It was another early start on Sunday 26th June as Captain Caveman was off to Son Doong. He made breakfast and I was eating my bacon sandwich by 6.45am. He was excited because he was on tour with Tatas and they hadn’t been on the same one in ages, in fact neither of them could remember when the last one was. I did a few jobs from my To Do list including trying to make sure that Veronika had some sparkling wine in the fridge for when her and her husband, Ross, arrived. I wanted to move my clothes in to the spare room but we didn’t have any coat hangers so that was put on hold a bit longer. While I planned to spend the next few days at home in Phong Nha my sister and her family were on their way to Dalyan. I’d sent her some lists of where I found the best gluten free meals because she’s coeliac and I also recommended some boat trips and bars for them to try. My parents were really looking forward to their first visit and would be spending the first week with them. I was glad I’d come to visit Captain Caveman but I was really missing being in Dalyan with family and friends. I had passion fruit and pineapple then Frosties for lunch as I was too hot and couldn’t be bothered to have anything else. In the afternoon I lounged in the shade by the pool with my book, swam a lot and noticed my previously injured leg was back to normal now. As the sun went down, I had a beer in the pool and completely forgot about making any dinner. Around 9pm I had 2 slices of a new invention in Vietnam, the teacake loaf. Instead of a toasted teacake, which can easily burn in the toaster, this is a sliced loaf but with the fruit of a teacake in it – genius and absolutely cutting edge for this area.
Captain Caveman had booked a car to take us on a shopping trip on Saturday 25th June. It wasn’t my idea of something good to do with a day off but Captain Caveman does enjoy shopping much more than I do. We were in the car and I was about to discuss my declined visa extension situation when Captain Caveman noticed a missed call from his boss. It’s not uncommon for this to happen on a day off early in the morning, so I wasn’t surprised. Captain Caveman was asked if he could be ready to go to do day 2 of a Hang Va tour, to cover for the Vietnamese tour guide who was on his way out. I thought we would have to turn the car around and go back but Captain Caveman pointed out that he couldn’t do it. This was the first time I’d ever witnessed Captain Caveman say no to one of his bosses asking him to do extra but, of course, I was pleased. In Dong Hoi we got the driver to drop us off at Mr Bull’s for breakfast where we ordered Bo Ne, I had mine without eggs. It was delicious but I sensed Captain Caveman’s mind was still on the Hang Va issue. The operations manager, called him to say it had been sorted but they had sent in Tatas to cover, so now could Captain Caveman cover for Tatas on her pre-briefing duties. He agreed as they were both on the same Son Doong tour tomorrow. This meant he had to be at work an hour earlier this evening, at Son Doong Bungalows. I was definitely getting an idea of how busy Captain Caveman had been these last few months and I knew he was going to be very disappointed that I wasn’t able to get a visa extension without having to leave Vietnam.
Our first shop on the shopping trip was the Co-op Mart, the biggest of the supermarkets in Dong Hoi, and it was busy. We spent a lot of money, I had forgotten to bring the shopping list but I think we remembered most things between us. The next place was VinMart, which is now called WinMart, and has new products in. I was so excited that they had small rice cookers for less than £20 so we bought one to take back to Turkey. Next stop was for tampons, also tricky to find in Vietnam, which they sell in the Medicare shop but were 174,000vnd (£6.26) for 2 boxes. Our last stop was the wine shop where Captain Caveman came back to the car with a box containing 3 bottles of white wine and 2 bottles of Bombay Sapphire gin for a bargain total of £50. We were meant to be spending some time in Dong Hoi and had planned to go to Tree Hugger for lunch and White Russian cocktails. Captain Caveman wasn’t in the mood now and suggested we just go straight back home.
It’s been a while since Ive done a big shop so here’s what we spent in the 2 supermarkets. £1 = 27,768 Vietnamese Dong (VDH)
Co-op Mart supermarket: 1 can of ginger ale 9,500 Baby wipes 12,300 2 onions 15,774 Bamboo Cotton buds 20,500 3 carrots 21,886 1 packet of pasta 22,500 Washing up liquid 22,500 1 packet of Grape haribos 25,200 Sugar free Milk 27,200 Passion fruit 30,751 4 cans of tonic 31,200 2 red peppers 32,347 3 mangos 39,063 Frozen sweetcorn 43,600 Mushrooms 50,500 2 chicken breasts 50,580 1 Tupperware 53,000 1 Tupperware 59,000 1 pomelo 59,988 Frozen strawberries 63,800 Tin foil 69,900 1 bottle of olive oil 130,000 3 cartons of orange juice 132,900 2 bottles of red wine 306,000
I was surprised at how cheap the bottles of Strongbow were as in Dalyan it was getting difficult to get even Turkish cider for less than £3 per bottle.
On the way back to Elements we came up with a Plan B and C for me and we decided I would apply for another e-Visa. I already had a flight booked from DaNang to Singapore, used as proof of leaving Vietnam after 1 month, so it made sense to take that. If another 30 day e-Visa was granted I would come back to Vietnam the next day and carry on as we were. If I didn’t get another visa then I would still come back in on the free 15 day visa exemption, get my stuff and go back to Turkey, or England perhaps. While I applied for my e-Visa, Captain Caveman unpacked the shopping and put it away. I got confirmation of my visa application, paid $25, and was told I would have notification by Wednesday. In the afternoon we didn’t really have much leisure time as we were busy with ‘Operation get me back in to Vietnam’ and Captain Caveman had to unpack, pack and prepare for work. I was lucky that Captain Caveman is so organised and calm in a crisis because I had been ready to have a mini meltdown. For dinner I had a bit of a concoction; yesterday I’d made tortilla but the frying pan was a bit iffy and it had stuck so it was more of a ‘deconstructed Spanish omelette’, I’d only made it to use up the potatoes, onions and eggs and had ended up with 2 in the fridge. I fried some of it up like a posh hash brown with some bacon and pickled white cabbage. It definitely wouldn’t win any awards for how it looked but it tasted great. For afters, I had fresh pineapple and passion fruit which was so good. I also noticed that the WinMart had charged us for 2 lots of pineapple but we only had one. When Captain Caveman returned from his briefing, having had to deal with a late joiner and more issues than he’s used to because that would’ve been Tatas’ job, he brought booze! His last group were disappointed that he was unable to do the gala dinner with them and had saved him some of their bottle of whisky – he said they were a really nice bunch of people. He kindly shared it with me and we listened to Kate’s Ultimate Boat Trip Playlist which she had shared on Facebook. There were some brilliant songs on there and it was about 24 hours long, I wondered if we could do a boat trip to celebrate when we returned to Dalyan and do the entire playlist.
The highlight of my day on Friday 24th June was Captain Caveman being able to come out for pizza night once again. I put a dress on and had asked Lan, The Villas manager, to reserve a big table for us tonight. I’d messaged to ask if we could also have a lift with the Phong Nha Farmstay transport. Ben said the transport would be late so we agreed to ask Duyet to take us up to the Farmstay so we could be having a happy hour beer there, before going to The Villas. When we tried to get Duyet it turned out he was already on another job and so I had to get changed out of my nice dress (the one I wore for Des’s leaving do) and put jeans, a t-shirt and volleys on so I could go on the back of the motorbike with Captain Caveman. It was a bit of an inconvenience and I had a slight face on as I had wanted to go out in a nice outfit for a change. Captain Caveman only had 24 hours free until he had to be back at work and I needed to get his attention somehow. When we got to the Farmstay we got happy hour beers and I was trying to tell him about the visa extension being denied. Of course I didn’t get to do that as he got talking to a Farmstay customer about caves and Son Doong. We were late for pizza night but Lucie and her family waited for us. They had not even started to eat without us, which was so polite. Also joining us were Giang and Aaron (freshly back from England), Luc (on a quick trip from Malaysia), Mark and Darren. This was the first time I’d seen Darren, Captain Caveman’s colleague, for a few years, he didn’t know about pizza night so he was about as excited as us and couldn’t believe his luck. As we didn’t have to drive back we were knocking back the half priced margaritas like someone was going to steal them. It was such a great night, the 10 of us had a lot of fun and I was really pleased to have got to see everyone again. Unfortunately, we had to leave about 9.30pm to get our lift back but we were grateful for staying later than usual! Our total bill came to 900,000vnd (£32.40) for the 2 of us, not bad as we don’t both go out together too often. Back home, Captain Caveman and I decided to have one more drink before bed as he wasn’t working until 6pm tomorrow – and what a day we had planned!
Lucie, her mom and her son were in Phong Nha until Sunday so I had hoped to meet them for lunch. On Thursday 23rd June they had arranged to take a trip to the Pub with Cold Beer, which I’d recommended for trying the BBQ chicken. The place has a pool too but it is a bit tricky to get to without a motorbike or car. Lucie messaged late morning to say to meet there at noon but it was too hot and far, for me to cycle to. I was conscious of spending any money too because I may have to go back to Turkey or do a visa run. I decided spending money on a car, plus lunch and drinks, would not be justifiable given my situation right now. It was super hot and we had a fridge and freezer full of stuff so I was happy to stay home. I went to lay on the sunbed by the pool and got a bit of a surprise; my new friend Kermit, jumped out at me and we made each other jump. A storm had been predicted, it didn’t look like rain to me, but maybe a frog on the 1st floor is a sign the water levels were going to be high. In the Vietnamese news there were photos of floods in Hanoi, which were pretty bad. I still wasn’t in the best of moods given my visa extension situation but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I decided to organise some good things to look forward to, I invited a few people to pizza night at The Villas tomorrow, friends I’d not seen in ages. It had been almost 3 weeks since I spoke to my parents in Dalyan as it had never been a convenient time for them to have a video chat. We are only 4 hours ahead of Turkey but it still isn’t ideal and they were busy enjoying what was left of their holiday. It was great to talk to them, even if my news wasn’t too positive today, and they cheered me up. I missed them and Dalyan but we joked that if my Plan B or Plan C failed, there was always the Plan D – go back to Dalyan. If it wasn’t for Captain Caveman I would have changed my flight and gone back – I knew he was going to be peeved when he got out of the cave tomorrow and heard about my predicament. My dinner was spaghetti bolognese and I had a Snickers for dessert, I’m not a massive fan of chocolate but I was starting to crave sweet things more than usual.
Wednesday 22nd June turned out to be a bit of a rubbish day! I woke up to a reply from my visa contact to say she needed me to bring my passport to the Phong Nha Farmstay straight away because she would take it to Dong Hoi, earlier than planned. She could tell I was concerned so she asked me to leave my passport at the Phong Nha reception and she would pick it up on her way to Dong Hoi. I rushed to get ready and, after only a few hours sleep, I was tired. Bluey’s tyres were flat and Duyet wasn’t around for me to get a lift. I eventually got to the Farmstay with Duyet at just after midday and left my passport at the reception desk. I decided to have a bowl of Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) and got chatting to a friend on messenger who was thinking of coming to Vietnam to visit. I spoke to Bich, Ben and Howie for a bit, Bich seemed shocked when we heard that I couldn’t extend my visa because it’s a tourist e-Visa! This is the only legitimate tourist visa there is in Vietnam, currently, and has been the case since mid-March. I was fuming! This was probably the most expensive trip I’d taken and I was regretting us spending the money for me not to see much of Captain Caveman. I had to leave Vietnam by the 5th July! I went back home in the jeep feeling very deflated and disappointed, even though I knew this would happen. I had a swim and a sleep but had headaches for the rest of the day. I had a coke to try to help with my headache and dehydration but it didn’t work. I had Stilton and French baguette for dinner with a glass of red wine, still left from last night. I had 12 days left of my visa so I should probably make the most of my time in Vietnam while I was still here so tomorrow I planned to meet up with friends who were visiting Phong Nha. I would discuss with Captain Caveman a Plan B when he got back on Friday.
When Captain Caveman and I woke up just before 6am on Tuesday 21st June, the electricity was off and it was hot! For some reason I also sneezed a lot, I’m not much of a sneezer but it was easily 20 times consecutively. We had croissants for breakfast, Captain Caveman had extra butter and jam on his, I had mine plain. After I’d said goodbye to Captain Caveman, who would be back from Son Doong on Friday afternoon, I did a few things from my To Do list. I was definitely behind on my Turkish lessons, despite doing a bit on Duolingo here and there, and it was hard not to be speaking any Turkish for practice. Captain Caveman had been given the keys for the ‘spare’ room so I went in to check it out. This meant that I could finally unpack after 11 days of living out of my suitcase in my own home! It took me a long time as the temperature in the room was 34.5°C and it didn’t seem to get any cooler with AC or the fan on, once the electric was fully back on. I had leftover curry for lunch and then ate some defrosted mango. I was looking forward to having a girls afternoon/night with Kat and Tatas but that didn’t quite go to plan. Tatas decided she didn’t want to come and was going to catch up with one of her friends instead. Kat messaged to say she was busy until 9pm but would come over after that. In the evening I finally got the temperature in the bedroom down to 27.3°C and the bathroom 29°C with the AC back on and trying to reach 24°C. Kat arrived and I was impressed that she had been able to find the place easily enough. She had kindly brought fruit and I was pleased to have my first red dragon fruit since being back in Vietnam. I really enjoyed her company, we drank wine and chatted about all sorts – we had some interesting conversation until about 3.30am! I found out that she knew the chef I had a fall out with in Dalyan, and had lived on the same island as him in Cambodia – it’s a small world! During our chatting we got on to the topic of visas, Kat mentioned that she thought I should recheck with my contacts about their promise to renew my visa. She thought the same as me, that it was impossible to renew a tourist e-Visa in the country and I told her my contacts had all confirmed to me it could be done. I’d even sent photos of my visa, passport and the relevant stamps to double check and I had been told I could submit my passport to process this on the 25th July. Both Kat and I were dubious of this so I messaged my contact, who’d been super helpful thus far, and hoped to get an answer in the morning.
Monday 20th June obviously started with me having a hangover. I had Tham message at 7am to say her physio could see me at 9am and then Bich called to tell me to get to the Lake House for my massage. There was no way I could function so I cancelled and blamed Tony, who had also cancelled his session. I finally got up for a bacon and brown sauce muffin, made by Captain Caveman about 10.15am. He had bacon, egg and cheese on his but I couldn’t look at it.
After spending a few hours in or next to the pool Captain Caveman made lunch; sausage and pesto spaghetti which was nice. It was a very hot day so I was impressed when Captain Caveman walked to the Lake House to retrieve Trigger, the motorbike. We arranged to meet Tatas in Phong Nha at 3.30pm at Coffee Station where Captain Caveman had a smoothie and a coconut coffee, I had 2 lemon juices. I noticed there was a hotel opposite where 2 goats were trying to go in to reception and it made me laugh.
Our next stop was Phong Nha Vegan to see our good friend, Chung. I invited Tatas but she needed to go home to exercise and shower before meeting me later. The Phong Nha Vegan restaurant had moved since I’d last been here and it was about 250m from Victory Road Villas, situated on the riverside, in what was Google House. We bumped in to Dung and Leo from Jungle Boss, who were just leaving and we sat down on some tyre seats in a sunny spot overlooking the river. We both had a juice which was very refreshing and chatted to Chung for a while. As we were fragile from last night and had already eaten we didn’t eat but we really needed to come back another time as the menu looked fantastic. Chung was now working full time at the vegan restaurant and was really enjoying it.
Captain Caveman had to leave at 5pm as he had a briefing for his next Oxalis tour tomorrow. I walked, in my plastic porter sandals, past Song Doong Bungalow, to The Villas to meet Tatas and Kat for curry night. By the time I got there I was desperate for the AC and my sandals, which I’d not worn for 9 months, had rubbed my feet. I was the first one there, I had a cold Huda beer and waited for the others to arrive. Kat was next to arrive and had decided she wouldn’t have curry but would order off the regular menu. When Tatas arrived she ordered gin and tonic and we both ordered the butter chicken special, Kat ordered the Caeser salad (I was pleased to see it didn’t have a poached or boiled egg in it) and we had a good chat. At 8pm Captain Caveman arrived just as our food was being served so he got a beer and waited for us to eat. I invited Kat and Tatas over for a pool afternoon and wine evening at Elements Collection tomorrow, as Captain Caveman would be back in the cave. They both said yes and I got a lift back with Captain Caveman. We all said our goodbyes in the car park and went off on the motorbikes, me with half of my leftover curry in my hand.
Captain Caveman had his second day off on Sunday 19th June and it would turn out to be rather a good one. We started the day with a Lake House croissant for breakfast and they were probably the best croissants I’ve had – they were massive too. I updated Captain Caveman on various events we had been invited to and ran down my list of things to ask him. I always make a list when he’s in the cave so that I don’t forget. He was pleased to be going to a couple of weddings in Dalyan and a 40th birthday celebration in Rhodes during September and October. He had told me that he’d asked his company to book his flight back to Turkey at the end of August and then he would take a flight to Belgium on the first weekend of September for the Belgian beer festival. He would fly back to Rhodes ready for the celebrations. We would stay there for a few days before returning to Dalyan, just in time to see our friends and neighbours, Amanda and Greg. We went to the Phong Nha Farmstay to have a meeting with Bich but she was busy so I had a soda water. We saw Tham, from the Lake House, who said she would try to book me in for a massage with a new physiotherapist which was going to be helpful for my trapped nerve. Our next stop was to visit Stu, Max and Jack at their house. Their house is so lovely and I really should have taken my swimmers for the pool but I forgot. It was good to catch up but we didn’t stay too long as we still had lots of stuff to do while Captain Caveman had a day off. By the time we left it was boiling hot, even sitting on the motorbike seat in heat was unbearable. We went back to the Farmstay hoping to see Bich but she was still busy – it was good to see a few international tourists back, relaxing by the pool. We decided to order some lunch and have a shandy, Captain Caveman suggested fried spring rolls so I suggested fresh spring rolls as well and we could share both. When the food came Captain Caveman polished off 5 of the fried spring rolls and said he didn’t want the fresh ones, he thought they were mine – it was going to take a while to get back to ‘normal’. As we were almost ready to leave, and the heat was getting to me, Bich joined us and we had a good chat about the villa situation. It was agreed we could have the whole villa to ourselves so Captain Caveman confirmed he would rent it from July. I was a bit concerned that we were potentially paying more money for something I wouldn’t get to stay in after my visa expired in July but Captain Caveman didn’t seem too concerned.
Back home I popped on my swimmers and was just about to get in the pool when Captain Caveman came in to the bedroom and said to get my clothes on because we were going back out. Tony, from the Lake House, had called to say he was having a small party and to come up right away. I had to get a shower as I was just so hot. Knowing how difficult it is for me to get out of the house when Captain Caveman isn’t here, I agreed to go. I knew it would end up in carnage, it always does whenever Tony is involved. At the ‘party’ which was already in full swing were only 2 inebriated participants; Tony and Dave (aka Drifter). We started with a few cans of Saigon beer with ice in an attempt to catch up, I insisted Captain Caveman agree to leave his motorbike and us get a taxi home. It was only 3.30pm so we thought we might even walk home while it was still light! More beers and ice came, some french fries got put in front of us and Drifter started to look like he’d had enough. By 4.35pm he’d been renamed Dangerous Dave and had to be taken home by one of the staff while the rest of us started on the white wine. An hour later we were doing shots, at least the Lake House call them shots but they were large measures of spirits. Captain Caveman and Tony had large Jameson’s with ice while I had a large Tequila with salt and lemon. I had to do it in 2 goes as it was too big to do in one. At 6.20pm we were on the first of an expensive bottle of Riesling white wine, Tony had managed to get 2 of his waitresses, who were meant to be working, tiddly and cheesed off his wife. We managed to order lots of food, including beef, chicken strips and a pizza which we snaffled, along with 2 more bottles of Riesling. Tony was in charge of the music and made quite a good DJ, he and I even got up for a dance next to the bar. We were all shit-faced and have no idea what time we got home but it was dark and we had to get a taxi. I made Captain Caveman pay for 2 bottles of the more expensive wine on our bill so we didn’t do bad for a small party on a Saturday afternoon/night. Tony’s soirées are often messy but such good fun and I hoped he’d get to meet my Dalyan mates when they came out to visit.
By 10am on Saturday 18th June, Captain Caveman had made a bit of room for my clothes in the wardrobe/shelving area. He’d also decided that he wanted to rent the both rooms in our villa because it made sense to have the whole place to ourselves. As there hadn’t been any tourists about, until very recently, there had been no need for Captain Caveman to have shared the communal kitchen, living area and swimming pool with anyone who rented the other double bedroom. If we rented the entire villa we would have more space, including ample room for my small amount of belongings, and a room for guests to stay, or me to do my writing in. We had a cooked breakfast, which I started but Captain Caveman took over cooking as he wanted to add black pudding and eggs to his. The sausages and bacon were from Stu and were really tasty, Captain Caveman’s plate was very full. We lolled about round the pool, I wore one of my new swimsuits, from a friend in Dalyan, which I really love. Captain Caveman wasn’t a fan of it and said it made me look old fashioned and older. My cut foot was now almost heeled and the skin had grown quite a lot where the cut had been – I was walking normally again. At 3.30pm Captain Caveman was getting ready to set off to Phong Nha as he had more errands to run before Bien’s wedding. I put a dress on but wore cycling shorts beneath it for riding on the back of the motorbike. We went to Funny Monkeys to collect peanut butter, Captain Caveman wears a full face helmet so it was no problem for him to drive straight in to a large overhanging tree with thorns and flowers on. I wasn’t best pleased to get scratched but he just argued the plant wasn’t spikey, I shoved a thorny branch in front of his face! We picked up the home made peanut butter and was on to our next stop. A small stall outside a local’s house where he’d tried to buy onions and eggs yesterday but could see no one at home to pay. Captain Caveman had took a photo of the items on the scales yesterday so he could pay today but they were closed. Our next stop was Oxalis Home, where I’d not been since before the pandemic. Captain Caveman had a soft drink and I had a beer. It was very busy with guests returning from tours.
We carried on to the wedding and were seated with a few other familiar faces. Chung and Uy were so pleased to see us and gave us beer with ice straight away. The wedding lasted all of 35 minutes before the mass exodus started and, as it was extremely hot, we were not too far behind. We managed a full 55 minutes though. On the way back, the grocery stall in the house was open again so I watched while Captain Caveman tried to explain he’d already taken items yesterday and had just come back to pay. He nearly got the items again and the husband was in trouble with his wife, possibly for leaving the stall unattended yesterday. I needed a pee, after all that beer, so we stopped off at Tree House cafe on our way to pick up some croissants. Captain Caveman had a coffee and I had a passion fruit smoothie, which was brilliant. Mao, who had been at the wedding too, was there and managed to scare off some backpackers with how drunk he was. Our next stop was the Lake House to pick up some pre-ordered croissants but they weren’t there yet. This lead to us having a bottle of white wine at a cost of 660,000vnd (£23.76), as the cheaper one wasn’t available, while we waited for them to come from Dong Hoi. We got to see Snowy, the dog, who loves Captain Caveman and finally got the croissants but didn’t pay at the time on account that the bill said there were 10 breadrolls instead of 6 croissants.
By 9.30am on Friday 17th June I was making a version of a cooked breakfast at home. I had bacon, baked beans and potatoes and it was good. I was by the pool when Captain Caveman messaged to say he was out of the cave and on his way back to Phong Nha. I had arranged to go to pizza night and Captain Caveman was keen to join it too. He had the night off and was also off for the next 2 days. Of course, it would be wrong of me to think that when Captain Caveman has time out of the cave that I will automatically be the only person he spends time with. Even his Friday night had errands he had to run too. I donned my motorbike helmet and got on the back of Trigger (the motorbike) for a ride in to Phong Nha with Captain Caveman. Our first stop was at Tree House cafe where he ordered some ground coffee beans. I had my first Saigon beer and Captain Caveman had an iced coconut coffee while we waited for the coffee to be ground. I worked with Hoàng, the owner of Tree House, a few years ago and it was nice to see him and the lovely cafe again.
Next, we carried on to The Villas for pizza night. Captain Caveman and I picked a table next to the bar so we could take advantage of the half price margaritas and the all you can eat pizza night commenced. As Captain Caveman was driving, he had 1 and a half margaritas and I had 2 and a half. The price of the all you can eat pizza was now 180,000vnd (£6.50) which was still good value if you can eat a lot of pizza. Our total night out for both of us came to 660,000vnd (£24). As we were eating, The Villas manager came over to chat to us and was keen to tell me something I didn’t know about. Lan, who is very nice, mentioned that Captain Caveman had shared the penthouse suite with her and Hong (another pretty, young waitress) on a couple of occasions. She didn’t help his case when she told me that, because he had been too drunk to ride his bike home and the hotel had been fully booked, she had let him share with the 2 of them. This had happened on 2 occasions and she seemed surprised that Captain Caveman had forgotten to mention it to me. It’s a good job I knew Lan and Hong well enough to know they are nice girls and were just looking out for Captain Caveman when he was too drunk. Bien’s stag party was in full swing and Captain Caveman kept getting texts from the lads to see where he was so he went to join while I stayed at The Villas to finish my pizza and cocktail. It was better to get a lift lift back to Elements with Bich, anyway so I didn’t mind missing the stag party. When I got home, Captain Caveman was just arriving back and we had some drinks before bed. We had decided that Captain Caveman would submit his top 10 songs to Kate’s mammoth playlist she was compiling for future boat trips, I’d already done mine. This then led to us dancing away to lots of tunes which people had already suggested, as well as our own. I was also really pleased that we had nothing to get up early for tomorrow, Captain Caveman’s first full day off with me in Phong Nha since I arrived 1 week ago.
It was hard to believe that it had been 2 weeks since my last full day and night in Dalyan, the day of my amazing leaving party. On Thursday 16th June I tried to organise myself a bit better and, although I was still living out of my suitcase, I had got used to it. I should think myself lucky to live as well as I do and I decided to try to finish more of the Mike Tyson autobiography that I was still reading. It was too hot for breakfast so I didn’t bother with anything except for several glasses of water. By 11.30am it was 35°C inside the house and I had to try to cool myself down – it would turn in to a numerous shower and 2 changes of swimwear kind of a day. I had sweated less in a sauna on an expensive spa weekend and was now having to have a flannel for mopping my brow. I was pleased I’d bought new sunglasses in Çalış as I really needed them today. I even did a spot of actual sunbathing with factor 30 and 50 on. I had a cheese sandwich for lunch and by 3.30pm I had to adopt another way of keeping cooler, a beer in the pool. As the sun was going in I witnessed a fantastic sight; The cow next door had walked home early and wanted to get in for his dinner. The gate was closed so he stood there and moo’d for someone to let him in. The owner was out, as I’d seen him pop off on his motorbike, but the cow didn’t know this and continued to wait, next he stomped his hoof – I took a couple of videos of him as he was so cute. For dinner I had the rest of my roast dinner from Sunday with some extra steamed rice and it was pretty nice. Tomorrow, Captain Caveman would be out from Son Doong with 2 days off and I was really looking forward to that.
The cow wants to be let in the gate for dinnerThe cow gets more impatient at not being let in for dinner
I was woken up early by a storm, heavy rain and the electric going off and on, on Wednesday 15th June. I did what I could to keep cool, without a fan or AC and made a cup of Yorkshire tea. Tatas and I formed a new plan and Darren had realised he couldn’t join us as he was off to Dong Hoi. Instead of meeting at East Hill for BBQ chicken, we would have it delivered to Elements around 12.30pm, Tatas would come over until it was time to go to the briefing with Darren. It had been a while since I’d had East Hill chicken and it didn’t disappoint; 280,000vnd (£9.80) for a whole BBQ chicken, cucumber, sticky rice with peanut salt and a chilli based sauce, called cheo. We ate downstairs in the communal area because it was cooler but the electric did come back on. I opened a bottle of red wine, The Accomplice, which we had with our tasty lunch. We went up to the pool and had a swim, Tatas was up for taking photos and she became a model for a while. I had turned my back for a couple of minutes when I noticed Tatas had only put a glass of wine on the ridge of the infinity pool. My heart was in my mouth now, while I took photos, as I could see how easy it would be for her to fall off as she picked up the glass from beside the pool. I’m always telling Captain Caveman off for having glasses too near the pool too. After Tatas had gone to work, I was having a quiet night in and hoping for an early night. I didn’t get to bed until gone midnight and it was pretty hot still.
On Tuesday 14th June Captain Caveman was up early, ready for his next tour. I asked him to resend me his schedule for June, July and August as I didn’t realise that he’d only have 2 more days off in the rest of the month. Captain Caveman had already had the first 8 days of June off to go to meet me in Saigon. I hadn’t realised this before my flight was booked to turn up 5 days into his days off, I should have come earlier if I wanted to see him more. Before Captain Caveman left, we went out to see Bluey, my bicycle, and he managed to adjust her seat for me so that I had a way of getting about, if it ever got cool enough for me to attempt it. I didn’t bother with breakfast as I was feeling too hot but by the time it got to lunch time I was peckish. I put the rice cooker on and had my left over butter chicken and naan bread with steamed rice and it was delicious. In the afternoon I chilled out by the pool with my new book, Two Pillars Remain, and a White Russian (the cocktail, not a war refugee). I got in touch with Tatas and Darren to arrange doing something tomorrow, as they both had a day off then a briefing together. We hoped to go to one of my favourite places in Phong Nha, if the weather was ok.
Monday 13th June was another fun day and I was looking forward to Captain Caveman getting back later. I was still struggling with the heat and, despite me having the AC on 24°C, the temperature in the room was over 30°C at 10am. The cleaning staff were surprised, but happy, to see me back at Elements. They came to give the place a spruce up and bring more towels for the bathroom and pool. I spent a lot of time swimming because my trapped nerve in my left glute was hurting and I didn’t have lunch until 2.30pm. I finished off the rest of the bolognese with spaghetti and probably shouldn’t have eaten so much because I had plans for tonight. Captain Caveman was back home about 4pm but then had to be at his briefing for the next tour at 6pm. He had bought some new jeans for motorbiking while I’d been away and he looked really good in them. While he rode back off to Phong Nha I waited for my lift. Bich and Ben had decided to restart the Monday curry night at The Villas which was nice, as they used to do a lovely butter chicken. Bich came over and had a friend in the car with her who wanted to look round our villa so we did that first. We were still at The Villas before 6pm and I was going to sit in the AC room but Bich’s friend was making a call to his wife in Australia. He’d already spoken to her in the car on the way but he continued to speak to her for a long time, while I sat at the bar with a Pina Colada (50% off on a Monday) and free popcorn. Stu, the kids and a friend from Dong Hoi were meant to be joining the curry night but only Stu made it, by which time we no longer waited for the guy to finish his video call with his wife. The butter chicken came with steamed rice and garlic naan bread and was a generous portion. The curry was delicious but I couldn’t finish it all so I got a doggy bag just as Captain Caveman came to join us. Stu pre-ordered enough for the guys back home plus took half of his home too. Captain Caveman had already eaten at his Oxalis briefing and we had another event to get to. One of the lads who he works with, Núi, was getting married tomorrow so tonight was the stag party, to which we were both invited. If Captain Caveman hadn’t been driving, and working tomorrow, we’d have been able to give the ball a right kick. Instead, I had to take a few beers for the team with the lads. We didn’t stay long but it was good to see a few friendly faces and it was a shame we would miss the wedding.
I found Sunday 12th June to be a more positive day. I decided to make some plans to go out, while Captain Caveman was on day 3 of his 4 day tour. Tomorrow, Captain Caveman would come out in the afternoon, have a shower, put the washing in and repack to go back in the cave. He would attend the briefing of the next group instead of the gala dinner of the existing group and be back in Son Doong the day after, for another 4 days. This was disappointing for me but I focused on him having 2 days off on the 18th of this month, so only 6 days to wait until we could do something together, perhaps. I didn’t bother with any breakfast but I did have a lovely lunch. I’d taken another mystery jar out of the freezer to find that Captain Caveman had made Bolognese with pork mince and bacon. There was further disruption to my exercise schedule this week as the dead bird was still in the pool. By this time I had seen Duyet who had sent another man to remove the dead bird from the pool. He couldn’t find the bird even when I was pointing to it while wrapped in my towel, having just got out of the shower. I decided to ask Duyet for a lift to the Phong Nha Farmstay, for my first time this year, where I hoped they still had a bar and a happy hour. While I was waiting to get in the jeep I noticed we had a new pet. Unfortunately, Carrot the dog was no longer with us so it looked like we now had a squirrel. In a cage. The word for squirrel in Vietnamese is sóc so I promptly named it Sox. There was water and banana for it to eat but it was quite shy and looked a bit scared of me. The drive up to the Farmstay brought back memories as I saw the farmers planting or tending to the rice paddies along the way. When I arrived and logged in to the free WiFi (I still didn’t have a SIM card yet) I noticed Kat had been trying to call me. She only uses Instagram but I didn’t have notifications turned on for it. Kat and Buu had decided to come join me at the Farmstay for happy hour and a Sunday Roast. I couldn’t believe my luck when I discovered that there was draft beer and the Sunday dinner had been restarted too. As I was at the bar I noticed there were some pretty good ‘not on the menu’ specials, including the notorious Sam Mackenzie Veggie pie, apparently available every day. The staff were still getting used to having international customers again but there were a few of us about, including a lady I remembered seeing just as the pandemic hit Vietnam. As I had been desperate to eat pork again I ordered my roast dinner with just pork and no lamb, Kat and Buu shared a meal and ordered a Spaghetti Bolognese too. I had the red wine which came with the deal too. It was good to see Kat and Buu again who had remained in Vietnam throughout the pandemic. We chatted with Bich too, who had some funny stories from her recent Australia trip. There was a new book on display at the Phong Nha Farmstay which Veronika and her friend, Sue, had written about the local area of Cu Nam. It was a available for a minimum 100,000vnd (£3.60) donation towards the village museum. I donated 200,000vnd for a copy of it and popped it in my bag to read by the pool one day. Kat and I shared my chocolate fondant cake as it’s very rich and she hadn’t tried it before. She shared her carrot cake with Buu and offered me some but by this time I was too full. The set price of 300,000vnd (£10.80) was the same as last year but I did notice the portions, although a generous portion, weren’t quite as big as the last time I had one. I ended up with lamb and pork despite my ordering specifically without lamb because the staff forgot, there was no crackling and the Yorkshire pudding was small – I suspected the oven was opened during the cooking process. I enjoyed my dinner and I even took half home to pop in the freezer. After saying our goodbyes and agreeing to meet up for wine drinking at a girls night for us cave widows we all went home. I got a lift back with Duyet after having an extra beer because the happy hour had not included draft beer but I’d had 1 draft and 1 bottle, so now I needed 1 more bottle. Even though the draught beer was so much nicer it was 45,000vnd (£1.62) for a half so I would have to limit them. My total spend for today had been 600,000vnd (£21.60) which was kind of a bit over our usual budget, but did include a book, 4 alcoholic drinks, a dinner and a pudding.
joloyolo 