Dalyan – 16th & 17th February

My Turkish class on Wednesday 16th February was great and I really enjoyed it. After I finished the class, I was waiting for Debbie (Darling), as arranged, to go to the doctor’s for our booster vaccines. I’d also arranged to meet Sabine and Ray who were selling citrus fruit for charity and the time slightly overlapped. Debbie (Darling) didn’t turn up and I’d already been playing lightsabers with Katrina’s child, for too long. I went without her, but at the Doctor’s they had ran out of Pfizer vaccines and told me to come back next week. I headed back along the river to meet Sabine and Ray at River Terrace for a drink in the sunshine by the river. I managed just 2 diet cokes and a really good chat with my friends. Katrina joined us and I took home a kilogram each of oranges, grapefruit and lemons for 10 lira (54p) which was an absolute bargain!
That night I tackled the mystery meal which happened to be chicken chasseur so I was lucky to have it with rice. I had the carrot cake from Sara for pudding and one of the oranges I bought earlier, both were great.

I started out with good intentions on Thursday 17th February and had half a grapefruit for breakfast. It was so sweet and juicy and I was glad I’d bought them. Today the weather was looking good so I went to Migros supermarket and had planned for another evening at home.
My shopping bag consisted of:

2 onions 0.79
Bread 3.00
Caramac chocolate 9.30
Cumin seeds 11.12
Curry powder 11.92
Turmeric 12.06
Hummus 15.05
1 pack of jasmine rice 16.74
2 bags of crisps 17.50
650g natural yoghurt 20.99
1 packet of wraps 23.50
Dustpan and brush 32.96

Total spent 174.93 lira (£9.50)

I had a macaroon for lunch and tried to crack on with some emails, only to find that an email wouldn’t send and I needed it to. I decided I would nip to Lukka bar and try to send my email from there. When I arrived some of the pool lads were having a game so I went over to say hello. I ended up having a red wine while I sorted out my admin and watched the pool match. It turned in to a late night with a few glasses of red wine and a snack of Baba Ghanoush at gone midnight!

Dalyan – 1st to 3rd February

On Tuesday 1st February I was up early for my breakfast of cornflakes. Rain was due but it didn’t come until much later when I decided to go to the shop. I had chicken chasseur with steamed rice for lunch and a Double Decker chocolate bar but I forgot to get something for dinner out of the freezer. By the time I got home with the shopping I was absolutely soaking wet and decided to make myself some potato wedges to eat with a glass of rosé wine.
I made arrangements to go out on Saturday night with Ann, Nanny Kay and Sarah to a new restaurant in town called YOLO. I stayed up late doing my Turkish homework then watched a bit of TV before bed.

Wednesday 2nd February was another good day in Dalyan; I was awake early and I got some updates from Captain Caveman who was with Andrea on day 2 of celebrating Tet, in Phong Nha, so he sent me some photos of what I was missing. I really was feeling bad that I couldn’t be there with them, eating and drinking copious amounts of mystery produce. In Dalyan the weather forecast was pretty bad and we were told to expect floods and storms in the Muğla province. I had cornflakes for breakfast and went to Turkish class at Lukka bar. The class was great today as we started to learn some fuller sentences, ones I would later find out needed to be used with caution! After class I popped back home for a light lunch of a simit with cheese spread before heading to the hairdresser’s. This was the first time that Mehmet had done my hair instead of Emrah. When he asked me if I preferred my hair to be cut when it was wet or dry I thought I’d try my Turkish out and told him I wanted to take a shower instead of saying I wanted him to wash my hair. Apparently, that could definitely get a girl in trouble and he told me to be careful who I say that to. Usually, after having my hair done I like to go out, while it still looks good. As the weather was so bad, I just went home via the off-licence where I bought 2 bottles of Tılsım red wine at 55 lira (£3) per bottle.
I don’t know who cancelled Wine Wednesday but I had meat and potato pie with mushrooms, carrots and gravy for dinner but completely forgot to open the wine. Both the Dalyan Corona cases and the storm were getting progressively worse and it proved difficult to get to sleep.

The storms had been the worst I had experienced in Dalyan so I’d not had much sleep when I woke up on Thursday 3rd February. The electricity and WiFi were hit and miss for the morning so I just had simit with homemade Baba Ghanoush for breakfast. I was meant to be meeting a friend for lunch but I cancelled due to the weather. Captain Caveman had been walking with Andrea and new caver, Darren, on the third day of Tet in Phong Nha and was having wine and steak with Tony at the Lake House – it felt like ages since I’d been there. I had a hot chocolate with a chocolate spoon for lunch, then Leanne popped round to have a look at the ceiling cracks and collect her IKEA candles. For dinner I had smoked turkey with red cabbage, beetroot, gherkins, bread and cheese and had my 4th day of zero alcohol! I finished off the night by opening the last one of my chocolate oranges from Christmas and ate a quarter of it.

Phong Nha – 14th February

We had a busy day planned on the third day of Tet, Sunday 14th February and, as it was Valentine’s Day, I got my bacon sandwich breakfast brought to me in bed. We got our helmets and big coats on, filled up with 50,000vnd of petrol and were off on a day out.
Our first stop was to visit Giang’s family at Rice Paddy homestay, where we received a warm welcome. They gave us a cold drink and some nibbles and were really pleased to see us, especially Alice who’s 14 and misses her aunty Giang.

Our next stop was Funny Monkeys where we wished Moon a happy new year and we had a drink and some nibbles, including delicious cashew nuts. Before we could finish chatting Moon had a family of 4 arrive for lunch and so she had to go cook and we forgot to get photos.

On the way to our next stop at Lucky Lucky (now called Lucky Homes) I popped to The Villas for a green tea and to use the loo, while Captain Caveman ran an errand. When we got to Lucky Lucky the owners were so pleased to see us but had been expecting us yesterday so we didn’t get to see Xiem, the English speaking daughter. The lady there is so sweet and gave us some Banh Chung to take home. I had quite a bit of beer and did a lot of cheers and of course I couldn’t resist a couple of spring rolls.

We had an important party to attend at 5pm but before that we had chance to meet up with Ali and Mo (owner of Earth cafe in Dong Hoi) at Tree House where I said happy new year to the owner and tried a cinnamon tea. It’s the first time I’ve been in the place and it is very nice and reasonably priced.

At 4.50pm we set off back towards the Glass House as we were invited to Howard and Deb’s house for a Tet party. On the way, outside Green River homestay, there is a bend in the road and as we approached there was a lot of people and traffic congestion. As we got nearer it was evident there had been a nasty accident and I could see the injured people were on the floor, no helmets, lots of blood. I didn’t want to look but it was too late and I felt very sick – luckily 2 of the cavers and lots of helpers were there so Captain Caveman decided to carry on as there were enough people there.
It’s a sad fact, here in Vietnam, that far more people will be killed in a road accident in 1 week of Tet than will die in a whole year from Corona.
When we arrived Deb had to send Captain Caveman back to pick up Momma D’s chicken and it turned out he didn’t see an email asking him to bring ice as his contribution – it was too late to start putting warm beers in ice now, anyway.

The party was good, the buffet spread was impressive; roast chicken, pizza, sausage, chips, beef and beers. It was lovely to see all the Vietnamese friends I had not seen for so long and I even managed a little dance with Phuong to some Faithless. Watto was in charge of the whisky and he was doing a grand job of persuading everyone to have a shot or two. I felt a bit bad that Captain Caveman had to drive me around and so couldn’t have a drink with all his colleagues. I didn’t want to be out after dark with so many drunk drivers on the road so we left as it was getting dark.

We drove straight back to the Farmstay where we received a welcome from Bich in the form of rice wine shots, a free margarita and some Tet table photos, she even interrupted Veronika and Matty to come join us for a shot!
We rounded off the day with a fabulous Sunday dinner (most of which we had to take home as we were already so full), wine and lots of laughs with the usual gang as well as Chris (the Belgian) and his lovely girlfriend, Huong, who had just arrived. They had only been going out for 3 months so I hoped she wasn’t too disappointed by having to share her Valentine’s dinner table with us but I really enjoyed their company and didn’t mind when the boys went to play killer pool and us girls, we are both slow eaters, finished our dinner and wine and chatted. It was a lovely day in Phong Nha, continuing to celebrate Tet with all our friends.

Phong Nha – 13th February

Captain Caveman had a second day of Tet party at 9am on Saturday 13th February, in Phong Nha, so off he went to Hung’s house.
While Captain Caveman had been out I had been invited to Ha’s to celebrate but, as I didn’t have transport, I invited her and Lan to our place. I prepared a few nibbles (bread, ham, Banh Chung, tortilla, salami, fruit and walnuts) and I had a ham sandwich for lunch while I waited for our guests. When they arrived we took our nibbles and some cold beers outside and included the Elements Collection team and some of the owner’s family members. Mr Ky, the dog, saw that a guest had a small, nappy wearing, poodle and he wanted to eat it. Later we saw Bich, the kids, Hien and Khanh and I got my first lucky money – a brand new 50,000vnd from Khanh. Everyone was very nicely dressed in their Tet clothes, including Ha and Lan, who we posed for some photos with – I should have wore something nice.
It was Hoa and Tom’s party at 6pm, Hoa was in the kitchen and the cavers were already eating when we arrived. I ate some excellent chips, a spring roll and a pork rib and then had some potatoes and carrots out of the soup. After 1 hour Captain Caveman stood up and said we had to leave if we were to make it to the next party in time and I got my coat on and followed him to say thanks to our host for the lovely food. Traditionally Tet has an order to the visiting which if family first, then friends and then colleagues but we didn’t necessarily follow that.
Back home we had drinks, some biscuits and watched Breaking Bad. I was grateful today for having a good second day of Tet and was looking forward to more celebrations with friends tomorrow.