Having had a restful day yesterday, it came as no surprise that Wednesday 10th March was likely to be a bit livelier! I woke up with the loudspeaker noise (again) at 5.30am and I was really hungry. I had toast and arranged with Bich to get a lift to The Villas to attempt to retrieve my bicycle, Bluey, who had been abandoned there since Margarita Monday. At The Villas I joined Veronika, Matty and Howie while Bich did work stuff. Howie and Matty ordered ice-cream, I ordered some lunch from the vegetarian menu, the potato, artichoke and edamame bean salad which was an old favourite of mine. Unfortunately there was a bit of a mix up when I ordered this dish from the vegetarian menu but the waitress knows I’m not a vegetarian because I eat meat, so I initially got the fish version, which I couldn’t eat. Veronika ended up eating it while I had a new one made and they all went back to the Farmstay by car, while I finished my delicious veggie food while contemplating the cycle back. I realised it was getting hotter and windier which would make my cycle home harder so I paid my 130,000vnd (£4) and set off. The cycle ride was hard work but I tried to focus on keeping my leg in line and applying equal pressure with each leg. As I wiped the sweat from my eyes and wished I’d brought my sunglasses I came to a bit of a hill and I was finding the pedalling very difficult when Jack rode past on his motorbike as I neared a cafe and saw Vinh who I used to work with a few years ago too and had to shout to both that I couldn’t stop, mainly because I wouldn’t get going again if I did. When I got back home it had taken me almost 41 minutes (4 minutes slower than on the way there for Margarita Monday) and I was so purple everyone at Elements looked worried. I went straight in the shower to cool down and found I was very hungry after my almost 9km bike ride against a head wind and in hot sun. I had bread and hummus as a snack, realising I still hadn’t eaten my left over dinner from Sunday. I decided to stay in that night as I was knackered and couldn’t sit very well. I had leftover Sunday dinner and an early night after a busy (for me) day. I was just pleased to have managed to cycle home without getting off the bicycle, abandoning Bluey or have to call someone for help!
Monday 8th March was rather exciting for me as I achieved a couple of my progress goals. First I had to contend with the loudspeaker noise and waking up soaked in sweat at 5.30am! Captain Caveman was off to Son Doong for 4 days and was up and out earlier than he needed to be. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I watched more Amazing Hotels, ate carrot cake for breakfast which I had a bad reaction to!
Matty was due back from Saigon, Hamish and Mik were due back from their Hang En trip and it was Margarita Monday so arrangements were made to meet at The Villas later. My dodgy stomach had gone by 1.30pm when Veronika and I bravely set off on our bicycles to cycle the 8.9km to The Villas. This was about to be the first attempt at cycling this distance all in one journey and it was quite a hot day for it. Matty had messaged to say he would get his taxi from the airport to drop him straight to The Villas. The news in Vietnam reported that discussions have started about international tourism and the potential reopening of the country, but it still seemed a while off: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20210308/vietnam-eyes-stepwise-plan-to-reopen-to-foreign-tourists/59656.html Meanwhile back home today was the start of the new UK plan to come out of lockdown. Today, back in England, everyone is allowed to meet one other person in a park and I genuinely wondered how the logistics of that would work and wanted to ask everyone I knew in England who they chose and why – had the person you chose already chose someone else perhaps?
Veronika was faster than me on her bicycle and there were sections where she was way ahead as we cycled along the road passing what used to be The Bomb Crater Bar and Sy’s homestay. I saw a bright yellow and green snake as we neared the underpass not far from Magic Fingers massage place and homestay. My knee didn’t hurt but my bum certainly did by the time we arrived at our destination 37 minutes later with a bit of a sweat on! Bluey was parked up with the intention I would get a lift to come ride her back tomorrow but I seriously wondered if I would be able to even move tomorrow. We sat at a table by the river hoping for a peaceful rest and we ordered juices from a new waitress, Van, who I wished Happy Women’s Day in Vietnamese, while we waited for Matty. Veronika had already eaten lunch so she ordered a panacotta while I decided to try something I had never had before – a chicken, bacon, lettuce and gherkin sandwich with chips.
By the time Matty arrived the next door place to The Villas had the karaoke blasting out and so Veronika decided to cycle home while Matty and I moved to sit at the back of the The Villas, near the pool. We ordered margaritas and got free popcorn but Matty had to work at 6am the next day so didn’t want to drink too much. That went out of the window when we moved to another table, nearer the bar but still outside, and Hamish and Mik arrived. They were straight on the Gin and Tonics, we got another margarita and then the tequilas made an appearance. It sounded like they had an exciting Hang En trip and gave us an update of their 2 day adventure. Vu and little Ngoc, were also at The Villas and they insisted on buying me another margarita for Women’s Day and we decided to test out the dancefloor. I even had a dance with the security guard who is always really nice and helpful to me – my first dance as a duo in almost 11 months. Poor Manu, the manager, was a bit nervous I might fall and so was there looking out for me. I was quite safe though and I was so grateful to have cycled nearly 9km, including getting over a bridge, and was able to dance again – progress indeed. We had such a good time but we all forgot to order any dinner and I think the Margarita Mondays might be getting out of hand a bit!
Monday 1st March started off as quite an ordinary day for me, here in Phong Nha. I’d decided that March was going to be a good month to get a bit fitter and healthier but I still had carrot cake in the fridge from last night so I had buttered toast for breakfast with a pot of jasmine tea before eating the cake as my lunch! It was quite warm out and felt very muggy but I didn’t let it put me off going for a ride on Bluey. I cycled to the French Road and back, which took just 9 minutes 44 seconds and, when I got home, I made popcorn. Captain Caveman came back from Son Doong and was off to his usual gala dinner at Chay Lap at 5.30pm so he suggested I meet him at The Villas. It was Margarita Monday and I arrived first, Captain Caveman arrived shortly after me and we ordered a couple of margaritas. Matty arrived next and Captain Caveman had to leave before Tatas arrived, Matty and I had another margarita and a pizza each – he had a prosciutto and tomato one, I had salami, mushroom and pineapple. Captain Caveman sent me a few messages to say he was drinking rice wine with his customers, that he was on his way back to The Villas, that he was late, and that he was just setting off but never arrived so I took a lift back home with Matty and Bich. I didn’t know it at the time but we probably drove past Captain Caveman who was drinking with his colleagues at a cafe that used to be Yummy’s. For once I was the sensible one and didn’t have that many margaritas compared to last week.
Captain Caveman was extremely hungover on Tuesday 2nd March and didn’t remember much of the previous night. He had to sort himself out, though, as he had his next briefing tonight and was back in to Son Doong tomorrow. I made him cheese on toast, I had jam on toast and I ordered myself a shepherd’s pie for tonight. The weather wasn’t great either so I didn’t do any cycling. I booked a bus ticket for Captain Caveman to go to Hanoi in a couple of week’s time as he was off to see our friends, Phil and Hoa in the north for a week. In Saigon they ended lockdown restrictions and in Hanoi they reopened restaurants and bars. I got peckish in the afternoon as I’d had no lunch but didn’t want to spoil my shepherd’s pie eating abilities so I had a date, some walnuts and a rice cracker. Captain Caveman set off early to his briefing so that he could pick up his bus ticket, on the way back he picked up three loaves of bread from the Lake House and he got back in time to join us for shepherd’s pie, after all. Bich had also got Veronika and I two sourdough loaves of bread and so now, Captain Caveman was about to be away for most of the month and I had 5 loaves of bread. I restricted myself to just one glass of wine with my shepherd’s pie while dining with Captain Caveman, Veronika and Matty – I even took home some left over pie and veg to have tomorrow.
Captain Caveman went off to his next Son Doong tour on Wednesday 3rd March so we were both up early as I also had some work to do. As the ‘being frugal with the housekeeping’ mission seemed to be working well and Captain Caveman was impressed that I was trying to save money, I decided that each time he was in the cave I would do the challenge and see how I did, even though this time he left me 2 million Dong (£62)! The idea behind it being that we had more to spend on my monthly visa extensions, trips away and to keep living somewhere with a pool so that as it got warmer I could afford to replace my very old swimwear and get fitter by swimming. I was downstairs slicing bread, all 5 loaves, and boxing them up for the fridge or freezer when Veronika came downstairs, dressed for winter and a bit hurried. She had decided she was going to ride her motorbike to Dong Hoi with Ben and told me not to worry if she didn’t come home as she may stay over. I had a very quiet day working through my To Do list and managed to polish off most of the crusts from the bread, the leftover shepherd’s pie, 3 satsumas and a small chocolate bar (bought for us as a Tet gift from Ai, landlady of the Glass House). Instead of going out on Bluey in the rain I did my exercises and then started watching Amazing Hotels on Netflix. For dinner I had hummus and rice crackers and a couple of small glasses of wine while watching the TV
I woke up at 7am on Thursday 4th March, I had toast for breakfast and decided to take myself out for a ride on Bluey to incorporate lunch out at the Farmstay. I cycled the short way there in 9 minutes 43 seconds but it wasn’t a pleasant journey because there was quite a lot of mud on the road. I ordered a ginger beer and some fresh pork and prawn spring rolls for lunch and had a good chat and a laugh with Bich. I only spent 130,000vnd (about £4) and would be eating at home later. I chilled out a bit and contacted Mommy Shark in Hoi An to enquire about swimwear in western sizes as I was desperate for new swimmers. On the cycle back I decided to do the longer route, along the French Road, by the river and it took me 21 minutes and 37 seconds. I was knackered when I got in and had to have a little rest while watching more Amazing Hotels. That evening I had chicken in a tomato and olive sauce with green beans and steamed rice, washed down with a glass of wine. A friend who had also watched Amazing Hotels had commented how nice Brando’s in French Polynesia was – it reminded me of Le Domaine in Tam Hai during it’s early years, a lovely place. The housekeeping staff arrived to clean the balconies and windows and brought some lovely flowers and I had an early night – I even set my alarm to get up for cycling.
Captain Caveman was up at 5am on Thursday 25th February and off to the beach with Ben for some surfing. Surprisingly there was no loud announcement on the tannoy this morning! There was some great news in Vietnam as it was reported that there would be enough vaccines for the country in 2021!!! See link: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210225/vietnam-says-to-secure-90-million-covid19-vaccine-doses-this-year/59458.html Unfortunately there was another variant of the virus found in the dead Japanese man in Hanoi, see below: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210225/5th-coronavirus-variant-in-vietnam-found-in-japanese-who-died-in-hanoi/59464.html and some not so good news of a woman in Hanoi who had been released after 3 negative tests but then was positive again 4 days later, more info here: https://vietnaminsider.vn/hanoi-woman-tested-positive-again-for-covid-19-after-released-from-hospital/ I was meant to be meeting Captain Caveman for breakfast at the Farmstay so I cycled the long way round to get there, my confidence was getting stronger and I managed to overtake a man who was walking his cow. This time it took me 20 minutes and 31 seconds to do about 4.5km – a whole 2 minutes quicker (and it was hotter than the previous day). I ordered a soda water, an orange juice and pho bo for breakfast and there was no sign of Captain Caveman so I started without him. When he arrived he ordered a beer which I thought was a strange breakfast choice but it turned out he had already eaten smoked salmon and scrambled eggs at The Villas. After chatting to Bich and Howie for a bit I decided to set off because Captain Caveman was on his motorbike anyway and it was getting hot and sticky. I did the short route back and was 1 minute 21 seconds quicker. I had some rest on the sunlounger, we had chicken salad for lunch but in the afternoon I felt ill (a bad stomach and I felt really cold) so I had an afternoon nap. Around 4.30pm Captain Caveman woke me up to tell me he was off back to Phong Nha and I thought it was the next morning already. He was booked in for a shave at the hairdresser’s and then was off for his next Son Doong briefing at 6pm. In the evening I still didn’t feel too good and couldn’t eat any dinner so I had some popcorn and started watching Behind Her Eyes on Netflix. This week I was glad to have exercised more and consumed less, in fact this was the best week of the month!
There was only one person close to me on Tuesday 23rd February who was more annoyed with the loud tannoy from 5.30am, than me – a very hungover Captain Caveman! He got up and went to Phong Nha and I went back to sleep when the noise stopped! I woke up at 9am and caught up on some Duolingo and some writing. I’d not checked my emails for a while and, after hearing that the UK wouldn’t allow holidays until 17th May, I wondered if my April flight to Turkey would get cancelled. I had toast for breakfast and when Captain Caveman came back he had only been to The Villas for his breakfast! I managed another spot of cycling and this time I took 10 minutes but Captain Caveman did get a video of me. I just had walnuts and cashew nuts for lunch as Captain Caveman had plans for dinner – for the first time in a long time we were missing Shepherd’s pie night! I suggested that I might try a mini triathlon tomorrow and asked Captain Caveman if he’d like to join in as the weather was meant to be getting hot. He replied that he didn’t think eating breakfast, lunch and dinner counted as a triathlon! It wasn’t meant to be a joke, either! He made sausages with potatoes and veg for dinner and I had a small glass of red wine. It was a relaxing, easy going day which I was grateful for and there was some optimistic news reported during this day which felt somewhat hopeful for the future. In Vietnam the vaccination process looked good and was coming soon; https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210223/vietnams-health-ministry-lists-target-groups-for-upcoming-covid19-vaccination/59419.html The authorities were still dishing out penalties for not declaring whereabouts or giving misleading info on the forms: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210223/teacher-in-northern-vietnam-fined-for-false-health-declaration/59421.html And proof that in all countries there will still be people who go ahead and cause the spread instead of preventing Corona: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210223/vietnamese-official-requests-investigation-of-two-nurses-for-allegedly-causing-local-covid19-transmission/59429.html
The alarm went off at 5.30am on Thursday 18th February for Captain Caveman going to the beach with Ben and Matty for a spot of surfing. I did my blogging until 8am and then fell back to sleep, finding out it’s the quietest part of the day to grab another 2 hours. When Captain Caveman returned it was raining and he made us salami and asparagus for breakfast, mine with toast and his with egg. After breakfast I went to welcome Bluey, my bicycle, back in to my life and was pleased to see she already had a lovely parking spot in a sheltered area. I couldn’t go out on her in the rain so I tried a couple of metres under cover and I seemed ok. Her brakes still worked and she just need a little bit of air in her tyres so all was good and I looked forward to having a proper go on her the next dry day. I didn’t think I was hungry enough for lunch but then later needed a snack of bread and cashew nuts. Captain Caveman had another Tet party at Mr Sic’s, to attend in Phong Nha, on his way to deliver his Oxalis briefing for his first trip to Son Doong after the Tet holidays. For my dinner that night I had some chicken masaman curry and a Snickers for dessert. I had something to be really thankful for today too; my parents had their first dose of the Corona vaccine today. Their second dose was scheduled for May, so just short of 3 months later, meaning they should be as fully protected as possible by the end of May. This gave me hope that I might be able to see them this year so I went online to do the calculation of when I would be able to have the vaccine if I was in the UK. I wouldn’t be due until July for the first one, meaning October for the 2nd and able to go about my ‘normal’ activity by November. Hopefully I would be able to get it quicker in Vietnam so that I could get back sooner, but if not there was hope I could be with my family by Christmas, all being well. As I was getting ready for bed it dawned on me that maybe Captain Caveman had brought Bluey, the bike, back for a reason! I’d consumed a lot more than I should have lately and, if I was going to loose the last few kilogrammes in readiness for a summer body, I’d really better start trying a lot harder!
