Phong Nha – 21st February

The noise was blaring out from the tannoys again from 5.30am on Sunday 21st February and had finally stopped at 6.45am! I went back to sleep and managed to sleep until 10am, it must have been all the exercise yesterday. I had toast with butter and toast with jam for breakfast because I was really hungry by the time I’d read all the news. One of the reasons Vietnam has had a lot lower Corona virus numbers is because of their prompt testing and tracing. The Health Minister here is asking for increased testing too, read here;
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/885579/testing-plays-key-role-in-controlling-covid-19-health-minister.html
All big events have been stopped again in Saigon as a precaution, see below:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210221/ho-chi-minh-city-ceases-large-religious-events-due-for-fear-of-covid19-spread/59373.html
In Vietnam they don’t mess about with rule flouters here and will do all they can to prevent and punish accordingly, check this out:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210221/couple-fined-when-kissing-at-public-park-in-vietnams-covid19-epicenter/59379.html
It was worrying though that so many cases found are asymptomatic making the spread harder to stop, here’s the info:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210221/over-80-of-cases-in-vietnams-current-coronavirus-wave-are-asymptomatic-ministry/59378.html
There was great news in the UK with regards the amount of vaccines being given so far, this means by mid November all vaccines will be fully completed and all protected before Christmas, assuming the same rate and all goes to plan, source below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56141867
The rest of the morning I spent blogging, writing, editing and learning languages and then just after 2pm, when the roads are quiet here, I decided to try the same bike ride to the French Road and back. This time I remembered to put my stopwatch on and was really surprised when I got back to find it had taken 10.5 minutes. It was a sunny day and I needed a shower but the cleaners had snuck in to clean our room so I decided to clear My List on Netflix, then started to watch The Vanishing at The Cecil Hotel. It was intriguing but annoying as they pronounced the hotel Cee-cil throughout but was ok.
Once showered I headed up to Phong Nha Farmstay for dinner (the infamous Sunday roast of course). Matty and Veronika were there as well as recently returned Steven & Laurence, and Ben, of course. This week I went for the full works and only took home a small portion of the veg for my fried rice. I also had to go for the chocolate fondant dessert, which is so indulgent but good.
I had ‘spent’ 300,000vnd (£9.30) for Sunday roast, a good measure of red wine plus a dessert on day 3 of the ‘being careful with money mission’ but was unable to actually pay by card until Tuesday – this was working out well for me as Captain Caveman would be back tomorrow so he could pay.

Phong Nha – 20th February

I finally got to sleep in until 9am on Saturday 20th February and I was absolutely thrilled! It was nice weather and so I decided to take Bluey, my bicycle, for a ride to the French Road and back. It’s just less than 2km and the route I have been walking so I thought it would be a good one to try the cycling on because then if I had to, I could walk it back. I pumped up the tyres and double checked everything, as well as taking the pump with me. I didn’t take a phone, a bag or my house keys but I didn’t expect to be very long. I was going to time it on my watch but as I set off all of the staff came out to watch (how embarrassing) so I forgot to press start. I found it hard but it wasn’t particularly painful and Bluey was quite whizzy. When I got to the incline at the turn around point I was very slow and it was tricky, but I made the U-turn without stopping and carried on back again. If I had to guess it took me about 15 minutes tops and it went well. I wished I’d had a photo or video but I’d have to wait for Captain Caveman to come with me for that.
I had not had breakfast but did have cheese on toast for lunch and wasn’t ill, which made a change but now I still didn’t know what was causing my allergic reactions these days. After rattling through my To Do list I started watching a Leftovers programme on Netflix and then had a glass of wine with Veronika. She had meatloaf (from Momma D’s), mashed potatoes and green beans for her dinner while I had masaman curry (from the freezer) with rice and sweet corn and thoroughly enjoyed it. It had been quite a good day for me, and I was happy to have finished day 2 of being frugal with the cash, spending no money at all today.

Phong Nha – 19th February

The first thing I did on Friday 19th February was read the Vietnamese news about what was happening with Corona, here. There were plans to reopen Vietnamese schools (more info here):
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/885365/cities-provinces-announce-plans-on-resumption-of-in-person-learning-after-tet-holiday.html
People returning to Saigon, from the areas with outbreaks, after their Tet holiday would automatically get quarantined (see below):
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210219/ho-chi-minh-city-quarantines-all-people-from-vietnams-covid19-epicenters/59350.html
It was also a good reminder that, although it was great news that a vaccine was becoming available to people I knew back home, there was still quite a way to go before we could all get too excited (info below):
https://vietnamnews.vn/opinion/885367/covid-19-vaccines-offer-hope-but-are-not-a-silver-bullet.html
The announcement on the tannoy had been belting out at full volume since 6am, without music, so Captain Caveman was up before his 7.30am alarm. He, along with Ali (the filmmaker) and the rest of the group, were off to Son Doong this morning and this time he did remember to give me some money. Having done the 4 day challenge to spend less cash previously, though, I was on a bit of a mission to see if I could ‘not go too mad’, after all we had quite a lot of stuff in the fridge at the moment and wine in the cupboard. We had a couple of red peppers which were starting to wrinkle and so I decided to lightly fry them and then store them in a jar of olive oil.
For breakfast I decided I would have the rest of the pepper that wouldn’t fit in the jar with some sweetcorn, a dragon fruit and a pot of jasmine tea. I had intended not to eat again until pizza night later but ended up having toast and butter mid afternoon.

For pizza night at The Villas I was picked up directly from our place, Veronika had already walked it to the Farmstay so was in the bus when I got in the front seat next to her. It was a good mix of pizza lovers tonight, including Chris (the Belgian) and his lovely Vietnamese girlfriend, Huong. As we arrived Tatas was there to meet us and we all ordered drinks (I went for the included in the pizza deal, diet coke as I was trying to stick to a budget). The pizza was amazing this week and I managed 6 slices, maybe more, 2 of which were the Showstopper (my favourite). Chris generously insisted on paying for a bottle of wine which he shared between him, Huong, Matty, Tatas and me and it was a great night as we celebrated Chris and Huong’s last night before they flew back to Saigon tomorrow morning.
We arranged to keep in touch as we had a similar sense of humour, which can be hard to find outside of your own country.

Phong Nha – 18th February

The alarm went off at 5.30am on Thursday 18th February for Captain Caveman going to the beach with Ben and Matty for a spot of surfing. I did my blogging until 8am and then fell back to sleep, finding out it’s the quietest part of the day to grab another 2 hours. When Captain Caveman returned it was raining and he made us salami and asparagus for breakfast, mine with toast and his with egg. After breakfast I went to welcome Bluey, my bicycle, back in to my life and was pleased to see she already had a lovely parking spot in a sheltered area. I couldn’t go out on her in the rain so I tried a couple of metres under cover and I seemed ok. Her brakes still worked and she just need a little bit of air in her tyres so all was good and I looked forward to having a proper go on her the next dry day. I didn’t think I was hungry enough for lunch but then later needed a snack of bread and cashew nuts. Captain Caveman had another Tet party at Mr Sic’s, to attend in Phong Nha, on his way to deliver his Oxalis briefing for his first trip to Son Doong after the Tet holidays.
For my dinner that night I had some chicken masaman curry and a Snickers for dessert.
I had something to be really thankful for today too; my parents had their first dose of the Corona vaccine today. Their second dose was scheduled for May, so just short of 3 months later, meaning they should be as fully protected as possible by the end of May. This gave me hope that I might be able to see them this year so I went online to do the calculation of when I would be able to have the vaccine if I was in the UK. I wouldn’t be due until July for the first one, meaning October for the 2nd and able to go about my ‘normal’ activity by November. Hopefully I would be able to get it quicker in Vietnam so that I could get back sooner, but if not there was hope I could be with my family by Christmas, all being well. As I was getting ready for bed it dawned on me that maybe Captain Caveman had brought Bluey, the bike, back for a reason! I’d consumed a lot more than I should have lately and, if I was going to loose the last few kilogrammes in readiness for a summer body, I’d really better start trying a lot harder!

Phong Nha – 15th February

After a busy few days I was looking forward to a bit of a mundane day on Monday 15th February. I also needed to catch back up with a few items on my To Do List and start getting back in to the swing of a routine. My exercises had been a bit sparse and I hadn’t been walking every other day, either. The alarm went off at 7am and Captain Caveman went to the Farmstay to collect his motorbike before heading back to the Glass House to get ready for his 2 day Oxalis tour. As well as the Son Doong tours he also does 2 extra days per month on other tours where it is more of an inspection trip. Captain Caveman always enjoys going on the other tours so he was pleased to be heading to Hang En. I got an extra 1 hour sleep, finished the series of The Big Bang Theory I had been watching and did some blogging. I didn’t have any breakfast because I spent the rest of the morning doing some of my exercises and reaching number 1 on the Diamond League of Duolingo. It was already lunchtime so I had some leftover tortilla and the carrot cake from last night. I carried on with more writing and ate some crisps! I had a bad stomach (probably because of the cake or eggs) and decided to have a rest. I started watching Love Island while doing crossword puzzles. By the evening I had a really bad back and a massive headache so I just had dry bread for dinner and went to bed early. I was grateful for a day just to myself, to be honest!

Phong Nha – 14th February

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phong Nha – 13th February

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

Phong Nha – 11th February (Tet eve)

Tet Eve fell on Thursday 11th February this year and it started with 5am announcements and loud music, which went on until 7.30am.
Captain Caveman had to go to Oxalis Home for 7.30am and so he agreed to meet me at the Farmstay at 10.15am for our exciting outing. As it turned out Captain Caveman got back early and I got to go to the Farmstay on the back of his motorbike in my new helmet, which was really snazzy. Ben had organised a trip to the Pub with Cold Beer for lunch and a few of us went up in the jeep while Matty, Chris (the Belgian guest) and Veronika rode their motorbikes there.
Ben was driving, Howie was in the front, in the middle was a nice family and in the back with me and Captain Caveman was Catherine and her son. When we arrived we had a quick look around the kitchen and then the food was served. We ate BBQ chicken with peanut sauce, steamed rice, morning glory, pork, and spring rolls which was all so delicious. I even drank Huda beer, went on the swing and chatted a lot with Catherine who was so funny. Captain Caveman and some of the others went in the incredibly well- maintained swimming pool and the food was very good value for money – we even bought some peanut sauce to take home. When we got back to the Farmstay I decided to walk it home, I had my poles and Captain Caveman had a beer to give me a headstart. I managed to get home in 35 minutes and quite a while before Captain Caveman made it back (I suspect he may have had a second beer) because he expected me to take longer. I had a bit of pain but it went after ibuprofen and a short rest so I was pleased with that. In just 1 month I had managed the same journey 8 minutes quicker but I still wasn’t as fast as a 74 year old, who can do it in 20 minutes.
I’d been waiting to hear that it was ok to call my parents so I could get an update on how Dad was doing, after a hospital visit yesterday and the news was good. It was really nice to have a laugh with ma and pa over video call and see that they looked really well and quite relaxed which was so good. Music, karaoke and bombs (fireworks are banned in Vietnam) were to be heard until 1.30am and I was getting quite good at staying in the house for new year’s celebrations now and quite enjoyed being antisocial.

Here’s a couple of video clips of our trip on Facebook courtesy of Matty & Ben;

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2860937884224294&id=100009243321087

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4270275809653671&id=148614098486550&sfnsn=mo

Phong Nha – 10th February

At 5.30am on Wednesday 10th February there were announcements on the loudspeaker for quite a while, followed by the usual loud music. Captain Caveman went to the beach with Ben while I got on with some editing for a bit and had one of the expensive apples for my first breakfast. Around 8am it was quiet again and I’d fallen asleep but had luckily set my alarm to meet Captain Caveman at the Farmstay for an exciting event. We had been invited by Bich and Ben to join in one of the most important preparations for Tet by helping make the Banh Tet from 10am. There were quite a few guests, family and staff all on the tarpaulin set down near the swimming pool and the process commenced. The key, I learned is to select the appropriate banana leaves as your base and layer them so there are no holes. Everyone was shown how to put plenty of sticky rice in a chunky line down the middle, making a small ditch for the mung bean and then the fatty pork. The whole thing is rolled tightly, making sure all the meat and beans are covered by the sticky rice and encased by the leaves. The tricky bit was securing the package with strips so there would be no leakage. Once finished they would be simmered over the fire for between 12 and 20 hours. It was very interesting to watch and I was impressed at how good the security guys were at making it – they were definitely the best I thought.
After the excitement of the cooking class gathering I had an orange juice and then we went back home for a breakfast of bacon, mushrooms, potatoes and onions.
I had a strongbow cider for lunch and it was quite sunny in the afternoon so we went for a walk to the French Road and back. This time I did it in 35 mins which was 6 minutes quicker than the last time so I was happy about that. Captain Caveman went to the Lake House to get bread and bumped in to the nice couple from the Farmstay who were drinking with Tony. I assumed he would be back late and ate my leftover shepherd’s pie for my dinner. I then ate a second dinner of spaghetti with salami when Captain Caveman made his dinner with plenty for me too. We watched more Breaking Bad and drank red wine then got an invite for lunch out tomorrow, which would be Tet eve. I fell asleep before I got chance to get an update on how a family member had got on with his hospital appointment today but knew I’d probably be awake early tomorrow to check.

Phong Nha – 9th February

I woke up at 5.40am on Tuesday 9th February to the pumping music of pre Tet over the tannoy system and when it finished, just before 7am, Captain Caveman started snoring – I don’t know how he had managed to sleep through the noise. I did some languages and blogging in the morning then Captain Caveman made a cooked breakfast, with my favourite sausages, for us. It was a quiet day and I didn’t bother with any lunch as we had ordered our shepherd’s pies for dinner at The Farmstay that evening.
When we arrived at the Farmstay Veronika and Matty were already there, we met some nice new guests and a couple recommended the Minera Spa resort in Vung Tau, near Saigon, for if we fancied a relaxing break. Later we had the shepherd’s pie dinner with a lovely chap from Antwerp, Belgium, so I insisted on recommending the best bar in the world to him, The Kulminator, which I had loved visiting when Captain Caveman and I were last in Antwerp. I felt a bit foolish when he said he’d not lived there for quite a few years! The shepherd’s pie was delightful (as always) and the very substantial portion beat me so I took leftovers home (again) for tomorrow’s lunch. I was pleased to see that this week cauliflower was included in the vegetables served with the main dish – I love cauliflower. I had 3 glasses of red wine and even had room for the chocolate fondant dessert, which is absolutely delicious, and is available on the usual menu to have any time.
Back home we got confirmation that the Netflix issue was sorted and we could now use it again!
In the news today more airport staff tested positive in Saigon, here’s the info:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210209/two-more-airport-employees-test-positive-for-novel-coronavirus-in-ho-chi-minh-city/59220.html

The Shopping basket – 8th February

Are you the type of person who wonders what is in other people’s shopping trolleys or fridge? If you have a partner who goes shopping without you, do you like to know what they bought and how much things were? I am that person, so on Monday 8th February when Captain Caveman got back from his shopping trip to Dong Hoi, I had a good check at all the stuff he had got and how much it was. If you’re interested in what we bought for the week, read on! Today’s exchange rate makes 50,000vnd equal to £1.55, US$ 2.17, AU$ 2.80 or 1.8 Euro, so you can work out costs of items.
Here’s a list in order of most expensive first in Vietnamese Dong (vnd):
• 1 box of dates 238,500
• 24 cans of Huda beer 238,000
• 1 bag of walnuts 149,000
• 1 jar of cashew nuts 129,000
• 1 jar of tomato based pasta sauce 126,000
• 4 apples 120,000
• 1 tub of hummus 100,000
• 5 chocolate and nut protein balls 100,000
• 1 packet of bacon 98,000
• 1 whole-wheat/sourdough loaf 80,000
• 1 packet of dried dragon fruit 78,000
• 1 packet of unsalted butter 73,000
• 1 jar of pickled garlic 71,000
• 1 big tupperwear box (for rice) 70,500
• 1 big bag of Naturals crisps 70,000
• 1 packet of contraceptive pill 67,000
• 4 red peppers 60,000
• 10 ibuprofen 400mg 60,000
• 24 sanitary towels and 20 liners 60,000
• 1 tube of Sensodyne toothpaste 55,000
• 1 jar of popcorn kernels 52,000
• 4 Snickers bars 48,000
• 1 box of biscuits 47,000
• 2 chicken breasts 45,000
• 1 packet of Haribo cola bottles 45,000
• 1 packet of mushrooms 42,000
• 3 washing up sponges 38,000
• 3 toothbrushes 36,000
• 1 box of raisins 36,500
• 2 dragon fruit 36,000
• 1 bag of cherry tomatoes 33,150
• 1 tube of Pringles 32,000
• 1 big bag of Lays crisps 31,500
• 10 eggs 28,500
• 3 rice crackers 22,000
• 1 packet of radishes 19,500
• 1 packet of watercress 19,600
• 1 baguette stick 9,000
Some of it surprised me as, although I know nuts and dates are expensive here, I wasn’t expecting some of the items to be so highly priced. Also, I only eat apples for convenience of getting fruit in to my diet but I think they are too expensive here. Chicken is cheap and very good quality so we bought a few packets. What surprised you the most? Do any of you analyse your shopping and make changes to help keep in budget?

Phong Nha – 8th February

By Monday 8th February Vietnam was facing it’s 4th wave of the Corona virus and with a lot of concern as the holiday was only 4 days away. Many people had already finished work and had chosen to travel back home early and so it was a difficult job for the authorities to ensure prevention of the virus here. Shocking news came first thing in the morning that 4 of the people who tested positive yesterday are baggage handlers at Saigon (HCMC) airport, today they closed down an alley where they live in District 12;
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210208/ho-chi-minh-city-blocks-neighborhood-alley-as-local-residents-infected-with-covid19/59203.html
The total number of reported cases in Vietnam had now reached over 2,000 and people were definitely getting worried.
Despite the increase in cases recently there still hadn’t been any more Corona deaths reported and Vietnam was still on just 35 in over a year. An interesting article stating how low the death rate is over here compared to USA and UK can be found here:
https://vietnaminsider.vn/why-covid-19-death-toll-ratio-per-million-remains-extremely-low-in-vietnam/
Later that day we realised just how lucky we were coming back from Saigon when we did as more airport postive cases in HCMC were reported:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/871679/airports-nationwide-on-highest-alert-following-30-new-local-covid-cases-at-hcm-city-airport.html
By 5pm more cases linked to Saigon airport were reported and we suspected Tet could get cancelled:
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/871724/govt-orders-hcm-city-to-strengthen-covid-preventive-measures-as-25-more-test-positive.html
One of the good things here in Vietnam is that swift, decisive action is taken to prevent as much spreading as possible and by the end of the day more lockdowns in specific areas were implemented:
https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/society/20210208/ho-chi-minh-city-seals-off-dozen-of-locations-amid-covid19-concerns/59210.html
Meanwhile, in our Phong Nha world, we were carrying on as normal…….

With Tet holiday coming up the loud speakers around the village had been fixed and were very much in use from 5.30am each morning now. On Monday 8th February extremely loud and distasteful music echoed around our building from 5.30am. Captain Caveman left for Phong Nha at 7am and had decided to go to Dong Hoi at 9am for a pre-Tet shopping trip. I wasn’t invited because it was raining and I would slow him down moving from one place to the next so I stayed at home. I had an apple and a gluten free cookie and then was ill with a bad stomach for most of the day. I did a lot of French on Duolingo, a few crossword type puzzles and some blogging, once the noise had calmed down a bit. For my lunch I heated up my leftover Sunday dinner and then the afternoon was even noisier so I tried to chill out by using Captain Caveman’s noise cancelling headphones which still didn’t completely block everything out. I watched The Dig, a film on Netflix and it was pretty good but a JCB had started ripping the banana tree garden up outside our living room window and I could still hear it. I’d got out some frozen meat for Captain Caveman to make pasta with for dinner but he forgot and made an incredibly salty French onion soup which I hardly ate any of. He had bought loads of stuff in Dong Hoi and had managed to meet up with our friend, Trang, at Tree Hugger for white russians and sandwiches.
That evening we settled down to watch some Netflix in the living room only to find the account was no longer accessible and the account had suffered an attempt at being logged in from Nghe An, a lot further north than we are.

Phong Nha – 7th February

I was woken up by Captain Caveman’s loud sneeze at 6.45am on Sunday 7th February. I didn’t get back to sleep and only an hour after he had left to go to Phong Nha, the housekeeping knock came for cleaning our room. I ate bread and butter and an apple for breakfast then sipped jasmine tea in the living room.
Captain Caveman picked up our order from Vananh, and he also brought back gluten free biscotti made by LyLy which was amazing! Our hummus order looked great and also contained some mung bean chips a couple of gluten free cookies to try and some chocolate protein balls for when I get peckish.
I had a bad stomach (again!) In the afternoon and so ended up having crisps and diet coke before my evening meal.

When we went up to the Farmstay for Sunday dinner our new motorbike helmets from Saigon had arrived and they were really snazzy. Captain Caveman went in the sauna while I chatted to Veronika and some guests who were staying at The Villas. It was a warm evening, everyone was sitting outside and Phong Nha Farmstay was quite busy – it was nice to see the pool with guests in too. The Sunday dinner of roast pork, lamb, pasta bake, roast potatoes, vegetables and thick gravy was extremely tasty and of course we couldn’t miss the included beverage and cake. We had the house red wine, which is a substantial portion and while the others had chocolate fondant cake I went for the carrot cake this time and it was fantastic – the whole deal cost just 300,000vnd and, as always, definitely worth it!

If you want to buy a safe and snazzy motorbike helmet I can highly recommend Saigon Motorcycles, they are very helpful and were able to deliver to Phong Nha within a week! Here is their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SaigonMotorcyclehireandsales/

joloyolo

The ramblings and observations of a fortysomething lady of leisure

Tag: vietnam