On Wednesday 8th September we woke to the news of how many new cases were reported in Quang Binh yesterday; 53 but none of them were in our area. Also in the Vietnamese news there was an article about the 2nd vaccine dose being Pfizer after a Moderna shortage, more here: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210908/ho-chi-minh-city-mixes-pfizerbiontech-moderna-covid19-vaccines-as-supplies-run-low/63002.html By 8am the housekeeping staff were here to give the room a good clean so we sat downstairs for breakfast. Captain Caveman was making himself some egg containing monstrosity while I had decided to have peanut butter on a baguette. The lockdown food supply was getting us through but I have to admit, anything really nice was like our crack-cocaine equivalent or something, eyeing each other to make sure that no one took too much of an ingredient. Captain Caveman had let it go that I’d had the last of the jam but neither of us wanted to run out of Ly Ly’s peanut butter, hence why he shared his potatoes with me, so I wouldn’t be tempted to have more. I checked on my mushrooms but there were no further crops and when we went back up to the room all the water had run out. Once again Duyet and Cuong had to pump water in to the tank in the roof while I drank my earl grey tea, which we’d had for over a year. We had an amazing lunch of pulled pork (from Stu) with onions, garlic, BBQ sauce, white cabbage and both colours of carrot, on a baguette with a can of Huda beer. For afters we had mango, grapes and dragon fruit and I still thought myself lucky despite the fact that I should have been on the flight to Singapore round about now. We’d hoped we might hear something about the lockdown being lifted or extended before tomorrow’s deadline but we didn’t hear from anyone all afternoon. This made us unnecessarily optimistic so that when we did get the update we were very disappointed. Our entire district of Bo Trach and all of Dong Hoi were being kept in Lockdown under Directive 16 for another week, until Wednesday 15th September at 7pm – I wasn’t leaving next week, then! Before dinner we had a video call with my parents, I was a bit apprehensive at first because I thought I’d get upset after the recent trauma of not being able to leave here, but we had a good laugh and they really cheered me up. I even got a tour of their home to see all the DIY and building projects they had been up to during the pandemic. It looked fantastic and I hoped I’d still get to see it sometime soon. Captain Caveman made us a risotto for tea, which was nice but without wine or cheese in it, it’s not as good. Overall, day 14 of the #STFAH restrictions had been ok, with the highlight of the day being able to moan on to my parents and them reassure me that I’d be ok and to trust my instincts next time.
After yesterday’s fiasco I was exhausted and still pretty cheesed off with the whole debacle when I woke up on Tuesday 7th September. I should have been leaving here today to go to Hanoi airport for my flight to Singapore tomorrow. It was raining still and continued to do so most of the day, Captain Caveman was more mad today than he had shown yesterday but there was nothing either of us could do about the entire situation. Before I had even got out of bed I was looking at ways to try to recoup some money as we had spent so much on something that didn’t go to plan and were already pretty skint to start with. I looked in to any possibility of getting money transferred from Turkey via email or letter and, having let our Turkish agent (and friend) know I wouldn’t be arriving on Thursday, as hoped, I was given some help to try to get the money transferred. Still from my bed, I was on the phone to Singapore Airlines customer services to sort out my flight, we knew we couldn’t get a refund but they were able to move the flights to another date, fortunately without having to pay any more. Singapore Airlines had made my day, they were so good and easy to deal with, very thorough and efficient and said I could move my flight to later in September, or even in to October. I didn’t unpack as we thought there may be a chance that, if lockdown is lifted in the next couple of days, I might make it out earlier. We had leftover dinner made in to chicken and pepper egg fried rice for a late breakfast, which was delicious. I got a message confirming the safe delivery of my passport to immigration, which we had to pay 500,000vnd (£16) for and I managed to get the visa extension price for the same price as previously. I found the green beetle had fallen in to our pool and was struggling to get out because of the rain so I rescued him with the arm of my sunglasses and he looked as tired and fed up as me. I was late checking the news today as Captain Caveman and I were looking into the number of reported cases in Quang Binh, strangely they reported 91 cases for the 2nd day running which seemed a bit of a coincidence. Also in the Vietnamese news a man was given 5 years in jail for spreading Corona virus to 8 people, 1 died. You can read about it here: https://bbc.in/3n94uGX I messaged the Elements owner to let her know I hadn’t left and that I planned to stay a little longer, luckily she was happy with that. She even arranged to send us some treats in the form of baguettes, tangerines and potatoes which got to us, from Dong Hoi, in hardly any time at all – it was so kind of her! We had chicken and napa cabbage baguettes for lunch and then the water went off. In the scheme of things having no water was a minor inconvenience so we weren’t too bothered as Duyet and Cuong had to drag a hose across the pool and into the tank in the roof from the property opposite, using a ladder that didn’t look too robust. We shared passion fruit as a snack, had a beer and it was strangely not a stressful day at all. For dinner we had chicken, peppers, napa cabbage and BBQ sauce in fresh baguettes and went to bed early. Unfortunately, my leaving situation had come to a dead end and we had to accept that I definitely would not be able to leave during a lockdown and I’d have to just wait until restrictions were lifted. The next announcement was due on the 9th September but we hoped that tomorrow we would find out that lockdown would end on Thursday, then I could leave without any drama!
I set my alarm for 6am on Monday 6th September as I was getting picked up by the Oxalis vehicle at 7am at the junction of the small road to our place and the highway. It was day 12 of the #STFAH Directive 16 Lockdown but I was off to Hoan Lao hospital, which is about 30 minutes away and still in the same district of Bo Trach. I had my permission slip, my passport and my vaccine stamp in a waterproof bag, I was wearing Captain Caveman’s waterproof jacket and I took one of the Elements Collection umbrellas for the 10 minute walk to the roadblock and main road, in heavy rain. As I approached the house on the left before the barrier, a man shouted in Vietnamese to ask where I was going. I replied Hoan Lao and tried to show him my permission slip but he wasn’t letting me near him and just waved me away. My trainers were squelching and my feet were cold but I made it to the pick up point for 7am, everywhere was closed and there was nowhere dry to sit or stand so I just waited at the side of the empty main road. I checked with Captain Caveman a couple of times over the next half an hour if he had heard if they had set off as no vehicles had passed me at all, I didn’t want to be forgotten. Captain Caveman had heard nothing but eventually at 7.30am I heard two mini buses driving towards me, I assumed they would be the Oxalis ones and stood in the middle of the first lane of the highway to wave them down. The 1st bus told me to get on the 2nd one, so I did and there was already 6 people on, none of whom I recognised and all seated, nicely spaced out and wearing masks, some of them were double masked! When we got to Hoan Lao hospital it had almost stopped raining and we had to queue up with social distancing measures that were actually strictly enforced. We had to sanitize our hands and then stamp ourselves with the stamp on the table. I watched and copied everyone else as there didn’t seem to be anyone who spoke much English and then we all went to a designated outdoor area with a roof over and lots of plastic chairs, I was still confused as to why I needed a quick test to go to pick up my negative PCR results but if this is what it took to get out of here, then so be it. There was a small queue where we sat on red plastic chairs 2 metres apart until we got to the first desk which had 4 attached pens and lots of copies of forms to complete. I asked a girl from our bus if this was a form for the quick test, using Google translate, she said yes. I started to fill one of the forms in, having sent a copy to Captain Caveman to help me translate both of the pages, at the next desk were 6 fully covered, masked and shielded nurses so I asked them if I had the correct form and they said yes. It was at that point that I realised I was not in the queue for a quick test, this was the queue for vaccinations!
I had been waiting to get my 2nd vaccine, which would be 12 weeks since the 1st one in 2 days time and that had been one of the reasons I still hadn’t left Vietnam yet, hoping to be fully vaccinated before taking a flight or travelling through any major cities. I was so excited to find out that I was in the ‘wrong’ queue at Hoan Lao hospital and I hoped that there was perhaps some confusion over me being told that I needed a quick test and me getting a 2nd vaccine. I continued with the form and handed it to the nurse at desk 2, desk 3 was in clear sight and that consisted of doctors taking blood pressure and completing some details on a form, up the steps from there were 2 tables but I could only just see one and it had health workers waiting to jab people – they didn’t even have anyone waiting so I was even more giddy. At that point Captain Caveman had managed to get in touch with his colleague who had located the Marketing guy from Oxalis, Trung, to come and help translate for me. This was fortuitous as the nurse was asking me questions, which of course I didn’t understand, and he’d just had his 2nd vaccine. It was at this point that I wish I’d acted differently but I didn’t realise what was happening; Trung asked if I had already had my 1st vaccine and so I said yes and got out my receipt paper from that jab. I was next in line to get the jab, I’d even taken my coat off. That’s when the first bit of bad news came; they could not give me the vaccine because they were injecting Moderna today and my first vaccine was Astra Zeneca, which is not considered compatible in some countries, including Vietnam. No!!!! Captain Caveman then let me know I was in the wrong queue and I should be getting a quick test so off we went to another part of the hospital. It took 45 minutes from getting there, paying the 238,000vnd (£7.62), having the more brutal test than last time and then waiting for the result (so not that quick really). While waiting for the results we walked to the pharmacy to buy Captain Caveman some Diclofenac pills because he had a bad foot, I had to walk through a massive puddle in the rain and they were really cheap so I bought 4 strips at 6,000vnd a strip (£0.19) and then we went back to wait for my results. We walked past the bus and apologised for the wait and then got chatting; Trung lives in Dong Hoi but had come by motorbike today, he had had to have a quick test this morning to come to Hoan Lao, which he had at the CDC and took less than 5 minutes – that was useful to know. Eventually I got my negative quick test result, stamped on the back of my payment receipt, and headed back to the bus where everyone was waiting, there was one more passenger to come and that had been the guy I sat next to on the way there – he got the vaccine and the quick test and was really excited about it! The drive back was quicker as the checkpoints didn’t seem to be as lengthy on the return, a couple of them just waved us through. When I got off the bus on the highway, just past the Lake House, the weather was sunny and very humid, as I approached the checkpoint to our road home there was a few people about and shouting. The guy I saw this morning was there and stood up to ask how I was, I shouted over in Vietnamese ‘I’m negative’ and they all got really excited and let me through. On the way some builders (who weren’t wearing masks and shouldn’t be building) told me to go back and asked where I was going, I told them home and that I was negative and all was good. I was very hot, thirsty, sweaty and hungry when I got in the house! It had been a busy 3 hours out of the house, not observing the #STFAH rules and now all we needed to do was to ask Oxalis to book us the car to get my negative PCR test results (for flying) in Dong Hoi after 2pm this afternoon.
Captain Caveman offered to make me some mushrooms on toast when I got back home after my exciting outing to Hoan Lao hospital but I just had some buttered toast and water, while he got ready for an online meeting with 2 of the managers at work. I had a shower and tried to relax but my nose was hurting after this sample, the nurse was brutal and my nose felt very sore – how the delivery drivers and health staff were coping having it done every few days, I didn’t know. Captain Caveman’s meeting finished and we decided to have a swim in the pool because we were still waiting until after 2pm to be told we could go to get my ‘proper’ PCR test results. I also had a friend waiting on standby to do me a massive favour, Oxalis had told us that my certificate would be organised for pick up at the CDC in Dong Hoi after 2pm and that all the required details for Singapore Airlines, we had listed to them, would be on the paper. I had also organised for my friend to pick up my certificate, send me a photo of it and get any details that were wrong changed. There was no point me trying to get to Dong Hoi, in a lockdown, if the certificate wasn’t acceptable for my flight and my friend has a shipping company so was confident she could send me the paperwork, even if we had to send it in a food delivery. At this point we were one step ahead but I was still nervous as I had a feeling it was going to go wrong, despite everyone trying to do their best to help me. The first thing to go wrong was that we didn’t receive communication to let us know the document was ready, it was my friend who found this out for me as she was already on standby and at the CDC. She had got there earlier than expected, got a hold of both mine and Captain Caveman’s negative certificates and sent photos to me. They were wrong, so I sent the correct info to her and Captain Caveman called Oxalis to let them know. The 3rd thing to go wrong was a biggy and it turned out that nobody could rectify the situation. My document was incorrectly dated therefore they needed me to go there immediately to get another PCR test this afternoon and I would get the results tomorrow. I was almost in tears and we asked Oxalis to sort me out transport to go immediately – after all, I had my negative quick test from this morning. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be arranged for me to do this as there were no cars available and I was told I could drive myself (I don’t have a motorbike, or a licence, I have a bad leg and probably wouldn’t make it as a passenger either)! Once again we asked Bich if she could help and if she could find any way to get me to Dong Hoi, it felt like complete pandemonium over the next hour or so as I went in to a bit of a melt down and Captain Caveman calmly took charge of the situation. I decided to warm up some beef stew from last night as it was 4pm and I was so hungry and upset that things were going wrong. We tried every avenue we could think of for a driver and car, Captain Caveman still had a negative PCR result and could drive me, in a car. Bich submitted another permission request to the People’s Committee for Captain Caveman to drive me in Tham & Tony’s car (from the Lake House) to the CDC in Dong Hoi first thing tomorrow morning, as it was too late tonight, to have another PCR test, then come back here and then tomorrow afternoon get the results and correct paperwork needed to fly, shipped to me by my friend in Dong Hoi. This would just be in time (hopefully) for me to get my car to Hanoi, as long as everything went according to this new plan – I started eating my beef stew and we waited for agreement from the People’s Committee. Day 12 of the #STFAH lockdown was certainly becoming the most stressful day I’ve had here!
I had hardly touched my beef stew when Bich called with more bad news, permission for us to leave the district had been denied. We needed to leave Bo Trach to enter Dong Hoi, get the test and then reenter Bo Trach, none of these stages were acceptable to the People’s Committee and we were refused. Bich had an alternative suggestion but she needed to look into it and it would have to be tomorrow, just me and I probably wouldn’t be able to come back from Dong Hoi either. Once in Dong Hoi I could get the test and then just sit and wait all day for the results, when I had them I would have to get me and my luggage to the border to meet Danny, the driver, and then I’d be on my way to Hanoi airport, 500km away. Danny, the driver, was already on his way to pick me up tomorrow but because he had to drive 10 hours here then 10 hours back, was planning to sleep for 8 hours between journeys. Unfortunately this last resort didn’t work out and so there was no other options – I couldn’t leave! Bich had already called immigration, who’s solution was to extend my visa for 1 more month in the hope that lockdown would be lifted within that time and I would be allowed to leave the district. By this point I was in tears and couldn’t speak to Bich, even though she was doing everything she could to help me, so Captain Caveman had to take over the phonecalls. I ate my beef stew with tears rolling down my cheeks, utterly pissed off with the whole situation. It was arranged for my passport to get sent tomorrow morning and I would stay here a bit longer, until I was allowed to leave. I messaged Danny, the driver, who couldn’t believe the mess of the situation, he only had permission for me and him to go directly to the airport and I had to have the PCR test to get in the car with him. So now we had to pay him the full amount for a journey I wasn’t taking. Day 12 of the #STFAH had certainly been one I wouldn’t forget easily, both Captain Caveman and I were not happy about the whole situation. Captain Caveman made dinner of chicken, peppers and rice which he ate most of as he was very hungry, I had lost my appetite. Today had been expensive beyond belief and the biggest waste of a day.
We were woken up early by the loudspeaker announcements at 5.30am on Sunday 5th September, reminding us (as if we could have forgot) that we were to #STFAH. It was day 11 of the lockdown and we were doing quite well, all things considered, maybe it was the excitement of me leaving next week that kept us going. More mushrooms had grown overnight and Captain Caveman made us mushrooms on toast, a new first for me. Duyet had managed to get us some potatoes and tomatoes from the local market, which was good. I also got to play with Carrot, the pup, who was getting bigger now, but wasn’t good at posing for selfies. The rest of the day was spent trying to sort out my actual leaving and putting my escape plan in to place. Captain Caveman got a phonecall to say that, in order for me to pick up my negative PCR certificate tomorrow, (which must be done in person) I needed to have a negative quick test to go to Dong Hoi. Even though this seemed rather odd to me, Captain Caveman could see the Vietnamese logic and agreed that I would go tomorrow with some other people, to get one done. Unfortunately Oxalis couldn’t get permission for me to leave our village to go to the hospital in Hoan Lao to get the quick test so he asked us if we could ask Bich to help us get that. We asked and gave my passport to Duyet who then had to go to the People’s Committee to get the completed permission form, which we had to give the full name of the Oxalis driver and licence plate of the vehicle that I would be going there and back on. We didn’t have much time to make lunch in between all the phonecalls and faffing about so we had hot dogs and onions on sliced bread which I didn’t realise we had almost no tomato ketchup or mustard left so they were a bit rubbish – we ate them though! We hoped that all was still on track for me to get my paperwork tomorrow, then leave for Hanoi on Tuesday so I packed my suitcases, including my hand luggage as tomorrow would be a very busy day. I was a bit peeved that with all the toing and froing today we hadn’t even had chance to go in the pool and as everything seemed to have come to a point where we couldn’t do any more but wait, the rains came! We drank beers and watched the storm and had a marvellous dinner of beef stew with potatoes, using the 3 carrots which Bich had given us from her fridge – the dish would have gone nicely with a red wine. Oh well, this time next week I’d probably be drinking a whole bottle of Tılsım (Turkish wine) to myself!
Everything was calm as I ate my buttered toast for breakfast on Saturday 4th September. It was day 10 of the lockdown and everyone around us were still adhering to the #STFAH rules. I went to check on my mushrooms and there was a small crop which were ready for harvesting so I managed to half fill a pocket – not quite enough for a soup but we would have them for dinner tonight. Duyet had surprised us by being able to get us 10 eggs and 2 (orange) carrots from the market, which was great news. I was going to save one of the carrots to be able to take some carrot sticks with me to Hanoi next week. As we didn’t have any cash, Bich was going to give us 2 million vnd (£64) and send it with Ben on the food delivery at the blockade, we would then transfer her the shopping amount plus the 2m. Ben set off with the goods, Captain Caveman left by motorbike from here and then the exchange took place in the no man’s land. Ben captured the pitiful process on video, when Captain Caveman got back he realised there was no money in the bag and when I asked Bich she said Ben had got nervous at the barrier and forgot to put it in the bag. Bich would arrange to send it later on via Duyet which Captain Caveman was glad about as he was low on beers (already). We were once again lucky enough to have got some great essentials, some of which Bich had given us for free from her own kitchen, which was so lovely of her. I was just glad that they still had the big bags of crisps in stock at the Phong Nha Farmstay so that we could stock up on snacks for my forthcoming journey, she gave us loads of fruit and veg too as well as some peanuts so I knew I’d not starve on my trip.
Ben’s video of the food pick up at the blockade between Elements Collection, Khuong Ha and Phong Nha Farmstay, Cu Nam
By lunchtime we figured we must both be negative for the Corona virus as we hadn’t been carted off to a quarantine facility yet so that was good news. We had lunch of Baba Ganoush on toast, followed by jam on toast and then a few of the grapes which Bich had sent! The day kept getting better; I got a message from Danny, the driver, to say he can set off a bit later, drive through the night, so that I don’t have to spend a night in the empty airport by myself. I was very pleased and we confirmed he would pick me up on a road just outside of our district at 9pm on Tuesday 7th September, we’d arrive at Hanoi airport at 7am the next day, 3 hours before my check-in – very helpful! I still hadn’t started packing my suitcases, despite Captain Caveman having brought them down from the upstairs mezzanine immediately after booking the flight! He said I should get on with it so that everything was ready to leave, I was putting it off for some reason. I saw photos of Captain Caveman’s colleagues on Facebook as they did their volunteering at the roadblocks and check points in the fight against the pandemic – I felt sorry for them as rain was forecast and they were sleeping in Oxalis tents on the side of the road! For dinner we had steamed chicken and rice with green beans, mushrooms, peppers, red cabbage, white carrots and the last of the peanut salt.
We were awake early on Friday 3rd September which happened to be day 9 of the #STFAH Directive 16 lockdown. Before we could have any breakfast, Captain Caveman got a call saying we had to go ‘now’ to the Khuong Ha community clinic for a PCR test. We asked where it was but the caller didn’t know so we asked a friend, Lam, who was working as a volunteer at the school down the road which had been turned in to an isolation centre for Corona cases. We tried to find Duyet to let him know we were leaving the premises (and why) but couldn’t, so we let Cuong know – he just looked confused but didn’t stop us. By 10am we were on our bicycles, masked up and armed with hand sanitizer, to go the 3 minute cycle to the Volley ball courts, with attached clinics. There was probably about 100 people there, all in nicely spaced out rows, there were police, doctors and lots of health staff or volunteers. It was outside and as we took our place at the back of the queue we were picked out and asked to come to the front. We gave my name and phone number to a health worker, who gave his details back and then I went first on the chair. I faced the audience of the queuing people and the next victim was a cute little girl who could not have been older than 10, so I tried to be brave. It was quick and very strange, I really had no idea you could get something so far up my nose. It was over in a minute and then Captain Caveman was next – he was less pained from it but he has always been quite a snotty sort, whereas I felt mine for a while after, because of always having a dry nose. On the way back home we cycled past the school which was rumoured to be full of cases, it looked empty, and Lam shouted “Hello Adam and Jo!” as we passed him on the gate. All in all not too unpleasant an experience and now the idea was that the sample would be sent to Dong Hoi CDC to be tested and I was told I could then get the required certificate to enable me to go to Hanoi and then Turkey! Captain Caveman was pleased that it all seemed very straight forward and organised and that it was all going to work out, I (the sceptic in this duo) had serious doubts that what they had promised and what they could deliver might not be the same thing. In my head I was already worried that they didn’t really get what I needed and that it was bound to go pear-shaped!
We had just walked back through the door at home, took our masks off, washed our hands, and Captain Caveman was updating his colleague that we had been tested, when Bich called. She had been called for her to organise for us to go for the PCR test, but we had already gone. She was a bit confused as she knew nothing about it but I explained that neither did we until 30 minutes ago and we just did what we were told. Captain Caveman hadn’t actually needed to get his done but he had decided it was wise to do so in case he ended up having to drive me anywhere to get me out. After speaking to his contact at work, again, Captain Caveman reassured me that they said all could be arranged and we were able to go ahead and book my flights. I was so relieved and, because we’d not eaten yet, we decided to have lunch first. I’m not saying Captain Caveman was happy that I was finally getting out of here, but he decided we would open his very last bottle of emergency wine, which was a very nice one, bought for him by one of his customers, Thien. I thought we should wait until it was all actually done before we started celebrating but he insisted, and I wasn’t going to turn down wine. He made a chicken and mushroom (using the ones we had grown) spaghetti which we had to make do without a sauce as we hadn’t been able to get any and we didn’t have many tomatoes left. It was very hot out so I had to keep getting in the pool to try to cool off and we had a lovely lockdown lunch, with great wine, on the balcony. We did a cheers to getting out of the house for 30 minutes during a #STFAH stint and we also spoke to a friend in Saigon to check how she was getting on. Things were pretty bad there but she was doing ok and was able to get food and wine pretty well. We called my parents and were full of excitement about our day and the plans all coming together to get me a step nearer to getting to Turkey – it could finally be happening!
After speaking to my parents while I sat next to the pool and Captain Caveman was in it, I had been getting quite hot. We put the phone down saying we would call again next week, once I was about to leave, and I desperately needed to get back in the water, which I did. Things were looking up and although I wouldn’t have had a 2nd vaccine, as hoped, I would at least be able to get one in Turkey and start again from scratch with a different brand, probably Pfizer this time. Captain Caveman made a nice dinner of chicken, onions, peppers, green beans and potatoes with BBQ sauce. I was so glad now that I had got the BBQ sauce as we were starting to run out of any moist ingredients. After dinner Captain Caveman took the plunge and booked my flights all the way from Hanoi, Vietnam, to Dalaman, Turkey. I confirmed with Danny, the driver, and I booked my pick up from Dalaman airport with Sonuç at King Emlak in Dalyan. We arranged for the apartment at Fire Opal to get a clean before I arrived, and care package of food for when I got there after a very long journey. We started to plan for my 2 long stays in Hanoi and Singapore airports by sending a shopping request to Bich to order fruit, snacks, crisps for me plus beer, eggs and potatoes for Captain Caveman. Bich was being really good at being able to get us food and said she would arrange to send it tomorrow, although she was concerned I wouldn’t be able to leave next week because of lockdown. Captain Caveman contacted Stu to ask if he could get more pulled pork from him and he agreed to drop some at the Phong Nha Farmstay for Bich to put with our delivery. There was a slight problem we had to worry about now, we had hardly any cash and the ATM is in Phong Nha town, where we are not allowed to go to, during lockdown. Our day 9 of the #STFAH had been a good one and we went to bed feeling like something had been accomplished today – tomorrow I would repack my suitcases again!
Instead of us waking up on Thursday 2nd September to news that we could go out again, I woke up to messages from my Hanoi driver, Danny suggesting we set off earlier and I check in to a hotel in Hanoi for the night. Because I am coming from an area in Directive 16 lockdown, it is not permitted for me to stay in Hanoi without doing quarantine when I arrive there, so this was not an option. He also wanted me to get my PCR test earlier so we could leave earlier which would also mean that when I land in Istanbul, it wouldn’t still be valid, because of the 72 hour rule. Eventually we got it all sorted out but it took a while, even though he has good English, so I only had time for bread and butter for breakfast. I watered the mushrooms and they had a new sprouting of what look like oyster mushrooms. Captain Caveman had been told by his boss, that he could request help from one of his team, so Captain Caveman took him up on this kind offer and sent a message to explain my situation and to see if they could help me leave Vietnam, especially as now I knew I wouldn’t be getting my 2nd vaccine and my visa expires very soon. Captain Caveman was outside and in the pool while I was on messenger being reminded I needed to be gone in 7 days, because immigration were not able to extend my visa again, I explained I needed a PCR test doing for Monday and that I could not book a flight without one, but it got complicated and without an actual appointment I wasn’t prepared to just turn up. We had a late lunch of chicken, red cabbage (we had eaten all the white), white carrot and BBQ sauce on a (still fresh) baguette, followed by some delicious passion fruit. Surprisingly the housekeeping staff came in, masked up, and we sat outside on the balcony until they had finished cleaning our room – I was glad but didn’t expect them to still be working through the lockdown. We managed a swim in the pool and a cold beer but later it started to rain and a storm was brewing. We had grand plans for dinner but because of my excessive bread ordering we needed to eat it up. We decided to properly carb it up and I was going to do us some garlic bread, using the grill function of the microwave for the first time, Captain Caveman was going to make a pasta dish. I overcooked the first lot but it tasted pretty good, the second attempt was too soggy but tasted better and the third go was pretty spot on – 2 pieces of baguette with chopped garlic and cheap Vietnamese butter spread on, before grilling in the microwave for 3 minutes. By the time we had eaten all that we had no room for pasta and, obviously, I had a belly ache! I was shocked that all the gluten I was having wasn’t having a worse reaction to be honest, as I really was abusing the bread and beer far more than ever. We watched another episode of Somebody Feed Phil, this one was in Ireland, then went to bed, having survived the day 8 of the #STFAH Directive 16 restrictions. Tomorrow I knew I’d not be having pizza night but at this point I could actually picture myself being in Turkey, this time next week, then I could be eating a Turkish pide instead.
My Google searches in August had more Turkey, vaccine and travel related searches in, given that I was planning to go back to Turkey soon. Here’s the list in alphabetical order: 1. Astra Zeneca vaccine efficacy 1 dose 2. Airport Assistance 3. Canitravel 4. CDC Dong Hoi 5. Dong Hoi to Hanoi in Km 6. Entry to Turkey 7. Ethylene Oxide 8. French beans 9. Government in Turkish 10. Horseradish 11. İş Bankası 12. Ivermectin 13. joloyolo playlist YouTube 14. King Emlak 15. Mebendazole 16. Moderna vaccine 17. Only 1 vaccine at 12 weeks 18. Pfizer vaccine 19. Qatar Airways PCR test requirements 20. Radish recipes 21. Singapore Airlines PCR test requirements 22. Sinopharm vaccine 23. UK Red list 24. worldlifeexpectancycoronavirus 25. Yoga retreat Dalyan
Today, Wednesday 1st September, was the last scheduled day for the lockdown in our area and we hoped that tomorrow at 6am the restrictions would be lifted. Captain Caveman was optimistic it could happen, I didn’t think it would. Momma D got in touch to say she had heard that Phong Nha market was open so she had decided to try to get some food, she was desperate for onions, but when she got as far as the barrier at the main road, she was told to go home. Her neighbours had given her half a cabbage and a potato and she said she had enough stuff in to make do for now. I decided to ask a Vietnamese friend if she could help me get a PCR test appointment for my forthcoming departure but she said they were too busy at the CDC in Dong Hoi, because of the recent outbreak, and that I couldn’t book one right now – I had to have one (and the negative test result) to be able to leave Phong Nha and fly. Captain Caveman said he would speak to Oxalis tomorrow and ask if they could help get me out of here. It was a busy morning and so I just had bread and butter for breakfast, seeing as we had so much bread because of my over-ordering. We spent most of the day in the pool or sat out on the balcony, we were lucky that the weather was so nice. Captain Caveman had been keeping another birthday bottle of wine for emergency use so when we got word that the Directive 16 Lockdown was to be extended for another 7 days from tomorrow we decided to commiserate and open the wine with lunch!! We had a generous portion of baguette filled with chicken, white cabbage, white carrot and BBQ sauce which was really good, one of my new lockdown favourites. My mushroom farming was starting to reap rewards, a tiny sprouting on one of the embryos had appeared and I hoped to get a few crops out of the 2 embryos. Our #STFAH time was quite pleasant today, day 7, aside from the lockdown restrictions which may hinder my leaving plan somewhat, and we finished off the evening by watching Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix while eating another baguette for dinner – we had the same as for lunch but this time we had red cabbage, instead of white!
I was awake early with a cough, a sore throat and still feeling tired on Tuesday 31st August but it went after some water and a lemon salt sweet. When I went downstairs there was a bag of our returned washing, which hadn’t been folded because Duyet had done them while the girls were staying at home. If one of the worst things to happen was for us to have our laundry without fabric softener and unfolded for once then we could handle it – it was day 6 of the #STFAH lockdown afterall. Captain Caveman made himself an amazing looking omelette while I used the left over rice to make a tasty chicken and sweetcorn egg fried rice for my breakfast. I checked the news as usual and saw they had officially communicated that there would be no domestic flights in Vietnam for the foreseeable future: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-stops-selling-domestic-flight-tickets-4348980.html I also read some interesting stories from westerners who were stuck in Saigon during the lockdown conditions and it made me think it could happen here in the not too distant future. I recieved messages regarding our shopping order with Bich, from the kind shopper, her English is very good and her shopping skills that day in Dong Hoi were amazing. Of course, it was to be expected that there were lots of things she couldn’t get so she was sending me photos of alternative produce and asking lots of useful questions. At this point I was still unsure how we would get the delivery from Dong Hoi, given that I couldn’t get there to get a PCR test without form completions and permissions from the head man, so this would be a good test. I was told that the shopping was complete, took our helper’s bank details and said it would be arriving this afternoon – we chanced our luck and asked for some paracetamol, imodium and Diclofenac too. The total spend was way over our budget but we might not get another ‘big shop’ for a while so Captain Caveman transferred the 1,230,000vnd (£39.36), happy we were getting most of the things we requested. Knowing I’d ordered more bread we finished off what we had left for lunch with homemade Baba Ganoush and peanut butter and wished we could get to Funny Monkeys to buy more peanut butter, which is so delicious. We were in the pool when we got a message to say she couldn’t get the Diclofenac and to check how many of the others to get, our shopper was so efficient and said the package would arrive in 30 minutes! When the delivery arrived Duyet unloaded it in the kitchen, downstairs, while I waited upstairs (following the social distancing rules) and he shouted up to say he had finished unpacking. It was amazing to see so much nice fresh food, even though I had over ordered on bread. Because we had been getting the little banh my baguettes at the market, I had asked for 6 – we got 6 long french stick baguettes from VinMart which are our favourites. It looked like the Gluten test was really going to be put through its paces over the next week as I’d also ordered 2 sandwich/toastie loaves which went in the freezer. Captain Caveman came down to help put stuff away and he was in charge of portion control on the chicken of which we had 8 chicken breasts, of a sizeable ration too. We couldn’t believe how quick and organised it had all been and we were so happy to have all this nice food. We drank beers and watched Somebody Feed Phil, the Venice episode, and it was a good day 6 of lockdown, which looked to be going from a 7 day stint to 14 days and would more than likely be announced tomorrow. Captain Caveman had an online conversation with his boss via messenger where it was explained that I would not be getting my 2nd vaccination any time soon, due to the shortage of vaccines and that the priority people were no longer tourism. He was sorry he couldn’t do anything about it and offered help for both of us from one of his staff, for any assistance we might need during lockdown – this was very kind and we welcomed the offer of help! For dinner we had chicken, white carrot and white cabbage in fresh baguette (we had loads of it) with a beer as we discussed how we would ask for help to get me out of Vietnam, hopefully I would be able to get a vaccine relatively quickly in Turkey!
August was definitely a bit more of a difficult month, starting with the visa/passport/leaving issues and the hope of getting my 2nd vaccine all the way throughout the month. Having no access to any money, bank cards expired and our income versus expenditure being terribly tight was definitely a worry and it meant having to make the tough decisions on how to spend what little money we had, sensibly. Meals and nights out were becoming less, due to low funds and, without any cave tours, Captain Caveman was constantly on his phone, sometimes getting involved with random posters on Facebook who needed advice or correct information – he spoke (wrote) more to them than anyone else! I planned a few times to leave but kept putting it off because of the hope of a 2nd vaccine, which Captain Caveman was extremely lucky to get. We finally ended up in a lockdown situation that we had no idea was coming and this blog was doing well, despite me not having that much to write about that might interest readers, these days. One of my plans to leave Vietnam to go to Turkey and then the UK had failed, as all the things I needed to be in place (and out of my control) didn’t happen. By the end of August I knew there would be no 2nd vaccine for me, that I would not get another visa extension and that travel directly from Turkey to England would not be possible without paid quarantine facilities. However, I knew that once I could fly to Turkey, I could reapply for my residency and then request a 2nd (and probably) 3rd vaccine and I could access some money before working out how to get to the UK to see my family and friends. As the last day of August ended I still didn’t actually know what would happen, or where I would be for definite, in September and that was a very strange feeling.
It was a pretty stressful day on Monday 30th August, day 5 of lockdown. Captain Caveman had forgotten to put his phone on silent the night before so it was pinging even before the loudspeaker man had got to work and I was a little crotchety at the phone going off between 5 and 5.30am. I went back to sleep and woke up when my phone went off at 7.45am, my alarm to check if I’d got to go for my 2nd vaccine today – still nothing! Captain Caveman went downstairs and came back to tell me that a bag of grapes and 2 mangos had been left on the table downstairs but he wasn’t sure where they came from. Veronika told Captain Caveman she already had mango and that we could have them so he put them in our fridge, Veronika put the grapes in her fridge, after Captain Caveman had snaffled a couple of them. I had a banana and a third of a mango for breakfast, our fruit supply was getting low so we had to be conservative with what we did have. I read in the news about a city in the south of Vietnam where, as markets were closed, they had come up with a good alternative, see below: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210830/vietnam-s-nha-trang-brings-coronavirussafe-grocery-stalls-to-roadside/62842.html Today was 1 week until I would need to be having my PCR test so I contacted Bich to see if she could help me book an appointment for 6th September in the afternoon, in Dong Hoi. When she called me back she said that the CDC (who do the testing and provide the official stamped certificate to fly) were too busy out in the field, testing potential cases and they couldn’t do it. Bich also was going to organise us a food delivery from Dong Hoi so she needed a list sending as soon as we could and asked us to get Veronika to do one too. We did a list, just the basics plus a box of beers and I asked for the maximum number of each item so that she could just get whatever was available, it was Bich who sent us the grapes and mangos. As a precaution I decided to ask what the situation would be regarding my visa, which will expire on the 9th, if I can’t leave because of the PCR test or lockdown, I needed to be prepared. I got a very helpful response (but they were shocked that I still hadn’t booked a flight, yet) and I was informed I could get permission to go to Dong Hoi for the PCR test using a form, which I would need to complete and go to the People’s Committee with to give me permission to go to Dong Hoi. Helpful, but not much use if I can’t get an appointment for a PCR test in the first place! I was told they would investigate further and let me know and asked why I hadn’t booked the flight yet – I pointed out that it was a good job I hadn’t booked the one for this week as I was still not able to get the test and if I cancelled I would lose a lot of money, which I didn’t have. We had more tortilla and salad for lunch and information came from various sources, including Bich and an Oxalis manager, that the lockdown would probably be extended. When a beer delivery arrived in the afternoon we were so glad and popped a few in the freezer to chill them quicker, Veronika said that, having spoken to Bich, they were trying to arrange her permission to move to the phong Nha Farmstay, to be with her family so she had decided to start packing up her stuff. I offered our help, since she was meant to be moving out on the 6th anyway, but she said she was only taking the essentials for now and that she wasn’t sure how long it would take to get the permission from the head guy. Captain Caveman and I were in the pool with our beers while Veronika frantically emptied her cupboards and fridge in the kitchen, she came upstairs with a glass and a bottle of water to sit on the balcony but she got a call from Bich straight away; permission was granted, Duyet was packing all her stuff in to the jeep and Bich and Ben were already at the blockade waiting for Veronika! She legged it off with a quick ‘see you, later’ and was off to drive her motorbike to the Farmstay – she had finally got her escape she wanted! We, on the other hand, stayed in the pool until dark occasionally getting another beer. That night I made a chicken, green bean and yellow pepper egg fried rice which tasted great – Captain Caveman said it was one of my best yet! We got a message later from Veronika to say that her exit had been quite an ordeal; all her stuff had to be carried across no man’s land with the guys on the blockade yelling and waving their arms in a very excited manner. Ben and Bich had to carry it in several trips and they told Veronka to disappear as her presence seemed to be upsetting the blockade guards. So, day 5 of #STFAH turned out to be a bit of a bad day and we definitely weren’t prepared for Veronika’s removal of her oven at short notice – roast potatoes for tomorrow had gone out of the window!
I woke up on Sunday 29th August at 7am but stayed in bed, it was day 4 of our 7 day lockdown, more than half way already. I went to tend to my mushrooms and was getting a bit impatient as they were showing no signs of life, it was 3 weeks since we accidentally bought the embryos and 2 weeks since we had hung them up so at least another week of waiting was afoot. While we still had fresh bread left we had that for breakfast with Baba Ganoush on one half and peanut butter on the other then we had a piece of tortilla, some dragon fruit and a bit of mango, Captain Caveman with coffee and me with jasmine tea. I caught up on the Corona news, which wasn’t going particularly well in Vietnam and I read this interesting article on the use of drones in Danang to check people are staying at home: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210829/da-nang-district-begins-trial-use-of-drones-to-monitor-residents-during-covid19-pandemic/62838.html I had a message from Hien, the owner of Elements Collection, saying she wouldn’t be able to see me before I go because of being in lockdown and she hoped to see me again soon. She did mention that she thought I wouldn’t be able to leave at this time and I would have to wait until after the lockdown ends, but what if it didn’t? Saigon had been locked down for months and people were able to leave there without too much fuss. Captain Caveman still had some wine that he was saving and we had thought about drinking it on the balcony one afternoon so that we could take a photo and send it to the person who gave it to him as a gift. Unfortunately it looked like rain so we sat in doors for lunch of tortilla and salsa style salad. I was now having to eat things I didn’t particularly like usually (egg, tomato, cucumber and mustard in the dressing) but it went down well and I wouldn’t go hungry. We had more of the brownie for dessert – it would turn out to be the longest lasting pudding dish I had ever made! That evening we sat watching the rain, Captain Caveman wishing he had not taken a lovely bottle of whisky over to the Glass House with the intention of sharing it with Watto. We now had a 12 or 15 year old Laphroaig that we couldn’t get to, just stuck there, unopened! For dinner we made a nice steamed chicken and rice dish (in the reliable rice cooker) with aubergine, onion, peppers, tomato and garlic (one of my favourites) and then hoped for a good day tomorrow. As we saw things right now this lockdown/no work/limited food situation, that we are on day 4 of 7 now, will have 3 outcomes: 1. They will end it and we can continue to go back to life/work/shopping and me leaving without any hassle. 2. They will extend it for at least another week, may be longer, with the rules as they are now. 3. They will extend it but possibly put in even more strict measures like delivering food by authorities and no leaving the house for even going to a pharmacy. No matter which option happened I was still intending to leave.
Of course the loudspeaker woke us up at 5.30am again on Saturday 28th August but I pulled the sheet over my ear and went back to sleep until 7am. We were on day 3 of lockdown and everyone should be doing the #STFAH thing so why wake everyone up so early? – let people sleep in! I was apprehensive as to how Duyet might have got on at the market and we didn’t receive a message like usual, to say he’d left it on the kitchen table, so I wasn’t optimistic. When I finally went downstairs at 8.30am it was genuinely like the feeling of Christmas day as a kid! There were baguettes, eggs, red cabbage, peppers, green beans, tomatoes, celery and white carrots! I was so grateful to see a fair amount of veg and bread that I hurried upstairs to tell Captain Caveman and I was in such a great mood! We were going to eat like royalty today and we gave our celery to Veronika as I know she uses it in her soups. While Captain Caveman rustled up some more of Stu’s pulled pork for a breakfast baguette with white cabbage I was outside, playing with Carrot, the pup, and watering my mushrooms – he always comes for a little tummy rub and tickles when I’m spraying the water. We hadn’t seen Eric the bee for a while but a nice green beetle came to stay for a sunbathe on our living room door, not as friendly as Eric. We ate a little too well and by lunch I was having a peanut butter lettuce and cucumber sandwich (not my favourite but we are in desperate times here), then we had the brownie disaster for dessert, which had started to grow on us. At the realisation that we can’t actually do anything for now about me leaving we resigned ourselves to just waiting a few more days to see how things turned out. A beer in the pool was had, Veronika sat on her balcony and said she had requested some food from the Farmstay, Bich had found out about her trying to cross the blockade and wasn’t pleased. As I was swimming I noticed Duyet with a cooler bag (celery poking out of the top) and what looked like a takeaway; Bich had sent a curry for Veronika’s dinner plus more vegetables because she had run out. This was a good thing as it meant she had paved the way for the future, maybe we could order some alcohol or food when we run out. Captain Caveman and I had the most amazing lockdown meal yet; hotdogs in soft, fresh, baguette, topped with fried onions, the rest of Stu’s pulled pork and smothered in BBQ sauce! Captain Caveman laughed at me when I’d made mine and then uttered the word ‘filthy’ at this gorgeous creation, until he topped his with chopped tomatoes too and then tasted it! Sod the diet, this was the perfect end to our 3rd day of lockdown.
On Friday 27th August, at 5.30am the loudspeaker was really going for it this morning with a man speaking for an hour first and then a woman for over half an hour, we hadn’t got a clue what they were saying and it was still darkish outside. We’d been promised a week’s worth of storms and cooler weather for our 7 days of lockdown and #STFAH, typical when we have a pool to be in and some shadebathing to do. I didn’t go back to sleep as we were both checking our phones for updates on the Corona crisis and whether any cases were actually near to us – there were certainly plenty of rumours that there was, but no evidence to support it. The housekeeping staff were here by 8am and we all congregated in the kitchen where I found Duyet’s delivery. Thankfully, he was able to get us bananas, dragon fruit, bread and 2kg of rice, but there were no vegetables being brought to sell at the market because of the lockdown. He’d done well and I was still pleased he had managed to get us what he had, we were very lucky, I was glad that I had doubled my bread amount at the last minute to 4 baguettes instead of 2. Veronika was surprised as she didn’t think the market would be open at all and she said she may have to ask him to get her some things, as she was running low on food, she was also making a pot of soup! We had bacon sandwiches and used Stu’s bacon sparingly now that we were only in day 2 of lockdown but had bread.
Even though we were in lockdown and my leaving Vietnam plans were being a bit scuppered we continued trying to sort stuff out. Captain Caveman communicated with Vinh, his colleague who got the other 4 cavers to Hanoi airport only 9 days ago, I communicated with Bich and Danny, the driver. We spent most of the day ‘on it’ only to end up with the following outcomes: The driver couldn’t go any earlier than 6th September, Bich said it was a no go to be able to get my PCR test as all the people doing them were busy and Vinh also said we must wait until the end of lockdown. Saigon had been in lockdown for almost 3 months so we didn’t accept those answers and pushed on to try alternative ways!! Independence Day was coming up so it also meant that some people wouldn’t be working from 2nd to 5th September so I was conscious that any paperwork we needed should be sought before then. For lunch we had hot dog sausages with ketchup but we didn’t use the baguettes because we needed to be careful with the bread we had – make it last. We had bananas for a snack and I had 2 frivolous beers in the pool while Veronika pulled up a chair on her balcony and told us how she had tried to escape, again! She had taken her motorbike 1km towards the Farmstay, where the blockade is and was told “No!” (again) and then had to come back. We broke off the planning my escape for one of the best dinners ever; Stu’s pulled pork with white cabbage in our remaining baguettes – pure bliss!!! All in all, a tiring and unproductive day but if I couldn’t leave any earlier I now had a provisional booking with Danny the driver from Hanoi, who would pick me up on 7th September, I’d spend the night in Hanoi airport, get the lunchtime flight the next day, do 8 hours in Singapore transit, fly to Istanbul and arrive in Dalyan on the 9th! The day my visa expires and my 2nd vaccine should have been due by. Before bed I saw a friend on Facebook had posted that the Phong Nha market would be closed tomorrow but that our market, in Khuong Ha, was open. Duyet confirmed he would be able to try his luck at getting the vegetables he couldn’t get today so I resent him a list with more ‘essentials’ added, I even tried my luck for green beans and more bread and Captain Caveman popped over with the money for him – we would see tomorrow when we woke up what the situation was.
Thursday 26th August was a shocker of a day, one I won’t forget in a hurry. We woke up at 6.15am to find out that we had gone in to lockdown at 6am this morning. All of the city of Dong Hoi and the district of Bo Trach (where we are) had been placed under Directive 16, for 7 days, which was the strictest we have had since the pandemic began. When people had found out it had gone nuts in Dong Hoi with everyone panic buying and crowding at the market. Veronika had been told to stay home but Captain Caveman, who had been advised of no training the night before, set off to Phong Nha – he had stuff in the wash that needed sorting at the Glass House and we didn’t have much in the way of provisions. He only stopped at the shop to get some veg and eggs where the seller tried to persuade him to buy more eggs but he had no idea what was about to unfold. Veronika, despite being told to stay home, decided to try to take her motorbike to the Phong Nha Farmstay but got turned back at a blockade on the country road between our village in Khuong Ha and their village in Cu Nam – she said the guards were shouting “No!” at her. So, in short, Day 1 of zero notice lockdown wasn’t boding well for my fellow housemates’ ability to #STFAH so far – of course, had I lived alone, I’d probably not have even noticed there was a blockade. I didn’t check any other news and we forgot to have breakfast in all the excitement but Captain Caveman rustled up a lunch of bacon (from Stu), cabbage and potatoes and it tasted remarkable. Day 1 of this 7 day lockdown meant that any arrangements we had, in pen or pencil, were being moved out of this week’s diary again. I was looking forward to my last pizza night tomorrow so that was postponed to the week after, not knowing if it would happen or if I’d have left already. But the biggest pain in the bum was sorting the flights out, which luckily we hadn’t booked yet; Danny, my driver to Hanoi, called me as soon as he realised we were in Directive 16 to say that he could still take me and not to worry, he would just have to meet me at a border on the Highway. We had a beer and some popcorn in the afternoon and were looking forward to left over beef stew for dinner which we had simmering in the rice cooker. One thing was for certain, Veronika certainly had enough soup to last her the week so she needn’t worry about going hungry. Captain Caveman and I were a bit worried that we might not have enough food to last us the 7 days so we prepared a list for Duyet to buy at the local market; fruit, veg, eggs, bread and rice. He wasn’t sure if the market was open but he would check in the morning to see if he could get us any provisions.
joloyolo 