.

We decided to have lunch at Earth Cafe so we could give the sewing to Mo, to pass to Thao, but when we arrived Mo was just closing up for the day because it was quiet. We had a little chat then walked to Tree Hugger where I had one of my favourites, beef with veggies and brown rice, and Captain Caveman had a cheeseburger. I had a cup of my favourite Tree Hugger tea as well as a cup of the complimentary herbal tea and then the delicious free fruit.

We walked back again to get the car from outside Earth Cafe, in the rain, then Captain Caveman went to the sports shop to buy a headband to stop the sweat from going in his eyes when he’s cycling. Next was the wine shop where he bought Vodka and Kahlua which I’d said to leave off the shopping list, seeing as it wasn’t really essential. The last shop was the organic shop where Captain Caveman completed the rest of the shopping except for a few out of stock items.
We drove back, I was dropped off with all the shopping, then Captain Caveman got dropped off at the Glass House so he could cycle back. Duyet helped me carry the shopping in, I stocked up the fridge, freezer and cupboards while looking at what we had. I couldn’t fit everything in the fridge so I ate 2 bananas and an apple then had some of the gluten free biscuits from Ly Ly.
That evening we had steak for dinner with mushrooms, green beans, garlic, onion and potatoes and we washed it down with a cheap bottle of red wine – fantastic!

Here’s our extensive list of shopping items, 32,300vnd is £1.

Co-op Mart
1 white cabbage 9,672
2 green peppers 11,780
1 bag of garlic 12,524
1 lettuce 13,090
Tissues 16,000
1 box of tomatoes 18,250
2 avocados 23,972
Mints 27,200
5 onions 30,536
Tin foil 39,900
Tweezers 41,000
3 toothbrushes 41,400
6 cans of tonic 45,600
1 packet of bacon 55,500
2kg of potatoes 56,713
Deodorant 78,000
1kg of chicken breast fillets 90,000
4 apples 98,000
2 cartons of orange juice 107,000
Olive oil 188,000
24 cans of beer 234,000

Minigood Shop
1 pair of sandals 139,900

Toan Viet Gourmet Shop
250g of salted butter 73,000
2 bottles of red wine 620,000

VinMart Supermarket
1 bag of spinach 12,705
2 baguettes 18,000
4 cans of Strongbow 74,000

Sports shop
1 X sweatband 70,000

Wine shop
1 bottle of vodka 230,000
1 bottle of Kahlua 290,000

An Nong Organic Shop
400g of mangosteen 52,500
2 beef fillet steaks 76,500
200g prawns 129,150

This time Captain Caveman was in charge of the money and receipts and he did well to get most things and spend just less than 2.8m vnd (£88) on shopping and 180,000vnd (£5.60) on lunch. The bargains of the day were cabbage and steaks, what’s missing that you would have added to the trolley?

Phong Nha – 4th June

I woke up on Friday 4th June to the sound of a mooing cow sounding like it was in distress so I asked Captain Caveman to investigate on his way out to see if there was anything he could do (he’s really good with cows, as it happens). I had 2 bananas and some gluten free biscuits for breakfast but then had a bad stomach, it seemed to be from eating fruit now!
In the news today Vietnam reported their 50th Corona death since the pandemic began, he was a 67yr old male with lung cancer.
Captain Caveman came back from Phong Nha so I checked with him why the cow next door had been so vocal this morning and it turned out the cow had needed the toilet but hadn’t been let out of his gated garden so was trying to tell someone to open the gate – how clever.
Friday night is pizza night and so Ben had sent a message saying we needed to wear masks at all times and then picked us up at just after 6pm. Shannon was already sat at the table, Veronika had gone in earlier on her motorbike and was by the river, Hanh and Tatas also joined the table, then Ben a bit later. I had 3 glasses of red wine and 6 slices of pizza, all of which were great and I realised I missed coming to The Villas on other occasions, like breakfast or for other kinds of food and Happy Hour and a half.

Phong Nha and Dong Hoi – 3rd June

On Thursday 3rd June Captain Caveman had gone to Phong Nha by bicycle and I had my phone on do not disturb until 8am, hoping for an extra bit of sleep. At 7.45am Veronika was knocking on the door to tell me we were getting picked up for the Phong Nha Farmstay shopping trip in 15 minutes and I’d missed calls from her and Bich. I rushed around to be ready and let Captain Caveman know I was going without him because we were having an earlier than usual trip. The shopping trip participants today consisted of me, Veronika, Bich, Ben, Michael, Howie and the Farmstay receptionist, Maya. By 9.40am we were stopping at our first shop, The Red supermarket, I bought just 3 items and was at the checkout first, followed by Mai, then Veronika. The organic shop was next where I grabbed radishes and green beans. At gone 10am we were at the VinMart and by 10.40am I had done all my shopping and had quite a few bags, I did notice that some usual items were out of stock though. We sat in the cool Aircon of the Vinpearl hotel foyer and waited for Ben to finish a meeting while his eldest son walked around reception in a Trump supporter hat. I had an expensive Pepsi at 50,000vnd (£1.55) while we waited and then it was time for lunch at Geminai. I wasn’t very lucky today and although I ordered first and went for a tofu in plum sauce, I was told a while after they had no tofu so I asked for beef fried rice instead. At 12.20 I was still waiting and most people had almost eaten their food, there was also a kitchen next to where we were eating and they were burning some oil and chillies which made me, Veronika and Mai cough and our eyes water. While I was eating my food, which tasted nice but just had beef in, no vegetables, I started to get a bad stomach and was ill as soon as I had finished it. Mai mentioned she thought it could be that they had fried the rice in butter and I’d never thought of that – she could be on to something there!
On the journey home I read in the news that the UK/India mutant variant wasn’t a new variant as Vietnam had initially thought, it is just another version of the Indian variant, more here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210603/who-rules-out-new-hybrid-covid-variant-in-vietnam-nikkei/61305.html
Corona cases here were continuing to increase quite quickly in this latest 4th wave now and authorities were planning for a worst case scenario.
After I had put all the shopping away I had a couple of gin and pink grapefruits by the pool. We had chicken sandwiches for dinner and had an early night.

As usual I made a list of all my shopping items and their cost in VND. £1 is about 32,300vnd and I got a few bargains this week;

Red Supermarket
1 can of Ginger Ale 32,000
2 bottles of Grapefruit 110,000

An Nong Organic Shop
1 bag of green beans 32,500
1 box of radishes 38,250

VinMart Supermarket
1 chopped pumpkin 6,090
3 aubergines 6,605
1 baguette 9,000
1 bottle of chilli sauce 11,000
1 packet of rice macaroni 12,000
2 cans of diet Coke 19,000
1 dragon fruit 19,632
6 bananas 24,100
1 packet of rice noodles 26,000
10 eggs 27,700
1 packet of mushrooms 35,500
2 cans of Strongbow dark fruits 37,000
1packet of salami 38,300
500g chicken breast fillets 47,900
1 box of toothpicks 52,900
2 packets of M&Ms 70,000

This week I spent just over 620,000vnd (£20) on the shopping and 250,000vnd (£7.75) on a drink and lunch! I didn’t get any of the expensive fruits or wine this week. What items do you cut out when you have a tight budget?

joloyolo

The ramblings and observations of a fortysomething lady of leisure