My last day in Phong Nha had finally arrived; Tuesday 23rd August was my 64th day here. Tomorrow I would start my journey back to Dalyan, Turkey, where Captain Caveman would join me 1 week later. Captain Caveman went to Oxalis in the morning and he got a message from Tatas to say she wouldn’t be able to come to see me off because she was still hungover. For lunch I asked Captain Caveman to bring us both a roast pork banh mi from The Pork Shop and gave instructions to make sure no chillies or chilli sauce were on it.
Obviously when they arrived, they had chilli sauce on, despite his explanation in English and Vietnamese, so I was ill after eating it.
We had the last of the fruit salad and we weighed my luggage. I was just under my 25kg hold allowance and over on my hand luggage, which weighed 10kg but would take the risk. In the afternoon we went in the pool, it was a sunny last day and this would be my last time in our own private pool this year.
At 5pm, as planned, Stu and the boys came over to join us in the pool to say farewell. We had a few shandies and it looked like a storm was coming. We chatted about films and I got some recommendations of what I might want to watch on my journey. I had lots of time as I wouldn’t arrive in Dalyan until after 9pm on the 27th. Captain Caveman invited Stu, Max and Jack to stay for dinner but they decided to get back as they had a busy day tomorrow.
Captain Caveman cooked pasta for dinner and we toasted my leaving with some wine – I might come to regret this when the alarm goes off at 5.30am tomorrow!

After a fairly calm few days in Phong Nha, I was about ready for a bit of excitement on Saturday 13th August. The day started calmly but ended in what an onlooker may call wild debauchery!
By 9am I had finished my breakfast of toasted teacake loaf, orange juice and Yorkshire tea. I had taken 3 jars out of the freezer, as per Captain Caveman’s instructions before he went in to Son Doong, and I’d sent messages to friends about tomorrow’s party.
Caroline and Vee came to visit for lunch and we decided to have East Hill BBQ chicken. We had a beer while we waited for the delivery and then we went on to white wine with ice and soda with our lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool, having a good old laugh and drinking lots more wine (in plastic cups).

By 5.20pm we decided Caroline should borrow my more modest swimsuit and we should go for happy hour at the Farmstay. We were already pretty happy but Caroline wanted to meet Andrew and Trang there, so off we went in the jeep. We had a swim, several rum and cokes were had and we ordered pizzas. After a few more drinks we decided to go back to Elements as Captain Caveman was on his way back from his gala dinner. He’d got back late from his last tour so we hadn’t seen him this afternoon. We asked for a driver and the jeep to take us home. As we waited there was another guest waiting to go back to Elements so we shared the jeep ride back with him.

Captain Caveman was just going in to the house when Caroline, Vee and I arrived with our new friend, Benjamin. We had invited the young French man in for a gin and tonic and it was only around 8.30pm. The 4 of us had a couple of drinks and then decided to get in the pool, Benjamin popped back for his swimmers and made it clear he was not stopping long as he had a cave trip booked for tomorrow.
It was a great night which turned in to absolute drunkenness and shenanigans; Benjamin dropped his villa keys in the pool which lead to us telling him about the ‘keys in the fruit bowl’ meaning in England, there were competitions of who could tread water the highest out of the pool. We even put on Kate’s boat trip play list on Spotify, drank over a litre of gin and sang a lot – it was lucky that our only neighbour was in the pool with us! The ultimate competition was between a former submariner, Caroline, and a Caveman who finds it impossible to float – who could stay under water for the longest?
We don’t remember when Benjamin left and I’m sure that Captain Caveman and Caroline were still in the pool when the loudspeaker announcement started in the morning. Vee had managed a little snooze and I’d tried to go to bed at one point. By the time the pool party finished it was the next day and the sun seemed to be unsympathetically shining as Caroline had to call the owner of her hotel for a lift home.

Some photos by Caroline

Monday 1st August was Yorkshire Day and I hoped all my Yorkshire friends and family were having a nice day. My Yorkshire Day was definitely not ‘Yorkshire’ in any way, I didn’t even have my usual Yorkshire tea in the morning. I had fruit for breakfast; pineapple and Dragon fruit which are amongst my favourite fruits, with yellow kiwi fruit. Hien, the owner of Elements Collection had given us 3 yellow kiwi fruits which are a lot sweeter than the green ones and I really enjoyed them.
I heard from Anna and Katie, the Irish girls, who I had met on the Lynn Visa trip to the Lao Bao border last Wednesday. They had arrived in Phong Nha and had checked in to Tuan Garden House, we said we would meet up during their stay and I sent them a few recommendations for while they were in town.
It was extremely hot so I had a pool afternoon and chilled out a little bit. It was just after 3pm when the rain came so I had to get out and shut all the open doors. The rain was great and started to cool the air a lot, it did mean that the plan for Andrea to cycle down to Elements wouldn’t go ahead. As I was going in the spare room to get my clothes, one of the housekeeping staff were in there ‘borrowing’ the remaining 4 pillows. We made each other jump and I think she asked if it was ok to take the pillows. I shrugged and said ‘ok’ as I thought she needed them for some new arrivals. I’d seen a big group of Vietnamese girls arrive earlier. With Bich’s story before of the bedding woman in Dong Hoi and now the rain, they were obviously short on pillows. While Captain Caveman was away I was unlikely to need them and said I had enough in my room for sleeping. The big group’s arrival had also meant that there was a bit of a shortage of someone to take me to the Farmstay for happy hour and there was no jeep. After waiting 15 minutes, Duyet arrived and drove me, in someone’s fancy car, and I got there in time for 2 for 1 rum and cokes for me, gin and tonics for Andrea, Nick and Lottie.

Despite the rain showers, we got to see a bit of a sunset and I even remembered to take some photos this evening. Some mates of Ben and Bich’s were here and the men were all wearing their matching shirts as they talked about motorbike trips at the bar. Tonight was Andrea, Nick and Lottie’s last night so we gave the ball a right old kick, starting with an everlasting game of pool and finishing with great food and wine. I had the chicken and cashew nuts with steamed rice, Andrea ordered the Banh Xeo which is a rice flour pancake with seafood. Nick had Nem Lui which is pork on lemon grass skewers served with rice paper rolls, veggies and rice noodles, Lottie had the veggie curry with steamed rice. There was also some fresh spring rolls as a starter which were shared. All of the food came out hot and tasted delicious, we had a few more drinks but found the martinis were a bit out of kilter on the measures. They were still drinkable (just) but I offered to show Sau, the waitress, how to make a better martini later in the week.
We finished the night with beers and so many funny stories from Nick – they had all been great company. I called Duyet to take me home at just after 10pm, which is late for the Farmstay. I got in the jeep with a beer still in my hand and I finished it when I got home.

I had 2 pieces of leftover Showstopper pizza, from Monday evening, for breakfast on Wednesday 20th July. It is just as good as eating it at the time and I was glad to have another 2 pieces still in the fridge. My visa was still in processing but the equivalent of $25 had left my Turkish bank account. I was hopeful I would hear something soon and I’d confirmed my place on the visa run with Lynn Visa in 1 week’s time.
I had a bit of a swim and did some chores before eating the rest of the pizza for lunch with a can of Coke. By 3pm the rain was quite heavy and everything was getting a thorough soaking. I did quite a bit of Turkish as I was conscious that today was the Turkish class in Dalyan. Vanessa and I were still trying to keep up with them from afar and we had booked in a video call. At 5pm we had a good catch up and realised we were slightly behind with our homework but we definitely were doing ok, considering. We shared our efforts and it was nice to have a catch up too.
I had egg fried veggie rice for dinner and then did more Turkish lessons and homework. I submitted my homework to Sioned and would wait to see if I had got it right.

Sunday 17th July was a steady day as I made some preparations for Captain Caveman’s birthday tomorrow.
I had a bacon sandwich and shade-bathed round the pool for quite a while. I did a bit of Duolingo and even added Kate and Vanessa as friends on there. I thought it would be good to try to do more Turkish learning before I go back to Dalyan. Vanessa and I were trying our best to keep up so that we weren’t behind when we got back to restart our weekly Turkish lessons.
The weather in Phong Nha was cooler than the UK, apparently, so I couldn’t moan that it was 31°C at 6pm in the room with the AC on.
I had the last of the butter chicken and managed to work around a spider on the kitchen floor, on condition that it eat all the mosquitoes. I packed a bag for tomorrow as I was pleased to be able to spend 4 hours of Captain Caveman’s special birthday with him, after his briefing tomorrow night.

My measurements on Saturday 16th July were hardly surprising given that I’d had a 5 day holiday in Hanoi and eaten like a pig yesterday;
Bust +3cm,
Waist +3cm,
Hips +1cm,
Right thigh -3cm,
Left thigh -0.5cm,
Right calf no change
Left calf +1cm.
It had been 2 weeks since the last measuring and now my legs were back to having 1.5cm difference in thigh measurements and 1cm in calves – my bad leg still being the smallest after 27 months since the injury!
I had just 6 weeks left until my flight back to Istanbul so I thought I’d try to get a bit of a tan. I popped on my leopard print swimming costume and tried to take a few nice photos of me on my holidays. Unfortunately it was a bit tricky to get any decent ones and I gave up being in the sun after 12 sweaty minutes. I ate some fruit for my lunch and then applied for my next e-Visa. I still had two and a half weeks left on my current visa but, as I knew when my leaving date out of Vietnam would be, I may as well apply. I had to use my Turkish bank account and was a little nervous as it might not work in Vietnam. It sent me a message in Turkish and I understood it enough to be able to know I had to log in to my internet banking and put in a code. As it was a Saturday the money didn’t go out of my account, I had to wait until Monday to see if the payment would be accepted or rejected.
I had an early dinner of more butter chicken with steamed rice and then polished off the rest of the Chardonnay.
I got peckish before bed and had the crumpet I had got out of the freezer for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Sunday 3rd July was going to be my last day in Phong Nha for a little while. I was off to Singapore and back because of the visa situation and I wish I’d had more sleep last night! I had Frosties for breakfast and packed my rucksack, I only had hand luggage allowance so I had to be careful what I took. I knew I might be sleeping in the airport so a pillow and a travel towel were the essentials taking room up in my bag. I also had a book, which Ben had given me to read, Burmese Days by George Orwell. For lunchtime I made myself a strawberry soda, just chicken and gerkins to eat and planned for a big meal tonight. Captain Caveman was due out of the cave this afternoon so I got out of the freezer what I thought was butter chicken curry from Baba’s Kitchen in Saigon. We had transported it 1,100km so it had better be good!
When Captain Caveman got home we had White Russians by the pool, he booked me a return flight from Singapore to Hanoi, which I didn’t check thoroughly enough. I would fly back in to Hanoi and Captain Caveman would come to join me 3 days later, taking the overnight train after he got out of the cave. This meant that, if all went according to plan, I would have 15 hours in Singapore and Captain Caveman had given me some screenshots of where to stay, how to get there and some spare dollars for any difficulties or emergencies.
After Captain Caveman had left for his next Oxalis briefing, he called to ask me to get his bank card out of the safe as something was the matter with the booking he had made. I think it was a sign that I should have rechecked my ticket but I didn’t, as Captain Caveman is usually perfectly capable of sorting these things out. Instead, I got busy completing my online form to enter Singapore and saving all my vaccine proof which was still needed. Captain Caveman returned and he got busy booking accommodation in Hanoi, and our flights back to Dong Hoi for the 10th July. I went to cook the butter chicken only to find it was Captain Caveman’s masaman chicken curry without any vegetables in it. There was nothing we could do about that now and I needed to eat something before my trip so we proceeded. Obviously he had put far too much chilli in it for me so I had to have 70:30 rice to curry ratio and stock up on imodium. We opened wine and decided we would plough on through until my car pick up at 2am tomorrow morning even though Captain Caveman had to be on tour. We opened a nice bottle of red which we’d bought for a bargain 154,000vnd (£5.55) in Dong Hoi and I popped on my ‘travelling in’ clothes.

My weekends are quiet when Captain Caveman is in the cave, Saturday 2nd July was a typical example of this. It was a lot cooler in the morning because there had been a blustery but short storm in the early hours of the morning.
I didn’t have breakfast as I was helping my family with some bookings and recommendations in Dalyan and then I had cheese on toasted baguette for lunch. The weather got warmer and I swam a lot while my family went to the Dalyan market.
I took advantage of having a second balcony and sat outside the spare room, reading and having a dark fruits cider in the afternoon. I took a few photos of the pool from the other side of the villa and just relaxed. I booked my taxi to Dong Hoi train station for 2am on the 4th July and I contacted Kat to arrange to meet up in Hanoi, assuming all worked out fine with my Plan B or C.
For dinner I went with a very healthy option of steamed chicken breast, mushrooms and rice and didn’t even have any more alcohol.