There was no mention of the usual weekly shopping trip on Wednesday 25th August and I was no longer expecting one, I would ask Duyet if we needed more fruit and vegetables. Captain Caveman was on his last day of his 3 day trip to Hang Ba and I’d slept better last night. I still woke up very early with the loudspeaker but then fell back to sleep until an amazing 10.30am – the latest I’d been in bed until for ages! I had pomelo for breakfast and read up on the news where I saw an interesting article which would certainly never be written about the western world that I’m used to. I’d not choose a place like this for a camping trip, let alone as an ideal place to quarantine, especially as there was a risk of storms or even landslides. Here’s the article:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210824/in-vietnam-authorities-build-mountainside-bamboo-lodges-for-covid19-quarantine/62745.html
Unfortunately there were 3 more Corona cases in our province of Quang Binh; apparently 2 in Cuba hospital (Dong Hoi) and 1 in a district I wasn’t aware of. News on Facebook came that there were lockdowns of streets and certain areas of Dong Hoi, including near the Sun Spa hotel.
I took a previously made masaman curry out of the freezer for dinner with Captain Caveman as he was due back home tonight. Around lunch time it rained heavily for 30 minutes and I had another make-do healthy lunch of steamed aubergine, cabbage and rice – it tasted better than I imagined.
When Captain Caveman got home he was the most tired I’ve seen him after a caving trip and he could hardly speak or function. He was also pretty hungry and ate all of his extra large portion of chicken masaman with steamed rice, finished off mine, then laid down to rest. We heard a rumour that there was a positive Corona case in Cu Nam, the next village to us but the source could not confirm or get any more details. Although Captain Caveman and I had decided that tonight we would book my flight, he was just far too knackered so we agreed that tomorrow we would book the flight which left Hanoi on Tuesday 31st August. We went to sleep happy to have finally made a decision and ready to go ahead with the escape plan, nothing was going to stop us now – or was it!?

For me there is not much differentiation between a Saturday and a weekday, here in Phong Nha, so Saturday 21st August was an easy going day. Having started the day not waking up until 8.30am and then sharing left over pizza with Captain Caveman I had a dodgy stomach! I read the news and looked at friends’ Facebook reactions to the city lockdowns. People we knew in Saigon posted of the army being deployed for military assistance with the ‘no one moves’ lockdown. Food will be brought to people, from Monday, and there will be no going out at all. However, not all areas in Vietnam are locked down, read more here:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210821/vietnams-nha-trang-lifts-ban-on-outdoor-exercise-for-residents-in-virusfree-areas/62685.html
I did some more learning languages on Duolingo and was trying to learn more Turkish ready for being there soon. I also tried to improve the brownie by adding some heated condensed milk with vanilla in, then we put it in the freezer to set.
While Captain Caveman had a nice salad for lunch, with all the stuff I couldn’t eat, I stuck to a very simple plate of lettuce, onion, red peppers, olives and some vinaigrette dressing, boring but it didn’t make me ill. We had time in the pool and I had dragon fruit as a snack but was envious of Captain Caveman’s peanut butter on toast, that he wasn’t allowed to eat in the pool!
We got invited out for lunch tomorrow so I needed to make sure my stomach was back to being able to function so for dinner we had one of my favourite meals I’ve had in a while; steamed chicken, rice, sweetcorn, red peppers, aubergines and onions. I felt much better and even had gin and pink grapefruit by the pool in the moonlight.

The loudspeaker was early and extremely loud on Friday 20th August, Captain Caveman went to work and then called me to say there was a group of porters going for their 2nd vaccine and to be on standby so I got ready – nothing came of it, so still no vaccine! I had toast with cheese spread on for breakfast and read the news, as usual. I had to read this article just because of the headline – unbelievably kind in the circumstances:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210820/ho-chi-minh-city-provides-accommodation-vaccination-for-needy-foreigners/62681.html
It was reported that an even harsher lockdown in Saigon would start, from Monday as Corona deaths there are rising rapidly:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210820/vietnam-s-biggest-city-issues-stayhome-order-as-covid19-deaths-soar/62686.html
Meanwhile in Turkey, people who are fully vaccinated with Sinovac, but had not yet had a booster, were ending up in ICU with the Delta variant, here’s more info:
https://www.duvarenglish.com/number-of-turkish-patients-fully-vaccinated-with-sinovac-increasing-in-icus-news-58533
The housekeeping staff were in doing our rooms while Veronika was out at the Farmstay and so I took the opportunity to find things that needed using up to make some brownies. We had some dried bananas, which Captain Caveman had bought ages ago and they did not look appealing at all, plus the cocoa powder I didn’t like as drinking chocolate. I found a recipe that used those 2 ingredients plus some peanut butter and mixed them altogether then put them in the oven in trays for 15 minutes. I managed to catch my finger on the glass of the oven, burned it worse than I realised and didn’t run it under cold water, I just carried on as normal. The gluten and dairy free brownies looked good but the consistency wasn’t great, hopefully they would do as a snack. I did loads of washing up, watered the mushrooms and then I had a make-do lunch of steamed rice and sweetcorn with peanut salt because I knew we were having a feast tonight. After lunch I had a swim and then fell asleep on the sun lounger. It was pizza night at the The Villas tonight so Captain Caveman just got back home from work in time to get a lift with Ben at 6pm to The Villas, Veronika had already ridden her motorbike in because she had decided to have a night at The Villas for a bit of a ‘holiday’. 
We arrived and joined Veronika, who was sat peacefully by the river, but not for long as Jack, Max and Stu arrived and joined us, shortly followed by a new returning visitor to the town and Tatas. This week it was made clear that all pizzas from the whole menu were only 100,000vnd so I went for the Showstopper (prosciutto, blue cheese, fig jam and spring onion). Tatas went off piste and ordered a half and half pizza, Hawaiian and Classic which was a good idea. Jack happened to order Smoked Salmon pizza and was sat opposite me, they didn’t tell him they had no salmon but instead just brought him Smoked Duck (obviously because the name had the word smoked in both). Veronika had successfully managed to order and get the new dish of smoked duck and mushroom pasta which did look good. We had a really great night and we were sensible to not order 3 pizzas this time, in fact I brought a Tupperware box and took half of mine home, including a slice of Jack’s duck pizza, just to help him out.

Photo credit – Captain Caveman’s photo of the views

I awoke fairly early on Tuesday 17th August but I didn’t bother with any breakfast while I checked the news. It was rather annoying that the UK still had Turkey on their Red list which meant going from Turkey to England required paid quarantine in a hotel and the cost was substantial (money I didn’t have). For some reason I was under the impression that the UK was already over 70% fully vaccinated but I was wrong, it was 60%. Vietnam couldn’t even compare for vaccination rates hence why there was consistently over 300 Corona deaths per day now. Captain Caveman came home fairly early and had enjoyed the party last night a bit too much. For lunch we had BBQ jackfruit with lettuce, cabbage, carrot, onion and garlic with a bit of bread and we arranged a taxi for tonight’s exciting night out. Ho Khanh was throwing a party for Colin and Watto leaving, at his place with all the Oxalis porters and cavers. I was invited so we booked Duyet for 5.30pm at a bargain cost of 300,000vnd (£9.60) return fare. Before we went I decided it would be a good idea for us to have a bit of tortilla as a snack, the porters are known for their drinking skills so I didn’t want to let the side down. I had my hair down and even wore a dress but by the time we got to the Glass House, which is opposite Ho Khanh’s, the party venue, I had felt a little unwell – I was convinced it was the egg. Luckily these days I’m much quicker at getting up the stairs so I went up to our room on the 2nd floor to use the bathroom there, then took some Gastropulgite medication. I felt better and we went over to the party just as it was getting set up; the cans of warm beer were being put in to buckets of icy water, hot chips and Vietnamese food were already divided on to a few tables, the cavers and Momma D were all sat at a table which we joined. Momma D was drinking alcoholic lemonade and kindly gave me one, her dog, Kevin, was trying not to get eaten by the resident Vietnamese dog, who was pretty aggressive towards other dogs. The Vietnamese insisted on splitting us westerners up so Colin, Captain Caveman and I were on a table with mostly porters and Hieu, a guide, while Watto, Howard, Deb and Momma D were sat by the river. The food was good, plenty of it, but unfortunately I had a taste of something spicy and it was a bit hot, after that I was quite unwell and I decided to go back to the Glass House to have a bit more privacy, toilet paper and the luxury of some soap. It felt like I had food poisoning and I was so hot it was unbelievable, I wasn’t sure I would make it back to the party and I was just forcing myself to go back, for the last half an hour, before Duyet came to pick us up, when Captain Caveman returned and said the party was already finished. He went to get me some rehydration tablets and some Giardia medication just in case I had got what the others’ had suffered. Luckily, I managed to get back to Elements without further incident and just felt really tired. Captain Caveman told me that a colleague had been informed he would get his 2nd vaccine by the 20th August so I hoped I would be on the same list to get mine, we were optimistic I would. He’d also been in touch with Bich who had confirmed there would be a shopping trip tomorrow, I decided Captain Caveman should go incase I still had stomach issues and then spent the next hour before sleep being roasting hot or freezing cold, I also felt a bit sick but had only had 2 drinks all night and not too much food.

Photo credit – Captain Caveman and various Oxalis team members

On the morning of Monday 16th August Captain Caveman had gone to work early and I came downstairs to get some breakfast. I grabbed a croissant and cut up some dragon fruit for my breakfast and went to read the news. There was some good news this morning; the UK government announced there was no isolation needed when coming in to the UK if you are double jabbed. But, unfortunately, it didn’t yet apply to me because it didn’t include if you had your jabs in Vietnam. It was good news for my family and friends who might be wanting to visit me in Turkey later this year, though, as they would be able to return to the UK without quarantine or isolation (once it was off the Red list). You can read the info here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/self-isolation-removed-for-double-jabbed-close-contacts-from-16-august
In Vietnam and Turkey there were reports of starting to vaccinate children and in Turkey I even knew people who were getting their 4th vaccine soon, mainly so they could get 2 Pfizer boosters to travel to see family in the UK, as Sinovac wasn’t recognised or had already worn off. While I was waiting (hoping) for a call about my 2nd vaccination I did quite a bit of Turkish on Duolingo and writing blog posts. For lunch I had leftovers of tortilla, salsa and bread, I’d not heard about the vaccine and so I went in the pool.   I didn’t hear from Captain Caveman at all and he went straight from work to Colin and Watto’s leaving party, which Oxalis were throwing for them. Veronika went to Curry night at The Villas with Stu and I wish I had too, but to be honest we couldn’t afford to splash out and it wasn’t within our budget for this week. Instead I made popcorn, watched some Netflix and had a relaxing evening. I even ate fruit, cheese and bread for dinner and wasn’t ill. That night I had the bed to myself as Captain Caveman stayed at the Glass House, he had thought he might get a lift to Dong Hoi the next day to do a bit of shopping but I still hadn’t heard if this was the plan or not. As I was falling asleep I got an email from Easyjet, my Manchester to Turkey flight had been cancelled. This was expected but it did mean I no longer had a flight to or from the UK for my friend’s wedding. If I still had to do the 10 days isolation on arrival in the UK I needed to be there by the 7th September and Turkey had to be off the UK’s Red list for me to go there at all – it was going to be tight!

I was still awake in the early hours of Saturday morning, 14th August, as I had a dodgy stomach from eating too much gluten or dairy, or both, last night. Before I’d fallen asleep I had spoken to Captain Caveman who had imparted on to me another rule to consider when leaving Phong Nha. Legally, only people of the same household or family are allowed to travel in a car together, or all passengers must have plane tickets for the same flight, as of today – well that meant I’d definitely be travelling alone (it would be unlikely that anyone in this area would be flying to Turkey any time soon) which would be expensive. He’d even shown me where to find the official document, I believed him! 
I had bananas for my breakfast and caught up on the news where I read a very worrying report about the possibility of the virus being able to spread between the apartments of a building, if this is proven to be true then the cities are doomed:
https://vietnamlife.tuoitrenews.vn/news/vietnam-life-vietq/20210813/can-covid19-spread-through-apartment-building-ventilation-systems/62561.html
Captain Caveman ended up sorting gear with Watto at the Glass House for most of the morning, I had a second breakfast because I got peckish, of a croissant. When Captain Caveman got home he had some fantastic news; Watto had told Captain Caveman he could have his motorbike after he leaves which was so kind and a real help for getting to work and back. We had some of the veggie soup for lunch with some Lake House bread and it was very nice and felt healthy. I’d still not actually got my passport back yet, but Bich had it and had forgot to drop it off so we arranged to go to collect it at the Phong Nha Farmstay – I really wanted to know what date it had been extended to and if it had an XC written on to denote it being my last one.
We arrived at the Farmstay for Happy Hour and had a couple of beers while watching the sunset, the fields were full of cows, buffalo and farmers – it looked really beautiful. Bich came over with the passport and when I checked, it was a normal stamp, just like all the others, up until 9th September. So, that was my deadline – I would leave Vietnam on or before that date.

Back home we had another great vegetarian meal of mushrooms, onions, garlic and a tomato based sauce with spaghetti. With all the faffing about with the passport we still hadn’t had the chance to pop over to Stu’s to pick up the meat he’d smoked for us, we would go tomorrow.