Phong Nha – 11th February (Tet eve)

Tet Eve fell on Thursday 11th February this year and it started with 5am announcements and loud music, which went on until 7.30am.
Captain Caveman had to go to Oxalis Home for 7.30am and so he agreed to meet me at the Farmstay at 10.15am for our exciting outing. As it turned out Captain Caveman got back early and I got to go to the Farmstay on the back of his motorbike in my new helmet, which was really snazzy. Ben had organised a trip to the Pub with Cold Beer for lunch and a few of us went up in the jeep while Matty, Chris (the Belgian guest) and Veronika rode their motorbikes there.
Ben was driving, Howie was in the front, in the middle was a nice family and in the back with me and Captain Caveman was Catherine and her son. When we arrived we had a quick look around the kitchen and then the food was served. We ate BBQ chicken with peanut sauce, steamed rice, morning glory, pork, and spring rolls which was all so delicious. I even drank Huda beer, went on the swing and chatted a lot with Catherine who was so funny. Captain Caveman and some of the others went in the incredibly well- maintained swimming pool and the food was very good value for money – we even bought some peanut sauce to take home. When we got back to the Farmstay I decided to walk it home, I had my poles and Captain Caveman had a beer to give me a headstart. I managed to get home in 35 minutes and quite a while before Captain Caveman made it back (I suspect he may have had a second beer) because he expected me to take longer. I had a bit of pain but it went after ibuprofen and a short rest so I was pleased with that. In just 1 month I had managed the same journey 8 minutes quicker but I still wasn’t as fast as a 74 year old, who can do it in 20 minutes.
I’d been waiting to hear that it was ok to call my parents so I could get an update on how Dad was doing, after a hospital visit yesterday and the news was good. It was really nice to have a laugh with ma and pa over video call and see that they looked really well and quite relaxed which was so good. Music, karaoke and bombs (fireworks are banned in Vietnam) were to be heard until 1.30am and I was getting quite good at staying in the house for new year’s celebrations now and quite enjoyed being antisocial.

Here’s a couple of video clips of our trip on Facebook courtesy of Matty & Ben;

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2860937884224294&id=100009243321087

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4270275809653671&id=148614098486550&sfnsn=mo

Phong Nha – 10th February

At 5.30am on Wednesday 10th February there were announcements on the loudspeaker for quite a while, followed by the usual loud music. Captain Caveman went to the beach with Ben while I got on with some editing for a bit and had one of the expensive apples for my first breakfast. Around 8am it was quiet again and I’d fallen asleep but had luckily set my alarm to meet Captain Caveman at the Farmstay for an exciting event. We had been invited by Bich and Ben to join in one of the most important preparations for Tet by helping make the Banh Tet from 10am. There were quite a few guests, family and staff all on the tarpaulin set down near the swimming pool and the process commenced. The key, I learned is to select the appropriate banana leaves as your base and layer them so there are no holes. Everyone was shown how to put plenty of sticky rice in a chunky line down the middle, making a small ditch for the mung bean and then the fatty pork. The whole thing is rolled tightly, making sure all the meat and beans are covered by the sticky rice and encased by the leaves. The tricky bit was securing the package with strips so there would be no leakage. Once finished they would be simmered over the fire for between 12 and 20 hours. It was very interesting to watch and I was impressed at how good the security guys were at making it – they were definitely the best I thought.
After the excitement of the cooking class gathering I had an orange juice and then we went back home for a breakfast of bacon, mushrooms, potatoes and onions.
I had a strongbow cider for lunch and it was quite sunny in the afternoon so we went for a walk to the French Road and back. This time I did it in 35 mins which was 6 minutes quicker than the last time so I was happy about that. Captain Caveman went to the Lake House to get bread and bumped in to the nice couple from the Farmstay who were drinking with Tony. I assumed he would be back late and ate my leftover shepherd’s pie for my dinner. I then ate a second dinner of spaghetti with salami when Captain Caveman made his dinner with plenty for me too. We watched more Breaking Bad and drank red wine then got an invite for lunch out tomorrow, which would be Tet eve. I fell asleep before I got chance to get an update on how a family member had got on with his hospital appointment today but knew I’d probably be awake early tomorrow to check.

Phong Nha – 9th February

I woke up at 5.40am on Tuesday 9th February to the pumping music of pre Tet over the tannoy system and when it finished, just before 7am, Captain Caveman started snoring – I don’t know how he had managed to sleep through the noise. I did some languages and blogging in the morning then Captain Caveman made a cooked breakfast, with my favourite sausages, for us. It was a quiet day and I didn’t bother with any lunch as we had ordered our shepherd’s pies for dinner at The Farmstay that evening.
When we arrived at the Farmstay Veronika and Matty were already there, we met some nice new guests and a couple recommended the Minera Spa resort in Vung Tau, near Saigon, for if we fancied a relaxing break. Later we had the shepherd’s pie dinner with a lovely chap from Antwerp, Belgium, so I insisted on recommending the best bar in the world to him, The Kulminator, which I had loved visiting when Captain Caveman and I were last in Antwerp. I felt a bit foolish when he said he’d not lived there for quite a few years! The shepherd’s pie was delightful (as always) and the very substantial portion beat me so I took leftovers home (again) for tomorrow’s lunch. I was pleased to see that this week cauliflower was included in the vegetables served with the main dish – I love cauliflower. I had 3 glasses of red wine and even had room for the chocolate fondant dessert, which is absolutely delicious, and is available on the usual menu to have any time.
Back home we got confirmation that the Netflix issue was sorted and we could now use it again!
In the news today more airport staff tested positive in Saigon, here’s the info:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210209/two-more-airport-employees-test-positive-for-novel-coronavirus-in-ho-chi-minh-city/59220.html

The Shopping basket – 8th February

Are you the type of person who wonders what is in other people’s shopping trolleys or fridge? If you have a partner who goes shopping without you, do you like to know what they bought and how much things were? I am that person, so on Monday 8th February when Captain Caveman got back from his shopping trip to Dong Hoi, I had a good check at all the stuff he had got and how much it was. If you’re interested in what we bought for the week, read on! Today’s exchange rate makes 50,000vnd equal to £1.55, US$ 2.17, AU$ 2.80 or 1.8 Euro, so you can work out costs of items.
Here’s a list in order of most expensive first in Vietnamese Dong (vnd):
• 1 box of dates 238,500
• 24 cans of Huda beer 238,000
• 1 bag of walnuts 149,000
• 1 jar of cashew nuts 129,000
• 1 jar of tomato based pasta sauce 126,000
• 4 apples 120,000
• 1 tub of hummus 100,000
• 5 chocolate and nut protein balls 100,000
• 1 packet of bacon 98,000
• 1 whole-wheat/sourdough loaf 80,000
• 1 packet of dried dragon fruit 78,000
• 1 packet of unsalted butter 73,000
• 1 jar of pickled garlic 71,000
• 1 big tupperwear box (for rice) 70,500
• 1 big bag of Naturals crisps 70,000
• 1 packet of contraceptive pill 67,000
• 4 red peppers 60,000
• 10 ibuprofen 400mg 60,000
• 24 sanitary towels and 20 liners 60,000
• 1 tube of Sensodyne toothpaste 55,000
• 1 jar of popcorn kernels 52,000
• 4 Snickers bars 48,000
• 1 box of biscuits 47,000
• 2 chicken breasts 45,000
• 1 packet of Haribo cola bottles 45,000
• 1 packet of mushrooms 42,000
• 3 washing up sponges 38,000
• 3 toothbrushes 36,000
• 1 box of raisins 36,500
• 2 dragon fruit 36,000
• 1 bag of cherry tomatoes 33,150
• 1 tube of Pringles 32,000
• 1 big bag of Lays crisps 31,500
• 10 eggs 28,500
• 3 rice crackers 22,000
• 1 packet of radishes 19,500
• 1 packet of watercress 19,600
• 1 baguette stick 9,000
Some of it surprised me as, although I know nuts and dates are expensive here, I wasn’t expecting some of the items to be so highly priced. Also, I only eat apples for convenience of getting fruit in to my diet but I think they are too expensive here. Chicken is cheap and very good quality so we bought a few packets. What surprised you the most? Do any of you analyse your shopping and make changes to help keep in budget?

Phong Nha – 8th February

By Monday 8th February Vietnam was facing it’s 4th wave of the Corona virus and with a lot of concern as the holiday was only 4 days away. Many people had already finished work and had chosen to travel back home early and so it was a difficult job for the authorities to ensure prevention of the virus here. Shocking news came first thing in the morning that 4 of the people who tested positive yesterday are baggage handlers at Saigon (HCMC) airport, today they closed down an alley where they live in District 12;
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210208/ho-chi-minh-city-blocks-neighborhood-alley-as-local-residents-infected-with-covid19/59203.html
The total number of reported cases in Vietnam had now reached over 2,000 and people were definitely getting worried.
Despite the increase in cases recently there still hadn’t been any more Corona deaths reported and Vietnam was still on just 35 in over a year. An interesting article stating how low the death rate is over here compared to USA and UK can be found here:
https://vietnaminsider.vn/why-covid-19-death-toll-ratio-per-million-remains-extremely-low-in-vietnam/
Later that day we realised just how lucky we were coming back from Saigon when we did as more airport postive cases in HCMC were reported:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/871679/airports-nationwide-on-highest-alert-following-30-new-local-covid-cases-at-hcm-city-airport.html
By 5pm more cases linked to Saigon airport were reported and we suspected Tet could get cancelled:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/871724/govt-orders-hcm-city-to-strengthen-covid-preventive-measures-as-25-more-test-positive.html
One of the good things here in Vietnam is that swift, decisive action is taken to prevent as much spreading as possible and by the end of the day more lockdowns in specific areas were implemented:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210208/ho-chi-minh-city-seals-off-dozen-of-locations-amid-covid19-concerns/59210.html
Meanwhile, in our Phong Nha world, we were carrying on as normal…….

With Tet holiday coming up the loud speakers around the village had been fixed and were very much in use from 5.30am each morning now. On Monday 8th February extremely loud and distasteful music echoed around our building from 5.30am. Captain Caveman left for Phong Nha at 7am and had decided to go to Dong Hoi at 9am for a pre-Tet shopping trip. I wasn’t invited because it was raining and I would slow him down moving from one place to the next so I stayed at home. I had an apple and a gluten free cookie and then was ill with a bad stomach for most of the day. I did a lot of French on Duolingo, a few crossword type puzzles and some blogging, once the noise had calmed down a bit. For my lunch I heated up my leftover Sunday dinner and then the afternoon was even noisier so I tried to chill out by using Captain Caveman’s noise cancelling headphones which still didn’t completely block everything out. I watched The Dig, a film on Netflix and it was pretty good but a JCB had started ripping the banana tree garden up outside our living room window and I could still hear it. I’d got out some frozen meat for Captain Caveman to make pasta with for dinner but he forgot and made an incredibly salty French onion soup which I hardly ate any of. He had bought loads of stuff in Dong Hoi and had managed to meet up with our friend, Trang, at Tree Hugger for white russians and sandwiches.
That evening we settled down to watch some Netflix in the living room only to find the account was no longer accessible and the account had suffered an attempt at being logged in from Nghe An, a lot further north than we are.

Phong Nha – 7th February

I was woken up by Captain Caveman’s loud sneeze at 6.45am on Sunday 7th February. I didn’t get back to sleep and only an hour after he had left to go to Phong Nha, the housekeeping knock came for cleaning our room. I ate bread and butter and an apple for breakfast then sipped jasmine tea in the living room.
Captain Caveman picked up our order from Vananh, and he also brought back gluten free biscotti made by LyLy which was amazing! Our hummus order looked great and also contained some mung bean chips a couple of gluten free cookies to try and some chocolate protein balls for when I get peckish.
I had a bad stomach (again!) In the afternoon and so ended up having crisps and diet coke before my evening meal.

When we went up to the Farmstay for Sunday dinner our new motorbike helmets from Saigon had arrived and they were really snazzy. Captain Caveman went in the sauna while I chatted to Veronika and some guests who were staying at The Villas. It was a warm evening, everyone was sitting outside and Phong Nha Farmstay was quite busy – it was nice to see the pool with guests in too. The Sunday dinner of roast pork, lamb, pasta bake, roast potatoes, vegetables and thick gravy was extremely tasty and of course we couldn’t miss the included beverage and cake. We had the house red wine, which is a substantial portion and while the others had chocolate fondant cake I went for the carrot cake this time and it was fantastic – the whole deal cost just 300,000vnd and, as always, definitely worth it!

If you want to buy a safe and snazzy motorbike helmet I can highly recommend Saigon Motorcycles, they are very helpful and were able to deliver to Phong Nha within a week! Here is their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SaigonMotorcyclehireandsales/

joloyolo

The ramblings and observations of a fortysomething lady of leisure

Tag: food